The Space Pirate Doom
Melvin Amey
Samuel L. Jackson ventures into the world of creator-owned comics with Cold Space #1. Jackson and his Afro Samurai collaborator Eric Calderon have teamed up to tell the story of Mulberry, a space pirate in the year 4012. When the story begins, his ship is boarded by space cops intent on arresting him. Mulberry easily eludes them, and warp jumps to another area of space. His ship crash lands on a strange, corrupt planet, and the adventure really begins.
Disks of Doom Skeletor was designed by David Wolfram, who worked on figures like Laser Light Skeletor and Snake Face in the original MOTU line. The concept originated with an abandoned space pirate idea. In my interview with David, he explained:
The skull armor was something that came out of brainstorms of new MOTU segments. One one my proposals was mutant space pirates, with many of them wearing variants of skull armor. Once we started working on the new line, I adopted that for the Skeletors that I designed.
The ultimate evil lord of destruction! While hiding on the dark moon of Denebria, Skeletor discovers the secret entrance to the long forgotton space base, Skuldor. There in the heart of the ancient underground caverns he finds The Disks of Doom, psychotronic weapons so powerful that they could turn He-Man into a mindless slave!
Brak first appeared along with his brother Sisto as villains on the 1966 Hanna-Barbera cartoon Space Ghost. The two were portrayed as cat-like alien space pirates trying to conquer the galaxy. Brak and Sisto were the main adversaries in the episodes "The Lure" and "The Looters", and the duo were also featured during the six-part Council of Doom storyline (primarily in the episode "The Two Faces of Doom"). Brak was voiced by Keye Luke for all of his original Space Ghost appearances. In the episode "The Lure", Brak and Sisto had cat-like whiskers.
In response to a viewer's letter read on an episode of Cartoon Planet, Brak revealed that his current level of stupidity was the after-effect of being thrown into a space dust cloud by Space Ghost at the end of "The Lure". Cartoon Network's write-up for Brak explained: "This toothy, mask-wearing former pirate made his first TV appearance on Space Ghost. It was during this adventure that Brak was irradiated by Pirranamyte, releasing him from the burden of intelligence. Now armed only with his meager wits and the love of a peppy tune, Brak happily entertains fans and annoys his co-stars with equal aplomb. He will continue to do so as long as he receives a steady diet of pineapple and processed meats."[1]