Atrocitus is the second figure that was
offered through Mattycollector.com’s Club Infinite Earths. And I
sure would have been a lot more excited about him two or three years
ago.
It looked like Atrocitus was poised to
be a major player with a major storyline following “Blackest
Night”. He started off as the villain of the year for the Green
Lanterns and evolved into a much deeper character with his own
motivations and agenda that deserved a closer look. Atrocitus became
an integral part of the ongoing storyline in Green Lantern Corps.
Then “Flashpoint” happened and then
the New 52 happened.
Over the course of last September the
New 52 rolled out. Some books were fresh and exciting – Wonder
Woman, Swamp Thing, Animal Man; some seemed hardly
touched by the reboot – the Batman titles, Green Lantern;
others struggled to find an audience – OMAC, (that war
book). I didn’t pick up all of the New 52, but I did end up
getting more books than I had originally planned because I am a
sucker. I’ve written plenty about
it.
Then there was Red Lanterns. I
had it on my pull list from the start because I really liked
Atrocitus, his story, and how the Green Lantern PTB had been handling
him. I was excited to get a book centered around this interesting
character, and it didn’t hurt that the creative team was Ed Benes –
whose art I like quite a bit – and Peter Milligan. Now, I know
Milligan more from his Vertigo stuff – The Extremist, Face,
and Egypt were some of the first non-superhero comics I read.
Even though Milligan’s work has been highly acclaimed on many
superhero books, I have somehow missed all of them. Red Lanterns
seemed like an excellent opportunity to check out Milligan’s
superhero chops. What better way to combine his specialties than with
this tortured, dark character?
I picked up Atrocitus’ book and put
it near the top of the stack the day it came out. My reaction after
reading it was pretty much, “Huh”.
Nothing happened. There was some
business with Dex-Starr, but then Atrocitus just kind of moped around
for awhile. I figured the first issue was like that to establish who
he was for new readers. I mean, I would have thought they would want
to establish his rage and thirst for destruction; but who am I to
second-guess DC?
The next five issues were no better. I
have expressed my problems with decompressed storytelling often and
Red Lanterns seemed to be a prime example. All Atrocitus and
his fellow supposedly enraged-beyond-reason Lanterns did for six
whole issues was sulk around Ysmault like a bunch of emo kids. I
stuck with it because I had decided to give each New 52 title I
bought at least a full story arc (or 6 issues) to establish itself.
But nothing kept happening and I dropped it at issue #6.
So I am not as fond of Atrocitus as I
once was. I still love the stuff that predates Red Lanterns,
but you can understand why this figure just wasn’t as exciting a
prospect as it once might have been.
First Glance: They sure
did make this guy on the cheap. Don’t get me wrong – it looks
like Atrocitus. But damn. A $23.70 figure this most certainly is not.
Sculpt: Atrocitus has a
new head, new hands, and a new collar.
A lot of people complained that
Mattel’s Atrocitus should be bigger, but in the comics he never
seemed to be all that huge to me. I mean, he’s definitely one of
the larger main Lanterns, but it’s not like he’s Kilowog big or
anything. The figure should be taller than Hal and Sinestro and it
is.
Atrocitus has the regular DCUC
articulation. Ball joints at the neck and shoulders; Swivels at the
biceps, wrists, and thighs; pivots at the elbows, abdomen, knees, and
ankles. And of course, the swivel/pivot hip joints. I had to push his
right hip pretty firmly to get it to move, but once it did it was
fine. On initial inspection I thought my figure’s head was
immobile. That seemed ridiculous, but I really couldn’t get it to
move even the tiny little bit that you can normally get stuck joints
to. The collar was in the way of my really getting in there and
giving it a twist and I definitely didn’t want to use pliers.
Finally I decided that the collar was soft enough to get pushed
around a little bit and I jammed my fingers in to grab the head. The
collar sort of popped away from the shoulders. Uh-oh. There were two
little spots of glue holding it in place rather than any sort of
actual sculpting. Only a peg in between Atrocitus’ shoulders was
physically securing the collar to the rest of the figure. But it
still seemed mostly attached, so I gave the head a firm wrench and it
moved. Side-to-side and up and down. Just fine. The soft rubber
collar pretty much snapped back into place when I was done and now
the figure looks fine and the head moves. I suppose I could re-glue
the two shoulder spots, but there doesn’t seem to be any reason to.
The body of the figure is a pretty
basic large male. His lower legs are particularly long to make him
taller and he has the little belt thing that all of the Red Lanterns
have.
I don’t like how much of Atrocitus is
made from a soft, rubbery plastic. Pretty much everything but his
torso and hips. I guess it really doesn’t matter, as the figure
still moves and poses just fine; but I am always going to have a
problem with this. It just makes the figure feel cheap and less
sturdy. Although now that I think about it, the opposite is probably
true. I think about how many figures that were made of more rigid
plastic have fallen over and exploded into pieces and maybe the
softer plastic isn’t so bad. Huh. Did I just change my mind on a
major toy issue?
Let’s talk about the new parts.
Atrocitus’ new head is chock full of
detail. It looks accurate and has some great pitting. And it
certainly looks enraged. My issue with it comes from a bit of a weird
place that you can’t really hold Matty or the Four Horsemen
responsible for. You see, Atrocitus’ head could look a whole
lot better, but then it would have to be designed after something
other than the comic book look. Atrocitus on the Green Lantern
cartoon look so much better with his big ol’ face scar. So it’s a
little disappointing to have this plain, unscarred head even though
it’s perfectly accurate. I also don’t care for the open mouth. He
looks like he’s waiting for somebody to throw cookies at him. And
yes – it has been pointed out that Dex-Starr’s Rage Vomit
accessory can fit into Atrocitus’ mouth. Guess what – I don’t
give a shit. Atrocitus didn’t come with any rage vomit, so there’s
no reason for his mouth to be open. Why should I take the accessory
from a figure from an entirely different line to use on this
one? I mean, if the Horsemen sculpted his mouth open because they
thought it looked better that’s one thing. But if the rationale is
that you can stick somebody else’s vomit in there I think that’s
pretty weak. I guess in the end my point is that is Atrocitus is
going to have vomit in his mouth it should be his own. That’s just
common sense, right?
Atrocitus’ hands look good. They’re
pitted and gnarly like his face and the ring on his right hand looks
great. Very well detailed. They are closed fists. Closed fists that
cannot hold anything. Remember that.
Design: The paint on the
new parts is well done. Atrocitus’ head is detailed nicely. The
teeth are very distinct from the rest of the mouth and the eyes are
tight and centered.
I like the metallic red used on the
collar, belt, and the ring, but I kind of wish they had used it on
all of the red parts, as well as on the rest of the Red Lantern
Corps. Is this metallic red really that much more expensive than
regular red? Or did they just not think of it until now?
The rest of the red is actually a bit
cleaner than some of my other Lantern figures. The symbol on
Atrocitus’ chest is clean and centered as well.
I can’t decide how I feel about his
painted-on boots. On the one hand they look kind of shitty. On the
other hand, all of the Lantern’s costumes are formed from their
power rings, so maybe they shouldn’t have any raised
textures or surfaces. But wait – what about that belt and collar?
Right. His boots suck.
Accessories: Atrocitus
comes with his Red Lantern, which is an all-new sculpt. The handle is
a hard plastic, while the lantern itself is a soft, rubber-like
material. One side of mine was kind of mashed up. Other than that the
Lantern looks really cool and reflects what we’ve seen in the
comic.
Too bad this asshole can’t hold it properly.
Seriously, Mattel? You couldn’t have
done an interchangeable hand in this figure so that he could actually
hold his only accessory? I mean, bad enough he didn’t even come
with his own Rage Vomit. But he can’t even interact with the one
accessory he did come with. Matty you ignorant slut.
Packaging: It’s a neat
little window box. I like it. It’s a little plain, but even if I
left stuff in the package I think I’d be happy with it. It would
display nicely. I definitely prefer it when collector figures that
aren’t ever even going to hit retail come in boxes rather than
blister cards.
Overall: Okay – as a
figure on his own, Atrocitus is perfectly fine. Just standing on the
shelf he looks good and accurate to the comic.
However.
Once again Matty’s promise of the
ultimate version of fan-demanded characters is proven to be an
overstatement. No Lantern should come without constructs or Rage
Vomit if that’s what’s appropriate. No action figure that comes
with an accessory should be unable to interact with that accessory.
Also, his boots suck.
3
out of 5
Atrocitus certainly should have been
better. But he’s probably the only Atrocitus we’re going to get
from Mattel, so if you have to have him, go to BigBad or eBay.
Side Note: I’ve
written about this before, but in the years that I’ve been
reviewing toys – publically, anyway – I’ve struggled with price
as a factor. I have no idea how to handle it. I feel that
Mattycollector.com’s toys are far too expensive. Twenty bucks for a
Masters of the Universe Classics figure or fifteen for a DC figure is
bad enough, but no matter how you slice it we’re paying much more
than that. You cannot get these figures without having them shipped
to you, which means you are likely paying a minimum of $28.70 or
$23.70. Yes, there’s the rare occasion that you can get one at a
con for less – especially any that were released in 2011 – but
you know what I mean. These are ridiculously pricey figures.
Having said all
of that, I do keep buying them for some reason. Well, for the time
being, at least. So something keeps me coming back. Just like with
the expensive Doctor Who figures I keep buying.
I don’t know
where I was going with all of that. I have already reached a certain
breaking point. I certainly won’t be buying the DC sub next year,
and with the prices going up on the MOTUC sub I can’t imagine what
Matty is going to have to show at SDCC to get me to subscribe to that
one. Evil suggested a subscriber-only Castle Grayskull and I suppose
that would do it. But I doubt very much that’s going to happen.
WAIT JUST A DARN MINUTE! I GET IT!
It's a fucking hat:
-Phantom
I saw a review of Red Lanterns that described them as being like ex-cops that lift weights, do steroids, and talk a lot of hateful smack about all the stuff they're going to do but never will because they're busy lifting weights, doing steroids, and talking smack...
ReplyDeleteThat is damn hilarious. And accurate. What a waste of a comic.
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