Power Lords.

Power Lords is an action figure series back from 1983. And DC comics was the company selected to publish their comic book adaptation. The Miniseries of three issues covers all the adventure of a new character, Adam Power and how he fights the forces of Arks of Krondar.

As a comic book produced to support a line of toys, you can not expect many things, but the quality of the comic surpassed my expectative. And it was one of the first ever Mark Texeira comic book. And he was good as he always is. Don’t expect his furious inking (here by Jeff Dee) but the drawing is smooth and spectacular.

I propose you this links about Power Lords to look forward:

Virtual Toy Chest.

Wikipedia.

Toy Archive.

Action Figure Archive.

Museo del Videojuego.

Comic Vine.

POWER LORDS #1.
COVER TITLE. The Saga Begins!
INSIDE TITLE. To the Victor…the Universe!
COVER DATE. December 1983.
COVER PRICE. 75¢
COVER ARTIST. Texeira & Giordano.
NUMBER OF PAGES. 23
WRITER. Michael Fleisher.
PENCILLER. Mark Texeira.
INKER. Jeff Dee.
LETTERER. Ben Oda.
COLORIST. Adrienne Roy.
EDITOR. Andrew Helfer.

This first chapter of the miniseries presents the basic five characters of the series (only the goofy character, Sydot will be presented in the second chapter). Being an extended commercial of an Action Figure Series, that’s really understandable. There is a human, Doctor Ivey, that would make a short appearance. Two good guys, three bad guys and a legion of monster hounds. What more do we need?

As it should be, the saga begins with a great space battle. A female Torian, Shaya, is follow by a Trigore Squadron of the Alliance. She has a fast ship, but this alien monsters travel through space without any need of it. They are mutants created by the evil Arkus as interstellar hounds that haunt his enemies. Shaya jumps into some kind of hyper-space.


On Earth, a youngster, Adam Power works on an observatory for Dr. Ivey as his assistant. They monitored the battle. While Dr. Ivey ignores the data and goes home, Adam is interested in knowing what’s going on. He feels something is missing in his life. A lot of flashbacks from his childhood tell him that he had lived something out-worldly.

Thinking on his strange memories, he notices that a spaceship lands in front of the observatory.

Our couple of main characters meets at last. The entire universe is at peril and Adam follows Shaya without a second thought. The Trigore patrol destroys the observatory and Adam gets the first glimpse of what a Power Stone can do. Shaya turns into a Power Being and gives back the stone to Adam, who is another member of the Power Caste of Planete Toran.

When the Power Jewel inserts in his front head, Adam remembers Toran. A planet that spawned a civilization so advanced that social justice was achieved. He can see his parents and Shaya as their Herald.

He also beholds the invasion of Toran by the hordes of Krondar, Morda and Zomar. They are leaded by Arkus (Krondar), Ggriptogg (Zomar) and Raygoth (Morda). They are a triumvirate that is the Extraterrestrial Alliance.

Being the invading forces so strong, the torans fall easily.
Adam’s parents say goodbye to his song and Shaya uses the Molecular-Disassembler that sent Adam to Earth. He can see the horrible dead of his parents.

That makes him angry and his powers awake. He goes outside, in open space to fight the Trigores. And wons!

Now he knows that he must do something to free his people. Shaya leads him to an asteroid where the first Power Lords had a secret base, a Stronghold with an arsenal only for direst emergencies. Adam’s Power activates the base.


Then, from the shadows Ggriptogg and Raygoth appear to claim the base. Our heroes fight bravely, but Arkus takes them by surprise and with another Molecular-Disassembler sends them to the Dimension of Doom.

POWER LORDS #2.
COVER TITLE. Enter… The Dimension of Doom!
INSIDE TITLE. The Dimension of Doom!
COVER DATE. January 1984
COVER PRICE. 75¢
COVER ARTIST. Texeira & T. Smith
NUMBER OF PAGES. 23
WRITER. Michael Fleisher
PENCILLER. Mark Texeira
INKER. Jeff Dee
LETTERER. Ben Oda
COLORIST. Anthony Tollin
EDITOR. Andrew Helfer

The treacherous ambush that obliterates Adam Power and Shaya from this plane of reality leaves the three Dark Lords (sorry, I couldn’t help using this Harry Potter tribute) leading the powerful base in a volcanic planetoid – properly named Volcan Rock. This mountain that travels through space is the new threat to anyone opposing their power.


Adam and Shaya are on this Doom Dimension that serves as a dungeon to the Extraterrestrial Alliance. Any enemy they want to get rid off is sent to this limbo prison. And there is no way out.
Walking the new surroundings, the next character makes his triumphal entry. He is Sydot the Supreme. A pathetic little being that claims to be the most implacable enemy of the Extraterrestrial Alliance.

Well, he is the goofy character. He is introduced in the story because he knows a way to get free from the Dimension of Doom. He leads them to a cavern were supposedly they could get free. But there they find a group of monsters they must fight with their wonderful powers. A mindless fight only for our enjoyment.


Now the threesome is outside the Dimension of Doom (so easily?) and have a purpose. To find the Volcan Rock and finish the Arkus conquering of the Universe.


We can now see how Arkus, Raygoth and Ggryptogg surrogates planet after planet with this battlestar. But one planet at a time is quite slow for Arkus. He is thinking of a faster way to achieve it.

Our heroes are back on space. But Adam is very tired. His powers are almost exhausted. He needs to recharge the jewel (remember Green Lantern?). To refill this power they must return to Toranian Capital.


In Toran they travel undercover. There they can see the way the Extraterrestrial Alliance uses their fellow torians as slaves. When a guardian tries to beat a fallen torian, Adam boils in rage and attacks the extraterrestrial forces.
The three heroes fight an win. They ask the torians the whereabouts of the Power Crystal. They find that it was destroyed, but there is another source of power in Wellspring.

Looking for this Wellspring, they cross another dimensional door. Adam finds himself alone fighting Arkus, Ggryptogg and Raygoth only to discover that it was a way to recharge his powers. A curious character, similar to the guardians of the Green Lantern Corps but rejuvenated, tells him that he is ready to win the battle.

POWER LORDS #3.
COVER TITLE. The Shocking Conclusion of Power Lords, The Extraterrestrial Warriors.
INSIDE TITLE. All Hail Arkus, Lord of the Universe!
COVER DATE. February 1984
COVER PRICE. 75¢
COVER ARTIST. Texeria & Giordano
NUMBER OF PAGES. 23
WRITER. Michael Fleisher
PENCILLER. Mark Texeira
INKER. Pablo Marcos
LETTERER. Ben Oda
COLORIST. Adrienne Roy
EDITOR. Andrew Helfer

The last chapter of this miniseries present a powerful Adam Power fighting against the hordes of the Extraterrestrial Alliance. They are getting nervous, because they thought that the Power Lords were eradicated in Torian.


All Trigore Squadrons attack Adam at the same time. He makes the Trigore follow him and let the space ship with Shaya and Sydot take their jump into hyperspace. Being the decoy, he can’t jump with them.

Arkus is getting angry. Their forces may destroy Adam Power (well, we know that’s not true. However, let the writer enjoy little ingenuity on our part), but not their companions.


Shaya and Sydot are now near Bmyrna, in the Sonaren Star System, a world covered by a Force Field and similar to Corusant. There Arkus pretends to threat the whole planets of the universe with the Volcan Rock. Adam reappears and follows the ship of his companios, who are getting into the force field.

A United Nations-like main assembly chamber filled with alien races listen to Arkus. He destroys an inhabited planet with the Volcano Rock as a way to show the nations of the universe his power. But then Adam Power attacks. He must finish his rampage. His two friends are prisoners of the triumvirate under a Paralysis Ray.


Arkus, Ggryptogg and Ragoth, as well as Shaya and Sydot teleport back to the Volcan Rock. Adam follows them.

Back into space, Adam is attacked by a horde of Trigore. Now he is free to unleash all his power and obliterates the monsters in a Blazing Maelstorm of Force.

He enters the Volcan Rock (with a gun in his hands? What for? He is so powerful he didn’t need it. That another ransom to be paid for being a toy series adaptation) and fights first Raygoth, who falls easily, Ggryptogg (I love this name), who also falls, but a little bit harder.

Free of two of his enemies, Adam Power search for his friends and finds then under Arkus power. Another epic wrestling follows.

Sydot manages to free his tail and with a strong movement off-balances Arkus, who falls, letting Adam send him a power bean and letting Arkus unconscious. The galaxy is free of the three dictators, that are sent into the Dimension of Doom (That resembles now the Negative Zone from Superman and Superman II).

Well, this is how this miniseries finished. I was nice to comment it. As you can see it was an easy story to help Revell sell their toys. It was another mindless “I fight therefore I am” comicbook, but the art was outstanding.

Next week: back into the Aznar’s Saga, jeje.


Well, let's finish this post with this two images.
First, the reason of being of this series: The Action Figures.
And the videogame.