The Horde is a 1985 Masters of the Universe children’s
book written by Bryce Knorr and illustrated by Harry J. Quinn and James
Holloway. Here, Skeletor increases his power, and Hordak shows up to take
revenge on him.
Hordak and Skeletor each enlisting He-Man’s help against the
other is actually a pretty good plot device. That said, Knorr’s writing is just
as lazy and at least as terrible here as on any of the other He-Man Golden
Hardcovers, and nothing ever comes of that storyline. Things happen randomly,
Knorr can’t keep track of what Skeletor’s plan is, and the Fright Zone is in
the Vine Jungle, yet Hordak operates out of Etheria. And then there’s Leech,
whose self-described power is that he can run “up and down and all around” (p.
18) – you can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him.
Quinn and Holloway’s art is nearly as poor. The book is full
of stubby figures that were copied straight from the toys, slapdash drawings,
and illustrations that could be bettered by talented grade-schoolers. I mean, goodness
gracious, look at Leech’s head on page 11! At least they fixed Hordak since Teela’s Quest so that he looks like his
action figure.
The Horde is full
of non-canonical shenanigans, and if it’s worth reading for anything, it’s for
Knorr’s origin of Skeletor (which doesn’t follow the Halperin bible or the
Keldor mythos in any way), in which we’re given a depiction of Skeletor with a
regular face (it’s still yellow!) and an explanation of how he got that way.
While this seems like the type of remarkable thing that should be followed by
many exclamation points, it’s a silly origin unworthy of Skeletor, and our best
hope is that Hordak just made the story up.
In short, The Horde is
a poor entry in a weak series.
NOT RECOMMENDED
Read it HERE
