Masters of the
Universe: Dark Reflections (2004) collects issues #1-6, the full run, of volume
2 of Masters of the Universe, which
was originally published by Image Comics in 2003. It was written by Val Staples
and illustrated primarily by Emiliano Santalucia and Enza Fontana. Here,
Skeletor’s latest assault on Castle Grayskull is foiled, causing Man-At-Arms to
be pulled into another dimension and strange occurrences to happen throughout
Eternia.
What jumps out immediately is that this is a darker,
grittier MOTU than that to which we’re
accustomed, and that includes the cartoon on which these comics are based. The
fighting is intense, and there’s blood, a swear or two, and even some blatant
killing. And yet, to Staples’ credit, this is all done in such a way that it
never feels unfaithful to the spirit of the 200X cartoon (if not that of the
’80s MOTU).
The writing suffers a bit from some unduly expository
dialogue and a stilted lack of contractions, but Staples does a number of other
things well, including the interplay between Adam and Teela and the depiction
of Skeletor’s minions as giant, overpowered monsters. The mirror dimension of
this story is potentially extremely interesting, but the reader is only given brief
glimpses, and it’s never explored as fully as we’d like it to be (who doesn’t
want to see tyrannical King He-Man?). But even so, there’s more than enough to
make the story go, and on the balance, it’s pretty satisfying.
Overall, the art is excellent. The attention to detail is
outstanding, and the characters, settings, and backgrounds all look good. The
only real complaints are that sometimes the action poses look stiff, and
sometimes a lack of shadows makes the characters look as if they’ve just been overlaid
on the backgrounds.
On the whole, Dark
Reflections is a solid, entertaining story placed fairly effectively in a grown-up
Masters of the Universe world.
RECOMMENDED
Read it HERE
