Exclusive: '80s cartoon 'M.A.S.K.' gets comic reboot this fall

Any kid who rushed home to watch G.I. Joe and Transformers after school probably had M.A.S.K. on their TV and in their toy boxes, too. And this fall, superpowered masks and transforming vehicles are revving up pop culture again with a high-octane hero's origin story.

Writer Brandon Easton and artist Tony Vargas are putting a Fast and Furious spin on the mid-1980s franchise with a new M.A.S.K. comic book debuting from IDW.

Also in the works is a M.A.S.K. feature film as part of Paramount Pictures’ Hasbro Cinematic Universe, but according to Easton, the comic won’t be a cookie-cutter retread of the TV show where Matt Trakker’s good guys in M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) battled Miles Mayhem’s antagonistic organization V.E.N.O.M. (Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem) to a catchy soundtrack.

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“This is a M.A.S.K. for the 21st century with a diverse team of specialists who are chosen for a top-secret program with a painful learning curve,” the writer says. “Ultimately, each participant will have to choose a side — and no matter which side they choose, the consequences will be great.”

There will be throwbacks — Vargas says they’ve kept “color combinations and vital identifiable components” relating to key players. Plus, expect modernized takes on vehicles like Thunderhawk, a Camaro that became a jet plane back in the day, and motorcycle-turned-helicopter Condor.

Yet Easton promises M.A.S.K. will look very different in some ways. “We won't be going too grim, gritty or dark. However you're not going to see a teenage kid riding a cowardly robot across the battlefield.”

This Matt Trakker is a cross between Elon Musk and Idris Elba — Easton describes him as “an engineering genius and intellectual bad boy who has been in search of stability since the loss of his father at an early age.” Matt’s had a troubled adolescence, and as an adult, “he's given one last chance at redemption: going through the M.A.S.K. boot camp.”

And instead of being a bumbling villain, Miles "Mayhem" Manheim is a master manipulator, brilliant military strategist and control freak whose plans to rule the world are extremely close to fruition.

“V.E.N.O.M. will be a true force. They don't lose often nor do they accept defeat with grace,” says Easton, promising that the group and its leader will be deadlier than portrayed in the past.

Matt and Miles have almost a father-son bond, the writer adds, but when Matt learns what the older man has done for power, “it provides the catalyst for Matt to stop searching for a ‘role model’ and figure out what it means to follow his own heart and soul.”

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The supporting cast also reflects 21st-century occupations and motivations, but will have some familiarity. Easton’s giving V.E.N.O.M. henchman Sly Rax a totally new identity, and he thinks readers will like the two female leads, villainess Vanessa Warfield and heroine Gloria Baker. The latter is one of several characters getting mask upgrades — Gloria’s is capable of “a bunch of cool holographic hacker-interface things,” says Vargas.

The new M.A.S.K. on the whole speaks to the current zeitgeist of constant upgrades and need for immediate gratification, according to Easton.

“Imagine if your car, motorcycle, SUV or yacht could change into a more powerful vehicle complete with state-of-the-art weapons systems and other cutting-edge technology,” the writer says. “The possibilities are as fun as they are disastrous.”