World Comic Book Review

28th March 2024

He-Man/Thundercats #2 (review)

He-Man/Thundercats #2 (review)
DC Comics, November, 2016
Writers: Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason

Our review of “He-Man/Thundercats” #1 was less than favourable due to what we felt was a needlessly complex premise: characters from the two Saturday morning children’s cartoon, “He-Man and Masters of the Universe” and “Thundercats”, smashing against each other, to puzzlingly enable a cadre of ancient omnipotent evil beings to steal He-Man’s sword of power, and then use the sword to defeat the Thundercats. We were of what we regard as the simple and reasonable view that godlike beings with the power and audacity to mess with multiple realities do not need He-Man’s magic sword to achieve what they want. In other words, the plot was silly.

Fortunately, the second issue of this crossover miniseries has relegated that roundabout plot to the background, focusing more on the story’s primary villain, named Skeletor. This character is the primary antagonist of the “He-Man” franchise, portrayed as a heavily muscular, hooded figure but with the face of a skull (the skull visage giving rise to the otherwise contradictory but ominous name).

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He-Man/Thundercats #1 (review)

He-Man/Thundercats #1 (review)
DC Comics/Mattel, October 5, 2016
Writers: Rob David & Lloyd Goldfine

It’s quite clear that the “He-Man/Thundercats” crossover mini-series is designed to take advantage of nostalgia felt by readers in their 40s for the two properties’ respective toylines and cartoon shows. Both were globally popular among young boys during the 1980s. This is exemplified by the fact that the publishers are using the 1980s versions of the franchises instead of the updated takes that were released in 2011 and 2012.

The premise for the crossover will be painfully familiar to comic book fans that have read their fair share of DC Comics’ massive crossover events. The Thundercats’ Third Earth is being pulled into another dimension, one that contains the Masters of the Universe franchise’s home planet, Eternia. This interdimensional collision is a byproduct of the Thundercats villain Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living’s plan to steal He-Man’s Sword of Power.

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