Defenders of the Earth
Marvel UK · 1988–present · 2 issues
About the series
In 1988, Marvel UK launched Defenders of the Earth, a two-issue comic series that united classic newspaper-strip heroes Flash Gordon, The Phantom, and Mandrake the Magician against the villainous Ming the Merciless. Scripted by Steve Parkhouse with art by John Stokes, this short-lived team-up brought a distinctly British comics sensibility to these enduring American adventure characters. While brief, the series is a curious artifact of the late-80s wave of inter-company crossovers, offering a compact, energetic read for fans of pulp heroes.