Written by Continuing this new reoccurring series!
For years Michael ”Smitty.81” Smith has been largely responsible for digitizing minicomics for the "Masters of the Universe" community. Now, HE-MANIA.COM will be officially cataloging his work, accompanied with his personal reviews.
COMIC:
REVIEW:
“By the Energon of Grayskull & Roll Out!”
STORY:
When the Masters of the Universe x Transformers figures were revealed, there were a lot of questions and criticisms about the Masters of The Universe characters “wearing the Transformers as armor” or “cosplaying.” This mini comic gives an in-universe explanation.
The story starts on Cybertron, home planet of the Transformers. It’s the final days of the war between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons. The Autobots flee the planet, but the Decepticons are in hot pursuit. If you are a fan of the original Transformers cartoon or comics you know how this goes. What those old Transformers stories don’t tell you is that the Autobots launched a historical archive while they were on their way to Earth. That archive lands on Eternia. When it crashes on Eternia, Man-at-Arms is there. While investigating and psychically talking to The Sorceress, he discovers a recording made my Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, but we don’t get to see much of the recording before the story moves along. Man-at-Arms begins to download data from the archive, but he’s cut short by Skeletor, where somehow he is already there and in Megatron Armor? Man-at-Arms and Skeletor have a brief fight, and Man-at-Arms is about to be executed when He-Man shows up! With his new armor, Skeletor quickly overpowers He-Man, but Man-at-Arms uses the time to get a very large cannon and blasts Skeletor, who makes a hasty retreat. This wraps up two “end credit stingers” one with He-Man and Man-at-Arms donning their Transformers armors Optimus Prime for He-Man and Bumblebee for Man-at-Arms. The in-universe explanation for why these Transformers were chosen is because that’s who was in the recording. We also see images of Megatron. The second ending has Skeletor summon Scareglow. They make a deal and Skeletor uses his Havoc Cannon to give Scareglow the Starscream armor.
The second mini comic picks up some time later, where Skeletor and Scareglow have learned how to make the Power of Grayskull into energon cubes. Skeletor boasts about how well his plan is going and Scareglow reminds him of their deal. Suddenly He-Man and Man-at-Arms show up. Skeletor blasts them and gloats over their quick demise, but they survived! There is a big fight and each character uses all of their accessories. He-Man gets the upper hand and opens the Autobot Matrix of Leadership which causes Skeletor’s Megatron armor to fall off. Scareglow basically turns into Starscream proclaiming “The mighty Skeletor has fallen. Now I am leader…” Scareglow teleports away and He-Man and Man-at-Arms take Skeletor into custody.
ART:
The art has a gritty quality that I prefer over the rubbery look of other mini comics, but some may find it too gritty. Everyone is well drawn, even the Transformers. What I find interesting is they seem to have used the character models from Masters of the Universe Revelation and Revolution animated series. We see He-Man with the “H” logo, the laser cannon that Man-at-Arms used is from Revolution and he’s got that scruffy unshaven look.
CONTINUITY:
Other than adding a bit to the Generation 1 Transformers lore, there is not much that connects this to any other Transformers or Masters of the Universe stories, and what is does add has no real impact on the Transformers stories.
FINAL THOUGHT:
I have always loved both Masters of the Universe and Transformers and seeing them together officially is an absolute blast! I think this story makes this odd, almost mismatched mash-up work. The writer(s) did an excellent job of bringing these two worlds together. I really hope we get some Transformers that turn into Masters of the Universe vehicles made by Hasbro out of this, as well as mini comics that deal with the loose thread of Scareglow still having his Starscream armor.
– Review by Michael ”Smitty.81” Smith @smitty-81
This needed a line or two explaining why Duncan and Skeletor made their armor to look like the Transformers.
Duncan probably did it as a way to honor someone he believes to be dead. Skeletor probably used magic to create and fuse the armor to him. Both the He-Man and Man-at-Arms figures have armor, but Skeletor and Scareglow have newly sculpted bodies. I didn’t mention it because they mini comic doesn’t address that. But as I pointed out Scareglow does take on some of Starscream’s personality traits, and Skeletor and Megatron are already so close in personality we wouldn’t notice.
@smitty-81 I wish this got a 4 comic story like Turtles of Grayskull did. The big ones from Dark Horse. It would have been fun.