Sometimes I think Jules Rivera must have grown up reading Li’l Abner, though she’s too young to have seen the strip in the newspaper; so maybe in reprints. And I don’t mean the silly machismo Mark shows here; that was not Abner’s style. It was the gullibility, optimism, the “Gomer Pyle” naivité, I think. Well, I may be overthinking it. Anyway, Rivera would probably find Al Capp’s strip offensive, as many did.

But I don’t know why Rivera chooses to make Mark look like such a goof. I’ve said this before, and recently, too. But every time I see this kind of reaction in Mark, I just shake my head. Not only the goofiness, but the bluster. Is Rivera parodying Mark’s long-standing resort to fighting in tough situations? When Agent Gunn reveals he wants Mark to go undercover (as we expected), Mark gets disappointed that he isn’t asked to unlimber his famed Fists o’ Justice.® The old-school Mark Trail would jump at the chance to go undercover. In fact, “back in the day”, Mark did do this at different times, according to the archival research of Mark Carlson-Ghost.

But, like the art, Mark’s personality in this Rivera-era has undergone change. Not afraid to swing a fist or destroy a boat on demand, he was nevertheless much more serious and engaged. That changed very quickly. Perhaps it’s Rivera’s attempt to deconstruct the old-school machismo, manliness, and morality that Mark Trail has typified over the decades. But I think you can do that without the exaggeration and the cornball behavior. That is, you should be able to bring Mark into the Modern Age without degrading him.