Mer-Man

Mer-Man was in the first wave of Masters of the Universe figures in 1982, and his vintage card front carries the same two-word treatment every early figure got: "Ocean warlord!" That phrase survived. Twenty-seven years later Mattel used it again, unchanged, as the card title on the Masters of the Universe Classics release.

What it does not tell you is which side of the word "warlord" he is on, and that turns out to be the whole question with this character.

The Filmation series had no doubts. Alan Oppenheimer voices him from 1983, and the show casts him as the villain who owns any story that happens on or under water. In "Teela's Quest" his Shadow Beasts stand between Teela and the story of her mother. In "Search for the VHO" he disrupts a voyage to Selkie Island to get at a sonic device. In "City Beneath the Sea" the disappearance of King Randor's food ships leads He-Man and Man-At-Arms into an undersea city as captives. He is also in the room for the big ensemble villain pieces, "Diamond Ray of Disappearance" and "Evil-Lyn's Plot" among them.

He appears in 17 episodes of the Filmation series, modest screen time for an Evil Warrior. He is a specialist, brought in when the plot goes to sea.

Clipped from our own copy of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Jacob and the Widgets (1984), 6:38 to 8:20, 1 minute 42 seconds. Nothing is added and nothing is sped up. Copyright Mattel.

The Classics cardback, released in 2009, opens with the real name Squidish Rex and then gives the warlord a reason for serving: "Ruler of the undersea realms of Eternia, Mer-Man was forced to serve in the armies of Skeletor after his kingdom was destroyed in a battle with rival ocean clans."

Mattel's word is forced. The card has his kingdom destroyed in a war between ocean clans and him compelled into Skeletor's armies afterward, which makes him a deposed king rather than a recruit. Beast Man joined Keldor, and Trap Jaw was freed from prison by Keldor and later fought him for the top job; Mer-Man is written as the one who did not have a choice.

His enemies are other sea peoples, not the surface world. The war that ruined him was between ocean clans, and Skeletor is the consequence of Mer-Man's story more than its villain.

The card also says his allegiance with Skeletor brings him to the surface world more often than he would like, which is Mattel writing reluctance into a villain's job description. It closes by placing him in the sea of Rakash, waiting for Skeletor's call to arms.

Alan Oppenheimer voices Mer-Man throughout the 1983-1985 Filmation series, confirmed in that show's own credited cast lists alongside his better-known work as Skeletor and Man-At-Arms. That Filmation Mer-Man is the one this encyclopedia treats as canon, and the later series are covered here as other versions of him.

For the 2002 series, Scott McNeil is credited as Mer-Man in the IMDb full credits for "The Beginning," on top of Stratos, Beast Man, Clawful and Ram-Man in the same series.

In Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Mer-Man is voiced by Kevin Conroy, one of the last roles he recorded before his death in 2022. The credit is often confused with others in the same cast: Chris Wood voices Prince Adam and He-Man in Revelation, and Beast Man is Kevin Michael Richardson.