Masters of the Universe has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity during the past few years thanks to multiple He-Man toy lines (MOTU Origins, MOTU Masterverse), two Netflix animated series (MOTU Revelation/MOTU Revolution, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe), and multiple comics series published by Dark Horse Comics. Additionally, a live-action Masters of the Universe film is scheduled for a June 6, 2026 theatrical release. Now, a new Masters of the Universe comic mini-series from Dark Horse Comics is set to release September 24, 2025. I had the opportunity to sit down with Writer Tim Seeley and Artist Freddie Williams II to talk about the upcoming mini-series, Masters of the Universe “The Sword of Flaws.”
Colt: “So, you just finished up with the Turtles of Grayskull, which was a lot of fun. It’s probably too early to ask, but is there any possibility that we’ll see any follow up to that story?”
Tim: “I’d love to. We haven’t heard anything and the priority out of Dark Horse and Mattel was to make sure we set up an ongoing Masters of the Universe series before the new movie drops. So that was kind of our main goal with The Sword of Flaws.”
Colt: “The main idea that you guys seem to be playing with in The Sword of Flaws is the sword itself… the two halves of the Power Sword: He-Man’s silver sword and Skeletor’s purple sword.”
Freddie: “I think really the origin [of The Sword of Flaws] was the toys we all had as kids… They were the coolest! Those swords were awesome. The two halves equaling an ULTRA Power Sword. I think that’s the germ or the seed of our story.”
Tim: “So that was our approach. Most of the Masters of Universe stuff that’s come out over the last few years has been, at least to some degree, some kind of big epic or some kind of big crossover. There hasn’t been a lot of just like nuts-and-bolts Master of the Universe stories. You know, like Skeletor gets some new artifact, and he’s going to try it out to take over Eternia and try to get into Castle Grayskull. Our heroes get to be themselves. Man-at-Arms gets to be the inventor guy, and Teela gets to be the captain, the guard and all those things that we haven’t got to see in a while. We need something sort of in the standard [MOTU] canon and then how do we make that interesting for both new fans and old fans? If you remember anything about He-Man, it’s probably the swords and it’s not really something that’s been messed around with too much so we kind of felt like we could bring something different to it and make it memorable and I think it doesn’t step on the feet of all the stuff they set up in [MOTU] Revelation.”
Freddie: “Yeah, the Power Sword is so iconic. It’s breached generations and it’s immediately recognizable. I’m always so nervous when drawing it because if the design is even slightly off, fans will notice!”
Tim: “We also wanted to focus on the Power of Grayskull called itself. We wanted to deal with this idea of power in Masters of the Universe because the whole thing is built on this idea of giving kids the power, you know? Like when you were a kid, you just want to be able to say, ‘Go to hell, Mom,’ but we couldn’t. But we could play with our He-Man guys and that was really, to some degree, the appeal… giving kids power because they feel like they have power. I think as adults, part of the question is sort of about, ‘Who do we give power to and why and what do they do with it?’ That’s something we really wanted to deal with.”
Colt: “I think that’s one of the things that’s so appealing about Prince Adam as a character, because obviously it’s cool that he can turn into He-Man and become this huge barbarian that can throw boulders across the universe and stuff, but at his heart, that purity that he has is just something that’s so special to see. It’s the Clark Kent/Superman appeal… You have somebody who is so purehearted that, of course he’s the one to safeguard this power.I always appreciate those stories where they delve into that a little bit and, specifically the weight that Adam has on his shoulders. With both of these roles that he has to fulfill. And, just reading the first issue, I like that that it seems like your storytelling is touching on that.”
Freddie: “My favorite is when he [Adam] doesn’t want to talk about principles of leadership or power or, you know, tyranny or whatever, so he just starts stuffing his face with a sandwich. There are actually quite a few really funny things that appeal to my sense of humor specifically throughout this mini-series that that Tim has written.”
Colt: “Tim, I’ve mentioned this in past interviews with you, but one of my favorite moments that you’ve written was in [He-Man and the Masters of the Multiverse] you wrote and it’s the moment where He-Man and Teela are finally kind of talking about the big secret finally coming to light and it’s Adam professing his love to her and saying how it always broke his heart, that he had to lie to her and pretend to be this person that he’s not. That’s always been kind of like the pinnacle of that relationship and [MOTU] storytelling… one that I always point to as to why I love that relationship so much.”
Tim: “Yeah, the Adam/He-Man/Teela love triangle is one of my favorite things in literature. When I was a kid, that was one of my favorite things about Masters of the Universe too, because I’m a big girl, basically! I want to make sure that was played with here, because I think the tension of that is, to me, with Adam is that really interesting thing. And then he’s also competing with himself for her [Teela] affection, right? He wants her to notice him and see that he’s becoming a better man but can’t because he has to be the idiot to distract from the fact that he’s He-Man, because it’s dangerous for everybody to know. That’s so good! It’s such a good setup. I love me a good story engine, and that’s the story engine. You just start it up, and it runs. And that, I think, is kind of the way that we’re trying to do this. Now, you don’t see the resolution in Sword of Flaws, but you see the nature of that relationship.”
Colt: “What is it about Masters of the Universe that is appealing to you as storytellers?”
Tim: “I love those big things. I also love that it’s a bunch of colorful little plastic men with crazy, stupid names hitting each other on the head. I love that. I think one of the things that Freddie and talked about this was we’re going put everybody in this. Like, there’s no reason why we can’t use every toy. So, in this arc alone you get, SPOILERS, but you get Rokkon and you get Fearless Photog and you get Extendar, Roboto, and Spikor and Kobra Khan, and I could go on and on and you get a whole bunch of other ones.”
Freddie: “I don’t want to ruin anything for anybody, but you get Vypor, my guy! He’s fun to draw, I gotta tell ya. He’s really fun to draw. The thing that I connect with the most and I think I’ve probably said this on a previous episode, but I was raised without a father or a father figure in my life and so a gentle person who has lots of power and who uses it responsibly is is very appealing to me and He-Man definitely fits that bill. I like those themes. Tim does a great job of telling stories with those themes. Additionally, what I like to draw is there’s moments where diplomacy fails and He-Man just has to pick up something really big. My goal is to be able, hopefully, to visually nail the quiet moments and they look good on their own and then they also become a great setup for the really big loud moments, so to speak, where it’s explosive action and there’s a lot that’s happening and I want to be able to hit both of those. So, I’m just saying I enjoy that and trying immerse reader.”
Tim: “He-Man, Man-at-Arms, and Teela, they’re my favorite characters. Yes, you absolutely want to see Stonedar and Buzz-Off, but you know those three are so perfectly created to generate more stories. Their relationship to each other is so interesting.”
- Masters of the Universe “The Sword of Flaws” Issue 1 will be released September 24, 2025, through Dark Horse Comics.
- Full interview available via Dad-At-Arms YouTube channel.