Ming the Merciless
| Ming the Merciless | |
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Ming as portrayed by Charles Middleton in Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, seen with Princess Aura
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | King Features Syndicate |
| Created by | Alex Raymond |
| In-story information | |
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Ming the Merciless is a character who first appeared in the Flash Gordon comic strip in 1934. He has since been the main villain of the strip and its related movie serials, television series and film adaptation. Ming is depicted as a ruthless tyrant who rules the planet Mongo.
In the comic strip, when the heroic Flash Gordon and his friends land on the fictional planet Mongo, they found it was ruled by an evil Emperor, a despot who quickly becomes their enemy. He was not named at first, only being known as "the Emperor" until several issues later when his name was revealed to be Ming.
The capital of his empire is named Mingo City in his honour. In addition to his army, Ming is shown to have access to a wide variety of science fiction gadgets, ranging from rocket ships to death rays to robots. Though evil, he has his weaknesses, which include a desire to marry Flash's beautiful companion, Dale Arden. Ming's daughter Princess Aura is as evil as he is when the series begins, but is eventually reformed by her love for Flash, and later for Prince Barin of Arboria.
Flash and his companions escape from Ming's clutches and find allies among the peoples of Mongo, including Barin, Prince Vultan, Prince Thun and Queen Fria. They organise a resistance movement against Ming's rule; the action of the resistance takes up much of the strip's storylines. Ming was eventually overthrown, and Raymond pitted Flash against other enemies in the 1940s.
During Austin Briggs's run on the Flash Gordon strip, he introduced Ming's son, Kang the Cruel. Kang became Flash's main antagonist during Briggs' run.
Subsequent Flash Gordon writers, including Dan Barry and Jim Keefe, brought Ming back as Flash's main opponent.
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