Writer – Dan Jurgens
Artist – Dan Jurgens
Inker – Bruce D. Patterson
Colours – Anthony Tollin
Letters – John Workman

After being thrown to his death while in Arboria, Flash only survives thanks to a bit of skill and an amazing amount of luck. It then leads to him making peace with Barin and being healed by the people who did the throwing and just when it seems like he is getting somewhere, Ming shows up and Zarkov is shown to be alive and well. Ming has a deal for Flash and it consists of the man working for him instead of against him while Zarkov fixes their rocket and finds them a way back home to Earth. As for Dale, she is still with Prince Thun but things are not going so well as Ming has sent emissaries forth to capture Dale and teach Thun’s people a lesson, a most permanent exercise. Dale then finds herself in a floating city where events repeat themselves and she is treated as a sexual object until Flash is finally able to rescue her. Taking refuge in Aura’s apartment, they come together as one much to Aura’s chagrin and then find themselves in a most perilous position. Dan Jurgens crafts yet another fun issue with this book, there being a lot of action and a few moments of levity to keep things light and moving along at a good pace. There is one negative that hampers this particular tale and the series as a whole, it is all the popular references he continually inserts throughout, most of them being quite dated and they do not hold up as well as they might have if they were more general in nature. There is also a moment in the book when Flash and Dale talk about her being a protester in the nineteen-sixties which tends to age her a lot even though in a best-case scenario, she is only in her late thirties or early forties. Leaving all of this stuff out would have made for a better read, especially for those who may not have been around during the time this book was first released. As it is, everything else in the book was solid and it is nice to see Jurgens exploring Mongo more fully by having the various characters visit all of the different provinces and so forth. Also interesting to see is that Zarkov is alive and well and as the book moves forward, it should be very intriguing to discover just where it is that his loyalties lie and if he helps Dale and Flash get back home.

3 out of 5