TMC
12-09-2016, 01:13 PM
http://www.avclub.com/article/flintstones-uses-bedrock-foundation-sharp-striking-247141
Who’d have thought that The Flintstones would be one of the smartest comics currently being published? Simultaneously goofy, clever, insightful, and emotional, it’s easily the strongest title of DC Comics’ Hanna-Barbera revival, building on the original cartoon concept in fascinating ways that are consistently surprising. Of the new Hanna-Barbera comics—which also include Scooby Apocalypse, Wacky Raceland, and Future Quest—The Flintstones does the best work channeling the spirit of its source material with a more modern storytelling sensibility. Writer Mark Russell, artist Steve Pugh, and colorist Chris Chuckry are using the town of Bedrock and its inhabitants to offer sharp social and political commentary wrapped in imagination and humor.
This week’s The Flintstones #6 has the town of Bedrock in a panic over an approaching asteroid, and the creative team uses this end-of-the-world scenario to explore how the threat of imminent death brings out the worst in people. Social systems break down when Professor Sargon (modeled after Carl Sagan) calculates that an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth: Violence erupts at the First Church Of Gerald, police officers abandon their duties, and the Bedrock Mall is plunged into chaos as capitalism crumbles. The comic’s creators approach Bedrock as a prehistoric mirror of modern American society, and it’s not hard to find present-day connections in a story that begins with the city announcing its elitism before devolving into a primitive free-for-all when the lives of its citizens are put in danger.
Who’d have thought that The Flintstones would be one of the smartest comics currently being published? Simultaneously goofy, clever, insightful, and emotional, it’s easily the strongest title of DC Comics’ Hanna-Barbera revival, building on the original cartoon concept in fascinating ways that are consistently surprising. Of the new Hanna-Barbera comics—which also include Scooby Apocalypse, Wacky Raceland, and Future Quest—The Flintstones does the best work channeling the spirit of its source material with a more modern storytelling sensibility. Writer Mark Russell, artist Steve Pugh, and colorist Chris Chuckry are using the town of Bedrock and its inhabitants to offer sharp social and political commentary wrapped in imagination and humor.
This week’s The Flintstones #6 has the town of Bedrock in a panic over an approaching asteroid, and the creative team uses this end-of-the-world scenario to explore how the threat of imminent death brings out the worst in people. Social systems break down when Professor Sargon (modeled after Carl Sagan) calculates that an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth: Violence erupts at the First Church Of Gerald, police officers abandon their duties, and the Bedrock Mall is plunged into chaos as capitalism crumbles. The comic’s creators approach Bedrock as a prehistoric mirror of modern American society, and it’s not hard to find present-day connections in a story that begins with the city announcing its elitism before devolving into a primitive free-for-all when the lives of its citizens are put in danger.