Graphic Novel Reviews: He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe 001

The Story

Following after the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe mini-series, the Sorceress' funeral is being held in the capital city of Eternos. While King Randor's speech is ongoing, the hordes of Hordak invade Eternia. With the funeral concluded, Hordak's forces attack the city. The Masters mount a defense while Adam transforms into He-Man, only to be confronted by the leader of invading army, Hordak's daughter, Despara. But she is not who she seems to be.

The Review
I randomly found the He-Man mini-series last year, and was impressed by the story it was telling. An amnesiac Adam, meeting up with his former friends and taking down Skeletor. Since my knowledge of the series is limited to the Filmation and the 2002 series I was impressed by not only the maturity of the story, but by the different tact it was taking to your regular He-Man story.

While I was disappointed that it wasn't an ongoing series, as I first thought, I soon discovered that an ongoing series was planned thanks to the success of the mini-series. And that's how we find ourselves here, with the story continuing from the mini-series. The Sorceress is dead, and a new threat has come to Eternia.

This is a great first issue, all you need to know from the mini-series is that the Sorceress is dead, and the funeral makes that more than clear. We start off with some character interaction, cementing who the characters are and how they relate to each other, and then move on to the big conflict. It moves well, and promises a good overall story.

Adam's portrayal was excellent, while he still played the goofball, the moment the attack started he didn't pretend to be a coward and run away. Rather he actually showed his royal upbringing by giving battle orders before disappearing to become He-Man. Out of the few portrayals of Adam I've seen, I like this version because it plays up the idea that it is his future to lead their people in peace and in battle, but his avoiding conflict has nothing to do with being a coward (in the eyes of others) but because as the future ruler his safety is also pretty important.

But, of course, that is just a facade, still, it is a much more appealing facade than the idea that a guy who is pretty buff in his own right would be running away from danger all the time.

The reveal at the very end was certainly unexpected, and definitely ties in the She-Ra series in an interesting way. A bit of background information is needed to understand the import of the reveal, but I think almost everyone even remotely interested in this series will have at least a working knowlegde of at least the Filmation He-Man and She-Ra series. But, even then, besides that one little point that might require further research, this first issue is definitely enjoyable by even beginners to He-Man, though I imagine almost everyone knows at least a little bit about He-Man. Highly recommended for anyone that wants a little bit of some classic fantasy in their reading.

The Grade

4/5