Comic Strip / Flash Gordon (2023)

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A reimagining of the classic comic strip created by Alex Raymond, Flash Gordon debuted on October 22, 2023 by writer/artist Dan Schkade.^note Unlike many other retellings of the story, this one starts with a brief prologue before Flash Gordon, Dale Arden, and Dr. Hans Alexis Zarkov and their allies launch their last, desperate attack on the flagship of Ming the Merciless.

The reign of Ming The Merciless is over, but the removal of Mongo's autocrat leaves an unstable power vacuum. The Allied Mongothic Nations, now bereft of a common enemy, have already begun to turn upon each other. Some seek to become the next Ming, while others seek dangerous powers to defend themselves. And the remnants of Ming's reign still function like clockwork, from the sweatshop slavers to the death squads gone rogue. Can Flash Gordon and his new team of international warriors stem the tide of internal conflict, or will the return of Ming be the least devastating blow to the new Alliance?

You can find it here.

Spoilers for the first arc are unmarked.

This comic strip provides examples of:

• 0% Approval Rating: Averted! Ming wasn't exactly loved, but he commands enough loyalty to leave some unsure at the Allied Mongothic Nations' victory, and others contemptuous of Flash for supposedly killing him.
• Action Girl: Queen Fria of Frigia, and a number of female guards and soldiers from the various Mongothic peoples. Even Dale Arden, to an extent.
  • Aura reveals herself as a skilled swordswoman during the Mongothic arc.
• Action Hero: Flash to a T. He is later joined by Bok, giving Team Earth two main fighters.
• Adaptational Villainy: Zigzagged. The original strip showed that Vultan was one of the nastier rulers of Mongo, but he changed course when he allied with Flash and never looked back. Most adaptations tone the nastiness down, but in this one it never fully went away. He was planning on betraying the alliance and seizing power the entire time.
• Affably Evil: Vultan seeks to become the next Ming; he just happens to be far more merciful about it. He attempted to have an innocent man assassinated and allowed another innocent to take the fall. It seems Downplayed at first because the assassination was for his kingdom's benefit, and he knew that Flash would escape, but it turns out that it was all part of an opening move designed to divide the Allied Mongothic Nations so he could conquer them. And all the while, he's boisterous, proud, and in his internal monologue, utterly cheerful about his path of villainy.
• Alas, Poor Villain: The Kiran Assassin was born to it and had no choice. She was turned invisible (stated to be painful), killed the wrong target, was tortured for it, turned invisible again, and defeated by an interloper she underestimated. She was then captured, and implied that she would be killed to keep her from talking.
• All-Loving Hero: Flash found himself on another planet after having been forced there by a desperate man, and then encountered a number of people who tried to enslave and/or kill him. He forgave them all (Ming excepted), and he even became close friends with many of them.
• All Planets Are Earth-Like: Mongo has an atmosphere suitable for humans, and gravity comparable to Earth, as well as a diverse array of biomes that can all be found on Earth in one form or another. Many of the inhabitants are even outwardly identical to humans. However, it has a number of sentient creatures that are definitely not of Earth, and even more monsters.
• Altar Diplomacy: Princess Aura and Prince Barin marry because it would ensure their heirs would be uncontested for the throne of emperor; Prince Barin was the rightful heir of the original lineage of emperors, while Princess Aura was the daughter of Ming the Merciless, who illegitimately became the emperor. (This would be equivalent to one of Napoleon's descendants marrying into the Bourbon family.)
• Amazonian Beauty: Adrane is very beautiful. She is also very jacked.
  • Once we see her out of the worksuit, we see that Edda is also quite pretty. She may not be as muscular as Adrane, but she clearly does some heavy lifting for a living.
• Ambiguously Brown: This version of Prince Barin.
• Ambiguously Jewish: Dale. When she and Prince Ronal discuss holidays, she alludes to Hannukah. The holiday Ronal talks about has vague similarities to Hannukah, but it would be unusual for a non-Jewish person of the time period to think of it.
• Anchored Ship: Flash and Dale aren't together, and Flash tells her that they can't be together because she refuses to tell him why she doesn't want to go back to Earth.
  Flash: I can't be with somebody if they can't trust me. After all this time... can't you?
  • The anchor is lifted at the end of the Mongotic arc. Dale doesn't come clean, but Flash almost losing her again seems to make him figure it doesn't matter.
• And I Must Scream: Major Lingan was an Arborean officer who was taken by the Kirans during the chaos of the last months of the war. It went unnoticed because it was after Ming took Barin. He was brainwashed into becoming a Manchurian Agent, turned against his people. And some part of him was fully aware of it the whole time.
• Anti-Villain: Bones Malock is the sheriff of Borrower's Firth. They have nothing against Flash or his friends, but he came to their town and would benefit them if they held onto him for a while as the political situation sorts out.
• Apologetic Attacker: Dale when fighting one of Ming's Torture Division Death Patrollers.
  Dale: YAAH! Sorry sorry sorry
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Dr. Zarkov accepts the reality of Azura and the Kirans' abilities, but he doesn't believe that it's actually magic. Downplayed because everything else he's seen and done on Mongo has a scientific explanation.
  • Ultimately averted. It turns out that Kiran "magic" is highly advanced technology.
• Arcadia: Downplayed. Arboria lies within the forest rather than beside it, but it is still a place of (relative) peace and safety within the danger of Mongo. Even the perpetually tense Dale relaxes when she comes there.
• Arch-Enemy: Flash to Ming, as in all versions of the story.
  Ming: Hah. Oh, simple Prince Barin... as if I'd ever surrender if Flash Gordon were alive to see it. Draw your steel, Earthman.
• As You Know: Dale recounts their experiences with Queen Azura to Zarkov as they discuss the possibility that she's behind the murder of Ming II.
• Asshole Victim: Ming II was a textbook Royal Brat who was so incompetent and arrogant that Ming disowned him. When he's assassinated after crashing his sister's wedding, nobody sheds a tear, including the Ming loyalists.
• "Ass" in "Ambassador": Downplayed. Ambassador Velle largely looks down on the Lion Men, but she's professional enough to keep her views to herself. Ultimately Averted entirely, as Velle pulls a Heel–Face Turn.
• The Atoner: Though he was right about Mongo and the threat it posed to Earth, Dr. Zarkov feels incredibly guilty about how he forced Flash and Dale on a one-way trip to another planet because of his rampant paranoia. He is determined to make it up to them one day.
• Avenging the Villain: Downplayed. Jailmaster Rachus doesn't go so far as to kill Flash for (supposedly) killing Ming, but he happily defies orders and tosses him into the harshest part of the Tombs, instead of elite holding as he was ordered.
• Bald of Authority: Ergon is the leader of the Power Men, who maintain the infrastructure that supports all five million of Mongo City's inhabitants. That makes him a leader almost on par with one of Mongo's royals.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Ming is somehow able to breathe acid.
• Beast Man: Descriptively-Named Species is in full effect.^note Might have something to do with the emperor of the planet being a racist jerk.
  • Lion Men worship the hunt, even in their suborned mobile fortresses.
  • Shark Men pride themselves in finding ways to win wars 'craftily'.
  • Snake Men have a human face inside their snake heads, and are famous for their crafts.
  • Dragon Men look like blue gargoyles.
  • Hawk Men are mostly human, but have explicitly hawk-shaped wings.
• Big Bad: Ming the Merciless, as befits a Flash Gordon story.
• Big Damn Heroes: When Dr. Zarkov found that Dale was taken by Azura, he frantically contacted Prince Thun. Thun was able to get to Dale in time to save her from the thousand foot fall Azura subjected her to.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Both Ergon and his little brother Reno have them. It's the only feature they have in common.
• Black Dude Dies First: While he's not the first character in the strip to get killed, Prince Ronal was the first who was on Flash's side.
• Blood Knight: Adrane, though it's unclear how much of that is innate to her nature, and how much is a release valve for the pressure of being Vultan's illegitimate daughter.
• Breaking the Fellowship: This is the main plot trope; with Ming gone, the alliance has begun to fracture into opportunists. Some want to consolidate power, some want to preserve their countries from gentrification, and some believe that Ming's one-world order - forcing the entire planet into interdependence - was the problem. Aura is left desperately trying to convince the factions to transition into The Federation, rather than return to an age of feudalism.
  • Played straight at the conclusion of the Snowsteel arc. Korro's granting extra mining licenses to Kira and Sky City led to the Screaming Storm waking up, which killed a number of Frigians and requiring Prince Ronal to sacrifice himself to stop it. Getting confirmation that Aura lied to her face and Flash went along with it sealed the deal. Frigia is out.
  Queen Fria: Prince Ronal is dead. The ties that bind Frigia to Barin and Aura's empire die with him.
• Break Them by Talking: Ming managed to break Barin. Barin agreed to call on the Allied Mongothic Nations to surrender. Flash's ship crashed into the flagship just after he said it.
• Brutal Honesty: Aura asked Dale a question, and Dale answers honestly, even if she had to muster her courage to do it.
  Dale: Now he has to go up in front of the whole planet and act like he's fine. And maybe... maybe... neither of you is as good at that as you think you are.
• The Bus Came Back: It turns out that Sojas is the founder and leader of the True Heirs of Ming.
  • And again with Dova, who has struck up a relationship with Thun.
  • Ovo and Lonzich from the Snowsteel arc return, the former saving Bok's life and the latter sheltering him while he recovered.
• Call-Back: When Flash reunites with Dale after recovering in the field hospital, his first words to her are "Guess who isn't dead?" When Dale reunites with him and Dr. Zarkov after recovering in the Sky City Sanatorium, her first words to them are "Guess who didn't die?"
• Caption Humor: While most teases for the next day's installment are cryptic phrases suggesting the tone or content, the June 4, 2025 strip, with Bok looming behind Tahl as he gloats, minces no words about what's going to happen. Sure enough, the June 5 strip features Bok holding Tahl's limp knocked-out body.
  NEXT: GENERAL TAHL IS PUNCHED UNCONSCIOUS
• Cavalry Betrayal: Decades ago, the Shark men proposed a temporary alliance with their hated enemies the Lion men against Ming. Except the Shark men were loyal to Ming all along. The Shark men were supposed to be the Lion mens' unexpected reinforcements - they attacked the Lion men in their beds instead.
• The Chain of Harm: Vultus was physically and emotionally abusive towards Vultan. Vultan is somewhat distant towards Adrane, acknowledging her as his daughter but always qualifying her as illegitimate.
• The Chains of Commanding: Fria to a T.
  Narration: Queen Fria steels herself. Tomorrow, her people will look to her to save them. If she can't, she thinks... what's the point of her?
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Kala smuggled a stonesteel rod into the arena vis his wrist strap, and used it to crack his helmet. He then held Flash's wounded shoulder in an armbar, intending to let him drown. He didn't account for Ambassador Velle not having it.
• Chromatic Arrangement: Flash is red, Dr. Zarkov is blue, and Dale is green (and sometimes black).
• Cliffhanger: Used a few times, perhaps most notably when Flash was found standing over Ming II's corpse.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Prince Barin was taken some time before the strip proper begins. Ming had fun with him for days.
• Combat, Magic, Trickery Trio: Flash is a highly trained and brave warrior. Dr. Zarkov's scientific skills verge on magic, which is typical of Pulp Era stories. Dale has some combat ability, but her main contributions are through skills and cunning.
• Combat Pragmatist: Zigzagged. While Count Korro is right to (implicitly) point out that Bok's powerful Dragonman physiology is stronger than his own, he fought him with a snowsteel blade while Bok only had a sparring sword, and Bok had no idea because they were supposed to be sparring.
  • Zigzagged again in the Hard Sun arc. Kala fights Jugrid in hopes of moving the peace talks to a more favourable venue. An ancient law, and currently seen as unseemly, but still valid. Jugrid is a skilled fighter, but he is also an old man whereas Kala is very much in his prime. Dirty, but valid... or it would have been if Kala wasn't only able to invoke the law in the first place because he had an agent sabotage the Lion Men's trek to the original planned venue.
• Control Freak: Airman Brother Sojas, who emerged as the leader of the Valkr Jungle airmen. He led the community for almost the entire time, and he has a personal reason to disbelieve Flash and Dale's account of Ming's fall.
  Dale: He needs us to be guilty, Flash... 'Cause if we're telling the truth and Ming really is gone, his men can finally leave. And he'll go back to being just some guy.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: King Jugrid is a highly skilled fighter, and won his share of fights in his day. His day is mostly passed now, so when he goes up against an equally skilled fighter who is still in his prime, he loses badly.
• Curb-Stomp Cushion: Downplayed. Kala has a bloody nose and a few bruises after his fight with Jugrid, but at no time is Jugrid shown landing a hit on him.
• Damsel in Distress: While Dale does have some combat skills, she's probably the least skilled fighter in the main cast. Putting her up against someone more dangerous than a mook without a way to escape or hide will probably end with her needing help. She needs to be rescued twice, almost killed once on top of that, and her big successes were against Sojas (holding back), mutated members of the Death Patrol (all but mindless, and she had a snowsteel blade), and Sojas again (engaged with Flash, allowing her to spear him In the Back).
• Dance Party Ending: The Hard Sun basically ends with one, as the Lion Men celebrate the royal family's return and Team Earth gets a night to rest and recover before they have to head off to Kira.
• Danger — Thin Ice: A freezing Bok spots a settlement on the other side of a frozen lake. He takes the direct route to it. Sure enough, the ice cracks and he falls in.
• Dark and Troubled Past: The reader knows that Dale was on the run from something when she encountered Flash and Dr. Zarkov.
• Death of Personality: Azura's memory potion inflicts this on those exposed.
  • Dr. Zarkov figured out how to reverse it, but doing so effectively erases the new personality whilst reviving the original.
• Declaration of Protection: Thun and Flash get an offer: hand over Velle as well as Tahl and the Codex, and they'll be allowed to leave with the rest of the royal family. Thun's immediate reply?
  Thun: Ambassador Velle is under the protection of the Lion Men.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Zigzagged. Bok won the fight with Flash, but his obvious unwillingness to kill Flash led Flash to befriend him.
• Defector from Decadence: Those Mongothians who supported Ming but then switched to supporting the Allied Mongothic Nations.
  • The crashed airmen in the Valkr Jungle also qualify. They didn't turn on Ming's regime, but they realized that they could live out their lives quietly so long as everyone believed they were dead.
  • Kala's lying to her face and general lack of honour soured Velle on him, but the final straw came when he cheated in his duel with Flash. She leapt into the fray and killed him.
    Velle: Kala was a liar and a cheat. We have to be better than that. Better than him.
  • Wilda was one of Ming's Flagmen, but she was increasingly put off by Ming's cruelty. She was present one of the times Flash rescued Aura from Ming. She tried to fight Flash, and she would have died from a fall if Flash and Aura hadn't saved her. She deserted that very night and never looked back.
  • Inquisitor Aegia defected twice, once for Ming and then against him. Her former lord was so spineless that he pardoned people guilty of high treason, and she joined Ming's coup to keep Arboria from getting steamrolled. Decades later, Ming crossed the line by forcing civilians to slaughter one another, which made her realize that Ming had lost his last shred of nobility and Aura was the rightful Empress by virtue of being sane.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Ambassador Velle is initially all business, privately holding back some disdain for the Lions. Jugrid's warmth, Dale and Dova clearing her name, and Flash's courage soften her up. Kala's treachery seals the deal (see Defector from Decadence).
• Destination Defenestration: Almost happened to Dale in the Parts Unknown arc. Fortunately, she was able to break her captor's grip just long enough to cry out, waking both Barin and Mane.
• Determinator: Flash Gordon.
  Flash: internal monologue Doesn't matter what changes—doesn't matter if it takes one day or ninety years—you fight the fight. And the next one. And the next. Until you've saved every one of us.
• Didn't Think This Through: Barin is an excellent swordsman. He was also a wreck after a week of torture at Ming's hands. Ming, also an excellent swordsman, safely toyed with him throughout their entire duel.
  • Sojas was an airman, but that wasn't a position that would have given him a lot of combat experience. Dale was able to beat him in their duel. While he briefly stalemated Flash because he ambushed him, their actual fight consisted of Flash hitting him and him hitting the ground.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: After his Heroic Sacrifice (see below), Ronal lasted long enough to have a few words with Dale, but he died just as Fria arrived.
• Diplomatic Impunity: Queen Fria takes Flash, Bok, Dale, and Dr. Zarkov under her protection after they save Ronal, meaning that Aura can't touch them if she wanted to without causing a huge diplomatic incident. Downplayed, because Aura very much doesn't want to (though Aegia does).
• Dirty Business: Flash and Dale enter Ming's crashed flagship through the hole Flash made when he busted in. He got a look at the ship he used to do it.
  Narration: It's what brought down the flagship—and the crew along with it. It was war. Ming had to be stopped. To free Mongo. To save the Earth. It was war. Flash stares at the dart for what feels like a very long time.
• Disowned Sibling: Downplayed. Aura fully agrees with Ming's decision to cast out Ming II, but she doesn't deny their relationship. She also doesn't want him at her wedding.
  Aura: You're not welcome here. Walk out or be dragged out.
• Distressed Damsel: Dale, a few times.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Azura has Flash helpless, pinned down on his back. She taunts him with the same type of memory erasing potion she used on him years ago. She takes her time trying to force it into his mouth.
  Azura: Savoring the atmosphere. It's never quite as much fun once they're yours.
• Due to the Dead: Arboria grows specialized trees to commemorate fallen royals. Those trees resemble the royals as much as statues do, and will grow for centuries, at least.
• Dynamic Entry: Flash uses the chaos of the space battle to crash his specially constructed fighter into Ming's flagship. This surprises the mooks on hand when he comes out.
  Flash: Hi. You guys might want to get to some escape pods.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Ergon is seen at Aura's side during the last battle with Ming. He and Reno are seen at Aura and Barin's wedding.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Azura. She might qualify as Raven Hair, Ivory Skin, were she not so very creepy.
• Establishing Character Moment: The Final Battle has begun and it's the Allied Mongothic Nations' last and only chance.
  Aura: Are you ready, Flash Gordon?
  Flash: with a confident grin Me? Always.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Some Mongothians still view Ming as the rightful emperor. Taken to extremes with Jailmaster Rachus, who deliberately places Flash in the harshest part of the Tombs despite being ordered to put him in the softest.
• Evil Emperor's Beautiful Daughter: Princess Aura to Ming, as usual. She doesn't want to be Daddy's Little Villain, though. She desperately wants to be a good person, but she doesn't find that easy so far.
  Aura: I have vowed to be different. To be good. It just... doesn't come naturally.
• The Evils of Free Will: Ming thinks so, and tells Barin at length:
  Ming: I've given them the gift of domination, Barin. A life in which they need make no choices. A life in which nothing is their fault.
• Expy: Hiza, the Kirans' champion in the Mongothic Games, is a towering, relentless brute clad in heavy armor, with blood-red eyes and a mind mostly wiped clean by Tahl's science, mirroring the resurrected Mountain.
• Face Framed in Shadow: Ming's face is almost always at least partially in shadow. The only exceptions are when the camera only shows a part of his face. Finally averted in one of Vultan's flashbacks.
• Face–Heel Turn: Fria has every right to be furious with Aura, Vultan, Azura, and even Team Earth (minus Bok). Abandoning the alliance is reasonable. Gearing up for a war for personal reasons that could tear the whole thing apart, when she basically knows that Ming is still out there, is not.
• Fallen Hero: Count Korro discovered the resources that made Frigia rich, becoming a hero. However, his attitudes towards outsiders caused him to lose favour in the royal court. He also went behind Fria's back to provide additional mining licenses to people from Kira and Sky City, and got away before he could explain why.
• Fantastic Foxes: Barin's hound Mane is a giant fox. He behaves like a trained hunting/attack dog, but he can release pheromones that terrify all who smell them.
• Fantastic Racism: Many Mongothans look down on the Dragon Men, treating them as dangerous brutes. This attitude even extends to their fellow Kirans. In fact, it seems they feel it the most.
• Faux Manchu: Averted. While Ming has historically been one, here he's sharp-featured but unmistakably European-looking, with a more Western-styled goatee; the most he and the literary Fu Manchu have in common is his piercing green eyes.
• Fiery Redhead: Aura is mostly an aversion. She is strong willed, but she is also very controlled, hiding her emotions to better do her job.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Team Earth and every friend they made since coming to Mongo. Also Team Earth themselves, given that Dr. Zarkov literally kidnapped them.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Barin mentions that Major Lingan was a trusted officer who ran Kiran munitions during the last months of the war against Ming. Two panels later, the major cracks a false tooth and takes Azura's memory-erasing potion.
• Fish People: The Shark Men.
• Foil: Flash and Ming. Ming wants people to be filled with self-doubt and distrust for those around them so that they may be controlled. Flash encourages people to be open-minded and self-confident so that they can be free and in community with each other. Their conflict is both ideological and personal.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: Lowland Station Tales pulls the action away from Team Earth to focus on a small group of strangers, brought together by chance and bad weather, who realize that they all have a Flash Gordon story and decide to share it.
  • Parts Unknown has all four members of Team Earth scattered throughout Mongo. The bulk of it focuses on Flash, but Dale and Bok each get their own mini arcs.
• Fourth Ranger: Bok the Dragonman chooses to stick with Flash.
• "Freaky Friday" Sabotage: Two apprentice Kiran magicians try to swap the minds of Bok and a beast of burden. Their aim goes wild, and they end up swapping Dale and Flash.
• Freudian Excuse: Vultan's father King Vultus was physically and emotionally abusive, to the point where Vultan was perfectly happy to see Ming humble him. It also led him to admire Ming's perceived strength... enough to try to conquer Mongo himself so that Sky City would never have to fear conquest again.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Ming was once the thirteenth son of 'a minor border official' (read:border patrol officer). 125 years later and he's the tyrant emperor of an entire planet.
• Future Me Scares Me: Averted. Flash is shocked to realize that the Margrave is a future version of him, but he quickly gets over it and treats him as any other enemy.
• Gender Flip: Rena, a female member of the Power Men who disguised herself as a guy in a 1940 Alex Raymond storyline, is now Reno, a trans man.
• Ghost Ship: Ming's flagship is incredibly creepy. Wrecked, radioactive, and the surviving Airmen are varying degrees of mutated. And Dale hears voices...
• Gladiator Games: The prisoners in the Bellows fight in secret games for the sick amusement of wealthy spectators. These are to the death, unless the crowd wants to see a fighter fight again.
• The Good King: King Jugrid is both warrior and philosopher, and is introduced telling a story to a group of enraptured Lion Men children.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Ming leaves Barin with a massive scar on his face after their duel.
• Gone Horribly Right: Vultan's initial plan to kill Prince Ronal was foiled, but his other schemes involving Frigia ended up causing his death anyway. He did it to divide the Allied Mongothic Nations. It worked: Frigia withdrew. What he didn't count on was Fria figuring out that he was behind it all and then conquering Sky City before he could advance further in his plan.
• Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: When Ming is done with Sky City, he orders it knocked out of the sky. He gets his way.
• Guest Strip: Weeks 2 through 6 of Lowland Station Tales are done by guest artists.
• Guile Hero: Dale Arden. She has some fighting skill, but she excels at sneaking and gathering intelligence.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Flash is a blonde, and very pure of heart.
• Half-Human Hybrid: It turns out that Fria is part giant.
  • Dova is half Lion Woman, half humanoid Mongothic. Her romance with Thun allows her to reconnect with the Lion half of her heritage.
  • One of Lonzich's daughters married a Cobalt Lord, and they have a baby. Said daughter has blue hair, implying that she's part Cobalt Lord herself.
• Handicapped Badass: Queen Dovana is missing her right arm from the elbow down.
• Happily Married: Queen Fria and Prince Ronal, though Ronal does harbour a slight crush on Dale.
  • It turns out that Dale reciprocated the crush, but knew that it would never go anywhere because they were both too happy with their actual partners.
• He's Dead, Jim: Ronal dies just as Fria gets to him and Dale, leaving Dale to break the news.
• Healing Vat: Flash awakens from his coma in one. It's probably why he woke up fully recovered and with no apparent brain damage.
• Hellhole Prison: The bottom level of the Tombs is known as the Bellows. It is one of these. Why?
  Chief Convict Bulon: There are no rooms. No guards. No food but what you can catch and kill.
• Her Boyfriend's Jacket: Dale wears Flash's shield shirt when going to spy on Azura. There's a definite practical element there, but it's hard to miss the subtext.
• Hero of Another Story: The Arm's Length arc reveals that Reno and Ergon of the Power Men are basically this. Keeping the capital going is a difficult and occasionally dangerous job. They even have an Arch-Enemy in the form of Gorma, an insane ex-Power Man who tries to kill them. A lot.
• Heroic Bastard: Adrane's division of Hawkmen saved Team Earth when one of Ming's Death Patrols had them dead to rights (and critically wounded Dale). She is Vultan's illegitimate daughter.
• Heroic Build: Flash isn't as jacked as some examples, but he's got one.
• Heroic Sacrifice: After Flash is wounded trying to bomb the Screaming Storm, Prince Ronal gets on the windcraft and takes up the mission. The windcraft was damaged as well, and the bomb's trigger was inoperative. He had to aim it at the kaiju's mouth and jump off at the last second, falling three hundred feet to the ground.
• Hidden Depths: Dale isn't a warrior like Flash is, and she isn't a genius like Dr. Zarkov, and she is the most openly anxious member of Team Earth. She's also as brave as they are, has a keen eye for detail, more fighting skill than is apparent, and is very quick thinking.
• The High Queen: Fria fits this to a T. She's beloved by her people, and takes her role seriously.
• Hollywood Kiss: Averted in Parts Unknown. Edda kisses Flash in gratitude once he finally gets her helmet off, but she is visibly sweaty, her hair drenched, and she admits she needs to brush her teeth.
• Honesty Is the Best Policy: Flash doesn't lie unless he has to. This is partly for idealistic reasons and partly for practical ones.
  Flash: All I know is I'd rather make a friend than a sucker. Suckers turn into enemies... and we still have plenty of those.
  • Flash continued to cover up for Aura after Fria took him in. That got him exiled from Frigia when a grieving Fria finally called him on her suspicions.
• Honor Among Thieves: The jailbreak happens because the criminal who got the Galvanic Cutlass came to free Bones, happy to repay a debt.
• Honor Before Reason: Barin has been tortured for days, and is in bad shape, but he is the rightful king of Mongo so he will be the one to fight Ming in a final duel. And he was desperate to regain his honour after Ming broke him.
  • Thun was prepared to take his father's place in the rematch with Kala. Dova had to persuade him to let Flash do it, because Kala won't know Flash's weaknesses.
  • It turns into a theme of the story, and is usually (but not always) justified because doing what is expedient over what is right generally comes back to bite the people who do it.
• Horse of a Different Color: Frigians use snowbirds, said to be the fastest animal on Mongo.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Vultus was once a death-loving psycho and the only person Ming viewed as a Worthy Opponent. In their old age, Ming scoffs at the cowardly, feeble shell of a man Vultus has devolved into.
• How We Got Here: The first proper strip shows Flash talking to his friends as he prepares to take off. A few strips later, we go back in time a bit to see that conversation from their end.
  • The strip does this every Sunday, summarizing the last week of stories to set the stage for the next.
• Humans Are Diplomats: Team Earth (Flash, Dale, and Dr. Zarkov) were inadvertently critical in forming the alliance against Ming, mostly because circumstances kept introducing them to the various leaders of Mongo and their courage and Flash's charisma gave them a common friend.
• Hunk: Flash, as is traditional.
• Hypocrite: Inquisitor Aegia figured out that Vultan was behind the assassination attempt (and his true target) but went after Flash anyway despite her talk of the importance of law and order and justice.
  Aegia: Better a man with with no country than a head of state, Prince Vultan.
• I Hate Past Me: Averted. Flash is just a job to the Margrave. He has an overall fatalistic perspective of their clash, believing that what happened to him will happen to Flash too.
• I Have Your Wife: Averted. Hanak, when questioned about why he's helping Vultan, claims Vultan "has his family." It turns out Hanak's daughter Lura had a perfectly normal and consensual affair with Vultan that has lasted for decades. It's left unclear whether Hanak genuinely suspects Lura would be in danger if Hanak declined to help, or if Hanak made things sound worse than they are out of spite.
• I Just Want to Be Free: Pepa escaped her slave plantation when she realized that she'd die a slave if she didn't do something.
• I Lied: Wolfang told Flash that he had the antidote to the Drok venom.
  Wolfang: Heh... Sorry... Little fib on my part... only had room on my belt for the dart... I don't... have any antidote.
• Ignored Expert: Zigzagged. Dr. Zarkov tried to raise the alarm about Mongo, but he was ignored because people thought he was crazy. He was right, but he had a nervous breakdown that caused him to abduct Flash and Dale on his trek to Mongo.
  Dr. Zarkov: In my frenzy to save my world, I lost my mind ...proving them wrong about the science... but right about me.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Ming II in the eyes of Ming the Merciless, who struck him from the line of succession in favour of Aura.
• In Medias Res: The strip as a whole, containing a brief prologue to set the stage that jumps ahead to the final battle against Ming.
  • The Hard Sun arc kicks off with a week devoted to Dr. Zarkov and Bok, on the run from the authorities and attempting to do something with a codex and a rocket. We only find out what when the team is reunited at the end of the arc.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Flash, but of the heroic kind.
• Innocently Insensitive: Vultan always mentions that Adrane is illegitimate when he introduces her to people. He doesn't notice how much it hurts her.
• Internal Reveal: Vultan confirms that he was responsible for the attempted assassination and not just covering it up.
  Vultan: Oh, that? Yes, of course! I assumed you already knew...!
• In the Back: Dale takes out the empowered Sojas by spearing him in the back. The Psycho Serum he took saved his life, but he was definitively out of the fight.
• Intrepid Reporter: Dale Arden, as usual. Her observational skills are just the tip of the iceberg in regard to what she can do.
• It Gets Easier: Flash to Dale after she kills a mutant on Ming's crashed flagship.
  Dale: This is harder than you make it look.
  Flash: Gets easier with practice.
• Kaiju: The Screaming Storm is a three-hundred-foot-tall yeti that smashes things which disrupt the natural balance.
• Karma Houdini: Korro was an unrepentant bigoted Jerkass who treated Bok horribly and went behind Fria's back to grant additional mining licenses to other members of the Allied Mongothic Nations, which caused the Screaming Storm to awaken. It killed an unknown number of people before Prince Ronal sacrificed his life to stop it. He escaped the palace after being confronted, and escaped the Snowsteel arc unpunished.
• Kirby Dots: Shows up a few times, starting with when the bomb aboard Flash's specially constructed fighter triggers, knocking out the flagship's gravity engines and sending it into freefall.
• Knighting: Ronal gifts Bok a snowsteel shield, and names him a Knight of Mongo while Team Earth looks on proudly.
• Lady of War: Fria leads her troops into battle personally. According to Ming, she is the best battlefield commander on Mongo.
• Loyal to the Position: Inquisitor Aegia looks well upon Ming, but still willingly serves in her position under the new regime.
  • Jailmaster Rachus is a partial subversion. He's unhappy with the regime change, but is willing to serve nonetheless. However, when he gets his hands on Flash Gordon, the man whom most of Mongo believes killed Ming, he will disobey orders to punish him.
• Magnetic Hero: Flash. It's how he was able to help assemble the coalition that took down Ming. Seen again in the Nineveh arc, when his kindness persuades Bok to join him.
• Mark of Shame: When he resurfaces in the Mongothic arc, Marshall Kleen of Shark City has tattooed Velle's name in Deepscript on his own chest, both as a reminder of his prior failure to catch her, and as an explicit death threat — had he won the tournament, he likely would've demanded to Aura that the Lion Man hand her over to be executed as a traitor. Flash puts him out of commission before he can advance that far.
• Medical Monarch: Averted. Lura would have been Vultan's queen (well, princess) had she wished it, but she preferred to not marry him.
• Mighty Glacier: Bok is both strong and durable, but he wasn't fast enough to land a hit on the assassin even though he could see her.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Fria starts the "Snowsteel" arc wanting to do what's best for her people. She's frustrated with the Hawk Men over details of their trade negotiations, but doesn't seem to bare them any ill will, and is actively irate with Korro when he professes xenophobia. Over the course of the arc, though, pirate miners awaken an ancient beast that threatens to destroy the capital city and everyone in it, and it clearly tests her own tolerance for "outsiders". The incident kills her husband Ronal, himself an immigrant to Frigia and the country's main diplomatic tie to the rest of the planet. The strain of all this also causes her to confront the fact that she knows Flash and Aura manipulated her, a pain she's been struggling to ignore. She ends the arc ready to turn her back on the rest of the Allied Mongothic Nations as well as Flash and his team, and by the end of "The High Life" is actively on the warpath.
• Mobile City: Sky City, as in all incarnations of the story.
• Murder by Mistake: Ming II wasn't the assassin's target, and neither was Flash. The assassin was supposed to kill Prince Ronal, to drive a wedge between Fria and Aura and Barin. However, the assassin killed the wrong Prince of Mongo.
• Murderous Malfunctioning Machine: Some of the robots in the factory go insane as their self-repair protocols slowly degrade over time, and are dropped into the labyrinth beneath the facility. They kill each other with no qualms, as well as any humanoids unlucky enough to wind up down there.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Zig-zagged. Lonzich is a loyal Frigian, and he has personal reason to be grateful to Fria. He is also grateful to Bok, who saved Fria's life and helped save Day's Peak from the Screaming Storm. He protects Bok from the Ice Rangers who tracked him down, and trusts him to do what is right because Ronal trusted him.
• My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours: Comes up three times in the Hard Sun arc. First, Deep Chief Kala has an agent slow the Lion Men's progress just enough that he's allowed to challenge King Jugrid to a trial by combat to change the peace talks' venue to Shark City. The second time comes after he wins. The law states that the royal family has to go alone, but Ambassador Velle points out that a member of a third nation is allowed to accompany them as a bodyguard. Thun names Flash, as he is human. Finally, Dale reads up on the finer points of Toa's Law. As Flash muscled General Tahl into calling the fight before its natural conclusion (which would have been Jugrid's death), Jugrid is allowed to demand that the fight continue. As Jugrid is wounded, he's allowed to name a champion.
  • Comes up again in the Fire from the Sky arc. Fria utterly rebuffs Flash's attempt to get her back on board with the AMN and gives him 24 hours to leave Sky City. Flash was ready for that, thanks to Dale and Velle.
  Flash: Anybody recognized by the throne—like I was, back in the revolution—can clear their name in trial by combat with the ruler who cast them out.
• Mysterious Past: Dale was on the run from someone or something when she met Flash and Dr. Zarkov, but only she knows that. She is very cagey about herself when asked at Aura and Barin's reception, and is in absolutely no hurry to return to Earth.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The week leading up to the franchise's 90th anniversary used a MacGuffin which causes Art Shifts to pay tribute to previous installments not canon to this strip: in order: the original 1934-1944 Alex Raymond comics, the 1936 film serial, the 1979 Filmmation cartoon, the 1980 film, the 1996 Reeves-Stevens cartoon, and finally the 1996-2003 Jim Keefe comics.
  • Vultan's dropped at least two references to BRIAN BLESSED's memetic Large Ham delivery of "Gordon's alive!" from the 1980 film—in "Get Barin" when Flash awakens from his medically-induced coma, and once in "The High Life" when telling Flash and Zoltan that Dale has survived a grievous injury.
  • During "Ninevah!" it's revealed Azura had, at one point during the war on Ming, brainwashed Flash into being her chief enforcer, making him wear the same uniform he did in the 1935 storyline where she brainwashed him to the same end.
  • Dan Schkade mentioned on his social media that a panel of "Hard Sun", featuring Flash and Dale sprawled out on a cliff overlooking the ocean, is directly referenced from a piece of Alex Raymond art.
• Named After Somebody Famous: One of Dova's only cultural links to the Lion Men was being named after Queen Dovana, already a heroine to their people. It only makes her feel even more self-conscious when she realizes she, a former serving girl, will have the actual Dovana as a mother-in-law.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Ming the Merciless, who lives up to the name. Also Jailmaster Rachus, pronounced Rack Us.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Queen Azura sports one.
• Never Found the Body: Ming's ship crashed, and the radiation makes exploring it impossible. The rebel leaders don't trust that he's dead without some kind of confirmation, but widespread rumour holds that Flash killed him. Barin's body is never found either, and Aura holds out hope he's alive and sends Flash to find him. Thankfully, she was right.
• Never My Fault: Downplayed. Dr. Tyr is understandably scared of Flash's potential for violence, which she saw when Azura had him as her mind-controlled slave. However, she barely acknowledged her own role in brainwashing him.
• Nice Guy: Prince Ronal of Frigia.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Edda defies protocol and helps an elderly coworker who was having an episode on the factory floor. That got both of them thrown down below to where the defective robots are stored.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Kala absolutely mops the floor with King Jugrid, and would have beaten him to death if Flash hadn't forced General Tahl to declare Kala the winner.
• NO INDOOR VOICE: Prince Vultan, in tribute to BRIAN BLESSED; even if one of his sentences doesn't end with an exclamation mark, it'll still be bolded. He can whisper when he has to, and Vultus's rambling ("when will you learn to PROJECT?!") implies that he was abused by his father as a boy for being too quiet.
• Non-Human Non-Binary: Downplayed. Bones Malock looks human, just like most Mongothians, but technically isn't.
• No-Sell: Hawkmen are stronger than Dragonmen, who are stronger than the average Mongothan. Adrane's attack on Fria should have taken Fria out of the fight (if not killed her). However: Fria is part-Giant, and she wore indestructible Snowsteel armour. Adrane's sword broke on the armour, and Fria knocked her out with one headbutt.
• Not Just a Tournament: Subverted. The Tournament is very real and is being held on schedule, but Aura is using it as a cover for private diplomatic talks with Fria in an effort to stop the next war before it starts. To that end, she has tasked Flash to keep it going as long as possible.
• Not Me This Time: Zigzagged. The Arm's Length arc is split in two interlocking parts. The first has Bok trying to survive undetected after accidentally becoming Ming's bodyguard. The second, taking place roughly two weeks later, features the Capital mysteriously losing power. The reader is initially led to believe that Ming was responsible, but he actually had nothing to do with it.
• Not the Fall That Kills You…: Played Straight. Azura tries to kill Dale by throwing her from the top of her quarters, a thousand feet (100 stories) high. She is saved by a timely rescue from Thun and his sky cycle. The shield shirt she wore wouldn't have been enough to save her from the landing, but it spared her ribs the damage of bashing against the sky cycle.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: The "Ex Libris" arc initially suggests that Ming, a provincial legionary from the Corallian Mountains, was spurred to become a tyrant during his time commanding King Paxin's useless battles — seeing the folly and waste that came with a weak ruler, and pledging to be a strong one to maintain order. After Paxin's death, he builds the Arborian army into a well-oiled machine, with shock troops and aerial fleets, only for King Rolin to seek a truce when their war against the Hawkmen kills Queen Emis in the crossfire; in response, Ming overthrows Rolin and personally beheads him, revealing his true nature: a man who sees peace and mercy as greater weaknesses than warmongering, who thirsts for blood and revenge, and who will betray any ally for the absolute power he covets.
• Not Worth Killing: After his duel with Ming, Barin came to in an escape pod with his sword still in his hands. The implication is clear.
  • It turns out that Jailmaster Rachus was behind the prison fights. He tells Flash to do his worst. The reply?
  Flash: You aren't worth my worst.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Averted. Dova and Thun aren't married, and Dova is in awe of her potential mother-in-law.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Edda's village was destroyed during the war against Ming, so when the people from the Factory came to offer them jobs they were in no position to refuse. However, they didn't know that the Factory was a) in service to Ming, b) deliberately destroyed their village for this very purpose, and c) pocketed the money that was supposed to be sent back to the village.
• Oh, Crap!: Dale was visibly shocked to learn that she would have to duel Sojas instead of Flash.
  • Kala sports one when he sees Velle coming to kill him.
• Old Friend, New Gender: Ergon's younger sibling transitioned since Flash and Dale last saw him. He's Reno now.
• Old Master: Bones Malock's age isn't established, but they have white hair and visible wrinkles. And they can still give Flash a run for his money.
• One Last Job: The quest to find Barin. Flash even describes it as such.
  Flash: Aura dropped one last job on us.
• Party Scattering: One member of Team Earth is split off from the main party for most of the strip, except for those times after Bok joins and the team is instead split in half. Taken to extremes in the Parts Unknown arc, where all four members are scattered to random parts of Mongo.
• Perp Walk: Flash is walked past the rulers of Mongo after he is arrested for killing Ming II.
• Post-Script Season: Downplayed. Each arc is supposed to be ten weeks long. However, the creators and editors realized that the 90th anniversary was due to happen on the first week of the second arc. Therefore, they gave the first arc an extra week so that it coincided with the anniversary instead. They realized this in time to seed the Entropy Egg into the strip, thus giving us that last week (see Mythology Gag for details).
  • The Mongothic arc that closed out the first year also had an extra strip. In this case, it was a summary of all that had come before, and it happened before the arc proper began. See Recap Episode.
• Psycho Serum: Sojas' so-called "Blood of Ming" gives great strength and stamina to those who take it. However...
  Bones: Tch. Blood of Ming, my eye. That's a nitro-stimulant the Death Patrol banned. The Death Patrol.
• Race Lift: Zigzagged trope. The original comic strip portrayed all humanoid Mongothians as having yellow skin, but eventually switched to drawing them as white. This strip has them with a broad variety of human range skin tones.
• Rags to Royalty: If Dova marries Thun, she (a half-Lion serving girl from Mongo City) will become Queen of the Lion Men.
• Recap Episode: Flash, dazed from crashing into the Magnetic Mountains after escaping Sky City, recalls the events that brought him there (everything from the first strip to the last story arc). This took the first week of the Mongothic arc.
• The Remnant: Ming's Death Squads continue to operate, even though Aura has taken the throne and officially disbanded the organization.
• Retired Badass: Hyrex was a champion gladiator in his youth, before retiring to a farm. He still has some of the old skills, but he can't put up nearly the same fight as he once did due to his age.
• RevengeSVP: Ming II was angered at not being invited to Aura and Barin's wedding, so he tried to disrupt it. He had better luck at the reception, where he insulted Barin's looks, implied that Aura would cheat on Barin with Flash, and demanded that Aura give him the throne of Mongo or else.
• Rigged Spectacle Fight: Flash and Kala square off in an underwater arena. Kala set the terms for the fight: no weapons. He's confident that he can beat Flash, but he has a stonesteel rod hidden in his wrist strap in case he's wrong. This is deconstructed, because the blatantly obvious rigging convinces Velle to betray the sharkmen and assassinate Kala before he can finish Flash off.
• Rightful King Returns: The first arc is about ensuring this actually happens. A wedding between rightful king Barin and Ming's air Aura is the only way to keep the fragile planetary alliance together, but Barin's gone missing, and Flash has to hunt him down.
• Royal Bastard: Adrane. She hits things to help deal with how most people treat her, and is hurt by Vultan always calling her his illegitimate daughter.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Mongo's royal stewards (the royalty of their respective kingdoms) are no strangers to getting their hands dirty when need be. Like when waging war against their conqueror. Most clearly seen with Fria, who personally leads Flash, Bok, and her guards against the pirate miners.
  Bok: I'm ready for some nonsense about assembling a committee to get permission to investigate it... but she wants these scrubs gone now. This land is under her protection.
• Saved From Their Own Honor: Dova is a half-Lion raised apart from that side of her heritage. She was also a servant. That gave her a practicality that many nobles lack, including Thun in his way. She uses that to talk him out being his father's champion.
  Dova: That anger, that—that pride. He knows you. But he's got no idea what it's like to fight Flash.
• Scatterbrained Senior:
  • Although Vultus remains King of the Hawkmen in title, he's so senile that he's become a danger to himself and others, disassociating back to Ming's invasion and mistaking Dale for his son; Prince Vultan holds the true reins of power and handles affairs, while Vultus is left to just wander the Sky City hospital in a daze like a parent dumped in a bad nursing home. He's finally able to recognize Ming as his old enemy, but is too frail to put up any resistance as Ming drags him into Sulpha's chamber to suffocate.
  • The aging King Paxin, grandfather of Balin, is shown in flashbacks to have been "erratic of late", mentally unstable and quick to anger and offense, which was a primary cause of the various wars on Mongo before Ming's rule. He eventually dies in "madness and a slow decline", while Prince Rolin and his War Minister Ming are left behind to continue the campaigns that Paxin's senility began.
• Science Hero: Dr. Zarkov. Put him in a decently stocked lab and he will come up with just the gadget to save the day.
• See the Invisible: Dale figured out where the assassin should be, and threw a bottle of wine at her. It broke, splashing her with wine, allowing Flash to knock her out.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: The masks that the True Heirs of Ming wear can detect when their wearer has been knocked out. They then deploy a dissolving agent that disintegrates the wearer's body, leaving the mask and outfit behind.
• Self-Imposed Exile: Moments before Ming was dethroned once and for all, Barin succumbed to his weeks of torture and agreed to surrender his kingdom. The shame of this drove him into hiding during the first arc.
• Shame If Something Happened: Aegia to Vultan about the Kiran assassin.
  Aegia: Do not concern yourself with your wayward assassin, Your Grace. Prisoners go missing all the time.
• Shock and Awe: Bones Malock's Galvanic Cutlass shoots electricity.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Aura. We don't know if she had the crush on Flash as in other versions of the story, but she is a redhead and she inherited her father's bright green eyes.
• Slave Liberation: Flash sparks one once he reveals the truth at the end of the Parts Unknown arc. The slaves in question thought that their wages were being sent back home, which was the only reason they endured their working conditions. They rose up immediately, and the overseers barely tried to fight back due to numerical disparity.
• Smooch of Victory: Edda kisses Flash in gratitude as soon as he gets her helmet off.
• Snow Means Love: Averted. Flash and Dale break up (sort of; they aren't together) on a night in Frigia.
• Speech Bubbles: Azura's are jagged, emphasizing her creepiness.
• The Starscream: Vultan and Azura intended to betray the Allied Mongothic Nations the whole time.
• State Sec: The Death Patrol served as this for Ming's empire. They are dangerous, relentless, and fanatically devoted to Ming, even months after he vanished.
  • The Ice Rangers are Frigia's version. They are only slightly more reasonable than the Death Patrol.
• Statuesque Stunner: Fria is 6'1, the same height as Flash. Her being part giant might have something to do with it.
• Strong Empire, Shriveled Emperor: Downplayed. King Vultus is an old man presumably afflicted with Alzheimer's, but Vultan (who is very much in his prime) is the one actually running Sky City.
• Suicidal "Gotcha!": Dr. Zarkov and Bok escape the Frigian airship by jumping out of a missile bay, to be saved by Adrane.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Many of Ming's slave-driven industries and secret police don't just shut down the second their emperor is deposed. Some unsavory companies have enough bureaucracy and obscurity on their side to continue operations within the Allied Mongothic Nations for months. The secret police, completely indoctrinated to worship Ming, become The Remnant and continue hunting Ming's enemies as rogue agents.
  • The communicator that Dale slipped Flash doesn't work in the Tombs because it's too far underground. The prisoners who attack him for it anyway get solidly beaten because Flash is in a terrible mood, and he's perfectly fresh while they're varying degrees of malnourished.
  • A number of Mongothians look askance at Team Earth, especially Flash, for getting so heavily involved in Mongo's affairs. While Team Earth has helped many of Mongo's citizens, some lost their entire careers and livelihoods because they were defeated or affected by Flash.
  • Both Jugrid and Dovana are excellent warriors, but they are in their golden years and are thus less potent than they once were. Dovana has compensated for her missing arm, but age is proving a trickier problem.
• Tap on the Head: Averted! Barin shoves Flash out of the way when he goes to fight Ming, and Flash lands in an escape pod but hits his head quite hard. He passed out before he could properly secure himself in the pod as it was jettisoned, and it crash landed. He was in a coma for eight days. It's still tender days later, when he's in prison.
• Tear Up the Contract: Jailmaster Rachus tears up the order placing Flash in elite holding prior to sending him to the Bellows. This was due to his disdain for Barin and respect for Ming the Merciless.
• Those Two Guys: Kay and Muise, two of Vultan's Guard-Hawks.
• Throne Room Throwdown: Fria and her soldiers cut their way to Sky City's throne room.
• Token Evil Teammate: Subverted. Azura and her nation of Kira are this to the Allied Mongothic Nations. Profoundly unsavoury, but too powerful and too dangerous to have been ignored. However, it turns out that Azura was playing along for her own reasons and positioned herself to betray the Allied Mongothic Nations when it became convenient.
• Tough Leader Façade: Aura and Barin both think that they must affect one.
• Tournament Arc: The Tournament of Mongo, where fifty of the planet's best fighters convene in duels that don't have to be fatal (but generally are). The prize is an imperial favour that cannot be refused.
• Track Trouble: The rocket train is almost derailed (and Queen Fria thrown from in, prompting an aerial rescue from Flash) when a 300-foot tall something walks through it.
• Transformation Horror: The radiation from the Magnetic Mountains horribly mutated the surviving crew of Ming's flagship.
• Trial by Combat: Sojas proposes one in order to let the god Toa rule on the truth of Flash and Dale's words. However: he intends to fight Dale, and he has intentions for her should he win.
  • The Lion Men are manipulated into another by Deep Chief Kala.
• True Companions: Flash feels this way about Dale, Dr. Zarkov, and many of the people he fought beside on Mongo, regardless of how he met most of them. Best shown by his response to Barin's confession. Healing from the shame won't be easy, and will probably take a long time, but...
  Flash: But we're with you, Barin. Every step of the way.
• Tyke-Bomb: The Kiran assassin was raised to the job from birth, and she had no choice in it. Her training was so focused that she speaks in broken English, unlike the other Kirans we meet.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Captain Galo is not happy that Flash spared his life, because Ming had him sent to a prison camp for failing to deliver Dale and Barin to said camp.
• Unions Suck: Zigzagged. Some members of the Sky City Workers Union attack Flash and Bok, but their grievance (the use of convicts instead of more expensive union labor) is perfectly legitimate. Flash recognizes this, and they're on their way to a good conversation about it when the prison guards decide to break up this show of worker solidarity.
  • Averted by the Power Men. They are essential to keeping the lights on in the capital, and their leader Ergon has enough clout to get a meeting with Aura and Barin and to negotiate with them on Flash and Dale's behalf.
• Unkempt Beauty: We finally see Edda's face once her helmet is removed. She's sweaty and her hair is disheveled, but she's still quite pretty.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Vultan is on both ends of this. His extra mining in Frigia contributed to waking the Screaming Storm, and the sabotage Team Earth committed to facilitate their escape weakened Sky City's defenses enough for the Frigians to invade.
• Villain Respect: Downplayed because Bones Malock isn't a villain, though they are definitely the antagonist of the Borrower's Firth segment. They are impressed by Flash and company's skill and cunning to the point of considering letting them go, but they decide against it. The reason?
  Bones: Only... you swiped that sword. Without trading for it. And that don't fly down here in Borrower's Firth.
  • Azura feels it for Dale. She tried to kill her, but she also allowed Thun to rescue her and then get away.
• Visual Pun: Dr. Zarkov tells Flash via viewscreen that he's been liasing with the Chief Seismologist at the Frigian Scientific Society. The next panel shows her lounging on his bed as he's at his desk talking, and both Zarkov and the chief seismologist are wearing bathrobes. Liasing, huh, Doc?
• The Voiceless: Azura makes quite the impression during the Nineveh arc, but she never speaks on panel. Averted when she captures Dale.
• Wandering Culture: The Lion Men are nomadic, forced upon them when Ming destroyed their home city during the conquest of Mongo.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Mongo's people were distrustful and divided before Ming's conquest. Aura fears that Barin's disappearance will start that again, with the addition of a new faction loyal to Ming and his empire.
  Aura: The only new rule the people might accept is my claim and Barin's combined... Wartime alliances crumble quickly in peacetime. We were all enemies once. We may be again.
• Wedding/Death Juxtaposition: Ming II confronts Flash alone after Flash ducks out of Aura and Barin's wedding reception. He is killed during the struggle via a stab in the back.
• We Used to Be Friends: Fria exiles Flash from Frigia after he confirms her suspicions about Aura's lie and his role in covering it up. His failure to come clean was too much to handle after all of the betrayals and losses she endured.
• We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: Mongo is more scientifically advanced than Earth, and Sky City is the most advanced society on Mongo. Sky City uses manual labour in its projects. Justified, since the labourers are basically a chain gang.
• Webcomic Time: It becomes an actual plot point. Dr. Zarkov realized that time has been behaving weirdly ever since Ming's defeat.
  Dr. Zarkov: Has time seemed... strange to you, Dale? Days that feel like weeks, months that seem to disappear?
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: According to Gorma's calculations, Ming's inevitable attack on the Capital will end in the Capital's defeat and the loss of 55% of its citizens. Therefore, he attacks the power grid to cause an explosion that will kill 20% of the citizens, believing that demoralization and the need to make massive repairs will make them immediately surrender when Ming comes calling.
• What the Hell, Hero?: It happens to Flash in the Mongothic arc. The mutated crewman responds to his insistence that they won't hurt him by pointing out how he already had.
  Mutated Airman: Wuh-won't hurt me? You juh-just cut three of us down. You blew our shuh-ship out of the sky. Stuh-stranded us here. And now we're—wuh-we're—luh-like this.
• White Mask of Doom: Inquisitor Aegia sports one. So do the True Heirs of Ming.
• Working-Class Hero: Ergon, leader of the capital's Power Men, is a working stiff who has enough political clout to score a meeting with Aura and Barin and negotiate with them on Flash and Dale's behalf.
• Would Hit a Girl: Flash will fight any threat regardless of their gender.
• Wretched Hive: Borrower's Firth is a secret community of thieves and scavengers, but it does run on a code: trade for what you want.