Star Trek: Red Shirts #3

Star Trek: Red Shirts #3

by Christopher Cantwell, Megan Levens (Artist)

It’s a race to the top as the anti-Federation spies and the Red Shirts summit the towering antenna on Arkonia 89. The spies seek to escape a transporter disrupter and make it back to their ship with their stolen data, and Raad, Grash, Vesta, and Miller will try to stop them by any means necessary. The climb is made all the more difficult by fire raining from above via a cloaked Warbird captained by a young Romulan and a mysterious Tal Shiar officer. Meanwhile, on the ground, Lanier, Amiga, and DeMatrio realize a hidden secret about the deceased Cromarty’s base. It just might be their ticket out of this mess alive, but as more lives are senselessly lost, the Red Shirts start to wonder if Starfleet would even care if they made it back at all.

Genres: Star Trek, Comics, Science Fiction

Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2025

Reviews

[Scott Rhee]

Raad and the six other surviving Red Shirts on Arkonia 89 fight to survive the Romulan spies and the bloodthirsty wildlife in issue # 3 of "Red Shirts". They are also slowly beginning to realize that Starfleet may not have their best interests at heart. A government willing to sacrifice some of its own men and women to keep their dirty laundry a secret? Shocking.

Christopher Cantwell's exciting and well-written action-adventure/espionage series set in the Star Trek universe is far better than I expected.

[The Void Reader]

Star Trek Red Shirts #3: Climbing Toward Oblivion
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Absolutely brutal. Absolutely brilliant. Star Trek: Red Shirts #3 delivers a gut-punch of tension, sacrifice, and existential dread wrapped in a high-stakes climb that feels like Starfleet meets The Raid.

Christopher Cantwell continues to weaponize the franchise’s most expendable crew members with razor-sharp writing and a deepening sense of futility. The antenna ascent on Arkonia 89 is pure chaos—anti-Federation spies scrambling to escape, Raad and crew chasing them through firestorms and falling comrades, and a cloaked Romulan Warbird raining death from above. Megan Levens’ art captures the vertigo and violence with kinetic precision: every panel feels like a last breath.

But it’s the emotional undercurrent that elevates this issue. As Lanier, Amiga, and DeMatrio uncover secrets buried in Cromarty’s base, the question shifts from “Can they survive?” to “Does survival even matter?” The Red Shirts aren’t just cannon fodder—they’re asking what Starfleet stands for when the body count climbs and the brass stays silent.

Cantwell and Levens are crafting something special here: a story that honors Trek’s legacy while interrogating its blind spots. Issue #3 is a masterclass in pacing, character, and heartbreak. The KIA list grows longer—but so does the impact.

Happy reading and live long and prosper 🖖 📚

[Rob Vitagliano]

The one aspect of this story that succeeds above all else is the almost unbearable tension you feel as each panel could lead these poor characters to an untimely death. You don't know much about any of them, but you still feel for them, as you know they're essentially cannon fodder, but each one has just enough of a personality to make you feel for them, typically right before they meet a gruesome death.

There are two more of those in this one, one that matches if not exceeds the brutality of the death from the last issue, and this one involves a transporter. You can imagine where that goes. They're definitely leaning into the horror aspect in this series, if you can't tell that from the covers.

I love the Romulans being the villains as well, with the old school Bird of Prey, and Revo from the last Trek title. Great tie in there, and I hope to see more from them as the story continues. I very much look forward to the next issue, and hope at least one or two of these poor souls survive, though I'm starting to think that there's more to Chip, the seemingly main character, than meets the eye.

[Cybernex007]

“Welcome to starfleet. My condolences. See you at the funeral”

It was at this point in the story that I finished the issue and then consulted with a friend who is a fan of Star Trek to tell me all about how the Romulans are a similar species to the Vulcans and to explain what the Kobayashi Maru is. I will say, these explanations greatly increased my enjoyment of this series. It drills in this concept that the red shirts are constantly placed in a loosing battle and to sacrifice yourself is selfless and needed. So quickly do each of them jump to the conclusion of sacrifice in this issue without any real gain and without understanding the full scope of what they fight for. Our team climbing up the satellite tower were so ready to throw a grenade to vaporize themselves if it meant taking out the spies and preventing the data from getting away before they could get to the height outside of the field to beam away. Only for the 5th spy who was unseen at this time to be revealed in a sniper position away from them, hitting Miller in the arm and causing him to drop all of the grenades. At the base the others have figured out that it’s not just a base but a space ship which has sunk into the bog which they may be able to revive, but seeing her team almost taken out Grash decided to run out and help them take out that sniper. Unfortunately as she is running out there, some of the debris from the station impales her. And with the monster known as Johnny boy creeping up from behind, she is able to reach for one of the grenades to activate it and trigger a massive explosion alongside the other grenades in the bag.

This causes all kind of chaos as the spies get into the transporter range and start to be beamed away, only for Vesta to jump on one of them to ride the beam with them. At the same moment the others back at the base have gotten the ship working and Miller and Raad have started to fall from the antenna…only to be beamed away themselves. Vesta didn’t survive the trip, as a mesh of body horror lands on the Romulan ship as they meshed with the spy they jumped onto. But as it so happens the one spy who survived is the one who had the data disk they should have destroyed. But where did Miller and Raad land? Oh that would be the Klingon ship, as unbeknownst to everyone it turns out the Romulans hacked into this antenna not because of the precious weather monitoring data…but because it was being used to unlawfully monitor Klingon communications. Violating their ceasefire in the process, a now Miller and Raad cower in a Klingon ship with blades in their faces to be held responsible.

“Security officers don’t take the Kobayashi Maru. Command officers are placed in a no-win situation to see how they’ll react if they ever find themselves in one. For us…the no-win situation is the assignment.”

[Richard A]

I am enjoying this series as it is quite interesting and I have no idea where it is going.