He-Man & the Masters of the Multiverse #3: Livin’ On a Prayer

I could honestly spend this whole review talking about the last page, but I won’t. Anyway, in this issue, author Tim Seeley gives the fans something I don’t think they knew they wanted. But now that it’s out, it’s gonna be really hard to put the genie back in the bottle, if you will. Anti He-Man pretty much has 90% of the Powers of Grayskull, and he’s going around the multiverse gathering more powers until he has it all. Yes, a few He-Men stand in his way, but this issue we find that Skeletor also stands in his way. There’s been a theme in comics for a while now that has villains coming out of nowhere and destroying the headlining hero. Remember when Doomsday killed Superman? Shouldn’t it have been Lex Luthor that killed him? I mean, Luthor’s been calculating plans to do that very thing his whole life!! And when Bane broke Batman’s back? His whole rogue’s gallery had to be really ticked off when some guy nobody’s ever heard of just goes and destroys the hero they’ve been trying to kill/capture/unmask for decades.

Anyway, it’s a nice touch that Seeley puts Skelator into the book and makes him powerful enough to pose a credible threat to the team of He-Men that are traveling across the multiverse. Not only that, he uses the worst incarnation of Skeletor that’s ever existed. “Disco Skelator” was infamously hated by Masters of the Universe fans everywhere and of every age. Seeley does a great job of making the most hated toy ever into the only chance of saving the multiverse. I won’t give away what happens, but the issue is packed with Skelator rethinking what he’s been doing with his life and you might be surprised at the conclusion that he comes to.

Artists Tom Derenick and Dan Fraga do an amazing job this issue. They hit a grand slam with every panel. The versions of the franchise they’re using couldn’t be further apart from one another, yet again, they manage to portray them on the page as if they’re actually real characters from different places living in the same shared planet. The difference between some of the characters is immense, yet Derenick & Fraga smash them together with ease. Another beautiful book to look at.