He-Man & The Masters of the Universe #6 - DC Comics - SPOILERS

[ShadowBeast]

I liked the appearance of Teela's unicorn. It was an oldschool reference and it's very cool to see they included that.

The rest of the comic was... unfortunate.

Skeletor holding Sorceress' decapitated head aloft and taunting He-Man with her death? Repugnant.
Evil Orko turning traitor and possibly being the supreme bad guy at the end? That is ******** right there.
Castle Grayskull was useless all along and He-Man is the SOURCE of the Power? CG was a red herring all along? Lame.

I'm so tired of modern entertainment "reboots" trying to be "griitty" and "cool." I really do try to be open-minded with new stuff and I've been ok with some of the DC stories but, man, it's hard to be a fan of something that is now almost unrecognizable as MOTU to me. You can still tell a good, mature MOTU story without gratuitous violence, T&A, and cheap plot twists. We'll see where the regular series goes but, judging from what happens in this one, I imagine more depressing "fun" lies ahead.

This exactly.

The DC series is not bad because it is new. It is bad because it is poorly executed. I know comic books are not great literature, but the writing is awful. The art is hit-or-miss, at best. I expected more from DC as a top comic publisher and from Mattel as custodian of the MOTU brand.

[Crusader]

It's too bad that more people don't enjoy this like I do. It's fun as hell to see MOTU back in current entertainment, and it's a neat story. I'm all for the changes they're making to convention; it's like all that old stuff, all those silly cartoons from way back when, they could still have happened. But now we're in this new future and **** is getting real. I'm really interested to see where they go from here. It's going to be a great ride.

I agree. At least this future isn't a total departure like New Adventures was. It's a re-interpretation playing by its own rules. I didn't like the outset, but issue 6 was quite the game changer and I'm giddy as a kid to see how this plays out.

[Judeh Simon]

6 issues to undo everything Filmation brought to the table:
-orko
-falcon sorceress (which I bet will be reverted back to cobra sorceress somehow)
-secret identity
-talking animals

And add back pre-Filmation elements:
-blonde Teela
-Charger
-barbarian he-man

It's not a continuation of the pre-Filmation story, it's a dead on de-evolving of Filmation INTO pre-Filmation cannon. Brilliant if that was their purpose.

Not particularly my cup of tea, but at least with Sorceress dead in both MOTUC bios and DC comics, she's finally done being humiliated.

[bcrduke]

THEORY:

Back before NYCC this past Autumn, I attended the Toy Tokyo MOTU art show in downtown Manhattan.

There were a ton of pieces for sale for charity - art from the digital comics, Scott's motuc mini-comics, and the DC Series.

On display was Mattel's test shot collection... but in the display was this:



After discussing this theory with a couple of MOTU fan-friends, THIS is who I think is sitting in that chair at the end of Issue #6... and I think that theory is supported by the imagery in the digital mini comic that features Orko... they gave us the answer in that issue.


I bet we get Gorpo this year... and that's NOT a hint It's PURE Speculation - and I mean that... but I wouldn't be surprised.

[He-Dad]

That would be ok with me...he looks awesome!

THEORY:

Back before NYCC this past Autumn, I attended the Toy Tokyo MOTU art show in downtown Manhattan.

There were a ton of pieces for sale for charity - art from the digital comics, Scott's motuc mini-comics, and the DC Series.

On display was Mattel's test shot collection... but in the display was this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps8681a24c.jpg

After discussing this theory with a couple of MOTU fan-friends, THIS is who I think is sitting in that chair at the end of Issue #6... and I think that theory is supported by the imagery in the digital mini comic that features Orko... they gave us the answer in that issue.


I bet we get Gorpo this year... and that's NOT a hint It's PURE Speculation - and I mean that... but I wouldn't be surprised.

[Darkspecter]

I think they did that to show how overly powerful He-Man is. Teela was the top warrior before Adam got his powerup and now the role is reversed. Skeletor is way out of Teela's league and only He-Man could take him.

Maybe...I have no problem with showing He-Man off as strong, but this issue made her seem so weak and SCARED of battle! :teek:

Teela's mother was killed before she told Teela who she was...

Yeah. Everyone seems to be using The Sorceress as killing fodder. She's one of THE most important characters in MOTU, and Mattel and DC are treating her like she's villager #4! It really upsets me.

Not particularly my cup of tea, but at least with Sorceress dead in both MOTUC bios and DC comics, she's finally done being humiliated.

I guess that's one way to look at it.

THEORY:

Back before NYCC this past Autumn, I attended the Toy Tokyo MOTU art show in downtown Manhattan.

There were a ton of pieces for sale for charity - art from the digital comics, Scott's motuc mini-comics, and the DC Series.

On display was Mattel's test shot collection... but in the display was this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...ps8681a24c.jpg

After discussing this theory with a couple of MOTU fan-friends, THIS is who I think is sitting in that chair at the end of Issue #6... and I think that theory is supported by the imagery in the digital mini comic that features Orko... they gave us the answer in that issue.


I bet we get Gorpo this year... and that's NOT a hint It's PURE Speculation - and I mean that... but I wouldn't be surprised.

I would LOVE that Gorpo figure, as I said when you first posted that picture. LOVE him! He was also the .org's Q&A mascot for quite some time.

[AdultCollector]

The Good:
I do enjoy the look of Beast Man.
Orko seemingly betraying the Masters seems to be a worthwhile story arc. It will be interesting to see who is controlling Orko. I'm guessing Hordak or more likely some new character.
Teela's unicorn.
An interesting twist on Sorceress being killed by Skeletor and not King Hiss.

The Bad:
Not thrilled by the look of He-Man's face/head on the cover.
Skeletor's outfit looks okay half the time and ridiculous the rest of the time.
More shots of the Masters please! Wishing it wasn't just Teela and He-Man that went after Skeletor.
Even after Skeletor shows He-Man the head of the Sorceress, He-Man spares Skeletor's life?! No reaction from Teela?
The artist got a little crazy with the energy coming out of those monsters' eyes on the last page.
A fairly bland, anticlimactic confrontation between He-Man and Skeletor considering we've been leading up to it for six issues + a number of mini issues.
Didn't care for the whole "I am the power" part.
The characters, especially the good guys, display a notable lack of emotion on the pages.
So Castle Grayskull has no power? Or was Skeletor tricked into thinking he was tricked by the Sorceress into thinking the castle held the power He-Man held?

[Whiplash7]

Did nobody else notice the Bashing Beetle and the Battle Ram Chariot there at the end? That was a pretty cool easter egg.

Someone said how it was humorless, I disagree. There was plenty of humor in Teela and He-Man bickering. They kept it to a good minimum, given the tone of the comic.

It's too bad that more people don't enjoy this like I do. It's fun as hell to see MOTU back in current entertainment, and it's a neat story. I'm all for the changes they're making to convention; it's like all that old stuff, all those silly cartoons from way back when, they could still have happened. But now we're in this new future and **** is getting real. I'm really interested to see where they go from here. It's going to be a great ride.

I'm with you. I did find the humour in Teela's banter this issue. Not all of these are great (ie: I did not like the He-Man origin), but this series has been enjoyable overall. Something familiar, but different. I'm sure they'll do good things with She-Ra too, focusing on a rebellion.

6 issues to undo everything Filmation brought to the table:
-orko
-falcon sorceress (which I bet will be reverted back to cobra sorceress somehow)
-secret identity
-talking animals

And add back pre-Filmation elements:
-blonde Teela
-Charger
-barbarian he-man

It's not a continuation of the pre-Filmation story, it's a dead on de-evolving of Filmation INTO pre-Filmation cannon. Brilliant if that was their purpose.

Never thought of it like that. If it's true, I call it sweet, sweet justice!

Still, I'll say that even I wouldn't have done those things to Orko and the Sorceress. I can understand why people find Teela'na's death gruesome and upsetting. It did drive home the evil of Skeletor, and I don't think there are many other characters whose death would have gotten the reaction they wanted, but I wouldn't have done it.
The Orko thing is a very bold move that gives a good ending, but while it might not be a permanent thing I still don't think it jibes with the character.

[He-Metayer]

I am beginning to think the same thing. Sounds like Sorceress is the character who dies, as described in the solicit for the first issue of the ongoing series in April.

Zoar was an only illusion, created by the Sorceress, that disappeared as soon as Skeletor's spell was broken. Otherwise we would have seen her with the other heroic warriors.

I assume she's also the "fallen comrade" whose death is mourned at the start of the next chapter.

[JonWes]

Adam and Teela are pretty obviously teenagers in this version. She sounds like she should.

If she were a teenager on modern-day Earth, maybe. The problem is some of her lines stuck out like a sore thumb from the other dialogue. It just doesn't feel consistent.

I also thought their exchange was just too clunky to be funny in this issue. That's after generally finding it decent in past issues. This just felt very rushed and half-hearted.

I do hope it'll get better in the ongoing. Maybe with the knowledge of it being an ongoing and being able to "reboot" slightly with his own take Giffen will take this somewhere more interesting. I've liked a lot of his work in the past. If there are enough positive reviews I'm happy to give it a chance, I just thought this was badly executed.

[Darkspecter]

I agree a bit with both sides RE: Teela's dialogue. I saw some funny moments, but on a WHOLE...I found it a bit painful to read. She seemed a bit...emotionally unstable in this issue.

[Veronica Mars]

Having read this series has made me reconsider my stance on Battleground Teela looking like a reject from John Carpenter

[BCI Guy]

Adam and Teela are pretty obviously teenagers in this version. She sounds like she should.

She sounds like what a 60 year-old man thinks a teenager would sound like...

[Tribal Spaceman]

I'm so tired of modern entertainment "reboots" trying to be "griitty" and "cool." I really do try to be open-minded with new stuff and I've been ok with some of the DC stories but, man, it's hard to be a fan of something that is now almost unrecognizable as MOTU to me. You can still tell a good, mature MOTU story without gratuitous violence, T&A, and cheap plot twists. We'll see where the regular series goes but, judging from what happens in this one, I imagine more depressing "fun" lies ahead.

Yeah, a lot of this comic just feels like HURR DURR LADY FLESH AND VIOLENCE! THAT'S WHAT THE BOYS WANT, NOT FUN AND BRIGHT COLOURS! which is a shame. To me the best way to do a MOTU series would be to make it character-driven. They can still be the same He-Man, Skeletor and Teela etc that we know and love, they'd just react to different situations and evolve as characters as a result. The stakes would be higher so they'd have a lot more to lose, and would become harder, tougher, more troubled, etc. I'm missing the sarcastic side of Skeletor too, I hope they bring that back. He can still be eeeeevil, he just has to call people "ninnies" sometimes. And for goodness sake make his skull yellow, ok?

I also hate the character redesigns. Well, I hate all the stupid added chainmail parts. They need to lose those. And hire an artist who has a clearer, bolder style. This sketchy art just isn't working.

Instead this just feels like the people writing this comic hate Orko and made him the big bad guy as a giant middle finger to the character.

Just like Scrappy-Doo. I hope we're wrong and it's actually Fang Man, or Gorpo, but...

[heavy-eternium]

About Orko thing ,Perhaps the key to all this was on that hilarious digital comic of Orko , I thinks in that story he falls on "the dark side".

[GozzoMan]

Just finished it. My comment:

BAH!!

[He-Kal]

If I look at this series as a kindof "Age of Apocalypse" for Motu, I can enjoy it. But, if I try to see this as a new canon**shudder** So, I am sticking with this as Age of Apocalypse Motu to keep my sanity

[Eterniandreams]

Loved this issue.
Especially:
No more secret identity
The violence
Orko being evil
Charger

Are the demons in the last page Trollans? I hope so

[Masamune]

I really hope those demons aren't Trollans and that isn't actually Orko. I'm all for dark/gritty, but it still has to make sense. That just seems too bizarre.

Also, I'm all for the secret identity being gone as long as we still have both Adam and He-man. I think Adam is the heart of the story in many ways and a side to He-man that's needed.

[Irian]

Let's put it this way:

[zyzyx1701d]

Did nobody else notice the Bashing Beetle and the Battle Ram Chariot there at the end? That was a pretty cool easter egg.

That was great! And wasn't that Roton in the same panel as well?

[illicitjedi]

She sounds like what a 60 year-old man thinks a teenager would sound like...

Exactly. I write YA fiction full of teens, but I actually have to talk to teens and the people that raise them to get a sense of how they truly act. Not just how my 32 year old self thinks they should act and speak.

[MegaGearMax]

Also, I'm all for the secret identity being gone as long as we still have both Adam and He-man. I think Adam is the heart of the story in many ways and a side to He-man that's needed.

I think all Adam really contributes is a fleshed out He-Man. If Adam is really He-Man all the time now, the only real difference from Pre-Filmation is that "Adam" is his real name except He-Man and that he doesn't come from a tribe in the jungle. He might wake up as He-Man and go to bed as He-Man, but his friends and family call him "Adam".

I guess we lose the whole "good for nothing son/disappointed in my son" relationship with Randor, assuming that Prince "He-Man" might be "Prince Perfect" now. THIS is the son Randor had always wanted! Now that I think about it, this could be very interesting! This could be like the Texiera mini-comics...

I'm surprised that we haven't discussed the implications of everyone knowing that Adam is He-Man in this canon.

[RyDell]

I liked it overall, probably my fav issue thus far, but I did not like the blood... in my mind MOTU has always avoided that much carnage, and I don't think it added anything. The Orko this is a whatever to me, it was a new take, I'm interested in how it's gonna turn out.

[MegaGearMax]

I would agree, IF any of it sounded anything at all like Teela should talk or behave. It sounds like my sixteen year old sister, not a veteran warrior.

Adam and Teela are pretty obviously teenagers in this version. She sounds like she should.

She sounds like what a 60 year-old man thinks a teenager would sound like...

We need Pre-Filmation speech!
"Ho, noble Man-At-Arms!"
"We ride to find Teela, good Man-At-Arms!"
"The fates are with us!"
"The evil one works a foul magic!"