Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Part of DC's Hanna-Barbera line, The Flintstones is not so much a reimagining of the original concept as a deepening. If the 1960s cartoon plumbed comedy from putting the familiar in an unfamiliar context, the comic thrusts contemporary constructs like politics, consumerism, the military, and TV news into a Stone Age setting to encourage a frank reevaluation of perspective. Exploring character and story as well as themes, Russell gives even the animals that serve as household appliances emotional stakes and perspectives and flashes back to Fred Flintstone's time in the military, fighting in a senseless, government-devised war. The episode on marriage is so hopefully, thoughtfully searching, it deserves Eisner attention all by itself, but the entire package is a unique commodity, a comic with an honest-to-god stance on the underpinnings of civilization and the true meaning of life. Lest those seeking humor be scared off, there are laughs here visual jokes and references are pleasingly plentiful but they're in equal measure with a sense of baffled melancholy well personified by its lead. Fred Flintstone here is an everyman desperately trying to stay afloat as the world around him changes too fast. Removing the stylized aesthetic of cartoons and offering realistic, idiosyncratic character art adds an extra jolt, forcing us to look ourselves in the ludicrous, Stone Age face.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In what is probably the most unexpected achievement in current comics, writer Russell (God Is Disappointed in You) manages to make the Flintstones relevant by being topical and candid. Though the characters inhabit an absurd reality that isn't much different from the original TV series-cartoon cavepeople living with prehistoric versions of modern technology-Pugh's (Animal Man) art presents it all matter-of-factly, just the right way to drive Russell's topical humor home. This is the same Stone Age family as ever, but now they tackle progressive concepts such as the falseness of religion, the emptiness of consumerism, and, in one of the book's best stories, marriage equality. Russell also isn't afraid to go to very serious places, with one story taking on Trumpism, bullying, war, genocide, and historical amnesia. Broad satire like this can risk a level of smarminess, but this is avoided through some sweet characterizations that present Fred and Barney as lovable lunkheads whose sincerity often sets them apart from the rest of Stone Age society. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
