{"id":82,"date":"2008-06-05T07:00:40","date_gmt":"2008-06-05T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/2008\/06\/05\/star-trek-comic-book-better-than-i-expected\/"},"modified":"2008-06-05T00:00:55","modified_gmt":"2008-06-05T04:00:55","slug":"star-trek-comic-book-better-than-i-expected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/2008\/06\/05\/star-trek-comic-book-better-than-i-expected\/","title":{"rendered":"John Byrne Star Trek comic … better than I expected"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surprisingly, John Byrne’s recent comic book, “Star Trek:\u00a0 Assignment Earth” #1 was actually enjoyable.\u00a0 While I’m not a huge devotee of Star Trek TOS (“The Original Series” for those of you not in the know… geez), I do remember the episode “Assignment: Earth<\/a>” with Gary Seven (Robert Lansing<\/a>), Isis the cat, and Roberta Lincoln (a very young Teri Garr<\/a>).\u00a0 I’m also a lapsed fan of John Byrne.\u00a0 I certainly don’t buy everything by him, but I do have fond memories of his Alpha Flight & Superman runs.\u00a0 So every so often I’ll pick up a book he’s working on just on a whim.\u00a0 This was just such a purchase.\u00a0 I hadn’t expected it to be any good, so I was pleasantly surprised.<\/p>\n

The story wasn’t anything earth-shattering, but it was a fun read.\u00a0 It took place in 1968 and was really very reminiscent of the action\/adventure spy series of the time.\u00a0 I felt like I was reading a comic book version of “I Spy” with a dash of sci-fi.\u00a0 The fact that the main threat was Soviets really helped to sell the 1968 factor.\u00a0 With the nuclear testing, Soviets, and scientists, it reminded me a little of the origin story of the Hulk.\u00a0 Also, I loved the swinging sixties-style decorating of Gary Seven’s pad.\u00a0 I’m not sure if this is held over from the TV appearance or just for the comic.\u00a0 Regardless, I fell in love with the secret sliding door behind the bar.\u00a0 Brilliant!<\/p>\n

Byrne’s art was fine for the issue, though I’ve read interviews where he was worried about getting the likenesses of real people correct.\u00a0 No worries here, everything looked good.\u00a0\u00a0Issue\u00a0#2 just came out and the cover indicates that somehow Gary Seven and Ms. Lincoln will once again bump into 23rd century Starfleet folks.\u00a0 Looks\u00a0cool to me.<\/p>\n

This is a five issue mini-series that will apparently leap forward one year with each issue.\u00a0 Neat idea which will hopefully pay off.\u00a0 I probably won’t add this book to my pull-list, but I’ll pick it up off the shelf if it hits me on the right week.<\/p>\n

Also, you should be checking out IDW’s Star Trek: New Frontier<\/a> title.\u00a0 I’m not sure how it would read for newbies to the “New Frontier” corner of the STNG universe, but I’m loving it!\u00a0 IDW is really making a worthwhile push this year with their Star Trek Second Stage initiative.\u00a0 Good luck to them!<\/p>\n

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