Welcome to Bedrock, where Paleolithic humans head to dinner for a taste of artisanal mammoth after shopping at Neandertall & Big Men’s Clothing, where Wilma shows her modern art, and where, if you take a plane, you could literally end up sitting ON the tail section. Join Fred and Barney as Mister Slate sends them on a mission to show some Neanderthals a night on the town in hopes of luring them into this new system called “working for a living.” In Slate’s Quarry, of course. Is Fred’s ship about to come in? Find out when the gang finishes out the evening at the employee hot tub party, where they learn how the one percent lives here in Bedrock, home to the world’s first civilization and the modern stone-age family—The Flintstones.

Out of all of the new Hanna-Barbera comics by DC Comics, The Flintstones was the most intriguing to me mostly due to writer Mark Russell. Russell has proven he’s a master at brilliant commentary in series like Prez and God is Disappointed in You and Apocrypha Now.

The Flintstones #1 has some of what I expected with Russell’s writing. There’s some jabs at class, worker relations, war, and consumerism, but it’s all very subtle and quite some time between the jabs. It feels more like a tease as to what’s to come and hopefully, we see more of the sly observations like in Prez. But, there’s a lot here and out of all of the releases so far, this comic feels closest to its animated roots.

The art by Steve Pugh is interesting. It feels like all of the cartoon characters have taken a lot of steroids, which I’m not quite sure about. Barney doesn’t feel as short, and Mr. Slate looks more intimidating in look. It’s an interesting style and I’m sure it’ll be a few more issues before I’m used to it. But Pugh nails the goofy use of animals from the cartoon series as well as a lot of the other background jokes it’s known for.

The first issue is a solid one, though doesn’t quite knock it out of the park. It feels a lot like the classic cartoon and Russell is holding back the smart-ass humor he’s shown elsewhere. Hopefully, we see more of that going forward, and if we do, it’ll be a huge winner.

Story: Mark Russell Art: Steve Pugh
Story: 7.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 7.75 Recommendation: Read

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review