DC Comics
The Flintstones #12
By Avi Weinryb
June 11, 2017 - 01:45

DC Comics
Writer(s): Mark Russell
Artist(s): Steve Pugh
Colourist(s): Chris Chuckry
Letterer(s): Dave Sharpe
Cover Artist(s): Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn



FLINT_Cv12.jpg
It’s sad to see this excellent series reach its final issue. One can only hope its legacy of using nostalgia as a springboard for exploring contemporary social issues is picked up in the forthcoming The Jetsons series, recently teased in the Flintstones/Booster Gold crossover issue. In its twelve-issue run, The Flintstones has managed to be smart, current, witty and funny. By holding up a mirror to modern society through the lens of a fictionalized prehistoric era, the denizens of Bedrock have blazed an incredible trail of strong comic books. Thank you to writer Mark Russell and artist Steve Pugh for making this happen.
 
This final issue has everything that made the series great: Rebellious talking appliances, excellent puns, sight gags, veiled critiques about hot button issues like religion and climate change. The list goes on. This series was never as much about the characters, the Flintstone and Rubble families, as it was about the situations they faced and the events surrounding them all. Bedrock is an ever-changing place and as its inhabitants faced off against every crisis imaginable, the Great Gazoo, visiting from another planet, was there to document it all.
 
It is “Bowling Ball”, Fred Flintstone’s sport-purposed armadillo that gets a starring role in this issue as he attempts to take a stand and make his life matter. Dealing with similar issues is Pebbles, who begins to learn how some people have achieved this goal through organized religion. Social norms are formed and tested throughout this series as readers experience the comic portrayal of a society trying to form. As has been noted elsewhere, in some ways, the series is like the current television series Black Mirror. But unlike that show, there is a warmth here, with a sharp comic sensibility and the creative use of classic tropes from the original Hanna Barbera cartoon show.
 
A comic series like this does not come along every day. So when it is here, we need to appreciate it. Enjoy this series and have a yabba dabba doo time! And if you’ve already had a taste, let’s all just hope The Jetsons is just as good, if not better. And who knows - maybe the Flintstones will make an appearance. History does have a way of repeating itself.

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