WONDER MAN, ATOMIC THUNDERBOLT, BLACK BAT, & BLACK OUT

AMAZING HEROES (FRESH MONKEY FICTION)

Fresh Monkey Fiction’s devotion to the Amazing Heroes line was nothing short of…well, amazing, I suppose would be the most accurate term.  After getting Series 2 out there through a variety of means, they decided to refocus and scale back a little bit for the third set.  With only four figures this time around, all of them Golden Age public domain characters, Series 3 removed the crowdfunding side entirely, instead just going straight to pre-orders through Fresh Monkey Fiction’s webstore.  And here I am looking at all four of those right now!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Wonder Man, Atomic Thunderbolt, Black Bat, and Black Out, officially dubbed Series 3 of Amazing Heroes, went up for pre-order on Fresh Monkey Fiction’s site in September of 2019, and started shipping out that October.  Compared to other sets, the release was honestly pretty simple and straight-forward.

Wait, Wonder Man?  Isn’t he a Marvel guy?  Well, yeah, now, sure.  But first he was published by Nedor.  And then a different version was also published by Nedor.  That’s this guy here.  Brad Spencer was exposed to, and this is a direct quote from the Public Domain Super Heroes wiki, “a sizzling voltage of a secret current.”  And haven’t we all, amirite?  The figure is built on the basic body, so he’s 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Wonder Man uses the first style of hair-sporting head…which is interesting, because all of the proto-shots used the other male head.  Not that it’s a big deal either way, but it’s a noted change-up. Beyond that, he’s all about that new paint. It’s a pretty garish mix of colors, but that’s true to the text. Wonder Man alternated between brown and black hair, but this figure settled on black, which seems fair enough. His application is still a bit sloppy around the edges, but on a whole is a lot cleaner and more consistent than the preceding assortment.

The Atomic Thunderbolt is a character I wasn’t familiar with prior to this. In essence, he’s kind of a half-step between Captain America and Captain Atom…which is interesting, because he actually predates Captain Atom. Anyway, William “Willy the Wharf Rat” Burns (yes, that’s really his name), a former merchant marine suffering from PTSD, is granted atomic powers in an experiment that results in the death of his creator, who took the secrets of atomic powered people with him in death. Fun times. Atomic Thunderbolt gets the bald head, as well as Madman’s wrist cuffs, which all in all replicates his comics look pretty well. Like Wonder Man, his paint is still a little wavy around some of the edges, but it’s generally cleaner than Series 2 was.

Black Bat? Gee, who could have inspired him? Okay, it’s actually a bit more interwoven than you might think.  Nedor, who published Black Bat, actually had an earlier version of the character, introduced in 1933, who was just a detective, rather than a costumed hero.  The name was repurposed shortly after Batman’s first appearance, for a similarly-themed costumed crusader.  Tony Quinn is a former district attorney who had acid hurled in his face, leaving him blind and scarred.  He honed his other senses to become a vigilante, and also received an eye transplant in secret, and apparently retained night vision because of his prior blindness…because that’s how that works.  Elements of Black Bat’s story would later be reused for the likes of Daredevil (the Matt Murdock one), Two-Face, and Dr. Midnight, which was all pretty darn cool.  Black Bat’s design was pretty reserved, and the figure follows suit.  He uses the bald head, and gets a cloth cape, which even gets the scalloped edges, like another caped crusader tends to have.  His paint is the cleanest of the bunch so far; it’s not a ton going on, but the application is clean, and the head in particular does very well with his mask detailing.  Black Bat didn’t get any accessories by default, but you could order his signature sidearms separately on Fresh Monkey Fiction’s site, if you so desired.

Hey, it’s Black Out.  Another guy with “Black” in his name.  Who is he?  Well, he fought Uncle Sam…and…that’s really it.  So, you know, bad guy.  There’s that.  He’s another basic bald-headed guy, with paint as his main defining thing.  It’s another pretty clean one, and the skull and crossbones on the head and torso are particularly impressive in their crispness.  He’s also got black eyes, which is unique, and I suppose thematic.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Remember the one-shot acquisition I mentioned earlier?  Well, these guys figured into that too.  This set’s cool because it’s got one of the figures I was most intent on getting: Wonder Man!  I’ve known about the Golden Age Wonder Man for quite a while, and when he was teased as a possible stretch goal waaaaay back in the first Kickstarter campaign, I was very hopeful he’d make the cut.  Sadly, that wasn’t the case, but at least he finally made it out.  The other three are pretty fun, too, and the improved quality on this set is definitely appreciated.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.