John Byrne's Classic Star Trek Comics From IDW
Comics Veteran's New Stories Set During Original Trek TV Series
May 16, 2009
John Byrne is well known for his work on X-Men, Superman, and his own series Next Men. But what some comics fans may not have known is that Byrne is also a Trekkie, well-versed in Star Trek's imaginary universe.
In 2007, the comics rights to Star Trek were licensed to IDW Publishing. A plethora of Trek titles have followed since, and as part of this minor renaissance, IDW invited John Byrne to write and illustrate a number of unique Star Trek tales.
Romulans, Klingons, and John Byrne
John Byrne's foray into the Star Trek universe began in IDW's Star Trek: Aliens Spotlight series in early 2008. Each Aliens Spotlight comic featured stories about a different iconic Star Trek species, and Byrne took on the Romulans in the issue devoted to them. His story explored events on Romulus leading up to the episode "Balance of Terror" (1966), the Romulans' first TV appearance.
Aliens Spotlight: Romulans is also notable for focusing on the unnamed Romulan commander featured in "Balance of Terror." He was played in that episode by the late Mark Lenard, who would afterward portray Sarek, Spock's father, on television and in a few of the Star Trek movies.
A sequel series to Aliens Spotlight: Romulans soon appeared, allowing Byrne to follow up with the scheming Romulan Praetor and the vengeful son of the Romulan commander killed in battle with Captain Kirk. In Romulans: The Hollow Crown, Byrne revealed how the political machinations between these and other characters led to the brief and improbable Klingon-Romulan alliance.
John Byrne's Gary Seven Star Trek Comics
The 1968 Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth" introduced the character Gary Seven (Robert Lansing). A human living on modern-day Earth, Seven had been trained by benevolent aliens as a kind of intergalactic secret agent.
Star Trek's producers had intended the episode as an unofficial, "back door" pilot for a Star Trek spin-off, having Captain Kirk and crew cross paths with Seven, his shape-shifting cat Isis, and his hapless assistant Roberta Lincoln (Teri Garr).
Though that spin-off never materialized, John Byrne decided to tell the further adventures of Gary Seven in his second series for IDW. In 2008's Assignment: Earth #1–5, Seven and Roberta have another encounter with the U.S.S. Enterprise, and unravel home-grown and alien conspiracies on 1960s and '70s Earth, including a scheme to clone President Nixon.
John Byrne Delves Into the Era of "The Cage"
Star Trek: Crew, Byrne's latest Star Trek series, explores the era leading up to James T. Kirk's five-year mission aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. Byrne centers on "Number One," the unnamed first officer to Captain Christopher Pike. She was played by Majel Barrett Roddenberry, late widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, in "The Cage" (1964), the first Star Trek pilot.
In each issue of the series, John Byrne depicts a separate adventure of Number One, progressing to her assignment on the Enterprise. Those fans looking for a revelation of her real name, however, have so far been disappointed, since her anonymity is a running gag in Byrne's scripts.
What Makes John Byrne's Star Trek Comics Special
Byrne's rendering of familiar Trek faces is far from exact – he himself admits having trouble with likenesses in an interview published in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Intelligence Gathering #4. Yet his energetic, old-school comics style captures the adventurous side of Trek characters well. Original Series-era Klingons and Romulans, in particular, are drawn with sufficient gusto to rehabilitate the more dated aspects of their 1960s character designs.
Indeed, John Byrne's affection for the Original Series' cheesiness is clear, and his vision of Star Trek shows that, at least in comics, the venerable science-fiction franchise doesn't need a 21st-century redesign to stay fun.
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