He-Man & the Masters of the Multiverse #1: Matters of the Multiverse

I was so excited for this comic when it was announced. It was a story that I thought I’d never see because the rights to Masters of the Universe are SO jacked up, it’s not even funny. One company owns the 1987 movie, another owns the classic Filmation cartoon, another owns the toys, and even some comic companies own their version of the characters. All said and done, Mattel really doesn’t own that much. So, I never thought that it would be possible to have He-Man from one show meet He-Man from another show, or a different comic, etc. Again, I was excited about this when it was announced, then I saw Tim Seeley was the writer and I got even more excited. He’s a long-time fan of the Master of the Universe franchise, and he’s certainly left his mark on the property. Now, for every comic that’s awesome because it’s written by a super-fan, there’s 3 comics that are terrible because they’re written by super-fans. They tend to get all caught up in introducing all aspects of the mythos and forget to follow the basics of storytelling. I’m happy to reports, this is definitely an awesome comic because of the author’s love for the property.

Right off the bat, Seeley introduces a very formidable villain for the series that casual fans of MOTU probably won’t know. But he’s very easy to figure out, and later in the issue, an origin and explanation are given, and it’s a really good one. We then switch sense to a different universe, where the majority of the issue takes place. It’s one that we’re not familiar with so for hardcore He-Man fans, it’s a brand new story that gives some great backstory to a popular action figure. Seeley spends a lot of time (but not too much) setting up this universe, only to have the story crashed by two new players, who are infamous in their own right. There is SO much that I’d like to comment on, but I’m anti-spoiler, so let me just say technically, when it comes to the story it’s very well crafted and almost perfectly executed. The only gripe that I have with the issue?

Not. Enough. Stinkor.

Artist Dan Fraga’s career is legendary, from Kid Supreme to Avengelyne, the man has done it all! An experienced artist is just what this book needed. Fraga handles the story like a master. Technically it’s a very sound job, he can tell a story with his drawings and he does an amazing job on the details in this issue. It’s gotta be tough working on a licensed comic, especially when it’s not set on Earth. But he makes all the scenery looks like it comes from Eternia, it’s not all generic buildings and forestry. Another great talent he shows off in this issue is his ability to straight-up create. We’re dealing with one world that’s never been seen before, and he creates a world decidedly different from the other Eternias, yet it looks like it belongs in Masters of the Universe. I’m not sure if he used toys for reference, but he sure knows how to portray these characters, and that’s maybe the most important thing in a book where multiple version of multiple characters are needed to tell the story,