Benjamin Sisko Returns To Lead A Multiverse Adventure In New Ongoing Star Trek Comic Series From IDW

The first news out of San Diego Comic-Con comes from IDW Publishing with the announcement of an exciting new ongoing Star Trek comic book series which will feature the return of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Benjamin Sisko. 

The Star Trek Multiverse is happening

During IDW’s Thursday morning SDCC panel today they announced what they describe as “a bold new direction in Star Trek comics,” starting with a “brand-new flagship ongoing series that goes where no one has gone before.” Launching with Star Trek #1 in October 2022, the new series brings back the all-star crew behind IDW’s Star Trek – Year Five, for a series starring Benjamin Sisko and taking place three years after the events of DS9’s “What You Leave Behind,” and one year before Star Trek Nemesis.

Scripted by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, with art by Ramon Rosanas (Marvel’s Star Wars, Ant-Man), Star Trek #1 will hit comic book stands in October.

Black and white promo image for Star Trek #1 by Ramon Rosanas (IDW)

Here is the official synopsis:

Star Trek #1 weaves an epic and unprecedented adventure story that spans the far reaches of the Star Trek multiverse, bringing together characters from across the galaxy—and all eras and variations of the beloved franchise—who must band together to prevent the mysterious murder of the gods.

It’s stardate 2378, and Benjamin Sisko has finally returned from the Bajoran Wormhole omnipotent. But his godhood is failing with every minute. Sent by the Prophets on a mission to the deepest parts of space aboard the U.S.S. Theseus, he witnesses the unthinkable: Someone is killing the gods. And only Sisko and his motley crew of Starfleet members from every era of Trek can stop them.

Character design preview for Sisko (IDW)

A mix of old and new characters… and a new ship

Sisko will enlist a team of “​​Starfleet members from every era of Trek,” in what promises to “treat Gene Roddenberry’s creation as a living universe,” according to Lansing. This means presumably any Trek character from any timeline could show up to help (or antagonize) Sisko. So let the speculation begin.

In the initial (not final) artwork provided, Sisko’s team includes Dr. Crusher, a pre-Nemesis Data, and two new characters: a Vulcan named T’Lir and an Andorian child named Sato. The ship is the U.S.S. Theseus, but there are no images of it yet or details on what class it is.

Character design preview for Data (IDW)

Kelly says that they hope to not only “continue the stories that have meant so much to us in the past and to welcome new readers to Starfleet. This is a grand adventure, one that weaves together elements from every Star Trek series to tell a new, vital, and forward-thinking sci-fi saga.”

Character design preview for T’Lir (IDW)

IDW senior editor Heather Antos: “Star Trek has always been about telling stories of a better future of hope for humanity. Something this world needs now more than ever before. And what Jackson, Collin, and Ramon are doing with this series is bigger. Bigger and bolder than any Star Trek series has gone before.”

Character design preview for Sato (IDW)

Prelude in Star Trek #400

It was previously reported that in September IDW will publish a special one-shot comic book celebrating their 400th issue of Star Trek. This comic will feature a number of short stories including a prelude story that leads into Star Trek #1, and it comes from the same creative team. IDW has provided us with two color interior pages of this prelude, showing how it spans Star Trek eras.

Star Trek #1 Prelude art from Star Trek #400 – Sample Page A by Ramon Rosanas and Lee Loughridge

Star Trek #1 Prelude art from Star Trek #400 – Sample Page B by Ramon Rosanas and Lee Loughridge

More to come from SDCC 2022

This is just the beginning of our Comic-Con coverage. There is much more happening, including the big Star Trek Universe panel on Saturday. So stay tuned to TrekMovie.com for more news from San Diego.

You should also keep track of @TrekMovie on Twitter for ongoing updates, panel highlights, and more from San Diego Comic-Con.


Keep up with all the Star Trek comics news, previews and reviews in TrekMovie’s comics category.

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“where no one has gone before”….a mirror universe / multigenerational story?…we’ve gone there before…..often.

Still – could be good. Just glad to see a Prime Sikso back

Neat, but I’d really have preferred Sisko’s return be reserved for TV.

Maybe Avery Brooks said no?

Avrey Brooks doesn’t seem to have any interest in getting back in front of the camera these days.

It feels a bit like a confirmation of that. That the comics have been given the green light to use this story would suggest it’s even less likely these plot threads will be picked up on any TV show.

Maybe he doesn’t have to get in front of a camera. Star Trek Prodigy seems a good place to have Sisko around, voiced by Avery. I’d personally steer clear of Lower Decks though.

Are we gonna see any glimpse of the good old “splinter timeline”?

You mean the novelverse? Wasn’t that reality destroyed?

Wonder if there be a Star Trek Multiverse movie announcement at SDCC this weekend? Dec 23 is fast approaching..

That date will be changing.

to summer 24? competition would include Mad Max:Furiosa, MI8, Transformers Next Generation and whatever untitled Marvel/DC (Avengers Secret Wars? Fan4? Man of Steel 2? Joker 2?).

Dec 23 looks to be Star Wars Rogue Squadron. Ghostbusters 4

Benjamin Sisko is back, baby 🙂! Yes!!!!!!! This is excellent news 💖!!!!!! And the comics are considered canon now by Paramount so guess what this means?

We’re gonna probably be seeing Sisko in Picard season 3 🙂💖. Yes!!!!!! Because now we know that Sisko has returned from the Wormhole so that means that he’s around in the time of the Picard show. Paramount is doing this so that the Sisko character can catch up in real time to Avery’s actual age.

So when we do see Avery Brooks show up as Sisko in Picard season 3 and he’s an older looking Sisko than what we remember, people won’t be wondering how or why that happened. Now we’re gonna know. I’ll bet you Beverly’s return in Picard has something to do with Captain Sisko and she needs Jean-Luc’s help. And Sisko is not omnipotent anymore so he doesn’t have any type of powers and that’s great because I said on a Discovery post on here that if Sisko did show up in the Discovery-era than he should not have any connection to the Prophets at all and apparently Paramount and the writers of Captain Sisko’s return feel the same way I do.

Just have him be Captain Benjamin Sisko, no Emissary to the Prophets anymore. I can’t wait to possibly see Captain Sisko’s daughter show up in this comic. Maybe she’s gonna be involved in Season 3 of Picard too? She’d be 26 by 2401.

It would definitely be interesting to see if his and Kasidy’s daughter wound up joining Starfleet. She could be a lieutenant on a ship in 2401? She’d be old enough. I can’t wait to see what the U.S.S. Theseus looks like too, by the way.

I wonder 🤔 if Gary Mitchell or whatever’s possessed him is gonna be the villain in Picard season 3? It’s pretty coincidental that Mitchell is gonna factor heavily into this comic and this comic is coming out so close to Picard season 3, maybe 🤔 Mitchell or whatever’s possessed him is the villain in Picard season 3? They still haven’t revealed who the villain of Picard season 3 and maybe this is the reason why? Maybe it’s Mitchell or whatever possessed him is loose and possessed somebody else and is causing chaos in the galaxy?

I know that Paramount and different writers have tried to bring Gary Mitchell back to Star Trek before, maybe Terry Matalas is the one who has figured out a story to actually facilitate Mitchell’s return or the being that’s inside of Mitchell’s return? That thing that possessed Mitchell was never identified so that could be construed as being from a race that we’ve never seen before which is what Terry Matalas said about the villain that we’re getting in season 3 of Picard. This is so awesome 🙂!!!! I really cannot wait for Picard season 3 to come out now and, in the meantime, I will enjoy this comic to hold me over until February 2023 🙂.

Live long and prosper, Trekmovie 🖖

That’s a gigantic stretch to have Sisko go from a comic to Picard S3, which has wrapped shooting.
One can dream, I suppose….

They just wrapped Picard, right? They probably started working on this comic last year so that would’ve been when Terry Matalas was working on pre-production for Picard season 3 and you don’t think he would’ve mentioned it to Paramount that he wanted to use Captain Sisko in season 3 of Picard? Like I stated earlier, the comics are now canon since April of 2019 so anything that goes on in them, Paramount already knows about. Kirsten Beyer, who’s an executive producer on Picard, also writes for the Star Trek comics and novels and she might’ve been the one to brought it up to Paramount about addressing Captain Sisko’s return in the comics because then they don’t have to go into a lengthy explanation about how he has returned from walking with the Prophets.

And I also believe now that the ship we’re getting in season 3 of Picard is probably going to be the Theseus. I don’t think Captain Sisko is still the Captain of it, though. I think Beverly Crusher might be the Captain and she needs Jean-Luc’s help because of this mysterious villain we are getting. I also think that they are going to need Sisko’s help too at the end of the day.

It’s too coincidental that this is releasing just a few months before season 3 of Picard is releasing. Too coincidental, man. And I believe this was timed because everyone that’s involved with Picard season 3 knew that Avery was going to be in it. Terry Matalas has already stated that we are getting multiple characters from DS9 and VOY in season 3 of Picard.

He also mentioned that there are going to be new characters involved in this season of Picard who are connected to this new ship that we’re getting. It’s not too hard to imagine that one of those new characters is Captain Sisko’s and Kasidy Yates’ daughter. But, if the breadcrumbs don’t lead to Picard, then Sisko will be getting his own Picard-type show eventually. There’s a reason why he’s in this comic, especially since the comics are now canon.

And they’re trying to tell the story of Captain Sisko’s return without doing it all on screen. Similar to when Sir Patrick came back to play Picard. They came out with that Picard comic first, Picard: Countdown, and then they released that Picard novel, The Last Best Hope, just as the show was set to premiere. But this is all my theories and speculations.

Whether you agree or not is your choice. But one thing that I can guarantee is that Avery Brooks IS back as Benjamin Sisko and it’s only a matter of time before we see him on screen again. Live long and prosper, phil 🖖

No, the comics are not considered canon by Paramount. Some comics are treated as if they were canon (some prelude and Picard comics for example), but only until they come up with a story line in one of the shows that contradicts them.

Yeah, the reference to the “multiverse” also suggests to me that they are trying to place this story in a “bubble” in case it conflicts with what MIGHT eventually end up on screen, which is unknown.

We’ll see 🙂. Alex Kurtzman has already stated that he sees Star Trek like the MCU so that would make it a multiverse, right? And between the Mirror Universe and the Kelvin Timeline and now the Shard Universe from the Pocket Book novels, isn’t Star Trek already a multiverse? What they mean by multiverse, most likely, is that Captain Sisko and crew will probably be exploring it.

If their first mission is against Gary Mitchell, there’s a pretty good chance that they wind up in a different universe thanks to Gary 🙂. Obviously, they don’t stay there because Dr.Crusher and Data have to get back to the Enterprise before Nemesis happens. But, in my opinion, this is the story of Captain Sisko’s return so they don’t have to go through some lengthy explanation for why he’s back or when it happened. Now we know when he returned because this comic takes place in 2378.

And he’s not going back to the Prophets, if he was he wouldn’t have rejoined Starfleet. And I’m sure when he finds Kasidy and he meets the daughter that he had with Kasidy that will be even more incentive for him to stay 🙂.

Live long and prosper, Locutus 🖖

Go look it up, Burke 🙂. Paramount said that the comics are canon right before the Star Trek: Year Five comic launched back in 2019. They said that the comics are to be considered canon because Disney said that about the Star Wars comics. That’s why the tone of the comics have changed since Paramount announced that they are to be considered canon.

Basically, since April 2019, they have been telling stories that could fit right into the shows, such as Star Trek:Year Five, Star Trek: Picard: Countdown, Star Trek:Deep Space Nine: Too Long A Sacrifice, Star Trek:Voyager: Seven’s Reckoning and the myriad of Mirror Universe one shots that have come out along with the Mirror War saga and the Discovery: Adventures in the 32nd Century and Star Trek: Aliens one shots. Now I know what Paramount said and I know what I read. You can probably find it on here about Paramount making the comics canon. It’s up to you whether you want to read them or not, that’s your choice, but they are canon.

I started reading the comics long ago when they were published by DC Comics and I was 12. I turn 43 in 3 days so I know what I read and what it said. The comics are canon and my opinion remains that this is the beginning of the return of Captain Sisko and Avery Brooks to Star Trek. Live long and prosper, Burke 🖖

Paramount said that the comics are canon right before the Star Trek: Year Five comic launched back in 2019.

They didn’t.

No, the comics are not considered canon by Paramount.

They aren’t and never have been.

They are canon per an edict that came out from Paramount back in 2019 right before Star Trek:Year Five started. Look it up. The article was on this website. People were wondering if Paramount was going to make the Star Trek comics canon after Disney made their Star Wars comics canon.

Why do you think we’re getting more comics now and less novels? It’s because the comics are canon. You know, I read your comments on here in regards to the comics so I know that you read the comics and you think you would know that they are considered canon by Paramount after April 2019. Before that, those comics aren’t canon.

But after April 2019, the comics are considered canon by Paramount. Whether you choose to believe it or not is your choice. I know what the article said that I read on here and as long Paramount considers them canon, that’s good enough for me.

I don’t need to look it up since I know that Paramount does not consider the comics canon. I know this because I’ve asked colleagues who work at Paramount about this after seeing other people make the same incorrect claim. The comics are great, don’t get me wrong, but they are not and never have been canon. Every time someone calls a comic canon, Countdown and Succession for instance, a TV episode comes along and completely overwrites its events, rendering it null and void. The same has happened with several novels fans have claimed were canon. That by definition means they’re not canon since the TV writers are free to ignore them. If they were canon, that would not be the case. Official–yes. Licensed–yes. A whole lot of fun–yes. That’s why I’ve read many of them. But canon? Sorry, no. Even Bob Orci himself was wrong about that since his comics work was ignored by Star Trek: Picard. And I have never seen any article published here saying they are, despite my reading every article this site publishes each day. A search on google for “star trek comics canon trekmovie” yields nothing other than your comments in this thread, in fact. (Admins: Please feel free to let me know if such an article was published. If I’m wrong about the existence of said article I’d love to read it. Thanks.)

They are canon and have been canon since April 2019. Paramount considers them canon and that’s good enough for me 👍🙂. Your opinion doesn’t matter because your just a joker trying to start an argument. I’m 43 years old and I know what I read.

Paramount made the comics canon before Year Five started because people were asking if that comic was going to be considered canon. And that comic is canon because of the edict that Paramount made that the comics published after April 2019 are canon. I know what I read and I’m not changing my mind based on your opinion. If you have anything else to say about the comics, I suggest you go and bring it up to Mrs. Kirsten Beyer.

She is co-executive producer on Picard and she also has a say about the comics and books. Or you can go email Mr.Dayton Ward because he also knows if the comics are canon or not and he also checks over all of the Star Trek stories that are to be printed in novel form or comic book form and he checks over the Star Trek Adventures role playing game too. You can go ask them if the comics are canon. Once again, the comics BEFORE April 2019 are not canon.

Anything AFTER April 2019 is and I can see that you didn’t bother to find the article that I mentioned to you and that’s because you think your opinion is the right opinion and it’s not. Later ✌️😄!!!

You’re age is irrelevant, but OK, sure. (I’m two years older than you, for what it’s worth, and that is also irrelevant.) And no, you didn’t read that they’re canon because they’re not.

Yes, I did read it. And every time I mention the comics I will mention that they are canon until I see Paramount say otherwise. Because Paramount is who made them canon and they own the franchise, not you. You want to expend your energy arguing with me everytime about whether they’re canon or not is on you.

I will continue to say they’re canon, irregardless. Like now, the comics are canon😄.

Year Five was overwritten by the second season of Picard, so that’s a bad example. Gary Seven’s employers are not evil on Picard and they’re not trying to destroy all the governments of the galaxy, so the comic clearly isn’t canon. IDW got that one wrong, and so did you.

If you actually watched Picard, Sherlock, then you would’ve found out that it wasn’t the Aegis that Tallinn was connected to. It was the Travelers and Wesley explained that in episode 10 how the Travelers call their “Agents” Supervisors. So what exactly did Picard retcon seeing as how Year Five takes place a hundred and forty years before Picard and it was the Aegis in Year Five and not the Travelers? So what exactly did it retcon?

Dayton and Kirsten are both friends of mine. I’ve already asked one of them about it to confirm, but only as a formality. Since I work for the franchise, I’ve always known the answer to this question. I won’t say which one I asked, though, since that’s no one’s business but theirs.

That’s funny because they’re friends of mine. I’ve known Kirsten since she was on Passions. And I met Dayton a couple of years back in Ohio. We bonded because he’s the head of a WW1 museum and I’m sort of a history buff myself.

So I know the answer myself. That’s why I stand by what I said.

Perhaps Sisko will serve as the official who marries Crusher to Picard? ;-)

Great speculation, One Lion 👍! I love it! But I hate to play the voice of reason and say that I don’t think it will happen, though. And the reason why I say that is because I think Kate Mulgrew is going to show up as Admiral Janeway at the very end of the series finale of Picard and she’s gonna perform the wedding ceremony herself because I think we’re gonna get a double wedding next year with Crusher and Picard & Seven and Raffi.

So it would make sense for Admiral Janeway to perform the ceremony. I also think that it’s a very good possibility that we might see all 3 Captains from ’90s Star Trek on screen at the same time in Picard season 3 at the very end of the series finale, probably at the wedding ceremony, if there is one. I also highly suspect that we see Wil Wheaton and Sir Patrick sharing the screen one more time right after the wedding, where he will probably say to Jean-Luc “Welcome to the family, Dad” and then they’ll hug and Picard will reply back “Thank you, son”. If they did this, it would close up the whole “Picard searching for a family” story on Picard nicely and it would give his character closure because he would finally be at peace. The one thing that he’s been searching for his whole life was always right under his nose and he never saw it so, hopefully 🤞, it happens.

Live long and prosper, One Lion 🖖🦁.

Sounds cool. I just hope the writers have a better grasp of these characters than they did of Gary Seven.

As a newish Trek fan it never ceases to amaze me that DS9 is considered the black sheep of the Trek family. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy TNG, but coming at it with no bias or nostalgia? DS9 is by far the greatest Star Trek TV show & it’s really not even close. I don’t understand how Voyager, flipping Voyager, was more popular & higher rated. How? How is that even remotely possible? Don’t get me wrong. Voyager isn’t a bad show. It’s just an incredibly uneven one.

When I finally took the plunge on DS9, after waiting years in vain for an HD upgrade since the picture quality is so lacking, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Massive battles, epic storytelling, character arcs, multi episode story arcs, WAR! Yes, WAR! In Star Trek? Talk about shaking up the status quo. 

But where DS9 truly shines is it’s deep bench of characters. It’s the secret sauce. Not the serialized episodes, not the space battles, not the dominon war. No. The characters. It’s an embarrassment of riches. Again, TNG was a very good show. But beyond Picard, Riker & Data…the characters were a bit thin. I like Geordi, Crusher & Worf but they aren’t the most complex or interesting of people to spend time with. 

DS9? Do I need to list of names? I do don’t I? Ok. Here we go: Sisko, Odo, Quark, Kira, Dax(both), Dr Bashir ssand even O’Brien! That’s just the main cast. The guest stars up the ante even morsse. A certain Cardassian tailor, Gul Dukat, Nog, Rom, Damar, Vick Fontaine! Hell they even make Worf a more fascinating character than when he was on TNG. 

I don’t know what DS9’s budget was but it’s fascinating the show was able to depict things TNG never could(the encounter at Wolf 359 in “Best of Both Worlds” occurring off screen always bothered me). TNG was far more popular by a fair amount & they they were constantly running up against obvious budget constraints. 

Look no further than “Way of the Warrior”. There’s stuff in this episode that look better than mid budget movies. 

Anyways, why am I writing this on a page about a Sisko comic book.(are these things considered canon?). I don’t know. Because I love the show and have so few opportunities to declare that love, Because I want the show in glorious HD, and because there are people out there who still have yet to watch this wonderful show. Go ahead. Take the plunge. I did and I was never once disappointed with the show.

DS9 is still treated like the ugly stepchild of Star Trek. PIC s1 should have explored the aftermath of the Dominion war instead of (or as well as) it’s focus on the Romulus destruction. While all the shows have had follow up, particularly TNG and VOY, we’ve not seen a single character from DS9. I don’t count anything on Lower Decks because that isn’t a Star Trek series to me, it’s a parody.

USS Theseus…. I see what you did there

To be honest, that sounds rather… boring to me. No offense, it’s just a lot of fan service combined with a universe-saving god meeting story. Some people will certainly like it, for sure. But it’s not for me,

Like others here, I too want to have some closure on the story of Benjamin Sisko. Comics do not do the job. Neither did earlier novels. Also, although the DS9 creatives sometimes loosely referred to the Wormhole Aliens as “gods,” they were not and certainly were not “omnipotent.” (We’ve more than enough such beings in Trek, probably too many.) These aliens lived beyond linear time and had a hard time (no pun intended) comprehending sentient beings immersed in it. Maybe Sisko was especially important to them as a bridge between linear and non-linear temporal life. This could still be developed, not to mention the very unsatisfying abandonment of his family in the series finale, despite the promise of “I’ll be back.” It would be very regrettable if the amazing Avery Brooks is unwilling or unable to reprise the role. But if that’s the case, recast the character. Hopefully, Cirroc Lofton and the new actor could still convey the real chemistry between the characters that he and Avery had/have in real life. The inevitable difference in appearance or age of the recast character could easily be explained by his time (from our perspective) in the wormhole.

or do an animated (2d / anime) post-DS9 show. DS9 was gritty enough to support that

That’s an interesting idea, Nathan! I just came across a 2020 podcast in which Cirroc Lofton states that Avery Brooks is still acting but is persona-non-grata in Hollywood. All the more reason to bring back Sisko in a truly meaningful role that would appeal to him.

Why do people say “no pun intended” when it’s obvious the pun was intended?

Year Five, due to shoddy editing, contradicted numerous other IDW Star Trek comics involving Gary Seven and the Tholians. Now it looks like this series will contradict other IDW Star Trek comics involving Gary Mitchell. Star Trek fans deserve a better editor running the show, one who knows the history enough to avoid these problems.