Welcome to the 38th installment of Nostalgia Snake, a look at the revivals of 1980s properties in the 2000s, revivals now so old that they’re also quite nostalgic (hence the self-eating nostalgia snake). same.) This week, just as the renaissance fashion of the beginning of the year cools down to room temperature, Masters of the Universe launches a new ongoing series. And if you have any suggestions for the future, let me know. Simply contact me at Twitter.
After leaving Image Comics, the original home of ’80s revival titles, MV Creations found itself in an unenviable position in 2004. The studio, which had acquired the Masters of the Universe earlier in the decade, shortly before the revival craze took off, had planned to partner with publisher Crossgen to retain the rights. Masters the titles go. However, just a few months after the deal began, the studio discovered that Crossgen was shutting down.
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Crossgen had lured several talented creators away from Marvel and DC and quickly built a reputation for some of the best production values in the industry, but the upstart publisher couldn’t maintain the sales needed to stay afloat . Thus, after having published only a few issues under the Crossgen banner, MV Creations has become truly independent by launching a new Masters underway on their own. The timing was not ideal, given that the public’s appetite for nostalgic titles had waned and the animated “200x” revamp of Masters on which the comic strip was based aired its final episode on Cartoon Network in January 2004.
A new era… but is it really?
Masters of the Universe Number 1 wasn’t the biggest problem
April 2004 Masters of the Universe #1 doesn’t feel like the start of a new era, but rather a continuation of the arcs already established in the previous miniseries. Emiliano Santalucia returns as artist, now enjoying a co-plot credit with regular writer Val Staples. However, Staples does not handle the dialogue, with Lori Ann Scott stepping in to fill that role. (This appears to be her only comic book credit.) An additional artist, Enza Fontana, is also credited as Santalucia, and since no inker is listed, perhaps we should assume Fontana is filling that role. It’s possible that the fact that Staples, Scott, and Santalucia all contribute to the story in one way or another is problematic – the first issue doesn’t feature one, but two off-panel moments that need to be exposed in dialogue.
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Emiliano Santalucia’s work is respected in the corners of Masters fandom, but these opening issues rarely feature standout moments. The inking gives almost every line the same weight, and there just isn’t much personality or life to the drawings. The boldness of the Four Horsemen toy designs is not conveyed, and there are some basic storytelling issues that leave the reader unsure in what order to read the panels for a few pages. Santalucia seems better suited to Skeletor and the more monstrous members of the Masters casting; the quieter moments with He-Man as Prince Adam aren’t able to properly convey what the script is trying to sell.
The first issue opens with Evil-Lyn escorting Count Marzo to the Well of Darkness, hoping that their combined magics can resurrect Hordak from his imprisonment in the kingdom of Despondos. The freed Hordak, Evil-Lyn hopes, will then enact his vengeance on Skeletor, who angered Evil-Lyn after one betrayal too many. Once again, it’s a question of openness. And Count Marzo, a character created for the original Filmation cartoon that was revamped for the 200x animated series, receives no introduction here. Readers are expected to automatically recognize the fairly obscure villain and accept his role in Evil-Lyn’s plan. It’s more than a little jarring and doesn’t seem like a compelling way to introduce readers to a new ongoing series.
Staying true to die-hard fans is admirable, but a first issue is, ideally, a great starting point for all readers. There doesn’t seem to be any benefit to relaunching a new issue one if the first issue throws readers into an advanced storyline – one that references the continuity of the animated series and the previous comic miniseries. King Hiss (technically spelled “King Hssss” in this continuity, but let’s pretend that’s not the case) and his loyal Snake Men also appear in this story, rather abruptly. King Hiss is adamant about stopping the ceremony, a stance that probably makes sense to those already familiar with this continuity, but is not explained in this specific issue.
In the last days of the 2000s Masters cartoon, the show was renamed The Masters of the Universe against the Snake MenHe-Man was redesigned with new anti-snake toy armor, and King Hiss was positioned as the series’ new main antagonist. This is another unfortunate moment, linked to Serpent Men reorganize, just as the show went off the air.
He-Man’s somewhat pedestrian entrance
The series tries a new angle on the He-Man stories
He-Man makes his first appearance in the issue – the first issue of his new ongoing series – five pages in, in the middle of the layout, with his back to the reader. Not rendered in shadow or played for a cool, dramatic reveal. It just appears as if it’s been hanging around from the first page and we just haven’t noticed it. He-Man runs into the Snake Men as they try to stop Evil-Lyn and Marzo from freeing Hordak. After casually dispatching King Hiss and his Snake Men (not a great performance for the franchise’s new deadly threat), He-Man is the one who finally stops Evil-Lyn’s ceremony, crushing a glowing obelisk and sending Hordak back into his interdimensional prison. Evil-Lyn is caught in the ensuing explosion, and Marzo takes advantage of her weakened state to deliver a beating that would never have gotten past Cartoon Network’s censors.
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Marzo flees, leaving Evil-Lyn seriously injured. King Hiss easily attempts to kill her, telling his followers that she will play a role in the awakening of Serpos, the ancient god of the serpentmen. He-Man, truly disturbed by Lyn’s condition, transports her to the Palace of Eternos, where the royal healers urgently seek a way to save her. It’s the most intriguing idea of the series’ early issues, with He-Man grappling with incredible guilt over what happened to Evil-Lyn, even as his allies cheer their enemies’ defeat and tell him that she got what she deserves.
He-Man’s conflicting feelings evoke classic Marvel angst, the kind of inner turmoil readers might expect in the pages of Stan Lee or Chris Claremont’s stories. The Filmation series of the 1980s didn’t tend to deal with emotions as heavy as these, but this is tried-and-true action hero material: in the right hands, internal conflicts can be just as engaging as physical struggles. Although it seems like He-Man’s time would be better spent chasing Marzo, since he was the one who really hurt Evil-Lyn and was allowed to run free (seemingly forgotten in the plot of these first three numbers.)
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Continue the story in Masters #2, He-Man (technically, Prince Adam) convinces his wise but pragmatic mentor Man-At-Arms to seek out the Witch of Grayskull to try to save Lyn. Essentially, that’s all we see of the series’ hero in this issue. He thinks about Lyn’s condition, chats with his mother, then speaks to Man-At-Arms, all as Prince Adam. “Talking” superhero comics that focused more on emotional struggles were in vogue at the time, but it seems presumptuous to have a Masters of the Universe issue with no real appearance from He-Man. The hero faces a nice internal conflict, but it’s not convincing enough to justify nearly twenty pages of conversation scenes. And while the cover image of a sad Prince Adam is some of the nicest work we’ve seen from this art team so far, the interior pages are noticeably dull during the conversation pages.
Meanwhile, King Hiss approaches the mystical Faceless One – a new creation of the 200x series, the father of Evil-Lyn and the original guardian of the Skeletor’s Havoc Staff – with a proposition. In exchange for the Faceless Granting King Hiss control of his serpent god Serpos, King Hiss will “rescue” Evil-Lyn from the Masters. The Faceless One rejects the offer and instead turns to Skeletor for help. Angered by Evil-Lyn’s betrayal in her attempt to free Hordak, Skeletor banishes the Faceless One from Snake Mountain, and in a fitting end-of-issue stinger, then demands that Evil-Lyn be found and delivered to him. .. dead or alive.
Who needs He-Man when you have Prince Adam?
The bold move to open an ongoing Masters series with more Adam than He-Man
In issue #3, Adam and Man-At-Arms bring the unconscious Evil-Lyn to Castle Grayskull, where they discover that, following her spell being interrupted by He-Man, she has been poisoned by the spirit of Despondos. The Witch is unable to cure her, forcing the Masters to seek alternative solutions. Lyn unconsciously calls out to her former love interest Keldor, the villain we now know as Skeletor. Adam wonders if Skeletor could somehow hold the key to saving her. A promising idea, but it feels like an excessive number of pages are spent getting there.
Meanwhile, the Faceless One makes a new deal with King Hiss, promising him the power to control Serpos in exchange for the capture of Evil-Lyn and Skeletor, as well as their mystical staffs. The Snake Men then invade Snake Mountain, a battle that features some horrific hack-and-slash on the Snake Men, but an ultimate victory for King Hiss. He poses on the last page of the issue above Skeletor’s defeated body, wielding the Havoc Staff.
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How does He-Man get through the problem? Again, not as He-Man, but in his equivalent of a civilian identity, helpless as the Witch attempts psychic surgery on Evil-Lyn. There is perhaps an argument that this is a Masters of the Universe comical and not a Man-man comical, but it seems like a technicality. The repeated sequences of villains plotting and forming alliances aren’t engaging enough to justify the number of pages they consume, almost no plot progress over three issues, and it seems like He-Man could have been worked into this story of more realistic way. active manner.
When you consider that these are the first three issues of a new ongoing series, it’s easy to imagine fans losing interest and moving on to other titles – especially in an era where Marvel and DC were competing aggressively with high-profile projects. (The ’80s nostalgia books launched just before the Marvel/DC rivalry really heated up, and benefited from the goodwill of a fandom that had fond memories of those ’80s properties.) Again, the idea of He-Man questioning his own actions and position. defending the sanctity of all life – even the life of someone with “evil” in their name – is intriguing, but the execution leaves much to be desired.