UK London Editions Comics
Issue #10
Release Date: July 31, 1986
Stories:
City of Glass
The Forgotten Army, Part Three
When Strikes... The Faker
Cover by: José María Ortiz Tafalla
This issue's cover features a scene from the story "When Strikes... The Faker".
The first noticeable thing about this issue’s intro page is that the regular “Welcome, Young Warriors” heading is in a smaller font than usual due to the larger amount of text in the editorial. In this editorial, Scrollos promotes the appearances by He-Man and the Masters of the Universe at various Arndale Centres around the UK, with a special prize being offered to fans who take along an issue of the MOTU comic. And courtesy of Brian Clarke, here are two photos from the Arndale shows:
If you were lucky enough to go to one of the Arndale shows, feel free to email me and share your memories!
Story 1: “City of Glass”
Writer: Brian Clarke
Art: José María Ortiz Tafalla
Synopsis: Hordak and his Horde inch their way through the woods near Eternos City, stopping when they are near enough to covertly observe the city. Hordak explains his plan – to turn the whole city into glass using the Crystal of Crystals. Hordak suspects that He-Man may be immune to the effects of the Crystal, so he has sent Modulok to spy separately on the city and notify him when He-Man has left. Soon, Modulok joins the other Horde members and tells Hordak that He-Man has left the city with Sy-Klone. So Hordak uses his Horde Mortar to launch the Crystal of Crystals above Eternos. It explodes in the air above the city, and rains its vapour of deadly dust down on the city, turning all the people and buildings to glass. Meanwhile, as He-Man and Sy-Klone patrol the Murky Mountains, He-Man receives a telepathic summons from the Sorceress telling him to return to Eternos City, which is in great danger. He-Man and Sy-Klone return to the city and are shocked to see it has all turned to glass. Hordak then reveals himself and presents his Noise Machine, which when turned on, will emit a sound loud enough to shatter the entire city at once. Hordak threatens to turn the Noise Machine on if He-Man makes any attempt to stop him, but claims that if He-Man leaves Eternia, he will spare the city by using an Antidote Shell to return Eternos to normal. He-Man accepts defeat and agrees to leave Eternia for the sake of the people’s safety. He-Man and Sy-Klone go to Castle Grayskull, where they use one of the space portals to transport them to the planet of Rebba, their new home. As Sy-Klone laments that they had no choice but to leave Eternia in the hands of Hordak, He-Man points out that while they agreed to leave, they said nothing about not returning, and immediately turns back to settle the score with Hordak. Outside Eternos, Hordak is using a set of small rocks to enter the city by scraping them together, the sound from the rocks shattering the glass gates of the city. He-Man and Sy-Klone observe from a distance, and realize they must find a way of attacking Hordak without making a sound and thus risking the city’s destruction. Sy-Klone spins at super speed around the Horde, creating a vacuum that prevents sound from travelling. This gives He-Man time to retrieve the Horde Mortar and the Antidote Shell, which he launches above the city, restoring Eternos to normal. The restored Heroic Warriors then emerge from the city, ready to deal with the Horde, and Hordak retreats with his henchmen. He-Man and the Heroic Warriors rejoice in their victory and prepare to repair the city gates to prevent the evil forces from gaining entry.
Review: Hordak is back to his usual type of scheme in this story, springing his latest scientific invention on the heroes, and this particular scheme is probably his deadliest yet. Throughout many of the early issues, Hordak’s schemes were relatively basic when compared to those of Skeletor, often foiled much more easily as he underestimated He-Man’s strengths and gradually grew accustomed to the powers of the Masters. Here, however, he enacts probably his most dastardly scheme yet by using the Crystal of Crystals to turn the whole of Eternos City to glass, so that it can be destroyed potentially by a single sound.
As with previous Horde-based stories such as Issue #5’s “Hordak’s Assault” and Issue #7’s “Droid of Destruction”, this story begins with Hordak explaining the scheme to his henchmen, and Grizzlor comically misunderstanding the scheme, to Hordak’s annoyance. This technique is a useful expositional tool to set the scene for the reader, whilst fleshing out the characters of Hordak and Grizzlor, the latter very much the bumbling fool to Hordak’s megalomaniacal leadership.
Modulok, so far the least-developed Horde member in the comic, has here been assigned the role of spy, reporting back to Hordak when He-Man has left the city so it is safe for the Horde to attack. Notably, Modulok is drawn here in a one-headed form, with his single head being the second head that came with the action figure rather than the first. It is very rare that Modulok is drawn solely with this head; the familiar fanged head being the far more common, and it is therefore great to see the comic making imaginative use of the different forms into which the action figure could be assembled.
The image of the people and buildings of Eternos all being turned to glass as the dust from the crystal rains down upon them is very visually striking and really creates the sense of the city being in severe peril. When He-Man and Sy-Klone arrive on the scene, they urgently stop their vehicles, for the vibrations from their engines would be enough in themselves to shatter the city.
Hordak blackmails He-Man and Sy-Klone into leaving Eternia, by telling them he will destroy the city with his Noise Machine if they remain, but will spare the city and its people if they agree to leave. He-Man immediately appears to accept defeat by agreeing to leave, but in true ‘thinking person’s superhero’ fashion, he has a trick of his own up his sleeve, and makes no promise about not returning. A nice deadpan comic moment follows when He-Man and Sy-Klone arrive on their supposed new home of the planet of Rebba, only to immediately turn back as He-Man reveals the catch in his promise.
The story’s resolution, in what has become a solid standard of the UK Comics by this point, makes use of real world science to provide a conclusion that is both entertaining and educational for the young readers.
As Hordak uses the sound of rocks scraping together to crack open the gates of the city, Sy-Klone helps counter the attack by spinning so fast that he creates a vacuum around the Horde that prevents sound from travelling, enabling He-Man to swipe the Horde Mortar from the villains and launch the Antidote Shell into the air to restore the city to its normal state. As soon as the odds are tipped against him, Hordak retreats with his henchmen, and the Heroic Warriors emerge from the city.
It would have been a nice touch to have had at least one panel showing all the Heroic Warriors themselves turned to glass by the effects of the crystal – this would have really conveyed the urgency of this situation by placing the emphasis on how He-Man and Sy-Klone really are Eternia’s only hope. But due to the limitations of the 5-page format, it is easily forgivable that this element of the story was not covered in more detail; we still have an extremely entertaining story with all the hallmarks of a great London Editions MOTU story – He-Man employing quick thinking and logic to save the day, and a scientific solution to the evil threat. Also worth mentioning is Man-At-Arms’ remark in the final panel, about how had Hordak been brave enough to make his attack while He-Man was inside Eternos, he may have won – thus indicating that despite Hordak’s reservations, He-Man may not have been immune to the effect of Hordak’s crystal after all. By this point, Hordak is getting noticeably craftier and cleverer with his schemes, and is easily on a par with Skeletor as the joint strongest threat to He-Man and the Heroic Warriors – and his schemes can only get more deadly from here.
****
This issue’s Master Mail sees a question from a reader confused about the differences in Modulok’s number of heads across different stories. When Scrollos explains Modulok’s shape-changing abilities in his answer, he makes mention of how sometimes Modulok can even have NO head – referencing the back of the Modulok action figure card, which did show several shapes where Modulok appeared headless. He was never shown in such a form in the comic but it is certainly interesting to think what they could have done with this. We also get our first official confirmation that there is a new She-Ra comic in the works! (Brian Clarke was writing the stories for the She-Ra comic whilst working on this particular issue, and due to the increasing workload, more writers were required for the MOTU comic - so a few issues from here we were to see stories from new writers alongside Brian's.)
****
Story 2: "The Forgotten Army, Part Three"
Writer: Brian Clarke
Art: José María Ortiz Tafalla
Synopsis: As the Heroic and Evil Warriors engage in battle in Eternia’s past, Roboto, in the strange universe of the evil Polk, uses a Time-Scope on Polk’s computer to locate He-Man and the other heroes. He is amazed to find something even more important – the Elders of Eternia, at the moment that Skeletor was about to destroy them. Roboto uses the Time-Scope to snatch the Elders from their time period before Skeletor can destroy them, and brings them to Polk’s Power-Drainer. Roboto explains to the Elders what has happened, but once he has finished, the Power-Drainer comes under attack from Polk’s army. The leader of the Elders, Keclar, realizes that if Castle Grayskull has been built in the current time period, then they will be able to access its power to stop Polk’s plan. He creates a force field around himself and the other Elders, and they emerge from the Power-Drainer, channelling the power of Grayskull to counter Polk’s army. The army begins to fade away, returned to their own time period, and then Polk himself fades away to the source of his creation. Keclar then summons the power of Grayskull to return the Elders, as well as the Heroic and Evil Warriors, to their natural time zone. As soon as Skeletor realizes what has happened, he retreats with his minions, and He-Man prepares to lead the heroes back to Eternos to deal with the threat of Hordak’s drilling machine. But Roboto tells him the Elders have already taken care of that problem – and indeed, at that moment, the Horde have found themselves transported way off course to a foul swampland, the drilling machine rendered useless, leaving them with no choice but to wade through the swamp back to the Fright Zone, perplexed over what has happened.
Review: The conclusion to the UK Comics’ first multi-part epic is a striking and gripping one with lots of great twists and turns. With all having seemed lost for the heroes at the end of part 2 in Issue #9, part 3 begins by revealing what really happened to the Elders at the moment when Skeletor’s spell, intended to kill them, appeared to have an even stronger effect than he planned, causing them to disappear altogether. We return our attentions to Roboto, the sole member of the Heroic Warriors who had been immune to the effects of the Power-Drainer back in Part 1 (see Issue #8) and thus took it upon himself to single-handedly foil Polk’s plan.
A recurring theme in the UK Comics’ portrayal of Roboto was that his state as a non-living mechanical being frequently proved advantageous, rendering him immune to various forms of evil magic and science and thus able to take it on himself to save the day. He was a character who frequently shone throughout the duration of the UK Comics, clearly one of the Heroic Warriors’ most valuable assets and indeed most powerful warriors. This story was to be the first of many where he would use his robotic nature, as well as his super-fast calculation skills and logical thinking, to save the day. And he is also honoured to be the first member of the Heroic Warriors (apart from He-Man) to meet the Elders of Eternia, when he frees them from the moment in time in which Skeletor was about to destroy them.
The Elders, having been imprisoned by Skeletor in Part 2, are now free to act for themselves, and although they have yet to see their planned creation, Castle Grayskull, completed in their own time period, the knowledge that it exists in the time period they have currently been transported to enables them to use its power to their advantage. And thus, we get a demonstration of the power of Grayskull itself, the very power we see He-Man call upon in every issue. We now see it harnessed by the Elders themselves, the very beings who set the current saga of the Masters of the Universe in motion.
As the Elders’ leader, Keclar (his name an anagram of writer Brian Clarke’s surname), leads the Elders against Polk and his army, you can’t help but respect them as they hover effortlessly in the force field, arms calmly by their sides as they beam the power of Grayskull through their eyes at the advancing army. These really are the most powerful beings in the universe.
The effects of the power return the warriors of Amerios Island to their own time period, while Polk begins to fade away, apparently returning to where he was created. Where exactly this is, and how exactly he was ‘created’ is never specified, and we are left wondering exactly where Polk came from and what was the real story behind his desire to conquer the universe. Is he a mortal who learned the ways of magic, or is he a supernatural being from birth? The latter would seem the most likely, and as a being with such tremendous power over both space and time, it would certainly have been interesting to have seen a story where he made a return appearance, giving us the chance to learn more about him. Sadly this was not to be; he was never mentioned or seen again after this epic story.
With Polk gone, Roboto is now ready to use the Time-Scope to restore the Eternian warriors to their own time period, but the Elders are capable of seeing to that themselves, and for the one and only time we see a character other than He-Man call on the power of Grayskull, as the famous phrase is uttered by Keclar himself. It is perhaps unfortunate that the Elders are themselves returned to their own time period at the point that the Heroic and Evil Warriors reappear, for it would certainly have been an epic moment to have seen the Elders confront Skeletor and the villains themselves, as well as the heroes being able to meet them and thank them for saving them. Due to the constraints of space within the comic we do not get such a scene, but it is no big deal, for the Elders have most certainly made their presence known and felt and given us a strong impression of themselves as the super-powerful beings who set in motion the entire saga that we are reading about. We know we will be seeing more of them, and any reader will be intrigued to see them again.
Not only have they cancelled out the effects of Polk’s spell, but the Elders have even seen to the one remaining problem of Hordak, seen way back in Part 1 (Issue #8) attacking Eternos City in his drilling machine. They have transported the Horde to a foul swampland miles from anywhere and rendered their drilling machine useless, and the epic saga comes to an end with a confused Horde trudging their way through the swamp, perplexed as to what has gone wrong. Indeed, what has gone wrong for them is the Elders, the great power of Grayskull that they are really dealing with.
And so ends “The Forgotten Army”, a landmark story for the UK comics as its first three-part epic, a time travel conundrum that brings together a great cast of heroes and villains, in the process finally exploring Eternia’s ancient past, the roots of the Eternian saga of good vs evil, and introducing the Elders, the supreme beings behind the power of Grayskull. Since the Elders were only vaguely alluded to in most MOTU media throughout the 80s, the UK comics play a unique role by establishing them as engaging and memorable characters in their own right, and for any reader of the UK comics, Keclar and his team will remain the definitive Elders of Eternia to this day.
“The Forgotten Army” is in itself a complex story that would quite probably have been rather confusing for the comic’s younger readers – and it’s all the better for that reason, for by confusing the younger readers, it also intrigues them and enhances their fascination with the world of Eternia. “The Forgotten Army” is a true epic and an example of the London Editions comics at their very best.
****
Story 3: “When Strikes… The Faker”
Writer: Brian Clarke
Art: Amador Garcia
Synopsis: For weeks, rumours have been circulating around Eternia about He-Man attacking innocent villagers and committing acts of great evil. Although most believe this is nothing more than a lie spread by Skeletor to turn the people against He-Man, Prince Adam and Man-At-Arms have been summoned to a small fishing hamlet that has found itself under attack from He-Man himself. As they approach the village in a War-Ship, they see the enraged He-Man smashing apart the buildings in the village, before attacking the War-Ship itself by hurling rocks at it. The rocks smash into the ship, and Adam and Man-At-Arms dive overboard, swimming to the shore. As Man-At-Arms tends to the injured villagers, Adam uses the Sword of Power to transform into He-Man and goes to confront the imposter who has somehow assumed He-Man’s exact appearance. The imposter immediately attacks him, revealing his name to be the Faker. Completely confident in his strength, Faker hurls a large rock at He-Man, expecting to finish him off, but as He-Man smashes the whole rock into fragments with one mere blow of his fist, Faker is astonished at just how strong He-Man is. He rips a tree trunk from the ground and attempts to use it to flatten He-Man, but He-Man grabs hold of the trunk and uses it to hurl Faker over his head and into a nearby lake. As Faker emerges from the water, he begins to revert to his true form, which still resembles He-Man, but his skin has taken on a blue tone. He attacks He-Man, gripping him in a head lock, but He-Man proves stronger than his adversary and hurls Faker into a rock face. When Faker realizes he is not strong enough to beat He-Man, he finally offers an explanation, revealing that he is the product of a spell by Skeletor and was created for the sole purpose of destroying He-Man. He is able to copy He-Man’s exact shape for a short time, before reverting to his true form. Refusing to reveal more, he vows to return for a rematch and deals a swift kick to He-Man’s chest before fleeing the scene. Faker begins to climb the rock face, and He-Man pursues him, realizing Faker is too dangerous to be allowed to roam free. But when Faker reaches the top of the rock face, he begins hurling boulders at the people below, preventing He-Man from following him by having to go to the villagers’ aid. He-Man uses the broken tree trunk to divert the rocks from the villagers, until there are no rocks left and Faker flees. Man-At-Arms then appears, telling He-Man he has tended to the injuries suffered by the villagers and their work is complete. He-Man says he will arrange for materials to be sent to the village to rebuild the damaged buildings, but he is concerned that Faker will be returning for a rematch very soon, and fears that Skeletor will make him stronger and that next time he may win the fight.
Review: One of the earliest and most enigmatic villains from the Mattel MOTU toy line finally makes his UK Comics debut – and this unique portrayal of Faker, or ‘The Faker’ as the London Editions Comics were to call him, is in this reader’s opinion by far the best of all portrayals of the character across all media. And not only does his debut story break new ground for the character, but it is also very notable for being the first story in the UK Comics to depict direct, full-on violence as He-Man and Faker engage in what is by far the comics’ most detailed fight sequence up to this point. The London Editions Comics have until now been very careful about following Mattel’s ‘no violence’ guidelines, only lightly pushing the boundaries by having direct physical injuries depicted extremely subtly or implied rather than shown. In “When Strikes… The Faker” all subtlety is unapologetically thrown out the window as the story gladly shows us He-Man and Faker almost literally smashing one another to pieces. He-Man has until now been presented very much as a thinking person’s superhero, using his brains rather than brawn to solve most conflicts. But when faced with a character created in his very image, who is almost the exact mirror of him in strength, there is no room for brains – only his muscles can save the day this time.
As the cover story for this issue, “When Strikes… The Faker” gives us a great cover image depicting He-Man attacking Prince Adam, throwing rocks at him from the shore. This could appear at first to be running the risk of doing that very thing the UK Comics have been extremely careful to avoid so far – i.e. repeating storylines, since we saw an evil He-Man attacking his own alter ego only three issues back, in Issue #7’s “Double Split”. But despite this recurring scenario, the premise of this story is in fact very different – rather than splitting our hero into two separate beings, this time Skeletor has created an evil He-Man of his own, with the sole intent of destroying the original He-Man – and it’s clear throughout this story that He-Man is facing literally his strongest opponent to date.
Although it is never stated nor hinted at, I personally like to think that Skeletor was inspired to create Faker after his encounter with the evil He-Man in “Double Split”. After he had used his magic to destroy the evil double of He-Man, Skeletor lamented that had he realized this He-Man was evil, he would not have destroyed him, for an evil He-Man could potentially have been his greatest ally. So it makes sense to think he was inspired to use his powers to create an evil He-Man of his own, to stand the strongest chance of beating his greatest enemy.
One of the areas where “When Strikes… The Faker” is particularly distinctive is in the fact that Skeletor does not actually appear in the story, although he is mentioned. Rather than having Skeletor present Faker as his ‘newest creation’, instead Faker is treated as more of an independent villain, and is also an object of great mystery, the premise being He-Man and Man-At-Arms’ investigation of this evil He-Man who has somehow appeared out of nowhere – it is not until the second to last page that we find Faker is Skeletor’s creation, and even then we are not told the full story of exactly how Skeletor created him. As well as helping render Faker a particularly mysterious and intriguing villain, this is also a first for the UK Comics, being the first story not to feature either of the two leading villains, Skeletor and Hordak. While each story so far during the first ten issues has been either a Skeletor story or a Hordak one (with the occasional team-up), Faker has the honour of being the first villain other than the two lead ones to carry a story in his own right.
The story wastes no time in presenting Faker as convincingly, and almost disturbingly, maniacal and psychotic. Almost reminiscent of the 1984 World MOTU Annual (published in the same building as the London Editions Comics, with World being another subsidiary of Egmont) in which Faker was stated outright to be a dangerous mass murderer, it is clear from the start that Faker is an insane killing machine, and unlike most other villains, he is no coward – this guy really does mean business. He sinks the royal War-Ship with one single heavy rock and sends Adam and Man-At-Arms swimming for their lives, and while the destruction he has committed in the fishing village is only hinted at rather than shown, it is clear that Faker has severely injured many innocent civilians and caused great devastation all single-handedly.
With such a dangerous villain on the loose, this is clearly no place for Prince Adam – so Adam quickly runs off and becomes He-Man, and when He-Man finally emerges to confront his impostor, Faker non-hesitantly welcomes this fight with open arms – he clearly already possesses an immense hatred for the man in whose image he has been created, and is determined to surpass him. While the artwork does not depict Faker’s punch connecting directly with He-Man (possibly to keep Mattel satisfied their rules were being adhered to), there is no question as to what has happened, as we get our first instance of direct physical violence in the comics. Faker is shown as extremely over-confident – created to emulate the most powerful man in the universe, he has clearly not encountered anyone yet who is capable of beating him, but when faced with the strength of the real He-Man, Faker is shocked at just how powerful this particular opponent is, and how he is capable of smashing an entire rock with a quick strike of his fist. Of course, were Faker to be equal in strength to the real He-Man, this would underestimate the power of Grayskull and He-Man’s role as the strongest man in the universe – so Faker, whilst being extremely powerful, is clearly not quite as powerful as the real He-Man.
The fight between the two identical adversaries tears apart a landscape, and as He-Man uses a torn tree trunk to hurl Faker over his head and into a nearby stream, Faker’s true form is finally revealed as the water seemingly cancels out his emulation of He-Man’s exact shape. However, this is where the black and white format of the comics’ pages proves particularly disadvantageous, as the artists are unable to show that Faker is now blue – so instead of his true colouring, the artists are forced to use deeper shadowing over Faker’s body to differentiate him from He-Man, and it is only He-Man’s expositional dialogue, stating that Faker is “blue and very evil-looking” that indicates Faker’s colour scheme to the reader.
Faker is far from finished with He-Man at this point, and we get probably the comics’ best action sequence yet as Faker smashes the very ground with his fists, causing He-Man to lose balance and enabling him to grip He-Man in a headlock. He-Man manages to lift Faker above his head and hurl him into a nearby rock face, but even then Faker is reluctant to admit defeat. Since we are used to Skeletor and Hordak frequently running away as soon as physical confrontation with the heroes appears inevitable, it is refreshing to see a villain who absolutely refuses point blank to flinch from a fight with the hero. It is only when he sees He-Man smash an entire rock to fragments seemingly by merely gripping it in both hands that Faker finally becomes convinced to resign from the fight and explain to He-Man exactly who he is.
All Faker reveals about his true nature is that he is the product of a spell by Skeletor, and this is a particular area where his UK Comics portrayal stands out from those of other media. Mattel marketed the character of Faker as a robot, labelling him the “Evil robot of Skeletor”, and to this date, this has been the normal portrayal of Faker across most MOTU media. While he is a perhaps surprisingly underused character across all media, when he does appear, he is generally shown to be a robotic creation of Skeletor who is completely subservient to his master – and unfortunately, usually not all that competent at doing his assigned job of impersonating He-Man. The one other medium aside from the UK Comics to depict Faker as a magical creation rather than a robot has been the Filmation cartoon series, and his brief five-minute cameo in a single episode of the cartoon (season 1’s “The Shaping Staff”) has frequently come under criticism for being far too brief and arguably putting the character to waste. Yet while the character was handled poorly by Filmation, having Faker as a magical creation rather than a robot makes much more sense from a story standpoint – this allows him the capability of experiencing human feelings and emotions, and indeed the innate primal rage of the UK Comics’ Faker is his defining trait – he truly resents He-Man for being the one man stronger than himself, and is maniacally determined to overcome him. This aspect of the character was built on beautifully in this story’s sequel, “Return of the Faker” in Issue #18, and it really seems a shame the character could not have been put to more use during the UK Comics’ run.
Unmistakably determined to give the middle finger to Mattel’s ‘no violence’ rules, Faker parts ways with He-Man by dealing him a swift kick to the chest, and as he retreats by ascending the rock face, He-Man feels no choice other than to pursue him, for this villain is blatantly too dangerous to be allowed to roam free. So the fight isn’t over just yet, and Faker (now finally shown to us as blue now we’re back into colour territory) prevents He-Man from catching up with him by hurling boulders from the cliff face down towards the innocent civilians below, leaving He-Man with no choice but to use the tree trunk to deflect them from the villagers, yet enabling Faker to make his escape.
The end of this story, in a similar manner to “Machine Wars” in Issue #6, is not a happy nor a celebratory one, but a sombre conclusion – while He-Man has managed to win the fight and send the villain running, Faker has caused incredible destruction, and worse still is now running free, meaning he will inevitably be returning for a rematch – and if Skeletor can find some way of making Faker stronger, he may actually stand a chance of beating He-Man next time.
And so ends a very powerful issue of the London Editions MOTU comic with one of its most powerful stories yet, and a superb and unforgettable introduction to a criminally underused villain. To finally see a villain who is quite capable of using just his muscles to beat He-Man, and has no fear of a fight with the most powerful man of the universe, is not only refreshing given Skeletor and Hordak’s frequent cowardice, but it really emphasises how Faker truly is Skeletor’s greatest achievement to date and possibly He-Man’s biggest threat yet. Undoubtedly Faker is stronger than Skeletor himself, and therefore it stands to reason that he could easily surpass his creator – if one single character could potentially take Skeletor’s place as the lead villain on Eternia, this is the man for the job. While this story’s sequel, “Return of the Faker” in Issue #18, was to showcase Faker as an independent villain once more and saw him speak of challenging Skeletor, it is greatly unfortunate that such a development was never actually shown, for this character had enormous potential and was beautifully developed for a character with so few appearances – really Faker deserved a 3-part epic of his own at the very least, and it is hugely unfortunate that his return appearance after this particular story was also to be his last.
Either way, as far as introduction stories go, “When Strikes… The Faker” is a mindblowing introduction to a character with potential to be so much more than any MOTU media (even to this date) have ever really used, and MOTU fans worldwide can take their hats off to Brian Clarke for being the man to depict this character the way he always should have been portrayed.
****
This issue's "Brains, Not Brawn" feature.
© Aidan Cross, 2018.