Inspired by He-Man.org’s Roast Gooble Dinner podcast, welcome to PGPoA’s latest MOTUC Bio Discussion!
Man-E-Faces
Real Name: Perkaedo
Perhaps the greatest actor on Eternia, Perkaedo, the Master of Disguise, performed before King Randor and Queen Marlena at Prince Adam’s 18th birthday celebration. It was here that he drank a magic potion created by Skeletor, that transformed him into a terrible monster with great strength loyal only to evil. With the help of He-Man and the Sorceress, Perkaedo was cured from this transformation, but the process left him forever split between not just two but three personalities. He now uses his powers to protect justice in his greatest role; as Man-E-Faces, the man who is three warriors in one – fighting as a human, robot or monster!
In a series in which we’ve had names that consist of a pile of consonants or “a series of blinks” and “claw clicks,” it’s interesting that I find “Perkaedo” one of the weirdest names yet. It’s just odd. I’m sure it’s some sort of linguistic play on disguises or actors or something, but it seems so out of left field.
Man-E-Faces’s origin here is based primarily on the vintage minicomic “The Ordeal of Man-E-Faces!” He also received an origin in the Filmation cartoon, “The Mystery of Man-E-Faces,” in which he was basically just a slightly mean bully whom Skeletor tried to recruit before He-Man showed Manny the error of his ways. In the minicomic, the robot face (which appears in a single panel) is described as neutral – “neither good nor evil.” In both the Filmation and the Millennium episode “The Monster Within,” it appears Beast Man is able to exhibit at least some control over Manny’s beastly face.
Prior to the Millennium cartoon, there was some intimation in the minicomics and Filmation cartoon that the various faces had different abilities. The Millennium cartoon developed this idea: the robot face had advanced intellectual and tactical abilities, while the monster face increased Manny’s strength and fighting abilities.
The “Ordeal” minicomic features an ambiguous ending where the Sorceress fears Man-E-Faces’s monster (and robot) face could return to wreak havoc someday, suggesting Man-E-Faces doesn’t have the control over it that he does in both cartoon versions. The last sentence of the bio suggests Manny does have at least some control of the monster face. While I do like this bio, I wish it had spent a bit less time on the origin and more on whether the faces have different abilities and whether he has control of the monster face…on the other hand, the bio leaves you free to decide how you want to depict the character, so maybe that’s even better.