In recent storylines there has been a subplot in which Gwildor is attempting to use science to better understand magic. It hasn’t really gone anywhere but it’s floated in the background. In the storyline we’re looking at this time however it finally becomes important to the story. Throw in an ancient prophecy, Hordak, and the return of a baddie from a previous story and you have yourself a tale in which He-Man is all but useless, forcing his friends to show that, while they still need the aid of the most powerful man in the universe they aren’t without resources of their own.
Since I need to pad out the intro a bit, I learned something interesting about Gwildor. When the live-action Masters Of The Universe movie came out Orko was not going to be easy to translate on their budget. He’s short but he also often levitates above the ground and I’m guessing a puppet or animatronic wasn’t going to cut it. Nowadays they can make him in CG, but that’s when famed actor Billy Barks was given the role of Gwildor to substitute for Orko. I’m guess they would have had his magic screw up and send everybody to Earth instead of some guy inventing a space-warping device. So there’s some extra trivia for you as we get into the next tale from the newspaper comics…
