ERADICATOR

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“The Eradicator is an ancient artifact of Krypton with sentient personality, who has been ally and enemy to Superman.”

During the “Reign of the Supermen” storyline, where four potential replacements for the original Man of Steel arose following his death, the new guys were all kind of set-up to represent the various trends of characters in comics.  The Eradicator took on the role of “edgy rebrand” with a “kewl” sounding name and a more lethal attitude towards criminals, but was, interestingly, not the one that turned out to be evil, merely lacking the human empathy that makes Superman, you know, Superman.  He was also the only of the new Supermen who didn’t really stick around, though he’s returned here and there as the story allows for it.  Eradicator’s first figure was supposed to be in Kenner’s Man of Steel line, but was cancelled and shunted to a mail-away release through ToyFare magazine.  Now he’s getting the (pseudo) Kenner treatment again, with some Super Powers coverage!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Eradicator is the fourth figure in Wave 13 of McFarlane’s Super Powers continuation line, numbered 64 in the overall line.  He’s the last figure in this set to share a number with a prior release, which he claimed from Wave 11’s Cyborg.  The figure stands just over 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Eradicator in the comics had a body that used some of Clark’s DNA, so he looked quite a bit like him (mostly; they were inconsistent about his hair), and so it’s little surprise that he’s using a lot of Superman parts.  He’s using a variation of the updated Superman body from Wave 9, but specifically the slightly more streamlined version from Wave 10’s black suit Superman.  The gripping hand on the right arm is kind of redundant, and the belt throws off the look a little bit, but generally it works.  He gets a new head sculpt, which is similar to the standard Superman, but with Eradicator’s signature goggles, and also a much more angry expression, better fitting Eradicator’s personality.  He also gets a cloth cape piece, which isn’t *quite* accurate to Eradicator’s usual look, which had the cape more dramatically flared at the shoulders and also went behind his logo.  That said, such a look would be quite difficult to do while also maintaining the aesthetic of the line, so I think they made it work well enough to pass muster.  The cape is once more missing the “S” on the back, but I’ve made my peace with that this far into the assortment.  Eradicator’s paint work is generally pretty good.  Application is clean, and the shades are all pretty eye-catching.  My only complaint is the color for the goggles; they’re gold, when yellow would be more accurate to the vintage style.  Super minor thing, though, and not enough to ruin the figure by any stretch.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since Eradicator didn’t stick around in the comics the way the others did, he was gone by the time I was reading, and it was his Kenner figure that introduced me to the idea, which has always tied me more to his presence as a toy.  There’s no denying he’s got a design that looks cool as a toy, and that holds up here.  This figure is kind of easy to overlook in an assortment with some flashier offerings, but he’s no slouch, and the minor issues I have with him certainly don’t keep him from being a very cool figure.