THE SUNBIRD LEGACY by Roger McKenzie, Adrian Gonzales, and Fred Carrillo

The Sunbird Legacy is a 1983 Masters of the Universe comic written by Roger McKenzie and illustrated by Adrian Gonzales and Fred Carrillo. Here, Skeletor his minions attempt to collect the pieces of an ancient doomsday weapon. 

This is an action bonanza: we’ve got ice monsters, lava monsters, undead monsters, swamp monsters, and snake monsters. This feels like the Filmation Eternia – a place filled with countless species of monsters and communities of creatures. The artists do an all-around good job – the characters, monsters, settings, and action are all solid; whoever colored it had a few lapses, though. The highlight of the art is the fantastic cover by Earl Norem, the quintessential He-Man artist (even if He-Man is about to get a Havoc Staff to the kidney).  

The Sunbird Legacy has a noticeably darker, more mature tone than the other MOTU media from Golden Books. In addition to Skeletor threatening to drop a nuke on the Royal Palace, there’s also a fair amount of blood when He-Man decapitates a snake monster, for example.

All things considered, the writing is fairly good. While we know there’s going to be some type of bungling that lets He-Man cheaply off the hook every time, it’s always good to see Skeletor doing well for himself. He gets a couple of very nice villainous lines here, too.

A couple of other notes: Prince Adam and Randor look like their Filmation versions, but Man-At-Arms and Teela don’t. In a villainous parallel to the Sorceress that was never seen again in any other media, Evil-Lyn turns into Screeech. And He-Man offers a less optimistic Eternian take on Matthew 19:26 when he says, “With Skeletor all things are possible.”

In all, The Sunbird Legacy is an entertaining, surprisingly mature (relatively speaking) He-Man story.

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CAVERNS OF FEAR by Mary Carey and Al McWilliams

Caverns of Fear is a 1983 Masters of the Universe children’s book written by Mary Carey and illustrated by Al McWilliams. Here, He-Man discovers Skeletor attempting to enter Grayskull via an underground passage.

It’s the usual early-MOTU story – He-Man, Teela, Man-At-Arms, and Stratos versus Skeletor and Beast Man (plus Trap Jaw here), but Carey does a nice job with it, setting the mood in the first few pages and giving some of the non-He-Man characters things to do. There’s also a little interesting interplay between He-Man and Battle Cat, which is all the more impressive considering that Battle Cat can’t talk.  

McWilliams’s art is something of a mixed bag. His characters feature somewhat more realistic musculatures than they’re typically depicted with, and not in a way that makes them look scrawny or ridiculous (not just anybody can pull off the He-Man outfit). However, it looks like everyone’s beloved furry briefs have been replaced with cloth diapers, and Battle Cat’s head looks odd – more like a horse’s. McWilliams’s backgrounds and settings are quite good, but He-Man’s face frequently looks wrong. And note that Castle Grayskull  is the playset exactly - with the handle and everything. On the whole, though, the good outweighs the bad.

Of the original four He-Man stories from Golden Books, this one’s probably the best.

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HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE SERIES GUIDE

The He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series guide was produced in 1983 by Filmation and distributed to TV stations and scriptwriters. This is based on Michael Halperin’s series bible, and includes character backgrounds, plot summaries (not all these episodes were produced), and a brief history of Filmation, all in a more accessible and professional-looking package than the bible.

This guide has made a number of changes from both the series bible and the action figure line, but everything is still not in its final cartoon form. There’s a great deal of interest here. Some notable points:

-Some names are still in flux (King Miro, Gorpo), as are some character designs (Panthor in full Battle Cat armor; a unique rendition of the Sorceress that wasn’t used in the cartoon or the comics).

-Prince Adam has to strike his sword against stone to become He-Man.

-In contrast to the early comics and books, “Masters of the Universe” is used here to describe Skeletor’s minions rather than the Heroic Warriors.

-Skeletor’s base is Point Dread, not Snake Mountain.

-There’s a prison ship in space that was never seen or heard of again.

There’s plenty more. Suffice it to say that this is one of the more important documents in the He-Man mythology.

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THE CLASH OF ARMS (mini-comic, 1983)

The Clash of Arms is a 1983 Masters of the Universe mini-comic. No author or artist is credited, but this looks like Larry Houston’s work. Here, Fisto is captured and forced to fight Skeletor’s minions one by one in a gladiatorial arena that Skeletor and Evil-Lyn apparently run on the side.

Skeletor operating his own coliseum is such a cool idea that I don’t even want to nitpick about why we’ve never heard of this before, particularly as it’s right next to Castle Grayskull. Let’s keep going.

It’s nice to see Fisto get his day in the sun – and that he’s a force to be reckoned with. With his battles, we get some quality action scenes and even a little bit of intensity.

Here also is the surprising scene of He-Man riding in on a horse and shooting folks, which is extremely satisfying, much in the way that He-Man shooting folks in the live-action film was not in the least bit satisfying.

Stridor is here, standing in for Battle Cat, running fast, knocking walls down, and kicking people in the face. You really couldn’t ask for a better advertisement for him or for Fisto.  

And speak of the devil – the Filmation Snake Mountain is here, too. Ask and ye shall receive.

Nothing but good times in this issue.

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