M.A.S.K is back. It was originally an iconic toy line before becoming Saturday morning cartoon that followed the adventures of the Mobile Armored Strike Kommand; an underground task force equipped with special military facial apparatuses and weaponized vehicles.
IDW and Hasbro have announced that the M.A.S.K team will be appearing in comic book form later this year. This is exciting news as M.A.S.K was up there in popularity with the likes of G.I Joe and Transformers. In an interview with USA Today, writer Brandon Easton also teased a feature film as part of a Hasbro cinematic universe. According to Easton this incarnation of M.A.S.K will not follow the same run of the mill Saturday morning cartoon formula of a quirky team (with all the team tropes to accompany them) battling an equally quirky and frequently unsuccessful group of evil doers. Instead, it will be a serious take, with characters having to make tough decisions on which side they choose to support in the conflict.
Despite the show’s new direction, Easton says that there will be callbacks. Most interesting being “color combinations and vital identifiable components” for some of the main characters. The leader of the squadron, Matt Tasker, is described by Easton as being “an engineering genius and intellectual bad boy who has been in search of stability since the loss of his father at an early age.” His counterpart, Miles "Mayhem" Manheim, used to be a bumbling inept villain and failure but is now a deadly and formidable military strategist. Mayhem who is accompanied by V.E.N.O.M (Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem) are now very legitimate threats to world domination.
All in all, this new direction the franchise is taking could be very entertaining and lucrative given that audiences have been predisposed to serious takes on a popular products such as Mega Man, Transformers, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
