And I'm really glad that he did!
Keep in mind that HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE MULTIVERSE isn't terribly deep, nor does it have a terribly unique concept. Marvel Comics did something similar with its "Spider-Verse" cross-over event not that long ago. Just replace Spider-Man with He-Man, Morlun with Anti-He-Man, and Spider-Totems with Power Swords. Do that, and you get the general concept. (Jon's Note: Yes, I'm exaggerating a bit.) But the journey is fun and the artwork is good and that's ultimately what you want in a comic book.
Here's the gist: There are myriad universes out there with all sorts of He-Men and Masters of their own Universes. All of them are heroic and all of the keep Skeletor in check. Except for one singular universe where He-Man is evil. Anti-He-Man's power and cosmic insight comes from Castle Hellskull.
Anti-He-Man is now traveling the mutiverse and attacking (and killing) all of the He-Men that he encounters and stealing their Power Swords. He then drains all of the magic from those Castle Grayskulls and moves on to the next universe, more powerful than ever! His ultimate plan is to make it to the "Power Prime" -- the source that feeds the power to all Castle Grayskulls throughout the multiverse.
Prince Keldor: Keldor is the long-lost brother of King Randor. In most "He-Man" universes, Keldor becomes He-Man's evil nemesis, Skeletor. However, just like Anti-He-Man is evil, his world's Keldor is essentially a good man. The various He-Men have decided that this Keldor has to be the key to defeating Anti-He-Man. After all, He-Man always manages to keep Skeletor in check. So why wouldn't Keldor be the one to keep Anti-He-Man in check??
Prince Keldor grudgingly joins the adventure. I'm just hoping that we get to see him transform into a heroic form of Skeletor before this mini-series is finished!
As is always the case with this type of story, half of the fun is seeing past versions of He-Man showing up!
He-Man: Tappers of Grayskull: I'd never heard of this gaming app before today -- and I'm really anxious to go see if it's still available to play! This miniature He-Man is out to stop giant-sized versions of Skeleton's army.
Masters of the Universe: This version of He-Man comes from the 1987 film featuring Dolph Lundgren as He-Man -- plus Courteney Cox (pre-"Friends") and Robert Duncan McNeill (pre-"Star Trek: Voyager"). This He-Man always seemed to be the most un-He-Man out there. But he carries around a "Cosmic Key" that allows people to open up portals across time and space -- which is helpful in the story like this!
New Adventures of He-Man: I had never heard of this cartoon series before this morning -- but Husband Mark has watched most of the episodes and really enjoyed them! The series ran in late 1989. In it, Grayskull's magic got transferred into a futuristic spaceship called Starship Eternia. He-Man and his new space allies have teamed up to defeat Skeletor -- but in space! He haven't yet seen this version of He-Man in HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE MULTIVERSE, but he's sure to show up in issue #2.
I'm hoping to see other version of He-Man from the various different cartoons and video games before this mini-series is through!
"Masters of the Universes" features writing by Tim Seeley, art by Dan Fraga, inks by Richard Friend, colors by Matt Yackey, and lettering by Saida Temofonte.