Monthly Archives: November 2023

#3496: Cyclops Light Force Arena

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

CYCLOPS LIGHT FORCE ARENA

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Using the Laser Light Force that only he possesses, Cyclops trains in the Danger Room to hone his mutant ability. The Light Force Arena’s many obstacles test Cyclops’ optic blasts to the limit! Only with constant practice can Cyclops keep his skills razor-sharp enough to cope with the threat of the Evil Mutants!”

Hey, remember back last week when I looked at that X-Men playset?  Wanna see me do it again?  Well, whether you want me to or not, that’s the angle I’m going with here.  Last week gave Wolverine a place to hang, so how about doing the same for Cyclops this week?  Oh yeah!

THE PLAYSET ITSELF

The Cyclops Laser Light Arena was released in 1991 alongside Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  It was the second of the two small-scale Danger Room playsets that accompanied the main line’s launch, serving as a companion piece to Wolverine’s Combat Cave.  The Laser Light Arena is the same basic dimensions as the Combat Cave, being about 7 inches tall, 7 inches wide, and 4 1/2 inches deep.  It’s smaller nature doesn’t *quite* live up to the “Arena” name, but we gave the other one a pass on “Cave” so this one can get a bit of a pass too.  Like the Combat Cave, this one required assembly right out of the box.  Once popped together, you get a set-up that’s not terribly different from the Cave’s assembly; three walls and three gimmicks, plus a spot to plug in a figure.  In this case, it’s designed to work specifically with the Series 1 Cyclops, right down to having spots shaped like the soles of his boots.  There’s also a spot that’s designed to directly work with the button that triggered his light-up feature; shame my figure lacks that these days.  Depending on how the “stand” is configured when you push down the button that would go under the spot where his light-up lever *should* be, you get one of three outcomes.  Furthest counterclockwise splits open the “metal box,” the next over flips back the Magneto standee, and the last one knocks over the stone wall.  Since it’s tied into the light up feature, it all looks like it’s being done by Cyclops’ optic blasts.  They actually all work pretty well, and there’s a good feeling of interactiveness to it.  The color scheme isn’t too far removed from the Combat Cave, albeit with the predominant color being yellow in place of red.  It works fine enough.  There’s more stickers to be had, as well, to keep things a little more interesting.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As with the Combat Cave, I missed this one’s original retail run.  I do remember seeing it in the little product catalogue, and I was slightly more interested in this one, it being Cyclops-themed and all.  I remember being slightly bummed about not getting this one at the same time as the Combat Cave.  I wound up getting this one a couple of years later, from Collector’s World, a small comic shop near where my family vacations, which has sadly gone out of business since.  I think this one’s actually a bit more fun than the Combat Cave, and it’s features work a little bit better.  But, they do both make nice display pieces.

#3495: Luke Skywalker – Jedi Knight

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

LUKE SKYWALKER — JEDI KNIGHT

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

Nine years and some change ago, I opened my review of Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker by remarking that my interest in The Black Series was beginning to wane.  Over 200 figures later, that does seem like it was a slightly premature assessment of things, but on the flipside, I’m feeling myself back in that boat again a little bit these days.  This time around, of course, it’s more on me than the line.  I’m just not as invested on having every character in every style anymore.  But, somewhat appropriately, I’ve been swayed by another Jedi Luke, so, I guess I’m taking a look at that one today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight) is part of the third series of the RotJ Retro Carded Black Series figures.  While the last two assortments have been largely re-cards of older figures with just one new figure per set, this assortment is almost entirely new (albeit with one figure that’s gotten a pretty quick re-release in the main line), and Luke is included in that grouping.  We’ve had a healthy helping of Jedi Lukes in the line at this point, covering all manner of variations on his looks.  This one covers the same ground as his first Black Series, replicating his design from his battle on the Death Star II.  The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  This figure’s articulation is pretty much the same set-up as the Book of Boba Fett version, which is a marked improvement on the old Jedi Luke’s set-up.  Those butterfly shoulders in particular really add to the figure’s posing options.  Structurally, he’s using most of the parts from the Light Cruiser Luke, which is sensible, what with the similarities in design and all.  He loses the vest overlay piece and gets a new head sculpt, now based directly on Hamill, rather than the Mandalorian facsimile of him, as well as an adjusted chest flap folded down like during his battle with Vader, and a belt piece.  The new head sculpt is really nice, and certainly the best RotJ-era Hamill we’ve gotten at this scale.  The separate face/hair set-up works especially well this time around.  Luke’s color work is a lot of molded colors, but there’s some solid paint work on the face and hair, and the smaller details on the outfit are handled very cleanly.  Luke is packed with an alternate chest flap, fully closed up, as well as his lightsaber.  It’s kind of light, but it’s about what I’ve come to expect at standard pricing for this line.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t intend to buy this figure.  I swear.  I had the first Jedi Luke.  I had the Jabba’s Palace version.  I had the Endor version.  I even had the Book version.  This one?  I didn’t need it.  My bases were all covered, right?  Well, apparently not.  I saw him in person, and I just couldn’t pass him up.  What can I say, I’ve got a soft spot for the look.  I’m glad I didn’t pass him up, because he’s an absolutely fantastic figure, and far and away the best version of Jedi Luke out there.

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.

#3494: Kingpin

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

KINGPIN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“One of the most powerful criminal leaders in New York City, Wilson Fisk, also known as Kingpin, rules the underworld with a signature blend of cruelty and charm.”

2003’s Daredevil is not a particularly good film, but one of the things that pretty much everyone can agree worked was Michael Clark Duncan’s portrayal of Kingpin.  With his passing in 2012, there was no way for him to reprise the role, and it became a rather daunting one for the next actor to portray Wilson Fisk in live action.  Thankfully, Vincent D’Onofrio was more than up for the challenge, delivering a take on Fisk so memorable that he even became the very first of Netflix’s Marvel cast to make the jump over to the MCU proper when he appeared in Hawkeye.  And with that, he also got an action figure.  Finally!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Kingpin is part of the Hydra Stomper Series of Marvel Legends, which is another Disney + based series of figures.  Kingpin is the one unnumbered figure in the set, as he’s sans-BAF piece.  He’s also one of the the two figures in the set based on Hawkeye.  Interestingly, he’s specifically based on his appearance in the photo at the end of Episode 5, rather than his proper appearance in Episode 6, presumably to keep him in a slightly more classic Kingpin get-up.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Kingpin is using a good chunk of parts from Happy, which seems pretty sensible, what with them both being larger guys in suits and all.  He gets a new head and jacket, and a modified upper torso, to remove Happy’s tie.  The head’s sporting a rather strong likeness of D’Onofrio in the role, and the new jacket and upper torso both work well to sell the whole overall look.  Kingpin’s color work is pretty decent; it’s almost entirely molded plastic colors, but they get the proper shades down, and it’s always nice to see Kingpin in his classic colors.  His face gets the printed technique, which works well here, and even gets the couple of spots on D’Onofrio’s face.  Kingpin is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and gripping, as well as his diamond-topped cane.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I loved Netflix’s Daredevil in its entirety, and D’Onofrio’s Kingpin was certainly a big part of that.  I was happy to get Daredevil back in the one Netflix set, but I was always a little bummed there was no Kingpin to go with him.  With his reintroduction into the MCU proper, I was more hopeful, and that certainly paid off.  Kingpin is a somewhat by-the-numbers figure, but that’s really all he needed to be, and I’m happy with the end product.

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.

Mutant X Re-Read #16: S.H.I.E.L.D. Attacks!

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Mutant X Re-Read, Reviews

THE RIPPLE EFFECT

MUTANT X #15 (MARVEL COMICS)

“In another place–in another life–Alex Summers led a team of mutants in a battle against oppression. His methods were extreme, his tactics questionable, but–in his soul–he knew that he was fighting for the greater good.

Now that soul has been transferred to another world, and Summers, also known as Havok, has found himself living a lie, allied with a team of mutants who are sinister, parallel versions of his friends and family. It is to this dark, new place that Havok has come, where he stands as a man alone… a mutant alone. Alex Summers is Mutant X.

Fear him. Fear for him.”

25 years ago, Marvel Comics launched Mutant X, a Havok led X-spinoff. I recently came into a complete run of the series, and so now I’m going to re-read the series once a week, and you guys get to come along for the ride!

This week, anti-mutant sentiment rears its ugly head again and the Six gets back up to being the Five, in “The Ripple Effect!”

THE ISSUE ITSELF

Mutant X #15 is cover dated December of 1999.  It has Howard Mackie as writer, Cary Nord on pencils, and Andrew Pepoy on inks.

The X-Men’s mansion is destroyed by a nuclear detonation, seemingly killing all members of the team.  The remnants of the Six watch a news report on the destruction, caused by Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D., who claim to have been under the control of the Goblin Queen.  Suddenly, a wounded Cerebro teleports into the Six’s headquarters, and confirms for them the demise of the rest of the X-Men.  S.H.I.E.L.D. arrives at the Six’s headquarters to take them into custody, but Havok and the others fight them off and are able to escape.  With nowhere to call home, Bloodstorm takes the group to Forge for safe haven.  Upon arrival, they are also greeted by Kitty Pryde, now Black Queen of the Hellfire Club.  Kitty has helped to unite Sebastian Shaw, Captain America, and Sunfire under the cause of protecting mutants and other super-powered beings from the regime of Fury and acting-President Graydon Creed.  Forge introduces his part of the plan, which hinges on Cerebro Mark XIII.  He reveals that it was he who created the Cerebro that grew into the sentient being with the group now, but that this one will be without human characteristics.  It would be used to classify mutants by whether or not they can be trusted by humans.  When Havok brings up the moral implications of such classifying, Forge backs down, but Sunfire is enraged, and vows to destroy the machine and all those present.  The group, aided by Captain America, are able to defeat Sunfire, but not before he destroys the facility and himself with it.  With the group on the run again, Cap offers to join the team.  Meanwhile, Cerebro feels as though a part of him has died and been reborn into something evil, as a shadowy robot figure rises from the wreckage.

With this issue, the series thoroughly sheds its veneer of pleasant human and mutant relations, and also crafts some notable shake-ups to the established universe.  After much fanfare to their arrival earlier in the book, the X-Men are wiped out off-screen, with only Cerebro surviving.  The remaining members of the Six are still somewhat out of focus, but we do get some additional lore for the universe.  The Six also gains a new member in the form of this universe’s Captain America.  We don’t get much background for him, but he’s certainly living up to the spirit of Steve Rogers, given his refusal to work with S.H.I.E.L.D. to hunt mutants.  Sunfire’s motivations are left a little murky, but there’s a hint that someone else is behind them, setting the stage for larger story pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This particular bit of the book is the part I knew the least about.  I knew how the Goblin Queen stuff ended, and I knew a lot of the later established status quo, but how they got there was kind of news.  I was actually rather shocked by the X-Men’s sudden demise, and a bit surprised by how quickly and without fanfare Cap’s addition to the Six is, but I’m still feeling pretty excited by where this is all headed.

I snagged this whole run from my usual comics stop, Cosmic Comix, so I want to give them a shout out here, because it was a pretty great find.

#3493: The Rocketeer

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

THE ROCKETEER

LONGBOX HEROES (FRESH MONKEY FICTION)

“The Rocketeer is Cliff Secord, a stunt pilot who discovers a mysterious jetpack that allows him to fly. His adventures are set in the Los Angeles and New York of 1938 as he battles Nazis and monsters!

Published in 1982 by reknowned writer/artist Dave Stevens, The Rocketeer is an homage to the Saturday matinee serial heroes from the 1930 through the 1950s. Stevens gave it a retro, nostalgic feel influenced by the king of the Rocket Men and Commando Cody movie serials, along with pinup diva Bettie Page as the inspiration for Cliff’s girlfriend, Betty.”

Before being an underrated gem of a movie in 1990, The Rocketeer was an underrated gem of a comic book.  Dave Stevens’ creation began as a back-up feature to Mike Grell’s Starslayer in 1982, eventually growing into its own standalone property, and gaining a lot of critical success.  The troubles of independent comic publishers and Stevens’ own perfectionism meant that it was a slow-rolling and ultimately rather short-lived series, but it nevertheless made an impact on the pop culture landscape.  It was without much in the way of merchandising during its first few decades of existence, but in the last ten years or so, there’s been an upswing.  It’s largely been movie-based, of course, but that changes today, with the first offering from Fresh Monkey Fiction’s Longbox Heroes!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Rocketeer is part of the the launch line-up of Longbox Heroes, a Big Bad Toystore-exclusive line of independent comics figures.  Where FMF’s prior Amazing Heroes line was clearly patterned on Secret Wars, Longbox Heroes is inspired by the *other* big ’80s superhero toyline, Super Powers. The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation, gaining an extra swivel point at each knee over his Kenner ancestors. This is partly due to his modular construction, which, much like Amazing Heroes, allows all of the figures in this line to have their parts swapped at the joints. All of the figures in the Longbox Heroes line were sculpted by Jason “Toyotter” Geyer, who has been a major fixture of the online toy news and toy archiving scene since the ’90s, notably running the Super Powers Archive, amongst other things, making him a natural choice for such a project. His sculpt for Cliff is honestly pretty perfect, really. It’s very cleanly detailed, and really captures the Dave Stevens illustrations of the character, getting all of his important design elements, while also very much feeling like it’s a proper vintage Kenner sculpt. The one area where this guy is a little more removed from a Kenner offering us the paint work. He’s entirely painted, which isn’t *quite* the way they would have done it. That said, it’s a pretty solid paint job. There’s a spot of black in the wrong place on his legs, and some of the edges are a little fuzzy, but generally things look alright. Cliff is packed with his pistol (patterned on the Mauser C96, which was also the basis for Han Solo’s gun), and a Longbox Heroes display stand. Given the interchangeability angle, an unmasked head would have been cool, but not really expected given the style.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Super Powers is one of my very favorite toylines, the Rocketeer is one of my favorite comic/movie characters, and I really love Amazing Heroes, so there was pretty much no way that I was missing out on this guy.  As such, I jumped on his pre-order through BBTS pretty quickly.  This guy is a ton of fun, and a fantastic throwback to the Super Powers style.  I can’t wait to get the rest of the figures I’ve got pre-ordered.

#3492: Ronan The Accuser

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

RONAN THE ACCUSER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“As Supreme Public Accuser, Ronan enforces Kree justice with his cosmi-rod, the Universal Weapon, which often brings him into conflict with the space-faring races of the Marvel Universe”

The Kree, a race of aliens that got at least some degree of focus in last weekend’s The Marvels (I don’t know specifically how much, because I haven’t seen it as of this writing) made their first appearance in the comics, represented via proxy by their Kree Sentry that was destroyed by the Fantastic Four, and then in person by Ronan, their Supreme Accuser sent to learn what happened to their Sentry.  Ronan began as a purely antagonistic force, but has acquired more complex alliances over the years, at times fighting alongside many of the heroes he had previously fought.  But, at the end of the day, he remains loyal to the Kree Empire, and they’re not always the nicest, so he’s often stuck enforcing their not so nice ways.  At least he’s gotten some action figure coverage, though.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ronan the Accurser is an Amazon-exclusive Marvel Legends offering.  He’s at the deluxe price point, and is part of Hasbro’s small run of comics-style “Guardians of the Galaxy” exclusives, which also includes Yondu, Star-Lord, and the Drax and Moondragon two-pack.  This marks the third time Ronan’s been in the Legends line.  Thus far, we’ve had a Build-A-Figure based on a mid-00s appearance and a standalone based on his MCU figure.  This one goes for Ronan’s classic comics attire, which is by far his most prolonging, and just generally his best.  The figure stands shy of 8 inches tall and he has 28 points of articulation, plus moving shoulder pads.  Ronan uses the Warlock Series Colossus as a starting point, sharing his arms, legs, and feet with that release.  It actually makes for a pretty solid re-use; it’s not spot-on to every Ronan appearance, but it’s remarkably close, and the build is certainly correct.  The only real drawbacks are the limited elbow articulation and the visible pins, but even those are pretty minor.  He gets a new head, shoulderpads, torso, hands, and skirt piece, courtesy of sculptor Paul Harding.  They fit very nicely with the pre-existing parts, and are a strong recreation of his classic design.  He opts for a more general classic design, rather than going for one particular artist’s rendition.  Overall, it’s just a very clean assembly, which fits very well with the character.  His color work is likewise very clean.  He’s got a lot of greens, as you would expect.  The lightest green is metallic, while the others are flat.  The application’s all pretty cleanly handled, with minimal slop and bleed over.  Ronan’s only got one accessory, but it’s a very good one, because it’s his cosmi-rod, aka his real big hammer.  It’s an all-new sculpt, and it’s quite a sizable piece at that.  The angles are nice and sharp, and there’s some impressive texturing on the head.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve always liked Ronan, but he’s always had a shortage of good figures.  I never was able to complete his Build-A-Figure back in the day, which was honestly one of those better in the end type deals, since it wasn’t really the look I wanted anyway.  I’ve made due with the movie version for a while, which is honestly fine, because that one’s pretty good.  But, it doesn’t remove my desire for a good classic one.  I intended to get around to ordering this one eventually, but Amazon made it easier for me by giving him a good chunk of a mark down for Prime Day.  I’m glad I got around to that, because he’s actually a really, really good figure.  Certainly the best version of Ronan out there.

#3491: Wolverine Combat Cave

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

WOLVERINE COMBAT CAVE

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“The Combat Cave is Wolverine’s secret training complex in which he works to improve his formidable fighting abilities. A wide array of weapons and traps challenge Wolverine’s slashing skills to the fullest. Only after completing the combat Cave workout can Wolverine be certain that he is ready for the ongoing struggle against the Evil Mutants.”

Last week, I was discussing the presence of vehicles in ’90s action figure lines, and continuing down that path of figure-adjacent items from those lines, let’s follow up with a look into the wild world of playsets!  I’ve delved into them a little bit here on the site, but not in a terribly in-depth sort of fashion, and not for a good long while.  I’m dipping my toes back in today, starting off on the smaller side of things with the Wolverine Combat Cave!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Wolverine Combat Cave was released in 1991 alongside Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  It was one of two small-scale playsets that accompanied the line’s launch, both clearly meant to emulate portions of the Danger Room.  It would be rendered more or less obsolete by the larger X-Men Headquarters playset, which had a more elaborate set-up, but that wasn’t until 1995, so this set had a decent run of its own.  The Combat Cave measures 7 inches tall, 7 inches wide, and 4 1/2 inches deep.  The set required assembly when new, so you needed to pop the three walls into the base, as well as popping in a few other parts.  It’s a pretty small little area, but with a name that features “cave,” you’re not expecting a huge set-up, I suppose.  The sculpting on it’s notably not very cave-like, though.  It’s pretty basic and geometric, without much in the way of actual detailing.  As far as classic Danger Room designs go, it’s alright, I suppose.  The set has a few spots that are designed for more direct figure interaction.  You plug the figure onto the stand (which works with any figure with standard pegs, but is clearly designed to work directly with the Series 1 Wolverine), and there’s a lever to move the stand back and forth, as well as spin the figure on the stand.  All three walls get some sort of feature as well.  There’s an attack thingy mounted on the first wall with a bunch of different weapons, which you can move in and out towards the figure.  The longest wall gets a printed picture of Magneto that’s affixed to a sliding door, which has a circle in the middle that can be punched out.  On the last wall, there’s a “brick” section, which has a spring-loaded release, which flips the top half down.  The vast majority of this set’s coloring is molded plastic, but there are decals for the obligatory X-Men logo at the top, and the Magneto on the sliding door.  There’s also a small touch of paint for the mount for the logo, which I guess is cool.  Other than that, it’s molded red and blue-grey.  It’s an interesting color choice; certainly not my go-to for a Wolverine theme, but I guess it’s alright.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I came into the game a little late for these particular sets.  I recall seeing them in the booklet that came with my Sentinel, but that was really it, with the Headquarters being my main X-playset as a kid.  I added this particular one to my collection when I came across a sealed one for a remarkably good price at Player’s Choice, one of the two comic shops near where I lived when I was in South Carolina back in 2016.  It was sort of a comfort purchase, given it was my first real time away from home, and I rather vividly recall sitting down and assembling it in my old living room.  It’s a kind of a goofy little set, but it’s a fun little stepping stone towards the more complex stuff from later.

#3490: ARC Trooper Fives

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , , ,

ARC TROOPER FIVES

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Fives trained with Domino Squad on Kamino before being stationed at the Rishi Moon outpost. While on Kamino for medical testing, he discovered a terrifying secret about the clones’ origins.”

There are a number of recurring Clones over the course of The Clone Wars, but there are few that have quite as intricate a story as Domino Squad.  Introduced during the first season episode “Rookies,” the squad’s members are noted for their tendency to, much like the game pieces they are named after, fall.  By the end of their first episode, only two remained, Fives and Echo, who would go on to go from Rookies to ARC Troopers during their run on the show.  Fives initially had the longest run of the squad, surviving until the end of the Clone Conspiracy arc, where he discovers the truth about Order 66.  He’s subsequently had his thunder stolen a little bit with the reveal that Echo actually survived his presumed death at the Citadel, but that doesn’t make Fives any less important.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

ARC Trooper Fives is number 16 in the Clone Wars sub-set of Star Wars: The Black Series’ Phase IV run.  Like Jesse from last week, he’s a Walmart-exclusive, which continues to be a bit of a bummer.  Honestly, even more of a bummer, really, given how major a character Fives is within the context of Clone Wars.  Like Echo and Jesse, Fives is presented here in his ARC Trooper loadout.  It makes the most sense by far for him, since he spends so much time in this particular gear.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  If you’ve read my reviews of Echo and Jesse, then you pretty much know the ins and outs of this sculpt, because he’s virtually identical to those two.  Fives shares the upper pouch placement with Jesse, which is accurate to the source material.  He also gets a new head sculpt under the helmet, which is fairly similar to Echo’s, but sports the appropriate facial hair.  I kind of expected the beard to just be painted on, but it’s actually sculpted, which was certainly a plus.  Fives’ color scheme is accurate to the cartoon, so it’s got a similar vibe to the other two, but some of the patterns are shifted around in order to make him more clearly unique from the other two.  Application is generally pretty clean, but on mine, the blue on the helmet fin is a little off-set, so it’s not quite centered the way it should be.  Like Jesse, Fives is only packed with a pair of blaster pistols.  It’s again pretty frustrating, given that he *still* doesn’t have trigger fingers on both hands, but he was at least more frequently seen with just the pistols.  Still, I’d like to at least have the option, given how much re-use he’s sporting.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m honestly shocked it took as long as it did for Fives to get added to Black Series.  I kind of expected him to be the one that debuted this mold, so Echo and Jesse both beating him to market was definitely odd.  I was definitely not thrilled to find out he was an exclusive, either, but thankfully, I had Max looking out for me, and he managed to snag me one without much issue.  He feels a touch anticlimactic, I suppose, having already gotten the others and all, but I’m glad I at least have him finally.

#3489: Black Knight & Sersi

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

BLACK KNIGHT & SERSI

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Fearful that Sersi is going mad because of her immortality, the Eternals bond her with her fellow Avenger Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, forging a mental union to make them soulmates”

In the ’90s, it was an unwritten rule in comics that everything was cooler with leather jackets.  Honestly, you can drop “in comics” from that sentence.  Leather jackets were really just everywhere.  Jim Lee notably gave a few of the X-Men leather jackets to wear over their spandex suits (which was honestly following up on Animal Man wearing a jacket during Grant Morrison’s run on that book, but that was actually a *denim* jacket, so it’s not quite the same), and it caught like wildfire.  Soon, all the Marvel teams had them, and that included the Avengers.  It’s not a time that’s jumped back to too much in toy form, but, you know what?  Here it is.  Let’s look at Black Knight and Sersi, shall we?

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Black Knight and Sersi are an Amazon-exclusive Marvel Legends, released under the wider “Beyond Earth’s Mightiest” banner that’s celebrating the Avengers 60th anniversary this year.  Both figures in this set are based on their time with the Avengers in the early ’90s.

BLACK KNIGHT

We got a classic comics Black Knight not too terribly long ago, back in the Cull Obsidian Series in 2018, but I’m never one to shy away from another.  This one’s like that one, but with a leather jacket.  And how could you not love that?  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Like the last Black Knight, this one’s construction is largely Bucky Cap-adjacent.  He uses the pelvis piece, and a bunch of other parts used in conjunction with other Bucky Cap parts elsewhere.  Specifically, he’s got the more modern head from the last Black Knight, the arms from Cannonball, the torso from Doctor Strange, the belt from Daredevil, the legs from Hobgoblin, and a new jacket and boots.  The mix of parts is a pretty pitch-perfect recreation of his look from the comics, with the new parts in particular really selling the whole thing.  There’s some slight quirks to some of the older parts, with the legs in particular showing a degree of warping.  Black Knight’s color work is similar to his last release, but has a degree more polish to it.  The face is now printed, which adds an extra lifelike quality, as well as giving him his ’90s era stubble, and the rest of the line-work is just overall a bit cleaner.  Black Knight is packed with two sets of hands (fists and gripping), and his Neural sword, which replaced the Ebony Blade during this era of the comics.

SERSI

While Sersi’s gotten the Legends treatment before, it was only her MCU incarnation.  This marks the first time for her comics counterpart, and indeed the first comics Eternal in general.  It’s really not that surprising, what with Sersi always being their most notable member.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Sersi uses a mix of prior figure parts, with the torso and pelvis from Shriek, the coat and upper arms from Rogue, and the lower arms and the legs of Phoenix.  She also gets a new head, belt, and kneepad pieces specifically for this release.  They’re not bad.  The head is giving me Courtney Cox vibes, which I suppose isn’t terrible for a ’90s-based figure.  Her color work is appropriate for the era, placing her in her red and black number.  The jacket is, interestingly, a different shade of brown than Dane’s jacket, and she also lacks the Avengers logo.  Consulting the source material shows that this is actually proper for this look, so, there it is, I guess.  Sersi is packed with two sets of hands (in fists and open gesture) and two effects pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I definitely dig Black Knight, and I don’t want to say no to a comics Sersi, but I wasn’t initially vibing on another Amazon exclusive, so I opted to hold out on these two.  However, the Prime Day sale has struck again.  The price made it hard to pass on them, so I didn’t.  They’re on the older side in terms of parts use, but they do what they need to, and they look pretty sweet with that ’90s Black Widow figure they put out back in 2020.

Mutant X Re-Read #15: Will This Deathmatch Against the Shi’Ar Herald the Return of Cyclops?!

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Mutant X Re-Read

HOMECOMING!

MUTANT X #14 (MARVEL COMICS)

“In another place–in another life–Alex Summers led a team of mutants in a battle against oppression. His methods were extreme, his tactics questionable, but–in his soul–he knew that he was fighting for the greater good.

Now that soul has been transferred to another world, and Summers, also known as Havok, has found himself living a lie, allied with a team of mutants who are sinister, parallel versions of his friends and family. It is to this dark, new place that Havok has come, where he stands as a man alone… a mutant alone. Alex Summers is Mutant X.

Fear him. Fear for him.”

25 years ago, Marvel Comics launched Mutant X, a Havok led X-spinoff. I recently came into a complete run of the series, and so now I’m going to re-read the series once a week, and you guys get to come along for the ride!

This week, Havok meets his long-lost brother! –well, not *his* long-lost brother, since he’s, you know, inhabiting a different Alex Summers’ body and all…but it’s somebody’s long-lost brother, for sure.  Look, the point is, Cyclops is back in “Homecoming!”

THE ISSUE ITSELF

Mutant X #14 is cover dated November of 1999.  Howard Mackie returns as writer this issue, and is joined by Cary Nord on pencils and Andrew Pepoy on inks.  With the whole main team gone last issue, it’s nice to see a return to form.  I’d hazard a guess that the change-over from the planned 12-issue run of the series to a full-fledged on-going necessitated a fill-in issue, hence last month’s offering.

Out in space, a Skrull ship’s crew runs simulations of destroying the Earth, as they await orders from Skrull Home World to attack the planet that spawned the Goblin Entity.  Before they can move in, they’re boarded by the Starjammers, who in this universe are Cyclops, Binary, Nova, Silver Surfer, and Lockheed.  After a quick battle, Cyclops asks what planet the Skrulls are monitoring, and who they’re monitoring on it.  The Skrulls reveal that they are monitoring Alex Summers on Earth, leaving Cyclops shocked that his brother is still alive.  Back on Earth, Alex and Scotty enjoy a day out fishing.  Alex thinks to himself of the differences between this world and his own, and how Scotty stands a chance of a normal life, given this world’s greater tolerance towards mutants.  The pair are set upon by a large space ship, which opens fire.  They flee back to the car, and find the keys missing, having been taken by Cyclops, who attempts to make a dramatic entrance, only to be foiled by Alex slamming the car door in his face and driving off. The passengers of the ship are revealed to be Kree soldiers, who chase Alex and Scotty down.  Cyclops gets a second go at his dramatic entrance, revealing himself to Alex just before the arrival of Gladiator.  Alex and the Starjammers do their best to hold Gladiator off, but as the tide begins to turn against them, they are saved by the intervention of Uatu, who tells Gladiator to go, and informs him that Alex and Scotty are under his protection from here on out.  With the battle ended, Cyclops asks Alex what he’s been up to.

After the narrative water treading that was last month’s issue, this gets back to fleshing out the world just a little bit.  The whereabouts of Scott Summers are finally disclosed, in a story that nicely parallels the introduction of Corsair in the main universe.  We do fall back a little bit into the early run “Alex wanders through this new world largely alone” story device, but it works alright here, given the addition of the whole team of Starjammers to the plot.  It’s also a pretty nice one and done story, that still sets up some further story elements for later down the line.  The cavalier swashbuckler take on Cyclops is a ton of fun, as are the new roster of Starjammers, at least what we see of them.  This issue also features the first instance of something that will run for the next four months: “Fastlane.”  “Fastlane” was an anti-drugs story that Marvel ran in eight pages segments for four months in 1999.  They did this by shoving the eight pages into the literal middle of every single Marvel comic published for those four months, which almost always wound up being this very odd break in the story, which enraged more than a few comics readers at the time.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After really not being about last issue, this one was very refreshing to me.  The immediate jump into the action with the Starjammers resets the story well, and feels like the more natural jump back in point following the Goblin Queen wrap-up.  I love just about everything about this issue.  Honestly, it’s everything but the freaking “Fastlane” segment, but that’s not really this issue’s fault.

I snagged this whole run from my usual comics stop, Cosmic Comix, so I want to give them a shout out here, because it was a pretty great find.