IDW's M.A.S.K. Is a 'Fresh Take'

[Starroid Raiders Dagon]

I dont have any experience with the property. It just didnt catch my interest at the time. I appreciate the new designs, but I am never a fan of changing the original character' background. Are these older toy properties appealing to the older generation and hoping we will introduce to the kids around us? If so, I would thing the changes might work against that? Without a toyline or tv show it would seem that it is up to the older fans to get the ball rolling. I do like the designs and think they would make for some kick-butt Mego figures.

http://www.newsarama.com/29710-idw-s-m-a-s-k-is-a-fresh-take-while-remembering-the-spirit-of-the-show.html

Mask_designsB.jpg

[Earth 2 Chris]

^Yeah, taking a purely retro property and changing things up makes little to no sense.

M.A.S.K. had a very diverse cast to begin with! It seems unnecessary to just mix and match ethnic backgrounds. With actors, I can see it if you think that person, despite their background being different than the character as established, can bring something unique to that role. But in comics...no.

Chris

[enyawd72]

^This. I was interested until I saw Matt "Tokken" Trakker. No thanks.

So sick of this PC crap.

[Earth 2 Chris]

M.A.S.K. has a main character that is black. Why not just make Hondo the field leader, and sideline Trakker as the guy behind the scenes or something?

It's like making Hal Jordan black when John Stewart is standing right over to the side.

M.A.S.K. had Japanese, Mexican, French and Russian heroes, just off the top of my head. Pretty diverse, especially back in the 80s!

Chris

[sprytel]

If I am giving the benefit of the doubt, I would say:

1. Matt Trakker is the only character from MASK I could name. I understand why they would want to keep the name.
2. Appearance wise, Matt Trakker is basically a clone of Duke. So I can also see why they may want to differentiate the two now that they are in a shared universe.
3. The vehicles are much bigger stars than any of the people in MASK. Messing with the Thunderhawk or the Condor would bother me way more.

That said, Chris makes a great point about the diverse existing characters they had to choose from. And if they didn't like the ones they had, they could always add new members to the team. So while I can rationalize it, there may have been better options in this case.

[monitor_ep]

I was upset at that, but then I remembered that Matt did look like Duke brother and I kinda understood why the change.

[jwyblejr]

They could have changed his look. Give him different colored hair or something.

[jwyblejr]

If I am giving the benefit of the doubt, I would say:

1. Matt Trakker is the only character from MASK I could name. I understand why they would want to keep the name.
2. Appearance wise, Matt Trakker is basically a clone of Duke. So I can also see why they may want to differentiate the two now that they are in a shared universe.
3. The vehicles are much bigger stars than any of the people in MASK. Messing with the Thunderhawk or the Condor would bother me way more.

That said, Chris makes a great point about the diverse existing characters they had to choose from. And if they didn't like the ones they had, they could always add new members to the team. So while I can rationalize it, there may have been better options in this case.

When Duke first showed up in G.I.Joe,he looked pretty much like Hawk. But they changed Hawk's hair color,don't see why they couldn't do that here.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^Yeah, that was an odd one. Having only flipped through the comics a bit, I thought Hawk and Duke were the same guy when the first TV mini series debuted. Then we got the 2nd, brown-haired Hawk who looked exactly like Gregory Peck!

Chris