JONNY QUEST

Jonny Quest is an adventurer.

Since he is around 11 years old, he does not really have an occupation but since he is constantly getting involved in adventures of all sorts, the description above is, to me, the most accurate.

To look at him you would not likely see anything different than other boys his age. He is average looking, attractive without being overly so. He has blond hair and a quick smile and has a general look of someone you could trust. He is quite athletic, the result of physical education provided by his family's bodyguard, Race Bannon. And while he is no genius (at least not that we know of) he is pretty sharp and catches onto things quickly.

Quest comes into his adventures through his father, Dr. Benton Quest, a man who is a certified genius who enjoys tremendous knowledge of and interest in a whole range of subjects. Medicine, engineering, biology, botany, marine exploration, so on and so on. You name it, he knows a lot about it. Being such a Renaissance man, Dr. Quest is constantly being called upon by friends, colleagues and very often the U.S. government to help out here and there. When not so busy, he finds plenty of things to take him all over the world.

Traveling with him to all those places is his son, Jonny. Jonny's mother died several years before and Dr. Quest cannot see himself leaving his son behind or in a boarding school so where the father goes, so does the son. And since the father is always finding danger and trouble in the things he gets involved in, so does his son.

Helping both father and son survive is Roger "Race" Bannon, a highly experience intelligence operative who, after Jonny's mother's death, was assigned to be the guardian for the lad. Bannon is an expert at all manner of vehicles from race car driving to speed boats to any type of aircraft. He is an expert in several forms of martial arts and is an expert with firearms. While his intellect is not on the same level as Dr. Quest, he can hold his own in any discussion so is able to explain things to Jonny when it is necessary.

Joining this trio almost from the beginning is Hadji Singh, a young Indian boy about a year older than Jonny. Hadji was an orphan living on the streets of Calcutta when he saved the life of Dr. Quest from the knife attack of a would-be assassin. In thanks for the rescue and to give the boy a chance for a good life, not to mention provide companionship to his son, the elder Quest took Hadji on his ward. Jonny and Hadji became immediate friends and are now closer than brothers.

The four make up what herein I call the Quest team. Wherever they go, if trouble does not find them, one of them will find trouble.

I was lucky enough to discover Jonny Quest and his adventures when I was a tween and was hooked on the show, though it's relative short initial life quickly moved me from interest to annoyance at the repeats. When it came back two decades later, I was, obviously, two decades older and not the least bit interested. The same could be said for the re-reboot a decade after that. It wasn't until I decided to add Quest to this compendium that I went for another look.

This second study showed me that my initial love of the show was justified - it was a lot of exciting fun. My secondary look was not - the "second season" was fun as well. The third season, that in the 90's, was not anywhere as much fun as it seems to spend all its time, especially in the comicbook stories put out during that run, with virtual reality adventure. I mean, I'm watching television so I know it's not real. And it is animated so I know it's really not real. But having the things take place in a fake environment even then, well, triple removed from reality is a bit much.

Still, Quest belongs because he and the Quest team is constantly go up against would-be world rulers or world destroyers. And many of the early tales are just a fun now for me as back when I was a tween (which was long before they started calling it that).