Warning: comprises spoilers for Jonny Quest #2!

Jonny Quest lore will get a darkish twist, revealing that the titular hero fought in the Vietnam War. The traditional Jonny Quest cartoon, regardless of being geared toward youngsters, contained darkish undercurrents, particularly in its villains. Yet in Jonny Quest #2, by Dynamite Entertainment, this darkness is taken a step additional, as it’s revealed that an older Jonny was pressured to battle to take part in the Vietnam War.

Jonny Quest #2 was written by Joe Casey and drawn by Sebastian Piriz. Team Quest has been thrust into the yr 2024, and have joined with the Jonny Quest of that point to get house. During a second of downtime, Race and the Jonny of 2024 share a heart-to-heart. Race notices Jonny not calls him “Race,” and asks when he stopped. Matters get heavy as Jonny reveals he stopped calling him Race the day his “number came up” in 1971. According to Jonny, Race instructed him then he not might name him “Race.”

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Jonny’s references to his “number coming up” is a clear allusion to the draft and the Vietnam War. The roots of the battle stretch again to French colonization. Once the nation gained independence, it was break up into two elements: North and South. In time, North Vietnam would enchantment to the Soviet Union and different Eastern Bloc nations for assist. These international locations have been Communist, and at the time, the United States was combating a “Cold War” in opposition to the Soviet Union. As a consequence, the Vietnam War grew to become a proxy conflict, and certainly one of the worst conflicts of the Cold War.

It didn’t finish nicely for the United States, who started engagements in the space in 1955. The Vietnam War 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 folks. Protests in opposition to the War broke out, generally turning violent and even lethal in some circumstances. At the time, the United States nonetheless had necessary army service on the books, in the type of a draft. Functioning as a lottery, younger males have been assigned a quantity. If the quantity got here up, they have been drafted to battle.

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Did Jonny Quest Really Fight in Vietnam?

When Jonny Quest premiered on tv in 1964, the United States was slowly ramping up its involvement in Vietnam. The War was nonetheless not on folks’s minds like it will be simply 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 stored with the tone of the traditional Jonny Quest cartoon, however Jonny’s involvement in Vietnam considerably darkens the lore. That Jonny was drafted, and primarily had no alternative, makes it even worse.

There is a chance, nonetheless, Jonny didn’t battle in the Vietnam War. At the peak of the War, sure males who have been drafted and didn’t wish to battle fled the nation. While these “draft dodgers” have been few and much between, they did exist. Yet, given how unhappy Jonny turns into when he mentions being drafted, it’s greater than probably 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 nicely stem from combating in the Vietnam War.

Jonny Quest #2 is on sale now from Dynamite Entertainment.