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4th Series

Grizzlor - The Legend Comes Alive!

Plot: Buzz-Off tells Teela, Fisto and Man-at-Arms the tale of Grizzlor, a wild beast which kills everyone who comes into his sight. The next day, he finds huge footprints in the desert which he presumes are Grizzlor's. The others don't believe in the beast's existence though. But Hordak knows better, because he has recruited Grizzlor for his Horde. He sends his new underling out to capture Teela. Her friends try to stop him, but of course fail miserably. Hordak wants to learn about the Sorceress' secrets, but Teela refuses to cooperate. The good guys enlist He-Man, they enter the Fright Zone and free Teela again. Grizzlor can't stop them this time because he's afraid of seeing his own face in a reflection.
Comments: An average minicomic like most of the fourth series. The pencilling is above average, but the poppy colours degrade the artwork again.

Leech - The Master of Power Suction Unleashed!

Plot: Man-at-Arms and Sy-Clone meet a shocked and disoriented Mer Man. They tie him up. Suddenly, a huge monster appears out of the water. It's Leech, the newest member of the Horde. Despite his giant size, Sy-Clone beats him up in no time. Mer Man is taken to King Randor and he informs the good guys about Leech's power. Leech returns to Hordak, but his master is furios that he didn't capture anyone. Hordak sends his lackey back to get Mer Man. The good guys throw Mer Man back into the water to attract Leech's attention. It works and He-Man attacks Leech with the Talon Fighter. Hordak sees this, grows into a giant and attack He-Man. Skeletor watches and saves Mer Man, at the expense of losing the Land Shark. He-Man crashes the Talon Figher into Hordak. The evil guys run away.
Comments: The story is as confusing as it sounds. All this traveling is completely futile - everyone eventually meets at this lake to fight anyway! And what's so dangerous about Leech if he is beaten up by a weakling like Sy-Clone on page 2 already? Why do he and Hordak change size? Why does Mer Man change colour in every panel? Does he have a beard? What does Hordak want from him? Why did they have to use the great Talon Fighter for such a sucky story with some of the worst artwork? We'll never know...
Thanks to Marvin!

Mantenna and the Menace of the Evil Horde!

Plot: Mantenna scouts Eternia and wreaks havoc. Adam is magically lured into the Vine Jungle. He arrives at the Fright Zone and the Dragon eats him up. That way, the prince falls into Hordak's dungeon. The Horde attacks the royal palace, but the other heroes can defend it long enough for Orko to carry the Power Sword to Adam. The most powerful man in the universe chases the attackers away.
Comments: This one has been drawn by the same criminal who commited 'Leech....'. And it reads like it has been written by the same guy as well. What causes all these disasters? What lures Adam? The Fright Zone in the Vine Jungle? And where do Skeletor's lackeys suddenly come from in mid-battle? An offense to all MOTU fans!
Thanks to Marvin!

Skeletor's Dragon

Plot: Dragon Blaster Skeletor discover the intact skeleton of a huge dragon under a pile of stones. He reanimates it magically and uses it for riding. At the same time, He-Man is showing off his strength in some silly games at the palace. Being afraid he'll beat them up, everyone cheers for him. Meanwhile, Skeletor has encountered Mekanek, Ram Man and Man-E-Faces and captured them with a magically enchanted chains. The (small) dragon puts them to sleep. The same strategy works for all the heroes on the royal festivity. Only He-Man manages to break free from the chains in spite of their magic nature. Skeletor runs away, but he has to leave the skeleton behind. The Sorceress realeases it from the evil spell and now Battle Bones serves the good guys after telling its story: his race had died out a long time ago, he was the last of them and died alone.
Comments: Hmm... Both dragons don't have any real influence on the storyline! Battle Bones is completely useless (it's nice how the writers included a reference to the dinosaurs though - educating for the target audience ;) and the small dragon's sleeping gas is also not really needed since the magical chains hold Skeletor's enemies fast anyway. So the story doesn't really work. But it's still nice, only a bit cheesy.
Thanks to Ravenscribe and Hellspawn for the scans!

Spikor Strikes

Plot: Adam is on a royal mission to the village Nordling where he should deliver a 'scroll of greeting' - but he forgot just that scroll. King Randor has also noticed that and he sends Sy-Klone to deliver it. Meanwhile, Skeletor catches Teela with his Spydor. Adam comes across a village in which Spikor wreaks havoc. The villain demans to see He-Man and Adam gladly fulfills that wish. Sy-Klone also arrives at the battlefield, but a mind-projection of Skeletor interrupts the fight: he teases He-Man to save Teela and leave the village to be destroyed. Instead of stumbling into that trap, Sy-Klone accepts Skeletor's 'invitation' while He-Man deals with Spikor. This villain gets the chance to present all his special features before he's knocked out. Sy-Klone uses Skeletor's surprise that he turned up (and not He-Man) to his advantage and rescues Teela. And even the scroll is still intact.
Comments: How often has Teela been captured by Skeletor already? Has she any other purpose at all? Watch out for the answer in the next episode of.... It's the Mind!
Thanks to Hellspawn for the scan!

The Battle of Roboto

Plot: Man-at-Arms has built a new robot: Roboto. To ensure it isn't misused by the evil side, he gives it a heart. Now Roboto has human feelings. But when he is patroling a village, Skeletor manages to take the heart out of his chest with the help of Two-Bad. Now Roboto is only a 'neutral' robot following orders. Any orders! Skeletor sends him to Castle Grayskull of course. Teela defends its gate against Roboto covering herself from his heavy axe blows with her shield. Man-at-Arms gets the heart back. But only He-Man has the power to hold Roboto so that he can place it back where it belongs. That's what they do. The evil guys run away and the Sorceress appears to put a magic seal on Roboto's chest.
Comments: Basically, Roboto is nothing else than a revived version Man-E-Faces - with less depth...

The Stench of Evil

Plot: The Sorceress and Moss Man are enjoying the beauty of nature, but Skeletor is already watching them. He wants to destroy this happiness. For his newest plan, he visits Stinkor. He orders his servant to spoil the air in the forests with his smell. It's working so good that all animals flee! Not satisfied with that, Stinkor also poisons a nearby village. Even Stratos, He-Man, Teela and a few other heroes can't do anything against it because they're paralized by the smell. Stinkor's power doesn't work on Moss Man who is naturally surrounded by fresh air though. Being thrown into a field of flowers, Stinkor flees from the 'smell' in panic.
Comments: Woah! I hate that small story about the bear being lost at the beginning! And the rest of the story isn't much better. Poisoning the air of one small forest? Come on, Skeletor has come up with less ridiculous plans before! The solution is lame, the dualism of Stinkor and Moss Man is shoved into the reader's face. And the colours are extremely ugly. Still there are worse comics, especially in this series...
Thanks to Ravenscribe and Hellspawn for the scans!

Hordak - The Ruthless Leader's Revenge!

Plot: Hordak, Skeletor's old teacher, has finally breached the magical barriers to Eternia from his Fright Zone in Etheria. He wants his revenge on Skeletor. After some fuss involving a few new characters, he arranges a meeting with his former pupil. He pretends he wants an alliance against He-Man. Hordak proposes Skeletor attacks Castle Grayskull with the help of a few Horde-members. Skeletor agrees in spite of warnings from Evil Lyn and Tri-Klops. The merged army attacks as planned, the heroic defenders had already been waiting. Then all of sudden, Hordak appears in the Land Shark. He and the remaining members of the Horde have taken advantage of Skeletor's absense and conquered Snake Mountain. The heroes are out of the battle between Skeletor's men and the Horde now. He-Man can't watch this senseless killing (?) and he uses his Power Sword to open a huge crack in the earth between the two fractions. Being unable to continue the battle, both parties run away to their bases.
Comments: Shadows standing around without any bodies belonging to them, Horde members fighting amongst themselves, Whiplash beating the crap out of Jitsu and a lot of pink. The pencillers and colourers obviously had a bad day when doing this one. And look at this cover! What has He-Man hidden there in his chest? Oh well, the writers weren't all that much better. Everything is labelled as 'dark' (no matter if fitting in context or not) and a Thesaurus seems to be the major source of those dialogues. The positive side of this comic is that it features a lot of characters - that's what the audience wants!
Thanks to Ravenscribe and Hellspawn for the scans!

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