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Masters of the Universe: The Origin of Skeletor #1 Review

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Skeletor may have been a bit of a joke in terms of villains but of course Joshua Hale Fialkov and Frazer Irving can make his story super-cool.

The Good

I was never the absolute biggest He-Man fan. I watched the show and found certain things strange. It wa a fun show with some interesting characters. With the recent revival in comics, the Masters of the Universe are making a come back into our lives. Still, I haven't been completely blown away. The current HE-MAN series started out on an interesting note and the digital only comics have been good. When I heard there was going to be a Skeletor origin, I still had mixed feelings. Skeletor was a bit of a dork. He had a whiney voice and ended up losing all the time. When I found out Joshua Hale Fialkov and Frazer Irving were on the book, I immediately needed to check it out.

I was surprised that I never really considered what Skeletor's origin or motivation was. I figured he was just another strange looking being on Eternia that simply wanted the power of Castle Grayskull for himself. When I saw mention of him being Prince Adam's uncle in the current HE-MAN series, I thought it was either trickery on Skeletor's part or just some new angle the writers were doing. It turns out there has been speculation over this for some time.

Fialkov shows us who Skeletor was before. He didn't always have the skull-face. There's a bit of tragedy involved because, after all, don't all great villains suffer from some sort of trauma or hardship? What really surprised me was the fact that Fialkov made me actually care about what Skeletor's story was. It's almost spooky in the way it's told.

And then there's Frazer Irving's art. He's one of those artists that really shines on the right story. This is one of those. He makes even the pre-skeletal Skeletor look bad-ass. The way we see the events unfold makes you happy you're as far away from being there as possible.

The Bad

There is a bit of coldness to the flashbacks. That may have been the intention but the bareness of some scenes almost looked a little plain.

This was a great one-shot but it could've worked better as a mini-series. I would have loved to see this story expanded more and see what the next step in his journey was.

The Verdict

I actually care about Skeletor's character now. I always felt he was a dorky character but Fialkov and Iriving have made him interesting. This isn't the cackling buffoon seen in the old animated series. This is one with a more vicious nature. It's a spooky and compelling origin. It's unfortunate the story couldn't be longer. It felt as if it had to be rushed a tad in order to be contained in one issue. I now wan to see what's next for Skeletor. I may even go back and re-read the current printed and digital MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE issues since I now look at Skeletor in a different light. If you've ever had the slightest interest in Skeletor or He-Man, you need to check this out.

15 Comments
Posted by MadeinBangladesh

I frickin love skeletor

Posted by Loki2u

@MadeinBangladesh said:

I frickin love skeletor

Agreed! I think he is one of the more underrated villains in the DC universe. I'm excited to read this later tonight and see what's going to happen. I have been enjoying the mini series so far.

Posted by longbowhunter

With the talent involved I had to buy this. I thought the flashback scenes were beautiful. They almost looked like marker sketches, which is quite a contrast to Irving's usual style but still very much him. The story was ok, I agree it could have been fleshed out more.

Posted by DonFelipe

@Loki2u said:

@MadeinBangladesh said:

I frickin love skeletor

Agreed! I think he is one of the more underrated villains in the DC universe. I'm excited to read this later tonight and see what's going to happen. I have been enjoying the mini series so far.

Totally agree to everything especially the underrated part. Hopefully there will be sequels to this series - ongoing would be awesome though I don't think this is gonna happen.

Posted by jwalser3

Idk if I should pick this up. I was trying to get into Masters of the Universe, but after issue 2 I couldn't read it anymore.

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Posted by Trodorne

: Your review, just got my.....

@longbowhunter said:

With the talent involved I had to buy this. I thought the flashback scenes were beautiful. They almost looked like marker sketches, which is quite a contrast to Irving's usual style but still very much him. The story was ok, I agree it could have been fleshed out more.

There was much which was not explained, like the Gar, from my understanding the Gar have not been shown or explained the closest was an Elf like race and they lived in an advanced and ancient city of Anwat Gar, most of the population is mostly dead but from what Ive seen in this series and it makes sense to do that is that they are second class people.

In terms of this series itself it seems to be building up to a climactic end of both He-man and Skeletor. because from my understanding in many cases when skeletor has controlled castle grayskull and found out about he-mans SECRET identity it ended up being a battle to the death which lead to the end of both men. Uncle and nephew locked in battle, good vs evil as the castle crumbled down around them. at least thats how i might see it ending. of course im also basing this on an older comic where he-man was sent to the future where skeletor had won.

Posted by Trodorne

What sets me off about this entire thing is the art. It just does not work well with everything. and Hordak was just completely a WTF moment.

Posted by Miss_Garrick

This comic doesn't keep the 'Skeletor's an uncle of Adam' bit do they? Cause THAT WAS STUPID!!

I'm a BIG fan of the 80's cartoon and it was important in my childhood, so I have some definite VIEWS on this comic story. That's right, "views" in all caps! I don't think Skeletor's origin should be revealed, or if it must be, this comic is probably not using the version I want to see. Like who says that all villans must have tragedy in their origins? I've always figured Skeletor got the skull face thru black magic and he totally doesn't care how he looks.

When all's said and done, I'm probably not even going to try to agree with this comic's version of events. I'm VERY stubborn when it comes to my childhood cartoons.

Posted by Onemoreposter

Beyond the obvious I don't know who Keldor is or Randor, or Miro, or Hordak, or the Gar. I don't know how anything in this issue relates to He-Man. I'm only guessing that was Eternia.

That all said, this was fun. I'm reminded much of Thor and Loki. I will have to look into these He-Man comics a bit further.

Posted by GillaDro

@MadeinBangladesh said:

I frickin love skeletor

this

Posted by Trodorne

@Miss_Garrick: Well in the original cartoon they orignally said that he was a demon from another dimension. then later on in the the mini comic book that came with the toys, "Search for Keldor" He-man and king randor went to go look for king randors brother Keldor who went missing so many years ago.

Skeletor charged his evil minions to go stop He-man and King Randor because and I quote. "the secret of keldor could destroy me". In the MOTU classic toy line they mentioned saying that Keldors body fused with a demon from the world of infinitia and replaced the destroyed flesh of keldors face with the floating skull.

In the 2002 series Keldor fought the against his brother Capt.Randor to kill the council of elders in the hall of wisdom, having one of his own acid traps backfire on him they retreated to the dark hemisphere of Eternia where in the sanctuary of Hordak, the Hordak was contacted in the dimension of Dispondos and used his magic to save keldor but left him with but a floating skull for a face.

This comic takes possible premise from both 2002 and the original 1982 line. Where from I gather Keldor lead forces of the horde to try to take eternia from his brother and claim seat of power for his own. but Randor stopped the invasion and thus we have the incident in this comic.

Posted by Miss_Garrick

So, this comic IS going for the "Evil Brother" plot device? Phooey. Well, I DID say I wasn't going to agree with this comic origin and I was right.

Posted by Eagledmasters

Hi Tony - really enjoy your podcast and wish you guys were covering this series more! I'm an old school fan that is very happy to have a Skeletor comic as good as this, but I am very unhappy with DC changing so many of the character's origin stories. Some of the Masters characters have had 3-5 different bios, each, over the 30 years. I wish they would respect the old canon more, since there was barely any of it to begin with. Translation: I've waited forever to get more Masters of the Universe story, and the current writers of the new short digital series and this print miniseries are just hitting reset buttons on so many classic characters. They're doing a decent job, but I think they should be building so much more from the official "Mattel bios" from the new figure line, or better yet, the 2002 comics and cartoon stories. 2002 was another instance where the fans waited forever for some great backstory, and they were well rewarded. There's some great youtubes of Keldor becoming Skeletor (it's all from one part of one 2002 cartoon episode), and it's better than this comic, I think. That said, the comic was well worth the wait, and fun on it's own.

Posted by Trodorne

@Eagledmasters: I thought the 2002 series was amazing and made sense. the only thing that I question is the timeline in which Adora would have been taken by the horde.

I personally disliked the art in this comic though. Plus if you liked the 2002 series you should definitely read the 200x volumes done by MV creations/Image/Crossgen great work in that and what they added to the mythos.

The thing is with the comic version of this series is a take it or leave it policy, only because since the old tv show had no mythos to it, not really. Comics meerly add or recreate that series for a different audience. Before back in 1980's line the comics were merely meant to help sell the toys. Now mattel figures well maybe we should be focusing on the adult demographic that requires background on this. At least they are giving Skeletor a serious attempt for a mature audience.

Posted by SavageDragon

I LOVED THIS.

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