Future Quest was a limited series published DC Comics that involve the various action-based heroes created by Hanna-Barbera and is part of the Hanna-Barbera Beyond initiative.
A mysterious series of alien incursions is happening on Earth, and it's concerning Dr. Benton Quest, especially when this is getting the attention of his arch-nemesis Dr. Zin and the terrorist organization F.E.A.R. However, as Team Quest soon starts to realize, this may be bigger than initially thought, an adventure that's going to bring in a whole lot of heroes to contain them.
Series involved in this crossover include
Future Quest features examples of:
- Adaptational Backstory Change: Frankenstein Jr. is no longer the sole creation of Buzz Conroy, but was mostly made by his mother, Dr. Linda Conroy, who initially oversaw his use of the robot to save people.
- Affirmative-Action Legacy: The new Mighty Mightor is shown to be African-American (starting out as a Tagalong Kid who rescues Jonny and Hadji).
- Art Shift: Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles were redesigned to unify the comic's art style. Frankenstein Jr. actually goes through this in-universe— he starts out looking like his original cartoon self, but is later rebuilt in a way that fits more with the comic's aesthetic.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Dr. Zin and F.E.A.R.
- Big Damn Heroes: Ty, who rescues Jonny and Hadji on his airboat.
- Composite Character: It's revealed that Falcon 7 is an Invented Individual; Deva Sumadi is the real leader of Inter-Nation, as well as the person The Impossibles answer too "Big D".
- Canon Foreigner: The Impossibles have a woman as the fourth member of their team, whereas the original cartoon just had an all-male trio.
- Crisis Crossover: Between Hanna-Barbera's various action and adventure cartoons.
- Downer Beginning: We watch as the man who would become Space Ghost is the last survivor of a galactic space team who stopped an incursion through a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: The Galaxy Trio is (allegedly) killed during the Downer Beginning, their only appearances on-screen at all being in "casualty" information and an "In Memoriam" hologram in the epilogue.
- Eldritch Abomination: Omnikron, an interdimensional Blob Monster that wants to absorb all life in the universe into itself.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Once Dr. Zin realizes that Omnikron is beyond his control and is likely to destroy the world, he teams up with Dr. Quest to help stop it.
- Genetic Abomination: While Omnikron's origins are a mystery, one theory is that it was created in a lab, the comic book panel showing an alien scientist that looks a lot like Brak creating something in a test-tube, only for his ship to crashland and the creature bonding with the local wildlife.
- Given Name Reveal: It turns out Dr. Zin's first name is Archimedes — or "Archie," to people who knew him before his Face–Heel Turn, like Dr. Quest and Dr. Conroy.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Omnikron.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: A major factor in Omnikron's defeat is the power of its disembodied mind empowering a human champion in the form of Mightor.
- Humans Are Special: Space Ghost — who's had the most experience fighting Omnikron — genuinely believes that Earth has a better chance at fighting it than other planets before it because humanity doesn't have the option to flee into space like other invaded worlds, meaning humanity will give it their all to fight them off. He's right, Earth's heroes managing to destroy it once and for all.
- Humongous Mecha: Frankenstein Jr. is upgraded into one, appropriately nicknamed Gargantua.
- The Immune: Omnikron absorbs all biomass it touches. Because of this, anyone who isn't organic is immune to its deadly touch, including Igoo (a Rock Monster), Frankenstein Jr. (a robot) and The Impossibles (their mutations making their cells more alloy than carbon).
- Killed Off for Real: The Galaxy Trio (maybe) and Tundro.
- Legacy Character: A young African American boy named Ty in the present day discovers Mightor's magic club and inherits his powers, becoming the new Mightor.
- Lighter and Softer: Space Ghost's new origin, while still rather dark and dramatic, is significantly lighter than his 2005 miniseries origin. Which involved the death of his wife and unborn child spurring him on a quest for revenge.
- Mentor Archetype: Birdman unwittingly takes this role for The Impossibles and the new Mightor to help them harness their powers.
- Mythology Gag:
- In the prologue, the unnamed captain who will become Space Ghost is wearing a uniform identical to what Jan and Jace wore during the original series, and is given his signature powerbands by a general who looks identical to the person who gave Space Ghost his equipment in the 2005 comic-book miniseries.
- Zin's spiderbots appear identical to the ones from the Jonny Quest episode "The Robot Spy". It turns out he stole the design from Dr. Conroy. She's understandably annoyed.
- The signature "BIRDMAN!" scream appears as onomatopoeia when he transforms.
- The portal that Jonny and Hadji look through appears to use stock art from the original shows; one of the portals also show what looks like Shazzan.
- Todd from Dino Boy is given the last name of "Messick", and it's Dr. Quest who recognizes him; Quest was voiced for a long time by Don Messick.
- One of the possible origins posed for Omnikron proposes it was created in a lab and spread from a crashed starship; Brak is seen Emerging from the Shadows creating it in a beaker.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Herculoids arrive just as Frankenstein Jr. begins to engage Omnikron, and Tara orders them to attack the former, believing it to be the threat. Frankenstein Jr. is heavily damaged, Johnny, Hadji, Buzz and Jan are almost killed, and Omnikron escapes.
- Only in Florida: As it turns out, the reason Dr. Quest set up shop in Palm Key was because it was the most regular incursion site for the interdimensional portals.
- The Pardon: Discussed. Dr. Quest believes Dr. Zin has a chance to get one for his role in Omnikron's defeat.
- Police Are Useless: They ignore people telling them to retreat from a gibbering horror, fire uselessly at it, and ultimately becomes consumed and added to its mass.
- The Power of the Sun: Birdman, naturally. Here, though, he's shown to be given that power by the Egyptian Sun God, Ra.
- Race Lift: "Big D", the Impossibles' secretive superior, is now a South Asian woman named Deva Sumadi. She also turns out to be Falcon-7, with the one-eyed blonde man being a computer simulation.
- Raptor Attack: Scaly dromaeosaurs appear in Mightor's time. They are, however, called Deinonychus instead of Velociraptor.
- Retcon: In the original cartoon, Tor was freely gifted his mighty powers by an ancient hermit after saving him. Here, Omnikron's attempt to invade Earth in that era led to Tor accidentally stealing a portion of his power and using it to fight off the monsters that made up its invasion force.
- Revisiting the Roots: The Hanna-Barbera action hero lineupnote has spent many more years as parodies of themselves than they spent as actual action heroes. This comic is possibly the most notable return to the characters' original premises in over two decades.
- As a result of those parodies, some of the characters who really became weird in those shows are Out of Focus in Future Quest. This is most notable with Falcon 7 from Birdman since his Harvey Birdman version, Phil Ken Sebben, became a cult classic character in his own right (mainly thanks to Stephen Colbert's portrayal). A lot of his role is instead transferred to new character Deva Sumadi although we later find out that she's actually an old character—"Big D", the boss of The Impossibles. And at the very end, we learn that she's Falcon 7 as well, and that the mustached face we all know is a computer-generated cover for her.
- Shared Universe: The action heroes all live in the same universe, but in different time periods, with Space Ghost, the Herculoids, and the Galaxy Trio hailing from the future, and the original Mightor living in the Stone Age.
- Spider Tank: Zin drops two into Palm Key in order to retrieve the extradimensional sample. Eliminating the Quest family was just a bonus. They're based on the titular device from the Jonny Quest episode "The Robot Spy".
- We Used to Be Friends: It turns out that Archimedes Zin was once a legitimate scientist on good terms with Benton Quest and Dr. Conroy, but did a Face–Heel Turn after falling in with F.E.A.R. Dr. Conroy even refers to him as "Archie."
