ATOM

DC MULTIVERSE (MCFARLANE)

You know, for someone who hasn’t generally vibed with McFarlane’s handling of the DC license, I sure do feel like I review a lot of the figures here. Of course, as of late, it’s mostly been the Super Powers figures holding my interest, and I’m out of those to review right now. I haven’t looked at any of the main 7-inchers since the surprisingly well done Silver Age Hal Jordan, who was inexplicably saddled with some sort of weird and stupid NFT thing (though, to be fair, all NFTs are weird and stupid, not just the ones Todd bundled with the figures). There’s been another round of the nice figures inexplicably saddled with NFTs, and it includes a classic Atom, and I’m kind of a sucker for that sort of thing.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Atom is part of the second “Digital” assortment of the DC Multiverse line, alongside a “Longbow Hunters” version of Green Arrow and a “Our Worlds At War” Superman.  He’s under the DC Direct banner again, but I’m honestly not even sure what *isn’t* under that banner at this point.  He’s McFarlane’s second Atom, but the less said about the Page Punchers version, the better.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 35 points of articulation.  Atom is using the same base body as Hal was, which is the one designed for the Blue & Gold two-pack.  It’s not a bad base body, and it’s definitely some of McFarlane’s cleanest work for the line.  That said, it’s starting to feel maybe just a tad repetitive.  The boots are notably still the thing that’s wrong with pretty much every use.  While the shaping was at least right for Hal, if not the extra ridge.  For Ray, though, they’re actually the wrong shape.  On this release, I did notice the pelvis cover was starting to split a little bit, which does concern me.  Speaking of the pelvis, the belt this time around is just painted on, not sculpted which looks a little lacking.  Atom gets a new head sculpt.  It’s alright, but not quite as strong as Hal’s.  And, continuing the theme started by the boots, the mask’s shaping is incorrect, missing the extra ridges at the cheeks.  The paint work on the figure is alright.  Bright and eye catching.  The application’s a little fuzzy on some of the edges, especially around the mask.  Atom is packed with four hands (pointing and fist for right, gripping and open gesture for left), a miniature Atom figurine, and a display stand with “McFarlane Toys Digital” printed on it.  He’s also got his collector’s card, and the card with the weird NFT info.  The miniature has the same inaccuracies as the larger figure, which is I guess good for consistency’s sake.  He’s rather static in his pose, which is a little limiting, but generally he’s pretty cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t really know much about this guy before encountering him in the wild.  I was running some errands, and stumbled across him.  I wasn’t sure I’d be grabbing him, but he made his way to the register with me, and I’m a sucker for a classic Atom.  The fact that I missed out on the DCUC release back in the day didn’t help matters.  This one’s ultimately got a similar vibe to the DC Direct JLA figure, which I did rather like.  This one lacks some of the polish of that one, and of the GL from the last round, but he’s fun enough.