| Flash
Gordon Conquers Universal
Pictures: The
3rd Serial |
| Ch.
12: One Evil Plot Too Many |
|
Ming
orders Lady Sonja to prepare something secret
and ominous for "...the
wife of an emperor!" |
Alex Raymond's readers possibly remembered
the fate of Ming's other wife --
Sonja! |
|
Dale's
rescue, after her abduction from Frigia, ignited an already-smouldering revolt
against Ming on Sunday. | Zarkov
has no trouble recruiting his fellow scientists
to rebel against the Emperor
on Saturday. |
|
The Earthpeople
and their allies barricade
themselves in Ming's labs. |
The Earthpeople and their allies barricaded
themselves in Ming's munitions
factory. |
|
Alex
Raymond would depose Emperor Ming in
1941,
with the aid of the
Power Men of Mongo . |
Universal Pictures uses secret patriots, and Ming's
own scientists, to rush
the revolution in 1940. |
|
Flash
and his movie pals still rely on secret tunnels,
ridiculous disguises, and
dumb soldiers. |
Flash relied on the same things, plus lots
of dumb luck, in the newspapers. |
|
In
the Sunday pages, Ming used his ultra-scientific weaponry ruthlessly against any
and all opposition. | Flash
attempts to save both Earth and Mongo by
hijacking Ming's latest super-rocket
on Saturday. |
Movie
Ming knows he's in trouble when Zarkov abandons the lab in the doctor's own craft. | If
Zarkov wanted a Rocket Ship in the
comics, he had to steal one. |
|
Alex Raymond's
Ming was powerful beyond belief. | Flash
turns Ming's power against him in the movies. |
|
Captain
Sudan
seizes his chance, and locks
the tyrant in the emergency control tower. | Ming
was unaware of how much his infrastructure
was compromised, in both strip and
serial. |
|
The Newspaper
Strip and Universal Serial diverge once more!
During the summer of 1940,
Alex Raymond's Powermen of Mongo charted it's own course for another year,
while
Universal Pictures had to film an ending to Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe. |
|
Lady Sonja
is in Ming's secure tower room,
as they try to salvage the situation. | Flash
Gordon flies Ming's Solarite ship
towards that same isolated tower. |
|
Flash bails
out, and his friends welcome
him aboard Zarkov's ship. | Sonja
is still following Ming as their
doom rockets towards them. |
|
Flash, Dale,
Zarkov, and Barin, along with Aura, watch
as the princess' father is blown
to smithereens. | The
Earthpeople banter about, tell jokes,
and talk about "Arboria, then HOME!" |
|
So
What Happened to Flash Gordon NEXT? |
|
The
movie studio hinted at a future serial when Captain Sudan mentioned a possible
route of escape for Emperor Ming, but WWII changed the worlds of entertainment
and reality -- King Features Syndicate brought Flash Gordon back to Planet
Earth in 1941; Alex Raymond permanently quit the strip in 1944; and Television
made theatrical chapter serials obsolete by the 1950's. Ironically Buster Crabbe's
Flash Gordon was a bona fide hit on early TV, unlike the painfully
cheap Steve Holland series.
After WWII, Raymond drew a realistic detective
named Rip Kirby, but that is a whole other story. | 
Art
by Mac Raboy circa 1948
| Austin
Briggs and Mac Raboy both drew excellent Flash Gordon Sunday pages, set
in outer space again.
Dan Barry and Bob Fujitani carried on in both daily
and Sunday strips, eventually followed by Jim Keefe until 2003, after which only
reprints of Keefe's work were syndicated.
Other Flash Gordon movies,
TV series, and animated cartoons were attempted over the decades with mixed results.
There were some noteworthy Flash Gordon comic books with artwork by Reed
Crandall, Gil Kane, Al Williamson etc, but there's more to say then there's space
to say it. | |
