Hey!! Kids Comics: Masters of the Universe Mini-Comics 2

Masters of the Universe Mini-Comics 2

Year: 1981

Cover artist: Alfredo Alcala

"King of Castle Grayskull"

Writer: Donald F. Glut
Illustrator: Alfredo Alcala

Publisher: Mattel

Issue: Series 1 --- 2 of 4

Plot: Once again Skeletor finds his way into Castle Grayskull (this time by using the two halves of the magical Power Sword as a key) and a battle with He-Man inside the castle follows.

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King of Castle Grayskull is the second mini-comic in the Masters of the Universe series, written by Donald F. Glut with art by Alfredo Alcala. The mini-comic was packaged with Man-At-Arms, Mer-Man, and Skeletor action figures.

Picking up where we left off before in He-Man and the Power Sword... Skeletor, now unable to get into Castle Grayskull, craves both halves of the Power Sword in order to unlock it and its secrets.

Lurking around on the parapits of Grayskull, Skeletor creepily spies on Teela. She has been entrusted in a new role as protector and guardian of the Castle by The Spirit of Grayskull. Overhearing the Spirit foolishly reveal the locations of the halves of the Power Sword, Skeletor goes off to get them so he can be king!

It doesn't take long for him to find them either... With the completed sword in hand, Skeletor pauses just long enough to disguise his face with gray clay before entering the castle. It seems this is enough to fool Teela even though he is still wearing his Skeletor get-up! She assumes Skeletor must be the new king simply because his face resembles the facade of the castle! After Teela shows off all the secrets of the castle, they end up in the throne room.

As soon as Skeletor assumes the throne, he imprisons Teela, dropping her through the trap door into the dungeons! He-Man finally gets in on the action, but it doesn't take long before he too joins Teela in the dungeon after being tricked by Skeletor. The two warriors manage to break free because Skeletor has failed to strip He-Man of his strength enhancing harness before imprisoning him. As they fight off an army of empty suits of armor, brought to life by Skeletor's magic, Skeletor decides to come down to gloat over them, which ends up being his undoing. With Skeletor distracted, Teela is able to disarm him, allowing He-Man to pitch him off the roof of the castle. Realizing his defeat, Skeletor beats a hasty retreat.

There is quite a bit going here and some of it doesn't make a great deal of sense. Skeletor clearly has no real plan or any idea what he’s doing! In the first book, he wanted Teela so he could make her his bride now, with Teela all set to serve him, the first thing he does is drop her down a pit! Battle Cat makes his first appearance but he is just animal, albeit loyal only to He-Man.

Stratos and Mer-Man both get to show up in their first official appearances. However, Stratos doesn't get to do anything and poor Mer-Man, he is just abandoned by Skeletor to get his ass kicked by He-Man and Battle Cat!

This story's primary objective seems to be just showing off the Castle Grayskull playset with Skeletor being allowed to play with all of its special features and accessories.

With Skeletor dedeated, the Spirit of the Castle takes possession of the Power Sword and, perhaps realizing its previous hiding places left a lot to be desired, sends them off into another dimension. Telling the heroes that it could be centuries before the true King shows up, he calls them "Masters of the Universe" and bids them go and continue to fight evil.

The story concludes with the Spirit musing over an interesting idea, namely that it is He-Man who is destined to one day join the two halves of the power sword and become King of Castle Grayskull, an idea that never really went anywhere after this.

Glut presents a pretty dull stereotypical tale here, only Alcala's artwork saves it. King of Castle Grayskull's cover is probably the best-illustrated one of the set, giving us a look at Battle Cat without his helmet.

	Here is the whole comic for you to download and read as a CBR file, just follow the link on the left. CBR files hold comic book pages as images in a compressed archive format enabling them to be viewed, sequentially, from within a comic book reader program or app such as CDisplayEx.
DOWNLOAD CBR FILE

What are your thoughts on today's adventure? Did you collect Master of the Universe figures back in the day? What storylines did you invent for them? Lets hear from you in the comments section below!