Netflix released 2 He-man properties, Masters of the Universe Revelations and Heman and the Masters of the Universe. So which one was better?
Masters of the Universe Revelations was a show that looked to expand on the popular cartoon from the 80s. If the 80s cartoon was to have a sequel, Kevin Smith was looking to make this show it. Unfortunately, this show was met with a lot of scrutiny as people felt misled by what they thought to be a He-man show. And because the main focus was instead Teela, this opened the door to questioning if the show was more trying to appeal to “woke culture” versus giving the fans what they were teased with believing they would get.
Then you have Heman and the Masters of the Universe. This show looked to reimagine the entire story arc of practically all of their characters. And designed in a style that was clearly aimed at young viewers. This show was clearly trying to be your kid’s and grandkid’s He-man, and was very different from the 80s version. I would say the only thing this show took from the 80s original show were the names of the characters. Other than that, they partially threw everything out and decided to make their own original series.
So which show was more appealing?
They both had their flaws. Masters of the Universe Revelations I pointed out above, but He-man and the Masters of the Universe had an animation style that I did not care for. And though I give the show credit for trying to do something original and different, it didn’t appeal to me. And this is not the case of me going “that’s not my He-man”. I appreciated the show trying to be different. But it just didn’t work for me.
So if I had to give the edge to one of them I’d say it would go to Masters of the Universe Revelations. Though it pulled a switcheroo on who we thought the story would be about, it nevertheless told a better story. And I think that this show may benefit slightly from He-man and the Masters of the Universe. Mainly because people may look at that and feel like Revelations wasn’t as bad.
Still to date the best version of He-man and the Masters of the Universe belongs to the Cartoon Network’s 2002 version.
