He-Man

He-Man ("The Most Powerful Man in the Universe") is the fictional heroic lead character in the toy series Masters of the Universe and the various spin-off products and media related to it. The most prominent is the animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, produced by Filmation Studios. The syndicated series premiered in 1983 and ran until 1985, for a run of 130 episodes. In the series, He-Man and his friends defend Eternia and the secrets of Castle Grayskull from the evil forces of Skeletor.

Powers and abilities

He-Man is the "most powerful man in the universe". However, since he is half earthling, half Eternian it is ambiguous whether his physical abilities limit that of humans or Eternians. Because Eternians seem to have an over-all better physical condition than humans (as evidenced by other Eternians in the He-man cartoons) it may be assumed that He-man is the strongest Eternian man in the universe.

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In any event He-man is strong enough to over-power most and nearly all his adversaries. However he rarely just beats someone up, but instead will try to outwit his opponent. Because of his extreme physical strength He-man has a high stamina and is not easily worn out. Despite his bulging muscles he is quite athletic and agile. He can jump immensely high and is a fast sprinter. In the 1983 cartoon He-man was occasionally displayed as having the ability to fill his lungs with air and release it with such force that he can actually knock enemies off their feet (fans tend to ignore this power, as they consider it to be quite silly). The cartoon also indicated that He-man could spin his sword fast enough to create tornadoes and in various older episodes he could summon a vehicle to his side simply by whistling.

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He-man is also known for hiding small helpfull gadgets under his vest such as flash-bombs, scanners and others. His lack of clothing however often caused problems for animators when explaining where He-Man carried anything, the episode The Search for the VHO is particularly infamous for containing a sequence where He-Man sticks the VHO down his pants. He-Man's sword is also displayed as being able to deflect anything from laser-beams to various magical projectiles and even (in the case of dragons) fire (this ability was used quite often as running joke in the original series).

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