He-Man and The Masters of The Universe #17 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Dan Abnett
Art By: Pop Mhan
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: September 24, 2014

Yeah........... She Done Slit He-Man's Throat.... What's Up With That?

That's right I just spoiled the last issue's cliff hanger right off the bat, but that's what we do here at Weird Science........ Well that's what I do here at Weird Science.  Last issue we saw our sibling heroes make their way to the forbidden island Anwat-Gar, where Adora chased Swiftwind into a haunted forest and He-Man made himself at home among the Gar people.  Well it all went to hell when the Gar people betrayed the bloodline of Grayskull once again and gave him a paralyzing agent and we saw that Tri-Klops has already made a deal with the Gar people to trade He-Man for their safety when Hordak eventually takes over all of Eternia.  Now if that scenario alone wasn't bad enough, eventually Adora comes back to the village and with the snake blade that Teela gave her, we watched our not yet She-Ra slice He-Man's throat and kill him........ It's not too presumptuous for me to think that someone slicing a throat would lead to their demise is it?  Well let's find out as we jump into this month's issue and hopefully have a resolution that leads to our favorite Eternian hero pulling off a resurrection.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Now with that kind of cliffhanger it is just expected that the next issue like Lucy "has a lot of esplaining to do" and you know what?  That's exactly what we get here.  Yes folks, while we love grand battles between our Masters and the Evil Horde, this issue will tone back the badassery a bit and give you some exposition to set you up for what I expect to be next month's over the top badassery.  So sit back and relax, because for this issue it's simply story time.

So He-Man is about to die and Tri-Klops apparently was only sent to collect our hero's blood and bring it back to Hordak and with the Carrie like scene on Anwat-Gar, he has plenty.  Adora claims her loyalty to Hordak and Tri-Klops leaves telling the girl we thought was our hero, that she better leave soon because the Fright Zone is making it's way there.  By this point the Gar people realize that they've been screwed over and run off to go die somewhere else........ I don't know, they just run away.  That's like hiding in your closet if the moon were about to crash into the Earth...... It ain't going to work buddy.  Now that He-Man's dead and Adora is alone, she snaps back to normal and realizes that she was possessed by something and really didn't mean to pull an OJ on her brother.  Instead of getting into a white Bronco, Adora simply runs into the forest screaming for the Sorceress to help her or she'll kill herself.  Eventually Teela shows up (Teela's now the Sorceress for all of you who don't know) and explains to Adora how she royally screwed her over.

Let's break this down.  Saryn used the snake blade to kill King Grayskull, a thousand years later the Sorceress gives He-Man the blade to give to Adora and Adora takes said blade and kills He-Man.  Now it's time to come clean and say "Fate's murky and complex".  You set this up Teela!  You need to take the blame here.  Well this all leads to Teela showing Adora what happened after Saryn killed King Grayskull.  Apparently the King's blood ran down all over and filled up runes carved into the ground activating a secret stairway behind Grayskull's throne.  There Saryn found the secret sword of protection that Grayskull forged to combat his sword of power in case it ever fell into the wrong hands.  Saryn took the sword and hid it away, but being cursed she becomes a hideous witch that still haunts Anwat-Gar and now that Adora has spilled the blood of Grayskull with the snake blade again, it will act as a homing device to Saryn and the sword of protection.  You know...... Magic.  Being an heir of Grayskull she's the real owner of the sword, but she'll have to fight Saryn for it, so she can use it's power to bring He-Man back to life before the Fright Zone comes and all is lost.  

In the end Adora pretty much tells Teela to go fuck herself and goes to collect her rightful sword and fix the damage she's done, but once she gets there it's obvious that it won't be an easy task.  That's it for now and while I wish this were the rip roaring adventure I was expecting, I knew going in that the exposition monster would rear it's ugly head and steal all the fun away.  It's a necessary evil, but man do I want that adventure.  Make sure you're back here next month as we get said adventure and get what Pop Mhan has called Dan Abnett's master opus in the He-Man series.  He might not of said master opus, but I'm going with it.  See you then.

Bits and Pieces:

I love this title, but the over exposition just killed my excitement this month.  Besides for the consistently amazing artwork by Pop Mhan, this issue was a bit of bore and the best thing about it is knowing that this slow paced history conveyor will lead to big things in the future and that's all I'm looking for.  Hopefully the conclusion to The Origin of She-Ra wows us and I can feel like a dick for not enjoying this issue.  Come on retrospect!

6/10