Image via Syfy, Everett Collection Add Collider on Google Add as Preferred Source Follow on Google Discover By Michael John Petty Published Oct 25, 2026, 11:24 PM EDT Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wonderful wife and precious daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, interviews, and breaking news on select occasion. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own, from supernatural thrillers to historical fiction. His Western short story, The Devil's Left Hand , received the Spur Award for "Best Western Short Fiction" in 2025 from the Western Writers of America, of which he is a member. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family. Sign in to your Collider account Like Like follow Follow followed Followed Listen Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap In the early 2000s, there were plenty of one-and-done shows that came and went without much fanfare at all. But there's only one full-season television program that attempted to slow-burn the pulpy science fiction of yesteryear before trickling to an end with hardly any impact. The series in question? SyFy's often maligned take on Flash Gordon . Okay, if you’ve heard anything about this show you’re probably rolling your eyes. However, the Eric Johnson -led reboot isn’t as bad as it seems. Eventually, the series found its voice and became one of the most misunderstood sci-fi shows of the decade.
Predating even heroes like Batman and Superman, Flash Gordon first appeared in newspaper comic strips in 1934 as an alternative to the sci-fi adventures of the similar Buck Rogers. It wasn't long before film serials adapted the character to the screen, followed eventually by several live-action and animated television adaptations and eventually the famed 1980 space opera film titled, well, Flash Gordon . This isn't a new character, and over the years various adaptations have reworked the mythos time and again. So when the Sci-Fi Channel (known now as SyFy) pledged to revive the classic space opera only a few years after successfully reimagining Battlestar Galactica , science fiction fans and lovers of pulp everywhere were ready.
Four teams, four completely different reasons to put yourself in danger for strangers. This is the roster you actually belong on, what they would want from you, and what it would cost you to stay.
You belong where the stakes are largest and the personalities are loudest. This is a team of people who are all used to being the most important person in the room, which is exactly why it works and exactly why it keeps nearly falling apart.
You have never had the luxury of being thanked for this. The X-Men protect a world that has never once been comfortable with them existing, and something in you understands exactly why they keep doing it anyway.
You do not want colleagues, you want your people. The Titans are the team where the friendship came first and the world-saving turned up afterwards as an inconvenient side effect.
You are not asking who to trust. You worked out the answer a while ago and it was nobody in a cape. This is where you go once you have decided the people in charge need watching, and that nobody else is going to do it.
Often retitled Flash Gordon: A Moder…