Masters of the Universe #10, “Courage,” is written by George Caragonne and illustrated by Alan Kupperberg and Danny Bulanadi. Here, Man-At-Arms is disabled by Skeletor’s henchmen, and Prince Adam and Teela go in search of a remedy.
Caragonne continues to impress. He does a good job of making Prince Adam pay a price for his assumed cowardice, and the interplay between Teela and Adam is excellent. Caragonne also does a little world-building, he gives us a couple of nice plot twists, and he gets bonus points for using “Let the power return!”
There are only two real complaints with the writing. First, a number of scenes, most notably those featuring the Mind Beast, are rushed; sometimes the comic doesn’t flow well at all, which can be confusing and frustrating. Second, it’s really hard to believe that the Sorceress couldn’t discern either imposter. This story also highlights precisely how there’s no good reason whatsoever for Adam not to tell Teela his identity, but obviously that isn’t Caragonne’s call to make.
There is a horrendous error in this comic for which the buck must stop with the editor. On pages 2, 3, and 4, the Heroic Warriors are attacked by Saurod and Blade. On page 5, they’ve suddenly become Kobra Kahn and Webstor, respectively, in both the text and the art. Clearly these pages were redone at the last minute to include movie characters with new action figures, but somebody really messed up with page 5.
Kupperberg has had a very respectable career, but his art here makes a bad impression, as the early action scenes are confusing and the first battle is rushed through. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in this case, though, because those pages were obviously redone, and the rest of the pages are noticeably better. (He also has an unusual take on the Wind Raider.)
Aside from the henchmen editing fiasco in the first few pages and the relatively minor plot issues, this is easily the best Star comic yet – this is the kind of character development we’ve been waiting for.
RECOMMENDED
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