io9: mongo

Only Flash Gordon Can Save Us In Iraq

Graeme McMillan — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:30:00 PDT

He may have saved everyone of us and stand for every one of us, but can Flash Gordon survive a new incarnation that attempts to make his adventures on the unfortunately-named planet of Mongo into a political allegory for the Iraq war? That's just one of the aims of the new Flash Gordon comic book, coming this summer from new publisher Ardden Entertainment. Find out more and look at some preview art under the jump.

The new series is written by former employee of the Weinstein Brothers' Dimension Films company, Brendan Deneen, with art by newcomer Paul Green, and is setting its aims... uncertainly, as Deneen explains:

While remaining true to the spirit of Alex Raymond's incredible creations, I'm looking to craft a story and world where our unsuspecting heroes come face-to-face with unimaginable threats and breathtaking landscapes (aided in no small part by Paul Green's amazing artwork). At the same time, the civil war on Mongo, and Ming's certainty that he is doing what's right for the 'insurgents' battling him, will ring true to anyone who's been paying attention to world events over the last five or so years.

Has anyone really been waiting for a "Ming The Merciless is really Saddam Hussein" moment? Does this mean that we're going to discover that Mongo really didn't have any weapons of mass-hawkman destruction after all? Is Prince Baron really a stand-in for Barack Obama? The answers to potentially some of those questions await you when the book launches in August.

Flash Gordon #1 Preview [Newsarama]

Top Ten Most Realistic Planets in Science Fiction

Meredith Woerner — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:55:00 PDT

One of the worst examples of unrealistic science in movies is the overly simple alien planet. Oftentimes, our heroes will visit the desert planet, or the Irish planet. But the best extraterrestrial worlds in science fiction are the ones with variety and a realistic ecosystem. They have cities as well as countryside, and a range of environments. Here's our guide to the most realistic — and interesting — planets in science fiction.

Mongo

Meredith Woerner — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:31:54 PDT

Mongo is by far the planet with the most varied ecosystems. Flash Gordon gets to visit Arboria with the forest people, Frigia with its sexy Snow Queen Fria, Coralia the underwater kingdom, Tropica, Sky City with its winged Hawk Men, and the Land of Lion Men. There can never be a dull moment when you live in Mongo. Have a Hawk Man fly you to the alps of Frigia to go skiing every weekend and then have lunch in the trees of Arboria. It's weird that the ultra-campy and unrealistic Flash Gordon achieves ultra-realism in just this one way.

Can Flash Gordon Be Saved?

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:35:19 PST

So the SciFi Channel just wound up the first season of Flash Gordon on Friday, and it's clear they're ramping up for a second season. No announcements that the show has been canceled, plus we ended on a serious cliffhanger. There was a lot to complain about in this episode, though we were mollified slightly by the random appearance of a green warrior lady who hits on Ming and makes him her bitch. This show has been our guilty pleasure for months, but one cannot thrive on guilt alone. If SciFi is going to keep Flash going, things need to change. Here are our recommendations for five ways this show could be saved.

1. More better aliens. This is a cheesy show, and when it embraces its cheesiness via silly alien culture, Flash is at its best. Some of the best episodes delved into the goofy/fun alien groups on Mongo, like the Hawkmen who fly using their magical Gwar capes. And who didn't love the Frigia episode with the ice worm and crazy blue ice ladies? The costumes on this show have always been one of its best features, and more aliens = more costumes = more fun for us, the audience.

2. More Baylin. Not only is Baylin fun to watch, but she's a great character: an assassin with a troubled past who acts a little dorktastic on Earth (she doesn't know the local customs, OK?) but is the gang's fearless leader on Mongo. She's kind of like Xena, and we love that. Give her more back story, let her get her Xena on, and for godssake give her more screen time than the lackluster Dale.

3. Make Aura the ruler of Mongo. The petulant Deviate brother subplot is annoying and dull. OK, so he's a poor wittle outcast. OK, so he's some kind of revolutionary leader. And now, as we were shown ever-so-unsubtly in Friday's finale, he's going to be just as authoritarian a leader as Ming. Aura needs to get tough, slit that fucker's throat, and really become a girl that daddy can be proud of.

4. Total Ming makeover. Seriously, folks, the whole Ming the Micromanager thing was a bad idea. We love the campy, bizarro, sparkly-eyeshadow, long-nailed, moustachioed, flowing cape Ming. That is the WHOLE FREAKING POINT of Ming. It makes him both evil and amusing to watch. I'm not saying turn him back into the crappy Asian stereotype Ming of the 1930s. But now that he's hanging out with the hot savage green queen chick, it's your chance to believably change his whole wardrobe and give him a new look. He should get some crazy clothes and a wild look. Maybe he can even start exhibiting some Deviate mutations. And let John Ralston, that poor actor who plays Ming, do something other than pursed-lip acting. We know he has it in him! Let the dude rip!

5. And hey, how about a little coherent world-building? While we're adding more cool aliens, why not actually flesh out the back story of Mongo itself and all the nearby worlds? We know there was this moment in the past where Mongo-ians were mining one of the moons. Are there other inhabited planets around? Why isn't there any space travel in this show? I'm not asking for bad voiceover explanations, or a moment where somebody says, "Well back in history we did blah blah blah." I'm saying give us an interesting plot arc that has to do with Mongo as a civilization. Or take us outside Mongo to a moon or other planet, so we have some perspective. Make Mongo more interesting, dammit!

"All Mongo All The Time"

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:21:04 PDT

Flash Gordon producer Peter Hume says he's heard the millions of complaints about his show, and plans to set things right. In a recent press conference, he said:

The two big complaints were Ming isn't strong enough or mean enough, and that it's not enough Mongo. We're all Mongo all the time now.

He also played the "pity us for our tiny budget" card, whining that Flash Gordon only has one-fifth the budget of its SciFi Channel sister show Battlestar Galactica. Then he ranted incoherently about Chuck, one of the only science fiction shows whose ratings have been going steadily up this season.

Hume said:

You can't compare us to Battlestar Galactica. That's not fair. It's not fair because you're going to judge a show on the show. And so you could compare us to Chuck, but what we're doing is with so much less than they have. I'm not asking for that as an excuse. I'm just saying that there's a reality of what we have to operate in and there's only so much visual effects we can do.

Um, yeah. I'm always going to judge a show on the show. That just makes good sense. But I'm looking forward to more Mongo. And hopefully more Hawkmen! Caw! Caw!

Flash Gordon to Spend More Time on Mongo [via SyFy Portal]