This was great…
“I find it interesting that, despite his muscles, Flex is a hero who largely eschews violence. He doesn’t punch or kick to fight evil. He simply poses”
You should probably do a whole post on the powers of Muscle Mystery. Just sayin.

You’re quite right, though. It certainly should be reprinted. I’ve bought back issue sets twice as gifts, it’s so darn lovely.

While it isn’t as obvious as Animal Man, I do think FM has it’s moments of wall-breaking. There’s a scene at the end for instance where Flex is extending his hand to the story’s villain, but Quitely’s POV makes it look like he’s directly addressing the reader.

Great piece. But I fear that the book will just have to live on in scans rather than a bookshelf-tailored edition.

Though I’d argue the fourth wall being broken particularly in FLEX. There’s multiple layers to the narrative, and the layers certainly bleed into one another with frightening regularity. But it’s tough for me to recall “I can see you!” moments as in ANIMAL MAN (which is just as much a requiem for the silver age) as FLEX is.

Of course now I have an excuse to re-read it to see if I’m misremembering or not.