Scooby Apocalypse and Hanna-Barbera Preview Edition #1

From 2016, this preview book gives glimpses into 4 of DC's Hanna-Barbera reboot titles. Readers get a look at the Mystery Inc. gang taking on the hordes of zombie undeed in Scooby Apocalypse. Mark Russell's modern retelling of the greatest stone age family of them all, The Flintstones, are examined as is a Mad Max take on Wacky Races in Wacky Raceland. Finally, the epic team-up of nearly a dozen of Hanna-Barbera's more dramatic properties in the Jeff Parker/Evan 'Doc' Shaner venture Future Quest.

I had already read the entire run of the rebooted Flintstones run that took an innocent family from the time of dinosaurs and gave them 21st century problems such as PTSD and gender equality. It wasn't a bad read. But it lacked the humor and heart of the original 1960s series. 

I don't think I like my Scooby-Doo to be so gosh darn violent. If you took the original gang with their yuks and silly montages of being chased through a haunted house and placed it all in the middle of The Walking Dead, I would be okay with it. But again, this book is missing the retro humor which makes reading Scooby-Doo comics a guilty pleasure for me.

Wacky Raceland looks fun. Maybe it's because I don't have cemented fond memories of that series like I do with the Flintstones and Scooby-Doo. Or maybe it's a cartoon show that was destined for a gritty reboot that seems to have no rules. Regardless, I really want to read it. 

Future Quest is a series I've been collecting. Yet I've not been able to find those missing issues for the right price. But I am always on the eye for those holdouts every time I make a run at the bargain bins. Plus Shaner and Parker were so nice and inviting when I met them at a panel a few years back. I've got a loyalty towards approachable folks such as they!

I enjoyed this glimpse of titles. But I think my days of owning preview books are over. When  I first started out with my second collection of books, freebies such as these were a great way to boost my long boxes while giving me affordable looks at potential series I would want to use my hard earned cash for. Now that I have over 11,000 comics, storage room is at a premium and I think newer, younger readers would benefit more from titles such as this one.

Worth Consuming! 

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Adam Strange/Future Quest Special #1

In this story, after a Zeta Beam malfunction, Adam Strange is sent back to earth. Only this is unlike any earth that the space travel has ever known. On this parallel earth, there is no Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman. But there is a daring young boy named Jonny Quest who just might have the means to get Adam back to his universe. 

Then in the back-up feature, that sly feline Top Cat is detained by the Batman. Here, Top details how a talking cat wound up in Gotham City. 

Both stories were quite good but the Jonny Quest story was better. It takes place almost immediately after the end of Future Quest. I've not read all of that story yet. Thankfully, this book really doesn't spoil too much so I still have the rest of that amazing miniseries to finish someday. This book also takes place right after the Death of Hawkman mini. I hadn't been keeping up with that, so any spoilers revealed that might ruin reading that book, I am unaware of at this point.

Top Cat's story was very interesting. I didn't so much get the feel that it's going to inspire a sequel like the Jetsons reboot has in the pages of the Booster Gold/ Flintstones special. But the seamless blending of cartoon funny animals with the gritty DC Universe has led me to believe that this was in some way the inspiration for Tom King's brilliant crossover of the Dark Knight and Elmer Fudd.

When this book debuted in March there really wasn't a lot of press. This Hanna-Barbera reboot crossover was a underrated delight to read. Marc Andreyko's ability to blend the worlds of Adam Strange and Jonny Quest was masterfully done and I thought the art in both stories was quite exceptional. Phil Winslade and Steve Lieber do great jobs on their persepective tales. But look at this cover by Evan 'Doc' Shaner. Wow- that's great stuff. I wish he had done the Future Quest story inside as he was the main artist on that project and did a kick-ass job.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Future Quest #1 (Family Comic Friday)

  Normally when I review a book for Family Comic Friday, I make as many attempts as possible to find an all-ages rated book. However, this week, I decided to review a comic that was based on something from the 70s that would have been all-agesback in the day, but in it's rebooted form is now considered rated for readers aged teen and up.

    Earlier this year, DC Comics announced that they were releasing 4 new comics based on classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons from the 60s and 70s. The 4 titles were reboots of the Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Wacky Races, and many more animated shows that adults from my generation just adored. Of the reboots, I chose the one that is considered by fans to be the least retooled (and closest to the original source material): Future Quest.

   The comic, being a reasonable facsimile to the original shows of which the characters that star in this series originated, has the crossover of all crossovers. When a series of temporal paradoxes explode over the Florida Everglades, Jonny Quest and his friends investigate. In these portals are characters such as Space Ghost, the Herculoids, Mightor, and many more of your favorite Hanna-Barbera action and sci-fi heroes from years past. But quick on Jonny's heels are the forces of his arch-enemy, Dr. Zin, and they have the tools  to collect the strange beings bleeding over into our universe and the resources to make them an army of unmatchable power!

    The brains behind Future Quest are X-Men: First Class' Jeff Parker, along with Adventures of Superman artist Evan 'Doc' Shaner, and living legend Steve Rude! They did a fantastic job bringing the heroes of my past into the present and made them exciting and new without changing the formula too much. Many reboots of cartoons from the 70s are done tongue-in-cheek or barely resemble the original with updated outfits or modern trends. Here, everybody looks classic but with just that little modern day touch of class and there's one very good reason for this- Darwyn Cooke.

    Just before Darwyn Cooke (Justice League: The New Frontier) passed from his horrible fight with cancer, he developed all of the designs of characters to be used in this book. As it is with all of his works, Cooke was very devoted to nostalgia but he wasn't afraid to change things up when warranted. Even though Darwyn didn't get to personally complete this project, his deft hand is evident in each and every panel.

     I loved this first issue. Was I 100% sure who everyone was or had a complete understanding what was going on? No! But, I liked what I saw and I and very much willing to continue with this series. Of the 4 reboot titles, this one spoke to me the most. There's no goofy Mad Max element or veiled allegory to the economic disparity of poor and the 1% as in Wacky Raceland or retooled The Flintstones. This felt like something that I would be proud to share to the next generation of readers and it's why I shared my review here with you now.

    Speaking of the next generation, this book is rated Teen. Under DC's personal guidelines, the book is recommended for ages 12 and up. But other than a couple of panels of mild violence, there's nothing really objectionable. Sex appeal is at a near zero. The language was extremely tame. The idea of inter-dimensional crossover between universes is perhaps the most grown-up thing in the book. I mean, we are talking about quantum physics here, folks.

    So if your child hands you a copy of Future Quest and asks you to A) buy it or B) read it with them- choose option C and do both! This was a fun trip down memory lane and I am sure that the guest stars that keep popping up over the course of this series will continue to thrill and delight. Who knows, for a Space Ghost Coast to Coast fan like me, I might luck out and get a chance to see my old buddies Borak and Brak!

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 8.5 out of 10.