REVIEW: M.A.S.K #1-6

Script: Michael Fleisher Art: Curt Swan, Kurt Schaffenberger Letters: John Costanza Colors: Bob Le Rose Review: Cody “Madman” Miller

Holy dollar box score, Batman! I found this gem in the first dollar box I pawed through at this years Kokomo-Con in Kokomo, Indiana. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Why, oh why, would anyone banish such a historic treasure to the comic book graveyard? That’s borderline heresy right there. The man responsible should be ashamed of himself . . . equating the value of this sacred relic with that of a McDonalds “cheeseburger”. For shame! It all worked out for the better though as I did my civic duty to comicdom, rescued this bit of my childhood, and secured it in the bag and board it deserves. This comic was my favorite score of the year as far as old n’ moldy goes. The cover is amazing complete with an automatic flashback of hours of rug-burns playing with my MASK toys and watching the cartoon way back in my humble beginnings. For me MASK and G.I Joe toys were the thing to have. Yeah, Transformers were cool, but robots didn’t become interesting until Terminator. Mask toys could “morph” kind of like the Transformers except instead of robots turning into vehicles, the vehicles transformed into war machines hell bent on protecting the great state of Nevada as well as the world from the terrorist organization known as Venom. Smack dab in the center of the cover is the leader of M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) himself: Matt “Hunter” Trakker. Hunter is leaping from the drivers’ seat of Thunder Hawk (a red Chevrolet Camaro that turns into a gull-winged fighter) onto Switchblade (the helicopter that turns into a jet) that the mastermind behind Venom, Miles “Wolf” Mayhem, flies. You have to admit that’s probably the coolest bad guy name ever. There is also a teeny weenie Rhino in the background. The Rhino (a maroon Kenworth semi tractor that converts into a mobile defense platform and command center) was the coolest toy ever and my most desired in my youth. Rhino’s smoke stacks turned into freaking cannons for goodness sake, and it had a spring loaded bomb too. Oh happy days.

A few other M.A.S.K. vehicles graced the pages of this sacred text, including my 2nd favorite M.A.S.K. vehicle, Hurricane (a turquoise 57 Chevy with orange and red flames that turns into a six-wheeled attack tank) I can’t remember the cartoon enough to say for sure if the comic follows the show or its own separate entity, but I’m pretty sure they’re the same thing. I could probably find the DVD of the cartoon series on Amazon or eBay but I’m much more into the nostalgic comic smell that one only finds nestled between the endless Alpha Flight and Evil Ernie comics in the dollar box. The quest for old unwanted bastard floppies has never been easy, but it must be done. Hours of pawing through every single book in every single long box that crosses your path, but that’s what all the buzz is about now isn’t it? “The hunt for treasure” as it were, is what drives us on and sometimes, not always, but sometimes it pays off big. Happy hunting!