One of my favorite He-Man characters was Man-E-Faces. He had a perfect color combination in my opinion — Orange and Blue. As a kid, those kind of things appealed to me, so Man-E-Faces was one of my first purchases after the “Big Four” Masters of the Universe figures — He-Man, Skeletor, Man At Arms and Beast Man.
He came packed with “The Ordeal of Man-E-Faces” minicomic by Mark Texeira and Gary Cohn.
In the issue, Man-E-Faces is an actor in a traveling show who gains the attention of Skeletor. The evil lord forces the meek thespian to gulp down a magic potion that turns him into a half-man, half-monster. With Man-E-Faces in his thrall, Skeletor kidnaps Teela and He-Man rides to the rescue.
Man-E-Faces odd transformation brings Sorceress into the adventure and she battles Skeletor for control of Man-E-Faces. In the climatic battle, Man-E’s monstrous side is fused into being and — somehow — another personality surfaces: A neutral, but powerful robot.
Sorceress does succeed into temporarily locking Man-E’s human side into the dominant position and Skeletor flees, his plans thwarted once again.
This comic brings one of the most puzzling aspects of the toy line to light: What’s the difference between Sorceress and Teela?
If you look at any product listing, you’ll see that the Teela toy looks like the comic and animated cartoon version of Sorceress. And, in truth, the Teela character in the comics and cartoon looks a heck of a lot like She-Ra.
I’m not exactly sure what the official explanation is, but that’s mine. She-Ra is Teela and the toy named Teela is really the Sorceress.
Have you got any theories?
Here’s what He-Man.org has to say about “The Ordeal of Man-E-Faces”:
Skeletor forces Man-E-Faces to drink a potion that turns him into a monster, but then makes him forget about everything that has occurred and returns him to his human state. Later, as Man-E-Faces is entertaining the royal court, Skeletor appears, turns him into the monster, and has him kidnap Teela. He intends to use Teela as a scarifice to a blue, winged demon, but He-Man and the Goddess appear to rescue her. The Goddess turns Man-E-Faces back into a human, but Skeletor returns him to the monster state, and back-and-forth. Suddenly he explodes and emerges as a robot. Skeletor disappears, and the Goddess turns him back into a human, but she worries that Skeletor will try to use him again, commenting that the monster and the robot are now permanent parts of Man-E-Faces.
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1983, Series 2.
Packaged with Evil-Lyn and Man-E-Faces.
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