Concluding the brief run of digital comics, these four issues,
by a variety of writers and artists, feature backstory vignettes with Evil Lyn,
Orko, Trapjaw, and Adora.
In “Evil Lyn” (I guess we’re dropping the hyphen), Evil Lyn
becomes romantically involved with an ex-royal guardsman, and we get further
setup for future stories with the second of the two most powerful relics in
“the Everything.”
So, now we’ve got sex in a He-Man comic, eh? No doubt if
anybody prominently involved with the creation of Masters of the Universe is dead, they’re spinning in their graves.
The other thing that feels out of place here (although I guess when you think
about it, it really shouldn’t) is the big flat-screen TV in the tavern, on
which the patrons watch highlights of Yellow Cross He-Man battling Skeletor on
the evening news. It can’t be long before we get a MOTUC figure of Repor-Tor,
Heroic Newsman, or somesuch.
The art’s fine, but I guess the colorist had the day off. The
primarily black and white art gives this comic a noir feel, but this isn’t the
sort of story that really benefits from such a treatment.
On the whole, this is a decent enough story, but it doesn’t
tell us anything new about Evil Lyn, and those who know the character will see
the ending coming a long way off.
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT
In “Orko,” Orko screws up one of the Sorceress’s spells,
throwing Eternia’s reality into flux. And by flux I mean complete madness.
Wow. Just, wow. Did Jeff Parker get drunk watching cartoons and
dash this off in fifteen minutes? With overt pop culture references to The Dark Knight Returns, Spongebob Squarepants, Pac-Man, Calvin and Hobbes, Roger
Rabbit, and lots more, this is Cartoon Network on the hallucinogenic drug
of your choice. And the dialogue is often brutal.
However, this comic is also refreshing in a way, as it gives
us a nice little break from the shameless grim-and-grittification of the
franchise. And Parker nearly redeems himself with Power Sword-wielding Orko
shouting, “I temporarily have the power!”
The hero of this comic is artist Chris Gugliotti, who
successfully executes a myriad of styles in terms of drawing, inks, and color,
and, in the cases of the pop references, in the manner of the original artists (but dude, that Orko on the left side of the cover is creepy as hell).
This single comic should be all the portfolio he’ll ever need.
There’s no real story here, nor any point to the goings-on
beyond showcasing Gugliotti’s artistic abilities, but it’s worth checking out
for that, plus the craziness – it’s all craziness.
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT
“Trapjaw” is a prequel to “Evil Lyn.” Here, Kronis is an information broker and
thief in a heist gone bad.
Wait, what? Yellow Cross He-Man throws a gun so hard that it
makes Kronis’s jaw detach and his face turn green (talk about careless and
irresponsible; Yellow Cross He-Man, we have “The Problem with Power” on line
one)? And then these nanites save Kronis somehow? Not only is this origin kind
of small-time, it’s also change purely for change’s sake: the 200X Icons of Evil one-shot gave us a much
more significant, much more satisfying (and much more badass, while we’re at
it) origin for Trapjaw.
What I do like is how Higgins has given us an overarching
plot running through these stories. One hopes all this setup will be returned
to in the ongoing monthly so we get our due payoff.
The art is fairly good. The splash page with Yellow Cross
He-Man is about as epic as we’ve seen in these comics. And it’s nice to see a
faithful (200X-ish) Snake Mountain (and Skeletor). However, all the buildup to
give us a last-page reveal for Trapjaw? Come on – this character’s thirty years
old – plus we’ve got the cover. Or is the big deal supposed to be that he’s basically
got a garbage disposal for a throat?
In short, this is a competently executed but needless and
weak new origin.
NOT RECOMMENDED
In “She-Ra,” Despara – that is, Force Captain Adora – begins
to recall flashes of her infancy; her story will be continued in the new ongoing monthly.
I don’t really have a problem accepting Adora as a cold-blooded
Horde killer (she also murders a peripheral She-Ra
character you probably don’t care about): it’s an understandable, logical, nigh-unavoidable
step for any adult treatment of the character. If we get an appropriately
climactic Damascus Road moment (I’m not holding my breath), I’m on board all
the way.
Drew Johnson’s art is very good, and the red-orange-black
color scheme throughout sets the tone nicely. The Horde Troopers – now men
instead of robots – have gotten a solid update. Adora’s outfit fits the Horde
motif a lot better than the old cartoon one’s did, but if you don’t mind me
saying so, it’s mighty weird to see Hordak’s face on top of boobs.
On the whole, this is the best new comic DC has given us,
and it offers a glimmer of hope going forward. I don’t know that I need
a bunch of She-Ra in my He-Man so soon, and one can’t help but imagine that
they’ll find some way to screw things up, but I guess we’ll burn that bridge
when we come to it.
RECOMMENDED
These comics’ He-Man.org archive page is HERE
