Review by Frank Plowright

Trying to sell the idea of Flash Gordon to anyone under fifty is a difficult proposition. Pretty well everything that made him and his adventures great, whether in the cinema or comic strips, has been strip-mined and repurposed for decades with a more modern touch, and his name hasn’t been common currency since the 1980s.

Perhaps the best approach then, is to forget the baggage, go with the strengths and treat the idea of space opera as new. That’s what Jeremy Adams does, yet for those who do remember, all the essential ingredients are there. Flash is an adventurer, Doctor Zarkov is a technological genius and Ming the Merciless is, well, merciless. It’s not greatly apparent in an opening volume hitting all the right notes, but Flash’s girlfriend Dale Arden is upgraded to a far more capable character, from the former scantily clad beauty whose capture prompted so many earlier adventures.

Artist Will Conrad also plays his part in the upgrades, not just with sparkling art bringing out the best of the action possibilities, but via reconstituting Ming into someone more consciously alien rather than the politically disreputable creation of old.

It’s very apparent during a thrill-filled opening chapter giving Ming something to really hate Flash for. Adams ensures it’s on an epic scale and the results of that incident reverberate through the remainder. There’s no need to know any backstory to pick up on events as dips into the past explain the assorted relationships, while the mood is exhilarating. It’s not as if Adams is delivering anything new, but he supplies stock situations thrillingly. It’s all exciting stuff, the more so for largely concentrating on two major characters while initiating speculation about the remainder.

Most readers won’t have seen Flash Gordon before, and Adams with Conrad sells old as new with such success a Deluxe Edition rapidly followed the standard paperback. Killer of Worlds is next.