New Masters of the Universe comic will "reveal" origins of Skeletor

A writer at Slash Film talks about a new comic adapted from the old Masters of the Universe toy line and cartoon TV show of the 1980s, which is coming as a new live action movie appears to be in production:

"He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" has enjoyed a small renaissance over the past decade. ND Stevenson's animated series "She-Ra and the Princesses of Power" rebooted the female-driven "He-Man" spin-off, before Kevin Smith led a darker continuation of the original 1980s filmation cartoon: "Masters of the Universe: Revelation." (Both series streamed on Netflix.) The trend will culminate this June with a new "Masters of the Universe" live-action film, directed by Travis Knight ("Bumblebee") and starring Nicholas Galitzine as He-Man leading a cast unafraid of the franchise's "meme" status.

Mattel is betting on this movie bringing new attention to "He-Man." A new "Masters of the Universe" action figure line is underway, for one. /Film can also confirm that the company is collaborating with comic publisher Dark Horse for 12-issue comic series exploring the backstories of Eternia and its people: "Masters of the Universe: Genesis," beginning this August.

Since they mention Netflix, that's just the problem with these 2 prior items. They were woke from the start, and served as an example of what's gone wrong with all this "renaissance" of the past decade: there's no new IPs being developed, if at all. Instead, they go miles out of their way to turn older products inside out for the sake of leftist agendas. Did I mention the artwork in the She-Ra "remake" was stunningly awful? All because of apparent sex-negative hysteria, even as it served as a lesbian agenda. And this story appears to be taking the job of spotlighting the leading villain:

In past tellings, Skeletor was once a man named Keldor, the half-brother of Eternia's king (and He-Man's father) Randor. It remains to be seen how "Genesis" will iterate on this.

Why must we care? They haven't even actually told what the story's about, but if it turns out this is both as woke as the aforementioned modern cartoons, and even goes so far as to celebrate villainy, that's troubling. Indeed, why are we being asked to be excited about scripting origins for a criminal instead of a hero? Or even some civilian co-stars? That they chose a villain for the spotlight ought to be a red flag at this point. And lest we forget, "reveal" is not the best word to describe where they're going with a non-existent character regardless.

The 1980s produced some of the most memorable bad guys ever in American cartoons. There were the super-villain terrorists of Cobra and their Commander (Christopher Collins) in "G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero," as well as Megatron (Frank Welker) and his Decepticons — from the treacherous Starscream (Collins again) to the oh-so-cool Soundwave (Welker again) — in "Transformers." But of those, Skeletor (originally voiced by Alan Oppenheimer) is the most iconic, thanks to a name and design that just ooze evil camp. I'm a "He-Man" novice, but I'd recognize Skeletor anywhere.

And this sounds like more excuses to boost villainy, rather than heroes. If they really want to prove themselves capable of challenging scriptwriting, they'd develop origins for any heroic characters who may not have seen the emphasis, ditto the civilian co-stars. Similarly, the columnists writing these puff pieces would talk about how admirable the efforts were to characterize the heroes. I miss that part in the puff piece. And if that's how it's going to be, it's decidedly why it would be better to avoid the Dark Horse series and just let the whole thing sink back into the past again. That told, what's so special about kiddie cartoons, as opposed to something more sophisticated, I'll never know.