Heather Antos Embarrasses IDW Publishing With Poor Editing Job On Star Trek: The Mirror War – Sisko One-Shot
Star Trek fans are livid with IDW Senior Editor Heather Antos after the publisher’s recent Star Trek: The Mirror War – Sisko one-shot was released to readers chock full of spelling, storytelling, and continuity errors that should have been caught by someone in an editorial position.
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The plot of the Mirror War miniseries tie-in is simple: In the Mirror Universe, Kira Nerys, here the Intendant of Terok Nor and running it on behalf of a Cardassian-Klingon Alliance, sends her love slave Benjamin Sisko on a task to destroy her political rival Kaarak Tyr.
The issue eventually ends at the beginning of the 23rd episode of Deep Space 9’s second season, Crossover, with the prime Kira arriving in the Mirror Universe.
The errors in the book begin with Sisko, who appears to be far younger than how he looked in season two of Deep Space 9, not to mention how colorist DC Alonso’s highlighting of his brow skin looks more than rough around the edges.
These artistic choices on their own would be forgivable if it weren’t for the more egregious problems with the story later.
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A typo can also be seen just pages later when during Sisko’s first meeting with black market weapons dealer Tesaks Reyes, the former refers to the Mirror Universe Kira as “the Indendant”, a clear misspelling of her proper title of Intendant.
Unfortunately for author Danny Lore – and in even further proof of Antos’ editorial failings – the typo is far from hard to miss, as the term is emphasized in bold.
The next easily identifiable error for Star Trek fans is Sisko’s use of a gun that shoots bullets, rather than the show’s hallmark phaser laser weapons.
It’s an odd choice that doesn’t fit within the Star Trek aesthetic at all.
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The book’s continuity then proceeds to get shaky as the Mirror Sisko’s mind begins to drift to thoughts of the prime Deep Space 9 crew, who at this point he still has yet to meet.
It’s further odd as Lt. Worf is pictured, as the issue is firmly set within Deep Space 9 season two, yet the Next Generation transplant did not join Sisko’s team until season four.
However, what may be the worst continuity error is the fact that Sisko is already in possession of his own ship, the ISS Defiant, and is using it on behalf of Intendant Kira.
Not only does the Defiant, like Worf, not show up until season four of Deep Space 9. Further, there is a full episode in the fourth season, “Shattered Mirror”, where the character Smiley is seen stealing the plans for the Defiant from the Prime Universe in order to build a copy in the Mirror Universe.
Suffice to say, with the one-shot taking place two seasons prior to this bit of espionage, there’s absolutely no way the ISS Defiant could have possibly existed at the time of the issue’s events.
For a 22 page one-shot, Star Trek: Mirror Wars – Sisko is so riddled with errors that it’s nothing short of embarrassing that IDW Comics saw fit to not only publish it, but charge fans money for it.
Worst of all, it shows just how low the publisher’s standards of quality – and Antos’ in particular – are for the books they’re producing.
Antos’ career has been mired in controversy ever since her time as an assistant for editor Marvel Comics’ Star Wars line, during which she became involved in the infamous ‘Milkshake Incident’, wherein she accused fans of harassment and toxic behavior against female comic creators based solely on their gender.
After finding little success in editorial work at Marvel, Antos left the comic industry to pursue other ventures, only to return soon after by accepting an editor position for the struggling Valiant Comics.
In her first move at Valiant, Antos brought in writer Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum and artist Emilio Laiso to relaunch the publisher’s hit X-O Manowar series.
Her efforts would later be widely-panned by fans, many of whom felt took issue with how the character’s new direction completely ignored everything that had been established in Robert Venditti’s popular 2012 relaunch of the character.
She then took the job at IDW Comics in the middle of 2021, where, as described by YouTube comic critic Thinking Critical, she continued “to fail her way to the top.”
In December of that same year, Antos was promoted to senior editor, where she worked on IDW’s kid-friendly line of licensed Star Wars and Marvel Action titles until these licenses were recalled by Marvel Comics themselves.
Since then, she has been assigned to work on their Star Trek line.
Considering her history and current work output, fans have subsequently grumbled in speculation that Antos’ hiring at these various companies was based on her involvement in identity politics-driven drama rather than her skills as an editor.
Last month, Antos made the news after deciding to ‘subtweet‘ her former colleague, artist Irene Strychalski, over her decision to join ComicsGate.
Though Antos did not specifically name Strychalski, the artist later confirmed that she was indeed the subject of the IDW editor’s ire.
Ultimately, it appears as if Antos is spending a little too much time worrying about who everyone in the industry is talking to and not enough learning the basic background information of the books she’s editing.
What do you make of these glaring errors in in IDW’s Star Trek: The Mirror War – Sisko? Let a comment down below and let us know!
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