Even though my regular comic collecting days are almost twenty years behind me by now, I still pick up the occasional comic series or trade paperback that interests me, including several Masters of the Universe comics.
Masters of the Universe is mostly considered a toy and cartoon franchise, though it also has a long comic history, starting with the mini-comics packed in with the figures via the DC and later Marvel Star Comics of the 1980s, the various international comics of the 1980s, the She-Ra and New Adventures comics, the 200X comics by MV Creations, which had gorgeous artwork, to the more recent comics published by DC and now Dark Horse. DC had a very good run of Masters of the Universe comics from 2012 to 2016 as well as several crossovers and mini-series, while Dark Horse has published several Masters of the Universe comic mini-series in the Revelation/Revolution continuity since 2021, a few of which I reviewed.
The latest Masters of the Universe comic mini-series from Dark Horse stands outside the Revelation/Revolution continuity and is instead set in the same continuity as the various Masters of the Universe crossovers (Turtles of Grayskull, Masters of the Universe versus Injustice, He-Man/Thundercats, etc…) by the creative team of Tim Seeley and Freddie Williams II – at least according to this interview. Those crossovers were fun enough, though I prefer the “pure” Masters of the Universe comics, if only because you’re not constantly distracted by characters from a completely franchise you may or may not be familiar with. I had enough familiarity with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or the Thundercats to understand the respective crossovers, though some minor characters had me wondering, “And who is this supposed to be again?” However, the Injustice crossover, set in an alternate DC Universe where Superman and Wonder Woman are evil and Batman is leading the resistance (apparently based on a videogame), was rather confusing. Besides, we had seen Superman and He-Man clash twice before at this point and we knew by then, surpising as it may seem, that He-Man can beat Superman.
Therefore, when Sword of Flaws was first announced, I was happy to get a non-crossover Masters of the Universe story from the creative team of Tim Seeley and Freddie William II. Of course, I would have preferred another comic series in the Revelation/Revolution continuity, since that universe was too good to just be abandoned, plus Revelation/Revolution finally moved the story forward rather than returning to the same status quo over and over again. However, Mattel seems completely focussed on the upcoming live action Masters of the Universe film by now. And while I’m looking forward to that movie, I would still have preferred to get a third season of Masters of the Universe Revelation/Revolution.
But enough of what we didn’t get. Let’s take a look at what we did get, namely the Sword of Flaws mini-series. The title alludes to some very early Masters of the Universe lore that was quickly abandoned, namely that the Power Sword originally consisted of two halves, a good and an evil half, one of which came with He-Man and the other with Skeletor. These two halves could be combined – literally clipped together – to form a complete Power Sword which also served as the key of Castle Grayskull, as explained in this video as well as in the ridiculously Freudian mini-comic “King of Castle Grayskull” by Donald F. Glut and Alfredo Alcala, which is full of imagery of He-Man and Skeletor thrusting their swords into the keyhole next to the jawbridge of Castle Grayskull to enter the castle and win over the Castle’s guardian Teela. Yup, this is basically a comic about who gets to deflower Teela.
The lore of the two halves of the Power Sword never made it beyond the first few mini-comics and as a kid I was completely unaware of this feature and never even realised that He-Man’s and Skeletor’s swords could be clipped together. That said, the half swords which could be clipped together did continue to appear in the Masters of the Universe Classics and Origins toylines and the Castle Grayskull playsets of the respective toylines both have the keyhole next to the jawbridge into which you can thrust the combined sword. Personally, I find the half Power Swords somewhat irritating as an adult, because they just look weird, particularly if you’re dealing with a collector line like Classics. Though thankfully, you quickly acquire surplus Power Swords, so you don’t have to deal with the half swords.
Skeletor shows off his Havoc Staff and the purple Power Sword. The location is an observation platform high above the river Weser in Minden.
He-Man and Skeletor fight in the Evergreen Forest, portrayed here by the Visbek Bride neolithic tomb. Note that they both have the same sword, only in different colours.
He-Man and Skeletor fight it out again, this time over a piece of plum cake on my dining room table.
The idea of a dual sword also continues to appear throughout Masters of the Universe. The 200X cartoon and toyline features Skeletor wielding a dual sword – however, this is not the Power Sword, but just Keldor’s battle sword, since the 200X Keldor/Skeletor is a master swordsman in addition to being a sorcerer. Apparently, the original idea was that Skeletor’s dual sword was indeed both halves of the Power Sword combined and that the more technological sword He-Man wields in the cartoon was a replacement built for him by Man-at-Arms and the Sorceress (who surely spent a lot of quality time in the process), but that never made it into the actual cartoon and comics.
Keldor wielding his iconic dual swords
More recently, in Masters of the Universe Revelation, the power unleashed by the exploding orb not just disintegrates He-Man and Skeletor (don’t worry, they both get better) but also splits the Power Sword into two halves as a nod to the original toyline. Several episodes than follow the unusual fellowship of Teela, Andra, Evil-Lyn, Orko, Roboto and Beast-Man as they try to track down the two halves (which have ended up in Subternia and Preternia, i.e. Eternia’s equivalents of Heaven and Hell) and reforge the Power Sword.
The Revelation/Revolution version of King Grayskull shows off the two halves of the Power Sword
If you’re a German Masters of the Universe fan, the title The Sword of Flaws will also remind you of the audio drama Das Zauberschwert des Bösen (The Power Sword of Evil) where the Evil Horde member Dragstor aquires a purple evil power sword imbued with hyperspace powers and hands it to – no, not Hordak, but Skeletor (Hordak and Skeletor work together in the German audio dramas). The Power Sword of Evil is probably Dragstor’s most notable appearance in any Masters of the Universe media – Dragstor came along very late in the toyline, never made it into any of the cartoons and only had very limited comic appearances. Dragstor even appears on the cover – riding the evil robot hrose Night Stalker and wielding the puple sword, which is rather strange, because Dragstor can turn into the vehicle, so why does he need to ride a horse? The answer is that audio drama writer H.G. Francis had no idea what Dragstor’s action feature was and probably also didn’t know what the character even looked like – many of the people working on Masters of the Universe tie-in media were given very incomplete information by Mattel, leading to odd interpretations – so he assumed Dragstor was a dragon character based on the name, since very few Germans would have known what a drag racer was in 1987. Coincidentally, I did learn about drag races only a few years later, when I first watched Rebel Without a Cause and American Graffiti (which were kind of mindblowing to me, because at the time it seemed completely inconceivable that people would have illegal car races on German streets – yeah, I was naive), though I never made the connection to the Masters of the Universe character Dragstor until much later.
So in spite of the original idea of the two halves of the Power Sword being quickly abandoned, dual swords and evil purple versions of the Power Sword did have a habit of creeping into different iterations of Masters of the Universe. So let’s see what Tim Seeley and Freddie Williams II do with the idea.
Issue 1 of The Sword of Flaws starts off with a brief introduction to Eternia, the world at the center of the universe, as well as to Eternos City and Eternos Palace, King Randor and Queen Marlena and Castle Grayskull, where all the secrets of the Elders are kept. It is clear that someone is narrating is narrating all this, but we only see who it is on the next page, a striking splash page of a caravan of Royal Guards accompanying a carriage transporting Prince Adam, Cringer and a new character through the Eternian mountains.
This new character is Prince Stahl, son of King Faust of Eisenhold. Of course, Masters of the Universe characters have always had highly descriptive names, but those descriptive names are not normally in German, not even in the German audio dramas. Prince Stahl is also the one who is narrating the brief introduction to Eternia, even though Adam, the person he is addressing, obviously knows all this already. But then Prince Stahl is the sort of person who just loves the sound of his own voice.
Prince Stahl concludes his brief introduction to Eternia by noting that even though Eternos has nigh unbreachable walls (the city and palace are located on top of a mesa), a highly respected king and queen and Castle Grayskull with all its mysteries at their disposal, they are weak. “How so?” Adam who would obviously love to be somewhere, anywhere else, replies.
And because Prince Stahl really loves the sound of his own voice, he continues to elaborate that Eternos has yet one more advantage, namely He-Man, the barbarian from the Stone Tribe (a reference to the very first mini-comic “He-Man and the Power Sword”, where He-Man was a wandering barbarian rather than Prince Adam) turned defender of Eternia and most powerful man in the universe. Prince Stahl continues to explain that even though He-Man is the most powerful man in the universe, there are those who resist him, namely “the alien warlords Skeletor and Hordak”, since Skeletor is apparently back to being a demon from another dimension in this story (either that or he just chooses not to mention that he is Keldor), and “King Hiss, an ancient evil reawakened”, accompanied by a lovely piece of artwork of He-Man locked in a three-way battle again Skeletor, Hordak and King Hiss.
Prince Stahl, however, has to undermine this beautiful drawing of He-Man fighting his three greatest foes by pointing that his family is also resisting He-Man. Dude, you’re no Skeletor or Hordak or King Hiss. You’re not even a second-string villain like Evil Seed or Shokoti or Count Marzo or Geldor or Lodar or Nephtu or any number of one-shot villains from the Filmation cartoon. You’re just a loser and He-Man could squash you like a fly, if he wanted to.
As for why He-Man doesn’t squash Prince Stahl, his father and his kingdom like flies, Prince Stahl has an explanation for that as well. You see, it’s because both He-Man and King Randor have way too much compassion. They don’t want to inspire fear and don’t use the Power of Grayskull to subdue and control others. And if He-Man doesn’t use his power to maximum effect, it’s not power at all.
If Adam had transformed into He-Man right there and then and squashed Prince Stahl like the fly that he is, no one would have blamed him. And indeed it’s obvious that Adam is trying very hard not to punch out Prince Stahl and even make some snappy retort – this is supposed to be a diplomatic mission, after all – so he is just stuffing his face with sandwiches, so he won’t be tempted to say something he shouldn’t say.
Thankfully for everybody involved, Prince Stahl’s rant is interupted by an earthquake or rather an Eterniaquake that overturns the carriage. The Royal Guard, under the command of Duncan and Teela, immediately springs into action. Duncan grabs the indignant Prince Stahl and notes that he’s “got the little blowhard”, while Prince Stahl utters dire threats of punishment, if Duncan does not protect his royal person. Once again, Prince Stahl is lucky that both Duncan and Adam are better people than I would be in that situation.
Teela, meanwhile, insists on protecting Adam and Cringer, while Adam is in telepathic contact with the Sorceress who had been watching over the royal caravan in her falcon form. The Sorceress tells Adam that this quake is no natural tremor, but an attack from below and that his tour is at an end, because He-Man is needed. Adam is not at all sad about this, because – as he tells the Sorceress – he was getting tired of playing the doofus anyway. There is still one problem, though. Teela is Adam’s bodyguard and she will not let him out of her sight, so Adam can’t transform.
Shortly thereafter, the source of the quake and the attack from below emerges. To no one’s surprise, it’s Skeletor. He’s accompanied by several of his Evil Warriors – we see Evil-Lyn, Trap Jaw, Tri-Klops, Whiplash, Jitsu, Spikor and Kobra Khan – and he’s piloting a gigantic war machine. The Sorceress identifies the earthquake machine as a Corebreaker, a relic from the Great Wars and one of the most devastating weapons ever devised.
The Great Wars have been a part of Masters of the Universe lore from the very beginning and were mentioned in the very first mini-comic, “He-Man and the Power Sword” by Donald F. Glut and Afredo Alcala, as a conflict in the distant past of Eternia, which left the planet litttered with technological relics only half understood by its current inhabitants. Initially, this was just a handy explanation cooked up by Donald F. Glut for why sword-wielding barbarians in furry loincloths had Windraiders, Battle Rams and Jet Sleds. But while much from the very early mini-comics was superceded by later lore, the idea of the ancient war machines littering the surface Eternia stuck around and crept into various incarnations of the franchise.
We actually see some of those ancient war machines in the form of matte paintings littering the area around Vasquez Rocks in the 1987 live action Masters of the Universe movie. The 200X cartoons also gave us plenty of ancient magical and technological artefacts is lying around for the taking and also for the first time showed us an ancient conflict between King Grayskull and his forces against the Snake People and Hordak, a conflict which likely are the mythical Great Wars. The Classics canon fleshed this out further and even included a Great Wars Weapons Pak, which did not contain any ancient war machines, alas, but repaints of existing Masters of the Universe Classics weapons. The Classics canon also introduced the Gar, the blue-skinned people of Eternia, as a major faction in these ancient wars as well as the creators of Eternian technology. The 2012 DC Comics run picked this up and gave us a flashback to a civil war between the humans and the Gar erupting after King Grayskull and his forces vanquished the Horde, egged by the dastardly Snake People.
Finally, Masters of the Universe Revolution gave us yet another glimpse of some ancient conflict on Eternia that involved giant war machines once again built by the Gar. Skeletor raises these machine from the ground twice – once to distract our heroes and ingratiate himself with them as the newly returned Prince Keldor and then during the final battle. So in short, there is a lot of precedent for ancient and very dangerous war machines to be found on Eternia.
Freddy Williams II’s drawing of the Corebreaker war machine certainly looks inspired by the ancient war machines seen in Masters of the Universe Revolution. Though the Corebreaker could also be an unrealised toy design from the 1980s. “It shakes, it vibrates, it’s fun!”
What’s also interesting is how Skeletor came by the Corebreaker. He obviously found it somewhere, but the Evil Warrior who repaired and reactivated the Corebreaker was Spikor. Now when we think of Skeletor’s tech guy, we usually think of either Trap-Jaw, who had that role in the Filmation cartoon, the German audio dramas and the 2021 CGI cartoon, or Tri-Klops, who was Skeletor’s main tech guy in the 200X cartoon as well as in Revelation/Revolution. However, there is precedent for Spikor as Skeletor’s tech guy, because in the vintage mini-comics Spikor was introduced as a blacksmith who lives in a cave and creates terrible weapons. Among other things, he forges Skeletor’s Terror Claws (basically oversized gauntlets with sharp claws) for the Lord of Destruction. According to the Classics bio, Spikor’s spikes and the trident that replaces his right hand were also created by himself and fused to his body by magic.
Spikor has been sorely underused in most Masters of the Universe media. He only had a handful of appearances in the Filmation cartoon where he was mostly a random henchman with little personality and didn’t appear at all in the 200X cartoon. Spikor does appear in Masters of the Universe: Revelation, but again it’s only a cameo appearance. He has no lines and doesn’t do very much except shoot spikes at Andra and Teela in one scene. I have no idea why Spikor is so underused, since he does look cool and menacing, but it’s easy to forget that he is also one of Skeletor’s tech guys, when he hardly ever gets to do anything. So kudos to Sword of Flaws for remembering that Spikor is also a tech guy.
That said, no sooner has Spikor bragged about that the Corebreaker was “just a bunch of rusty pieces stuck together by string and prayers” that he gets knocked out by Duncan hurling his mace right into his face. “Surely you saw that coming?” Evil-Lyn asks Tri-Klops, who replies that of course he saw Duncan’s attack coming. He just wanted to give him a small victory before taking him out. Or maybe Tri-Klops is just jealous that Spikor got to be Skeletor’s main tech guy for once.
While Duncan, Teela and the Royal Guards are fighting the Evil Warriors, Skeletor continues his assault on Castle Grayskull with the Corebreaker. However, instead of directly attacking the castle from below, as Evil-Lyn advised him, Skeletor instead emerged with the Corebreaker outside the castle for a frontal assault, because he wants to “see it burst like a blister”. However, this also loses him the element of surprise and gives the Sorceress the chance to protect the castle with a forcefield. This is a callback to the 200X cartoon where the Sorceress hung out inside Castle Grayskull most of the time and projected forcefields whenever the castle was under attack.
Evil-Lyn is grumbly that Skeletor let his ego get in the way of winning again and gave the Sorceress the chance to protect the castle. So she decides to salvage at least something from the mess Skeletor made. She notes that there is not one but two royal princes on the battlefield who will make excellent hostages, “worth nearly as much ransom as the wisdom of the elders”, though personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if the people of Eisenhold would rather pay Evil-Lyn to keep Prince Stahl. However, Evil-Lyn has no idea what a pain in the backside Prince Stahl is and so she joins forces with Kobra Khan and tells him to use his venomous mist to knock the two princes out. Evil-Lyn of course has a long history of being willing to double-cross Skeletor and go behind his back, if it suits her. And in the 200X cartoon, she actually does team up with Kobra Khan to release the Snake People from the void underneath Snake Mountain where they have been imprisoned for centuries.
However, before Khan can knock out the princes with his venomous mist, Teela first knocks out Khan with her snake staff and quite graphically smashes his face in, complete with lots of blood. Then she kicks Lyn in the face and orders Adam and Prince Stahl to run. Prince Stahl, however, declares that he is the scion of steel and does not run. “Well, I sure as hell do”, Adam says and takes off with Cringer, since this is just the opportunity he needs to get away and transform into He-Man. Though he’s clearly not happy about having to pretend to be a coward and an idiot once again.
Meanwhile, the Sorceress is having problems of her own. For though her forcefield protects Castle Grayskull, the seismic vibrations generated by the Corebreaker are instead being redirected into the bedrock underneath the castle, causing quakes, fissures, volcanic eruptions and other problems all over Eternia. The Sorceress telepathically tells Adma that Eternia is on the verge of cracking apart and that she may doom the planet if she continues to protect Castke Grayskull. Furthermore, she specifically notes that she can feel the terror of the insectoid Kex people who live in caverns underneath the Mystic Mountains. The Kex people’s first and only appearance was in the mini-comic “He-Man and the Insect People”, though the Filmation cartoon featured a similar insect race in a few episodes. The reference to this largely forgotten Eternian race is a nice Easter egg.
Adam finally transforms into He-Man and he and Battle Cat throw the assorted Evil Warriors around like rag dolls. Then he lifts up the Corebreaker to stop its vibrations from destroying other Castle Grayskull or Eternia. Skeletor is about to blast He-Man with his Havoc Staff, but thankfully Teela is there to knock out Skeletor. Note that Teela has single-handedly knocked out Kobra Khan, Evil-Lyn and Skeletor in this battle, which is very impressive, considering that at this point, Teela is a highly skilled warrior, but doesn’t have any magical powers or other special abilities. Meanwhile, He-Man and Battle Cat together knock out Whiplash, Trap Jaw and Jitsu and Spikor, i.e. four Evil Warriors, between them, while Teela deals with three Evil Warriors on her own without any special powers. And note that Skeletor and Evil-Lyn are probably the most dangerous of the Evil Warriors.
Though Teela is polite and thanks Prince Stahl for his help in dispatching the Evil Warriors (though we don’t see Prince Stahl dealing with any of them) and comments that she wishes Adam were half the fighter Prince Stahl is. But while Prince Stahl may be a skilled fighter, he’s also a treacherous piece of shit and so he commandeers the Corebreaker determined to reduce Eternos’ advantage over Eisenhold by taking out two of Eternos’ greatest sources of power, He-Man and Castle Grayskull. Worse, He-Man is steadily weakening and not sure how much longer he can hold the Corebreaker.
When I first saw Prince Stahl in some preview pages for the comics – I think still unlettered and not coloured at that point – I viewed him as a similar character to Goras, Adam’s annoying and boastful cousin from the German audio dramas (pretty much all of Adam’s cousins are annoying). But once I actually read the whole comic, Prince Stahl turns out to be a much darker and nastier character than Goras. Goras is a braggard and a coward and endangers people, but he’s otherwise harmless. Prince Stahl, however, would have happily killed He-Man and destroyed Castle Grayskull and possibly all of Eternia as well out of his lust for power.
While He-Man and Teela are dealing with the Corebreaker, Skeletor and his Evil Warriors and the treacherous Prince Stahl, Duncan is duelling with Tri-Klops. Duncan versus Tri-Klops is a popular pairing we’ve seen lots of times, from the German audio dramas via the 200X cartoon and the 2012 DC Comics all the way to Revelation/Revolution. It does make sense, too, because from the 200X cartoon onwards, Duncan and Tri-Klops are the prime tech guys of their respective factions. They’re also both regular, if technologically augmented humans with neither superstrength nor magical abilities, so they’re fairly evenly matched.
And so Duncan and Tri-Klops go blade to blade, Tri-Klops wielding his classic toy blade (ironically the same sword that Fisto also uses) and Duncan wielding the short sword that came with the Classics figure. Indeed, the appearance of most characters in Sword of Flaws seems to be based mainly on the toys (and here mainly on the Classics versions), down to details such as Whiplash wielding an orange spear. Of course, Tri-Klops has been portrayed a skilled swordsman since his very first appearance in the vintage mini-comics (he is also blind – one of many disabled Masters of the Universe characters), but Duncan’s weapon of choice is usually either some kind of blaster or his mace, though we have seen him wield a sword on multiple occasions all the way back to the Filmation cartoon (in one episode, he even has a lightsaber) and he does know how to use it.
The duel of the weapons masters: Duncan versus Tri-Klops
Tri-Klops even compliments Duncan on his skills. However, he’s still a villain and so he cheats. “You’re an old soldier”, Tri-Klops says, “Your body is a map of scars and broken bones.” Then he uses his X-ray vision to locate just such an old injury and kick Duncan in that vulnerable spot. But while Duncan may be down, he’s far from out. He fires a cable from his arm cannon to connect to and hack into Tri-Klops’ visor. For Duncan’s modern scanners cannot penetrate the hull of the ancient Corebreaker weapon. However, Tri-Klops like to brag that he sees everything, so Duncan hijacks his visor to locate the Corebreaker’s battery and shoot it with his pistol – once again the very pistol that came with the Classics figure – disabling the Corebreaker and not a moment too soon. He then sends a power surge through the cable to fry Tri-Klops’ visor and disconnects.
There’s a sweet moment when the Sorceress telepathically tells He-Man that Duncan did it and saved them all and He-Man replies, “He always does”, showing how important Duncan is for both of them, though in very different ways.
Then He-Man and Battle Cat reduce the Corebreaker to scrap metal to prevent a repeat of the events and turn to the treacherous Prince Stahl, who notes that they all feared him and that he was the Master of the Universe, if only for a moment. “You were selfish”, He-Man informs him and declares that true power lies in friendship, sharing and cooperation, because it just wouldn’t be a Masters of the Universe story without a moral.
As for Skeletor and the Evil Warriors, they run away like they usually do after losing a fight. In this case, Evil-Lyn teleports everybody away, snarkily noting that they return to Snake Mountain with their tail between their legs… again. Skeletor of course doesn’t get it and wonders what kind of wisdom he needs to steal to figure out why he always loses. Listening to Lyn would be a good start, but of course Skeletor will never understand that.
Case in point: Later, back at Snake Mountain, we see that the battle has affected Tri-Klops badly. He is writhing on the floor, clearly sick and mumbling nonsense, likely due to having his visor fried. Lyn tries to comfort him, while Skeletor is just annoyed at a sick and moaning henchman and wants to put him out of his misery, which is extreme even by Skeletor’s standards. For while Skeletor has no problems abusing and even maiming his underlings (Trap-Jaw received his disfiguring injuries at the hands of Skeletor in two different origin stories), he normally doesn’t outright murder them. Not to mention that Lyn stops Skeletor from killing Tri-Klops and points out that if there is a way to destroy He-Man and steal the secrets of Castle Grayskull, Tri-Klops will find it – for Skeletor. Tri-Klops meanwhile mumbles that “our doom is violet.”
Now Evil-Lyn has always been the smartest of Skeletor’s henchpeople and the one most likely to betray him. However, Lyn normally has little use or love for her fellow Evil Warriors, but seems to view them mostly as idiots. Which, to be fair, most of them are. Of course, Lyn will absolutely ally with some of the other Evil Warriors against Skeletor, if it suits her. And indeed, we have seen her allying with both Kobra Khan and Tri-Klops before. However, Lyn usually no more cares for the other Evil Warriors than Skeletor does, but strictly views them as tools. Therefore, it’s unusual to see her being protective of Tri-Klops. It also makes you wonder how different Snake Mountain would be if Lyn were in charge rather than Skeletor.
Meanwhile, back at Eternos Palace, we learn that King Faust of Eisenhold was so embarassed by Prince Stahl’s behaviour that he agreed to bilateral peace talks with King Randor. “I’m pretty good at this ambassador thing”, Adam notes. But of course, Teela, who has always been Adam’s harshest critic, will not let him have even a little moment of triumph and points out that He-Man was the one who stopped Prince Stahl, while Adam was hiding the whole time. Teela does admit that Adam has his charms, but that he shouldn’t confuse luck with competence. Then she takes off, not without reminding Adam that they have a combat training session in the morning.
As I’ve said here, while Randor has frequently been disappointed by Adam and views him as a failure, Teela absolutely know what Adam is capable of and how brave and heroic he can be. Her occasional harshness towards Adam is born out of love and the reason she pushes him so hard – and much as I love Teela, she must absolutely exhausting to be around – is because she wants Adam to be the best he can be. And Teela’s teachings do have an impact, though they manifest in He-Man rather than in Adam.
And since Adam loves Teela, he hates disappointing her and is clearly hurt by her harsh words. Orko and Duncan try to comfort him. Duncan tells Adam that one day Teela will see him for who he really is and that the burdens of being He-Man will make him a great king someday. Adam, however, isn’t so sure that he even wants to be king. After all, being He-Man has its advantages. He can save the world, lift continents and punch out monster drills. Being king is a step down from that. This is consistent with Adam’s portrayal elsewhere, whether it’s Masters of the Universe: Revolution, the Filmation cartoon or the 2012 DC Comics. Adam doesn’t particularly want to be king, especially since becoming would mean not only losing his father, but also having to give up being He-Man.
Adam finally leaves and notes that he has to go and be irresponsible, stay out late, get drunk and disappoint Teela some more in the morning, as maintaining his secret identity requires. Duncan notes that all soldiers have one thing in common. None of them ever liked the weight of their weapon.
Now I’ve said before that Adam keeping the fact that he is He-Man secret from Teela never made any real sense and I applaud Masters of the Universe Revelation/Revolution for finally moving beyond that. However, Adam’s secret identity does make for some juicy character dynamics, not to mention a lot of angst for Adam. It’s also good to see Duncan being the supportive mentor/father figure/friend again.
The setting of this conversation is also neat. It’s a landing of a staircase inside Eternos Palace, which is lined with the portraits of Eternian kings and other artefacts. The focal point is a giant portrait of King Randor, looking once again exactly like the Classics figure. Honestly, this could be a Classics tie-in comic. There’s also a smaller portrait of Queen Marlena, a large statue of King Grayskull, a bust of King Miro, a bust of someone who might be an older He-Ro (He-Ro is the son of King Grayskull in the Revelation/Revolution continuity) and even a half-glimpsed portrait of a woman who might be Queen Amelia as well as other unidentified kings and queens of Eternia. There’s also an as of yet empty frame labelled Adam, which is reserved for the king he will one day become. No hint of Keldor anywhere, but then King Miro liked to pretend he never existed.
Randor’s portrait is also flanked by two flags. One looks like one of the flag on top of the Central Tower of the Eternia playset (yes, I had to look that up) and is presumably the flag of the Kingdom of Eternos, though Eternos has a different flag and coat of arms in the Revelation/Revolution continuity. The second flag is an American flag and represents Queen Marlena, though it’s not clear whether the flag was aboard Marlena’s spaceship, the Rainbow Explorer (American astronauts do like sticking their flag onto any celestial body they visit), or whether Randor had it made for her later on. At any rate, it is a nice touch and also a callback to a scene from the screenplay for the 1987 live action movie, where Earth teenager Kevin and Julie as well as Detective Lubic find a tattered American flag as well as a NASA mission badge in the catacombs beneath Castle Grayskull and He-Man tells them that his mother came from Earth and brought these things with her. The scene unfortunately never made it into the final film, though it would have been nice if the movie had acknowledged He-Man’s earthly legacy. In fact, the movie would have been better if Julie had been Adam’s cousin from Earth rather than just some random teenager and if He-Man and friends had specifically sought her out to ask her for help.
There is one final scene where the Heroic Warriors survey the damage caused by the quakes created by the Corebreaker. The team includes reconnaissance specialists Stratos and Mekaneck, whereby Statos is flesh-coloured like he was in the first few mini-comics. Also present and playing cards are two much more surprising characters, namely Strobo and the Fearless Photog. Both are characters who were supposed to appear in the vintage Masters of the Universe toyline, but were never released. Strobo actually made it into a comic and cardback art for the character has also resurfaced as part of the so-called “lost wave” of figures assembled from existing parts that was supposed to come out in 1988. All of these characters were eventually released in the Classics line and all but Strobo and Plasmar have been released in the Origins line. Strobo has the repainted body of Sy-Klone with a shiny mirror in his chest instead of Sy-Klone’s radar as well as the helmeted head of Zodac. Because of this helmet, he is usually assumed to be a member of the Cosmic Enforcers these days and has been portrayed as such in cameo appearances in the Masters of the Multiverse comic mini-series as well as in Masters of the Universe Revolution. Though in his only vintage comic appearance, he is just a Heroic Warrior with light powers.
Strobo and fellow Cosmic Enforcer Zodac and a fragment of the dark star, which appeared in the comic which was Strobo’s only vintage appearance. I have assembled a couple of more Cosmic Enforcers by now and really need to take another Cosmic Enforcer group shot.
Fearless Photog is an even more obscure character with an even stranger history. He was the winner of a Create-a-character contest for kids held in 1986 and the creation of Nathan Bittner, then eleven years old. The prize for winning the contest was a college scholarship, an all-expenses paid trip to California to visit the Mattel headquarters as well as Disneyland and the winning character should be made as an action figure. Nathan Bittner did get his scholarship money and the trip to California, but his creation Fearless Photog was never made in the vintage toyline, most likely because sales were faltering. Also, Fearless Photog is one of the weirdest looking characters in a toyline full of weirdos. Instead of a head, he has a camera and the images he captures are displayed on his chest as a lenticular sticker. He allso has a shield which looks like a vintage camera flash and a blaster which looks like a camera. Fearless Photog was eventually made in the Masters of the Universe Classics line (and no, I don’t have him, though he is quite cheap and I should probably pick him up eventually), though he never had any appearances in any Masters of the Universe media beyond a “Where is Waldo?” type appearance in a giant battle scene in one of the Classics mini-comics (the Classics mini-comics had a thing for giant battle scenes cramming in as many characters as possible). Therefore, it’s amazing to see this weirdo pop up in a regular Masters of the Universe comic. Due to his photographic abilities, it also makes sense to include him as part of the reconnaissance team, even if all he does is play cards with Strobo.
Stratos is engaged in some aerial reconnaissance for earthquake damage and wants to get close to a mountain with the delightful name Heavenpiercer when downdrafts and a sudden bout of nausea force him to land. Mekaneck extends his neck and discovers something astonishing. For the peak of Heavenpiercer has split open and reveals a sword, which looks just like He-Man’s Power Sword, only that it’s purple.
All in all, the first issue of the Masters of the Universe comic mini-series The Sword of Flaws is off to a good start, even though the titular sword only appears on the final page. Most of the issue is taken up by a massive battle, but there are also plenty of nice character moments for both the good and the bad guys.
Freddy Williams II’s artwork is beautifully detailed and full of little Easter eggs and callbacks to the various toylines. Cringer has rarely looked cuter and more cuddly, though sadly he doesn’t speak.
I’m defnitely interested in seeing where this story goes in the upcoming installments.
sending...
