Monday, August 20, 2012

A TRAP FOR HE-MAN by John Grant and Robin Davies


A Trap for He-Man is a 1983 Masters of the Universe children’s book written by John Grant and Robin Davies. Here, Skeletor captures Teela and He-Man comes to her rescue.

First off, this is a story about Teela, not He-Man – He-Man doesn’t show up until three quarters of the way through the book, in large part because Skeletor’s plan is so convoluted. The plot of this story is definitely for young kids (that’s a nice way of saying it’s kind of stupid), but Grant uses more advanced words like “outstrip” and “shied.” I can’t decide if that’s bad writing or good vocabulary building.

The art here is an amateurish disaster. Davies gives us cartoony, disproportionate figures, with bad perspective and bad poses. It’s like something a moderately talented eighth grader might produce.

Most bizarre of all is a scene where Teela beams out thought waves to “the Lord He-Man,” asking for direction (pp. 10-11). Because apparently all the Heroic Warriors are telepathic and/or He-Man is some kind of prayer-answering deity (Skeletor’s entire plan is based on the former). It’s utterly absurd, regardless of whether we pause to consider the implications of this scene’s ludicrous religious overtones.

I hate to give up, but I can’t come up with a single good thing to say about this book.

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Read it HERE