Of all the 80’s toy properties that have had huge revivals in the past decade, like Transformers and GI Joe, one of the biggest that didn’t get too far in recent times is Mattel’s billion dollar juggernaut Masters of the Universe. There was a 2002-2003 toyline and animated series revival that didn’t really take off like Mattel wanted, and a big budget movie was planned and later scrapped. Since then (aside from a retro toy line made for adult collectors) there hasn’t been so much as a peep coming from Eternia.
But that’s changing this July, as DC Comics is bringing back He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in the form of a six issue comic book mini series. Writing the book will be longtime comic book veteran James Robinson (Starman, JSA, the upcoming Earth 2) and artist Phillip Tan, best known for his work on Batman and Robin. According to MTV, the premise of the series has Skeletor, “the skull faced arch-enemy of He-Man has figured out a way to rewrite the reality of Eternia, casting himself as the ruler of Castle Grayskull, and our heroes – including He-Man – as regular peasants with no memory of their previous life. And while simple woodsman Adam may dream of wielding a massive sword, and fighting in battles, he thinks they’re just dreams. That is, until a mysterious sorceress approaches him, and sends him on an epic journey to save all of Eternia.”
Our first image of the new Phillip Tan-ized He-Man coming this summer from DC.
According to Robinson, he wants to de-cheese the Masters storyline and make it grittier, which will be tough when you have characters named He-Man, Meckaneck and Ram-Man as your leads. As a kid, I was obsessed with all things He-Man and She-Ra, from the ages of about 7 to 12. I had every damn toy and watched the show religiously. Of the many things I was obsessed with as a child, like Star Wars, the DC and Marvel heroes and Star Trek, I was into He-Man the most, and ironically, it is the property I care about the least now as an adult. Once I was old enough to realize the entire mythology was merely created just to sell me toys and the stories were all secondary, I just stopped giving a shit. Still, I have a bit of a soft spot for those old toys, as they were pretty bad ass. Maybe the nostalgia factor alone might be enough to at least get me to check it out. And I’m totally in if he fights Superman again.
My first exposure to He-Man, a good year before his cartoon hit the air, was this 1982 DC Comics Presents issue where he met Superman. Now He-Man has come full circle and is back at DC Comics again, some thirty years later.