Warning: comprises spoilers for Jonny Quest #2!
Jonny Quest lore will get a darkish twist, revealing that the titular hero fought within the Vietnam Battle. The basic Jonny Quest cartoon, regardless of being aimed toward youngsters, contained darkish undercurrents, specifically in its villains. But in Jonny Quest #2, by Dynamite Leisure, this darkness is taken a step additional, as it’s revealed that an older Jonny was pressured to battle to take part within the Vietnam Battle.
Jonny Quest #2 was written by Joe Casey and drawn by Sebastian Piriz. Workforce Quest has been thrust into the 12 months 2024, and have joined with the Jonny Quest of that point to get dwelling. Throughout a second of downtime, Race and the Jonny of 2024 share a heart-to-heart. Race notices Jonny now not calls him “Race,” and asks when he stopped. Issues get heavy as Jonny reveals he stopped calling him Race the day his “quantity got here up” in 1971. In keeping with Jonny, Race instructed him then he now not might name him “Race.”
Jonny Quest Has Simply Bumped Up Towards a Actual World Occasion
Jonny Quest Debuted on the Eve of Nice Social Unrest
Jonny’s references to his “quantity arising” is a transparent allusion to the draft and the Vietnam Battle. The roots of the battle stretch again to French colonization. As soon as the nation gained independence, it was break up into two components: North and South. In time, North Vietnam would attraction to the Soviet Union and different Japanese Bloc nations for assist. These international locations had been Communist, and on the time, the US was combating a “Chilly Battle” towards the Soviet Union. Because of this, the Vietnam Battle turned a proxy battle, and one of many worst conflicts of the Chilly Battle.
It didn’t finish effectively for the US, who started engagements within the space in 1955. The Vietnam Battle stretched on till the Fall of Saigon in 1975, and by the late Sixties, had grow to be extremely unpopular with segments of the American individuals. Protests towards the Battle broke out, generally turning violent and even lethal in some instances. On the time, the US nonetheless had obligatory army service on the books, within the type of a draft. Functioning as a lottery, younger males had been assigned a quantity. If the quantity got here up, they had been drafted to battle.
For the First Time, Jonny Quest is Partaking With the Actual World
Did Jonny Quest Actually Battle in Vietnam?
When Jonny Quest premiered on tv in 1964, the US was slowly ramping up its involvement in Vietnam. The Battle was nonetheless not on individuals’s minds like it will be only a few years later. Jonny Quest’s single season didn’t contact on the sociopolitical local weather of its time, nor did it final lengthy sufficient to take action. Casey and Piriz have largely saved with the tone of the basic Jonny Quest cartoon, however Jonny’s involvement in Vietnam considerably darkens the lore. That Jonny was drafted, and basically had no alternative, makes it even worse.
There’s a risk, nevertheless, Jonny didn’t battle within the Vietnam Battle. On the top of the Battle, sure males who had been drafted and didn’t wish to battle fled the nation. Whereas these “draft dodgers” had been few and much between, they did exist. But, given how unhappy Jonny turns into when he mentions being drafted, it’s greater than possible he went to Vietnam and have become a soldier. The Jonny Quest of 2024 is a damaged and lonely man, and a few of his trauma might very effectively stem from combating within the Vietnam Battle.
Jonny Quest #2 is on sale now from Dynamite Leisure.
