HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE MINICOMIC COLLECTION

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Minicomic Collection (2015) collects all 49 of the original Masters of the Universe minicomics that were packaged with the 1980s line of action figures, plus one that was never published and a script for another, plus all 11 Princess of Power minicomics, all four New Adventures minicomics, two 200X minicomics, three MOTU Classic minicomics, creator interviews, and the fantastic vintage Bruce Timm-illustrated The Power of the Evil Horde.

For the purpose of this review, the quality of these stories is irrelevant (as we’ve seen on this site, they vary widely). The point is that every single one of them—everything you could possibly want—is right here in one place.

This is a 1,200-page 6x9 monster of a book. Every minicomic page gets its own full-size, full-color page here, and it’s absolutely glorious. The one and only knock on this book is that with practically non-existent inner margins, the images run nearly into the spine, and the pages in the middle of the volume can be difficult to read without causing harm to the book.

Nevertheless, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Minicomic Collection is a must-have for anyone still clinging to their love of 1980s He-Man. I for one want more collections like this.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

THE STORY OF SHE-RA (mini-comic, 1985)

Not to be confused with The Sword of She-Ra or The Secret of the Sword, The Story of She-Ra (1985) is the first Princess of Power mini-comic. He-Man’s in it, or we wouldn’t be here. No author or artist is credited, but I’d guess Larry Houston on the pencils and maybe Bruce Timm on the inks.

This is a vastly different origin: Adora’s still kidnapped by the Horde as a baby, but the only ones who appear in this story are Hordak and Catra. As this story begins, Adora’s already free and a good guy somehow, she’s already got the sword somehow, and she turns into She-Ra on her own (in front of Catra) somehow. Thus, He-Man drops by pretty much just to say hi. It’s borderline incoherent. Typos abound. Also, the moral’s printed explicitly in red because…girls are stupid?

The art is perfectly fine and the colors are good, but it can be confusing because Adora looks like She-Ra already, like the action figure does. When Adora changes into She-Ra, her headpiece flips around to go over her eyes, Batman-style, following the original toy concept; otherwise, her outfit doesn’t really change.

In short, this one’s a mess. It might be worth a look just for how wacky it is.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

Read it HERE

THE COSMIC KEY (mini-comic, 1987)

The Cosmic Key is a 1987 Masters of the Universe mini-comic (the last). No author or artist is credited, quite possibly because no one wanted to admit involvement. Here, The Evil Cloud appears to bestow power upon Skeletor.

The Evil Cloud! How many trees died for this six-page abomination? One could complain that six pages isn’t enough space to tell a coherent story, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t going to happen regardless. To wit: Blade and Saurod talk like they’re reading off their toy packaging. Gwildor gets summoned out of a nearby pond like he’s the spawn of a union between the Lady of the Lake and Gizmo from Gremlins. The resolution doesn’t make any sense whatsoever of any kind. And The Evil Cloud is a real thing that happens (he would go on to star in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer).  

Being kind, the art is substandard, as is the coloring, and one is forced to conclude that The Evil Cloud is the villain here for the sole reason that he’s so easy to draw. Let’s start by saying that Skeletor’s face looks really good. Moving on, He-Man looks like he’s wielding the sword that the She-Ra action figure came with. The Sorceress does the Dhalsim yoga float through half the issue. The climax involves a tornado that’s twice the size of the planet. Blade has that weird thing from the concept art over his mouth. Skeletor is wearing the Terror Bra. And backgrounds? We ain’t got no backgrounds. We don’t need no backgrounds! I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ backgrounds!

Calling this the worst mini-comic of them all is just too easy. This one’s in a category all its own.

The Evil Cloud!

RECOMMENDED AGAINST (but you know you’re going to look at it anyway)

Read it HERE

THE POWERS OF GRAYSKULL – THE LEGEND BEGINS! (mini-comic, 1986)

The Powers of Grayskull – The Legend Begins! is a 1986 Masters of the Universe mini-comic written by Phil White and illustrated by Larry Houston and Bruce Timm. Here, He-Man and Skeletor journey to Eternia’s past, where the Snake Men are using bionic dinosaurs to oppress the villagers.

As the cover indicates, this was intended to be the first of a trilogy leading into Mattel’s The Powers of Grayskull spinoff featuring the wizard He-Ro. But parts two and three were never made, and the three dinosaur toys, the vanguards of the Powers of Grayskull line, were the only toys ever produced with that branding. It’s too bad; it would have been great to find out how, exactly, ancient Eternia has all these cyborg dinosaurs, and it’s a lot more appealing than the ponytailed He-Man-in-space we got in 1990.

The story here is noteworthy primarily for the contributions it sets itself up to make to the mythos; otherwise, it’s little more than a big fight scene featuring the three dinosaurs (two of which, interestingly, aren’t named (or spelled) in accordance with their toys). Also of note is that there’s a Cosmic Key reference here to tie in to all the movie shenanigans (the prospect of trying to bring aspects of the live-action film into canon is a dubious one, though).  

The art is a highlight – Timm only provides the inks, but he makes the illustrations his own, as his style is apparent on every page. The dinosaurs are all nicely done.

The Cosmic Key yet remains for us, but this is truly the last real mini-comic. It’s not one of the greats, but it leaves us wanting still more – and really, what else could we ask for?

RECOMMENDED

Read it HERE

ENERGY ZOIDS (mini-comic, 1986)

Energy Zoids is a 1986 Masters of the Universe mini-comic written by Phil White and illustrated by Chris Carlson. Here, Skeletor and the Snake Men try to steal Man-At-Arms’ new robot-warrior-creating invention.

I always thought Rotar and Twistoid were fairly lame toys, but White does a good job of giving Rotar a little bit of character (and hoist the flag, I guess, for empowering amputees). It’s also cool that Skeletor’s running an underground fight club out of Snake Mountain. I’ve missed that since Clash of Arms. The ending is a little too He-Man ex machina, but they had to get him into the story somehow (and the teamwork moral at the end veers a little too close to “never try to win without getting help from He-Man” territory).

Carlson does a good job with the characters and action, although his heads are frequently oversized and lumpy. But why, longtime colorist Charles Simpson, is Skeletor’s Havoc Staff orange?

White does a fair job given what he has to work with, and despite its flaws, this one is perfectly readable.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

Read it HERE

THE SEARCH FOR KELDOR (mini-comic, 1986)

The Search for Keldor is a 1986 Masters of the Universe mini-comic written by Steven Grant and illustrated by Bruce Timm and Steve Mitchell. Here, Randor seeks to discover the fate of his long-lost brother.

So this is the comic that implies, not at all subtlety, that Skeletor is Randor’s brother (and He-Man’s uncle). And while this is clearly a relatively sudden decision by Mattel, it can be made to fit reasonably well with Skeletor’s extra-dimensional origins in Halperin’s series bible. Beyond the Darth Vader-style shock value, though, this revelation isn’t of particular value to the 1980s line, as it wasn’t ever mentioned again, although the 200X series explicitly adopted the Keldor-as-Skeletor story element, if not the Keldor-as-Randor’s-brother one (at least, not his full brother, certainly).

Beyond the introduction of this story element, this isn’t a particularly well-written comic, and the obligatory toy plugs aren’t the only thing that hold it back. Skeletor summons some easily-subdued, decidedly second-string minions out of the blue, and then is surprised when they can’t get the job done (he asks for the most evil beings of all time – maybe he should have asked for the most competent). Faker is here, and one wonders yet again (much as Randor does) why we have to bother with the pretense that this different-colored, differently-clad creature is impersonating He-Man. And on the last page, it’s He-Man, not Prince Adam, telling the king, “Don’t worry, Father…” and making it clear that he knows all about what’s going on even though he just showed up. How did that get past the editor? About the only other positive thing going on here is the further development of Randor as a noble and self-sacrificing man of action.

Also of note is that Clamp Champ, Mattel’s token black character (and who apparently has a Spider-sense), has his name spelled with a “K.”

The art is pretty good, much as we expect any time we see Timm’s name in the credits. In addition to the usual strengths, the use of color and heavy inks do a lot toward establishing a suitable nighttime atmosphere.

This isn’t a great comic, but because of its contribution to the mythos, it’s a must-read.

RECOMMENDED

Read it HERE