Broken Frontier

The Earth buckles under the weight of Ming the Merciless.

My experience with Flash Gordon is strictly limited to any brief glimpse of the 1930s serials my father would watch on the weekends.  As a young boy I would walk by in disgust at the black and white adventures; just who could possibly appreciate boring sci-fi adventures when there was exciting Power Rangers to watch?  And seriously, it was in black and white!  Flash forward twenty years to Dynamite Entertainment’s Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist and I am forced to admit that the child I was had no taste at all.  In full color greatness, Eric Trautmann’s Flash Gordon is an outstanding period piece with enough space rockets, paranoid scientists, alternate histories, and parallel universes to make any science fiction fan happy.

Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist #1 chronicles the invasion of Earth by Ming the Merciless, the despicable ruler of the known universes.  Trautmann firmly grounds his tale in the world of the 1930s, with brief glimpses of President Roosevelt, propeller aircraft, and state of the art technology.  Flash Gordon is, naturally, the always well dressed and respectable hero who guides his leading lady, Dale Arden cartographer extraordinaire, across the hills of Switzerland; while several of Ming’s outcasts, simultaneously, lead the hunt to capture a certain infamous dictator who plans to aid the evil Ming’s conquest of Earth.

Bringing Flash’s world to life is Daniel Indro, who pencils battlefields, rocket lift offs, and discussions of domination with ease.  Though Trautmann grounds his story in the 1930s, it is Indro’s art that brings it to life; everything from settings, to small trinkets, to massive fictional labs add to the nostalgic feeling of Flash Gordon, making the story all the more fun to read.

Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist is an exceptional introduction to the series, one that feels at home on Earth and in outer space.  Both writer Eric Trautmann and artist Daniel Indro perfectly mix that fantastic and wicked world of Ming the Merciless, with the nostalgic and hopeful one of Flash Gordon.  With the hunt now on for the 20^th century’s most evil mind, Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist will no doubt continue to thrill.