Advance Review: ‘The Man’ Gets The Chuck Barris Treatment In ‘Codename Ric Flair’ #1

Codename Ric Flair: Magic Eightball #1 kicks off with the fateful plane wreck that not only changed the course of Ric Flair’s career, but also altered the course of professional wrestling history. Flair was a 300 pound monster when he first started lacing up the boots. The injuries he sustained in the accident caused him to slim down and change his gimmick from a smashmouth brute to the more refined Nature Boy we know and love. That much, the comic and reality agree on. Beyond that, James Haick III takes some liberties. 

In this series, Naitch is selected for a super secret spy program, using his busy professional wrestling schedule as a cover for espionage missions around the world. If this sounds familiar, it should. This was the concept behind Chuck Barris’ wild fictional autobiography Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Flair is injected with a super serum that gives him preternatural strength, speed, and machismo. If this also sounds familiar, it should. Six Million Dollar Man, Captain America…

One of the things about professional wrestling comics is the tightrope they walk between real life and kayfabe. It’s a difficult balance, and it works better in some cases than others. This one is a little weird for me because at this point, the real life story is pretty well known, and there’s also a detailed kayfabe history surrounding the event. The book mentions both, sort of, and then takes it off in a completely different direction. 

For those familiar, Flair has never really separated his Nature Boy character from his real life personality. If he wasn’t always the stylin’, profilin’, limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin’ n’ dealin’ son of a gun, he absolutely became the character in all aspects of his true life at some point. It is 100% on brand for him to take the Barris approach with his memoirs.

Art by Rafael Loureiro is very stylized, which works beautifully in both the worlds of espionage and professional wrestling, but the likenesses are off. I understand why the other wrestlers in the plane aren’t even close, so they don’t have to pay royalties to the other guys, but Flair’s name is on the cover. He, at least, should have more than a passing resemblance to The Man. That’s my only complaint, though. Massive explosions, dynamic, easy to follow action scenes, drama in the operating room… It’s all spot on. There’s just Flair’s own countenance that breaks the illusion.

So far, there’s nothing that really sets Codename Ric Flair: Magic Eightball apart from the pack. It’s serviceable, but the next couple issues will really be the test for me. I want to see how they weave real life events, like The Collision In Korea, into the concept. There’s a hell of a lot of potential here. Hopefully, the creative team can break out of the starting block with a solid second chapter. 

Codename Ric Flair: Magic Eightball #1 hits spinner racks on April 5, 2023.