Masters of the Universe: Revelations
Eric S Brown
Masters of the Universe: Revelation, a new series, produced and written by Kevin Smith, was recently released on Netflix. Smith claimed that the series would be a direct sequel to the original show, and that long time fans would be blown away by how respectful to the source material it would be. That, however, was far from the truth – at least in regards to the five episodes currently available. Fans went nuts with anger and rage because both of the iconic characters of Masters of the Universe, He-man and Skeletor, were “killed off” in the first episode and the series actually centers around Teela and a new character who may be her girlfriend.
When Marvel had Elektra become Daredevil earlier this year, they were very open about it, promoting the passing of the mantle well in advance. Some hardcore DD fans may have cringed a bit but as soon as they read the story found themselves raving about Zdarsky’s new DD as much as Elektra fans were. She was the perfect successor to Matt Murdock and the story was amazingly written. Not only that, Matt Murdock even retained his identity as DD as well though only behind prison walls. Marvel’s way of showing some “girl power” was done right and done well while Masters of the Universe: Revelation utterly failed in its attempt to do the same, leaving everyone who grew up with the show feeling lied to and angry.
The last time I looked up the series scores on Rotten Tomatoes, via Google on 7/30/21, 44 (likely paid) critics gave it a glowing 95% of praise while over 3500 viewers rated the series a lowly 36%. Many have claimed the whole thing was a “bait and switch” to use the Masters’ platform in order to push an agenda. Whether that is true or not, what is true is that Revelation is indeed poorly written and at best a lackluster reboot of the popular franchise.
