***SPOILERS***
Masters of the
Universe: The Origin of Hordak is a 2013 DC one-shot written by Keith
Giffen and Brian Keene and illustrated by Giffen and Scott Koblish.
Origin. DC He-Man
people, you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it
means.
Zodac, eh? And he’s Hordak’s brother, eh? Is that what we’re
doing now? Okay, I guess, although there doesn’t seem to be much point to it.
This “origin” is little more than a protracted fight scene over which exposition
is spouted (see also the God-awful Origin
of He-Man); there’s none of the backstory needed to make us care about
these characters, their relationship, or even the death of a million people.
The paper-thin plot doesn’t make a ton of sense either:
Hordak can’t fight Zodac to the death in Backgroundless Rubble-Filled Place 1;
they have to travel to the identical Backgroundless Rubble-Filled Place 2? Why?
To make Zodac fight Leech for five minutes? And yet, there are the building
blocks of a good story here: a mini-series chronicling the events Hordak and
Zodac discuss, for example, could have worked quite well.
Aside from the fact we seem to be borrowing from King Hiss’s
200X backstory for Enforcer-fighting Hordak (which doesn’t really matter
because they never make us care), his reimagining as a magical energy vampire
works just fine. Meanwhile, however, Zodac apparently doesn’t rate having any
of his backstory retained (it’s also interesting, given the fact that DC imported
Dekker from the 200X series, that the decision’s been made to re-Caucasianize
him).
This one-shot’s connections to the monthly comic’s “present
day” are also disappointing. There’s a little insight into Skeletor’s red skull, but that’s about it. The most burning question – how good old
bat-Hordak became a Giger-esque abomination – is not addressed in the slightest.
Giffen’s art is as unimpressive as his writing. I appreciate
the fact that his Fright Zone pays tribute to both the Filmation version and
the playset, and he does a good job of putting emotion on Hordak’s face;
however, his characters are angular, his layouts call to mind someone who can't figure
out how to make his camera zoom out, and, while maybe it’s not fair to call
this “Twenty Pages of Rubble and Glowy Magic,” the backgrounds are deal-breakingly
few. And Hordak’s casting a Batman shadow, Giffen? Seriously?
In short, The Origin
of Hordak relates a vignette in which everything of significance or interest
has either already happened or is yet to come. The teasers for this comic included
the question, “What the heck is a demigod anyway?” I’m not
certain what sort of brain-damaged young people DC’s targeting with their Masters of the Universe comics, but they’re
absolutely nailing that demographic.
NOT RECOMMENDED
