“Look, they retconned mom back to life again!”
Jonny Quest Free Comic Book Day
Dynamite Entertainment (2024)
Three comic previews. In addition to the title one.
“Jonny Quest #0″
WRITER: Joe Casey | ARTIST: Sebastián Piriz | COLORIST: Lorenzo Scaramella | LETTERER: Taylor Eposito | EDITOR: Matt Idelson
“ThunderCats #1”
WRITER: Declan Shalvey | ARTIST: Drew Moss | COLORISTS: Chiara Di Francia & Martina Pignedoli | LETTERER: Jeff Eckleberry | EDITOR: Nate Crosby
“Space Ghost #1”
WRITER: David Pepose | ARTIST: Jonathan Lau | COLORIST: Andrew Dalhouse | LETTERER: Taylor Esposito | EDITOR: Joseph Rybrandt
The first story sets Team Quest in the original show’s time period of 1964. Frankly I wouldn’t have minded a modern day story. I actually liked the 1986 show and the TV movies even if I am in the minority. I do like that they did go with the classic version of the characters. While The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest was a good show and not a bad reboot, it’s not the iconic depiction. At any rate, a storm strikes one of Doctor Quest’s new inventions that they were testing, not expecting rough seas in the area they were testing. After the storm ends they return home, only to be attacked by security systems they didn’t set up, a version of their boat in decay, and unknowingly being watched by someone with a lot of monitors.
Yeah, it’s obviously going to be a time travel story. The art is close enough to the show to satisfy and the voices are accurate. The dialog does give you an idea of who is saying what, though I had to backtrack in my head a couple of times. Overall it’s an okay story, but I like my Free Comic Book Day stories self-contained. This is just leading into the first issue.
“Arrival” is our ThunderCats tale, a preview for the first issue. The new character designs resemble the original cast but the artist isn’t trying to match the art style. Wilykit’s new design could grow on me but I’m not a fan of Tigra’s new “mustache”. Otherwise, it’s just Lion-O reminding us of the plot, so at least they’re going with the original show…but someone in shadow has found Third Earth. That’s the second time, comic. Please don’t make it three in a row. The person in shadows can be overdone and if that’s your entire plot element for these nostalgia comics it isn’t going to impress.
“The Ghost Rises” is our Space Ghost story. Jan and Jayce are younger than they were in the show, but still older than in the last Space Ghost origin comic I reviewed. Tansit kills their father rather brutally as they search for some prototype, which given that Blip is supposed to be “more special than you know”, I’m guessing he’s it. They make him a regular monkey rather than the space monkey from the show. We don’t get to see Space Ghost, since he attacks while invisible. (Should I count this as “someone in the shadows” since he’s really on inviso-power?) Why do they keep making darker takes on a kids show superhero? I’m getting tired of this.
Jonny Quest at least was a prime time cartoon originally, so I can accept if they’re going more “adult”, and ThunderCats could work targeting an older audience, but Space Ghost feels wrong with a darker tone. In the end Jonny Quest is the only one that interests me, while ThunderCats I’m mildly curious about. I already don’t see what I enjoy out of a Space Ghost adventure in this preview. Overall, though, I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to get any of them. This is like the opposite of last week’s Gatchaman preview.
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