Flash Gordon Spoiled Me for GQuuuuuuX

Recently I've gotten into Dan Schkade's run of Flash Gordon. Not because I have some deep connection to the franchise. In fact at the risk of being stoned or shunned from nerd circles forever more I haven't actually seen the 80s movie. But in a Discord server where we're all nodding along to Heathcliff and pulling our hair out over Mary Worth, someone dropping Flash Gordon in hit us like a thunderbolt.

Dan Schkade makes telling a stories with four panels a day look easy.

And in this time I've been following along with GQuuuuuuX and after an extremely strong start I found myself cooling rapidly on the show and now... I sort of don't have much to say. Mostly out of self control. Anything I would say is pretty negative and I fear it would be from judging the show by comparison to the show I wanted, not judging the show on its own merits. And while it might be a useful comparison, it makes me think back to my initial negative impressions of Gundam Evolution from it not being the ideal game in my head instead of judging it on its own merits as a hero shooter, at which point I did come around on the game.

And I've also realized that one of the things that left me cool on GQuuuuuuX is that I was spoiled by my exposure to Flash Gordon.

Dan Schkade's run of Flash Gordon actually starts at the final battle against Ming the Merciless. Flash, Dale, and Zarkov have already landed on Planet Mongo to stop Ming from destroying the Earth, they've already formed the alliance under Ming's daughter Aura to overthrow him. Largely, the comic isn't about the battle against Ming.

It's about the world after him. And it drops an ominous reminder early:

Because Flash Gordon begins about 20 minutes before most movies would roll the credits, it shows that there is no end to history. Ming's rule drove the rulers to temporarily set aside their disagreements- but those preexisting relationships never went away.

I'm trying to explain and keep a light touch about the spoilers, so:

At this stage in the comic, the alliance that had formed against Ming looks like it's fraying apart. Queen Fria of frozen Frigia has turned against the Hawkmen and conquered Sky City. But why?

Fria left her kingdom to fight for the alliance. The mineral resources of her lands had been drained for years by the greed of outsiders, and now even after Ming has gone that greed does not abate. Worse, that greed even endangers the capital as it awakens a goddamn kaiju. So what has she gained? Whether it's Ming, the Hawkmen, outlaw miners, or corrupt Frigian nobles, someone is still trying to plunder her lands and carry its wealth away for themselves. And then their shortsighted greed makes her a widow.

In her grim, grief-stricken logic, it's clear: Things won't change unless she forces them to change.

It's a development I find all the more compelling for how grounded it is. Exploitation, and injury done long ago. Making common cause against one foe doesn't make different groups or nations into friends all on its own.

Another thing that helps in this is the reminders from the comic that Ming didn't simply vanish and take all his works with him.

His statues still are scattered around the planet.

Aura couldn't purge everyone who had known her father out of their positions. Various positions in the government are still held by those who knew Ming.

Fanatics in Ming's Death Patrol are still fighting the war. Hunting Flash and his allies, waiting to trap deserters or traitors.

The Power Men remind us that society has to be kept going, and they'll keep it that way. Highly skilled and above all organized labor that will stand up to authority if they must.

And then there's the Tales from Lowland Station arc. A special series done by guest artists about a group of strangers trapped by a storm in a bar, with their only thing in common being that they all encountered Flash Gordon. We get to see Gordon from the view of some of the common people and not the Big Names he often brushes up against. And while he starts out as a jerk, I really enjoyed Galo's story being a part of it.

A reminder that even the people being helped have their own lives, their own way of viewing things. Even with the darkness of living under a tyrant, maybe they had found some comfort or just the pride in themselves enough to keep going.

I hope that's getting across some of what I find so compelling about Flash Gordon. And initially, GQuuuuuuX seemed to have a similar focus to it.

Nyaan's bio on the official site jumped out to me as I read it. The One Year Wars wreaked a lot of havoc in space. Space colonies were damaged or destroyed, and where did those people go? Well Nyaan ran from the destruction of her home, found one of the small-scale suits used for construction, and fled. And she wasn't the only one.

What happens to these people? They flow into neutral colonies, collecting into slums, but what do you do with them? You're in space. A major war only recently ended. There's not a nearby line on the map to force them over, someone would have to pay for a ship because this is an entirely enclosed colony. It should have set up an interesting conflict between Machu and Nyaan. For Machu, the One Year War impacted her life, sure, but it was something that happened elsewhere. For Nyaan, the One Year War took her home away from her, and because of it now she breaks the law to make ends meet and has to endure the abuse from the station's police.

We're also reminded that Zeon isn't really that strong of a government even after it "wins" the One Year War. Left in poor economic conditions, still negotiating its stance with the neutral colonies left to work with the mess it made of space.

Life on the colony is also presented with this blend of physicality and mundanity that I also find compelling. They're in space, the stars are beneath their feet more than they are above their head. The shot looking up the height of the skyscrapers but down onto the Sodon Green Base is quietly one of my favorites in a long time.

And we even see more hints of people's thoughts and lives outside of the named characters in previous series. Shiiko just reflexively denying Newtypes might exist since it's all just Zeon popaganda is exactly the sort of worldbuilding details that I wanted to see in a new Gundam series trying to talk about this era of the Universal Century, even an alternate one.

But... that's not really what GQuuuuuuX is about. The first 1/3rd and the last 2/3rds feel like different shows crammed awkwardly together. One that wants to explore life after a major war, and then one that's an endless stream of references to shows I've already watched telling me the creators also watched those shows. Which isn't what I wanted out of GQuuuuuuX and isn't what got me initially excited about the show.

So yeah, in that sense, I think that Flash Gordon absolutely spoiled my expectations for GQuuuuuuX.

Also, just to touch on the aforementioned Tales from Lowland Station arc, the recap of the finale is one of my favorite entries from Flash Gordon: