Nine days out from the June 5 theatrical release, the publishing arm of the Masters of the Universe tie-in program is the first piece of the rollout to actually land in customers’ hands. Two anchor titles hit retail within a week of one another, both set in the film universe rather than the broader he-man mythos.
The first is Teela: Daughter of Eternos, an original young-adult novel from New York Times bestselling author Mackenzi Lee, published by Simon and Schuster (under the Random House Worlds imprint pipeline) on June 2. The book opens four years after Skeletor decimates the kingdom of Eternos. Teela and a scattered remnant of refugees survive by never staying in one place, and the story turns on a desperate trip she takes to Darksmoke to bargain with the ancient dragon Granamyr. The price of that bargain is a dangerous alliance with Evil-Lyn, Skeletor’s second-in-command, who hands Teela the secrets of a single vial in exchange for a future promise: that the Heroic Warriors will someday help the sorceress overthrow Skeletor herself. The cover positions Teela in armor with the staff of Ka, flanked by the silhouettes of Man-At-Arms and Evil-Lyn.
Eight days later, Dark Horse Comics ships He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: The Wings of Fate #1, the first of a four-issue prequel miniseries. The book carries a June 10 on-sale date, $4.99 cover, 32 pages, 14+ rating, with writer Tim Sheridan (Masters of the Universe: Revolution), artist Will Sliney (Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren), colorist Israel Silva, and AndWorld Design on letters. The published solicitation hews closely to the film universe: “In the aftermath of Skeletor’s siege on Eternos, a down-and-out refugee gives sanctuary to a mysterious, injured falcon. Now, to save her life, he must embark upon a perilous journey through the Mystic Mountains and seek aid from the storied inhabitants of the realm of Avion.” Issue #2 follows July 29, with #3 and #4 staged across late summer and early fall.
A coffee-table volume, Masters of the Universe: The Art of the Film, is on Mattel’s slate for September 22 and is positioned as a visual celebration of the production design and concept art rather than a making-of. A separate manga-style graphic novel from TOKYOPOP, telling stories of the heroic warriors during the 15-year strife before Prince Adam returns to Eternia, is also part of the cross-publisher program but does not yet have a public on-sale date.
Read together, the slate front-loads two surfaces, prose and floppy, that arrive before opening weekend and stay on shelves through it. The Mattel publishing track is the only piece of the tie-in program that can take a customer beyond the theatrical runtime in week one, and the Sheridan run is the only sanctioned in-continuity comics extension of the film universe currently announced.
Sources
- He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: The Wings of Fate #1 product page, Dark Horse Comics
- Masters of the Universe (Film): Teela: Daughter of Eternos, Simon and Schuster product page
- Mattel reveals major Masters of the Universe publishing program, downthetubes.net
- Masters of the Universe tie-ins confirm major story details and tease 2 more epic characters, ComicBook.com
- Mattel unveils massive MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE publishing program ahead of theatrical film, The Comics Beat
- Dark Horse Comics and Mattel announce He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: The Wings of Fate (newsfeed)
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