HE-MAN NEWSPAPER STRIP PART 1

"DAY OF THE COMET" | "VENGEANCE OF THE VIPER KING"
Story: Jim Schull (story 1) & Chris Weber (story 2)
Art & Lettering: Gérald Forton | Colors by: Connie Schurr
Editor: Karen Wilson

So... from what I've gathered, when the HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE TV series ceased production, Mattel wanted to keep the characters appearing for children on a daily basis somehow. Obviously the cartoon would remain in repeats alongside new episodes of SHE-RA, but while the latter series would introduce some MASTERS characters into the Filmation canon, others would be skipped. So, in order to keep on showcasing the newest toys, Mattel commissioned a HE-MAN newspaper strip. The strip apparently had pretty limited circulation (I sure never knew it existed until Dark Horse published their collected edition a few years ago), but it ran for over four years, outlasting the original MASTERS toyline and even running alongside the sequel line, HE-MAN, which started in 1989!

Filmation was apparently pretty heavily involved in the strip as well; according to writer Chris Weber, they packaged the entire thing for syndication, using their own in-house talent to do so. As a result, a few Filmation-exclusive characters show up in these storylines; for example, Shadow Weaver, Hordak's right-hand sorceress, appears in the very first arc. Thus, ostensibly, the strip is a direct continuation of the cartoon series -- though as we'll see momentarily, at least for the first arc this isn't exactly the case.

As a result of having a Filmation artist on the strip, nearly every character is beautifully on-model with the TV show. Gérald Forton takes some liberties, but for the most part, He-Man, Man-At-Arms, Teela, Randor, and so forth look very much like their animated counterparts. The villains, meanwhile, are pretty much all spot-on to the Filmation model sheets, perhaps even moreso than the heroes (especially the Evil Horde characters), though somehow Forton's Skeletor never looks quite right.

"Day of the Comet", the only strip out of the four years written by someone other than Filmation freelance scriptwriter Chris Weber, kicks things off. In this case, it's a Filmation storyboard artist, Jim Schull, handling the script -- and right off the bat, things aren't jibing with the TV show's universe. This could be due to Schull's position within the company, though -- he wasn't a writer, and he may not have been as intimately familiar with the series bible as someone who was. Plus, I hope you're all ready for more contradictory backstories! Try to forget everything we just looked at over the past few weeks, because most of the post-Filmation characters who received origins in the minicomics will now get new (and often better) ones in the comic strip.

Right off the bat, it's the rock warriors, Stonedar and Rokkon, who are reinvented. This time they're travelers from space who pass near Eternia at the same time as a comet. Skeletor captures Stonedar, who in this continuity is Rokkon's father, as well as Stonedar's daughter/Rokkon's sister, Granita, and forces Stonedar to use his powers to set the comet on a collision course Eternia. Unexpectedly, Hordak shows up and forces himself into an alliance with Skeletor, but the villains are defeated when He-Man and his allies board Hordak's space cruiser and rescue the imprisoned rock people.

I think I noted when I covered the minicomic which introduced the stone warriors that they never appeared in the MASTERS TV series, but instead showed up on SHE-RA. Now, my knowledge of the SHE-RA cartoon is nowhere near the level of my knowledge of MASTERS, but that said, I don't think there's anything here that necessarily contradicts the characters' debut there. The stone warriors show up on Etheria in SHE-RA, but I don't believe there's any reason they couldn't have stopped by Eternia on their way.

The presence of the Evil Horde here, however, is a different matter. Though drawn about as perfectly on-model as can be, it's hard to tell if this is truly meant to be She-Ra's Horde. When Hordak shows up, all our heroes recognize him, and there's clearly some history between them -- but there's no mention whatsoever of She-Ra, Princess Adora, or even Etheria. This seems a little weird. I did read an interview at one point with upcoming writer Chris Weber in which he said the She-Ra characters were a separate license and thus unable to appear in the comic strip, but the name Etheria predates the creation of She-Ra's show, and we will in fact see it used in the next arc. So again, I chalk the poor attention to continuity up to the fact that Jim Schull just isn't a professional writer. Certainly the script is a little clunky, so a poor delivery of character backstories would go hand-in-hand with that.

The next storyline, "Vengeance of the Viper King", is the first written by Chris Weber, and immediately feels more like an episode of the TV series than did "Day of the Comet". When a magnetic storm hits Eternia, Kobra Khan begins acting strangely. He opens Snake Mountain's portal to Etheria, and Rattlor and Tung Lashor appear. Together, the trio heads beneath Snake Mountain to free King Hiss from imprisonment. Once again, as in the minicomics, Rattlor and Tung Lashor are stated to be members of the Evil Horde, though that makes sense here since the newspaper strip actually follows Filmation continuity (and, though She-Ra is again not mentioned in this tale, it's pretty clear the Snake Men are coming from her Etheria).

Skeletor accompanies Hiss and his men to the swamp, where Hiss raises two of his long-slumbering warriors, Sssqueeze and Snake Face. He-Man arrives and battles the two latest Snake Men, while the other villains escape. As Kobra Khan leads an attack on the royal palace, Skeletor and King Hiss attempt to break into Castle Grayskull. He-Man arrives at the palace and defeats the invading Snake Men, then he and his allies travel to Grayskull at the Sorceress's behest. In the end, King Hiss is defeated and turned to stone (as he was when the Snake Men first freed him earlier), while Skeletor escapes.

Following from the somewhat clumsily written "Day of the Comet", "Vengeance of the Viper King" is a treat -- well written and nicely paced, with escalating threats, parallel story threads, and plenty of action -- including a few bits of ingenuity from He-Man to beat the bad guys. Plus, at one point, King Hiss uses his powers to actually bring Snake Mountain to life, siccing the reptile that typically coils around it on Castle Grayskull!

The story also sticks with the TV show's core cast, which helps it to feel more like a Filmation episode -- the prior arc featured guest appearances from every good guy and their mother --and while this one has a cameo from Rio Blast, it mostly presents He-Man, Orko, Teela, Man-At-Arms, and King Randor as the "main" characters.

Beyond the writing, Gérald Forton continues to turn in terrific renderings of the action, and even sneaks in a few Filmation stock poses, which, again, really helps to sell this as a direct continuation of the show. Add to Forton's pencil-and-ink work some extremely nice colors by Connie Schurr on the Sunday strips, and the art in these opening arcs shines quite beautifully.

I'll admit I was a little disappointed by the first storyline, but Chris Weber's scripting for the second is a vast improvement, and knowing he will handle the strip for remainder of its existence has made me much more excited to see what comes next!