He-Man: The Eternity War Review

He-Man: The Eternity War has now finished.  I know it was a few weeks ago, but as I’ve never tried to write this sort of thing before and it took a bit to reread and write this. I’ve read most of the Masters of The Universe comics published.  The original DC trilogy, and the issues from MV Creations (basically anything related to the 200x series).  When DC got the comics license to do MOTU comics I was excited.  The first miniseries was enjoyable enough, but the origins issues fell a little flat.  The DCU vs MOTU crossover was the sort of thing I love about comic books, yet the “ongoing” series on the other hand was a pretty big letdown.  Things finally picked up by issue 13 but at that point, between some horribly drawn chapters and a plot that just felt by and large disjointed, I was okay with the series ending.

So with the way they were billing this I came into the series with a cautious optimism.  The art for the series overall thus far hadn’t been to my taste.  A few issues not withstanding I won’t say it was bad, just not to my personal liking.  The storytelling though I was really concerned about, but the pitch for this series was really promising.  I let myself hope I would walk into a world of adventure that would rival the imaginings of every kid that had seen their bedrooms converted into planetary battlegrounds where the fate of the universe hung in the balance.  So with high hopes but low expectations I ventured into this series.

Overall, I am happy to say that I was not disappointed.  I am still not particularly fond of the art.  There were some grand moments, but there were also points where the characters were so completely out of scale with themselves that it yanked me right out of the story.  There were also some points where the pacing was way off.  There were a lot of big (huge) moments in this series and they all hit you so fast, particularly at the start of the series, that you don’t have time to savor them.  The pacing does slow down towards the end but then that feels out of place with the rest of the series.  However, I was given precisely the sort of story that I was hoping to get.  This is a child’s imagination run wild, creating a universe using every single toy in their toy box to tell a grand story. 

The series did a lot of good for building the mythology of the series.  We are given two very important artifacts with the Eyes of Grayskull.  What was begun with DCU vs MOTU was continued here.  Eternia is not just the seat of all magic in the multiverse, hidden in the walls of Castle Grayskull is the very source of all creation.  The scale of this is huge.  In securing the castle and returning to Eternia, Hordak is in a position to be able to control all of existence.  This series also takes us a bit deeper into the goddess/star seed/source of creation.  Using this as a driving part of the story gives us a chance to look deeper into the motivations of the characters themselves.

On Eternia there are three faces of the goddess: Serpos, Zoar, and Horakoth. There are also three groups of inhabitants: Snake Men, Eternians, the Horde that have lived and fought for Eternia.  The values of each people group corresponds to the aspects of the goddess that they see.  And with the Horde returning they see the chaos and fury and death that is embodied by Horakoth.  They view themselves as agents of destiny.  They don’t see themselves as evil, rather they believe they are inevitable.  This is a bit different from the other approaches we’ve seen taken in other media, and the story that comes from this is pretty compelling.  This is recognized within the story itself.  Skeletor has cheated destiny and is now actively rebelling against what is thought inevitable.

One idea connected to the Masters of the Universe world is that each character is the master of something.  True, in the original minicomics this wasn’t quite the case, there the Masters of the Universe were pitted against the Lords of Destruction.  This idea is given fresh importance as this particular story goes on.  The first is that Skeletor is revealed as the Master of Death.  Using a bit of time travel and a bit of magic, it is revealed that the skull atop Skeletor’s havoc staff is his skull.  Yet he defies the destiny that saw him die before he was even born and so in cheating death he is granted power over death. 

In addition, we learn much about He-Man through this story.  The power that he wields is not without price.  He has, at this point, gone a long time without being Adam.  And it is revealed that in not letting that power go he risks becoming the very thing he seeks to defeat.  So he breaks his sword for the good of Eternia and becomes Adam alone at the height of a war.  However, while He-Man is the strongest man in the universe, it is revealed to us that Adam is the Master of Eternity.  By the time we reach this climactic point in the story, the stakes could not possibly be higher.  With every death, Skeletor grows more powerful.  Much as Nekron sought to do during Blackest Night, he stands on the brink of ending all life.  Only this is not the life of one universe, but of all creation.

The growth of the mythology was in part done well because the characterizations were done very well.  The one exception to this rule might be She-Ra.  The changes to her origin story have her now cast as a somewhat more tragic and brutal character.  It makes sense given the way her origin was changed, and honestly works very well, but she does feel like she’s a bit off from the She-Ra most of us grew up with.  However, overall the characterizations are spot-on still.  Roboto is loyal to his friends, Duncan will sacrifice everything for Teela (and is not to be screwed with).  Catra and Scorpia are fighting each other to try and secure the spot as Hordaks top lieutenant and hate Adora passionately.  Fisto has a gruff exterior but a kind heart.  Other characters like Teela are nicely grown.  She and Evil-Lyn have always been matched up but until this series they’ve not been on equal footing, and that was nice to see.

The way that the mythology was grown throughout was accompanied by a rich showcasing of what had come before.  Through the introduction of a multiverse, we see every iteration of the Masters of the Universe exists.  So if you are a fan of the mini-comics, the Filmation cartoon or the Mike Young Productions cartoon, or if you prefer the universe you created yourself with the action figures, we see that all of these universes are considered to exist.  This goes even further, showing us glimpses of Pre-ternia and the others that have acted as He-Man through the centuries.  And it extends beyond this to include the future and the planet of Primus.  So every era of MOTU is also validated in this story (and yes that actually does include a nod to the movie).

While the art is not my style of choice, there are some really nice nods throughout this series.  We are given glimpses of lesser known characters like Octavia, Imp, and Entrapta.  Lookee pops up throughout the book quite nicely as well.  At other points you can glimpse Dare, son of He-Man and a number of concept characters showing up.  Perhaps my favorite cameo was when they had Adam don the armor of King Hsss.  Not only do we get to see this armor, but he is given the grabber from the MYP series that Snake-Armor He-Man used.  The vehicles are nicely used throughout as well.  We get to see Spydor, roton, and the Dragon Walker, come out in epic fashion.  And they did a great job of incorporating a lot of other things from the history of MOTU.  The Slime Pit, Well of Darkness, and Sands of Time all are important, as is the Temple of the Sun.  There’s more to be explored of the world.  We didn’t see Zalesia, Avion or Subternia for instance; but throughout the series it felt like a real world and these sorts winks to the fans were really nice to see.

The first time I read through these issues there were several things I missed, but looking at it now, I must say that Abnett deserves some praise for how well thought this story really is.  True, the pacing was a bit rushed for how big the reveals and ideas being revealed were.  But there is a lot of foreshadowing that lays the groundwork for how the story is going to go very well.  From Duncan being a strategic genius, to the way Adam is able to earn the admiration of Rattlor and how all of those pay off by the end of the story, the ground work is just well laid.  Nowhere is this more relevant than with Skeletor’s plan, the risks involved, the twists and turns that we get taken through by him, are on the level of Jokers plans in The Dark Knight.    

I would say that this series is a good read.  I recommend getting it as a graphic novel because reading it from start to finish I found much more satisfying than reading it month to month as it came out.  The art I will give a C up to a B.  But I want to stress again that this is simply not my style.  The writing however I feel made up for the artwork.  Even reading it monthly I hated getting to the end of an issue because I was left with a month of wondering what was going to come.  There are some seeds sewn that could see more stories come out of this, focusing largely on She-Ra, that I hope we see explored.  And if I’m honest, the last page shocked me a little bit and made me want to reach out my hand.  So if you want a universe in the balance, good vs. evil, character driven story this is one you should pick up.  If you are a fan of the Masters of the Universe franchise you should definitely pick this up, because this is exactly the sort of story I would liked to have had the toys and imagination to tell growing up.