It was
a light week this week, so I’ve decided to review the newest spinoff from the
Masters of the Universe franchise at DC.
This latest attempt to cash in on the successful relaunch of the
licensed property brought to you by Keith Giffen on story (with Brian Keene)
and pencils. This is a one shot issue
that explores the origin of Hordak, the leader of the evil horde and the
current agitator over in the Masters of the Universe regular series. Now is this a legitimate comic or just a cash
grab? That’s the $2.99 question.
Cover:
The
cover by Keith Giffen actually has something to do with the story and is not
just a stock image of Hordak, though it would have been well within the right
of Giffen to do it on a number one issue.
For that I give him extra credit.
The artwork is akin to a very rough Jack Kirby, similar to Erik Larsen
but not quite as good in my opinion. The
coloring by Hi-Fi is decent, but I would think that Hordak’s “powers” would
cast a little more light onto everything around it. The coloring does follow a bit more of an “old
school” type pattern (very flat with little to no definition added) so it
actually coincides with the line art nicely in that respect.
The
main problem with the coloring is that everything starts to blend together,
especially since they decided to color the sky an orange-yellow color and that
just happens to be right behind a bunch of warm colors. Nothing really pops. Even Hordak’s “powers” tend to blend a little
because everything has a very washed-out feeling to it.
5/10 – A serviceable cover, but not great. It does the job, and shows a bit of narrative
but could be better. It looks rushed.
Story:
The
story is touted as the origin of Hordak, but when we see him, he is already
Hordak. Has he always looked like
this? Part of me thinks not because the
big reveal in the story is that Hordak and Zodac are brothers. Zodac looks human, at least as far as Masters
of the Universe standards are concerned and yet Hordak is some kind of
bat/vampire creature. Something must
have happened at some point and yet what we get in terms of an origin is that
Hordak is Zodac’s brother. How did
Hordak come to join the horde? Is Horde
Prime still around? What caused the
transformation and how does he consume souls?
That’s the kind of stuff you would assume that an origin story would
answer, not prattle on for twenty pages about nothing. The biggest kick in the crotch comes
from the end, where Hordak looks like he’s
all powerful and ready to take over the universe and it says to check out the
regular comic for more involving Hordak.
I just spent $2.99 on an ad for the regular comic book. Awesome.
There isn’t much more to say, this was a blatant cash-grab.
0/10 – You can’t expect me to give you a high mark when
there was no real origin story within the pages, just a build up to try and get
me to buy the regular series. I’d say “for
shame DC Comics” but you obviously don’t care about comic fans, so I won’t
waste my breath.
Art:
Giffen’s
art is not terrible. I do kind of enjoy
how Kirby-esque it is, especially for a story that is supposedly an origin (and
even tells you it takes place one million years before the birth of
He-Man). Having the art feel old-school
just makes it feel almost like the comic should have come out in the 70’s.
That
being said, the art is very inconsistent.
The characters looked markedly different from one panel to the next and
it can get jarring at times, pulling you completely out of what little story
there is to be pulled into.
2/10 – I wasn’t impressed.
The little Batman silhouette on the second to last page may have been an
inside joke by Giffen, but it just illuminates the point that this is a
corporate comic released for no other reason than to make more money.
Overall: 1/10 - This
may be the shortest review I’ve ever written but I can’t think of a more
appropriate comic to throw the towel in on.
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