MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: ORIGIN OF HE-MAN

Masters of the Universe: Origin of He-Man is a 2013 DC one-shot written by Joshua Hale Fialkov and illustrated by Ben Oliver.

First of all, what the heck was wrong with the origin from the Halperin bible and the 200X cartoon? This vacuous deus ex machina has no pizazz at all. Again, just as with The Origin of Skeletor, if you don’t already know the basic of origin of He-Man, you’re probably going to be pretty unimpressed (likely, you’ll be unimpressed in any case). Most egregiously, this is an origin in which He-Man never has a secret identity, as the comic opens with Adam transforming for the first time in front of Skeletor.

Fialkov uses the same structure here he used in The Origin of Skeletor: alternating flashbacks and not a lot of character development, context, or supporting cast. There’s further weakening of the Randor character – I’ve given up on him – and Prince Adam is neither interested nor interesting.

About the only thing worthwhile going on here is the moderately interesting conversation between Adam and Skeletor, which mostly centers on backstory exposition. However, there’s not enough to do much with.

Oliver’s characters look pretty good – in the rare instances they aren’t entirely in shadow. The colorists do a fantastic job. But what do we have to do to get some backgrounds around here? Oh, and the Sorceress looks like a stripper.

Origin of He-Man is an abject failure. DC continues to “fix” what isn’t broken, and I’m beginning to wonder if, by the end of this, I won’t think more highly of Space Ponytail He-Man than Yellow Cross He-Man. I may already.  

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Its He-Man.org archive page is HERE