6th Series
Energy Zoids
Plot: Man-at-Arms has invented a new gyro machine which can produce robots. He uses it to save the life of an injured soldier who is now partly android: Rotar. Skeletor and the Snake Men steal that machine and kidnap Rotar. They let the hero fight for his life against Twistoid, who has been build with the gyro machine, in an arena. Rotar manages to stay alive for some time, and eventually he's rescued by He-Man in a Gyratacker.
Comments: If it wasn't so rare and didn't feature the prototype vehicle
Gyratacker, this comics would be just mediocre. Strikingly similar to
Clash of Arms, but less fascinating.
Thanks to
Jouni for the German version!
Enter: Buzz Saw Hordak
Plot: Hordak introduces his newest warrior to Dragstor: Mosquitor. After a quick demonstration of his powers, they head off to the Eternia Towers to set a trap for He-Man. They capture the Sorceress and Mosquitor drains a bit of her energy which Hordak uses to create a false ghost looking like her which flies to the palace and calls Randor. Adam is surprised and he doubts the Sorceress would have called Randor and not him (He-Man). And of course he was right. Randor is defeated by Hordak who needs him to enter Central Tower. He-Man arrives, Dragstor distracts him so that Mosquitor can catch him. He's already draining He-Man's lifeforce when the hero manages to break free. He-Man rushes to Central Tower where he finds Randor unconcious. Inside, Hordak greets him like a friend. The tower's energy is influencing his mind. He can't stand it anymore and rushes out. Now that he has found out he cannot possess the tower, he wants to destroy it with his Hurricane Powers. But he doesn't have them anymore, the tower has taken them from him. Instead, a buzz saw suddenly springs out of his chest. Hordak returns to the Fright Zone to study his new powers.
Comments: Here we learn more about the mystical energies of Eternia. Only the rightful king may enter Central Tower. And everyone who enters it has to stand its powers. The new characters are well established, but it's rather strange (yet interesting) that Buzz Saw Hordak appears only on the last page!
Revenge of the Snake Men!
Plot: King Hiss summons more of his warriors from the timeless dimension: Snake Face and 'Tanglor' (Sssqueeze). Equipped with the king's newest invention, Blast Attak, the walking time-bomb, they are sent to kidnap Queen Marlena. They break into the palace where the queen is talking to the Sorceress, Adam and Extendar. The men try to fend the attackers off, but Snake Face turns them into stone. In the next room, they find the queen, turn her into stone, too, and take her to their king. Back in the palace, the Power Sword has broken Snake Face's power and He-Man frees Extendar from the curse. The queen is also still there, she mentions the Snake Men only took her 'statue'. He-Man takes the Battle Tram to Viper Tower. He crashes right into a party of the Snake Men. Using the element of surprise, he frees the Sorceress (who had posed as Marlena in the palace) from being stone. Now the Snake Men attack. Snake Face accidently turns his companions into stone and when he aims at He-Man, the hero uses a shield to show him his own reflection, thus turning him into stone, too. He-Man says he'll free them later and walks off.
Comments: The Medusa-effect of Snake Face is nicely done and they even took the 'classic' solution. All very nice, but doesn't the queen look a bit young?
This comic has an alternate title: in the European version, it's called
The Snake Men's Revenge. The only difference is the cover and the lettering - it's typed in the European version :(
The Search for Keldor
Plot: Once a year, the veil between the different dimensions goes weak for one hour. That's the possibility for King Randor to find about the fate of his brother Randor who vanished many years ago. The Sorceress tries to open the gate to another dimension, while Adam and Clamp Champ patrol the area. Skeletor wants to disturb the search and he summons Scare Glow and Ninjor. Scare Glow catches Adam off guard, but Clamp Champ saves him by catapulting Ninjor onto Scare Glow. Adam changes to He-Man and the two good guys beat the crap out of their enemies. Randor is just about to see something, when Skeletor appears. He also brings Fakor with him. The Sorceress magically strengthens Randor who fights Skeletor, but she can't defend herself against Fakor anymore. Randor destroys Fakor with his staff, but he's now defenseless himself. In the very last moment, He-Man arrives and beats Skeletor up. Even though the powers of good have won this fight, the hour has passed and they have to wait another year...
Comments: This is a very important minicomic! It's the strongest hint that Skeletor is in fact Keldor, the King's brother! This means his claims for the throne are justified!
The Ultimate Battleground
Plot: Skeletor and King Hiss combine their magical powers to raise the three towers of Eternia again. King Hiss of course knows more than Skeletor about them as he was involved building them. He hopes Skeletor will be caught in the trap at the main tower's entry. But Skeletor is suspicious and let's Tung Lashor lead who gets caught clearing the way for Skeletor. King Hiss enters the Viper Tower. He-Man arrives and he and Skeletor fight, both empowered by the might of the tower. Skeletor is thrown out but he promises to conquer the tower later!
Comments: Even though the rivalry between King Hiss and Skeletor is mentioned, Hiss' plan to get rid of Skeletor seems quite weak. This trap is so obvious that one has to be really dumb
not to recognize! The mystical meaning of Eternia in general is well explained, but only the central tower gets a real function - not much is said about the other two! Especially the Grayskull Tower seems to be only a prison and nothing else...
The Cosmic Key
Plot: The Evil Cloud attacks Eternia. It gives Skeletor a lot of new powers and two new allies: Saurod and Blade. They attack. He-Man and the Sorceress summon Gwildor because he is the only one who can send the Evil Cloud back to its dimension with his Cosmic Key. It doesn't look too good at first, but the good guys manage to get rid off the cloud thus saving Eternia once more.
Comments: And the Oscar for the worst minicomic ever goes to.... The Cosmic Key! Let me repeat: this is the
worst minicomic in existance! The story is almost non-existent (only 6 pages), the 'characters' boring, silly and not at all well thought out (the Evil Cloud doesn't have
any mysterious value!), the artwork awful. Maybe even worse than the movie itself!
The Powers of Grayskull - The Legend Begins!
Plot: The Sorceress opens a portal to the time of the dinosaurs and giants on Eternia - the time of the war between the Elders and the Snake Men. King Hiss and his men are just attacking a village but the Sorceress stops He-Man from interfering because of the risk he could alter history. Skeletor follows them through the portal and teams up with the Snake Men. Together they launch another attack on the village: Skeletor on Pterodactyl and King Hiss on Tyrantasaurus Rex. The Sorceress summons Bionatops and He-Man rides it to help the villagers. The Tyranosaurus proves to be stronger though and Skeletor snatches He-Man's sword. Suddenly a dark figure appears and magically sends all the strangers/invaders back to their time/home. The Sorceress explains that this was the most powerful wizard of all. He-Man closes with the question "But who is he?".
Comments: This was supposed to be the start of the
Powers of Grayskull Toyline of which only the few dinosaurs and the two giants came out. The announced next issue (
The Legend Continues) was never released! But from the prototypes of the toyline one can say for sure that the mysterious wizard is
He-Ro. Sigh... this would have been a worty successor to the Masters of the Universe line - in contrast to the lousy
New Adventures!
