Masters of the Universe- Rise of the Snake Men # 3

 By Mark Rodriguez

Evil Lyn betrayed Skeletor to help Kobra Khan and Rattlor release the Snake Men. The Snake Men easily take down Skeletor's forces. He-Man finds out that Zodac let this happen on purpose so he could get a chance to avenge his brother's death at the hands of King Hsss. As He-Man and Zodac fight each other, they see that an army of Snake Men is marching out of Snake Mountain!

He-Man and Zodac see the army march onwards. He-Men tells Zodac that he can't take them all on his own and has nothing to prove in trying to. He offers their help and promises to leave King Hsss to Zodac. Zodac says they have little time and the Snake Men can be very resilient. 

Man-At-Arms, Teela, Stratos and Mek-A-Nek see the army and estimate that there are thousands of them and will be in Eternos in a few days. Zodac arrives and says they're actually headed towards Castle Grayskull and King Hsss can affect their speed and stamina. Man-At-Arms and Teela are understandably angry since Zodac tried to kill them, but He-Man assures them that he is on their side now. Teela doesn't trust him, but Man-At-Arms says they can argue later. They need to hurry and prepare.

Later on, Man-At-Arms has his army and The Masters prepared for the Snake Men to arrive. Rattlor tells the Masters to give up and they will have swift and painless deaths. Man-At-Arms says this is their one chance to stand down, since they will not let them take Grayskull by force. Rattlor and Man-At-Arms tell their respective forces to strike.

Ram Man launches himself into Rattlor, but the Snake Man grabs his head and slams him to the ground. Tung Lashor whips his tongue around Teela's staff, but she yanks his tongue back and kicks him in the midsection. Kobra Khan boasts that they can't compare with the might of the Snake Men and Man-At-Arms smashes him in the face with his mace. 

Snake Face leaps out of the way of Mek-A-Nek's club attack. He uses his powers to turn Mek-A-Nek to stone. Stratos flies through a bunch of Snake Men to knock them down, but Sssqueeze uses his stretchy arms to wrap around his legs and slam him into the ground. Man-E-Faces says it seems for every Snake Man they take down, more step up to take their place. Sy-Klone causes a huge tornado to take care of several of the Snake Men. He-Man follows suit and slams his fists into the ground, knocking several of them down due to the shockwave he caused. Despite this, more Snake Men continue to crowd around He-Man as he continues to beat them back.

Zodac effortlessly smacks any Snake Man in his way as he walks towards Rattlor. He asks him where King Hsss is and Rattlor lunges forward for a bite. Zodac leaps out of the way and stomps on his head. He asks again and Rattlor refuses to answer. Zodac continues to slam his face into the ground until he's a bloody mess. Rattlor says it's too late and Grayskull's powers will be theirs. Zodac drops him and turns his attention towards the castle.

King Hsss is at the castle and can sense the Sorceress protecting it. He says he will get his revenge upon the Elders. Evil Lyn offers her help as they both combine the powers of their staves and fire a blast at the castle. King Hsss says it was worth sparing her life. Evil Lyn coldly says she'll be sure to express her gratitude some day.

The Sorceress is hurt by the magic hitting the castle. She says that King Hsss has ancient magic that rivals his own, and she was not expecting Evil Lyn to side with him. King Hsss turns into his true form and fires off another blast which forces Castle Grayskull's jawbridge to open. The Sorceress can't hold the door closed and calls for He-Man to help her. 

Kobra Khan helps Rattlor up and tells him that the door to the castle is open and victory will soon be theirs. He-Man knocks Rattlor back and Kobra Khan gets in his way, spraying him with his poison. Rattlor commands his men to head for the castle and join King Hsss. He-Man says he must get there before they do.

Zodac arrives in front of King Hsss, wanting to avenge his brother. King Hsss says nothing he does will take away the satisfaction he felt when he killed his brother. Evil Lyn knocks Zodac back with a powerful energy blast. King Hsss tells her to make sure he doesn't interrupt him and he will call her if she's needed. 

King Hsss approaches the Sorceress who leaps into action with her staff. One of his many snake heads manages to bite onto the Sorceress' leg, making her fall to the ground. 

He-Man finds Zodac and helps him up but Rattlor arrives and tries to bite him. He-Man fights Rattlor off and tells Zodac to help him raise the jawbridge. Zodac is gone and left He-Man on his own.

King Hsss has reached the Power of Grayskull but Zodac arrives to continue their fight. Zodac lands several hits with his staff, but King Hsss says he's still a mere Eternian mortal and will never be a true cosmic enforcer. King Hsss blasts Zodac and begins to sap his power.

He-Man continues to fight with Rattlor, using his shield to block the Snake Man's rattlesnake tail. He-Man chops his tail off with his sword. Snake Face approaches He-Man and the Eternian hero covers his face with his shield. He-Man notices that his sword reflects his face as Snake Face tells him that his shield won't protect him forever. He-Man switches his shield with his sword and Snake Face stares at his own reflection, turning himself into stone. Man-At-Arms comes in and buys He-Man time to run into the castle. 

King Hsss is ready to finish off Zodac. Zodac calls upon the powers of the elders and breaks free of his magic. Zodac beats Hsss down, kicking one of his legs off and knocking him into a pit full of spikes. 

He-Man arrives and sees the Sorceress in bad shape. Zodac tells her that the poison from King Hsss' bite flows through her but the elders can reverse the effects. He-Man says Zodac knew this and he still left her to fight King Hsss. Zodac tries to explain and He-Man picks her up and runs off.

The battle rages on outside. Teela says the Snake Men's numbers are dwindling but there are still so many left to fight. Zodac shows up raising the body of the defeated King Hsss. He tells the Snake Men that the battle is over and to gaze upon the body of their fallen king. Rattlor can't believe this. Evil Lyn is also angry that all of her efforts were worthless. 

Evil Lyn angrily summons a huge blast of electricity that blasts all of the Snake Men, several of them falling off the jawbridge. Man-At-Arms is shocked she could do that and asks himself why. 

Elsewhere, Skeletor and his men, who were turned to stone by Snake Face earlier, all turn back to normal. Tri-Klops asks what happened. Skeletor says this was unforgiveable treason and this time he will show no mercy.

The heroes are glad this ordeal is over and they can't believe they'd have Evil Lyn to thank for this. Teela asks Mek-A-Nek if he's going to be alright. He says he will, and he's glad he was able to turn back to normal once Snake Face turned himself to stone. Mek-A-Nek says it looks like they can celebrate. Zodac kicks the stone statue of Snake Face off the jawbridge and asks what there is to celebrate. As he storms off, Man-At-Arms says some people will never be content with the path their life has taken. He says Zodac bears a scar that he will carry forever. He-Man arrives and is surprised all the villains have been defeated. Man-At-Arms says Evil Lyn killed them all. He says he didn't know she was so powerful, and He-Man agrees. 

He-Man asks what happened to Zodac. Teela says he threw King Hsss into the abyss and left, still feeling very angry. He-Man says Zodac had a great deal of anger pent up inside for hundreds of years, they can't understand what that would do to a person. He hopes that Zodac can find peace with his past and hopefully they can all enjoy some peace as well.

Deep beneath the castle, in the darkness of the abyss, King Hsss and his Snake Men still live.

My thoughts-

Now that I covered all three issues of the cartoon adaptation, let me bring up some of the changes between the two. First off, the cartoon started off with Zodac having the nightmare, instead of The Sorceress, actually showing how King Hsss killed his brother in the past. Man-At-Arms, Teela, Stratos and Mek-A-Nek went alone to Snake Mountain without taking a small army of extra troops. Once they were defeated by Skeletor's forces and Man-At-Arms called to retreat, Skeletor actually let them go. As the villains return to Snake Mountain to plan a counter attack, they discover that King Hsss had taken over. Snake Face turns Mer-Man to stone, and he falls and breaks into bits. The other Evil Warriors were also turned to stone, but Skeletor doesn't have actual eyes so that magic won't work on him. King Hsss creates a stone snake from the floor that swallows Skeletor whole.

I remember the part of Mer-Man falling to the ground and shattering into stones surprising a lot of longtime fans, since we took it to mean that they were killing off a character that had been a staple of the series. He does come back to life... somehow. I don't think they ever explained how they put the pieces back together. In the end, Zodac tosses King Hsss into the void and the Snake Men all leap in after him, rather than Evil Lyn blasting them. The Evil Warriors turn back to normal and Skeletor breaks out from the floor vowing revenge on Evil Lyn.

The comic takes advantage of the fact that it doesn't have to adhere to Saturday Morning Cartoon standards and ups the ante when it comes to the fighting and the villains showing actual intent to kill. We get some extra scenes like Zodac forcing Rattlor to talk by literally beating him bloody, King Hsss actually taking a chomp into the Sorceress' leg and He-Man slicing Rattlor's tail off. With a lot of nameless soldiers and Snake Men running around there's room for collateral damage all over the place.

It was a fun comic and it took me back to the days when this series was new and still airing on TV. This comic would lead into its own on-going series, though it only lasted 8 issues. First off, the writers were extremely limited in what they could and couldn't do. They weren't allowed to add any new characters not seen on the show and they couldn't do anything that would contradict the events of the show. To add to that, the show wasn't renewed for a third season, even though it looked like it was leading to The Horde, so the comic also went down with it. 

I do own the the first issue since I bought it when the series started, but I wasn't able to get the others. I've seen them go for some crazy prices, so it will take me a while to get the following issues before I start with the first one. 

One last thing I'd like to bring up are the interesting ads at the end of this issue. Two that stand out were ads for the Walking Dead comic and the Invincible comic, two series way before anyone would expect a TV adaptation to them. Even then, the Walking Dead got a TV show years before Invincible did.