“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest #10

The Quests keep weird pets.

The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest #10

Dark Horse Comics (July, 1997)

Let me say this before I get into the story reviews: I HATE the layout the comic has taken. The first story concludes next issue while last week’s story finishes in the current issue. It’s a terrible way to tell a story in a comic. It’s made it annoying to read.

The first story finds the Quest team helping Race’s ex/Jessie’s mom investigate an old cave painting that seems to depict cavemen fighting a monster. Using Questworld, the guys enter what they think is a simulation of the time period where they find a wrecked spaceship. Except their bodies are supposed to disappear in the real world.

What they got right: I do like the effect uses for Questworld appearing to become a time portal, although it looked cooler on the inside cover. Still, nice job by the colorist. In general this is a cool story idea….

What they got wrong: …except that Questworld either doesn’t work this way or can’t. Ignoring that somehow they created a time portal (why not? We had it create a doorway to another dimension it could manipulate already…which is still dumber than this story), which shouldn’t be impossible with a virtual reality simulator that connects to the head and implants images while your body lays motionless, how would collecting a few samples allow a VR system to act as a “time window”, much less a portal?

The second tale continues the Ezekiel Rage story, as Race and Benton, unaware of Jessie’s kidnapping, investigates one of Rage’s other centers, where an agent investigating strange happenings is found dead. After they meet up with their contact, Rage himself appears after the escape last issue and pursues the trio but is soon defeated when memories of the man he was and his old friendship with Jonny keep him from killing Dr. Quest.

What they got right: This was a fairly decent Ezekiel Rage story. While he went mad after his wife and daughter were killed after they snuck into one of his missions, there is still a part of the man who became Rage still in there.

What they got wrong: Going back to my earlier complaint, I would have rather seen these two parts either fill one comic or split into two full comics, like (again) the first story arc. I also missed Ezekiel breaking out his “book of Rage” tome (which was really a family album, at least in his first appearance on the show).

Recommendation: I want to recommend it for the second story. The first story should have been saved for next issue. But I looked, and this is the only way to get the series so mildly recommended if you can get issue 9 at the same time. (ooh, that rhymed.)

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