HE-MAN NEWSPAPER STRIP PART 4

"REVOLUTION IN RONDALE" | "THE TIME OF DISASTERS"
Story: Chris Weber | Art & Lettering: Gérald Forton
Colors by: Connie Schurr | Editor: Karen Wilson

As I've noted in previous weeks, I really like that Chris Weber is injecting some elements into the MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE comic strip that would never have been considered for the cartoon series since kids likely would've found them boring. A strip is just the place to do this sort of thing, though -- most action/adventure strips have some degree of soap opera thrown in, so even in a strip aimed primarily at kids, it's to be expected. And soap opera is exactly what Weber shoots for in our latest story arc, "Revolution in Rondale".

In this installment, Man-At-Arms's sweetheart, Miranda, returns to her homeland of Rondale when word reaches the Eternian palace of an uprising there, led by her one-time love, Prince Nicholai. Man-At-Arms and Prince Adam accompany Miranda as part of her diplomatic envoy, with Teela along as well for security. The group soon finds that Nicholai is being advised by an outsider named Count Roteleks. And if you just noticed that "Roteleks" is "Skeletor" spelled backwards, then you're about ten steps ahead of me! Although shortly after meeting him, Adam notes that Roteleks reminds him of someone, I somehow never noticed the reverse-spelling trick until it was revealed near the end of the story!

So we have Skeletor, in disguise, urging Nicholai into an attempt to overthrow his land's legitimate government, in the interest of gaining a new ally against the kingdoms of King Randor. Meanwhile, Prince Adam befriends young Prince Corwin, the rightful heir to Rondale's throne, and teaches him a few things about ruling compassionately. But when Skeletor shows his true colors and kidnaps both Corwin and a second-guessing Nicholai, Adam changes to He-Man and tracks his enemy down, saving the hostages. In the end, Nicholai renounces his rebellion and peace returns to Rondale.

The story itself is just sort of... there for this one. I think Weber is going for a political intrigue angle, but everyone is so cordial about the rebellion that there's very little sense of tension about any of it. There's a little riot early on, but it's ended very quickly be He-Man, then we move into friendly chats with Princes Nicholai and Corwin up until the point where Skeletor reveals himself.

But, that said, I do like what Weber is trying for here. Even if he doesn't nail it on a narrative level, the idea of this sort of political stuff is, as I've noted in other recent posts, a good fit for a series like MASTERS, with its pseudo-medieval/fantasy trappings. Again I invoke GAME OF THRONES, which didn't yet exist at the time these stories were published, as a good way to go with a modern HE-MAN reboot. Obviously not in terms of the over-the-top sex and violence -- MASTERS is, after all, a kids' property -- but just in terms of warring kingdoms, shadowy councils, treaties, betrayals, and so forth.

But anyway, thanks to Weber's "political intrigue" angle, Prince Adam gets a much larger spotlight here than ever before. He only changes into He-Man twice during the storyline, and only for fairly brief periods. For the most part it's Adam participating in negotiations and mentoring young Corwin, and it's a nice change of pace (though I must admit that if I had read this as a child, I probably would've been a little put off by the lack of He-Man through much of the story).

Also, I should note an element Weber has introduced to the He-Man mythos which I love. It was touched upon briefly in a prior storyline, but is explained explicitly here: there is an enchantment on the Sword of Power which renders it invisible while stored in its scabbard on Prince Adam's back. Now, Gérald Forton does illustrate Adam often with the sword visible there, but sometimes it's missing. To my recollection, the sword and scabbard were never visible on Adam's back in the cartoon, yet he was somehow always able to draw it from nowhere to transform into He-Man. Thanks to Weber, we now have a canonical explanation for the sword's disappearing act! (Mind you, it's probably something most fans would have assumed on their own, but it's nice to have it acknowledged in-story.)

With this relatively strong, even if imperfect, arc out of the way, we move into what is easily the weakest storyline since the inception of the HE-MAN strip: "The Time of Disasters". Now, I'm hesitant to throw around the term "turd" loosely, but that's precisely what Chris Weber had churned out this time. Gwildor conducts an experiment on He-Man to try to quantify the amount of magic produced by the Power of Greyskull -- but somehow his procedure weakens the magical fabric around Eternia itself, leading to unexpected rainstorms, a ghostlike Hordak appearing to plot a takeover of the planet, a sea serpent attacking Cringer and Miranda, and more. Eventually the Sorceress and Skeletor team up (with some help from Orko) to repair everything and banish Hordak back to Etheria.

All I can say about this one is that it was the first time since the strip started, seven story arcs ago, that I found myself counting pages until the conclusion. The story is tedious and repetitious, with very little to redeem it. We do get a return appearance from the palace guard who turned traitor a couple storylines back, and Orko plays a fairly major role -- a first in the strip for a character who had been a mainstay of the TV show -- but otherwise, that's about it.

Who approved this??

So let's speak instead about Gérald Forton's artwork in these and other recent installments. It's clear that as the series moves along, he's sort of redesigning some of the characters. I mentioned last week that he had bizarrely dropped the front of He-Man's harness down to stomach level, rather than over his chest. He maintains that look here, and it's patently absurd. In addition to simply looking ridiculous that low on his torso, the design also creates the illusion that the harness has come loose somehow, like the back of it broke and he needs to repair it or something. I cannot fathom what on Earth would have possessed Forton to start drawing the character this way, but it drives me nuts. Like, it serious detracts from my enjoyment of the writing, because it's so distracting and hideous.

While most of our other heroes, such as Teela, Orko, King Randor, and Queen Marlena, have remained consistent with their Filmation appearances, there is one additional redesign which, while not as offensive as He-Man's, still looks odd to me: Forton has stopped drawing Man-At-Arms in his distinctive armor, and now illustrates him as if he's wearing some sort of orange tunic over his green bodysuit. Other than simply preferring the classic look over all else, I don't necessarily mind this change -- except that, having removed the big face/mouth guard thing that used to adorn the armor, Forton has replaced it with a small decorative version of same on the tunic. So poor Duncan looks like he's wearing a sweater vest with a weird triangular bauble glued to the front of it.

This strikes me as a lazy redesign, possibly simplified in order to avoid illustrating too many details on a daily basis. But I have to say, if you need to simplify a Filmation character design of all things, you're probably doing something wrong in the first place! The cartoon likenesses were already stripped to bare-bones for animation; taking out even more detail results in a painfully plain-looking costume.

On the plus side, Skeletor's resemblance to his live-action movie self was short-lived. As of the second of these two arcs, he's back to pure Filmation. And while Forton still doesn't quite nail the Filmation Skeletor face, it's vastly preferable to his attempt at the movie makeup. Hopefully Beast Man will follow suit when and if he pops up next.