I was surprised to learn that Safari Joe was planned in the 2011 version of Thundercats. Dan Norton had a concept sketch of him done, which I looked at when trying to come up with this guy. I'm not sure what they were planning exactly, but I hope I can capture an appropriate personality for him.
So without further ado... and because the 2011 was desperately short on Safari Joe. Here's his son.
…...
Jag sat in a dark room. The only light provided came from the holographic screen in front of him.
A young man's distorted face was displayed. "So when are you going to be back?"
Jag shrugged. "I don't know." His black hair was slicked back and cut short. His hands and arms showed numerous scars, both small and large. In contrast to his arms, Jag's face was soft and his eyes wide.
"Not after the whole break I hope."
Jag's expression darkened. "Dad's always disappearing for weeks at a time on these expeditions. I think he wants me to be part of the family tradition, or some crap like that."
The feed froze for a second before snapping back. "-few weeks then?"
"I'll probably be back in a month, but it could be longer," Jag said. "Dad usually takes a month on each expedition. Sometimes they're longer. Much longer."
"You'll be back in time for school to start back up though, right?"
Jag chuckled. "Mom would strangle him in his sleep if he kept me from school to go hunting." He picked up his phone and idly pressed through a few menus. "I don't know why he's always trying to get me to come with him on hunting trips. I don't care about nature or animals."
The feed froze again, it didn't fix itself for a few moments.
Jag narrowed his eyes at the screen, irritation creeping into him.
"-still there?" The boy's face moved again.
Jag checked the map on his phone. Their ship was pretty far from... anywhere really. "Sorry, man. I'm nearly out of range."
"I can … messages right?"
Jag smirked. "Might take them awhile to reach us, but yeah."
They spent the next few minutes trying to hold up a broken conversation before the screen froze for a solid minute. It displayed a disconnected error shortly afterwords.
Jag stepped out into the hallway, and was immediately blinded by the bright lights overhead. He stumbled down the hall to the ship's flight deck.
Only one seat was set up in it. His father didn't need any help with piloting anyways, seeing as he always just left it on autopilot until he arrived.
His father's bald head poked out from over the seat, the overhead lights glinting off of it. He casually sat back, just watching the vastness of space.
Jag looked at his phone one last time. The connection wasn't dead yet, but it was chugging at a painfully slow pace.
"Well it's official," Jag said. "We're in the middle of nowhere."
His father tapped a button along the armrest of his chair. A holographic screen appeared in front of him with a news article displaying a picture of him kneeling beside the corpse of a big alien cat.
'Safari Joe Does It Again!' was printed along the top.
He pointed a finger at the screen. "If I can still read about myself, then we aren't in the middle of nowhere yet."
Jag eyed the articles date. "This was from your last expedition wasn't it?"
"As a matter of fact." Joe grinned. "That was my last kill."
Jag nodded and started to step away, until his father wheeled his chair around to face him. Jag groaned internally but forced a neutral expression when he turned back around.
His father was a large man, far taller and far stronger than Jag was. Joe's jawline formed a near perfect square. The only hair on his head came from a thick mustache. The man's face carried a stern quality to it, even then, when he was merrily chattering about his exploits.
"I spent days tracking that beast down!" He raised his hands up. "Its fangs were this big!"
Jag raised a brow and glanced at the image of the animal. There was enough space between Joe's hands to fit his arm, but the animal's tusks were barely visible.
"It was a crafty predator, evading every trap I laid out for it." Joe pretended to hold a gun, acting like he was looking through a scope. "Ha! But it was only a matter of time before Safari Joe had it in his sights."
"Uh-huh."
"I cornered the beast in a dense thicket," Joe said. "It tried clawing its way out the back of the brush, but it was too thick!"
"Uh-huh."
"Backed into a corner, it had no other options," Joe said. "At the last possible second it leapt from the thicket and smacked my gun clean out of my hands!"
"Uh-huh."
"But I grabbed my knife and-"
Jag studied the flight deck's instruments. He was careful to balance his gaze between looking around and focusing on his father. An ETA countdown eventually caught his eyes.
'Sixty-four hours. Twenty-five minutes.'
"It dragged me across the jungle floor nearly three miles before-"
Three days. I'm going to be listening to this for three days. And then I'll be listening to this while wandering through some backwater.
Jag internally sighed. Why couldn't his father have understood that he just wanted to be home for the summer? There was nothing out there, just a bunch of random planets, with random dumb animals. He could be out with friends, or at home watching television, playing games.
"The full moon overhead, its starving children awaiting their next meal. Me, no weapon, bleeding from my shredded-"
Now he was going to be bored out of his mind for at least a month on some planet that had nothing on it. Nature was pretty, sure. But he knew it would get old in no time at all.
You've seen one tree, you've seen them all.
"The locals were so grateful-"
"Dad?" Jag scratched the back of his head. "It's a little late. I'm gonna turn in."
"Oh." A look of disappointment swept over Joe. "Well, that's alright. We'll have plenty of time to talk about my latest adventures tomorrow!"
Jag sighed as he walked back down the hall to his room.
"...yeah."
The next couple of days passed by slowly. Being cooped up in the ship with nowhere to go was difficult. Jag had some movies to watch and games he could play loaded on his computer, but you can only sit still for so long before needing to do something else.
The only other thing was some kind of simulation room built into the back of the ship. A red circle indicated where a person was supposed to stand when using it.
Jag hoped it could provide some entertainment, and at least the illusion of not being on a cramped space ship. He grabbed a plastic rifle off the wall. It felt and looked like a real one, but it was just for the simulator.
The floor, walls, and ceiling were made up of small gray tiles, with thick black lines separating them. Stepping into the red circle caused a flash of multicolored light to shine from them before dimming back down.
A holographic screen appeared in front of him, displaying the message 'calibrating system'.
'20%'
Jag shuffled uncomfortably.
'52%'
He tapped his foot.
'100%'
The black lines regained their light. It spread to each tile, each one glowing brighter and brighter until they were nearly blinding, before dimming down.
When the intense light faded the tiles were gone. A forest surrounded him.
Jag stood in a grassy clearing. Trees formed an impossibly perfect circle around him. A bright blue sky hung overhead. The illusion wasn't perfect. Jag could tell where the corners of each surface were, due to a slight break in the imagery. But...
Jag closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting the sounds of the forest run through him.
Birds chirped in the distance. Wind rustled the trees.
It was one hell of an improvement over the ship.
Jag was almost ready to say he'd be happy to arrive on that planet, even if it was backwater.
Not literally of course. There was no way he'd tell his father he was happy to be there.
He opened his eyes to a screen floating in front of him. The words 'scenarios and training' were displayed across the top of it.
Two tabs were available to look at. Scenarios showed a list of animals Jag didn't recognize. The other showed a list of different target practice modes.
He went with the first on the list.
A white light appeared across the field. When it faded a single wooden target was left behind. The holographic screen moved to the side and changed to display numerous statistics, shots fired, hits, etc.
He wrapped his finger around the trigger as he raised the gun. A red laser blasted out of the front of it.
"Crap!" Jag accidentally dropped the gun.
Despite seemingly falling in soft grass, the rifle sounded like it clattered against metal.
"Alright. Lets uh... lets try that again."
The plastic weapon had no scope on it, much to his chagrin, so he just did his best to line up the shot with his sight.
With a squeeze of the trigger, a red line traced from the muzzle across the field. The laser burned the air next to the target, missing by a few inches.
Big red letters appeared, forming the word 'MISS'.
Jag didn't let his arms move after firing the shot. Laser weapons had no recoil, so all he had to do was let his aim drift a little to the side.
He squeezed the trigger again.
The laser burned the wooden target, sending an explosion of fire and sparks off of it. Giant flashing letters displayed the word 'DEAD-CENTER'.
Jag laughed at the over-the-top display of firepower. Apparently his father tweaked the simulator to be a little more showy than real life would be. That, or it just came preloaded with over-the-top effects.
"You know, most animals won't sit still for the second shot."
Jag looked back at his father.
The forest still stretched off behind them, however a perfect square was cut into the air itself, the interior of the ship lying just beyond it.
"Yeah, well." Joe looked ahead again, and took aim. "I'd do better with a scope." A few more lasers blasted from the muzzle, searing the target.
The first two hit the edges, the last one was dead center.
"Hmm."
Jag glanced at his father.
Think you can do better?
He could, obviously. That didn't mean he needed to comment on it.
Jag rapidly fired a string of shots. They all clustered around the center of the target, sending a fireworks display worth of pyrotechnics into the air.
Jag smirked at his father, who tilted his head in return.
Joe smirked at his son. "Showing me how its done?" He took the rifle. "Alright."
The system detected Joe when he stepped up, pausing the simulation. Joe's large form blocked Jag's view as he did something with the holographic display.
A second later the simulated wilderness resumed its peaceful sounds, and the display split into two screens; one red, the other blue.
A monotone voice chirped, "Safari Joe. Turn one."
Jag glanced at the blue screen, and saw a readout of statistical information. A laser blasted forward, causing him to flinch.
Joe shoved the rifle in his son's hands. Jag looked at the target, the dead-center message still drifting away.
Jag wasn't sure how long they went back and forth for, but he was grateful for the distraction.
"Are you ready to turn in for the night?" Joe asked. "Or do you think you can turn this game around?"
Joe's stats: accuracy-100% ... shots fired-295 ... dead-center-294 … misses-0
Jag's stats: accuracy-35.6% … shots fired-295 … dead-center-29 … misses 105
Jag scowled. "I would of done better if I could fire more than one shot at a time."
"Son." Joe smirked. "Sometimes you need to hit the target on the first try."
"Whatever..." Jag grumbled.
Joe pressed a button on the screen, and the simulation faded away, revealing the tiles.
The drab gray walls of the ships interior were far more bearable as Jag walked back to his room. He hadn't planned to be in there that long, but he was glad he had. Anything to make time pass faster was appreciated.
He collapsed into his bed. They didn't have much longer before arriving to the planet they'd be hunting on. Despite a touch of excitement creeping into him it didn't take long to fall asleep.