ThunderCats' R-Rated Sequel & Explicit He-Man Crossover May Crush Your Childhood
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Dark, gritty adaptations of childhood characters have become exceedingly commonplace, as evidenced in things like Netflix's "Fate: The Winx Saga," a desaturated take on the lively animated series, "Winx Club." A similar fate befell "Thundercats," which originally debuted in the 1980s as a children's cartoon but has received a couple of questionable comic books in an attempt to "age up" the storylines.
This can readily be seen in the 2016-2017 crossover series between the Thundercats and He-Man, appropriately titled "He-Man/ThunderCats." It certainly makes sense on paper, but the six-issue miniseries includes a moment where Mumm-Ra, the long-running antagonist of "Thundercats," impales Prince Adam on his sword before he has a chance to transform into He-Man. It undoubtedly took many fans by surprise, and even though swords are commonplace in '80s cartoons, they rarely ever result in death. Fortunately, with his "final" breath, Prince Adam manages to summon the power of Grayskull so that he can turn into He-Man, healing his wounds in the process.
But even that doesn't hold a candle to WildStorm's "ThunderCats: The Return" from 2003. While the He-Man crossover had one brutal moment, the entire story of "ThunderCats: The Return" gets dark. It opens with trusty sidekick Snarf, who's clearly declined mentally as he believes a book is his only friend, freeing Lion-O from the Book of Omens. Lion-O has been in there training for five years, and the world has changed greatly during that time. Mumm-Ra now rules Thundera with the remaining ThunderCats either dead or forced to toil. And it doesn't take long for things to get particularly icky.
The young WilyKit is Mumm-Ra's 'concubine' in ThunderCats: The Return
Lion-O learns about his comrade's fates, including Bengali's bones being left on display in the team's former headquarters. Cheetara and Tyga are held captive in the lair of the Mutants while Panthro works in the mines. And the most questionable choice of all is seeing twins WilyKat and WilyKit being Mumm-Ra's servants. One issue even sees Mumm-Ra refer to WilyKit as his "concubine," which implies a sexual nature to their relationship. The twin ThunderKittens were very young in their original portrayals, and even though the story takes place five years in the future, it may be offputting for some to see the characters placed in such a context.
Lion-O goes about rescuing his friends, which involves freeing Cheetara, who's placed in a provocative position when he sees her in captivity. While she's understandably upset at Lion-O for being gone for so long, they all team up in an attempt to bring down Mumm-Ra, who sets a trap using WilyKat. During the final showdown, Mumm-Ra kills WilyKat and converts into a more monstrous visage, but ultimately, it's the ThunderCats who emerge victorious. But even though the good guys win, many fans felt the story did a disservice to the formerly family-friendly characters. Dark subject matter and turning a character most fans know as a child into a sex slave have given "ThunderCats: The Return" a less-than-stellar reputation.
Readers have let their opinions known of the series online, such as one person commenting on Amazon, "I bought this out of morbid curiosity and it is just as sick as people say, sicker perhaps. I wasn't much of a Thundercats fan back in the day, but I can see why fans would get upset. The writers seem to confuse shock value with a more mature intellectual story." A stronger story justifying a darker tone could've saved the comic book, but as it stands, most people simply want to see the characters they grew up with in a manner they remember and not as piles of bones and concubines.