Ezekiel Rage


 * This page is for the character. For the episode named after him, see Ezekiel Rage (episode).

"No Earthy force can stop the Will of Rage!"

Ezekiel Rage was one of the major antagonists of the Quest team. He's a former secret agent of the United States government, but he turned on them and all of humanity after a result of getting no help during one of his missions, led to the tragic death of his wife and daughter. As his name implies, he is consumed with rage, bitterness and hatred.

"Ezekiel Rage" is presumably an alias, and his real name is unknown. His first name might be Ezekiel, however, as he was called Zeke by his wife and the government.

Physical appearance
Before the crash, Rage had reddish brown hair and green eyes. After the crash, he has long grey hair and extensive burn scars over his face and body. He later also lost his right arm, which was replaced with a functional prosthetic.

Rage typically wears a dark long coat, black pants, black hat, white mask, and sunglasses.

Personality
Rage started off as a friendly, caring man, until the government he worked for, refused to help him which led to the death of his wife and daughter. This tragedy made him lose his sanity with bitterness, a great hatred towards the world and a lack of trust in people. He is insane when it comes to his schemes to end the world and as he sees it "Bring judgement on the wicked". He allows no one to stand in his way. His only weakness is the hallucinations he has of his daughter, which he mistook Jessie for twice that led to him undoing his plans and turning against his own men.

The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest
Zeke was an agent of the United States government with the code-name "Raven." He had a wife named Abby and a daughter named Karla, but he kept his true occupation a secret from them.

On an assignment in Paniagua, he was caught looking for classified documents. He got away, but ran into his wife and daughter, who had flown in from Miami to see him, as they only believe him to be on a standard business trip as a computer salesman. His daughter wanted to take part in the festivities, but the Paniaguan army spots him, and he fled with his wife and daughter by car.

He requested backup as the "Raven" to save his "hatchlings", but the United States declined to help him escape to prevent an international crisis. Zeke angrily declared that if anything happened to his family, he would hunt the government down like dogs and make them pay dearly. His car went over a cliff and crashed; Zeke survived with extensive burns, but his wife and daughter died.

Bent on revenge against his government and a world perceived corrupt, he took on the name, Ezekiel Rage and the costume of a Dia de los Muertos celebrator, complete with skeletal arm attachment and wide-brimmed hat. He kept a family album called the Book of Rage as his only possession.

He used a combination of religious faith and old intelligence contacts and information to amass power for his apocalyptic plans. He first located a nerve gas and nuclear waste storage facility in New Mexico, intending to use the nerve gas on American citizens. He abducted Dr. Hugo Smallwood after the doctor investigated his appearances, believing him to be a bat creature. The Quests arrived to visit Smallwood and uncovered the plot. Rage tied them up, delusionally believing Jessie Bannon to be his daughter, Karla. Jonny and Jessie fought with him above ground as he prepared a plane. He took off with the two on board, but they escaped with the lone parachute; the plane crashed into a canyon wall. (Ezekiel Rage)

Rage survived, and one of his scientists discovered the Pentium molecule and its substitute, which could destroy the earth's atmosphere. Rage had his followers take over mission control at NASA and boarded a shuttle mission with Dr. Benton Quest and Hadji Singh on board. He hijacked the shuttle and, at an abandoned space station, began manufacturing the molecular substitute, hoping to drop it into the atmosphere from space. Race Bannon and Natasha Rostova arrived and stopped him; the space station crashed into the ocean, but once again Rage survived. (Rage's Burning Wheel)

He observed the test explosion of the nuclear device Big Baby One, and led a team to capture Big Baby Two, another thermonuclear device. He had several copies made and set up at a base at the North Pole to go off in tandem, which would melt the polar ice caps. The Quests discovered his plan, and Jessie, using the power of the Aurora Borealis to appear as his daughter Karla, caused a distraction sufficient for a governmental strike team and Dr. Quest to disable the nukes. Rage escaped vowing revenge. (Future Rage)

Rage hid for some time before following through with his next plan. He first created a gathering place in the Himalayas, then secured a thermonuclear triple warhead; lastly, he seemingly acquired a mechanical right hand. He accosted a 2-mile deep exploration at Meteor Valley State Park, using the deep tunnel to lower the warhead into the earth. He set the timer at seven days and then evacuated to the Himalayan meeting place, announcing to the White House seven days later that the earth would soon end. Dr. Quest and Race scrambled to try and fix the problem, and Dr. Quest granted Jonny access to his time travel program, code-named Rachel. Jonny and Jessie went seven days back to stop Rage from lowering the bomb into the earth's crust. Rage drove the bomb into the time portal and struggled with Jonny and Jessie; he then accidentally drove the bomb through a time portal leading to prehistory. It detonated, killing him and completing a casual loop. (The Edge of Yesterday)

Comic books
Issue nine of the Dark Horse comic book series states that he was recruited from Stanford University in 1974, and paired with Race Bannon on several missions. Jonny knew "Zeke" before he lost his family, although it was such an old memory that Jonny had forgotten it until it was triggered when he was in Questworld. Zeke's wife is named "Jennie" rather than Abby.

Appearances
Due to a scheduling error, his origin episode was aired second. Total appearances: 4.
 * The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest
 * 104. Rage's Burning Wheel
 * 109. Ezekiel Rage
 * 124. Future Rage
 * 221. The Edge of Yesterday

Notes/trivia

 * He is voiced by Michael Bell, although in the episode Rage's Burning Wheel, Bell shares credit with David Ackroyd who also voices Rage in the episode Future Rage, whilst Bell only voices him in the flashback.
 * An early draft for the "writer's bible" for The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest series initially used the name "Argus Grimm" for the character.