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Even a few months ago, if I told you about a movie that had a blond guy with gigantic muscles, a rainbow bridge between dimensions, and endless monsters and spaceships, you’d think I was talking about Thor. But this weekend, the description fits a non-Marvel flick, Masters of the Universe.
The similarity between the two properties isn’t entirely a coincidence. Masters of the Universe started out in 1982 as Mattel’s attempt to cash in on the popularity of Conan the Barbarian and Star Wars, launching a toy line that was part sword and sorcery and part sci-fi. When Mattel teamed with DC Comics to expand the stories that began as minicomics packed in with the action figures, they drew inspiration from not just Jack Kirby‘s original Thor comics at Marvel, but the Fourth World Saga that Kirby created at DC.
With the Thor franchise in a bit of a lurch after Taika Waititi‘s take has ended with Love and Thunder, Masters of the Universe can give the MCU some direction… provided that they don’t repeat the cinematic He-Man’s biggest mistake.
The Reign of King Kirby
Masters of the Universe takes place on the planet Eternia, where the lazy and weak Prince Adam transforms into He-Man when called upon to defend Castle Grayskull from the evil Skeletor. Aiding He-Man are his fellow warriors, such as the weapons master Man-at-Arms, the captain of the guard Teela, and the wizard Orko. Skeletor has his own horde of henchmen, including the hairball Beast Man and the robot pirate Trap Jaw.
Originally, Marvel’s Thor took the Norse mythology and gave it a superhero spin by tying the God of Thunder to frail human doctor Donald Blake. When the trickster Loki or the evil duo of Enchantress and Executioner threatened Asgard or Midgard, Donald Blake would tape his cane on the ground, transforming it into Mjolnir and summoning Thor.
Kirby used Thor as a place to indulge not just his love of high fantasy, but also to explore some of the scientific concepts he was also putting into Fantastic Four with Stan Lee. Kirby took those concepts even further when he went to DC, where he brought with him a rejected Thor pitch about Ragnarok brining an ending to Asgard and their rebirth as New Gods. The Fourth World saga introduced the warlike Orion and his father Darkseid, the former raised on the peaceful world of New Genesis while the latter holds tyrannical rule on Apokolips.
The mixture of high fantasy and science in Kirby’s work has continued to influence pop culture. Walt Simonson built on it for his acclaimed run on Thor, which released simultaneously with the first Masters of the Universe toys, and was the chief inspiration of Taika Waititi’s films. When Cannon Films produced a Masters of the Universe movie in 1987, director Gary Goddard looked not to the toys but to Kirby’s Fourth World as a source.
Kirby’s work forever links Masters of the Universe to Thor (and, by extension, The Fourth World). Now that Thor needs direction, Marvel may find it in the imitation.
Who Has the Power?
In its best moments, Masters of the Universe is unapologetically goofy. It features a mostly-naked super strong guy doing objectively awesome things, sometimes set to Queen’s theme from The Highlander. He punches monsters, lifts heavy stuff, and shouts catchphrases. He visits places called Snake Mountain and rides in spaceships, flying across a colorful sky.
Those scenes show exactly what the big screen Thor movie could be. While the original Thor film and its first sequel, The Dark World, have their charms, they never entirely captured the mix of sci-fi and fantasy the property required. They made that combination a little too grounded, a little Shakespearean; a decision that minimized the silliness. Thor: Ragnarok and Love and Thunder maximized the silliness, but only to make fun of it. The films constantly seemed to be apologizing for the fact that it was about Thor.
Sadly, Masters of the Universe too often made the same mistake. An early sequence of Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) struggling to wrest the power sword from comic shop statue invites viewers to condescend to the whole idea of muscley barbarians, in the same way that awkward banter between Skeletor (Jared Leto) and Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie) poke fun at bad guys who like being bad guys.
If they ignore all of those winking jokes, then whoever makes the next Thor movie has a perfect model in Masters of the Universe. Just let Chris Hemsworth play Thor as a muscle-man who likes to battle frost giants and massive serpents. If his next baddie is the Absorbing Man, then let the Absorbing Man be a strong bald guy in striped pants, who swings around a ball and a chain. Don’t make jokes about, don’t try to class it up. Just let it be the dumb, awesome adventure that so many Thor comics have chronicled.
Masters of the Universe didn’t quite hit the mark, but came closer than any Thor film so far. All the more reason for the original to give it a shot, letting the God of Thunder prove that he had the power long before He-Man ever existed.
Masters of the Universe is now playing in theaters worldwide.
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