Skeletor has Beast Man and Mer-Man with him on the first of Dark Horse’s five preview pages for Genesis #2, and by the fifth he has a third warrior walking point through a blizzard. The preview is the story of how the third one joined, and he joined by asking for money.
Masters of the Universe: Genesis #2 is on sale Wednesday 16 September, 32 pages in colour at $4.99, rated 14+, and Dark Horse’s listing describes the run as a twelve-issue series. Rich Douek writes, Gavin Smith draws, Fabi Marques colours and AndWorld Design letters, the same four credited on issue #1; the main cover is by Mark Buckingham and the variant is by Smith.
The preview runs as one continuous scene. Skeletor is crossing an autumn forest with Beast Man and Mer-Man in tow when somebody hidden in the trees starts humming at them, then calls out: “I can see you, you know.” What steps out is a swordsman in a green tunic and headband with a single eye set in the middle of his forehead, who announces “I SEE EVERYTHING” and then, in the space of three panels, has Beast Man airborne and Mer-Man face down in the leaves. Beast Man shouts “Flank him!” and the swordsman answers “You’re welcome to try.”
Skeletor watches all of this, calls his warriors simpletons, and makes the offer directly. “I have heard tales of Tri-Klops, the legendary trickster who can see beyond mountains, across seas. And I have need of such a warrior.” Asked whether that means dead, he corrects it: “I need him obedient.” And the answer comes back as a price. “Ha! Then there’s no need for all this fuss, sorcerer. Put up your staff… and pull out your coin purse.”
So the second chapter of Skeletor’s origin is a hiring scene. The fee gets named by the man being recruited, while the sorcerer is still holding a lit staff and two warriors are still picking themselves up off the ground, and Skeletor takes the correction without arguing about it. A Skeletor who has to pay for talent is a more useful character to write, because a price is something the other party can raise later.
The back half is the party climbing through a blizzard, and it runs on bickering. Beast Man is freezing and says so, Mer-Man tells him to stop complaining, Beast Man calls him a cold-blooded fish-head, and Skeletor offers to set him on fire. Tri-Klops walks ahead of the other three and puts the eye to work for the first time, looking at an ice pass and reporting “It’s structurally sound. I don’t see any cracks.” On the last page Beast Man sniffs at the pass and says it smells like fire and rancid oil, he says he does not like this, and Skeletor tells him “I don’t like cowards” and then “Prove it, then. Follow me.”
The one thing the pages do not settle is the visor. Smith draws Tri-Klops with a single eye and nothing over it across all five pages, so the three-lens rig the character is named for has still to arrive. [1]
What Dark Horse says happens next
The solicitation for #2 covers ground the preview does not reach. Skeletor is crossing Eternia to raise an army, and he has chosen a first target: the city of Operon, ruled by King Thales and his daughter Princess Rhea. Operon is not in our own Eternia location index, and neither Thales nor Rhea has an encyclopedia entry here. [2]
The two issues after it now have dates as well. Genesis #3 is listed for 28 October, and Dark Horse’s copy for it says “In the final issue of the genesis of Skeletor, fists will collide and truths will be revealed”, which puts the opening story at three issues. Genesis #4 follows on 16 December with a different crew and a different subject: Cavan Scott writes, Nick Roche draws, Daniel HDR takes the variant cover, and the listing calls it the “Start of a new three-part story featuring Man-At-Arms”, with Prince Randor and Captain Duncan investigating an abandoned village during the Great Wars between science and magic. [3]
When we wrote up Genesis #1 on 5 August, Cavan Scott and Nick Roche were two names on a list of writers and artists to come, with no issue and no date beside either. Both now have an issue and a date. So the Skeletor story is three issues and finishes in October, a new three-part story starts in December with a new crew, and the issues after that carry no dates and no credits yet. December is a jumping-on point for anyone who would rather not take the whole run.
Where to get it
Your local shop first, as ever, and Wednesday is the day. Dark Horse lists both covers at the same $4.99.
Our catalogue pages carry the covers, the credits and the ordering links: the issue page for Genesis #2, the Genesis series page and, for the October issue that closes the arc, Genesis #3. For the version with the visor on, Tri-Klops has an encyclopedia entry and a shelf of his own figures here.
The preview, in order
Dark Horse published all of these on its own listing for the issue.
[1] A single eye under a green headband is all the preview shows. Dark Horse’s solicitation does not mention the visor either way, and the preview ends deep in the blizzard with the issue still running, so it may yet turn up in the pages nobody outside Dark Horse has seen.
[2] All three names are in Dark Horse’s solicitation rather than in the preview pages, so the city arrives somewhere after the pages published here. Our encyclopedia is an index of what this site covers, not a boundary of what exists in the licence, so read the absence as new to us rather than as new to Eternia.
[3] The same Dark Horse listing for #3 also says an evil warrior on the inside may spell trouble for Princess Rhea and King Thales once Skeletor’s forces reach Operon. It does not say which warrior. The newest hire is a trickster who works for money, which makes him a candidate rather than an answer.
Sources
- Masters of the Universe: Genesis #2, product page and five-page preview - Dark Horse Comics, read 14 September 2026, for the on-sale date, the price, the page count, the credits and the solicitation text.
- Masters of the Universe: Genesis #2 (Gavin Smith Variant Cover) - Dark Horse Comics, read 14 September 2026.
- Masters of the Universe: Genesis #3 and #4 - Dark Horse Comics, read 14 September 2026, for the October and December dates and the change of creative team.
- Preview: Masters of the Universe: Genesis #2 - Graphic Policy, 14 September 2026. The preview was flagged here first, then read on Dark Horse’s own listing.
Preview pages and cover art: Dark Horse Comics. Quoted dialogue is from the published preview.
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