TrekInk: Review of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Fool’s Gold #4

odoSisko and his crew clear the station of treasure hunters with a little deception, in the fourth and final issue of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Fool’s Gold" from IDW Publishing. Spoilers and an extra dose of deception ahead in the TrekMovie review.

 

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Fool’s Gold #4
written by Scott and David Tipton, art by Fabio Mantovani

Garak offers his assistance to Sisko. After examining the glyphs that everyone thinks are clues that lead to treasure, Garak proposes a slight deception to rid DS9 of the treasure hunters tearing apart the station. Quinn and Portafoy are released from detention. Quark, who has ears everywhere, gives them the coordinates of the treasure and they travel to a remote location on Bajor. The moment they strike it rich, the Bajoran deputy minister of reclamations arrives with Kira, hailing Quinn and Portafoy as heroes. In the aftermath of the discovery, life returns to normal on the station, but Garak misses a luncheon appointment with Bashir. He has a business opportunity on Bajor to attend to. It’s not easy being a tailor.

The Tipton brothers, Scott and David, conclude their Deep Space Nine tale with a twist and a flourish worthy of Garak. Maybe that’s because it’s Garek who provides both. I found Fool’s Gold to be a completely believable Deep Space Nine story. The interaction between characters felt very familiar, and I enjoyed the lighthearted touch. So far, the Tiptons have demonstrated mastery of all eras of Trek that they’ve chosen to tackle. Where they lead, I’ll read. Although I don’t expect IDW to focus on Deep Space Nine very often, I hope the Tiptons will return to the promenade.

secrets
Cardassians and their secrets

Fabio Mantovani‘s art in the concluding issue of Fool’s Gold offers some amusing moments. Lens flares sprout like weeds. Who knew that breast flares could be so appealing? Kira has another wild hair day. And finally, there are more smiling and fewer snarling station residents and visitors. Although his work has been a little inconsistent throughout the four issues of this mini-series, Mantovani finishes on a high note. The layout and design keep pace with the fast-moving story and the artwork nicely captures the spirit of Deep Space Nine. Davide Amici capably assists Mantovani with colors again.

dyingart
Tailoring is a tough business

Like its predecessors, Fool’s Gold #4 has three covers. Brothers Joe and Rob Sharp finish their set of covers with a portrait of everyone’s favorite tailor, viewing symbols on a monitor. This seems to be a popular motif this month. We saw a similar cover on Star Trek Movie Adaption #2. David Messina and colorist Giovanna Niro conclude the mini-series with a portrait of Odo that captures his strength and some hidden emotion. Forced to admit my lack of true Trek cred, I don’t recognize the graphic in the background of the B cover. Maybe someone out there can help. Like the first three retailer incentive covers, issue #4 features the artwork of Messina and Niro without trade dress, and together, are an appealing set of covers.

foolsgold4a_tn foolsgold4b_tn
Cover A: The Sharp Brothers, Cover B: David Messina, Giovanna Niro

foolsgold4ri_tn
Cover RI: Virgin cover

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Fool’s Gold #4 will only be available in the finest clothing and tailoring emporiums, but you can still check your local comic ship or online at TFAW this week to see if any copies slipped through.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Fool’s Gold

#1

#2

#3

#4

$2.99
(Dec)

$3.59
(Jan)

$3.59
(Feb)

$3.19
(Mar)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Fool’s Gold will be collected in trade paperback this summer, July 2010.

COMICS NEWS:  IDW Now Diamond Premiere Publisher

Diamond Comic Distributors and IDW Publishing announced a change in status last week. IDW is the first comic book and graphic novel publisher to advance to premier status since 1996, joining DC, Marvel, Dark Horse and Image, up front in the monthly Previews catalog. What does this mean for Star Trek comics fans? Beats me, but it does tell me that IDW is a healthy company and likely to continue publishing Star Trek comics as long as we keep buying and reading them. That’s a good thing.

Mark Martinez is an obsessive-compulsive Star Trek comics reader and collector. You can visit his website, the Star Trek Comics Checklist for more than you ever needed to know about Star Trek comics.

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Odo’s face kinda freaks me out right there.

But I still want this series.

They need a DS9 movie.

yeah agree with “2 about the movie it would be the best ever movie well as long as the right pepole (wrotters) were able to do it

oop thats writters

The graphic behind Odo on the B cover is the Bajoran military banner.

Congratulations are in order for the fine folks at IDW for reaching high status among D.C, Marvel, Image and Dark Horse. The majority of their Star Trek line has been good or great. Looks like Star Trek has played a big part in their success.

And breast flares? Bra-vo to the artists!
Let’s hope J.J isn’t reading this. We don’t want to encourage him. :-)

Indeed, Kira is looking nicely stacked. She’s killer-diller in these comics.

@ryanhuyton: thanks for identifying the graphic

I’ll just wait for the trade paperback

#8 I looked it up in the ever resourceful “Star Trek Encyclopedia”. :-)

#6 :: Yeah.. uhm… I think it’s just playing with the lighting. Believe me, I do it all the time. But you can think about it whatever way makes you happy.

And no, we definitely don’t want to encourage JJ Abrams to use more lens flares than are absolutely necessary. -coughcough-

#11

It was a pun. Albeit a terrible one. :-(

A nice finale to IDW’s first DS9 comic series. Hope the next one comes out soon. The omnibus is out in July isn’t it?