Kings Watch #5

By Jeff Parker, Marc Laming & Jordan Boyd

Issue five of Kings Watch comes out this week and that unfortunately marks the end of this incredibly fun miniseries. Without revealing any spoilers, let’s just say this series wrapped up really well but definitely left some space for these characters to have their stories continue on after Kings Watch. This series has really helped cement Flash Gordon, The Phantom, and Mandrake the Magician into their new homes at Dynamite, where they seem to truly understand how to properly tell these classic pulp characters’ stories.

Jeff Parker is one incredible writer who seems to easily be able to find the core of what makes certain characters resonate with readers in the past and translate that onto the page for modern readers to appreciate. It’s no small feat that Parker was able to bring together three classic characters, flesh them out and get them to work together  to stop a shared threat to the world…IN ONLY FIVE ISSUES! What Parker did for Kings Watch is take three characters that haven’t been relevant in years and make them interesting to the modern day inexperienced reader while still honoring the core of those characters. When doing this, it makes Kings Watch an enthralling read to both long time fans and newcomers. Anytime someone complains about the lack of adventure genre titles in the future, Kings Watch will always be a great go-to recommendation.

When discussing what made Kings Watch such an action packed read was the alluring art of Marc Laming. Something about his style carried the feeling of an old pulp adventure comic but with a very modern twist that made the story seem timeless. When there are all sorts of creative characters, colorful villains, bizarre monsters and so many action scenes it would be easy for an artist to bog down the page and sacrifice the fluidity of the story. Laming has handled every page of every issue perfectly which made for an even more enjoyable read. Laming with colorist Jordan Boyd really brought this story to life and made reading every issue of Kings Watch a treat. Hopefully, Laming and Boyd work together on a future project because they made for a great artistic pairing.

Dynamite has been doing an incredible job with reinventing golden age pulp heroes for today’s readers to enjoy. Some may be more successful than others but there is a consistency when it comes to the care they take with updating these characters while still preserving their core elements. Kings Watch has been one of their best character reinventions yet and hopefully this isn’t the last we see of these characters.