New "Masters of the Universe" from DC

[Bruce Banner]

Did DC come up with the Prince Adam concept, or were they working from early concepts Filmation had created for the show, which must have been in production at that point? I've always wondered that.

I'd always wondered the same thing. I always assumed there was an element of collaboration involved... but I'd love to know if it was DC or Filmation, or even Mattel, that actually first proposed the secret identity concept.

The Prince Adam in the 3 issue DC mini series was a bold, reckless, carousing youth type of character... but the one in the Filmation cartoon was changed into a timid, mild-mannered character... probably to provide more contrast between the Adam & He-Man personas.

Apparently it was Michael Halperin (the author Mattel commissioned to write the MOTU "bible" for the franchise) who made the Prince Adam character more mild mannered.

This recollection on the subject is supposedly attributed to Lou Scheimer:

According to Lou Scheimer, executive producer of the Filmation animated series, the idea of He-Man having a teenage alter-ego was derived from the Fawcett/DC Comics character Captain Marvel, about whom Filmation had already produced two TV series: Shazam! and The Kid Superpower Hour with Shazam!. He-Man's twin sister She-Ra was created as a female spin-off, as Captain Marvel's twin sister Mary Marvel had been.

[samurainoir]

What terrible marketing! Courtney Cox's face is turned so you can't see her! I know she was not this well-known Friends actress then but still-a pretty face fills seats at the box-office.

'Atta Boy! There is no way that Cougartown can stay cancelled now that you're on the case.

[Figuremod73]

Masters of the Universe (1987) - Trivia - IMDb

Heres a bunch of trivia tidbits of the film.

[samurainoir]

Fun oddity... They adapted the movie into a comic, but used the animated/toy look rather than the actor/movie likenesses.
Masters of the Universe #1 #2 #5 + Movie 1986 NM | eBay


Secret of the sword the animated movie that introed She Ra had a theatrical release?
HE- MAN MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE HE MAN SHE-RA SECRET OF THE SWORD LOBBY CARD | eBay

[Bruce Banner]

Secret of the sword the animated movie that introed She Ra had a theatrical release?

Indeed it did... I first saw it during its original theatrical release.

[The Toyroom]

Fun oddity... They adapted the movie into a comic, but used the animated/toy look rather than the actor/movie likenesses.

Probably to avoid confusing things, since Marvel was using the animated look in their regular comic series?

[samurainoir]

not present in the film, in which the remains of two flags are discovered in the caverns of Grayskull: an American flag and one from NASA which bears the words "Starfinder 5. July 10, 2221." In a wholly unique twist to all other versions of MOTU continuity, this comic adaptation of the film suggests that Eternian humans are descended from the crew of an American space mission from the far future.

Interesting bit from the film adaption which took an earlier draft of the film... a nod to He-Man's mother's origin as an astronaut from earth (even though the movie ignores the filmation continuity)?

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE MOTU CLASSICS CAPTAIN GLENN SDCC EXCLUSIVE MOC | eBay


It is astonishing how far afield they eventually went from the initial "barbarian" version of He-Man once you go into the cartoons as the main source of storylines in the minds of the kids playing with them. I do remember my brother who's only a couple of years younger, being into the earliest incarnations of the toy, prior to the release of the filmmation tv show, and it was the Barbarian version he was drawn to.
HE-MAN MOTU KING OF CASTLE GRAYSKULL MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE MINI COMIC SHE-RA | eBay

[Earth 2 Chris]

I saw "Secret of the Sword" while it was in theaters. And I was in on the ground floor with MOTU, so the whole Prince Adam thing was quite a shock, although I liked it at the time, being a big super hero mark of course!

Chris

[Figuremod73]

Cashing in on Arnies Conan movie was definately the original intent of MOTU, mixed in with SciFi (which was being popularized by StarWars.) I really liked the early comics because it was something I hadnt encountered before.
I wasnt to bothered by the changes in the filmation cartoon. I would have LOVED to have had that wondering barbarian on the cartoon but even at that age (around 11) I knew that wasnt going to happen on network tv.

[Den82]

The Thunder Punch He-Man coming in a few days will be the first packaged with a brand-new mini comic. It picks up where the last one in the original series ended. I'm glad, because it was interesting. MOTU is the only long running line of the 80s that I think ended when it was still cool. Even if my interest in the line(like most kids my age) was dying down.

I hated the movie when it came out too. But now, I like it for the addition of the new characters and Frank Langella as Skeletor. Like to get that movie comic too.

Everyone wants a new movie, but I doubt it will ever happen. The problem with MOTU: as sad as it is, it's still began as nothing more than a commercial product and too many cannons were given to it.

There is no one "story" and it's a big muddy mess.

[samurainoir]

Great Caesar's Ghost! I didn't realize Eric Powell was doing the covers for the new DH mini comics.


So... what will they do to replace the cap firing action of the original TP He-Man?
Masters of the Universe MOTU Classics THUNDER PUNCH He-Man ---PRE-ORDER--- | eBay


MOTU he man, vintage, rare spanish, MOC, Thunder Punch He-man | eBay

[The Toyroom]

Issue #1 just came out and James Robinson is already off the book! Keith Giffen is the new replacement writer as of issue #2. What the heck?!

[VintageMike]

It's off to an interesting start I'll give it that much. How long it will remain interesting remains to be seen.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Issue #1 just came out and James Robinson is already off the book! Keith Giffen is the new replacement writer as of issue #2. What the heck?!

You know, the current DC sounds like the DC of the mid to late 70s. Most of the real talent had jumped ship to Marvel, save for a few solid creators (Curt Swan) and some exciting new guys who didn't know any better (Marshall Rogers, Don Newton). But you never knew from one issue to the next who was going to do what book. Writers dropped in and out every other issue. Artists stuck around a little longer, but there seemed to be no loyalty to any books, and the editors hands were really apparent. All journeymen stuff. A lot of that seems to be going on here.

Chris

[MPM1972]

Copied from the Wikipedia MOTU page:

Comparison with Jack Kirby's Fourth WorldComic book writer/artist John Byrne compared the film to Jack Kirby's comic book metaseries Fourth World, stating in Comic Shop News #497:

“ "The best New Gods movie, IMHO, is 'Masters of the Universe'. I even corresponded with the director, who told me this was his intent, and that he had tried to get [Jack] Kirby to do the production designs, but the studio nixed it." "Check it out. It requires some bending and an occasional sex change (Metron becomes an ugly dwarf, The Highfather becomes the Sorceress), but it's an amazingly close analog, otherwise. And Frank Langella's Skeletor is a dandy Darkseid!" ”

Director Gary Goddard clarified this in a letter appearing in John Byrne's Next Men #26, in which he stated:

“ "As the director of Masters of the Universe, it was a pleasure to see that someone got it. Your comparison of the film to Kirby’s New Gods was not far off. In fact, the storyline was greatly inspired by the classic Fantastic Four/Doctor Doom epics, The New Gods and a bit of Thor thrown in here and there. I intended the film to be a "motion picture comic book," though it was a tough proposition to sell to the studio at the time. 'Comics are just for kids,' they thought. They would not allow me to hire Jack Kirby who I desperately wanted to be the conceptual artist for the picture…
I grew up with Kirby's comics (I’ve still got all my Marvels from the first issue of Fantastic Four and Spider-Man through the time Kirby left) and I had great pleasure meeting him when he first moved to California. Since that time I enjoyed the friendship of Jack and Roz and was lucky enough to spend many hours with Jack, hearing how he created this character and that one, why a villain has to be even more powerful than a hero, and on and on. Jack was a great communicator, and listening to him was always an education. You might be interested to know that I tried to dedicate Masters of Universe to Jack Kirby in the closing credits, but the studio took the credit out."
”

Brian Cronin, author of the "Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed" column, concludes that "the film itself was not intended to be literally a reworked Fourth World, although the intent WAS to make the film a tribute to Jack Kirby - just a tribute to ALL of his work, not just the Fourth World."