Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Flash Gordon #1
Dynamite Entertainment
Parker & Shaner & Bellaire
Flash Gordon is a property that has seen many reboots, reinventions and publishers over the years. This is Dynamite's second go round of a Flash Gordon series and sadly, it is not off to a promising start. Jeff Parker brings a big name and a large fan base, but the story within these pages is beneath his talents. The comic feels unimaginative, which is probably the worst characteristic you can give to a Flash Gordon comic. I would steer clear of this one.
The comic begins with small, but separate, introductions for each of the main characters: Zarkov, Dale and Flash. The comic then zooms out a year when the trio is in a space craft being chases by some of Ming's men. The dialogue during the chase seems to imply that Earth's been invaded by Ming and that Flash and friends seems to be aware of Mongo and a lot of components of the planet but not all. The book ends with Flash and friends meeting a potential alley.
The makeup of the book seems to be a fine idea. Drop the main characters in the heat of the action. Rather than having a long slow story that goes through the usual pieces where they accidently land on Mongo and find themselves meeting Ming. Instead, the creators skip all of that and just pick things up in the middle. There are two fundamental problems here though: 1) it feels like an incomplete story and 2) what's described sounds more interesting that what's presented.
Flash talks about Beastmen invading Earth and Flash stealing some crystal from Ming, which sounds a lot cooler than a couple of stunt fighters chasing Flash through various colored portals. While the portals allow the reader to get familiar with the terrain of the planet it doesn't make for all that interesting first issue reading. There's never a sense that Flash has his back against the wall or that the men chasing him stand a chance. This doesn't feel like the best execution for a first issue.
The artwork has its pluses and minuses. On the plus side the comic has a Darwyn Cooke, golden age feel to the book, which is really a great idea. The characters look simple but detailed and they have a timeless look to them. The problem is that the comic doesn't capture the wonder that so many Flash Gordon incarnations have done over the years. If the comic can't look that part then it will be very hard to sink a reader into a distant world and its culture. This book simply looks too much like Earth.
Flash Gordon is the kind of series that should be equal parts strong characters, science fiction and plenty of action. This opening issue dabbles in all of those areas but they aren't strong enough to lure me in for a second issue. If you are fan of Parker but haven't gotten into Flash Gordon before then this series might be something to check out. I'm not sure the long time Flash Gordon fan is going to find what they are looking for in here though.
2 out of 5 Geek Goggles
