Anyway...as you may know (yeah...that's better), I've been a big "Flash Gordon" fan most of my life. Well...as long as I can remember having seen the Buster Crabbe serials on PBS in NYC in the 1970s as a little kid (assuming I remember that correctly at all). It's not just the serials, but the cartoon from the late 1970s, the 1980 Camp Classic and the various comic strip/comic book versions (especially Alex Raymond's original work). Notice how I didn't mention the recent SyFy TV series...I own it on DVD and have yet to actually get through the whole thing (I saw a handful of episodes when they aired and maybe someday I'll revisit it...but not today).
Anyway (I say that a lot, don't I?)...today I'm revisiting Dynamite Entertainment's recent 10 issue comic book series "Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist". This wonderfully written "update" was actually one of two different versions from two different comic book companies that were published essentially at the same time. I'm not going to say if one is better than the other, especially since the story from Ardden Entertainment isn't done yet...but I will say I've enjoyed each on their own merits.
Dynamite Entertainment has finally published a collection of all 10 issues as written by Eric Trautmann with art by Daniel Lindro (and Ron Adrian on the last 2 issues -- there were variant covers by various other artists, but the cover that was easy to find for each issue were by Alex Ross who also guided the series). If you have any love for the 1980 film starring Sam J. Jones and Max Von Sydow, you owe it to yourself to pick this up. This series takes the "story" of the film (which itself was based on Alex Raymond's original strips) as well as the "look" of the film and firmly plants it in the 1930s.
The basic story is still the same, Flash Gordon and Dale Arden are kidnapped by Dr. Hans Zarkov who believes the Earth is under attack from somewhere in space. He is proven right when their craft crashes on the planet Mongo where the evil tyrant Emperor Ming the Merciless rules over a variety of races with an iron fist. The humans eventually wind up teaming up with some of the people who have lived under Ming's tyranny to overthrow him.
There are now lots of great subplots that have been added to expand the story and depth of the characters. Unlike the 1980 movie, we do get Prince Thun of the Lion Men and King Kala of the Shark Men as part of the story (where in the movie they're repurposed or briefly glimpsed and disposed of, here both characters are back to the importance Raymond had given them -- Thun is really Flash's first ally on Mongo and a great character in general so it's good to see him here). Klytus becomes an even bigger political power player than he is in the film (as do the Bore Worms). In addition, we get a story thread of three exiles from Mongo on Earth trying to stop Ming's scheme (which involves Ming helping Hitler take over the planet so it will be easier for Ming to conquer later) that does give the book more of an antiquated feel at times (Nazis & Hitler as villains again), but it does work to give the story a "fresh" twist.
Trautmann keeps the spirit of everything that has come before moving along nicely. He even drops some of the more quotable lines from the 1980 film into scenes in more dramatic ways than they were used in the cinema. We get the monsters we barely got in the film that were such an integral part of the original work (and the movie serials) and we get a sense of cliffhangers that kept the flow of the serials going (without being like the DC Comics mini-series from the 1980s that had each issue end on a cliffhanger that seemed forced at times).
The art by Lindro & Adrian is well done and taken off of Alex Ross' designs that reinterpret the original strips, the Filmation cartoon and the 1980 film all at the same time (Ming's wardrobe consists of the robes Von Sydow wore in the film as well as a Green "Military" suit that resembles the Filmation designs). And the switch from Lindro to Adrian in the last two issues, while noticeable in the trade collection, isn't disconcerting or bad.
This is a fun easy read (especially since it's now collected in one paperback as opposed to ten separate issues that took way more than ten months to come out cause major frustration for this reader as the delays interrupted the flow of the story). If you're a fan of the film or "Flash Gordon" in general, you owe it to yourself to read this (though I will warn you, it does end on a cliffhanger that may not get resolved as this book has been cancelled, though Dynamite is claiming Flash will return).
There is also a companion series called "Merciless: The Rise of Ming" that ran for 4 issues and will be collected in August. This is also well worth a read as it gives Ming (and some of the other rulers of Mongo) a great backstory.
Until next time (whenever that may be as this gets more and more infrequent), be seeing you.
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