[1] In the comic strip, when the heroic Flash Gordon and his friends land on the fictional planet Mongo, they find it ruled by an evil emperor, a despot who quickly becomes their enemy.

In addition to his army, Ming is shown to have access to a wide variety of science fiction gadgets, ranging from rocket ships to death rays to robots.

[2] Ming's daughter Princess Aura is as evil as he is when the series begins, but is eventually reformed by her love for Flash, and later for Prince Barin of Arboria.

[11] In the sequel story, Flash Gordon:The Man from Earth, Dale Arden learns that Ming uses special "Quantum Crystals" to expand his lifespan, and to travel to and conquer other star systems.

Ming takes on a Hitler-like persona in this pre WWII 1940 serial with references to him as "Dictator" and his wearing of elaborate military uniforms.

In the 1980 theatrical film, Ming (Max von Sydow), complaining of boredom, discovers Earth and unleashes various attacks on the planet.

appear, as his evil laughter plays in the background, hinting he is not dead and has managed to transcend the narrative world of the film and infect our reality.

[14] In this version, Ming's panoply is vividly displayed in the form of his vast fleet of battleships, drone rockets, armored trains, and his army of robots.

[15] Ming served as the principal adversary in the 1980s Marvel animated series Defenders of the Earth, fighting against other King Features characters such as The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Lothar, and of course Flash Gordon.

This version of Ming also includes a son rather than a daughter at his side, Prince Kro-Tan; unlike Aura, he holds no love for any of the Defenders and considers both them and his father hindrances to his enslavement of the galaxy.

This version is made more grotesque than his traditional appearance to avoid racial stereotyping, being portrayed as having green skin and pointed ears.

In the 1996 animated series, Ming looks even more reptilian: he is a green, pointy-eared, sharp-toothed scaly alien, which cause the heroes to call him a "lizard".

In the 2007 Sci-Fi Channel television series, Ming is portrayed by John Ralston as a clean shaven blond Caucasian.

Ming has often been connected to the Yellow Peril imagery of the era, in which tyrannous East Asian villains such as Fu Manchu were common.

Jonathan C. Friedman says that Ming and Fu Manchu were "the incarnations of the yellow peril in the Oriental crusade to conquer the world".

[19] Peter Feng calls him a "futuristic Yellow Peril", quoting a reviewer who referred to him as a "slanty eyed, shiny domed, pointy nailed, arching eyebrowed, exotically dressed Oriental".

Luke 'Ming' Flanagan, the Irish politician and cannabis legalisation campaigner, takes his name from his resemblance to Ming the Merciless.

In the 1989 edition of the Star Wars Sourcebook by Bill Slavicsek and Curtis Smith, a photograph of Max Von Sydow as Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon is used to represent the character of the Grand Inquisitor, later voiced by Jason Isaacs in the first two seasons of the animated series Star Wars Rebels and portrayed by Rupert Friend in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The British surreal sketch show Big Train features a Ming-style villain, portrayed by Mark Heap, going about mundane household tasks such as checking his answer phone and vacuuming.

George Lucas has cited Ming the Merciless as a basis for Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader from the Star Wars series.

[27][28] An October 2001 installment[29] of the comic strip Get Your War On by David Rees featured one of the characters joking that George W. Bush would reveal himself to be Ming the Merciless at a press conference.