Dina Reviews: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021)

 

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe! Or, MOTU to you and me! It’s one of the ultimate 1980s franchises, isn’t it? Unlike, say, Transformers or TMNT, it never really had the sort of big revival that re-inserted it into the public eye after its initial glory days was over. 

It wasn’t for lack of trying… you had the sci-fi continuation The New Adventures of He-Man in the 1990s, the Mike Young Productions reboot cartoon in the early 2000s, the “Classics” toyline in the 2010s, and the ABSOLUTELY PUTRID DC Comics series in the late 2010s… but with the possible exception of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, which really distanced itself from MOTU anyway, most of them have really only been noticed by the fanbase that’s already there. A fanbase that I have repeatedly tried to engage with but found to be pretty damn toxic and intolerant. The exact type of fans, in fact, that chased me away from the superhero comic fanbase… the type of fans who cry “RUINED FOREVER!” and “WOKE PANDERING TO THE SJWS!” the moment a franchise features anything but a white cishet dude in the lead and/or the female characters get to do stuff without the guys leading the way everywhere… or, horror of horrors, don’t all have perfect hourglass figures.

2021 saw two new attempts at a revival, both Netflix original series. First out, earlier this year, was Masters of the Universe: Revelation, helmed by Kevin Smith, which was angled as a continuation/finale to the classic  MOTU… and which got all the hatred from a whiny fanbase, but that’s neither here nor there right now. What I want to focus on is the second series, which is a complete re-imagining of the franchise, aimed at a younger audience to get some much needed fresh blood into the fanbase: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.