King Hiss
King Hiss (spelled King Hsss in the 2002 version) is the villainous king of the Snake Men in Mattel toyline He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, but was never depicted in the Filmation animated seires, although several of his minons were.
Hiss did however appear 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.
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. 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. Centuries in limbo with his serpentine underlings also gave King Hiss the ability to remove his human skin and become a hideous being composed of squirming snakes. After milenia of imprisonment, King Hiss was accidentally set free by Skeletor. Skeletor’s base Snake Mountain had formerly been King Hiss’s headquarters. The two villains formed an uneasy alliance, so they might conquer Eternia and destroy its champion He-Man.
King Hiss was unable to set free his whole army, however some Snake Men rallied to him. They were, 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.)
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 Thoth-Amon 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.
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.