Comic Book Review – The Flintstones Deluxe Edition

The Flintstones Deluxe Edition (2022)
Reprints The Flintstones #1-12 and Booster Gold/Flintstones Special
Written by Mark Russell
Art by Steve Pugh and Rick Leonardi

You might see a Flintstones comic book and think it’s some kiddie fare not worth your time. I thought that too in 2016 when I saw DC Comics was publishing it as part of a line of Hanna Barbera books. I was utterly wrong. In my opinion, this is one of the best comic book runs DC has published in over a decade. Writer Steve Pugh delivers a stunning satirical analysis of life in the United States using the Flintstone family and the world of Bedrock. This book left me wondering why The Flintstones has yet to be rebooted as an animated series in this style. That would be stunning.

At the core of Russell’s 12-issue run is the question of “Was civilization worth it?” That comes with accounting for the cost of luxury & comfort and no longer having to fight for our survival like our ancestors did millennia ago. Fred Flintstone is revealed to be a veteran of a war against the Tree People, an indigenous group whose territory was cleared out to build Bedrock. What spurs Fred to do this is an impassioned speech by a demagogue who sees money to be made in this new type of human organization. People’s fears for their families are used to get men to join up and kill strangers. Barney is driven to join up when he overhears Betty lamenting their inability to have a child. As a result of the war, he discovers Bam-Bam, a child orphaned by his people’s violence. See how I was saying this isn’t the Flintstones, you know.

Russell isn’t trying to hide his lessons; some stories can feel heavy-handed, but the writing is strong enough that I was able to overlook that. At one point, little green men arrive in Bedrock and begin surveying the planet for their own purposes. They eventually leave behind a warden to watch over humanity like wild animals. This representative is named Gazoo, and the final issue is from his point of view, summarizing his observations of these strange creatures called humans and wondering what their chances of success in a very violent universe might be.

Most of Bedrock’s problems center around consumerism. With mass media starting to stretch its legs, one of the main ways it is used is to encourage people to buy things. It doesn’t matter if they need them, just buy them. The Flintstones purchase many new appliances, which, if you know the world of Bedrock, means filling their home with animals who serve as tools. The book has an incredible subplot between Fred’s Bowling Ball (an armadillo) and the new vacuum cleaner (a young pink elephant). The vacuum is locked away in the closet with a bowling ball, and they form a deep friendship, providing hope to each other, living lives they can’t fully comprehend. The world becomes the closet, and the outside is a mysterious & strange place.

Wilma is an artist trying to determine if what she makes has any value outside of her own mind. She ends up butting heads with snobbish art gallery types who mock her work, which consists of painted handprints you might see in caves where early humans would live. For Wilma, these handprints hearken back to a tradition in her community. When a person reached the age of majority, they would add their handprint to the cave walls, a flowing sea of hundreds of hands marking that someone was there; they had lived and been a part of this world. When she tells Fred this story, it becomes a beautiful moment of intimacy. This isn’t the original series, which copied the Honeymooners formula with its weird comedic domestic abuse. Russell brings humanity to these characters like I’d never seen before. 

Their marriage is called into question in one issue where we learn that this sort of union is a new thing for the people of Bedrock. Their traditional relationships are ones of open polygamy, and the idea of two people choosing each other is reacted upon with anger by some and confusion by others. The Church of Gerald, a proto-religion, tells its congregation that marriage is a good thing but draws the line when same-sex couple Adam & Steve want to join in. These two men are dear to Fred’s heart, as he explains to Wilma that his tribe treasured those whom they called “non-breeders.” The reason was that these people acted as parents to all the tribe’s children, and the “breeders” couldn’t do that job alone. Raising the kids was a communal job, and it made their community better.

I will only get into some of the details of the series; there’s so much more with Fred’s boss, Mr. Slate, Pebbles & Bam-Bam, learning about the nature of the universe and the destructive capitalist system versus a more communal economic structure. For twelve issues, this series packed a massive punch and is well worth picking up. The only weak point in the collection is the Booster Gold special, which is part of about half a dozen one-shots pairing a cartoon character with a DC superhero. I found that book to focus far more on Booster, and the Flintstones were mainly an afterthought. I highly recommend this, especially to anyone who doesn’t think they would enjoy comics or is looking for something more mature.

To close out this review, I want to share the moment when Fred Flintstone gives a beautiful summary of how he sees humanity having any chance at surviving: “Because if civilization is going to last, if it’s going to amount to anything more than just a place to watch TV and get cheap snake meat, it will only be because we’ve learned to do one thing. To care for people who mean nothing to us.”