Masters of the Universe: Revelation #1

Masters of the Universe: Revelation #1

Dark Horse Comics 2021

Story by Kevin Smith & Rob DAvid

Written by Tim Sheridan

Illustrated by Mindy Lee

Coloured by Rico Renzi

Lettered by Deron Bennett

Following a vicious Orlax attack on his father King Randor, He-Man learns the creature is linked to the origin of the sword of power. To save Randor and put an end to the chaos, He-Man embarks on an epic journey that pits him against his longtime foes Skeletor and Evil-Lyn, and sees Teela take the reins of a powerful legacy. The official prequel to the upcoming Netflix show!

I’ll admit that this wasn’t going to be on my reading list but with a cover of He-Man from Stjepan Sejic and I had to get a copy. I’m glad I did too because this is a pretty good solid issue and starts off an interesting story. I grew up with He-Man and if this is the kind of story and animation we can expect from the new series on Netflix than I am excited for that as well. The way this opens is rather interesting and for a change it revolves around King Randor and his wife and it is one of those moment of foreboding that really sets the stage beautifully.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter really keep them fresh and new while still feeling familiar. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story it pulls the reader in some surprising ways.

I like the way that this is structured and how the layers within the story being to emerge. The layers within this are where some excellent characterisation, surprising moments, and guest stars I’ve never seen before. Whether these layers work with the main arc or simply swirl around it it adds this great depth and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well.

The interiors here are really rather charming. Again if this based off the animation style than it is much better than I could’ve hoped for. As is the linework here is fantastic and how we see the varying weights being utilised to create the detail wok is phenomenal. I like that we see this amount of backgrounds here and how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a stupendous eye for storytelling. The colour work is brilliantly rendered. The hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a sensational eye for how to use colour. With the cosmos seeing the whole scape of that is utterly gorgeous and a complete wow moment.

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This story could stand alone against anything and everything we’ve seen from the Masters of the Universe or even anything else on stands today period. The writing is strong, witty and has this unexpected edge to it that frankly I find hugely appealing. Add into the mix the characterisation and these charming interiors and suddenly it feels like the Masters of the Universe are emerging as a force to be reckoned with again. Now if only we’d see She-Ra.