January 1987
Good Guys: Mandrake, Lothar, Phantom, Flash Gordon
Bad Guy: Ming the Merciless
Cameos: LJ, Kshin, Rick Gordon, Dale Gordon, Kro-Tan, Zuffy, Jedda
Synopsis
Writer: Stan Lee assisted by Bob Harras
Penciler: Alex Saviuk
Flash Gordon crashes his space rocket within the grounds of Mandrake and Lothar’s home. Robots come after him but Mandrake creates the illusion that Flash has ran off and flown away again.
Flash explains that his wife and son have been kidnapped by Ming the Merciless and that the Kingdom of Mongo is preparing to invade Earth.
Rick Gordon escapes his cell with the help of Zuffy a Mongo creature, but his mother, Dale, is recaptured.
Mandrake enlists the help of the Phantom and they head for Mongo in Flash’s repaired ship. They come under attack from Ming’s fleet. Mandrake creates some illusions so that many Earth ships appear. The fleet takes aim and attacks their own city as the blasts pass through the imaginary ships.
Ming flees and sets up an earth base in the arctic leaving behind Flash Gordon as he mourns his wife’s death. Zuffy finds a crystal harboring Dale’s life essence inside. Flash vows to discover its secrets but in the meantime the foursome become the “Defenders of the Earth”.
Rating: 5/10
Written by the great man Stan Lee. This was an establishment issue setting up the series. At the time of the issue there was an animated cartoon of the same name.
Very corny, but it was great to see the Phantom, clearly the strongest character of the foursome, in a sci-fi type comic. The way they got Dale Gordon out of the way so that we could have four men and their children in future stories was amusing.
Favorite Panel:
Corny…
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