Today's pulse-pounding, senses-shattering, action-packed Star Trek panel:

Look familiar?

Panel from Star Trek: Early Voyages #3 (Marvel, 1997) "Our Dearest Blood" Written by Ian Edginton and Dan Abnett, pencils by Patrick Zircher, inks by Greg Adams. This issue tells the story behind the battle on Rigel VII, referenced in the original pilot episode, "The Cage." All we knew from that account was that seven crewmen were injured, and two killed, including Captain Pike's yeoman, Dermot Cusack.

Cusack, of course, was a new character; and in the continuity had to die, since Pike has a new yeoman in "The Cage." But Edginton and Abnett play it straight: Cusack's death is never foreshadowed, in fact, he's easily one of the more likable characters until his demise. I might mention this later, since I'm posting these in reverse order; but one thing I really liked about this series, that I thought was sorely lacking in Enterprise, was the sense that space was a brutal and dangerous place. In early Trek, you were far more likely to be stabbed, spaced, or irradiated; than you were to being blown up or killed by technobabble.