[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Writer: Jeff Parker
Artist and Inker: Ariel Olivetti
Summary
Dr. Quest is in one place. Bannon is in another. The kids are left behind with Jan and her faithful Monkey. Birdman and Mi-tor are fighting a something or other. The boy band turned Superhero team, The Impossibles, are protecting Space Ghost from something eerily similar. There are multiple thingies in multiple places. No one know what is going on. Luckily, Jan explains it thusly:
“No one’s OK. I remember now. Omnikron destroys whole worlds-it makes all living things become part of its body and leaves each planet a lifeless husk. A group of interplanetary protectors called the Space Force gave their lives stopping it in my solar system. They drove it into a deep chasm, but there was life down there no one knew about. Omnikron absorbed the organisms for years, rebuilding itself.”
So, there you go. That is what is going on. Don’t touch it. It kills everything. Space Ghost is the last of the Space Force. Yikes.  Wait. Oh yeah. Birdman and Mi-tor fly into the time/space rift created by the Omnikron and find the Hurculoids. Did you forget about them? Well, they are back now. Yep.
Positives
Ariel Olivetti is so good. In fact, he is great. This book is so sharp. The previous books have had that old timey TV cartoon feel, which totally worked for this book, but this issue is hard. The characters are still recognizable. The story is still chugging along but this is the first time in the entire series where it felt like these characters are in a modern day comic book. Olivetti did his own inks so he knew exactly what he wanted. Every shade is in the perfect place. Every skin tone or hair color is just how he imagined it. It works so well. I finally feel like I get why Birdman is formidable or why Bannon is such a badass. What I loved about the previous issues is gone, but it is OK because Olivetti makes every character and situation seem real. I get that nothing about this book is real, but it feels that way. If I were living on this earth and this stuff was happening, this is what it would look like on the news.
I normally do not spend a lot of time on the cover in my reviews, but seriously, that cover is amazing.
Negatives
While last issue made it feel like the story was coming together, this issue feels a lot more strung out. I am still waiting for Space Ghost to do something amazing, but I get why he can not right now. Still, there are too many panels of too many things. There is a scene at F.E.A.R., The kids, The Impossibles,  Birdman and Mi-tor, now with the Hurculoids, and Bannon’s plane.
Each aspect of the story has something specific happening. I am not opposed to that if the stories have time to develop, but the book is just not long enough to have all of that going on. It is like I am watching TV with an overactive five-year-old who has a death grip on the remote. It is not as fun as it sounds or it is just as much fun as it sounds depending on whether or not you think that is fun.
Verdict
I have a feeling this book is coming to a conclusion and I think that will be a good idea. I like seeing all these characters and I am not opposed to Future Quest continuing on as mash up one shots. Imagine Johnny Quest and Mi-tor in one 23-page book and then Space Ghost and The Impossibles in another the following month. With all of the chaos, Olivetti saves this issue. He is spectacular.
