Flash Gordon (Alex Raymond’s…)

(Checker, 2004-2005)
™ and © Checker Book Publishing Group

When the plane of “world renowned polo player” Flash Gordon and Dale Arden, “a passenger” (this is their characterization in its entirety), is downed, and they’re kidnapped by Dr. Zarkoff. He fears they’ll expose (?) his plan to save Earth from imminent collision with the planet Mongo by flying his rocket into it. Naturally, he takes them along. There are unexpected pleasures in reading Flash Gordon from its beginning, such as seeing how long it took Raymond to break away from the rigid multi–panel grid and start drawing the spectacular panoramas for which he’s famous. Moreover, looking at his art, it’s obvious from whom 90% of Golden Age comic book artists were swiping. The “plot,” however, is ludicrous, consisting almost entirely of Flash and Dale (in a nice touch of gender equality) both losing much of their clothes and narrowly escaping unwanted sexual contact. The goofiness reaches a crescendo, when we note a monster’s pit has a helpful sign reading: “Danger: Dragon Feeding Chute.” You just don’t expect that level of worker safety from Ming the Merciless.

— S.A. Bennett

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