Una interesante lectura departe de DCCOMIC LEGEND: Zodac in the Masters of the Universe was meant to be connected to Metron of the Fourth World.
Reader Squashua has been wondering for a long time about a possible
link between Zodac of the Masters of the Universe and Metron of the New
Gods.
Here is Zodac on the cover of DC's Masters of the Universe
mini-series (written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by the late, great
George Tuska). He is the fellow behind Skeletor's sword...
And here, of course, is Metron (from his first appearance in New Gods #1)...
Squashua asked awhile back...
Did the DC Comics writers intend there to be a
connection between New God character "Metron" and Master of the
Universe character "Zodac, the Cosmic Enforcer"?
The classic Zodac toy was a dude with red space armor and a laser
pistol. Originally billed as an Evil warrior, the accompanying EARLY
literature had him as more of a neutral keeper of balance, which was
what followed ever since.
When he was presented in both the toy-included comic books
(apparently all written by DC before Mattel took over) and the
short-lived DC Comic series/insert (prior to Marvel's Epic-line MotU
series), if I recall correctly, Zodac flew around in a chair (much like
Metron) and did cosmic "stuff". The Zodac toy did not come with this
chair, but if you look at the chair in the manner in which it was
drawn, it is identical to the throne that comes with the original
Castle Greyskull playset. There was no reason for him to use the chair,
but when you go think about it, Zodac of the DC Comics issue(s) is
pretty much intended to be Metron.
Here they are in their respective chairs (thanks to Squashua for the pic)...
Well, just the other week, Sean T. Collins at CBR's own Robot 6 blog
was discussing Masters of the Universe, and Squashua showed up in the comments and so did Paul Kupperberg!
Squashua presented the question and Paul answered it as follows:
DC signed the rights to MOTU before the toys were
released. They had virtually no back story set up besides a very basic
good guys vs. bad guys idea. A rep from Mattel came to DC and editor
Dave Manak and I spent an afternoon on the floor of DC's conference
room playing with the prototypes of the figures and accessories and
making shit up as we went along. I took a few notes, talked out a few
very basic ideas with Dave and the rep and then went home and started
writing. Zodac and the flying chair were part of the presentation, so I
went with that--don't recall for certain if the Metron parallel was
brought up at the time, but with fan-boy-me in the room, I'd find it
tough to believe I wouldn't have at least mentioned it. They might have
gotten rid of the flying chair (or switched it to a spot in the Castle)
because of the similarity by the time the toys came out but after I'd
written the comic.
A big fan of the Fourth World material, but I don't think I ever
wrote any of it, certainly not around that time...unless I've got a
major brain fart going. My first connection with any of the Kirbyverse
was when I tied TAKION into The Force, but that wasn't until 1996.
I'm told -- and I don't know because I never watched the cartoon
(being, y'know, in my 20s when it came out) -- that a lot of the back
story was based on the DC comic, so I guess I'm to blame, but I doubt I
would've had Zodac in a flying chair if it hadn't been part of that
original presentation.