Ming The Merciless!

Dynamite  Comics has done quite a bit with the King Features characters, most notably Flash Gordon. In fact there seem to be two versions of Flash even at Dynamite -- a version designed for the crossovers with other heroes and the version crafted by Alex Ross in celebration (nigh worship) of the Dino DeLaurentis movie version of the story. There seem to be two comic series dedicated to the latter, one featuring Flash as its protagonist and then there's a four-issue event called merely Merciless -- The Rise of Ming.

In these comics written by Scott Beatty we travel back in time to when Ming was just Prince Ming under the thumb of his father Emperor Krang. The brisk quartet of tales relates how Ming uses his wits and savage ability to kill to solidify the world of Mongo in anticipation of his inevitable rise to power.

We see him dominate the Hawkmen and weirdly put Vultan into power, we see him challenge the Shark-Men and reconstruct the basic way in which that society fits into the larger empire, and we see him utterly destroy an entire race of Mongo, wiping them literally off the face of the planet.  This is a ruthless Ming, willing to kill anyone who he feels needs to die in order for his power to remain unassailable.

It's that latter point which did bother as the story leads up right to the beginning of Ming's clash with Earth and his nemesis Flash Gordon, and it's that Ming's utter bloodthirstiness and his cavalier manner is dispatching even those loyal to him but who have failed in some small regard making him less credible to me as a leader. I just cannot fathom how a man keeps power by killing everyone, even those who have talents and skills he might need. It makes for nifty drama, but it's literally overkill in  my opinion. But on the other hand it is a quartet of stories that live up the title for sure. These are a prequel of sorts for another Dynamite series called Flash Gordon Zeitgesit -- more on that tomorrow. 

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