WARNING: The following contains spoilers for He-Man and the Masters of the Multiverse #1, from Tim Seeley, Dan Fraga, Richard Friend, Matt Yackey and Saida Temofonte, on sale now.
DC's He-Man and the Masters of the Multiverse has changed up the lore of Eternia drastically, placing it at the center of reality in a crisis while altering the roles of several key players in the franchise. The Anti He-Man's pillaging various worlds and sucking the power of Grayskull to get to the Power Prime, and shockingly the only person who can stop him -- well, along with the He-Man alliance led by Dolph Lundgren's He-Man -- is Prince Keldor from their realm, Anti-Eternia.
This Keldor seems to be the only one who doesn't turn evil and becomes Skeletor in the Multiverse, but apart from seeing him in a heroic perspective for the first time, there is seemingly hints of a gay relationship between this pre-Skeletor and the person we've considered his flunky for decades: Beast Man.
Beast Man (initially called the Red Beast) was one of the original toys Mattel created for the Masters of the Universe line in the '80s and was intended to be the main villain in the comics and cartoon. However, this role was given to Skeletor and Beast Man subsequently became a lackey the big bad often ridiculed. The creature would often aspire to overthrow his boss, but at other times, he'd wage war on Prince Adam's people himself just to get into Skeletor's good graces. Although, he couldn't escape the box he was in -- that of being a running joke in the series.
Yet there wasn't ever really any sexual tension or hints he and Skeletor could be more than just boss and henchmen. Writer Tim Seeley and his creative team, though, have some fun with that as they subvert Anti-Eternia's Keldor to make him the hero and Anti He-Man a monster. It adds an emotional touch to Keldor and reminds us, just like those running Skeletor memes, he does have feelings too.
The revelation comes when Keldor's in bed with Ms. Powers after a long day in the kingdom with his brother, Randor (He-Man's father in the other universes). Skeletor and his brother had a disagreement over the treatment of prisoners and how the palace should be governed, which seemingly leads to stress and, well, bedroom malfunctions. Keldor doesn't seem interested in fixing things and a dejected Powers asks him, "It's Red Beast, isn't it? I see the way he looks at you." A clearly distracted Keldor retorts, "Ha. I should be so lucky [...]" -- indicating he is indeed in love with this version of Beast Man, or at the very least infatuated.
Interestingly, we've only seen them as friends in this debut issue as Red Beast accompanied Keldor as he spray-painted graffiti across the kingdom to make fun of his brother. He comes off more like a bodyguard than anything but, hey, maybe this is one of Keldor's kinks. When they take Evil Teela away, there still isn't any sign Red Beast is interested in Keldor so the love could be a one-way street, although, from Powers' words, Red Beast is trying to hide the fact he's eyeing the eventual villain himself. So until someone comes out and makes the first move, it'll stay a mystery, but right now, Keldor's a bit busy too busy for romance as he and the other He-Men have a Multiverse trip to make to save reality as they know it.
He-Man and the Masters of the Multiverse #2 goes on sale Dec. 18.