Great, now I’m going to see “Jonny Quest hentai” in my search stats.
The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest #5
Dark Horse (January, 1997)
COVER ART: John K. Snuder III LETTERER: Tracey Hampton-Munsey DESIGNER: SCott Rice ASSISTANT EDITOR: David Lan EDITOR: Philip Amara “Surd In The Machine” WRITER: Shaun McLaughlin PENCILER: Jim Hall INKERS: Shepherd Hendrix & Jim Hall COLORS: Kell-O Graphics “An Infinite Monkey” WRITER: Craig Boldman ARTIST: Ron Randall COLORIST: Perry McNamee
This new TV series added two things to the Jonny Quest franchise; Questworld, a VR system the Quest Team used for research and relaxation, and Jeremiah Surd, a paralyzed criminal genus who gained access to the system and plotted to use it to not only feel what it’s like to move around again but as part of his quest (no pun intended) for power. In our first tale, Surd invades Questworld and tries to take over the system yet again and seeks to take over NORAD’s missiles. He creates various scenarios to keep them busy by making them think it’s real. However, Jonny is able to see past Surd’s plan and defeats him.
What they got right: As much as I liked them coming up with new foes in the previous story arc, I do like that they’re not only tapping into the new show’s regular villains but old ones, like Vostok, and using Pasha, the man who raised Hadji. It shows they at least were paying attention to the three Jonny Quest cartoons.
What they got wrong: This could have easily been a full-length storyline but instead it’s only slightly over half the book, so we don’t get to see Race fighting Vostok or any of the other scenarios Surd creates outside of peeling them from the group. Also, in the show scene in Questworld was done in computer animation, so that a story involving tricking the team into not realizing they were still logged into the system worked because it looked like the real world, even to the audience, by being done in the regular animation style. Here, the only thing to show they were in Questworld was the outfits everyone was wearing. This is a problem throughout Dark Horse’s comics and they should have found a way to make Questworld look like a VR world even if they couldn’t do computer animated comics in 1997. You’d be amazed how many of Tron‘s computer effects weren’t actually done on a computer, and that was the 1980’s. There were also computer-generated comic one shots done with Iron Man and Batman, so it is possible to make a computerized comic page by ’97. It still makes everyone but Jonny look like an idiot when they keep falling for Questworld’s scenarios since they know they’re in a VR system.
In our second tale, Doctor Quest receives signals from a friend who crashed in an airplane years ago. The team goes to investigate only to find it was a monkey who seems to be learning how to use it, while the other apes in the area seek to protect him, knowing somehow that something important is happening to their fellow primate. The team decides to let things be and see what happens.
What they got right: It’s a cute little story, I suppose. The art is darn good, which is the norm thus far for this comic.
What they got wrong: The story, however, is kind of weak and truncating the Surd story for this feels wrong.
Recommendation: I can’t recommend this as strongly as I did the first few issues, but the first story is still a decent read and the second story isn’t too bad, either. Grab it if you have some extra money or just want to complete the collection.
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