They came from Outer Space!
Art By: Evan "Doc" Shaner, Ron Randall, Jonathan Case, Jordie Bellaire and Dave Lanphear
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 6, 2016
*Non-Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
God, I needed to get this book the moment it came out. I'm not saying that the Rebirths haven't been fantastic, far from it, but so far the Hanna-Barbera series that have been released have been a bit disappointing. Scooby Apocalypse promised a fresh new take on good old Mystery Inc., but I feel like in it's attempt to be new, it lost a little bit of the fun. Wacky Raceland... Well, the less said about that first issue the better. That being said, Future Quest had a fantastic first issue with some great art and fun. The moment I put down the first issue, I looked up when the second comes out, and today's the day!
Last time we left our heroes, Jonny and Hadji were staring into the glowing fist of Space Ghost while running from the evil organization F.E.A.R., who have been abducting objects that have been falling out of portals that have been appearing all over the Florida Everglades. So how did Space Ghost get here? Will he destroy the Quests? Let's dive in and find out!
We open up in a very action-packed flashback on the planet Amzot, where the Herculoids are trying to repel the same beast, known as Omnikron from the opening to issue one. While Tundro and Igoo are able to take down one of the beasts heads, one of its tentacles tries to crush Zandor and Dorno. Gloop stretches and grabs the tentacle before it could crush his friends, but then we see what Omnikron plans to do with the Herculoids: ASSIMILATE WITH THEM! However before the Omnikron can become one with them, Space Ghost comes flying in leading his team along with the Galaxy Trio into battle, helping blast the beast. While it looks like they're getting somewhere, Omnikron begins glowing like he did in the first issue against the discount Green Lantern Corp. The Galaxy Trio is the first absorbed, then the rest of the beast Herculoids, then Space Ghost and his ship, and finally Tarra and Xan flying in the last ditch attempt to save all their friends.... HOT DAMN WHAT AN OPENING!We return to the present to find Jonny and Haji standing against Space Ghost, but before he destroys them, he senses his sidekicks, Jan and Jace, somewhere nearby. He teleports away, apparently keeping Omnikron inside him, and it confuses the Quest boys as well as me... but we have no time for that because they found the thing that was streaking across the sky: Space Ghost's ship! When the boys explore it, they find Jan and are attacked by Blip before Hadji can defuse the monkey.
As they are getting Jan out of there, F.E.A.R. surrounds them, demanding the Quest boys to hand over the 'aliens' before someone gets hurt. If only the boys had some badass caretaker... Oh wait, they do! Race comes swinging in on a vine, firing on the minions as the Boys get Jan and Blip out of there. Before they get too far, a Spider Drone from the last issue finds them, but before they are captured, Birdman swoops in and destroys it with a fiery blast. It looks epic as hell, while still capturing the feel of the classic cartoons. It's so awesome! F.E.A.R. quickly gets the drop on them, but thanks to the sudden arrival of Sumadi and Dr. Quest, the kids are safely evacuated as F.E.A.R. falls back and recaptures the ship.
The issue ends with the team reconvening at the Quest Lab to figure out how to track these vortexes before they open, as F.E.A.R. finds Jace and brings him back to the base. Knowing that the Quest Family and their allies will be trouble, Dr. Zin decides to send a very special agent against them. Who is it? Well, I can't spill everything now, can I?
The issue ends with the team reconvening at the Quest Lab to figure out how to track these vortexes before they open, as F.E.A.R. finds Jace and brings him back to the base. Knowing that the Quest Family and their allies will be trouble, Dr. Zin decides to send a very special agent against them. Who is it? Well, I can't spill everything now, can I?
Bits and Pieces:
Future Quest continues to impress as not only do we get more understanding of how our heroes are finding one another but now some friggin' sweet action sequences to boot. Evan "Doc" Shaner continues to impress when it comes to art, creating pages full of nostalgic fun and badassary. It's the best of the Hanna-Barbera series, and it makes me want more the moment I finished reading.
8.5/10
You mention Shaner in your ending...what about the rest of the art team? Weak!
ReplyDeleteYeah, thats my bad. The whole team has been top notch, but in my defense, when i was writing up the top bit, DC's site only mentions Shaner as the artist
DeleteWho's Jace? Kept trying to figure out who the the invisible guy that FEAR took was. Very fun read by the way!
ReplyDeletethe invisible boy is Jace, one of Space Ghost's sidekicks. The quests have the other
DeleteThat needless female member they put in the my all-time favourites Impossibles is obviously there to please some PC extremists at DC rather than Impossibles fans - she will spoil the interaction between the original members and take attention from them - already is on the covers where she appears - my fave Multi Man looks particularly pushed out by her! (I don't like that his costume is changed, either). I really think they should have just made them more realistic looking for this and left it at that. Their story style is different from the other characters, too, and should stay that way so I'd say there should be minimal interaction - just enough to make use of their powers. And changing Buzz Conroy's ethnicity seems like another PC move - but can you imagine the complaints, (which I would fully agree with),if Hadji was portrayed as European? Shame as it looks a great story, (even though I'm not a great cross-overs fan), I always liked Jonny Quest,lovely artwork - great creative team! and, if the Impossibles hadn't been changed beyond looking more realistic, I'd have subscribed at twice the price!
ReplyDeleteGreat comic, love every second. Having Jan be part of team Quest is genius.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Space Ghost actually came through to Earth. My read was that he was addressing the Omnikron and the boys thought that his image was addressing them.
My only concern is that they seemed to introduce a bunch of characters only to have most of them die at the hands of the Omnikron.