We live in an era of comic book movies where the world is basically divided into factions of Marvel and DC. Both the groups hate each other. One hates the other for being blatantly simplistic and funny where as the other universe is criticised for being dark, gritty and shit. Considering that the Internet is a cesspool of hate where you have to pick sides, we’d like to introduce a third side to the debate.
Remember the first superhero we were all introduced to as kids? Yes, I’m talking about He-Man. He looks all set to make a comeback soon with a full-length episode titled “The Curse of the Three Terrors”.
By the power of Grayskull, he had the power. As Prince Adam, he was a boy-next-door who had a golden heart but no real power to stop the evil forces from taking over the world. He would then turn into a HUGE guy who was kind but strong enough to save the day.
We find it fascinating how He-Man never harmed anyone during the course of the show. He was just a regular guy who wanted to do something nice for the world and managed to do it by turning into a buffed up giant.
We remember how the line of He-Man toys was something every child would talk about in school. If you had a Skeletor, you’d instantly turn into a cool kid in the neighbourhood. He-Man was the first cultural phenomena for every ’90s kids.
What we often forget about He-Man is the fact that Teela was probably the best written female character of all time. Even Skeletor had a huge role to play in He-Man. Even when Skeletor was evil, there was a reason behind that. Some of the coolest characters of modern pop-culture have their roots in He-Man.
Bruce Timm and Paul Dini are best known for co-creating the amazing DC Animated Universe with their Batman, Superman and Justice League cartoons, but one of their first gigs was at Filmation. Filmation was the studio behind the He-Man cartoon. So, in a way, He-Man was the reason why we got the best animated universe in modern pop-culture history – Skeletor, Orko, Ram Man, Trap Jaw, Triclops, Man-At-Arms, Stratos, Beast Master, Evil-Lyn.
Orko was this lovable ghost-ish creature who was the comic relief in an otherwise serious show.
Trap Jaw still haunts our dreams with his pure evil badass-ery.
Evil-Lyn was probably the most kickass female character we’ve seen so far in cartoons and she didn’t even try to be intimidating. That shows a lot about her powers.
Whenever Prince Adam would use that iconic phrase to transform into He-Man (the most powerful man in the universe), he is actually acknowledging that his power is not his: it’s given to him by another. In this case, the magical castle of Grayskull. That’s the magic of He-Man.
It’s funny how the internet has a habit of holding on to things even if they are completely morphed into something else. Our beloved He-Man lives on in memes and videos now. In fact, some of the weirdest viral YouTube videos have been of He-Man.
He-Man might not hold up against the brilliant CGI driven cartoons of the modern era but it had a lot of heart. He’ll always be the watchful protector of Castle Grayskull.
Here’s the trailer for the new episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe:
It wasn’t just a toy and it wasn’t just a show either. For a lot of us, He-Man was our childhood. And even when Marvel and DC might rule our adult lives, He-Man will always have that special spot in our lives.