1349. Too Many PresidentsPUBLICATION: Star Trek - Assignment: Earth #5, IDW Comics, September 2008
CREATORS: John Byrne (writer), John Byrne (artist)
STARDATE: Unknown (1972; a year after the last issue; closing piece in 1974)
PLOT: The Aegis team follow President Nixon to China where he is abducted by Communist agents and replaced by a lookalike spy. In the eventual rescue, the president goes after his double and as they struggle, one of them is shot. Unable to ascertain which is which, Gary Seven hypnotizes the remaining Nixon to make sure he doesn't remember he's a fake (if he is). Two years later, Nixon resigns. In a short second story entitled "Ah-Ha!", Roberta plays a prank on Isis.
CONTINUITY: None.
DIVERGENCES: None.
PANEL OF THE DAY - Sometimes, Isis can't believe it.
REVIEW: Byrne jumps ahead one more year and uses 1972 as the basis for his story. He makers Nixon a lecherous, untrustworthy figure, but also a brave one. The 1974 epilogue makes it clear that Watergate was not the Soviet double's doing, if indeed the wrong Nixon was in the Oval Office (though the staging can be interpreted that way). Mildly pleasant, though lightweight. Something longer with more paranoia about the president's identity might have turned it into a hardier meal. As is, three pages are given over to an even more lightweight back-up which may or may not indicate that, 5 years in, Roberta suspects Isis is more than she appears. Though not the best thing I've ever read, I would like to see further adventures of the Aegis team, heading ever farther into the 70s, and there seem to be plans for it. Stay tuned.
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