He-Man & the Masters of the Multiverse #2 Review

Writer: Tim Seeley
Art Team: Dan Fraga, Richard Friend, Matt Yackey, Saida Temofonte
Release Date: December 18, 2019
Cover Price: $3.99

Keldor on Keldor Crime

He-Man & the Masters of the Multiverse kicked off last issue with a big few surprises.  The big twist was that for the most part a version of Keldor, a.k.a. Skeletor, is our main point of view character. The fun doesn't stop there, because the versions of He-Man we do get are all sorts of crazy, with 80's movie He-Man, app He-Man, and even an evil He-Man all running around for various reasons. It all created a fun issue that made me glad for He-Man's return to comics, so lets get back into it.




This issue begins where last issues cliffhanger ended, with our rag-tag group of multiversal heroes smack dab in the middle of the New Adventures of He-Man universe, attempting to track down Hellskull He-Man (Anti He-Man). Movie He-Man asks Keldor to use what he can of his magic skills to locate Hellskull He-Man, which he does successfully, intercut with some scenes of a fight with New Adventures He-Man versus his villains, all as Hellskull He-Man works his way to the ships power source.  Still with me here?  Its a fun start to the issue none the less, with a nice mix of action and exposition, and a bit of a reason to continue to root for Keldor, which can be a hard thing to accomplish.

While Keldor was using his magic he alerts the others that he also picks up on another presence, which happens to be this universes' Skeletor, who uses a combination of technology and magic to be a special kind of monstrosity hybrid. Keldor and the He-Man crew run into Skeletor, and his lacky Crita, causing a bit of a dust-up, which how it transitionally played out confused the pants off me, but quickly resolved the fight, and sets Keldor and Skeletor off together.  Meanwhile, New Adventures He-Man finally encounters HellSkull He-Man, and like the He-Men before him, isn't able to muster much of a fight at all.  Skeletor steps up next to the plate, who after stealing a power boost from Keldor, also quickly perishes at the Hands of Anti He-Man.

The book begins its conclusion with the ship somehow not crashing in the end, Keldor all fired up about the recent events that took place at the hands of Anti He-Man, with New Adventures He-Man and Skeletor dead, and the Power of Grayskull in this universe absorbed as the heroes failed to stop our villain.  We get a similar send-off as last issue from there, off to the next world type thing, as it seems this universe is taken completely over by Skeletor and his crew, with a He-Man nowhere in sight, so it should be interesting how this plays out next issue.

The art looks great, and each He-Man has a completely unique look, even when they are on the same page, you're never confused regarding who is who.  The same goes with Skeletor(s).  I look forward to continuing this series to see how the art team continues down this multiversal path.

There are a few nitpicks in general I have regarding this issue, and overall so far with the series, its mainly that some of the outside the box callouts are fun, however, if you arent familiar with that version of the particular He-Man I think it affects your enjoyment of the issue a bit. Obviously, I'm more into an issue I'm picking up the callouts and easter eggs on as opposed to one where they are going over my head to a degree. New Adventures of He-Man is a tough one for me, as I almost totally forgot it existed at all, and this coming from someone who was a HUGE He-Man fan as a kid, so I didn't get as much out of this as I did the previous issue where I knew more going in. I also think with the spotlight so heavily on Keldor so far, fun characters like Movie He-Man are getting no love in this issue, and that's a bit of a shame since I looked forward to dealing more with him, but we'll see how this all progresses.

Overall, He-Man & the Masters of the Multiverse continues to be a fun jaunt through He-Man's past, present, and future type universes, with an interesting team of heroes, set up to take us on this journey. This issue mimicked the firsts issue in style and pacing a bit making everything a bit less of a surprise here, but enjoyable none the less.  If you're a He-Man fan that understands every single callout made regarding New Adventures of He-Man though I think you get slightly more out of this issue than I did.  I'm still siked to see where this story progresses and suggest He-Man fans, especially very well versed ones, check this out.

7.8/10