Comic Review: Masters of the Universe: Forge of Destiny by Tim Seeley and Eddie Nunez

My regular comic collecting days are almost twenty years behind me by now, but I still pick up the occasional comic book that interests me. And so I headed to my local comic shop to pick up Masters of the Universe: Forge of Destiny, a four issue mini-series by Tim Seeley and Eddie Nunez, published by Dark Horse Comics.

As for why I bought this particular comic, for starters I happen to like Masters of the Universe, as regular readers of this blog will know. What is more, the Masters of Universe comics, especially the DC Comics run that started in 2012, have been remarkably good, particularly considering they’re media and toy tie-in comics. But then toy tie-in comics are often remarkably good. For example, Marvel‘s Rom the Spaceknight and Micronauts both outlasted the rather shortlived toylines that inspired them. Finally, I have enjoyed all of the Masters of the Universe comics that Tim Seeley has written so far. My favourite is probably Masters of the Multiverse (I talk a bit more about that comic here), though I also liked the recent Masterverse mini-series (which partially inspired this Masters-of-the-Universe-piece Theatre toy photo story as well as this one) and the Injustice versus Masters of the Universe crossover.

Note that I wrote this review before Masters of the Universe: Revolution was released, so there’s some speculation in here, which may turn out to be wrong. I was actually planning to post this review much earlier, but then Dave McCarty had to go and mess with the Hugo nominations, leading to a multi-day drama.

Warning! There are some spoilers in the following!

Masters of the Universe: Forge of Destiny is set in the same continuity as the Masters of the Universe: Revelation/Revolution cartoon and the framing story of the Masterverse comic mini-series. Artist Eddie Nunez also worked on the Revelation/Revolution series, so the character designs match the TV series perfectly. A lot of classic vehicles like the Attack Track, Stridor and my personal favourite the Dragon Walker (honestly, Duncan must have been drunk, when he designed that one) put in an appearance as well. Eddie Nunez also does a good job showing the diversity of people (in the widest sense of the word) living on Eternia. Forge of Destiny is also a prequel and billed as “He-Man: Year One”, i.e. it’s set at a time very shortly after Adam first becomes He-Man and is still in the process of figuring out his newfound abilities, while the rest of Eternia is still in the process of figuring out who this He-Man is and if he can be trusted.

Considering how perennially popular origin stories are, the story of how Prince Adam first became He-Man hasn’t been told all that often – unlike that of his twin sister She-Ra, whose origin story has been told multiple times and is fairly consistent.

The very first mini-comic He-Man and the Power Sword by Donald F. Glut and Alfredo Acala did give He-Man an origin story, though in that story He-Man is just a wandering Barbarian from a jungle tribe who saves a goddess from a monster and is given magical weapons in return. There is no Prince Adam yet, since He-Man’s alter-ego wouldn’t be introduced until the first DC Comics series a few months later.

Once Prince Adam does show up in the comics, we never get the story of how he first became He-Man and the Filmation cartoon never gives us his origin story either – unless you count the opening narration. The 2021 Netflix CGI series does show us how Adam first becomes He-Man, but it also deviates the furthest from what passes for Masters of the Universe canon.

The first three episodes of the 2002 cartoon is probably the closest we ever come to an origin story of how Prince Adam first became He-Man. Prince Adam is celebrating his sixteenth birthday, when Skeletor and his Evil Warriors return from their enforced exile behind the mystic wall that separates the light and dark hemispheres of Eternia and begin to wreak havoc. The Sorceress, sensing the danger, summons Duncan (who is already hinted to be her lover here) to bring Adam to Castle Grayskull. The Sorceress then hands Adam the Sword of Power and tells him that he is the chosen one, destined to become a great warrior and defend Eternia.

However, Adam initially wants nothing to do with any of this and tells the Sorceress point blank that she’s got the wrong guy, that he can’t possibly be a great hero and warrior and that she should take Duncan instead. It’s only after Skeletor attacks the royal palace, kidnaps King Randor and kicks the collective arses of the Heroic Warriors that Adam accepts his destiny and becomes He-Man to protect the people he loves.

The first time I saw that episode, I thought it was a typical example of writers mechanically following the various stages of the hero’s journey and initially having the hero refuse the call to adventure, because that’s what the hero’s journey requires, whether it makes sense for this specific character or not. Because I’d never viewed Adam as someone who would refuse the call to heroism. That’s just not who he is.

However, upon rewatching the episode I realised that Adam isn’t really refusing the call to adventure at all. Instead, he has internalised the negative image that his father and other people around him have of him to the point that Adam himself believes that he will only ever be a disappointment and literally cannot even imagine himself as a hero.  Only when the people he loves are in danger does Adam accept his destiny and become He-Man. It’s a powerful moment, because it shows that what motivates Adam is love – love for his father, for Teela (who is the first person He-Man rescues after his transformation) and for his friends.

Masters of the Universe: Forge of Destiny skips the actual origin story to show us what happens in the weeks afterwards, as Adam is still trying to figure out how to reconcile his secret identity as He-Man with his life as Adam, Crown Prince of Eternia, while the rest of Eternia is trying to figure out what to make of He-Man. For even though He-Man is a force for good and helps people in need, he is also incredibly powerful and upsets the balance of power, since no one knows who he really is and where his loyalties lie.

To make matters worse, Skeletor has also recently appeared on Eternia and no one quite knows what to make of him either. Like many Masters of the Universe characters, Skeletor has more than one origin story. The early mini-comics introduced him as “a demon from another dimension”, who has a skull face, because that’s just how his people look. The Filmation cartoon never really gave us an origin for Skeletor, though other characters refer to him as a demon from time to time. Personally, I always assumed those comments were metaphorical, i.e. people were calling Skeletor a demon, because he is a terrible person, but apparently a lot of folks also assume that when the Sorceress or Queen Marlena call Skeletor a demon in the Filmation cartoon, they literally mean that he is a demon. The 1985 animated movie The Secret of the Sword, which introduced She-Ra to the world, also revealed that Skeletor was once a member of the Evil Horde and Hordak’s right-hand man, who got stuck on Eternia after the Horde’s invasion was repealed.

As with He-Man, the 2002 cartoon gave Skeletor an on-screen origin as Keldor, an Eternian renegade who is implied to be King Randor’s half-brother. Mortally wounded when the acid he tried to throw at Randor backfires upon himself, Keldor turns into Skeletor with some magical aid from Hordak. Personally, I’ve always preferred the “Skeletor is Keldor” origin story, because it gives Skeletor a valid reason for wanting to conquer Eternia and Castle Grayskull other than “I want it, because it’s there.” Plus, Skeletor actually has a point, because Keldor was the older brother and should have inherited the throne, only that he was illegitimate and is also not fully human. This origin also adds some extra conflict for Adam, because not only is his archenemy his uncle, but he also has a point. The only drawback is that Skeletor being Keldor makes King Miro look like a womanising arsehole.

The 2012 DC Comics run, the Classics mini-comics, the Masters of the Multiverse comic and the Netflix CGI show all stuck with the “Skeletor is Keldor” origin, though Masters of the Universe: Revelation and the related comics appear to revert back to the “demon from another dimension” origin for Skeletor.

At any rate, Skeletor is explicitly referred to as a demon from another dimension in issue 1 of Masters of the Universe: Forge of Destiny. Or rather He-Man tells the Sorceress that Skeletor said he’s a demon from another dimension. Of course, it’s always possible that Skeletor is lying about his origins – he is Skeletor, after all (and there are certain spoilers floating around the internet implying that he is indeed lying). However, Skeletor is definitely a new presence on Eternia at this point and he is upsetting the balace of power even more than He-Man.

ETA: Masters of the Universe: Revolution has since been released and gave us the definitive answer of whether Skeletor is Keldor or a demon from another dimension for this particular continuity and IMO they did a great job of harmonising the two very different origin stories.

Indeed, the first issue of Forge of Destiny starts off with Adam returning to the palace after a skirmish with the Evil Forces of Skeletor, where he promptly gets berated by Teela for being late for a meeting with the King. As for why King Randor has called a meeting with Adam, Duncan and Teela, he is concerned. For starters, King Randor is concerned about He-Man’s sudden appearance, for even though He-Man appears to be a force for good, no one knows where he comes from or who he is. However, since He-Man commits most of his acts of heroism in and around Eternos, many of the other kingdoms on Eternia assume that He-Man is acting on behalf of Randor. Which is a problem, because He-Man is immensely powerful and his sudden appearance is the equivalent of Randor suddenly acquiring nuclear weapons, as writer Tim Seeley explains in this interview with the For Eternia podcast. You really feel for poor Adam. Even when he’s only trying to help and do good, he still can’t make his father happy.

Randor is also concerned about Skeletor, as he well should be. For Skeletor isn’t just wreaking havoc, he has also forged an alliance with the Aquaticans, i.e. the undersea fish people ruled by Mer-Man, and the Beast-People, the most famous member of whom – and actually the only one we’ve ever seen on screen – is Raquill R’Quazz a.k.a. Beast-Man, and thus turned two of Eternia’s kingdoms against Randor.

Now Eternia’s political system is rather vaguely described and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, probably because the writers of the various comics, cartoons, etc… were making it up as they went along and never thought that Masters of the Universe would last as long as it did and that it eventually need some consistent lore. That said, Randor has been portrayed as King of Eternia ever since his introduction way back in the very early mini-comics. However, the various other species of Eternia – the Aquaticans, Avionians, Andreenoids, Kaligars, Speleans, etc… – seem to have their own little independent kingdoms. The Filmation cartoon even introduces some seemingly independent kingdoms and cities inhabited by humans. So how can Randor be King of all Eternia, when there is a ton of other kingdoms and rulers on Eternia?

My personal theory is that Eternia functions similarly to the Holy Roman Empire. The various kingdoms and cities we see are independent and deal with their own internal matters similar to the various kingdoms and states that made up the Holy Roman Empire. The leaders of these various kingdoms and peoples also make up the Eternian council that we see several times in the 2002 cartoon and are basically the equivalent of the prince electors of the Holy Roman Empire. Randor, meanwhile, is the ruler of the entire planet or at least the light hemisphere (since we don’t see a lot of the dark hemisphere) as well as the leader in times of war against external threats like the Evil Horde, the Snake People or Skeletor, i.e. he is the emperor equivalent, even though his title is King. But while the prince electors of the Holy Roman Empire elected one of their number to become Emperor, the leadership of Eternia seems to fall to the human King of Eternos by default, probably going back to the time of King Grayskull.

So Skeletor turning entire kingdoms against Randor is a huge problem, because it destabilises the planet and may well lead to civil war (and the so-called Great Unrest that is mentioned in the 2002 cartoon a few times was apparently such a civil war, which happened around the time Adam and Teela were conceived). Though it should be noted that the Evil Warriors don’t necessarily represent their whole species, e.g, Whiplash and Stinkor are considered renegades by their respective people.

Nonetheless, Randor has a problem. Skeletor has turned the Aquaticans and the Beast People against him. The Avionians (i.e. the bird people, whose leader is Stratos) and the Andreenoids (the bee people, whose most famous member is Buzz-Off) have declared their loyalty to Randor. Another species, the Gar, i.e. the blue-skinned people of Eternia, are sitting out the conflict and haven’t yet declared their loyalty to either side.

The choice to prominently include the Gar in Forge of Destiny is certainly interesting. To begin with, while there have been quite a few Gar characters in Masters of the Universe over the decades, the most notable of them is none other than Keldor – a character who  doesn’t exist in the Revelation/Revolution continuity (or does he?).

Now there have been blue-skinned people on Eternia since the 1980s, they were not referred to as “Gar” until much later. I initially assumed that the name “Gar” originated in the 2002 cartoon, which gave names to many of the Eternian races. But while there is an episode set on a largely deserted island called Anwat Gar, whose magical artefacts are protected by Sy-Klone (a Heroic Warrior with blue skin), it is never said anywhere in the 2002 show that Gar is name of the blue-skinned Eternians or indeed anything other than the name of the island.

The name “Gar” for the blue-skinned people of Eternia may have originated with the characters bios and mini-comics of the Masters of the Universe Classics toyline, where a lot of character names and terms come from. But as far as I can tell, the blue-skinned people of Eternia are first referred to as Gar in the 2012 DC Comics run, which also established that the reason the Gar are disliked and banished to their island is because some of them rebelled against King Grayskull and murdered him.  This contradicts the 2002 cartoon, where King Grayskull is killed in battle with Hordak.

Forge of Destiny keeps some elements of this backstory in order to tell its own version. Anwat Gar is still a secluded island with a vaguely Asian flavour and a hub of advanced science and technology and its inhabitants are still blue. However in Forge of Destiny, Anwat Gar is not deserted, but still very much inhabited, though its inhabitants keep to themselves and what nothing to do with the rest of Eternia.

Even the conflict with King Grayskull still happened – as recounted by Adam, Teela and Randor. Once again, the Gar fought along with King Grayskull and the other Eternians against an invasion of the Evil Horde and managed to kick their arses. The advanced technology of the Gar was instrumental in winning the war and repelling the Horde invasion, but then King Grayskull and his wife Veena, the then Sorceress, tapped into the Power of Grayskull and got control over magic. The Gar were not at all happy that Grayskull had magic now, because magic almost always triumphed over Gar technology and the Gar had no magic of their own (which contradicts other appearances, because several Gar characters previously seen like Keldor, his mother Saryn and the wizard Jarvan as well as the witch Shokoti from the Filmation cartoon are mages).

In order to prevent a conflict with the Gar (and thus avoiding getting murdered as in the “Eternity War” comics), King Grayskull gave the Gar the sole supply of an element called Phlogista, which could be turned into all sorts of weapons by the Great Forge of Anwat Gar (the titular Forge of Destiny) and used to counter magical attacks. In return, the human Eternians created the rank of Man-at-Arms in their military whose job it is to develop technology to counter Gar weaponry. Because – as Adam says, quoting Teela’s lessons on Eternian history – “you’re never more powerful than when you’re willing to give up power”. It’s the Eternian version of the balance of power or mutually assured destruction.

A thousand years later, the Gar still mostly stick to themselves on their island and want nothing to do with the rest of Eternia. Writer Tim Seeley compares them to North Korea or Cuba in this interview with the Traversing the Stars podcast. The Gar also seem to be determined to sit out the conflict with Skeletor.

Meanwhile, Randor wants to reforge the alliance of all the Eternian kingdoms and people who haven’t joined Skeletor and therefore he decides to travel to Anwat Gar, the island home of the Gar people to personally assure himself of their loyalty. He’ll also visit a bunch of other cities and small kingdoms along the way. Since Adam is heir to the throne, Randor wants his son to come along as well. And where Adam goes, Cringer goes. Duncan as Man-at-Arms and Teela as Captain of the Royal Guard will come along as well. They’ll also take along Orko to provide entertainment and delight children (and vex Duncan). So in short, the core gang from the Filmation cartoon are all travelling to Anwat Gar.

Of course, Skeletor gets wind of Randor and entourage travelling to Anwat Gar and is determined to figure out just what is so special about that island that Randor leaves the relative safety of Eternos to go there in person. This suggests that this version of Skeletor is not Keldor, because shouldn’t Keldor know what is so special about Anwat Gar? Webstor, who makes his first appearance in the Revelation/Revolution continuity here (ETA: I just rewatched Revelation and Webstor does have a brief non-speaking role in that show, so this is not his first appearance in this continuity after all), acts as a spy on behalf of Skeletor and Lyn and reveals that Anwat Gar has the sole supply of the magical Phlogista element (which again is something Skeletor should know about, if he were Keldor). So Skeletor is of course determined to get his hands on the Phlogista and sends out Lyn to steal it for him.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Gar, a woman called Hera Caine, isn’t entirely sure what King Randor wants of her and doesn’t seem particularly keen on meeting with him either, because the Gar don’t trust the rest of Eternia.

Hera Caine also has another problem, because she is the mother of a teenaged boy named Dash Shel. Hera and her son don’t get along, because Dash doesn’t like machines and technology and also doesn’t agree with Anwat Gar’s isolationist policies. Instead, Dash wants to reconnect with the rest of Eternia by forming a minstrel revival troupe with his misfit friends. Yes, all the poor kid wants is to become a circus acrobat named “the human tornado”, which gives those of us who know our Masters of the Universe lore a hint at who Dash is or rather will become.

Come to think of it, it’s interesting that not only do we get to see a lot of Eternian culture, an aspect of worldbuilding that was often neglected in the 1980s, but that several of the main characters (Orko, Man-e-Faces, Bow, Dash or rather who he will become) actually are entertainers first and Heroic Warriors second.

Hera, however, finds Dash’s interest in minstrel shows and acrobatics merely embarassing. So she kicks Dash and his buddies out of the palace and let’s him know in no uncertain terms that she wants an heir who’s less embarassing than Prince Adam, continuing the sad tradition of Eternian political leaders being shitty parents. This also leaves Dash vulnerable to manipulation.

When we next see Dash and his buddies, they are hanging out in a neon-drenched bar in Anwat Gat with a cloaked figure who is revealed to be none other than Prince Adam. We some sweet moments of Adam and Dash bonding, which only makes sense, because they’re very much in the same situation, both heirs to a throne they don’t particularly want, both dealing with parents who think they’re nothing but an embarrassment, both wanting to prove to their respective parents what they can do.

And so Dash is eager to prove to his mother that he is a better diplomat than she will ever be (which to be fair he probably is) and that he can do it in a dodgy bar. Adam, meanwhile, points out that Hera Caine is underestimating Dash and his buddies (a set of fascinating characters I wish we would have seen more of), if she thinks they’re merely a circus troupe, when they can be so much more. For example, they’d also make a great heist crew. And wouldn’t it just serve Hera Caine right, if Dash and his buddies were to steal something really important from right under her nose? After all, they can always give it back later.

Now both Adam and Dash are young at this point. In most versions of the story, Adam is sixteen when he first becomes He-Man and Dash is about the same age. They’re both teenagers and this heist plan is exactly the sort of idiocy that two teenaged boys might cook up.  Except that this doesn’t sound like something Adam would do, because he is normally a lot more responsible and mature than that and also wouldn’t jeopardise his father’s diplomatic mission for a prank. I mean, this is exactly the sort of thing that 130 episodes worth of moral messages warned us about.

However, Dash clearly has never watched the Filmation cartoon, so he and his buddies execute the heist and steal the Phlogista from under Hera Caine’s nose. Then Dash and his buddies meet with Adam to celebrate, only to experience a very unpleasant surprise. For the person Dash bonded was not Adam at all, but Evil-Lyn taking on his form and using Dash’s frustration to get him to steal the Phlogista for her. And now she’s got what she wants, she takes the Phlogista and incinerates all witnesses. Dash’s buddies are killed (RIP, minstrel revival weirdos), while Dash is grievously wounded.

To say that Hera Caine is furious would be an understatement. Not only has Anwat Gar’s ultimate weapon/deterrent been stolen, but her son and heir has also been near mortally wounded. And since an examination of the security camera footage reveals that the person who attacked Dash and killed his friends was none other than Prince Adam, Hera Caine jumps to the conclusion that Eternos just declared war upon Anwat Gar. Since Anwat Gar is technology focussed, it makes sense they have security cameras (and we have seen spy drones and the like before in Eternia such as Tri-Klops’ doomseeker drones), though it’s interesting that Evil-Lyn’s magical disguise can fool security camera. It’s also interesting that Hera Caine, who has been shown to be paranoid about magic before to the point of having Randor’s message checked for spells and enchantments, never once considers that the camera footage might not actually show the full truth or that there might be magic at play here. Nor does she ever consider that it makes little sense for King Randor to first send her a polite message asking for a meeting, only for his son and heir, whom everybody considers something of idiot and an embarrassment, to attack Dash and steal the Phlogista. Of course, Hera is a mother whose only son is critical condition and who wants to see his attackers punished, but she still jumps to conclusions here and sends her general Hail Storm (the Gar also seem to have a thing for names that are weather related puns) and his forces out to attack Randor and his caravan. The Gar strike force seems to consist of Sky Sleds, which are dime a dozen on Eternia and used by both good and bad guys, and Rotons, which are usually a bad guy vehicle used by the evil forces of Skeletor. So did Skeletor somehow steal the Roton plans and had Tri-Klops and Trap Jaw copy them? Does he actually buy Rotons from the Gar? Did Trap Jaw, who is Gar himself, somehow acquire the plans?

While all this is happening on Anwat Gar, Randor is holding speeches, meeting with political leaders and basking in the admiration of his subjects, while Adam is playing the charming prince by day and dealing with avalanches, monsters and other potential annoyances to the royal convoy by night. As for Duncan and Teela, both of them are more than a little stressed out that neither Randor nor Adam seem to have any security concerns at all. Worse, Teela actually catches Adam sneaking out by night, when she decides to get a little too close to check if Adam is really safely sleeping in bed (at least that’s what Teela tells herself, since she is obviously attracted to Adam), only for one of Orko’s illusions to dissolve in front of her eyes. So when Teela confronts Adam about his sneaking out, he is forced to tell her that he snuck out to see a girl.

Now Adam has been portrayed as something of a womanizer in his very first few appearances in the mini-comics, where he carouses with several young women and even shows up with a girl on each arm to his mother’s birthday party at one point. Early Adam also liked to get drunk and get in trouble in the taverns of Eternos. These traits were toned down in the Filmation cartoon and the later mini-comics, probably because a womanizing, hard-partying playboy prince wasn’t exactly a child-friendly role model. Though you can still see remnants of this earlier characterisation in the Filmation cartoon, where Adam is occasionally shown trying (and usually failing) to impress some giggling court ladies. We also frequently see him drinking wine. So it’s certainly interesting to see this aspect of Prince Adam again after forty years, only that Adam the womanizer is as much of an act as Adam the lazy and irresponsible prince, to cover up his activities as He-Man. Note that Adam cannot even remember the name of the girl Teela assumes he was with, which suggests that the young woman, daughter of the leader of a tribe of panther people, barely registered for him, though the jealous Teela of course noticed the panther girl’s interest in Adam. It’s also nice to see Orko actively using his magic to help cover for Adam’s extracurricular activities, even though it often doesn’t work as intended.

Randor’s peace mission is rudely interrupted, when the Gar strike force attacks in the middle of one of Randor’s speeches – without provocation, as far as the Eternians know. And since the Gar believe that Adam is responsible for the attack on their prince and the theft of their ultimate weapon, Adam is of course a prime target and is saved from death only by Teela tackling him and throwing herself on top of him, which leads to an intimate moment, where Teela is still able to identify the Gar vehicles in the middle of an attack, while protecting Adam with her own body, while Adam is barely able to get a word out. And not because he’s scared, but because the girl he is in love with is right there on top of him.

Teela quickly figures out that the true target of the attack is not King Randor or the royal caravan in general, but Adam and orders him to stay inside the armoured Attack Trak. Orko and Cringer would very much prefer Adam to stay put, but of course we know that he won’t. And so Adam transforms into He-Man, determined to stop the fighting before a skirmish can escalate into an all-out war. And since Hail Storm explicitly says that Adam must pay for his crimes, He-Man decides to travel to Anwat Gar himself to sort out the issue. And if the Gar are so desperate to apprehend Adam, well, then Adam – or rather an illusion of Adam created by Orko – will go to Anwat Gar as well. This should also put a stop to any questions about where Adam is. And indeed Randor is actually proud of his son for once for such a display of bravery, while Duncan is not at all happy about this development.

He-Man’s plan would have worked, too, if not for Teela, who decides that as Prince Adam’s bodyguard she absolutely needs to accompany He-Man and Adam to Anwat Gar. So she literally jumps into the boat, much to Duncan’s horror, only to find “Adam” dissolving before her very eyes for the second time that day.

Now the Phlogista is very much a MacGuffin in this story and the fight scenes, while fun, are not the point either. Instead, the real meat of the story is a) giving an origin story to a character who never really had a satisfying one, and b) delving into the relationships between Adam and Teela as well as Randor and Duncan and how the sudden appearance of He-Man has disrupted these relationships. And since I usually care more about interpersonal relationships than action scenes (though action scenes are a lot of fun, too), I’m very happy with that aspect.

The relationship between Teela and Adam and the unintentional love triangle between Teela, Adam and He-Man has always been one of my favourite things about Masters of the Universe and I know I’m not the only one. So all of us who ship Teela and Adam and have been shipping them for forty years now will find plenty to enjoy about Masters of the Universe: Forge of Destiny, because there are a lot of juicy Adam and Teela scenes.

Teela has been portrayed as Adam’s bodyguard from Adam’s very first appearance in the mini-comics on. She has also been portrayed as frustrated by Adam’s seeming irresponsibility for just as long. Forge of Destiny also reveals that Teela isn’t just Adam’s bodyguard, she also considers herself his teacher (normally, that’s Duncan’s job). This is unusual, because Teela is about the same age as Adam, at most a year older, and normally wouldn’t be appointed as a teacher for the future king of Eternia. It’s also quite strongly implied that no one actually appointed Teela to the job, but that she appointed herself.

Now we know that Randor thinks that Adam is something of a failure and also isn’t shy about expressing how disappointed he is in his son and heir. This conflict comes to a head in part 2 of the Masters of the Universe: Revelation, when Adam turns into Savage He-Man, a version of He-Man who’s purely controlled by emotion, and decides to take out his long simmering frustration and anger on his father. In the same episode, Teela tries to calm Savage He-Man down and persuade him to turn back into Adam by telling him that she always believed in him, even if his own father didn’t.

We see this dynamic illustrated again here. Randor mostly believes that Adam is a disappointment and a failure. Teela doesn’t believe this. She knows exactly what Adam is capable of and how brave and heroic he can be and she is determined to make sure that Adam lives up to his potential, so she has appointed herself to train and teach him. Her efforts are paying off, too, because Adam is clearly taking Teela’s teachings to heart. The line “You’re never more powerful than when you’re willing to give up power”, which is repeated several times throughout the mini-series, was something that Teela taught Adam and that he clearly took to heart. The fact that Adam is very much in love with Teela – something which is actually spelled out in the dialogue, when Duncan tells Randor, “We don’t have to worry about Adam chasing maidens, since he’s in love with my daughter” – also means that he is clearly trying to be the person she wants him to be.

Alas, the influence of Teela’s teachings manifest themselves in He-Man rather than Adam – with the familiar result that Teela finds herself attracted to He-Man to the point of throwing her arms around a somewhat embarassed He-Man at one point, while she is increasingly frustrated by Adam, who keeps running off and sneaking out at night with very weak explanations. And since Teela has always been very direct, she lets Adam know exactly how she feels about his behaviour.

There’s a heartbreaking moment where Teela tells Adam that once He-Man showed up, King Randor was going to promote her from Captain of the Guard to Earl Marshall of the Army and would have given her a regiment of her own and a fort to command. And considering how much of an overarchiever Teela is – partly because she believes she was adopted and feels the need to prove herself worthy of being loved and cared for – this promotion is something Teela very much wanted, because in her mind this meant that she would have proven herself worthy . However, then Adam started acting up (at least as far as Randor is concerned) and so Teela had to stay on as his bodyguard and lost what she considers her big break. She also point-blank tells Adam that she can’t respect him anymore, because he has so much privilege and does so little with it. In fact, at the very end of the mini-series, we learn that Adam asked his father to promote Teela anyway – because Adam wants Teela to be happy, even though that would mean that they would be separated – but that this time around, Teela refused, because she feels the need to keep an eye on the wayward Adam.

Forge of Destiny also delves a bit into the relationship between Duncan and Randor. These two have always been portrayed as life-long friends. As far as I know, we’ve never seen just how Randor and Duncan met, but I assume it was when they were both young recruits in the Royal Guard and their friendship was literally forged on the battlefield. In Forge of Destiny, it becomes clear that Randor still views himself as much as a soldier as a king and misses the easy comradery of his military days and says as much to Duncan. This is consistent with the way Randor has been portrayed at least since the 2002 cartoon, where he tells the Council of Elders, when they appoint Randor King and piss off to parts unknown (sorry, but that’s basically what happens in the first episode of the 2002 cartoon), that he’s merely a soldier. And even as King, Randor still views himself as a soldier first and foremost – to the point that Duncan has to stop him from taking on a Gar Roton with a spear by pointing out that Randor is the King and that it’s Duncan’s and the Royal Guards’ job to protect him, so would Randor please find shelter somewhere and not get himself killed.

Another issue that’s addressed more openly in Forge of Destiny than usually is the massive imbalance of power and privilege between Randor and Adam on the one hand and Duncan and Teela on the other. Because both Randor and Adam were born into a lot of privilege, even though they both don’t always seem to be aware of that. Meanwhile, it’s always been implied that Duncan does not come from a privileged background, but earned his position due to his courage, his intelligence and his friendship with Randor. And even though Randor doesn’t always seem to be aware of the power difference between them, Duncan very much is. Note how Randor usually addresses Duncan by his name unless it’s an official function. Duncan, however, almost always calls Randor “Your Majesty” or “sire”, even in private. I think he calls Randor by his first name exactly once in all 130 episodes of the Filmation cartoon – at a moment of great danger.

Teela, meanwhile, grew up in the Royal Palace alongside Adam. She also considers the royal family her family and is not only a lot less deferential than her father, but often doesn’t even seem to realise that there is a power difference between her and Adam. This is nicely illustrated in the Filmation episode “Into the Abyss”, where Adam pulls rank on Teela, when she wants to drag him away for combat training, when Adam has just returned from an exhausting mission as He-Man and only wants to rest. Teela is absolutely shocked and furious that Adam would treat her like that, but Duncan points out to her that Adam is the prince and that he can absolutely do that. As for Adam, he immediately gets chewed out by Cringer of all people for treating Teela like a servant and eventually apologises.

In Forge of Destiny, however, Teela actually calls out Adam on his privilege and points out that he has everything, wealth, position, two loving parents (and note that Teela thinks she’s an orphan who was adopted and raised by a single father) and yet doesn’t do anything with it, whereas He-Man is just a random Barbarian with no privilege at all and yet does everything to help people and protect Eternia.

In the light of what happened in Masters of the Universe: Revelation, it’s also interesting that Duncan flat out lies to Randor in Forge of Destiny, when Randor asks him point blank if there’s anything he needs to know about He-Man, while He-Man lies just as flat out to Teela, when she asks him if he knew that the “Adam” who was going to Anwat Gar was just an illusion. This doesn’t excuse Randor’s shitty behaviour towards Duncan in Revelation, though it does explain his anger, because Duncan didn’t just fail to inform Randor that Adam was He-Man, he actually flat out lied to his King. Though it’s telling that when Duncan believes that the Eternian forces might be running into a Gar ambush and that he and Randor might both die, he comes close to telling Randor the truth, probably because he doesn’t want Randor to die without knowing how heroic his son really is.

Masters of the Universe: Revelation was heavily focussed on the toll that Adam’s secret took on those around him and Forge of Destiny clearly shows how Adam’s secret is wrecking not just his relationship with Teela, but also Duncan’s relationship with Randor. Add to that that Teela constantly feels the need to prove herself worthy of being loved, because she believes that her parents abandoned her. The Sorceress, who is clearly the one who’s pushing Adam to keep the fact that he’s He-Man secret and who made Duncan promise never to reveal that she is Teela’s mother, really has a lot to answer for.

While He-Man and Teela are travelling to Anwat Gar, Skeletor also makes his way to the reclusive island and also makes a few wink-wink, nudge-nudge remarks that this place feels oddly familiar to him, hinting at his Keldor origin story. Skeletor walks right into Hera Caine’s palace to return the Phlogista to her and offer her an alliance. Skeletor also throws his own associate Webstor out of a window and claims he was a spy of Randor’s. And Hera Caine, who mistrusts outsiders and is paranoid about magic, agrees to enter into an alliance with a skull-faced sorcerer who claims to be a demon from another dimension. She even lets him use her precious supply of Phlogista to create weapons to attack Randor and his people. Honestly, Hera Caine is both a bad mother and a bad leader.

Meanwhile, Evil-Lyn is angry that Skeletor won’t let her play with the Phlogista she stole for him. So she travels to Anwat Gar herself to throw a wrench into Skeletor’s plans and uses her magic to wake up the comatose Dash and fuse him to the machines that were keeping him alive. Then she sends Dash out to take revenge on the person he believes did this to him, namely Adam.

However, the monitor that is embedded in Dash’s chest leads him to He-Man and Teela. This is actually the second time that we see that while He-Man can fairly easily fool humans, this doesn’t necessarily work with machines or non-humans. Cause in an episode of the 2002 cartoon, Beast-Man uses his own superhuman senses to try and track He-Man and instead brings back one of Adam’s gloves. So Beast-Man blew He-Man’s cover, only that both he and Skeletor were too stupid to realise it, though I suspect Evil-Lyn did. As for Dash, he has no idea why the machines that now whisper in his brain led him to He-Man, but he attacks anyway.

During the ensuing battle, Teela is knocked into the water. He-Man wants to dive in and rescue her, but Dash has him pinned down. So He-Man does something that is both remarkable and unprecendented – he reverts back to Adam and reveals his secret to Dash and also tells Dash that he had nothing to do with the attack on Dash and his friends, but that he has a pretty good idea who did. And he’ll explain everything, but could Dash just let him rescue Teela first. Dash, meanwhile, is completely confused, for why would Adam expose himself like that. “Because you’re never more powerful than when you’re willing to give uo power,” Adam replies, once again quoting Teela’s lesson.

This is a huge development, because it reveals that at least one person other than the four mentioned in the introduction to the Filmation cartoon, i.e. Duncan, the Sorceress, Cringer and Orko, as well as Queen Marlena and Zodac knows Adam’s secret (the Revelation prequel comic by Tim Sheridan also strongly implied that Lyn figured out He-Man’s secret). Of course, I’ve always assumed that many or most of the Heroic Warriors know or at least suspect that Adam is He-Man (and in my toy photo stories, Malcolm frequently alludes to this, until he is told to shut up), but chose to say nothing out of respect for Adam’s privacy. But this is the first time that we actually see Adam reveal his secret to someone outside his inner circle. And he does it out of love for Teela and his desire to rescue her.

Though in the end, it’s not Adam or He-Man who gets to rescue Teela. It’s Evil-Lyn of all people, who clearly has her own agenda here which does not necessarily align with Skeletor’s. And indeed He-Man calls her out on this and points out that Evil-Lyn has as much of an interest to prevent an alliance between Skeletor and the Gar as He-Man has. Because if Skeletor has access to Gar technology, he doesn’t need Lyn and her magic anymore.

Now Evil-Lyn has always been the most independent of Skeletor’s underlings – though Mer-Man and even Beast-Man display quite a bit of independence in their early appearances, where they are more than just mindless henchmen – and has pretty consistently been shown to be fully willing to turn against Skeletor, when it benefits her. Though the Revelation/Revolution Lyn is probably the most independent, even at this fairly early point in her relationship with Skeletor.

While all this is happening, Skeletor is busily using Hera Caine’s precious supply of Phlogista to let the great forge of Anwat Gar rain down fire on Randor and his entourage, who have taken refuge with a tribe of panther people, whose village promptly gets burned down, even though they have nothing whatsoever to do with Anwat Gar’s beef with Randor. And because Skeletor is Skeletor, he also uses the Phlogista to create new armour for himself, cycling through several of the Skeletor variations from the original toyline. Skeletor also tells Hera Caine point blank why she hasn’t yet used to weapon of mass destruction she has in her possession, because using Phlogista requires imagination and Hera Caine has none.

He-Man and Teela rush to the Forge and Teela takes on Hera Caine, while He-Man also uses the Phlogista to create armour for himself to counter Skeletor’s, also cycling through several variations from the original toyline. And so He-Man and Skeletor proceed to beat the shit out of each other. Dash eventually shows up, tells his mother to knock it off, because Skeletor betrayed them all. He also tells He-Man that he can’t beat Skeletor with the Phlogista, because it will just keep on creating evenly matched armour for them both. Dash then asks He-Man (though he actually calls him Adam) to give the Phlogista to him, because Dash is an artist and has the imagination and willpower to use it. And He-Man surrenders the Phlogista to Dash who promptly uses it to turn himself into the hero we all knew he was, namely the Heroic Warrior known as Sy-Klone.

Sy-Klone is a cool toy and was a favourite of many kids, but he has always been underused in the various He-Man series. He only has two cameo appearances in the Filmation cartoon, probably because the toy came out shortly before the cartoon ended. He does get more to do in the 2002 cartoon, where he is the last defender of the deserted island of Anwat Gar, tasked to protect its secrets at all costs. However, the 2002 cartoon never explains how Sy-Klone came to be Anwat Gar’s protector or who appointed him, though he is very obviously a cyborg. Sy-Klone apparently did get two different origin stories – circus acrobat turned into cyborg by Skeletor and mortally wounded son of a scientist turned into a cyborg to save his life – in a Little Golden Book and a British comic respectively, but this is probably the most comprehensive origin this character ever had and it’s a good one. Also note the irony that Dash, who hates machines, becomes part machine and that it is Dash, the useless embarrassment, whose artistic imagination allows him to harness Anwat Gar’s greatest weapon that his much more rational and practical mother cannot use. This certainly resonates with many artistically inclined kids of engineers or scientists.

Of course, Dash is now also very much a living weapon and the embodiment of Anwat Gar’s balance of terror with Eternos. And Dash very much knows it and also realises that him knowing Adam’s secret not only endangers Adam, but also the balance of power between Eternos and Anwat Gar. And since Dash is a cyborg now, he deletes all knowledge of Adam’s secret from his memory banks, reinstating the status quo.

As for Hera Caine, she finally sees the light and calls off the attack on Randor and his entourage, literally seconds before Hail Storm and his forces were about to “cut down anything that’s not blue”. Gee, and I wonder why no one likes the Gar. Though I’m pretty sure that relations between Eternos and Anwat Gar will improve a lot, once Randor and Hera Caine retire and/or shuffle off this mortal coil (which Randor will in Masters of the Universe Revolution according to the trailers) and Dash and Adam take over their parents’ positions.

Masters of the Universe was always notable for the little moral messages at the end of each episode. These were a requirement of US broadcast regulations in the 1980s, though the original She-Ra cartoon, New Adventures of He-Man and even the 2002 cartoon also had these messages. Compared to other cartoons of the era with moral messages like G.I. Joe or M.A.S.K., the messages at the end of the original He-Man and She-Ra cartoons were usually less condescending and actually had a connection to the episode we just saw. Kid Cora found those moral messages terribly annoying and condescending – though I disliked M.A.S.K.‘s more than He-Man‘s and She-Ra‘s. Adult Cora finds that particularly the He-Man and She-Ra messages are often pretty good and are also linked to the content of the episode. And indeed I have been considering getting the pretty expensive Loo-Kee figure from the Masters of the Universe: Classics toyline, so he can hide in photos and deliver moral messages for my toy photo stories.

Post-2002 versions of Masters of the Universe have done away with the explicit moral messages at the end and instead opt for weaving the moral messages into the story itself. We see this in Revelation and also in the CGI cartoon. We also get a very clear example in Forge of Destiny in the oft repeated line “You are never more powerful than when you are willing to give up power.”

If you enjoy Masters of the Universe Revelation and Revolution or are just plain a He-Man fan, Forge of Destiny is well worth picking up. It’s a smaller scale story than Revelation and presumably Revolution, but gives us lots of meaty character moments, some good action scenes and finally a good origin story for Sy-Klone whom I hope we’ll see in Revolution. He also really needs a toy in Masterverse or Origins, since we haven’t had a Sy-Klone figure since the Classics toyline.

Masters of the Universe: Revolution comes out in a little over a day and I will certainly be reviewing it and possibly recreating some scenes with my action figures. And of course, there will be more photo stories coming up.