Future Quest Volume 1

Future Quest, Vol. 1 by Jeff Parker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Omnikron scours time and space, absorbing anything it comes into contact with. Its next target: Earth. Standing in its way Johnny Quest and the assembled might of all the Hanna-Barbera characters! Well, eventually...

As a child of the late 1970s, I have hazy memories of a lot of Hanna-Barbera characters. My mom assures me I watched Johnny Quest on Saturday mornings and I have vague memories of Space Ghost, the Herculoids, and the Galaxy Trio. One of St. Louis' UHF stations had Birdman on at the ass crack of dawn during my teens. When I saw this being hyped, with Jeff Parker and Doc Shaner at the helm, how could I pass it up?

Well, I managed to for a couple years at least. So many comics, so little time, etc.

Anyway, this reads like Crisis on Infinite Earths + New Frontier for the Hanna-Barbera characters. This volume is mostly setup and is very new reader friendly. It served as a refresher course for the characters I knew and brought me up to speed on the ones never heard of, like Frankenstein Junior, Mightor, and The Impossibles. I have to think most of the pieces are on the board at this point: Dr. Zin, Jezebel Jade, FEAR, the Omnikron, Space Ghost, the Herculoids, The Impossibles, and what I'm calling the Quest Coalition.

Jeff Parker's writing reminds me of his work on Batman '66 or a Pixar movie. It's geared toward the younger set but has enough big concepts and humor to keep adults engaged, just what I was looking for on a dreary winter afternoon. The Hanna-Barbara characters are familiar but very fresh and underexposed, making this a notch above most super hero crossovers that ultimately don't amount to much. These characters haven't been merchandised to death like most of DC's line so there's a sense of danger since theoretically anyone could die at any time.

The assembled team of artists is almost as mighty as the Omnikron itself: Doc Shaner, Karl Kesel, and Steve FUCKING Rude, along with several others. The art has a retro yet modern feel and should appeal to Darwyn Cooke fans. There's also an afterword by Jeff Parker that talks about the project's genesis during some brainstorming with Darwyn Cooke before he passed.

Now that all the pieces are on the board, I'm ready for more Future Quest! Four out of five space monkeys.




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