SPOILER Discussion - He-Man/ThunderCats Comics- SPOILERS!!

Looking forward to the conclusion! I am hoping this could spawn another Thundercats series!

 

I had a blast reading the final issue on ReadComics.net. It literally went out with a bang.

 

Yeah, it was pretty good! Really enjoyed the dimensions they visited. The art was well done and the story was fine. Not anything new, but enjoyable nonetheless. The ThunDera scene didnt really line up with the cartoon, I kinda wish the wrote it different as it would have been easily avoided. Really enjoyed this serie, hope there are more to come!

 

Given that this series only included the season 1 Thundercats, one can assume that this mini takes place before Thundercats Ho! However, its hard to say that since we do see the Thunderstrike vehicle. So how about this?

Lynx-O and company stayed on Third Earth during this mini and it takes place before the reforming of Thundera. That can explain why Lion-O acted the way he did during the Thundera scene.

 

That's a very good theory.

 

OK, so I FINALLY read this thing (got the Trade Paperback for Christmas).

Honestly, it was a pure and utter delight.

Its fan service all the way through, but if you are a fan of both cartoons, it definitely makes for a fun read.

The artwork is great, and I really liked a lot of the character pairings too. Of course Skeletor and Mumm-Ra was a must to pair up, and they were great. I loved the interactions between He-Man and Lion-O. And there are a few little gems thrown in for good measure, like Orko and Snarf, Teela and Cheetara, The Sorceress and Jaga (which I don't know about you, but that was one pairing I've always envisioned when thinking about a crossover between the two brands), Panthro/Tygra and Man-At-Arms, etc. Even something as simple as The Mutants and Skeletor's Evil Warriors ganging up on He-Man, or the big splash page in the final battle, creates a lot of great visuals and mixing of characters.

Also, I'll say this. I think Cringer kind of stole the show. His moment with Lion-O in the Pyramid was just plain awesome. I also really liked the interactions between Lion-O and Randor and some of the more emotionally driven moments.

The four leads (He-Man, Lion-O, Mumm-Ra, and Skeletor) were about as close to perfect as one could ask. And hey, I got all the things I wanted out of those four. We got He-Man Vs. Lion-O (terrific use of the Sight Beyond Sight there), He-Man Vs. Mumm-Ra (awesome way to incorporate the He-Man Transformation), and Skeletor Vs. The Thundercats (Skeletor's transform and The T-Cats riding into battle to face him got my heart racing, not going to lie). Oddly enough, we didn't really get Mumm-Ra Vs. Skeletor in a full fledged fight, but watching them backstab each other was neat and totally in character. And some of the images of He-Man and Lion-O working together were just beautiful images that not even my 6 year old imagination could have imagined.

For the most part, all the characters felt right. Maybe Mumm-Ra spoke in third person a tad too much, and maybe the initial meetings between Man-At-Arms/Panthor/Tygra and Cheetara/Teela were a bit harsher than I would have imagined, but other than that, the characters felt right, and I could hear the old voices come through while reading the dialogue.

I would have liked to see the side characters get a bit more. Granted, they had huge casts of characters to work with, and just seeing them all together was a delight, but it would have been nice to see a bit more material with say Evil Lyn and The Mutants. Or Teela and Cheetara (I kind of had the idea that maybe He-Man would hit on Cheetara and make Teela jealous, lol). Or even more Snarf and Orko. They barely interacted, and to me, that is one of the most obvious pairings to do, haha. They did have one great moment in issue 5 though, so there is that.

I also kind of dug the mystery narrators of each issue. When Skeletor was revealed as the first narrator, I was like "OK, lets see if I can guess all the other ones" and it made the read even more fun. If you don't care for the narrations, its easily skip-able as well.

And it was clear to me that the people that worked on this were fans and wanted to give other fans a huge treat. References like the Treasure of Thundera, The Golden Discs of Knowledge, just about all of the Heroic Warrior character toys getting to appear in battles and in the background (Snout Spout, Clamp Champ, and the Rock Men get to be in it? Sure, why not? lol), Tygra's Mind Powers (one awesome moment BTW), and even the Power Beyond Power line (from episode "Return to Thundera") all indicated that they understood and loved the material and used it to enrich the story, while also giving us little things to cheer about. And heck, I also liked tying the two mythologies together. Snake Mountain was made in honor of a lost Ancient Spirit of Evil? The Golden Discs of Knowledge were part of the Treasure of Thundera? Sure, why not? Castle Greyskull is the center of creation and its power led to the formation of the multi-verse? Makes sense to me! lol.

Oh and the artwork is great too. All the characters look distinct and recognizable enough as their classic selves (except oddly enough for Jackalman whose design was a bit off). And the coloring, pencil work, and shading all contribute to making everything look almost dream like. And yeah, this was a dream like scenario for a lot of us, so it was cool that it had that type of feel to it.

As for where to place this in the continuity, I like the idea of this taking place somewhat early in the history of T-Cats's series and somewhat late in the history of MOTU's series. At the latest, I'd say this story would predate Thundercats Ho! (possibly right after the Anointment Trials) and can be placed somewhere in MOTU Season 2, possibly within the last 30 episodes of 1985.

The reason I say that is that in this tale, He-Man is a full fledged hero and a legend that is trying to act like a kid as Prince Adam to hide his identity. He acts immature, when in reality, he is a seasoned warrior and an iconic hero to the universe. Now the timeline in the MOTU series is ambiguous (there was never even an origin episode) but to me, it makes sense that He-Man would be used to his position at this point and everyone is aware of what kind of hero he is. Also, in this tale, everyone finds out he's Prince Adam, which would probably mean it would have had to come following episode 130 and his appearances on She-Ra POP. Now for Thundercats, it works for this story to think of Lion-O as the 12 year old that has to grow up and act like a man and a leader before he's ready (something the comic does reference). I like that the inexperienced, young at heart Lion-O seems to learn from He-Man's example, and once he becomes wiser, he is able to pass on a bit of wisdom to He-Man too.

The only discrepancy is the inclusion of the Thunderstrike, which I've head-retconned as The Feliner since it basically serves a function to the story more akin to that vehicle instead of the Thunderstrike.

All in all, I wanted something fun and exciting and that's exactly what I got. This series was delightful, and hit all the right notes for me.

 

I got that paperback for my 32nd birthday (October 25th). I, too, enjoyed it, though I also would've liked to've seen the Feliner instead of the ThunderStrike in the story. I'm writing a fanfic in the spirit of He-Man/ThunderCats with a recap that suggests that the ThunderCats did indeed use the Feliner instead of the ThunderStrike to get to Eternia.