I must confess that I never read the original Cosmo the Martian stories, even when they were included in the Archie digests but since I have enjoyed the other reinvented properties I decided to check this out. It did not disappoint! Cosmo: Spaces Aces and Mighty Martian is a fun reboot full of humor, space adventure and intriguing backstory for the main character. It actually reminded me of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command quite a bit and I loved that show so maybe it was destined.

The adventure begins with Vol 1. Space Aces where Cosmo’s crew saves the self-involved, panicked astronoaut, Max Strongjaw who is convinced that they’re trying to kill him. Once they clear up that they’re not the bloodthirsty invaders Earth shows portray them as, they head to Earth’s moon to investigate a SOS at an abandoned carnival filled with mutant Lunites. There, each member of the crew gets their time to shine, and show off their personalities in the ways they decide to face off against the mutants.

The five part adventure does an excellent job moving the story along as it reveals its overaching antagonists, the Battle Princesses of Venus led by Queen Hesper, touches on story beats on leadership and courage and integrates Max into the cast in a believable battle-forged camrederie. The succeeding volume, Mighty Martian continues the adventure by bringing them to planet Venus to recover the ancient Martian relics and foil Queen Hesper’s plot while planting the seeds for Hesper and Cosmo’s past, Cosmo’s powerful visions and his feelings for Astra.

As for the characters, each are engaging and personable, making it easy for readers to connect and believe in the close dynamic of the crew. It’s also bolstered by their references to previous missions off-the-page demonstrating how long they’ve worked together and the bonds they formed.

Cosmo can be cocky at times, playing the swaggering adventure to a hilt but his loyalty to his friends and his enthusiasm for adventure makes him a flexible leader, always ready to use his wits and improvisation to save the day. Plus the story gives him some hidden depths from his visions that only he recieves from the universe. Additionally, it implies that his joking nature is his way to cope from all his thoughts or he’d fall apart. Though he does have a grounding influence from his pilot–

Astra who has a long-running romantic rivalry with Cosmo. They’re unresolved tension is done well, not taking over the story but provides humor, sparks and breather moments that show how much they care for each other. She’s also fun with her itch to go into battle and not miss the action and her overprotectiveness of the cockpit-her domain that no one else is allowed to step into if she had anything to do with it.

Medulla, the science and tech support is fun who her intense focus on her experiments and her research that overshadow the fact that they’re in the middle of a freaking battle. She also has has a connection to Professor Think. He’s her uncle and had filled the scientist role in the original series. She didn’t have the strong emotional moments of the others, but I’m sure if the series continued maybe she would have gotten to expand from her role as comic relief.

Orbi has the cute sidekick role, getting his own development by gaining confidence though he doesn’t quite get his chance to shine or rescue Cosmo as Cosmo always rescues him. His best friend and animal mascot(looks like a dog but Martians don’t know what dogs are so alien animal), Jojo is cute and his shape-shifting abilities are a perfect addition to the crew when they’re in a jam. Extra material says he’s a legend in his own race and I wonder if they had extra volumes, they’d get to explore that.

As for the newest addition to the crew, Max fufills the role as the sometimes cowardly blowhard with a heart of gold. He can sometimes get in the way because he thinks he knows better as a superior Earthling but he does come to care for the crew as worthy allies and friends even though he can never get Cosmo’s name right. He also provides most of the comic relief from his mission logs to his deadpan terror when he gets fused with the first Martian relic.

As for the antagonists, each of the battle princesses have their own theme and are humorous in how unimpressed they are with Cosmo’s crew occasionally having heart to heart moments instead of taking the battle seriously.

Queen Hesper is interesting for the hinted past with Cosmo that leaves her infuated with the hero that she won’t allow her subjects to speak ill of him and wants him as her king whether he wants to or not. Cosmo also has a soft spot for her, saying multiple times that the Hesper he knew in the past wouldn’t do such horrible things as mutate innocents, mind-control etc. Again, I wish it had another volume, so we could finally learn this presumably tragic backstory.

Yardley’s art matches the paces of the narrative able to deliver action scenes with expressive emotions, and care with a vivid color palette that makes each planet unique. Plus the sleek, smooth coloring adds to the chrome space look. Very talented and well-suited to the series.

Overall, Ian Flynn does a great job in balancing humor (deadpan, slapstick, character qurkiness, occasionally meta) with sci-fi tropes such as mecha bots and space-themed variations of human activities like carnivals and arcades. It’s clever and fast-paced that many should enjoy.