New Champions of
Eternia is a 1985 Masters of the
Universe children’s book written by Jack C. Harris and illustrated by
Jeffrey Oh. Here, after losing a battle, Skeletor and his minions appear to be
destroyed, and four “new champions” are freed.
This book draws on Michael Halperin’s series bible in a
surprising way, incorporating a backstory that the Filmation cartoon ignored: Evil-Lyn,
Beast Man, and Tri-Klops as the crew on Queen Marlena’s spaceship (Biff
Beastman!).
While it’s neat to see that idea dusted off, the execution
here is horrendous. Even without the terrible anagrams, Skeletor’s plot is
obvious, both to the child reader and the characters themselves (these latter
do nothing about it). The villains inexplicably give away their scheme the
instant they’ve earned the queen’s trust, and for no good reason. There’s no
real climax, and the resolution is tacked-on and arbitrary – there’s just no
purpose to any of it.
Oh’s art is mediocre. Only half the pages have backgrounds
(and some pages look more finished than others), the figures are stiff, and Oh
frequently has trouble with faces. The shaded coloring goes a long way toward
bailing it out, though.
New Champions of
Eternia gets points for implementing an obscure part of the mythos, but it
just isn’t well done.
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT
Read it HERE
