Share this
Mad Cave Studios has reunited us with another classic franchise. Well, it was not just one franchise but an amalgam of franchises that made a newer franchise in the 80s with a great theme song! It’s the Defenders of the Earth, and it’s not the show you remembered!
It Wasn’t a Flash in the Pan
This #1 starts hard with extra pages starting in the past. Dan Didio does not pull any punches. In fact, he takes us to places we wouldn’t expect with us still wearing nostalgic rose-colored glasses from decades past. War is war, and it’s blatantly shown with visceral carnage shown on the paneled pages. It goes both ways, with the stakes set high, and it is balanced on both the hero’s and villain’s sides.
Making My Head “Ming”
Time jumps a few years after the big battle, and the story now picks up with Rick, Flash Gordon’s son, as he is trying to spend time with his father, but Flash has “gone corporate” aloft his ivory tower of business with no time for his family, friends or even former allies.
FLASH GORDON!
Mandrake, Lothor, and The Phantom all long to change their own pace in life and decide to go their own ways. Since the battle four years ago, there has been no use for heroes. Which has led to an empathetic world. Even the other sidekicks aren’t following in their masters’ footsteps. Kit (The Phantom) longs for life back in Africa, Lothor is going back to his Seven Nations, and Mandrake wants to perform on stage again. The only problem is there is already a Phantom in Africa… and no one knows where Jedda is either…
Thoughts from Monitor
Like I said ” This isn’t your DADDIES CARTOON SHOW”. in the first few pages, the major characters… suffer. Plot twists do not cease in this first issue: Ming, Flash, PhanTOMS, holograms. It’s all over the place, but that leads to a great shaky start to come back from.
The art is very colorful but is missing some sort of texture. I’m unsure if it was trying too hard to look like the cartoon or harder to NOT look like it. It was just “there.”
Defenders of the Earth #1 gets 8.5 out of 10 Signet Rings
After a second glance, I noticed a QR code that takes you to a short prologue, greatly adding to the 8-issue story. To be honest, I would have just added it in the book and gone for an extended or double issue #1
Are you excited that the DoE are back? Was that banger of a theme song stuck in your head since the first page? How do you feel the storyline MIGHT go? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and please consider following me personally at OFF THE CUFF TOM on social media. Don’t forget to support your LCS and morph back to the Nerd Initiative for all your Pop Culture Positivity!
