Hordak – The Ruthless Leader’s Revenge! is a 1984 Masters
of the Universe mini-comic. No author is credited; it’s illustrated by
Larry Houston and Michael Lee. Here, Hordak changes things up a little bit by
sending Grizzlor to kidnap Stinkor (same old plan, different faction), proposes
an anti-He-Man alliance with Skeletor, then immediately stabs him in the back.
The nonsensical plotting continues. The Heroic Warriors have nothing to lose by letting the Evil Warriors and the Horde fight it out for a while, but fine; this happens in cartoons with multiple villains all the time. Hordak’s elaborate plan to stick it to Skeletor is poorly executed (unless his ultimate goal was to steal the Land Shark – that’s a sweet ride). Grizzlor seems to have lost his ability to speak in complete sentences already. And He-Man – who’s already turned into He-Man – draws his sword and shouts, “By the power of Grayskull” to do some kind of charge-up attack.
The nonsensical plotting continues. The Heroic Warriors have nothing to lose by letting the Evil Warriors and the Horde fight it out for a while, but fine; this happens in cartoons with multiple villains all the time. Hordak’s elaborate plan to stick it to Skeletor is poorly executed (unless his ultimate goal was to steal the Land Shark – that’s a sweet ride). Grizzlor seems to have lost his ability to speak in complete sentences already. And He-Man – who’s already turned into He-Man – draws his sword and shouts, “By the power of Grayskull” to do some kind of charge-up attack.
At least the anonymous author has a way with words, which
keeps things somewhat entertaining, if unintentionally so. The unequivocal highlight
is the most epic redundancy ever uttered: “Traitor, your treachery betrays you!”
The art is adequate – when Houston gets it right. The
villains all seem eager to fight to the death, yet are completely stymied by an
easily-jumpable crevasse – come on, Houston, it’s like six feet across. We’re
supposed to have the Horde fighting the Evil Warriors, but on page 10, we get
Leech fighting Grizzlor and Jitsu fighting Whiplash. And what’s up with Leech’s
gargantuan head?
He-Man says it best in this issue: “Time to put an end to
this nonsense.” Indeed.
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT
Read it HERE
