It’s time for another Masters-of-the-Universe-Piece Theatre photo story. The name “Masters-of-the-Universe-Piece Theatre” was coined by Kevin Beckett at the Whetstone Discord server.
I got a new Masters of the Universe figure recently, namely Zodac, the Cosmic Enforcer:
Even big bad Cosmic Enforcers need their morning coffee.
Zodac has always been one of the strangest Masters of the Universe characters. He was there from the very beginning, one of the first eight figures to come out in 1982. Zodac bears a lot of similarities to Metron from Jack Kirby’s New Gods, but then the early Masters of the Universe designs were partly inspired by Jack Kirby’s Fourth World, because Mattel was apparently working on a Fourth World toyline in the late 1970s that never went into production, so a lot of ideas were reused for Masters of the Universe.
Though the Battle Ram Blog points out that the Jack Kirby influence on Masters of the Universe was not as great as the video linked claims, since no one who worked on the line in the 1980s ever mentioned Jack Kirby as an influence. The one part of Masters of the Universe that was influenced by Jack Kirby’s Fourth World is the 1987 movie. Director Gary Goddard was very open about the Kirby influence and even wanted to bring in Jack Kirby as a concept artist.
Zodac was also the only one of the main characters not aligned with any faction. Instead, he was billed as a neutral observer, a cosmic enforcer who’s task it is to maintain balance in the universe. Zodac is also frequently described as being a connected to or even being a former member of the all-powerful Council of Elders (a concept that goes back to the early 1980s, though it wasn’t really explored very much until the 2002 cartoon). Quite often, Zodac is the sole member of the Council of Elders to remain in human form.
Zodac’s position of a neutral force preserving the balance of the cosmos is a heady concept for a kids’ toyline. As a result, neither the kids playing with the toys nor the people working on Masters of the Universe often had no real idea what to do with Zodac. He only put in a handful of appearances in the original mini-comics and the Filmation cartoon of the 1980s, though a related character named Zodak with a K (the two Zodacs are different enough that they are generally considered two separate characters) played a bigger role in the 2002 cartoon. Zodac did appear in the West German audio dramas, voiced by Jürgen Thormann, and also put in several appearances in the various Masters of the Universe comics over the years.
Whenever Zodac did appear, he was often portrayed as something of a jerk. This goes back all the way to the original 1982 cardback illustration by Errol McCarthy, which shows Zodac firing his blaster at He-Man (reproduced here along with a lot of background information on the character and his development), which outright billed him as an evil character. Because Zodac is comitted to maintaining the balance between good and evil, he often doesn’t approve of He-Man, since He-Man is just too powerful and tilts the balance too much towards good. Zodac obviously doesn’t approve of Skeletor either, yet while he will occasionally aid the heroic warriors against the Evil Forces of Skeletor, we mostly see him harassing He-Man. Zodac is also one of the very few people (in the wider sense of the word) who knows that Prince Adam is He-Man.
In the Filmation episode “The Search”, Zodac shows up on Eternia to warn He-Man that Skeletor is trying to steal the Star Seed, an all powerful glowing orb (Eternia has a lot of all powerful glowing orbs) buried deep underneath the surface of the planet. However, once He-Man has stopped Skeletor, Zodac reveals that the whole thing was just a test to see if He-Man would be able to resist the temptation of using the all powerful Star Seed for himself and was thus worthy of wielding the Power of Grayskull. As for how Skeletor learned about the Star Seed – well, Zodac told him. This wouldn’t be the only time that Zodac would aid the villains for his own ends either. His counterpart with a K in the 2002 cartoon deliberately unleashes the terrifying Snake People upon Eternia, because he wants to avenge himself on the Snake People’s leader King Hiss for murdering and eating his brother.
Zodac’s obsession with whether Prince Adam was worthy of the Power of Grayskull would become something of a pattern in later appearance of the character, particularly in the comics. Hereby, the Sorceress of Grayskull was usually the one who had to serve as an advocate for He-Man – well, he is her champion, after all – and who had to persuade Zodac that yes, Adam is indeed worthy.
Indeed, this is very much the plot of Dark Horse‘s recent Masters of the Universe: Masterverse comic mini-series by Tim Seeley, Eddie Nunez and various other artists. Zodac pays a visit to the Sorceress and once again expresses his disapproval of Prince Adam – as well as his intention to torture Adam to test him – whereupon the Sorceress proceeds to show Zodac a selection of He-Men throughout the Multiverse and how He-Man is always a force for good, regardless of the universe. This serves as a framing device for different Masters of the Universe stories set in alternate realities.
In the Masterverse mini-series, Zodac at least only confines himself to threatening to torture Adam and holding the Sorceress at blaster point – something that doesn’t impress her very much. But in issue 19 of the 2012 DC Comics He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series, written by Rob David (there’s a great interview with him here at the Dad-at-Arms podcast) and illustrated by Tom Derenick (yes, I looked that up), Zodac goes even further and actually wants to kill Prince Adam until the Sorceress stops him. What makes this even worse is that Adam is only about twelve years old at this point and unwittingly taps into the Power of Grayskull and stops time in order to pull his father from a crashed Wind Raider.
It’s very much a standalone flashback issue of Adam recalling a pivotal day in his life – a day which starts with young Adam kissing Teela (because she dared him to) and then getting rebuffed by his father and manipulated by his evil Uncle Keldor into running away in order to lure both Adam and Randor into an ambush. Adam has his Sky Sled shot out from under him, but is otherwise unharmed, but Randor is badly injured and trapped inside the wrecked Wind Raider. Adam is struggling to save him and accidentally taps into the Power of Grayskull to stop time. This is when Zodac and the Sorceress show up to discuss what to do about the twelve-year-old boy who has accidentally stopped time. Zodac wants to kill young Adam, because he’s too powerful and might pose a danger to the balance of the cosmos, but the Sorceress argues that Adam is acting purely out of love for his father and that they should help him instead. Obviously, the Sorceress wins this argument or else there wouldn’t be a story.
I imagine that the Sorceress would get quite annoyed to constantly have to defend her champion against Zodac. As for what would happen, if Duncan were to find out that Zodac wanted to murder Adam… well, let’s see…
Castle Grayskull, in the Sorceress’ private quarters:
Everybody on Eternia likes Delftware.
“It’s so nice of Duncan to drop by and help me with my home improvement project. And maybe afterwards, there’ll be time for other things…”
Knock, knock.
“And here he comes. Time to lower the jawbridge.”
“Duncan! How wonderful of you to come! And…. Malcolm?!”
“Don’t worry, Sorceress, whatever repair work you need done, Eternia’s strongest and most handsome brothers will get it done for you in a jiffy.”
“Sigh.”
“So what can we do for you today, my… ahem, Sorceress?”
“Ahem, Duncan, could I have a word? In private?”
“Well, if you two want to make out or whatever, I’ll be over here unpacking the tools.”
“Sigh.”
“What is it, my love?”
“When I said I needed a hand, did you have to bring your brother?”
“Malcolm comes in handy, if you need a wall knocked down.”
“I don’t need a wall knocked down, all I want is for you to put up a picture.”
“Malcolm is handy for that, too. If you have Malcolm, you don’t need a hammer. And anyway, I would have brought Adam, but he’s busy with some royal duties.”
“And it never occurred to you to just come alone?”
“Why? What’s wrong, my love?”
“What’s wrong?! Your brother is the most indiscreet person on all of Eternia, that’s what’s wrong. And I don’t want him to blab about our relationship all over the royal barracks.”
“Uhm, if you want to retreat somewhere more private, that’s fine by me.”
“See what I mean?”
“Shut up, Malcolm.”
“So where do you want us to hang this picture?”
“Right above that dresser will be fine, thank you.”
BOOM!
“Teela-Na, I need a word. Now.”
“Zodac?! Don’t you knock? No, of course you don’t. You never do. So why don’t you just come in and treat my private quarters like a public transit station? After all, everybody else does.”
“Uhm, Teela-Na, do you need help? I didn’t know you were expecting a visitor.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Enough! Remove your mortal associates, Teela-Na, for we must talk about the problem of He-Man. Your champion is upsetting the balance of the cosmos.”
“Who is that jerk?”
“I think I know. And I don’t like it.”
“You! The Sorceress has told me all about you, Zodac. She told me how you wanted to kill Prince Adam, when he was only twelve and pulled his father from a wrecked Wind Raider.”
“He did what?!! He tried to kill Adam?!! Get the bastard and give him hell, brother!”
“I’m warning you, Zodac, lay one hand on Adam or on Teela-Na and you’ll answer to me.”
“Duncan, no!”
ZAP!
“Unhand me, mortal. Matters of cosmic importance do not concern you, Man-at-Arms.”
“Duncan!”
“Okay, that does it. No one zaps my brother without answering to the strongest right first in Eternia.”
“Eat steel knuckles, cosmic shithead!”
“Duncan, are you all right? You shouldn’t have intervened. Zodac is powerful beyond imagination.”
“I’m… uff… sworn to protect Adam… and you. Can’t let him hurt you.”
ZAP!
“Shut up, imbecile! These matters do not concern mere mortals like you.”
“That’s it. No one tells my brother to shut up except for me.”
“No, Duncan, he’s too powerful.”
“Listen, Zodac, I don’t care how powerful you are or how important your mission is. If you as much as touch Adam or Teela or Teela-Na or even Malcolm, I will kill you. Is that understood?”
ZAP! BOOM!
“Now you listen, Man-at-Arms. I have no quarrel with you nor with your imbecile of a brother. But interfere with my sacred mission and I shall kill you both without a second thought.”
“Hey, hands off my brother, cosmic arsehole!”
“ENOUGH! You will not harm my champion or my daughter or my man or even Fisto or you will find that I am more than a match for you. And now leave, Zodac. You are not welcome here.”
“Yeah right, you tell him, Sorceress.”
“All right, Teela-Na. I shall take my leave and enforce the balance of the cosmos over in Galaxy SW-77, cause those Jedi are getting way to complacent. But be warned. If your champion gets out of line again, I’ll be back.”
“Don’t let the door hit you on your way out, arsehole!”
“Are you all right, my love? Did he hurt you?”
“Have no fear, Duncan. Within these walls, I’m more than a match for Zodac and he knows it. But you should have kept out of this. Zodac is too powerful for you.”
“I don’t care how powerful he is. If he threatens Adam or Teela or you, he picks a fight with me.”
“And that cosmic jerk really tried to kill Adam, when he was just twelve and saved his Dad from that Wind Raider crash? You know, the one event that convinced all of the Masters that there was more to Adam than just a kid who kept getting underfoot. What a fucking arsehole!”
***
That’s it for today, folks. I hope you enjoyed this Masters-of-the-Universe-Piece Theatre Photo Story, because there will be more.
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of these characters, I just bought some toys, took photos of them and wrote little scenes to go with those photos. All characters are copyright and trademark their respective owners.
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Is Zodac a jerk because he’s got five toes jammed into three toed boots?
Sorceress seems to have smaller bits of Delftware than many other Eternians. Nothing larger than herself, and it doesn’t clash with her outfit. That turtle gets around a lot, though.
As always, bonus points for “Shut up, Malcolm.”
Those three-toed feet are actually the reason why a lot of people initially assumed that Zodac was villain. Because the injection molds for the plastic are very expensive, Mattel tried to reuse as many parts as possible. Early on, they had only four sets of legs and feet. Male human legs with furry boots, female human legs with furry boots, furry legs and feet for animal characters and those three-toed feet for the reptile and monster characters. Because the reptiles and monsters were usually the bad guys and Zodac had the three-toed feet, a lot of people assumed he was a bad guy. Even an otherwise human evil ninja character had the three-toed feet, which makes zero sense.
Nowadays, they have a lot more different foot and boot molds, which is why it’s funny that they still gave Zodac those three-toed feet. I guess because it’s tradition by now.
Yeah, I found the miniature Delftware. I may do a story about Skeletor and his henchpeople shopping for Delftware eventually.
The turtle is actually a dispenser for artificial sweetener tablets, though I never used it for that purpose and I don’t even have sweetener tablets anymore, just stevia powder for people who can’t or won’t use sugar. However, when I needed something to hold the silvery marble that is the orb of power, an artefact hidden deep inside Castle Grayskull, I used the turtle, because it works. The alternative would have been an egg cup. Lots of this weird detritus that accumulated over the decades winds up in these stories. I never though that my Mom’s collection of pewter miniatures would ever come in handy for anything. And I’m trying to figure out where my parents put the brass miniatures they used to have in the living room, before they refurbished it some 40 years ago.
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