Yes, they fight. It’s short, decisive, and not at all the
most interesting part of this comic. Superman doesn’t do a great deal for the
story, but having your A-list good guys fight each other has been a shameless
(and effective) comic book marketing ploy since time immemorial. But from a Masters
of the Universe viewpoint, as far as his role in the story, Superman is
pretty much interchangeable with any of the other Heroic Warriors that Skeletor
works his magic on.
This is much more a MOTU comic than it is a Superman
one, which makes sense given that DC went on to do a couple more things with
the franchise in the following year. One of the ramifications of this is that
we get quite a bit more Eternian world building than we’ve previously seen.
The DC comics feature a unique mythos that bridges the gap
between the earliest He-Man stories and the cartoon in interesting ways. Many
of the rudiments of the cartoon are here, including Prince Adam and a talking
Cringer, but with distinct differences from their cartoon incarnations. Adam,
for example, is a troublemaker, has tremendous strength of his own, and
transforms into He-Man by entering the “Cave of Power.” Setting-wise, the
transition from “primordial fantasy with advanced technology” to “medieval
fantasy with advanced technology” is complete. Interestingly, the
Queen-Marlena-is-from-Earth backstory, which is mentioned in the cartoon on a
couple of occasions, appears first here. And DC continues to use the long-haired, blond Teela from the second series of mini-comics.
In the end, it’s a satisfying read, primarily because of the
world building and new mythology.
RECOMMENDED
Read it HERE
