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Five Thoughts on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe‘s “Chapter 1: The Sword of Greyskull”

By | October 18th, 2021
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome to a re-imagined world of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Netflix’s newest installment in the milking of the intellectual property first introduced to us by Hasbro as a popular toy line in the 1980s.

1. The kids are alright

Having loved He-Man from childhood, and having already enjoyed Kevin Smith’s respectful sequel, I was curious why we needed yet another reimagining from Netflix. Very quickly I realized that this show was made for kids, in what is an attempt to pull in new fans. Kevin Smith’s version was geared at adults like me, while Masters of the Universe is most definitely aimed at brand-new school children. Aside from the name and basic premise of the power of Greyskull, there’s not much that’s recognizable. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the discarding of the past allows for modernization in a way that fits for the sensibilities of the day.

I suppose in a lot of ways, you can’t really continue the franchise without letting go of the past, and the first thing they let go of was the WWE-style outfits in favor of clothing that makes sense for the world of sci-fi.

2. Spin the Wheel and take what you can from popular culture

Right off the bat it feels like a b-side episode of The Clone Wars with the style of CGI presented and the fact that it is in a more futuristic science-fiction setting. In fact, it was literally made by the team that did The Clone Wars! One top of that, when the title sequence appears you get a sense that during their creative sessions, someone was spinning a wheel of intellectual properties to swipe ideas from. Case in point, what is Samus Aran doing here? Oh I’m sorry that’s not Samus, that’s just Duncan. I can’t imagine when the creators were designing they didn’t see what I’m seeing. All-in-all the cast resembles League of Legends characters more than the originals, but kids watching the show may not have that frame of reference.

3. What is this new He-Man about anyway? 

He-Man now is not really . . . a man. In the original, Prince Adam was always a man and just became a beefier man once he transformed through the POWER OF GREYSKULL! (Sorry, you can’t say that phrase without shouting and pumping an imaginary sword in the air.) Now that he’s a teen or young adult of some sort, which gives his alter-ego a bit of a Shazam! feel. I’m sure kids will like this as all scrawny kids have dreams of not being scrawny anymore. It’ll be interesting to see how this dynamic plays out, as the first issue is more action-based without a lot of characterization going on.

4. Teela, my hero. 

In a bid to reinvent the dynamics of the 1980s series, Teela is now an outlaw criminal working for baddies Kronis and Evelyn, who are seeking the POWER OF GREYSKULL! (Sorry again.) Making her an outcast that is first captured and then freed by the crew gives an interesting dynamic between everyone. Will they trust her moving forward, can anyone trust her? Only time can tell.

However, she gets a lot of screen time in this premiere. If you didn’t know anything about the franchise, you would think that the show is actually about her. They do a good job of spreading the love, but of course at the end it’s the good-looking white guy who gets the sword. I guess that makes sense because if you want any semblance of the original, you kind of can’t replace the big buff blonde.

5. You call that a sword? THIS is a sword.

Speaking of swords and cross-referencing influences, these guys must be huge Final Fantasy fans, because He-Man’s sword has plumped up to epic proportions. When he whips it out and transforms . . . baby gets BIG. It looks like he’s swinging around a surfboard with a handle. It’s so big that Cloud Strife would be proud.

Luckily this version of He-Man has a build more akin to Iron Man’s Hulk-buster armor than the He-Man of the 80s. I guess if he got that much bulkier, his sword should follow suit. It all makes sense.


//TAGS | He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Henry Finn

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