Review by Frank Plowright
Whether or not you have any idea who Flash Gordon is, Jeremy Adams and Will Conrad served up thoroughly entertaining space opera in Escape From Planet Death, and despite Conrad not being as involved with Killer of Worlds, the joyous SF adventure continues.
To recap: tyrant Ming the Merciless was overthrown and deposited in his feared prison system. Also jailed was Flash Gordon, unwitting destroyer of Ming’s homeworld of Mongo. An unlikely alliance saw them escape together along with the even bigger surprise of technical genius Hans Zarkov reincarnated in a resilient robot body. It’ll surprise no-one that the alliance expires rapidly here, and the opening chapter is a thrilling obstacle race against time.
Adams introduced several mysteries in his opening volume, and explanations for how the universe has changed since Mongo’s destruction are forthcoming, the most anticipated being the fate of Flash’s girlfriend Dale Arden. Amid this Adams returns characters from Flash’s 1930s newspaper strip era, but as credible allies or foes, while ensuring they’ll still thrill readers who’ve never seen them previously. The Hawk Men will now seem very similar to DC’s Hawkman and his world of Thanagar, but they were the originals.
Conrad’s art is preferable, but Tom Derenick drawing most of this volume is no great hardship. He’s polished, excellent at telling a thrilling story, and he brings the cast to life. Among them is Flash as a teenager, just about to attend university, from where he’s later plucked for his space adventures.
Killer of Worlds is another action-packed five chapters of proof that not only is Flash Gordon relevant to the 21st century he’s positively essential to it.
