Many people associate Flash Gordon with the campy 1980 cult film, but he is so much more. He is the first superhero to engage in interplanetary combat, fighting robotic armies and engaging in spaceship fights. Some even consider him the ultimate sci-fi savior, having inspired and improved films such as the Star Wars trilogy and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Buck Rogers was a financial success in the early 1930s, and King Features Syndicate was inspired to create a character along the same lines. They commissioned staff artist Alex Raymond to design a character, and Flash Gordon first appeared in a comic strip in January of 1934. Dr. Hans Zarkov invents a spaceship to go to Mongo and remove the threat when a catastrophic collision threatens Earth with the planet of Mongo.
He persuades Flash Gordon and his love interest Dale Arden to board the spacecraft and confront Ming The Merciless, Mongo’s tyrannical dictator. Flash, Dale, and Dr. Hans take part in a number of adventures with Mongo’s various kingdoms, including a flying city ruled by the Hawk Men and the Forest Kingdom headed by Prince Barin.
Raymond’s Flash Gordon is considered by historians and sci-fi art researchers to be one of the most comprehensive characters. When Worlds Collide, by Philip Wylie, was Raymond’s primary source of inspiration for Flash Gordon. This film is devoted to the originator of modern superheroes and a classic pulp superhero.
Before Flash Gordon, There Was Buck Rogers
Before radio, television, films, and the internet, there existed something that gave people doses of science fiction and fantasy; as you may have correctly guessed, it was the pulp fiction magazines like Air Wonder Stories and Amazing Stories. These pulp magazines packed a bunch of thrilling and exciting tales, at least by the standards of the early 1900s. The granddads of today’s fantasy geeks spent their time going on adventures with the likes of John Carter of Mars and Tarzan. People back then would live in the world of fantasy through these classic heroes and travel to far-off places and into the realm of anarchic jungles, depths of space, and even beyond that. You have to consider the fact that the pulp magazines were the only source of these superhero stories. Naturally, they enjoyed the same love as enjoyed by the comics and movies of our contemporary times.
A 1928 issue of Amazing Stories featured a story titled Armageddon 2412 AD written by Philip Francis Nowlan. The star of this story was Anthony Rogers, later renamed Buck Rogers. In 1929, the John F. Dille Company hired Nowlan and cartoonist Richar Calkins to expand the story and convert the novella into a comic strip. John F. Dille Company used to provide content to local and outside newspapers.
This gave Buck Rogers a pan US publicity and exposure, and because Buck was an uber-cool and novel character set in the early twenty-fifth century, he took the then superhero world by storm and transformed into a pop culture icon of sorts. Buck Rogers essentially became the progenitor of today’s superheroes. Nowlan’s other story, titled The Airlords of Han, also starred Anthony Rogers as the hero. According to the original story, however, Anthony or Buck Rogers revolved was a mine inspector who got stuck in a cave-in and inhaled a mysterious gas. After which, he went into a coma for almost 500 years. After the success of Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon entered the scene in 1934 and competed with Buck Rogers to dominate the world of comic strips.
Flash Gordon Spaceman Hero of the Science Fiction Comic Strip
As mentioned in the previous entry, the Buck Rogers comic strip was a hit. Naturally, other business houses wanted to ride this wave, and King Features Syndicate decided to have their own science fiction comics to compete with Buck. They first attempted to buy the rights of John Carter of Mars but the deal couldn’t come to fruition. So, they contacted one of their own artist named Alex Raymond, to create a story and its character. Raymond’s primary inspiration for Flash Gordon came from Philip Wylie’s 1933 novel When Worlds Collide.
In this novel, an athletic young man travels with his girlfriend and a scientist to another planet. As soon as the comics hit the stands in 1934, they became an instant sensation. In fact, Flash Gordon would go on to become one of the most popular comic strip characters of the 1930s. Soon, there were licensed products, coloring books, toys, etc. would you be surprised to know that the Flash Gordon comic strip ran for 59 years from 1934 to 1992, and the Sunday strips ran for 69 years till 2003? While King Features Syndicate is still syndicating reprints.
Several publishers like King Comics, Charlton Comics, Gold Key Comics, etc., regularly published Flash Gordon stories. In 1988, DC Comics published a nine-issue miniseries written by Dan Jurgens. This story changed Flash Gordon from a polo player to a basketball player, and Mongo was no more on a collision course with Earth, although Ming was still a bad guy. In 1995, Marvel Comics published a two-issue miniseries that Mark Schultz wrote. Dark Horse Comics started to reprint Flash Gordon comics in 2010, while a year later, Dynamite Entertainment published a new series titled Flash Gordon Zeitgeist. They also published a spin-off describing Ming’s backstory and titled it Merciless: The Rise of Ming.
Flash Gordon Origin Explained
The comic strips revolved around the handsome polo player and Yale alumnus Flash Gordon and his companions Dr. Hans Zarkov and Dale Arden. When Zarkov learned that a planet named Mongo was on a collision course with Earth, he invented a rocket to fly into space and reach Mongo to stop Earth’s impending disaster by halting the collision. He turned almost crazy because of the threat and kidnapped Gordon and Arden. They manage to stop the collision but come face to face with Mongo’s evil and ruthless ruler Ming the Merciless.
In the time that Flash Gordon spent on Mongo, he came in contact with several different peoples and aliens on Mongo, like Prince Barin and his forest kingdom of Arboria, Queen Fria and her ice kingdom of Frigia, Queen Desir and her jungle kingdom of Tropica, King Kala and his underwater kingdom of shark men, etc. Flash and his allies manage to overthrow Ming the Merciless, and the planet is then reigned by a council of leaders that Barin led. Later on, Flash and his friends would come back to Earth before returning to Mongo, only to go on further adventures to different worlds.
Apart from Ming the Merciless, Flash fought several other villains like the witch queen Azura, Ming’s callous son Kang the Cruel, Pyron the Comet Master, etc., and during the 70s, Flash’s recurring and prime nemesis was Baron Dak Tula. Flash Gordon doesn’t possess any superpowers, but he is a man of great valor and dedication who performs superheroic tasks. As he used to be a professional athlete on Earth, he is very agile and strong with good stamina. But most importantly, he is an efficient leader who combines his intellect with the combat skills like marksmanship and swordsmanship. In the later versions, he also became an astronaut and traveled to planets other than Mongo.
Live-Action Adaptations
Buster Crabbe starred in three Flash Gordon serial films. The 1936 film Flash Gordon was later turned into a feature-length film titled Flash Gordon or Rocket Ship or Flash Gordon: Spaceship to the Unknown or Space Soldiers. The 1938 serial film Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars was later released as Flash Gordon: The Deadly Ray from Mars. And the 1940 film Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe was condensed into a feature-length film titled The Purple Death from Outer Space. The 1954 live-action TV series starred Steve Holland as the titular character.
Interestingly, the show was filmed in West Berlin and showed the real-life destruction in Germany because of the second world war. The first 26 episodes were filmed less than a decade after the war, and the destruction was still afresh. The last 13, however, were filmed in France. The series was set in the year 3202, and Flash, Dale, and Zarkov worked for the Galactic Bureau of Investigation.
Even this show was later recut into a film in 1957. In 2007, when the Sci-Fi channel premiered the Flash Gordon television series Eric Johnson, who is also known for his work on Smallville, played the titular character, while the Fantastic Four and Alien vs. Predator Requiem star Gina Holden Dale. Unfortunately, the show was canceled in 2008. However, in 1980 director Mike Hodges released the film Flash Gordon, starring Sam J. Jones as Flash Gordon, Melody Anderson as Dale Arden, Max von Sydow as Emperor Ming the Merciless, and Topol as Hans Zarkov. One of the most notable features of the film is that the film’s music was given by the British rock band Queen.
Flash Gordon (1980)
In the film, Emperor Ming the Merciless of the planet Mongo wished to get rid of his boredom, and he thought of the novel idea of having some fun by remotely causing natural disasters on Earth to annihilate it. Meanwhile, in New York, the New York Jets football star Flash Gordon was traveling in a plane with Dale Arden that got hit by a meteorite. After the plane lost its pilots, Flash Gordon managed to crash land it into a greenhouse that Dr. Hans Zarkov owned. According to Zarkov, an alien entity was pushing the moon towards the Earth, which was causing natural disasters. He had secretly built a spacecraft and wished to use it soon to investigate his theory.
Zarkov lured Flash and Dale to come aboard his spacecraft, which then launches to reach Mongo, only to be captured by Ming the Merciless’s troops. Ming ordered Dale to be presented later for his pleasure while Zarkov was to be reprogrammed and Flash executed. However, Ming’s daughter Aura fell in love with Flash at first sight, and she tricked Ming’s men and helped Flash escape captivity. Together, they escape to Arboria, the kingdom ruled by Barin. Flash then learned to use the telepathic communicator and helped Dale escape from Ming’s bed-chamber. As Dale and Zarkov were escaping from the city, they get captured by the hawk-men of Prince Vultan and are taken to the Sky City. Meanwhile, at Arboria, Prince Barin wanted to kill Flash indirectly by making him perform a deadly ritual.
Flash tried to escape from there, but Barin followed. However, both of them get captured by the hawk-men. When Aura returns to Mingo City, she is captured on account of treason and is sentenced to spend her life on the ice moon Frigia. Back in the Sky City, Flash and Barin are forced to fight a deathmatch, but Flash saves Barin’s life, hence earning his loyalty and trust. Soon, Ming’s metal-faced head of police named Klytus arrived at Sky City to kill Flash and take Dale to Ming. However, Flash and Barin kill him.
When Ming later arrived at the scene, he gets impressed with Flash’s achievements and offers him an opportunity to rule Earth in return for his loyalty. Naturally, Flash declined the offer, and Ming ordered Sky City to be destroyed along with Flash. However, before the city could be destroyed, he escaped in a rocket and found Vultan in Arboria, where Flash hatches an elaborate plan to take down Ming. Together with Barin, Vultan, Dale, Zarkov, and Aura, Flash Gordon manages to save the day and halt Earth’s impending destruction.
Unofficial Films
Apart from these, there were two unofficial films based on Flash Gordon. In 1967, there was a B Movie styled Turkish adaptation named Flash Gordon’s Battle in Space. In 2013, director Robb Pratt made an animated fan film titled Flash Gordon Classic.
Animated Versions
The New Adventures of Flash Gordon (1979)
Star Wars was released in the year 1977 and was a mammoth success; naturally, other people also wanted to bathe in its glory. As a reaction to Star Wars, Filmation produced Flash Gordon in 1979. The series was originally titled Flash Gordon but to distinguish it from the previous versions, they use the expanded name officially. It featured several of the original characters and remained largely true to its print source material. As far as the story is concerned, Flash and his friends travel to Mongo, where they are forced to battle Ming the Merciless. During his adventures, Flash meets several original characters like the leader of the Lion People, King Thun, Prince Barin. King Vultan, etc.
Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All (1982)
Written by Samuel A. Peeples and produced by Filmation, this animated television film held rather serious tones for a film meant for children. Interestingly enough, this one was set during the second world war, and the basic plot revolves around Ming supplying arms and ammunition to Adolf Hitler in an attempt to divide and rule Earth.
Defenders of the Earth (1986)
The show majorly revolved around the adventures of the Defenders against their archenemy named Ming the Merciless, who wished for several things like annihilating Earth, eliminating the Defenders, and sometimes taking control of the universe itself. Apart from Flash Gordon, the show featured Mandrake, The Phantom, Lothar, and younger Defenders like Lothar Junior, Jedda Walker, Rick Gordon, and Kshin.
In the show’s pilot episode, Flash Gordon crash-lands in his spacecraft just outside Lothar and Mandrake’s mansion. He had come to Earth to warn them about Ming’s impending attack on Earth because his own planet of Mongo was running out of resources. Later, Flash, Mandrake, and Lothar go to the Phantom to seek his help. The basic premise of the show is Ming the Merciless trying out various weapons and conspiracies to seek control of Earth and the Defenders of the Earth thwarting his evil plans.
Flash Gordon (1996)
In this series, Flash and Dale are teenage children of US airforce personnel who get trapped on Mongo after thwarting one of his attempts to destroy Earth.
Future
What was supposed to be an animated Flash Gordon film two years ago is now set to be released as a live-action film by Taika Waititi. The Thor Ragnarok director is reportedly a huge fan of Flash Gordon and was heavily inspired by the 1980 film as a child. There’s no news about the cast or a release date, but the film should be in theatres probably by the end of next year. However, this is mere speculation. As far as the cast is concerned, we are yet to hear from the executives or the Kiwi director. But since Taika holds the reigns to the film, it wouldn’t come off as a surprise if Chris Hemsworth is cast as Flash Gordon, Thessa Thomson as Dale, and the Grandmaster Jeff Goldblum as Zarkov. All of these actors have worked with Waititi and would suit perfectly in their respective roles.