Mongo is a fictional planet where the comic strip (and later movie serials) of Flash Gordon takes place. Mongo was created by the comics artist Alex Raymond in 1934, with the assistance of Raymond's ghostwriter Don W. Moore. Mongo is depicted as being ruled by a usurper named Ming the Merciless, who is shown as a harsh and oppressive dictator.
The planet is depicted as being inhabited by different cultures, and having a varied ecosystem. The technology of these cultures varies from groups at a Stone Age level, to highly technologically advanced peoples. and is inhabited by enormous, dinosaur-like monsters.
The demonym of the planet's people vary according to different writers. Mongo's inhabitants have been referred to as "Mongonians", "Mongoans", and "Mongori". Mingo City is near the equator of the planet. Also beneath Mingo City is an abandoned sewer system where a band of rebels against Ming's rule,"the Freeman" make their base. The Freeman are led by the eyepatch-wearing Count Bulok. To the west of Mingo City is the Land of the Lion Men, ruled by King Thun. Underneath the fog-shrouded Sea of Mystery, is the underwater kingdom of Coralia, ruled by Queen Undina. Between Mingo City and Sky City is the land of the Brown Dwarves. Part of the planet is covered by the forest kingdom of Arboria, ruled by Prince Barin, leader of the Treemen who live there. Arboria has enormous trees resembling giant redwoods. and the warlike Horned Ape Men. To the far north, an area of mountains and caverns makes up the frozen kingdom of Frigia, ruled by Queen Fria. Frigia has enormous, ostrich-like "snowbirds" that the inhabitants ride. Frigia's inhabitants are shown as being technologically advanced, using rocket ships, electric heaters, and transparent "snowsuits" capable of protecting their inhabitants from the cold. Kira is also inhabited by Lizard Men who capture and eat the other inhabitants of Mongo. Westwards is a jungle, home of the Monkey Men.
A dense jungle covers the middle of the continent, which contains deadly monsters called Tree Dragons. In Tropica, the villain Brazor usurps the rightful ruler Queen Desira and becomes' the area's tyrannical despot. Mac Raboy created several new elements for the fictional planet's mythology, including giving Mongo two moons, Lunita and Exila, as well as the ice kingdom of Polaria, ruled by the tyrant Polon, (who has the power to shrink or enlarge living things). Jim Keefe made the Unexplored Continent the location where the villain Garakahn had his fortress.
In the 2011 Dynamite Comics Flash Gordon:Zeitgeist, Ming opens a portal between dimensions to enable Mongo to attack Earth in the year 1934. This story also describes Mongo as the "Crossroads of the Known Universes". In the later Dynamite Flash Gordon series, Mongo is the base of Ming's empire. Mongo harbours a "Valley of Portals" which contains portals which lead to the other worlds Ming rules, including Arboria and Coralia.
Mongo in other media
Radio
Starting April 22, 1935, the radio serial The Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon, began airing. The series featured stories set on Mongo, closely following the plot of the comic strip.
Film
Flash Gordon (1936 serial)
The 1936 serial depicts Mongo as a rogue planet drifting towards Earth. The serial's Mongo is a wild, rocky planet filled with monsters.
Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe
The second Flash Gordon serial was set on Mars, but the third returned to Mongo. In Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe Flash and his friends travel to Mongo's land of Frigia to find a cure for the Purple Death, which is ravaging Earth.
Flash Gordon (1980 film)
In the Flash Gordon film from 1980, Mongo is depicted as a barren world covered with tall, very slender hills that look like spikes, but with a very colorful extended atmosphere that is capable of supporting the weight of various miles-wide chunks of rock that are called "moons", including Arboria and Frigia. The people of Mongo resemble humans but with slight differences, such as having blue or green blood, or having their bodies undergo rapid disintegration when killed. The novelization of the film by Arthur Byron Cover adds further information about this version of the planet. This Mongo is an enormous rocky plateau that sits at the still centre of "an ancient cosmic whirlpool", outside the normal flow of time and space. Mongo was settled in "the dim forgotten past" by Ming's people. However, some minor changes were made (the Lion Men had the heads of lions in addition to tails, and Brazor was renamed "Braznor"). It also featured a storyline involving the caverns of the Witch Kingdom of Sykland. Queen Azura, the ruler, becomes convinced that Gordan is the reincarnation of Ghor-Dhan, the legendary founder of Syk.
Defenders of the Earth
The 1986 cartoon showed a frozen planet Mongo where all the natural resources had been exhausted, thus motivating Ming to move to Earth and attack the planet.
Flash Gordon (1996 TV series)
In this animated version, Flash, Dale and Zarkov arrive on Mongo through a dimensional portal. They are trapped on the planet after sealing the portal to stop Ming using it to invade Earth. This version renamed the Hawkmen "Birdmen" and the Lion Men "Leonids".
Flash Gordon (2007 TV series)
In the Scifi Channel series Flash Gordon, Mongo is a planet, "in another dimension" (i.e. parallel universe). It is explained that "the dimensional shift" is "quite small" and that there is an inherent connection between Earth and Mongo, where the quantum mechanics of Bell's theorem and EPR paradox are working on a planetary scale. That is why there are so many similarities between both worlds, including language and Homo Sapiens evolving on both planets. It is theorized that at some point in time and space, the two planets were much closer. Mongo's government is called the "United Peoples of Mongo", ruled by Emperor Ming.
In the episode Sorrow, it is revealed that Mongo was once a prosperous blue and green planet; it relied on a glowing red ore called zerilium that was mined on the moon. Mongo's inhabitants even built two small artificial moons named Arkaylia and Surd to process zerilium and shelter the miners. An accident on Mongo released poisonous zerilium gas into the air, which caused acid rain, killed wildlife, and contaminated Mongo's water. The planet became uninhabitable. A small portion of Mongo's people emigrated to Arkaylia. After three generations on the artificial moon, Mongo's environment partially repaired itself. As a result, the people returned to the planet. Clean water, known as "source water", still remained scarce and came from underground. Centuries later, Ming seized power and began his rule.