He-Man Eternity War # 4

 By Mark Rodriguez

The heroes of Eternia wage war on evil and seek to find the Eyes of Chrono and Chaos before the bad guys do... without knowing that Skeletor already has the Eye of Chaos. He-Man and the Snake Men retake Mount Zoar from Mantenna's forces. She-Ra defeats Catra and Scorpia but runs into the new form of Hordak, now energized by the Powers of Greyskull!

Hordak is ready to kill She-Ra, but Stratos leads his men to attack him. Hordak waves his sword and flames engulf all of the soldiers. She-Ra says that she will destroy him, telling him that he is no longer Despera nor Adora.

At Mount Zoar, Mendor uses his healing powers to save Rattlor from his injuries. Rattlor is surprised because King Hiss would have just let him die. Mendor thinks the Snake Man is being ungrateful, but Rattlor says King Hiss was wrong and chooses to follow He-Man towards victory. Mendor is impressed by Rattlor's loyalty due to how He-Man has become a great king. He-Man sees that Teela is ready to plan their next move.

Hordak and She-Ra continue to fight. Hordak boasts that he now has the Powers of Greyskull that they fight so hard to protect. She-Ra is sent flying into the temple. She tries to get back up but collapses.

Teela seems worried and He-Man tells her that they will find her father soon. Teela tells him that what worried her more is the Age of Horokoth. She explains that the Mother Goddess comes in many forms. The Snake Men saw it as Serpos and Kind Hiss tried to use that power to rule Eternia. Now his age has past and currently everyone looks to Zoar as their goddess. The Horde see the goddess as Horokoth which will bring the end of days.

Teela says that Hordak sees himself as their chosen one to bring upon the Age of Horokoth and he now has access to the Flames of Eternity. He-Man asks if he can stopped, and Teela says everything eventually dies, even the universe. He-Man says Hordak will be stopped no matter what it takes. Teela leads him to a door with the Horde symbol on it and asks what exactly will it take to defeat Hordak?

She-Ra gets up and is nursing a slash wound on her side. She tries to use her sword to lead her to the Eye of Chrono. She-ra finally finds the glowing red gem, but then Hordak appears to claim it for himself. Hordak then violently runs She-Ra through with his Power Sword as it blasts lightning through her body. She-Ra struggles to crawl away and Hordak gets ready to finish her off.

Suddenly a blasts hits Hordak. He turns to see Skeletor, holding the Eye of Chaos and is now ready to take the Eye of Chrono. Hordak says Skeletor is broken and unable to beat him in a fight. Skeletor says he only needs to escape and teleports away with both She-R and the Eye of Chrono.

Skeletor appears elsewhere as he notices that She-Ra lays dying. Skeletor says that it isn't time for She-Ra to die, not when they have a world to save. Skeletor is joined by Teela, Beast Man and Trap Jaw.

My opinions

The action continues and just.... damn.... Hordak running his sword through She-Ra, with lightning blasting out her insides right through her back.... This comic just does NOT hold back and we see just how ruthless these characters can be when the kiddy gloves come off. It still shocks me to see a childhood villain impale a childhood hero so viciously and cold-heartedly.

Another scene worth pointing out is He-Man having a doctor save Rattlor's life. It's cool to see one of the Snake Men become a loyal soldier for He-Man out of his own choice and not just following the Sorceress' orders. This is quite a change for what little characterization Rattlor usually gets (in the old cartoon he barely even talked, leaving all the talking to Tung Lashor), maybe we'll see more of this to help separate him from the other Snake Men.

The Sorceress explaining the goddess and how it seems to change forms throughout Eternian history. But it also seems to exist in all three forms at the same time. It wasn't that long ago that the Snake Men seeked to unleash Serpos, Zoar, I assume is still around, and now Hordak wants to unleash Horokoth.  Man, every time I read Horokoth it reminds me of Harry Potter's Horcrux for whatever reason.

Skeletor returns, and it seems his bottom jaw is missing. None of the panels seem to show it, and Hordak did mention that Skeletor was 'broken'. Who knows what plans he has for She-Ra, but it looks like he wants to save the world from Hordak, I assume so he can conquer it later.

It's the main different between Skeletor and Hordak. Skeletor wants to rule Eternia and it looks like Hordak wants to destroy everything. Skeletor is at least sane enough to see that there won't be much to do after you actually do manage to destroy everything. Will he team up with He-Man? I'm not sure, everyone in this version of MOTU seems much more eager to hack and slash each other than to trust their worst enemy. I guess we'll see what happens later.