Wednesday, November 28, 2012

DANGEROUS GAMES by Mark Sufrin and Charlie Pietrafeso



Dangerous Games is a 1985 Masters of the Universe children’s book written by Mark Sufrin and illustrated by Charlie Pietrafeso. Here, Skeletor has been driven back into Snake Mountain and is trapped there by the Mystic Wall, so the Heroic Warriors host an Olympics-style event to keep everyone sharp.

Sufrin’s story is pretty good. The Heroic Warriors are up to some interesting things, and Skeletor has a solid, logical plan. The plotting doesn’t get lazy until the end, when He-Man just happens to bump Skeletor et al. into the Lost Corridors of Time during their dogfight.

The Mystic Wall is a notable story element here because it would be featured later, in much the same way, in the 200X cartoon. Its presence here, however, begs for the potentially very interesting stories of A. how they got Skeletor trapped behind it in the first place and B. how, exactly, he broke through it (apparently without much difficulty).

Pietrafeso’s art is generally good. His figures are typically well done, although he occasionally gives us big, cartoony heads and awkward poses. He also does a fine job with Skeletor’s myriad of monsters.

In short, Dangerous Games features an entertaining story and pretty decent art.

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Read it HERE