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

What is most fascinating about this issue is that the bulk of the story is told from Ming’s point of view, something not seen in this series as of yet. Most of it is just Ming ruminating on Flash Gordon and the challenge he presents and for readers, it is quite interesting to get inside the villain’s head, giving him the most characterization he has seen in the title thus far. He wonders why Flash is so tenacious and why he refuses to quit when Ming is superior in every way, especially given that he had not only conquered Mongo and all of its peoples but death itself. When last seen, Flash had been stabbed by Aura and after arriving at her apartment, Ming is finally within reach of defeating the hero once and for all. Suffice it to say, despite Flash doing his best, he is unable to best Ming given his current condition. From there, Flash is tortured so that Ming might discern where the resistance is and rid himself of their annoyance. That being said, Flash is being quite persistent with his silence and so a trap is set using Flash as bait and while readers might think Dale and the rest of those aligned against Ming might walk right into it, they would be wrong. Revealed in this issue, by author Dan Jurgens and in Ming’s own words is the secret behind his long life, the machine which rejuvenates and resurrects him over and over again. It is this little bit of foreshadowing which plays into the events during the latter half of the book for as it turns out, Flash Gordon dies and more conventional methods of bringing him back to life fail. Killing off one’s main character is usually not a good thing, especially when the series still has more issues to come and in the case of this book, there is one more but Jurgens obviously has a plan and for those reading this, it means sticking around to find out. The artwork is as solid as always, Jurgens puts a fair amount of action in the book, not to mention a bit of infighting amongst the allies on what to do next now that Flash has been caught by Ming and all of it put together makes for a delightful comic. While the series might have started out a little less than it could have been, it has been quite exciting the further it has moved on and this book was no exception.

4 out of 5