He-Man Eternity War# 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

The DC comics version of Masters of the Universe has a bloody history starting years ago when a woman named Saryn betrays the legendary King Grayskull and kills him while he's drugged and immobilized. From then on, her people and the land of Anwat Gar is forbidden and cast aside from the rest of the world. In modern day, Adora struggles with who she is and who she was raised to be and was told by the Sorceress to go to this land to find her answers. He-Man finds her and follows her and Tri Klops finds them. Adora is given a sword by the Sorceress, but it possesses her and makes her reenact Saryn's actions from centuries ago, killing He-Man.

The Sorceress shows Adora that just like He-Man's blood spills now, so did King Greyskull's back then which unlocked a hidden underground room with a second power sword that noone knew about. Saryn found it and kept it to this day as she is now a witch cursed to haunt the forests of Anwat Gar. Adora finds her and finally defeats her claiming the sword for herself in hopes of saving He-Man. Saryn dies saying her son will forever live on, hinting strongly that her son is actually Skeletor. Adora raises the sword of protection and becomes She Ra for the first time and uses her new powers to heal He-Man. Elsewhere, Tri Klops has given the Horde a sample of He-Man's blood and Hordak is now able to enter Eternia. Now what will happen?

The issue opens in Depsodos where Hordak is hooked up to machines fueled by the souls he has harvested over the years ala Shao Khan. He-Man's blood pours through the machines, and since he is the true heir of King Grayskull it is what was needed to make Hordak flesh and blood again. He now stands free from the machines and ready to start the Eternity War.

Teela, now the new Sorceress awakens with this sense of evil. The heroes have now taken refuge in Snake Mountain, since the Horde have conquered most of Eternia and have taken Grayskull. Since Teela as the Sorceress is snake themed, the Snake Men are also by her side. Teela warns He-Man and She-Ra that Hordak has returned once again to claim the secrets of Castle Grayskull.

Hordak boasts his victorious return to his minions and asks Grizzlor for a knife. Hordak cuts his arm and lets his blood open the secret passageway from before. Underground Hordak finds the eternal flames and starts to forge a weapon among them. Hordak actually forges his own evil version of the Power Sword and transforms similar to He-Man and She-Ra.

Man-At-Arms hears Teela's screams and wants to see her, but is knocked back by the Snake Men that deny him entry. Rattlor, Kobra Khan, Tung Lashor and Sssqueeze are the Sorceress' generals and won't allow a mammal to see her without her consent. Man-At-Arms reminds them that he is her father and he won't back down without a fight.

He-Man tells Teela that he has fought Skeletor all his life, thinking he was the most evil thing he has ever faced, but now sees the true evil is now Hordak and Skeletor was just a pawn. He-Man and She-Ra are sure that their swords will take Hordak down, but Teela explains that it's not that easy. During the era of King Grayskull the forseerers have warned of Hordak's inpending invasion, and King Grayskull forged both Power Swords for this, but his eventual betrayers convinced him to make Castle Grayskull itself a weapon, the Eyes of Grayskull.

The eyes of Grayskull are actually two all-powerful gems, the eye of chaos and the eye of chrono. If both eyes are in the castle it will neutralize anything or anyone anywhere in the universe. King Grayskull didn't agree with ruling his people with fear, and he was murdered. Skeletor has stolen the eye of chaos but the eye of chrono is lost in the sands of time. She-Ra knew about this since Hordak ordered her to search for it when she was still evil. They must find them and destroy them since they're too powerful for anyone to use.

She-Ra doesn't trust Teela since it's her fault that Hordak has He-Man's blood now (she didn't tell Adora about the blade that possessed her and made her nearly kill He-Man). Just then Man-At-Arms and the Snake Men smash through the door. He-Man and She-Ra get the snakes off him and he asks Teela if she is alright. Teela suddenly says 'The Crystal Sea'. Man-At-Arms understands and sees himself out.

He-Man, She-Ra and The Sorceress agree that their bond as a family is a strength the Horde lacks and will come to will fear. They'll search for the eyes of chaos and chrono and start a war. Teela slams her staff down making Snake Mountain glow green with power. Skeletor is in the distance watching his old hideout. He reveals that he still has the eye of chaos and says if his enemies want to wage war, then they shall have it.

My opinions-

It's an interesting story and I'm glad I was able to catch up to all of this. It seems DC is renaming the main Masters of the Universe as He-Man Eternity War. As a #1 it does a good job setting up what this is gonna be about, stopping Hordak and finding those gems before Hordak and Skeletor do but it is very confusing to anyone that just jumped into this, especially with the big #1 on the cover.

The comic is full of nostalgia, especially with the return of Hordak among all of the classic Horde members, Mantenna, Grizzlor and even Catra and Scorpia from the She-Ra series. The Snake Men also got some 'panel time' and we got to see that ol' Duncan is bad-ass enough to throw down against these snake monsters with his bare hands.

I forgot the exact details, but I think the classic Sorceress died and Teela had to take her rightful place as the new Sorceress. As the new Sorceress of Serpos, she got rid of King Hiss and has control over the Snake Men. As you can see in this issue, they hold her in very high regard and don't really care much for the rest of the Masters. Let's see how things go when they all have to fight alongside each other.

One thing that really got my attention was the fact that Hordak was able to forge his own Power Sword and use it to summon the power of Grayskull and become... I don't know... He-Hordak? The 'camera' purposely didn't show us what he looked like now but I'm curious how they're going to stop him now. Assuming that Hordak, as is, is already a very big deal, giving him the powers of Grayskull can't be good. It's like giving Darkseid super powers on top of what he already has. But wow, I guess anyone can make a Power Sword and tap into the powers of Grayskull if you forge a weapon in that secret room and use those eternal flames to melt the metal and whatnot. In that case it didn't really matter if Prince Adam was an heir to King Grayskull at all. But then again, Hordak does have He-Man's blood now... so maybe that kinda/sorta makes him count as an heir.

As for She-Ra, it's nice to see her here but she hasn't had time to do anything yet. In the last issue of the main series Adora discovered the Power Sword fast enough to turn into She-Ra and heal her dying brother before the issue ended. Honestly, we already seen Adora as Despera be totally kick ass in the main comic series, so unless we see She-Ra lifting mountains.... she really isn't gonna be all that different from what we've already seen.

Overall the comic is awesome but pretty basic. The art is nice and it's nice to see all the characters. This is all the basic framework for what's to come. I'm anxious to see how all of this plays out.

Oh yeah, how can I forget the little cameo of Loo-Kee among all of the poor souls that were harvested by Hordak over the centuries. For those that forgot Loo-Kee was kind of a 'where's Waldo' character in the original She-Ra series and it was an extra thing to find him somewhere in the episode. At the end he would tell you where he was and then explain the moral of the story. I guess he wasn't so lucky in this version of the series.