He-Man
 | The neutrality of this article is disputed. |
He-Man is the heroic lead character in the toy series Masters of the Universe and the various spin-off products and media related to it. The most prominent is the cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, produced by Filmation Studios. The syndicated series premiered in 1983 and ran until 1985, for a run of 130 episodes. In the series, He-Man and his friends defend Eternia and the secrets of Castle Grayskull from the evil forces of Skeletor.
Overview
Prince Adam's pet is a cowardly green tiger named Cringer. When Prince Adam changes to He-Man, Cringer becomes a giant (and brave) armored green tiger named Battle-Cat, who serves as He-Man's steed.
Castle Grayskull, which resembles a gigantic skull, is the source of the Power of Greyskull. Inside the Castle lives the Sorceress. Part bird and part woman, she possesses the magical ability to change herself into a falcon. The Sorceress is among the most powerful magic-wielders on Eternia, and she also has limited use of the power held within Castle Grayskull, but only for the purpose of its protection. She also communicates telepathically with He-Man, and was the person responsible for introducing Prince Adam to the power of changing into He-Man.
He-Man has other allies, many of whom are in the King's service.
- Teela is Captain of the Royal Guard and often assists He-Man in his battles. She is the daughter of the Sorceress, though she does not know this.
- Her foster father Duncan is known simply by his title Man-At-Arms. He designs and builds weapons and other technology for the King.
- Orko is an inept magician from the parallel dimensional world of Trolla. He moves around by levitating.
- Ram-Man is a sturdy warrior who runs down most of his obstacles.
- Stratos has wings and can fly
- Man-E-Faces is an actor who can change his faces.
He-Man's chief adversary is Skeletor, a blue-skinned muscleman with a skull for a head, wearing a cowl. He is skilled in dark magic as well as all forms of combat. Skeletor's weapon of choice is his Havok Staff, a ram's skull atop a large rod which serves to channel his magic and amplify his powers. Though his origin is mysterious, a tie-in comic inferred that Skeletor was Keldor, King Randor's younger brother and this was confirmed in the 2002 cartoon series.
Skeletor's base of operations is Snake Mountain, a carven fortress made of polished black basalt, which has a giant stone snake coiled around it. Snake Mountain is located on the Dark Hemisphere of Eternia.
Skeletor's allies include:
- Beast-Man, who can control nonsentient lifeforms.
- Evil-Lyn, a powerful witch with the usual complement of malevolent powers.
- Whiplash, whose tail is a formidable weapon.
- Mer-Man, a fishman who controls sealife.
- Tri-Klops, a 3-eyed mechanic and inventor.
- Clawful, a giant anthropomorphic crab.
- Trap-Jaw, a weapons expert with a metal jaw which can bite through anything.
- Stinkor, an anthropomorphic skunk with magical control over his own stench (he only appeared in the written comics and 2002 animated version, never the original series).
- Two-Bad, a character with two faces that constantly argue between themselves.
As with many parts of the Masters of the Universe story, He-Man's background and origins were somewhat revised in successive versions of the story and it is sometimes difficult to reconcile the various versions.
The Original Mini-Comics
All the toys came with special mini-comics that sought to tell stories involving the characters. In the earliest comics, He-Man is a wandering barbarian on the world of Eternia, which is in the aftermath of a Great War that has devastated the civilisations that once reigned. He-Man is given special powers and weapons by the Sorceress and sets out to defend the secrets of Castle Grayskull from Skeletor. He-Man is supported by allies such as the Man-At-Arms and Teela.
The second series of mini-comics establish the existence of the kingdom of Eternia, ruled over by King Randor and Queen Marlena. The third series developed the concepts further by giving He-Man the secret identity of Prince Adam, the son of Randor and Marlena. With the cartoon now launched, the mini-comics now followed its details, though later on they would treat Hordak differently from the cartoon.
The cartoon
Eternia is ruled by King Randor and Queen Marlena. Their son is Prince Adam, a cowardly blond muscleman dressed in a Cote d'Azur chemise. However, Prince Adam possesses a magic sword, and when he holds it aloft and says the magic words "By the Power of Grayskull! I have the Power!" he is transformed into He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe. He-Man is a brave blond muscleman in a skimpy baldric and shaggy loincloth.
Most episodes are about Skeletor's repeated attempts and failures to enter Castle Grayskull. Apparently, were he to succeed, he would be able to wrest the power of Grayskull from He-Man and conquer Eternia. He-Man invariably defeats these attempts.
Despite the limited animation techniques that were used to produce the series, the cartoon was remarkable for breaking the boundaries of censorship that had severely restricted the narrative scope of children's TV programming in the 1970s. It was noteworthy to at last see a cartoon with a muscular superhero who was actually allowed to hit people, though he still couldn't use his sword often. The cartoon was controversial in that it was produced in connection with marketing a line of toys; advertising to children was itself controversial during this period. In Britain advertising regulations forbade commercials for He-Man toys to accompany the program itself. The action figures themselves were often repaints and head-swaps of existing characters, outfitted with different equipment; for example, Stinkor was originally a colour- and gear-swap of Mer-Man.
The cartoon was also particularly remarkable because it was the very first cartoon produced directly for syndication, as opposed to all other syndicated cartoons of the time which were re-runs of old Saturday-morning cartoons.
She-Ra
He-Man also has a sister, named She-Ra, who was introduced in the feature length animated film He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword. This film was a compilation of the first five episodes of the She-Ra television series, which ran from 1985 to 1986. He-Man often appeared in special crossover episodes of She-Ra, but She-Ra did not appear in the He-Man series.
The Movie
In 1987 a live action He-Man film was made, under the title "Masters of the Universe", with Dolph Lundgren in the title role, Frank Langella as Skeletor, and Courteney Cox in an early supporting role. The film was however largely a dissapointment for most fans of the cartoon.
The New Adventures of He-Man
In 1989 a second He-Man series, "The New Adventures of He-Man," was produced, and set in a more science-fiction setting which saw both He-Man and Skeletor transported to the future. It was not as popular as the original series, and lasted sixty five episodes.
The New Adventures of He-Man stank to high heaven, but they did have one of the best ever lines in a cartoon. ON the verge of defeat, Skeletor announces:
"No-one can ever say Skeletor outstays his welcome. Ta-ta!"
and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
This brilliantly silly line was, alas, the only good thing about the entire 65-episode debacle, which tended more toward the silly than the brilliant.
The 2002 series
In 2002, a new version of the series was produced and aired by Cartoon Network. This series ended after 39 episodes and is noteworthy for cementing the fact that Keldor and Skeletor are the same person (though making no connection between Keldor and Randor), showing Skeletor without his cowl, the first animated appearance of Stinkor, and an overabundance of spinning weapons and hyper-exaggerated leaps. It has also been revealed that Teela is unknowingly the Sorceress's daughter and possibly destined to be her heir, and that Evil-Lyn's father is a powerful sorcerer known as The Faceless One. The action figures are noteworthy, having been sculpted by Four Horsemen Studios.
Later episodes of this series were retitled Masters of the Universe Vs The Snake-Men, and sidelined Skeletor as chief villain in favor of King Hiss, leader of the reptilian Snake-Men.
The 2002 series was considerably more mature than previous incarnations. Clearly influenced by the story-arcing of recent succesful cartoons such as the X-Men, the 2002 series based itself heavily on a 'series bible' which fleshed out a far more coherent history of Eternia, King Grayskull (from whom He-Man derives his powers), the Sorceress and Hordak, Skeletor's mentor. There were also several major alterations in character from the original series: Adam and Teela, for example, were rendered as squabbling teenagers, whilst King Randor was transformed into a far more pro-active sort of warrior-king, rather than the stern-faced cipher of old. Turning Adam into a teenager wwas generally held to be a good move, as it made his apparent cowardice and ineptitude more realistic, but the same move for Teela may have been less well-advised. Whilst the pair of squabbling adolescents leant an element of causic humour (usually Teela complaining about Adam's uselessness), it did mean that the Masters effectively lost their only adult female lead. Admittedly Teela holds a high poisiton within the MOTU in the 2002 series, but she appears considerably reduced from the animal-sensate 'warrior goddess' of the original: she comes across as over-reaching herself; a rather stereotyipical protrayal of a woman in a man's world. Similar female decline is seen in the Sorceress, whose every use of the magic of the Ancients leaves her befeebled and panting for breath. Where once she was a powerful mystic force on Eternia, this second female 'good' lead has been reduced to little more than a dodgy conduit for other powers. However, much of this is counterbalanced by the new version of Evil-Lyn. The 2002 series makes it quite clear that, in He-Man's own words, she is 'Skeletor's most powerful lieutenant'... she is obviously far smarter than the other henchmen and has developed a rather wonderful sense of sarcastic humour, from which even Skeletor is not immune. Contrary to the semi-racist very-sexist character of a yellow-skinned, slit-eyed harridan of the original, the 2002 Evil-Lyn is a witty, poweful agential player in her own right with her own plans and her own allegiences. It seems a shame that the writers could not do for Teela what they did for Evil-Lyn.
Trivia
The character of Zodac was originally presented in the toy line as an "Evil Cosmic Enforcer" as per the blurb on his figure card. However in most of his appearances in the min-comics and the cartoon he was clearly a "good guy" character where he was depicted as sort of an "interstellar policeman". The 2002 version of He-Man presented a Zodac who was neither evil, nor clearly good but somewhere comfortably in between with his own system of ethics and justice. The only occasions when he has been portrayed as evil were in an early DC Comics issue and in a 1986 Ladybird Book entitled He-Man and the Asteroid of Doom.
External links
- He-Man live action film entry on IMDB
- http://www.he-man.org
- http://www.castlegrayskull.org
- Images and commentary on the live-action He-Man film, focusing on Courteney Cox and her character