Written By: Dan Abnett, Rob DavidArt By: Pop Mhan, Mark Roberts, Deron Bennett
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: September 23, 2015
The Serpent and The Rainbow
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
Eternity War has had so many twists and turns so far that I'm feeling sick........ not a terrible, I can't take it anymore kind of sick, but the kind where I spew happy vomit all over the lot of you as I continue my He-Man journey to places I never expected this series to go. That's a positive thing right? In the previous issue, we saw Skeletor pull the ultimate checkmate on Hordak, by using the souls of the people Hordak vanquished in the past to overthrow his regime and using his double agent Evil-Lyn to distract Hordak as Skeletor plunged his sword through the dark lord's heart..... It..... It was just beautiful. With the cliffhanger, we saw a very sick King Adam receive a final showdown message from Skeletor, but that wasn't the kicker, the kicker was it appears that King Adam is actually King Hiss........ That's right, on top of shit getting real............shit just got real.
Explain It!:
Our story begins with King Adam putting his forces on the offensive as he plans on leading them to Castle Grayskull and in case anyone missed the cliffhanger of last issue where Adam was sporting a slithering tongue, it becomes pretty apparent that Adam is King Hiss when he gives his "Ra Ra" speech in King Hiss's armor. While our heroes are getting ready to attack, Skeletor is ready to burn the whole planet down and even tells the Goddess through Evil-Lyn (who's now a sorceress like Teela) that he's going to personally murder the deity. Yeah, that's a ballsy ass move, but after so many years of losing, I guess Skeletor is done with scampering off yelling "I'll Get You Next Time He-Man" and is going for gusto with his final act.
To get to Castle Grayskull, Adam, The Snake-Men and the Masters have to traverse one of Hordak's Fright Zones and as anyone who is familiar with this could tell you........ that's a tricky proposition. It's a good thing our heroes are sporting those nifty Dragon Walkers that make me think of many a day where I tried to recreate the toy commercial where the walkers overcome a crevasse........ but do to my shoddy child craftsmanship, it would usually crash down to the ground. Anyway, we get the Dragon Walkers here and it's almost like the toy commercial because they have to engage their crevasse crossing drive, but sadly that won't keep our heroes safe in crossing the Fright Zone....... The thing that will keep them safe is Moss Man kamikaze-ing the Zone and sacrificing himself to make the area pure again........ I miss Moss Man.
In the end, we see She-Ra escape Despondos with the help of Teela, but that isn't all. We also see our first glimpses of the Crystal Castle and I hope that little reveal is given the time to play out...... I say that because I fear for this series because not enough of you are picking up this book....... That's right I'm looking at you! To top our adventure off, we have ourselves another big cliffhanger. After Moss Man's sacrifice, King Adam runs off into the woods, where Rattlor follows and tells his King that he knows who he really is and that his allegiance lies with King Adam..........with that, King Hiss kills Rattlor and I'm immediately bummed because he was my favorite Snake-Man. As the issue ends we see Skeletor's new weapon: War Wraith, who's pretty much an Eternian super soldier of death and if that wasn't bad enough, we also see that it's actually Man-At-Arms, who's looking a little undead.
That's it for this issue of He-Man: The Eternity War and even though I loved the nostalgic feel of this issue due to me obsessing about my childhood and the awesome toys that encompassed it, this issue felt a little too much like a toy commercial than a actual story. Yeah, there were a few cool moments, but the Moss Man sacrificing himself part to only purify a single area of Eternia while the rest of the world is overrun with Fright Zones felt a little too nonchalant and kind of a waste...... just like Rattlor dying out of nowhere when it could have just been a random Snake-Man. Beloved characters dying for no real reason doesn't make the story more epic, it just comes off lazy. Even though I'm a huge fan of Pop Mhan's art, some of the pages in this come off a little rushed looking and don't really convey the awesomeness that I've come to expect from Mhan. The King Hiss development though is enough to keep me interested in this story and the return of She-Ra and how her destiny will play out in this saga is something that I can't wait to see.
Bits and Pieces:
The Eternity War continues to throw twists at you left and right, but with this issue's deaths of beloved characters coming off as more of a stunt than a way to really drive the story, it just leaves me wondering why it ever happened in the first place. This story still has an epic feel, but with what seems like more of a ploy to get readers due to all the nostalgia that this series offers, I don't know if this will be able to get new readers from what is offered.
Explain It!:
Our story begins with King Adam putting his forces on the offensive as he plans on leading them to Castle Grayskull and in case anyone missed the cliffhanger of last issue where Adam was sporting a slithering tongue, it becomes pretty apparent that Adam is King Hiss when he gives his "Ra Ra" speech in King Hiss's armor. While our heroes are getting ready to attack, Skeletor is ready to burn the whole planet down and even tells the Goddess through Evil-Lyn (who's now a sorceress like Teela) that he's going to personally murder the deity. Yeah, that's a ballsy ass move, but after so many years of losing, I guess Skeletor is done with scampering off yelling "I'll Get You Next Time He-Man" and is going for gusto with his final act.
To get to Castle Grayskull, Adam, The Snake-Men and the Masters have to traverse one of Hordak's Fright Zones and as anyone who is familiar with this could tell you........ that's a tricky proposition. It's a good thing our heroes are sporting those nifty Dragon Walkers that make me think of many a day where I tried to recreate the toy commercial where the walkers overcome a crevasse........ but do to my shoddy child craftsmanship, it would usually crash down to the ground. Anyway, we get the Dragon Walkers here and it's almost like the toy commercial because they have to engage their crevasse crossing drive, but sadly that won't keep our heroes safe in crossing the Fright Zone....... The thing that will keep them safe is Moss Man kamikaze-ing the Zone and sacrificing himself to make the area pure again........ I miss Moss Man.
In the end, we see She-Ra escape Despondos with the help of Teela, but that isn't all. We also see our first glimpses of the Crystal Castle and I hope that little reveal is given the time to play out...... I say that because I fear for this series because not enough of you are picking up this book....... That's right I'm looking at you! To top our adventure off, we have ourselves another big cliffhanger. After Moss Man's sacrifice, King Adam runs off into the woods, where Rattlor follows and tells his King that he knows who he really is and that his allegiance lies with King Adam..........with that, King Hiss kills Rattlor and I'm immediately bummed because he was my favorite Snake-Man. As the issue ends we see Skeletor's new weapon: War Wraith, who's pretty much an Eternian super soldier of death and if that wasn't bad enough, we also see that it's actually Man-At-Arms, who's looking a little undead.
That's it for this issue of He-Man: The Eternity War and even though I loved the nostalgic feel of this issue due to me obsessing about my childhood and the awesome toys that encompassed it, this issue felt a little too much like a toy commercial than a actual story. Yeah, there were a few cool moments, but the Moss Man sacrificing himself part to only purify a single area of Eternia while the rest of the world is overrun with Fright Zones felt a little too nonchalant and kind of a waste...... just like Rattlor dying out of nowhere when it could have just been a random Snake-Man. Beloved characters dying for no real reason doesn't make the story more epic, it just comes off lazy. Even though I'm a huge fan of Pop Mhan's art, some of the pages in this come off a little rushed looking and don't really convey the awesomeness that I've come to expect from Mhan. The King Hiss development though is enough to keep me interested in this story and the return of She-Ra and how her destiny will play out in this saga is something that I can't wait to see.
Bits and Pieces:
The Eternity War continues to throw twists at you left and right, but with this issue's deaths of beloved characters coming off as more of a stunt than a way to really drive the story, it just leaves me wondering why it ever happened in the first place. This story still has an epic feel, but with what seems like more of a ploy to get readers due to all the nostalgia that this series offers, I don't know if this will be able to get new readers from what is offered.
6.5/10
A 6.5? That's a D-? That seems a little harsh for how much you seemed to praise it in the review.
ReplyDeleteI know this will cause issues, but if you are going on a 10 point scale---5 is average which would make a 6.5 above average. Thinking about it on a grade school report card scale (which gives everything under a 6 an "F") doesn't really work here
DeleteI'm still interested in the story, I just don't think that this is one of the best chapters to it.
Delete