That's Yun with Goldruff, right?
Because if we're looking at updated profiles... Yun's is incorrect, still.
https://elfquest.com/yun/
Yun is the only known child of Skywise. However, her heart is as big as the sense of adventure she inherited, and she ended up adopting the orphaned-human cub, Khorbasi and raising him as her own.So, this is interesting... how my view is different than everyone else's.
Let me start by saying, nothing is going to compare to the Original Quest.
Nothing.
To date, that's some of my favorite comic book story telling in ALL of comics (including Marvel, DC, Image, etc).
That said, Siege and Kings were great - but even there, I didn't care for the toothpick look Wendy went with for everyone. Everyone was suddenly super bone thin. But, I still enjoyed it. I think she was trying to evolve the character's appearances from the 70's bell bottom looks some had (namely Cutter) originally.
The stuff that followed, was... OK. Some good, some bad. A lot of the "contracted work" I didn't care for - not because it wasn't Wendy, but because it didn't feel like ElfQuest - whether that was Jink, Rebels, Wild Hunt - even some of the ElfQuest specific stuff felt off to me - like Kahvi, Two-Spear, Rogue's Curse, etc.
Then Final Quest comes along.
Pretty much the entire time - the entire time - I complained. Every issue, I was more frustrated than the last. But I hung on, waiting for that great reveal.
That great reveal was Cutter's demise (not in a heroic way, mind you) - which, already bothered me. I hate Pulp Fiction because you had a main character shot on the toilet. (Yes, I get that movie has a ton of fans. I am not one of them). Then the Cutter/Timmain soul thing.
That nearly broke the camel's back for me.
It cheapened everything - EVERYTHING - about Cutter to me.
It utterly ruined Cutter. Forever. FOR. EVER.
That to me was similar to Vader in Return of the Jedi. I felt compassion towards Vader, despite the evil we'd heard about, when Luke takes off his mask, and he had tried to redeem himself by destroying the Emperor.
Then episode III comes out - and we see him essentially murder children.
His redemption in Return of the Jedi was ruined. Because then all I could think was he was a child killer. And that's unforgivable.
But Stargazer's Hunt is announced and I say, "It's ElfQuest. I've collected it all my life."
Issue
#1 comes out, I scream, shout, yell, everyone is bone thin, art looks weird. Story isn't interesting. More lame twists.
Issue
#2 comes out - OK, this seems better than the first issue. More enjoyable. Getting some character moments here.
Issue
#3 comes out - I find myself enjoying it. Not kidding. I still can't stand Jink. The entire notion that she becomes this futuristic character. Had I no idea of what she becomes, I'd probably more invested in her. However, knowing that she becomes a futuristic character - I also know nothing is going to happen to her. She won't get killed or die, or else that breaks... whatever ElfQuest considers a "time stream." Skywise bailing on Jink, not a surprising move. People claim "oh, nice, father of the year" - but the Wolfriders led short lives, back in the day. It probably was not uncommon that someone else raise someone's child because parents perish. And it's not like Skywise was leaving her in a dangerous situation. She was in the Palace. Safest place in the universe in his eyes. And time being whatever it is in ElfQuest, he probably thought he could make his way back easily.
Now, what I don't get is exactly why he left. That reasoning seems unclear - I mean, I get why. But I don't get what he hoped to accomplish. If Jink can just "teleport" to Goldgruff - why couldn't Skywise teleport to where ever he was going - rather than going the long route - so that he'd need a Preserver to wrap him up? That part eludes me.
And then someone in this thread mentioned Jink was the only character showing nipples all the time. And I had to go back and look. I was like, "How did I - as a dude - miss nipples?" lol Because all I ever see is Timmain barely being covered. And I only found one place where Jink's "nipples" are "visible" - and it's one panel - and I had to strain to see it - it wasn't blatantly obvious to me. Clearly, since I missed it (it's the panel before we see Goldruff rubbing his arms).
I don't get the copy and paste references folks have mentioned? I get the idea of copy and paste, but I am not recognizing where that's happening?
Is it great? No. But it's miles better to me, both art and story, in this issue - than any given issue of Final Quest. And maybe I am just thankful for that.
Although the wiped memory thing is becoming a troupe. It happened a few months back in a recent issue of New Mutants too.
My actual main annoyance is Goldruff - and not his name (I may be typoing it, don't care to check) - and Yun. These two bare too much of a resemblance to Cutter and Skywise (for obvious reasons) - but it just looks like they're preparing to write the "Goldruff & Yun Adventures" of ElfQuest to replace Cutter and Skywise with their children who bare a very, very, very strong resemblance to them. Like why couldn't Goldruff have Leetah's skin tone? Or her hair color? Instead of being a Cutter-clone. And Yun, with the Skywise head band rather than the old cloth headband she used to wear. Ugh.