Tony Vargas

There's nothing wrong with being a property that was designed to sell toys in the 1980s. Plenty of today's beloved properties started out that way, especially the ones being published by IDW. But MASK: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand has always felt almost comically toyetic to me: Good and evil teams who wear special helmets that give them powers and ride in vehicles that transform into other vehicles. However, as we see in this preview from MASK #4, writer Brandon Easton and artist Tony Vargas have found the key to rising above that problem and making their characters feel like people: family melodrama.

Every time I'm reminded that one of the year's most hotly anticipated, high-profile launches is a brand-new MASK: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand series that exists completely apart from any toy line or TV show, I kinda feel like I need to start looking around for an eternally spinning top or something that will prove I am living in a dream world. I mean, this is something I've wanted for so long that I'm probably not going to be sure it's actually happening until that comic is in my hands. Now, though, we are one step closer to the reality. Today, IDW released the covers and solicitation for Brandon Easton, Tony Vargas, and Tommy Lee Edwards' MASK #1, giving us our first good look at the new designs for Matt Trakker and Miles Mayhem.

IDW has become the place to go for ultra-modern, relevant and exciting comic book adaptations of your favorite childhood franchises. Whether it's Transformers, Jem and the Holograms or Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles, IDW has been on a roll with titles that go way beyond nostalgia-grabs, and in some cases are some of the very best comics on the stands. This is a trend the publisher hopes to continue with the announcement, via USA Today, that Brandon Easton and Tony Vargas will work on a new comic featuring MASK, the 1980s cartoon about a vehicle-based law enforcement agency that was kind of Transformers and GI Joe at the same time.