Publisher: Dynamite
Writer: Brian Clevinger
Art: Brent Schnoover
Release Date: 28th January, 2015

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Upon picking up my weekly quota of review material – Dynamite’s ” KING Flash Gordon #1 ” and “KING Phantom #1″ – I instantly realised that I wasn’t particularly aware of either of the titles. To to my surprise however, rather than spinning off from Dynamite’s previous crossover series ‘Kings Watch’, the KING part actually refers to a brand new imprint which happens to take place after Kings Watch but expands as a line.

This new “King” imprint features characters who starred in Dynamite’s 2014 ‘Kings Watch’ crossover series; a series where each character was treated to a further level of development. This was never more apparent than with generational pulp hero The Phantom, who actually died at the end of the Kings Watch series, leaving the next inheritor of his mask unknown and forcing Mandrake’s sidekick Lothar to step in and assume the mantle on a temporary basis.

This gives The Phantom character a whole new(-ish/er) inheritor to explore, someone who has different cultural frames of reference than his predecessor. Furthermore it ties in with Mandrake – though only superficially – as this is first and foremost a Phantom book.

I felt this was a strong issue overall, featuring a new direction for the character from a strong creative team. However this does suffer – albeit only slightly – by coming out the same week as King Flash Gordon, which felt slightly better comparatively speaking.

Regardless, Either of this weeks King Dynamite books are worth picking up, and not just for fans of Kings Watch or the Defenders of the Earth cartoon from which most of today’s generation will recognize these characters. Both issue ones offer up an exciting formula for a new expanded universe using these much under appreciated characters, and things are definitely looking exciting for this imprint going forward.

Rating: 3/5.

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The writer of this piece was:
Gary Kane aka (GK)
Article: Flashin’ Back!
GK tweets from @Kanoclassic

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