‘Flash Gordon Vol. 1: Escape from Planet Death!’ TPB (review)

Written by by Jeremy Adams
Art by Will Conrad and Cliff Richards
Published by Mad Cave Studios

I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with Flash Gordon.

I loved the Buster Crabbe serials, for example, with their rinky-dink spaceships and old-school machismo adventure. As far as Alex Raymond’s original newspaper version, it’s awfully pretty but has always felt kind of static to me. I like some of the later Dan Barry storylines much better.

I really, really like Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon, though. But I really, really DIS-like the campy Sam Jones movie, and can barely fathom how it’s grown into some kind of cult classic over the years. As you might guess, I had mixed feelings over Williamson’s graphic novel adaptation of that movie back in the day.

But do we need yet another modern, updated version of Flash Gordon?

After Mad Cave’s recent take on Dick Tracy, I was expecting something similarly foreign in their take on the pioneering space hero.

Thankfully, I was incorrect.

Writer Jeremy Adams and main artist Will Conrad (there are a few pages by Cliff Richards) give the reader a suitably heroic, larger-than-life hero recognizable to us old folks and yet immediately ingratiating to less-familiar readers.

Rather than start with an origin story for the umpteenth time, the book’s first section—apparently from a zero-issue of the series—jumps us right into classic space opera action with aliens, spaceships, robots, rayguns, and cool outfits.

Oh, and of course, Flash Gordon wouldn’t be Flash Gordon without Ming the Merciless.

The creators have managed to eliminate the outdated Fu-Manchu/Yellow Peril look for Ming, turning him instead into a green-skinned alien, yet keeping him clearly recognizable and written in character.

Turns out that noisy, busy first chapter was all just prelude, and we meet a bearded Flash held prisoner as we begin the story proper. Neither Flash nor the reader knows what’s going on and we are all slowly brought up to speed from that point as Flash escapes and reluctantly teams up with the galaxy’s worst killer toward a common goal. Dale Arden and Dr. Zarkov appear eventually, but very different from the standard depictions we’ve always seen in the past.

Over the next few chapters, we see a lot of Ming’s predictable treachery, even in flashbacks that give us what is, to the best of my knowledge, a backstory for the emperor.

We also get Gordon in an intergalactic gladiator match, space battles (complete with very loud-looking sound effects!), alien gangsters, and some fascinating robots, all ending up without an ending, since this is an ongoing series. As you may recall, this sort of thing is often something I complain about, but in this case, it reminded me of those old Universal chapterplays I enjoyed on late-night TV in the ‘70s.

Both Adams and Conrad are new to me.

The writing is top-notch for superheroes in space, with a detailed plot that feels familiar and yet not lifted entirely from anything. There are some nicely paced scenes throughout, with some light-heartedness if not out and out comic relief. The artwork reminded me of the work of Bryan Hitch or perhaps Alan Davis. It’s all very stylish and appropriate for this type of story.

Additional stylish artwork can be found in the eight pages of cover variants and concept art at the back of the volume, including a tribute to the 1980 movie by the great Dan Panosian. My personal favorite cover, though, is by Alison Sampson.

If you’ve ever been a Flash Gordon fan, you really need to buy Flash Gordon, Volume One, Escape from Planet Death. It’s neither Buster Crabbe nor Sam Jones, but I think Alex Raymond would have approved.

Booksteve recommends.