He-Man's True Origin Is Much Weirder Than You Realize

For a generation of younger moviegoers who have spent the last two decades fed a constant stream of projects based on 60+ year old licensed superheroes from the Big Two (DC and Marvel), it’s easy to be unaware of the sheer prevalence of “superhero adjacent” original cartoons given to kids in the 80s. There was Voltron: Defenders of the Universe (itself an English dub/adaptation of the Japanese show Beast King Go-Lion), there was Thundercats, and there was Transformers – each of them felt akin to the pulp sci-fi and fantasy thrills that could be found in superhero comics of the era, but with the bonus of being new properties. And any conversation about wildly popular 80s cartoons would be completely remiss without mentioning Prince Adam of Eternia and his alter-ego, He-Man.

The animated show, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, began in September of 1983 and ran for just two seasons, with 130 episodes spaced out over a little more than a year. However, the adventures of He-Man and Battle Cat, his thunderous battle cry and resulting transformation, and his everlasting conflict with the villainous sorcerer Skeletor became parts of pop culture iconography, leading to a misaligned live-action 1987 film, multiple television revivals and reboots, and now a new live-action reboot directed by Travis Knight. Although most people who remember the original animated series would swear up and down that it was the character’s origin, the truth is surprisingly more complex. Here’s a brief history of He-Man’s origin.

Star Wars Created He-Man. Sort Of

In a strange twist of fate, the origins of He-Man as a character can be traced back to a single fateful moment in 1976: Mattel’s rejection of an offer to develop toys based on the then-unreleased film Star Wars. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of pop culture history knows what happened next – Star Wars became one of the biggest franchises on the planet, with Kenner Products acquiring the immensely lucrative toy rights. Scrambling from their mistake, Mattel tasked a team with designing what would ultimately become the next great toy line, a team that consisted of Mark Taylor, Donald F. Glut (a screenwriter who would ironically go on to write a novelization of The Empire Strikes Back), and, among others, He-Man’s lead designer, Roger Sweet.

In 1980, Sweet and his collaborators eventually presented Mattel with prototypes for three different possible interpretations of a single character he called He-Man – one a soldier, one a sci-fi adventurer, and one a barbarian warrior inspired by Frank Frazetta’s illustrations of Conan the Barbarian. Specifically, one of Taylor’s concept drawings, that of a character he called “Torak,” became the template for what would eventually become He-Man. Appropriately, in the new film, when Adam (Galitzine) goes to find his power sword in a modern-day geeky collectibles shop, he has to wrestle it out of the hands of a statue of a fictional warrior called Torak.

As revealed in the 2017 documentary Power of Grayskull: The Definitive History of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Taylor’s “Torak” concept served as the template for the barbarian idea, and from that point, Mattel began work on solidifying exactly what the lore and context surrounding the character would be.

He-Man Canon Comes From a 1981 Comic — But There’s a Catch

Before the 1983 animated series, or even the 1982 toy line, the lore of He-Man was softly established with a series of “mini-comics” that were intended to be released alongside the action figures. In the very first of these, He-Man and the Power Sword, the character was introduced as a wandering barbarian without his iconic alter ego, hailing from jungle tribes in Eternia. The planet was a mix of post-apocalyptic and high fantasy tropes, having suffered from several cataclysmic conflicts that left vestiges of futuristic technology scattered about, and those same battles tore open a hole in the fabric of spacetime that allowed for Skeletor to come through and begin plotting to conquer the realm. He-Man’s superhuman strength, armor, and weapons were granted to him by an early version of the Sorceress, and some of his supporting cast (including Teela, Man-At-Arms, and Battle Cat) were introduced in these early stories.

He-Man and the Power Sword has a copyright date of 1981, which, if you do casual internet research, will make you think that the comic book was released in 1981, making 1981 He-Man’s birthday. (That would mean he’s 45? Pretty young, right?) But, the truth is, this is only a copyright date for the comic, because this was inserted in with the toys, which first hit the shelves in early 1982, with most people actually having those toys — along with the mini-comic — in their hands by May of 1982. To put that in perspective, that’s over a year before the cartoon debuted on September 26, 1983.

He-Man’s First Comic Book Appearance in 1982

Here’s where things get even weirder. In addition to the mini-comics, which people would have been able to read starting in May 1982, by June of 1982, in the 47th issue of DC Comics Presents, a standalone comic book story entitled From Eternia With Death, saw Superman temporarily transported to Eternia. You didn’t misread that. He-Man’s first public comic book appearance (outside of the mini-comics) was alongside DC’s Superman. That title is wild, too. Writer Paul Kupperberg was clearly making an allusion to the James Bond title From Russia with Love, but also assuming we already just knew what Eternia was. Bold! This comic also featured art from a legendary Superman artist Curt Swan, meaning that one of the first depictions of He-Man in comics was from someone who also shaped our ideas of what Superman looks like. (The minicomic had art from Alfredo P. Alcala, and was written by the aforementioned Donald F. Glut.)

The story arc in From Eternia With Death was followed up with a special insert comic (a storyline split up in “inserts” placed in other, more popular comic books) as well as a limited three-issue Masters of the Universe series. Those works from DC were instrumental in establishing what many recognize as the true canon of He-Man: they introduced his secret identity, Prince Adam (as well as Battle Cat’s cowardly alter ego Cringer), along with the Eternian Royal Family, although interestingly enough the character’s transformation from Adam into He-Man didn’t come as a result of the Sword of Power, but instead the “Cavern of Power.”

Again, the iconic animated series that served as most people’s introduction to the character didn’t begin for another year, but by that point, the recognizable contours of He-Man and Eternia had begun to take shape. From there, the Filmation show cleaned up the rougher edges and turned the Masters of the Universe into the beloved cultural touchstone that has persisted to the modern day.

The fact that the character has returned in 2026 for another live-action excursion is proof that, despite his convoluted origins, He-Man represents the potential for truly original superhero works to be just as long-lasting and impactful as those created under the purview of Marvel or DC. But, in many senses, He-Man comes from the long comic book tradition of being created by several people at the same time. Like Superman or Batman or Spider-Man, there are different versions of his origin story, and those retellings are, arguably, all, each in their own way, correct.

Masters of the Universe is in theaters now.