I must say that I was rather intrigued when I heard about this new Flash Gordon book. I am a fan of the 1980 Flash Gordon movie starting Sam Jones & Max Von Sydow and I even remember watching a pretty cool animated series in the early 80s and I was just mesmerized by it.
This new book is a spin on the story from the movie, with the first few lines even taken directly from the film. But shortly after, the whole story takes a fairly expected and admittedly fun turn.
Ming the Merciless, ruler of Mongo and the known universe plans the conquest of Earth. He sends emissaries to choose a proxy to govern the planet in his name. Ming unleashes a barrage of natural disasters and strange phenomena to weaken and terrify the people of Earth before his invasion begins.
Meanwhile Flash Gordon and Dale Arden, narrowly escape from the plane carrying them to a secret location before it crashes. The two miraculously parachute to the exact point they need to find! Flash has been sent by the President of the United States to find Dr. Hans Zarkov. The US Government believes that Dr. Zarkov may be able to explain what is happening around the globe.
Instead of welcoming Flash and Dale, Zarkov holds them at gunpoint and forces them into a rocket ship he has constructed to travel to the origin of the cosmic forces wrecking havoc on the Earth. Flash tries to stop the paranoiac Dr. Zarkov and the two struggle as the rocket soars skyward to the unknown.
The story is all too familiar, but in spite of that this was just a fun book to read. It brings back memories of my younger days. Even with a fairly predictable story thus far, there is enough of a twist to make it somewhat unique and worthy of attention. I shouldn’t have to even mention that comic legend Alex Ross is involved with the artwork as well as the story. As an added bonus and incentive, the book is only one dollar! That certainly brings back memories.
This kind of book is what made comic books great in the first place. It’s almost like you’re reading a piece of history when you flip through the pages of this book. Flash Gordon has been around for a long time and has been re-introduced to new generations of fans more than once. I am glad that the old classics can still be relevant in this day and age. This is definitely a title I will be adding to my regular pull list.
Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist #1 was written by Eric Trautmann & Alex Ross with artwork by Daniel Indro & Slamet Mujiono. Additional cover artwork by Alex Ross, Paul Renaud, Francesco Francavilla and Wagner Reis.
Be sure to check out my preview piece for this book here at Comic Booked.
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