1345. Brighter Than A Thousand SunsPUBLICATION: Star Trek - Assignment: Earth #1, IDW Comics, May 2008
CREATORS: John Byrne (writer), John Byrne (artist)
STARDATE: Unknown (1968; three months after Assignment: Earth)
PLOT: Gary Seven's team attempts to discover the identity of a Soviet agent at Project Hercules, a dangerous mega-bomb experiment. Gary wines and dines Dr. Winters who he comes to have feelings for, and the team keeps an eye on the main suspects. However, it's Winters who is the agent and she knocks Gary upside the head when he catches her stealing secrets. A security guard shoots her in the head and saves Gary, though he is visibly upset as he dictates his report.
CONTINUITY: Gary Seven, Roberta Lincoln, Isis and the Beta Five Computer (Assignment: Earth) are the stars of this series. The last scene from that episode serves as prologue.
DIVERGENCES: None.
PANEL OF THE DAY - There was a sale on the psychic paper.
REVIEW: So... what would that Assignment: Earth tv show have looked like had the "pilot" been picked up? Like a spy show with sf leanings, I suppose. John Byrne does a good job of giving each of the cast stuff to do. Gary Seven gets the bulk of the action, acting as a kind of Man from UNCLE type. Roberta is bubbly and upbeat. And Isis gets to follow suspects around (and you know me, I'm happy with any cat-centric sequence). One of the things that would have bugged me about the tv show is the Men in Black pen that instantly interrogates anyone. That's one deus ex machina that out-sonic screwdrivers the sonic, if you know what I mean. As for the plot, it's an ok mystery story which ends in cliché. My money would have been on the Dr. Strangelove analog. It would at least have been a good way to make the reader care about the full page of character bios for the one-shot cast. Good art, of course, Byrne's standard. Though each story looks to be stand-alone, there's a "Number One" manipulating things in the background, so there's a further mystery here. Aside from being a Prisoner reference, the numbers thing (1 and 7) isn't lost on me. Let's see where this goes.
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