King Hiss
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King Hiss (Also spelled King Hsss) is the villainous king of the Snake Men in Mattel toyline Masters of the Universe. Although he never appeared in the original animated series by Filmation, Hiss made a belated animated debut in the 2002 revamped He-Man animated series by Mike Young Productions, this time as the major villain of the second season. In both incarnations his default appearance is human but he is capable of shedding his skin revealing everything from his waist up to be a writhing mass of serpents. Hiss possesses a host of somewhat vague magical powers.
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[edit] History
According to the original toys' minicomics, King Hiss was the ruler of a race of interstellar conquerors. Although his people were a race of humanoid snakes, Hiss for some unexplained reason had the default appearance of a human, a notional disguise to hide his true form of an upper body comprise of several intertwined serpents (although one head is clearly central and dominant, the 2002 MYP animated series depicts all five heads speaking in unison). Hiss and his Snake Men were fighting a protracted war of conquest on the planet Eternia, when they were eventually overcome by the combined magic powers of the planet's Elders.
[edit] 1980s
The Elders' magic flung King Hiss and his army into a limbo-like dimension. Trapped outside of normal time, Hiss and his minions did not age. After millennia of imprisonment, King Hiss was freed by Skeletor, who desired to learn the secrets of the Snake Men. The two villains formed an uneasy alliance, so they might conquer Eternia and destroy its champion He-Man.
[edit] 2002
In the 2002 series, the basic storyline remained the same but with slight differences. In this continuity, Hiss was freed from limbo by his right hand man General Rattlor, and a descendant of the original Snake Men, Kobra Khan. The two Snake Men freed him with the help of Skeletor's second-in-command Evil-Lyn. Skeletor’s base Snake Mountain had formerly been King Hiss's headquarters (and the petrified body of Serpos, the god of the Snake Men) and he, King Hiss, temporarily took Snake Mountain over since it was his rightful throne.
King Hiss was described as possessing a power as old and powerful as the Elders themselves. After his appearance in the second season, it was shown in a later episode that King Hiss had menaced Eternia even before the Elders came into power, during the time of King Grayskull. His army of snake men and the soldiers of Grayskull fought for dominance of the world. This was until a new force arrived on Eternia to claim it for themselves which was the Evil Horde led by Hordak. Hordak brought his army and attacked the snake men first removing them as a possible threat before setting his sights on King Grayskull. Despite losing the battle, King Hiss and his army survived but now had to contend with the powers of the Elders who had formed after Grayskull's death at the hands of Hordak.
King Hiss's personality in the 2002 cartoon was evil lawful. While indeed power hungry and ruthless (the cartoon shows him gleefully eating people alive--literally instead of making human soup and serving it to the snakemen), Kobra Khan described him as being as generous to his friends as he was ruthless to his enemies like the movie version of Thulsa Doom. (King Hiss was even capable of grudging respect towards some enemies, seen when he compared He-Man to King Grayskull.)
Unlike Skeletor who regularly abused and humiliated his minions, King Hiss respected his warriors, giving sincere praise and congratulations as appropriate much like the movie version of Thulsa Doom with self-sacrificing minions as his snakemen are willing to die for him anytime. He's much like Wrath-Amon in Conan the Adventurer.
In return, the Snake Men were fiercely loyal to him, ignoring any personal ambitions they might have in order to serve their leader out of sincere devotion. This was quite the opposite of Skeletor's Evil Warriors. The only fault King Hiss had in this regard was that he practiced cronyism; his playing favorites, such as Kobra Khan over General Rattlor, led to much friction among his Snake Men. King Hiss seemed completely oblivious of this; of course, it is possible that he intentionally played one Snake Man against the other to make them compete for his favor.
Another thing to note was that King Hiss was mildy racist. He saw his Snake Men as a master race and other Eternians as food or, at best, slaves. Even non Snake Men who helped were not above his wrath; he would have eaten Evil Lyn alive, despite how she helped to free him from the void, if she had not offered him the power of Castle Grayskull amidst pleas for her life. Even then, he at best tolerated her. This is quite the opposite of Skeletor (whose minions, are in fact, even more racially diverse than He-Man's Masters of the Universe) who reserves his hatred for individuals or political and not racial groups.
He was last seen in the last episode of the 2002 He-Man series, beaten and seemingly dead... his four snake-like arms having eaten his head after being tricked by Zodak. Had a third series continued, it was revealed that King Hiss's head would have regenerated and he would have returned as a menace however to what extent is unknown.
King Hiss' main minions are Kobra Khan, Tung Lashor, Rattlor, Snake Face, and Sssqueeze (sometimes called Tanglor). Hiss and his Snake Men seen to be referential to the Serpent-Men from Robert E. Howard’s, Conan the Barbarian. (The Masters of the Universe toys were originally going to be a Conan toyline until Mattel saw the adult content in the Conan movie.)
[edit] The Connection Between Thoth-Amon and King Hiss
Since Mattel placed the idea of the snakemen from Conan the Barbarian, King Hiss's template from Conan is rather Thoth-Amon. It is interesting to see how Thoth-Amon doesn't trust Thulsa Doom, and the same thing happens as King Hiss doesn't trust Skeletor.
It seems in the cartoons that it is implied that Skeletor has control over some snakemen like Thulsa Doom did in the comics. Whether or not Skeletor worships Set (of Snake Mountain) still remains to be seen.
Like Thoth-Amon he was also imprisoned into the void where he did not age, instead he grew in anger. He also worshipped a god named as Serpos, who is loosely based on the snake god Set.
In the 2002 version of He-Man, fans of Conan who may have known Thulsa Doom and Thoth-Amon would see the same kind of distrust between Skeletor and King Hiss. In addition, it is interesting that the last episodes have King Hiss summon Serpos, who is loosely based on the snake god Set (from Conan), and that the snake men there ate human flesh, but they ate their victims directly without making human soup.
Unlike Thoth-Amon, King Hiss never relied on any ring to give him immense power and he could become a five-headed serpent in combat and had vast sorcerous powers. However like Thoth-Amon he worships the snake god Serpos (Set).
Also, Snake Mountain would look like a Cult of Set headquarters however currently run by a skull-headed necromancer known as Skeletor (based on Thulsa Doom). Like the movie version of Thulsa Doom (who highly resembles Thoth-Amon), he also had a consort who suspiciously looks like King Osric's daughter but is a real villain named Queen Hiss. King Hiss had snake minions at the beginning of the introduction of the second season of He-Man.
[edit] Conan the Adventurer's Influence on 2002 He-Man
In He-Man 2002, King Hiss resembles Wrath-Amon from Conan the Adventurer. The very artifact which changes men into snakemen is similar to the episode where Wrath-Amon attempts to change Conan into a snakeman; here he tries to do the same to He-Man.
The last episodes for the second season featured Hiss and his snakemen releasing their snake god Serpos. They too were like Wrath-Amon - they wanted to enslave the human race. King Hiss also has the "change into the living image of Serpos" which is similar to that of the bloody Conan the Barbarian movie.
