Princess of Power
She-Ra, the Princess of Power was a spawn off the MOTU toy series. Matell wanted to expand into the girls' market, so they came up with Adam's lost twin sister. This series is set in Etheria, the home dimension of Hordak. The good fraction are rebels fighting against the system. Most characters are female, but most of them represent similar types as their male MOTU-counterparts.
On the whole, the She-Ra minicomics aren't too well thought out. They're very cartoon-like (even with these awful morales in the end, printed in red!), every story is made in the same way. Not much free room for creativity.
As you might already tell, I'm not a huge fan of the She-Ra series. If anyone feels I'm not providing the honour it deserves, I'll gladly offer him the job of reviewing those comics...
The Story of She-Ra
Plot: The Sorceress has a nightmare about Hordak stealing a baby called Adora. A glowing sword appears and guides her to a portal within Castle Grayskull. She sends He-Man through it to find this woman. On Etheria, Adora is fleeing from the evil Catra on her horse Spirit. She reaches the Crystal Castle, transforms into She-Ra with the help of the sword and fights Catra. He-Man arrives and helps She-Ra to scare the evil one away. The power swords recognize each other and the Sorceress explains that He-Man and She-Ra are brother and sister.
Comments: Umm.... the story makes no sense at all! Why does She-Ra's sword appear in Castle Graskull when she's using it only a few minutes later? And she's certainly not using it for the first time then! The story is completely different than from the version told in the movie
Secret of the Sword - but without having seen it, it's also impossible to understand what's going on in this comic. Very messy.
Thanks to
Mario for the scan!
The Hidden Symbols Mystery
Plot: Catra captures Bow. She wants to lure him to her evil, dark side. Kowl alerts Adora of that but all she can find is a strange piece of cloth with mysterious drawings on it. The Wizardress gives She-Ra a kind of decoder which looks like a magnifying glass and it turns out they've found a map. Following it, She-Ra discovers Catra who is just about to magically steal Bow's heart (literally!) because he refused to join her. The Princess of Power grabs Bow and flees with him on Swiftwind. She claims to have used a trick, but that's not visible.
Comments: Argh! Ok, Bow is one of the very few men on Etheria, but is that a reason why everybody wants to have him on their sides? And I always thought this gay heart was only part of his armour! Kowl has to be one of the worst and most annoying characters ever. And why, for god's sake, does Catra leave a map for She-Ra to find her???
Thanks to
Mario for the scan!
Disappearing Treasures
Plot: Adora finds some kind of crystal (?) which she shows to Glimmer and Castaspella. The latter uses her magical power to protect this treasure from evil. Then, the three get back into the palace and leave the treasure chest outside. Catra steals it. Because of Castaspella's magic, the evil one now sees her own reflection in the mirror to be really old and ugly. Shocked by that, Catra drops the crystal in a pond. She-Ra finds her there, rendered helpless by Castaspella's magic. She-Ra frees her though because she thinks even evil being have the right to live.
Comments: Oh Story, where art thou? Come on, what's this fuss about this 'treasure' about? Without Castaspella's (worst name ever!) spell, it probably would just have been some mock crystals made of glass! If it's so great, why do the good girls leave it under a tree? And if someone says
Hoot! Hoot! in the next few months again, I'll have to kill him! Where's Hordak? I bet he could teach Catra some more evil things than 'stealing' a small chest lying around in the middle of nowhere!
Thanks to
Mario for the scan!
Der Weg nach Mizar
Plot: She-Ra saves a flying woman who introduces herself as Angella, the queen of kingdom Mizar, from crashing. This kingdom is being attacked by Catra's cats and She-Ra agrees to help. Catra sends demon birds to stop the heroine, so She-Ra decides to avoid them by continuing the journey by foot. She meets some etheral being who tells her she needs the map of lights which is being guarded by a dragon. She-Ra insults this (female) dragon until the map is handed over to her. Escaping the forest, the cliffs of death and several more obstacles with sound names, she finally meets Catra who snatches the map from her. She-Ra ignores this and continues her journey towards Mizar. There, she catches the two (!) attacking cats with a magical net and then turns them to stone with her sword. Mizar is has been saved and She-Ra has gained a friend.
Comments: Horrible mess! No structure, this story is just a loosely (and badly) connected sum of several very short scenes. Why isn't Catra with her extremely dangerous attack forces anyway? And does Mizar only have one inhabitant (Angella)? The title reads "Der Weite nach Mizar" ("The long to Miza") by the way. How fitting.
Thanks to
sam for the scan!
Adventure of the Blue Diamond
Plot: Temperatures are dropping throughout Etheria, snow is falling everywhere. She-Ra enlists Bow and Double Trouble's help to investigate. Double Trouble finds Catra (who is of course behind this) in a cave where she is holding Frosta prisoner. Catra trusts DT and tells her to watch after Frosta while she is away. DT of course betrays her 'friend' and notifies the others. Frosta is free, but Catra has found the Blue Diamond meanwhile which allows her to turn Etheria into a wasteland (by shutting out the sun). Frosta freezes Catra, She-Ra cracks the diamond's outer shell with her sword and Bow shoots the inner part into the (now dark) sun with one of his arrows. The evil magic is broken.
Comments: A She-Ra comic which hasn't been drawn by five different people per page and doesn't look like shit? Even with a consistent and halfway decent storyline? Unbelievable, but true! I only have two questions: what is the relation between Double Trouble in 'disguise' (she looks the same as before...) and Catra? That might be just me not knowing enough about the line of course. But most importantly: what is Catra's plan exactly? Why will be 'rule' when Etheria is dead?
