"Brighter Than a Thousand Suns" is the first issue of John Byrne's Assignment: Earth comic miniseries which was released by IDW Publishing in May 2008. Featuring Aegis agents Gary Seven and Isis, and their associate Roberta Lincoln, this story takes place not long after they met in TOS episode & Star Trek 3 novelization: Assignment: Earth.
Description[]
- From solicitations
- IDW's Star Trek: Second Stage continues, as comics icon John Byrne unveils the first-ever Star Trek series of his decades-spanning career! The 1968 TV episode "Assignment: Earth" had been the Season Two finale for the original Star Trek series, and was intended by Gene Roddenberry as the pilot for a spin-off series that never came to pass. Now, Byrne delivers the series 40 years after it would have debuted, recounting the adventures of interstellar agent Gary Seven and his Earth-born assistant as they covertly confront threats to the past so that they can save Star Trek's future. Byrne will both write and draw the series, which steps one year forward with each installment, beginning with 1968, the year that the spin-off series would have appeared.
Summary[]
When Beta 5 computer scans are being mysteriously blocked in New Mexico, Seven, Isis, and Lincoln sneak into a skyscraper office. Finding transistors enhanced to power levels centuries ahead of modern science, Seven is intrigued. After shutting down the device, they overhear Russian spies discussing delivery of a component to Project Hercules, a top secret nuclear initiative at the San Lobos Atomic Research Facility near Albuquerque.
Soon they are presenting false credentials to Project Hercules director Diana Winters and an impressive array of scientists. They learn that shortly the group will be testing an enhanced fusion bomb – but similar technology has wiped out a planetary civilization and if anything goes wrong, it could irradiate half of the United States. That evening, Seven and Winters share steaks and wine at a restaurant while Isis keeps tabs on Chinese defector Changming Weng. But later that night, the Russian component is delivered to Manhattan Project and hydrogen bomb physicist Arthur Truman.
The morning of the test, Winters drives to the desert bunker to pick up security guard Smitty Smith, but is confronted by Truman at gunpoint. Seven surprises them both, appearing from behind and putting Truman to sleep with his servo. Seven warns her that they're in danger and hands her the gun so he can deal with Truman. Winters suddenly strikes Seven in the head with the gun, knocking him unconscious. She dons a radiation suit and descends in an elevator.
Seven quickly revives, hastily chases her, and interrupts her sabotaging the bomb. He's stunned that she's the saboteur. Before he can learn why, the guard arrives and shoots Winters in the head, and she falls several stories to the bottom of the bunker. Seven tells Smitty he did the right thing.
Later, Seven dictates a mission report with the automated typewriter in his office in New York City, saying that Project Hercules has been shut down. He also has learned that Winters was a Russian spy who took the name of a young girl who died in a traffic accident in 1933.
References[]
Characters[]
- Bertrand Carlisle • Christopher Danton • Archibald Dumont • Angela Franklin • Isis • Ivan • Thorveldt Jarrow • James T. Kirk • Roberta Lincoln • Amanda Parsons • Gary Seven • Smitty • Spock • Arthur Truman • Changming Weng • Diana Winters
- Referenced only
- Albertson • Jefferson • T. Jones • F. Morris • J. Robert Oppenheimer • J. Ramirez • Montgomery Scott • A. Simpson • S. Stoga • Edward Teller • P. Walker • John Wayne
Starships and vehicles[]
- car
- Referenced only
- USS Enterprise (Constitution-class heavy cruiser)
Locations[]
- Earth (Albuquerque, New Mexico • Chrysler Building • New York City, New York • San Lobos Atomic Research Facility)
- Referenced only
- Delphi Centaurus VI • Korea • London • Moscow • Peking, China
Races and cultures[]
States and organizations[]
- Democratic Party • KBG • NASA • Nazi • Orion Marketing • People's Army • Republican Party • Soviet Union • Swedish underground • United States of America (Military Police • United States Marine Corps • United States Army Air Corps • United States Army Corps of Engineers • United States Atomic Energy Commission)
- Institutes of education
- California Institute of Technology • Cambridge University • MIT • Mao Tse-Tung People's Collective University • Midwestern University • Niels Bohr Teaching Institute • Oxford University • Princeton University • William and Mary College • Yale University
Science and classification[]
- Apollo program • Beta 5 computer • binoculars • communicator • computer • enhanced fusion • elevator • Gemini program • gun • hydrogen bomb • Manhattan Project • Mercury program • printed circuit • Project Hercules • radiation suit • rifle • servo • starship • sub-orbital warhead • telephone • teleport • teleportation unit • television • transistor • transistor radio • typewriter
- Academic disciplines
- advanced electromagnetic theory • advanced speculative physics • applied thermonuclear energy • astrophysics • biology • chemistry • electrical engineering • electronics • experimental chemistry • nuclear fusion • nuclear medicine • nuclear theory • particle physics • physics • quantum engineering • quantum mechanics • thermonuclear integration
Time[]
- 1899 • 1908 • 1918 • 1920 • 1927 • 1929 • 1930 • 1933 • 1934 • 1938 • 1942 • 1944 • 1947 • 1954 • 1956 • 1958 • 1959 • 1961 • 1965 • 1966 • 1967 • April • August • December • January • July • March • November • October • September
Occupations and titles[]
Other references[]
- assignment patch • cactus • doctorate • handshake • History of Women in Science • identification card • immigration • knife • mark 4 energy level • masters • movies • Nobel Prize • presidential election • radiation • romance languages • sleep • Starfleet uniform (2265-2270) • steak • suicide • suma cum laudi • torture • wine • World War II
Appendices[]
Related media[]
- TOS episode & Star Trek 3 novelization: Assignment: Earth – This comic is the first in a spin-off miniseries based on this episode. The first page re-establishes the charters of Gary Seven, Roberta Lincoln and Isis by replaying the closing scene of the episode.
Background[]
- The story's title, "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns", referred to a Hindu scripture that J. Robert Oppenheimer thought of while witnessing the first Manhattan Project nuclear bomb test: “If the radiance of a thousand suns Were to burst at once into the sky That would be like the splendour of the Mighty One... I am become Death, The shatterer of worlds."
- This issue was available in two covers, the same John Byrne artwork either with, or without, cover titles.
- The ten pages of editorial content in this issue include three adverts for other Star Trek comics by IDW: The next issue of the Assignment: Earth miniseries, The Enterprise Experiment, and Mirror Images.
Images[]
Connections[]
| Media featuring Gary Seven | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Episode | Assignment: Earth | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Miniseries | The Peacekeeper • Convergence • The Eugenics Wars • Assignment: Earth | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Novels | Assignment: Eternity • The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, Volume 1 • The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, Volume 2 • From History's Shadow • Elusive Salvation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Short stories | "The Aliens Are Coming!" • "Seven and Seven" • "Assignment: One" • "Rocket Man" • "Time Line" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Comics | "The Peacekeeper, Part One" • "The Peacekeeper, Part Two" • "Split Infinities" • "Future Imperiled" • "Brighter Than a Thousand Suns" • "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" • "My Name Is Legion" • "We Have Met the Enemy..." • "Too Many Presidents" • "Ah-Ha!" • "Medics" • "Hosts" • "1971/4860.2" • "An Unexpected Yesterday" • "Year Five, Issue 11" • "Year Five, Issue 12" • "Year Five, Issue 15" • "Year Five, Issue 16" • "Year Five, Issue 17" • "Year Five, Issue 21" • "Year Five, Issue 22" • "Year Five, Issue 23" • "Year Five, Issue 24" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Timeline[]
- This issue is set in 1968, three months after the TOS episode: "Assignment: Earth".
| Published Order | ||
|---|---|---|
| Previous comic: first comic |
TOS comics (Assignment: Earth) |
Next comic: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow |
| Previous story: Alien Spotlight: Romulans |
Stories by: John Byrne |
Next story: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow |
| Chronological Order | ||
| Previous adventure: From History's Shadow chapters 26, 28-32 |
Memory Beta Chronology | Next adventure: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow |
Publication history[]
- 21 May 2008
- First released by IDW Publishing.
- 4 December 2008
- Collected in the Assignment: Earth miniseries omnibus.
- 28 May 2013
- Collected in The John Byrne Collection hardcover edition.
- 31 December 2015
- Collected in The John Byrne Collection paperback edition.
- 9 November 2017
- Collected in Graphic Novel Collection, Volume 23. (Eaglemoss Collections)
Translations[]
- 31 January 2018
- Collected in the Italian release of Graphic Novel Collection, Volume 23. (RCS MediaGroup)
External link[]
- Brighter Than a Thousand Suns article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.