BATMAN, THE FLASH, GREEN ARROW, HOLOGRAM SUPERMAN, & HOLOGRAM GREEN LANTERN

JLA (KENNER)

“The mightiest heroes in the universe join forces to combat the world’s most diabolical villains – and their own evil counterparts!”

Hey, remember that JLA set I looked at yesterday, where I referenced that there was a second, complimentary set a few times?  Well, absolute shock and awe, if you can believe it, I’m gonna look at that second set today.  Whaaaaaaaaaaat?  This set also gets the extra significance of being the review that marks ten years here on the site, and it’s a more significant one, to boot.  So, let’s check this thing out.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Batman, The Flash, Green Arrow, Hologram Superman, and Hologram Green Lantern were released as “The World’s Greatest DC Comics Super Heroes Collection II” boxed set, the other half of the kick-off for Kenner’s JLA line.  As noted yesterday, both sets were Previews-exclusives, with the three standard JLA members per set also being available in the first single-carded assortment of the line.

BATMAN

“With a brilliantly deductive mind, expert scientific knowledge, and a master of martial arts, Batman watches over Gotham City from its gargoyles and parapets. He’s the city’s last hope against evil.”

With Superman headlining the first set, you gotta have Batman for the second, I guess.  I mean, his name wasn’t above the title of the whole line this time, so I guess he at least needed to have this concession.  He wasn’t going through the weird changes like Big Blue, so he’s just, you know, Batman.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation, plus those wonky sliding wings.  He’s using the Total Justice mold again, and it’s definitely its own thing.  There are a lot of oddities to this one, with the strangest thing definitely being those wings.  Like, why the wings?  It was weird with TJ, but at least there was the armor up gimmick, but with this release, it’s just random wings.  Just one of those weird quirks.  For his Total Justice release, Batman was blue and grey, with yellow accents.  For JLA, it switched two black and grey, with gold accents.  Through all three uses of the mold, the sculpted line for his trunks gets ignored, since DC was still in a “no trunks” mode in the mid-’90s.  Batman was packed with a display stand in black, as well as a backer with JLA #9 on it.  He’s on the cover, so that works alright.

THE FLASH

“A public super hero for almost his entire life. He can reach speeds approaching that of light itself and explode solid objects by vibrating through them.”

Like Kyle as Green Lantern, Wally West as the Flash had gotten his first action figure treatment during Total Justice, and then he got a quick follow-up to that here.  Again, not one that’s incredibly different, but it was at least some coverage.  The figure stands about 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He re-uses the Total Justice mold, of course, which I looked at when it was Reverse Flash.  As far as the TJ molds go, it’s not too crazy.  The pre-posing is more of a running pose, which works pretty well.  He gets a few additional details that aren’t usually on his comics costume; the flared gloves and all the straps on the boots being the main ones.  It all works pretty well, though.  His paint work is a noted change-up from the TJ figure’s classic red and yellow coloring; instead, he’s a deeper red with gold accenting.  It’s not quite as striking, but at the same time, it really sells him as being Wally’s ’90s incarnation, in contrast to Barry’s usual coloring.  Flash is packed with a red display stand and a backer with JLA #8 on it.  He’s not really the main focus of the cover, but at least he’s on it.

GREEN ARROW

“As the only son of the original Green Lantern, Connor Hawke is a martial arts expert who fires his arrows with almost superhuman accuracy.”

Like Huntress, Connor Hawke’s Green Arrow was a later addition to the JLA line-up.  He was likewise one of the figures in the final assortment of Total Justice, and works as Huntress’s counterpart in this set, since he doesn’t get a Hologram equivalent.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  I looked at this guy’s sculpt before when I reviewed his Total Justice release.  It’s preposed to the point of essentially being a statue, but it also remains perhaps the best sculpt that either of these lines produced.  For JLA, he got a much improved color scheme for the most part, as well as getting a bunch of details that had been left out of the first release’s paint work.  The only downside is that, matching the shift in the comics, his skin tone is very light, not really matching Connor’s proper ethnicity.  Of course, it’s not really Kenner’s fault; they were just following the unfortunate shift in depiction in the source material.  Green Arrow was packed with his bow and arrow (in brown, in contrast to the original green), a green display stand, and a backer card of JLA #10….which is the issue of “Rock of Ages” that features the Hologram JLA….and not Connor.  He *is* prominently featured on the cover of #8, so, maybe that would have made more sense?

HOLOGRAM SUPERMAN & HOLOGRAM GREEN LANTERN

“Embroiled in their greatest battle ever, the legendary JLA confronts its own holographic counterparts in a fight to save Star City from mass destruction. Identically matched in power and ability to the originals, the evil holograms were engineered by the infamous Injustice Gang – a group of such sinister masterminds as The Joker, Lex Luthor, Circe, Mirror Master, Dr. Light and Ocean Master.”

As noted yesterday, these sets each got two unique Hologram JLA members (and they even did two more in the Collection IV boxed set), mirroring the standard versions in the corresponding set.  This time around, we got Superman and Green Lantern.  Both figures stand just shy of 5 inches tall and they have 5 points of articulation.  I looked at both of the molds for these figures in yesterday’s set, and they kind of are what the are.  The Superman set-up is still a real mix and match and Green Lantern is very, very intense.  Of course, it wouldn’t really make much sense for them to be different, since the match-up is kind of the whole gimmick and all.  They both get funky change-up color schemes, and I honestly think I prefer the looks on these two to the other ones.  In particular, the changed up logo on Superman is a lot of fun, and I just dig the indigo set-up on GL so much.  The figures both come with dark purple display stands and backer cards, with JLA #11 going to Superman and JLA #12 for Green Lantern.  Neither of them actually features in either issue, of course, but both issues *are* at least from the “Rock of Ages” storyline, and their corresponding counterpart is prominently featured on them, so they’re far from the worst choices.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve discussed this set a little bit before on the site, back when I looked at the TJ version of Green Arrow, but I’ll go a bit further into detail now, I suppose.  In 1998, when this set came out, I was five years old.  At the time, I would spend a lot of time at my grandparents’ house.  In particular, it was a frequent tradition that my Grandmother would come and pick me up from school on Friday afternoons, and we would go get lunch at the local mall, followed by a little bit of shopping.  My main interest was usually the KB Toys, but right across from it was the comic chain Another Universe, which was usually a good secondary.  Another Universe had both of these sets, and I really, really wanted Green Arrow, whose single carded release was still very hard to find at the time.  My Grandmother could have just asked me to be patient and wait for the single, but instead, she bought me the whole set.  They got a lot of play time when I was a kid, especially that Green Arrow.  I lost a lot of the parts, as well as the two Hologram Leaguers over the years, but I still have very pleasant memories of the whole set and the story behind them.  My Grandmother died at the end of August this year, and now all I have left are those, and other, memories of our time together.  So, when I had the chance to get a replacement of the set, and carry those memories forward, I kind of couldn’t pass it up.