Space Ghost, along with his new sidekicks Jonny, Haji and Bandit, continue their battle with Dr. Nightmare halfway across the galaxy on the Nightmare Planet while back on Earth, Jan and Jace help Jonny’s father Dr. Quest bring the boys back home. Space Ghost/Jonny Quest: Space Quest #4 ends the miniseries on a high note, amping up everything from the previous issues of the miniseries, including the action, the visuals and the emotions.
Writer Joe Casey and artist Sebastián Píriz (along with the eye-popping colors of Lorenzo Scaramella) have made the miniseries feel like a great lost Jonny Quest/Space Ghost hour-long crossover that would have had kids totally entranced on a chilly autumn Saturday morning in the 1960s.
All the characters (and there are lots of them) get moments to shine. We get Jonny’s daring and fast wits, Haji’s martial arts skills, Jace’s impulsive brilliance, Dr. Quest’s ability to reduce even the most intimidating military brass to a sputtering mess and Space Ghost’s raw power and ferociousness. Granted, the overall story is pretty simple, with Jonny, Haji and Bandit activating an alien portal, sending them across the galaxy while simultaneously bringing Jan, Jace and Blip to Earth and the resulting chaos that ensues, but being simple doesn’t mean it’s not fun.
The book deftly combines the “science gone mad” adventure of Jonny Quest’s show with the superhero action of Space Ghost. In the course of this issue, we get battles with robotic winged kaiju both in space and on Earth, portals to other dimensions and standoffs with high-tech assassins armed with laser weapons. It’s Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. G. Wells and A. E. Van Vogt all mixed into an exciting tale, with artist Sebastián Píriz instilling every locale with a sense of wonder.
Dynamite
The climax of the book is especially thrilling, as Dr. Quest, Jan and Jace make one last desperate effort to get Jonny, Haji and Bandit back to Earth. You really wonder if it’s going to happen. After all, another miniseries with Jonny and Haji cruising space with Space Ghost wouldn’t be that bad, would it?
Dr. Nightmare is a great villain, the perfect nemesis for Space Ghost, with his bizarre rounded features and his army of titanic mechanical beasts. He’s kind of like a more insane version of Doctor Doom but not as intimidating. He was one of my favorite villains from the original Space Ghost show and it was great seeing him here again.
The one big issue I’ve had with the miniseries is how Race Bannon gets sidelined in the early issues. He basically has a whirlwind fling with an ex-lover while the main story’s going on but thankfully, he returns and gets more to do this issue. I would’ve loved to see him get into some heavy Doc Savage style two-fisted fighting with goons, or maybe even clobber the General giving Dr. Quest a rough time, but at least he was brought back for the finale of the story. Bannon was always my favorite part of the Jonny Quest show. Maybe having two big personalities (Space Ghose being the other) in the miniseries was just too much? Despite that minor gripe, I enjoyed this issue and the entire miniseries and I hope we get another miniseries bringing these heroes together again in the near future.
This issue has it all: robot space kaiju, dimensional portals, and laser pistol-wielding assassins. It blends everything that makes Jonny Quest and Space Ghost so great.
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