Sorry for gushing, but man... I still can't believe this is really happening! I'm STILL a huge M.A.S.K. fanboy, even though I've recently turned 40 (OMG)... And my shocking fanboy opinion? I really do like the designs a lot!
Gloria Baker and Vanessa Warfield both look great   Also love the redesigns of the rest of the characters, including Matt Tracker's 'new look' as an African-American character. Was it necessary? IMHO, No. Do I mind? Not at all!
I'll be fair, I loved the cartoon way back when, as well as the UK comic, but as far as stories and plot, M.A.S.K. was very thin. I was (and still am) all about the toys. So I'm very keen on an actual modern plot being written for this, ans of course I'll be VERY interested in any new toy line!!!

 

WTF? Can't they stop with changing established properties? Fuck diversification. They can do that with new properties. Also they already had diverse genders and races in the original MASK, so this is just stupid decisions. Creating back lash from fans to get free PR.

 

A little from Column A, a little from Column B.

Not sure what part of "Elon Musk and Idris Elba" folks didn't understand.   Quite frankly, I find it hard to believe that his one singular change will make M.A.S.K. "ruined forever".

Funny thing is that this has tempted me to dig out my Matt Trakker G.I. Joe figure and try a head swap so he's IDW comics accurate.  

 

Getting mad about Matt Trakker's race change is just silly. There's nothing about the character that says he has to be white and if memory serves me the only things that matter about Matt are being the leader of M.A.S.K., having a son (Scott Trakker), and having a connection with Miles Mayhem.

 

Wait a minute. Why are the heroes diverse minorities but the bad guys are all white? Miles Mayhem couldn't be Hispanic? Or Vanessa Warfield couldn't be Asian? What kind of message is that?!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmxeS1UvHNo

 

...But... they're not all white! As far as I can tell, it seems Sly Rax actually IS of Asian descent in this version!!!

 

Ok, well while we're at it let's change Luke Cage, Black Panther and Blade to a white guy, an asian and a hispanic ok?

 

Being black is part of Luke Cage and Black Panthers character so that could never happen. Blade not so much, but comic and movie fans wouldn't like it because there are few black leading characters in comics/movies.

 

Matt Tracker is not as iconic of a character as those 3. So who cares if he's black in this reboot? The original Matt Tracker still exist, the SJWs aren't burning the old toys and shows, it's still there!

 

Agreed. There was nothing intrinsically white about the Matt Trakker character. Similar to Nick Fury.

Sly Rax does seem like he's of the Asian persuasion to my eyes - dat yellow skin; he's either Asian, has jaundice, or he's impersonating a character from The Simpsons.   Not mad, I just find it funny that even in 2016 we still have to have these little racial identifiers like yellow skin for Asian characters in comics and such (because how else can we tell if he's Asian if he's wearing shades  ).

Exactly. Nick Fury says hello, and he's a better character in the live action MCU movies for the change, I think. The only leading black character in an 80's cartoon property that I can recall off the top of my head was Bulletproof from COPS, and he was pretty badass. If IDW Matt Trakker is even half the badass that Idris Elba is, then sign me up.

I'm digging the other character designs (though that one for Lopez reminds me of Martian Manhunter with the colors). I do wish they had made Miles a bit more, I dunno, imposing, and not so much a paunchy old guy again (a Cobra Commander who didn't age well, basically). Hoping his personality and schemes have improved (and that the IDW writers deliver on their promise on that front).

 

What if Black Matt is really Hondo and White Matt is missing or *gasp* dead? Everyone else doesn't really seem different and the absence of Hondo raises questions...

 

I agree. Matt Trakker has, to my knowledge, never received much characterization or background. We had a discussion earlier in this thread on how the origin story for Matt was in a comic which was not even part of the main DC run. Many people had never seen this comic. In the cartoon, his motivation was that he is a hero and Miles Mayhem is a bad guy.

As far as I'm concerned, Matt can be a woman if it results in better characterization and story. It's a reboot, not taking place in the old continuity, and the character does not have a rich backstory.

 

Not that I care about the race change, but I gotta lol every time the Nick Fury card is played. It's the only one in the deck, so you gotta use it every single time to support the race change argument.

Though gotta love though that the race change brings with it the typical troubled youth stereotype. "I'm gonna be original and modernize this shit with diversity, but we're base those diverse characters off long standing stereotypes!"

 

I'm African-American and I agree. Insert Samuel L. into any character = badass because of his charisma, not because of his color. It's obvious to me that the writers were not fans. MASK was the most diverse cartoon I can remember from its era. Their races were never a bullet point. It's even worse now that I read this on Newsrama from the panel: "Brandon Easton compared his M.A.S.K. reboot to the Fast & The Furious, saying he's updated the idea for the 21st century."