Just a few weeks back, the last issue of The Midas Flesh came out. Written by Ryan North and illustrated by Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb, the same team behind the main Adventure Time title, the series is the first from Boom! Box, an imprint of Boom! Studios. It tells the story behind the question, What would happen if King Midas, and his golden touch, were both real?

The series centers around the idea that once Midas is granted his wish everything he touches is transmuted to gold. This extends to things Midas isn't even in direct contact with; once the couch he's touching turns to gold, so does everything that is touching that couch, and so on. Even worse, since it happens on the molecular level, even the air becomes a vehicle through which this curse can travel.

In essence, Midas inadvertently creates a world made entirely of gold, and his body becomes a weapon unto itself.

It's a simple premise that is steeped in both science fiction and fantasy/myth, something which is rare due to the difficulty in correlating the disparate pieces that make each genre unique. Through a little bit of magic and not a little bit of skill, North finds the perfect balance between the two, all while telling an entertaining story.

It wouldn't be worth my time or yours to recap the story within each issue, but here's how the story breaks down. After a week of entertaining a fellow king, Midas is granted his matter-altering wish by Dionysius, the god of wine, though his identity is unknown to Midas. Thousands of years in the future, Joey, Fatima, and Cooper pilot a ship to the surface and capture Midas' preserved body so they can use it against the Federation, a galaxy-spanning totalitarian government that has wrecked havoc on each of their home worlds. Shortly after they acquire the Midas flesh, a small contingent of the Federation catches up with them and attempts to confiscate the flesh so they use it as a weapon to ensure their superiority. Through a series of twists and turns, General Russ of the Federation acquires a majority of Midas' flesh. It falls on the trio who originally retrieved the flesh to somehow reclaim it in order to prevent it from being used by the insane general.

If you are familiar with North's other writings – Dinosaur Comics, Adventure Time, or his choose-your-own adventure version of Hamlet – you will already be well acquainted with the tone of The Midas Flesh. In a kind of literary judo, North pivots his greatest weakness – all of his characters tend to have the same or very similar voices – and somehow make it a great strength due to his strong sense of comedy that somehow centers around questions? Also his dialogue is pretty realistic, I guess.

Two other things that make this series stand out beyond the typical. The first is Cooper. He's a dinosaur in space, and he accurately has feathers, which North gives credit to Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb for bringing to Cooper's representation.

The second thing is much more important than dinosaurs in space, which seems hard to believe. A vast majority of comics are written for guys. As such, they tend to have strong male protagonists and few women at the center of the story and even fewer strong women. In The Midas Flesh, two of the three protagonists are strong, opinionated women. Even a simple gauge like the Bechdel Test is passed on the third page of the first issue.

(The Bechdel Test is generally used for movies. In order to pass, the story has to have at least two named women who talk to each other about something other than a man. While designed for movies, it is simple enough to work as a gauge for other media.)

What makes this so great is that The Midas Flesh is not a story that is trying to be feminist, but it still succeeds in doing so. It reminds me of an answer George R.R. Martin gave to an interviewer who asked him how he wrote women so differently and so well. Martin answered, “I've always considered women to be people.” It seems to me that North agrees, even if he also considers all people to be experts at making humorous comments and asking rhetorical questions.

When all is said and done, The Midas Flesh modernizes a classic myth using science fiction tropes, and it does so very well. I highly recommend this series for anyone. You can pick up all eight issues by donating at least $15 to the Boom Studios Humble Bundle, which includes a total of 93 issues from 23 series, but you only have until August 20 to take advantage of it.