I gave
the whole spiel about Marvel Legends in last week’s review of
Captain America,
but today I’m going to talk a little more about the Spidey side of
the line and Superior Spider-Man specifically.
Say that
five times fast.
Eventually
I had to buy a trade of Amazing
Spider-Man because I kept
hearing about how good Fred Van Lente’s work was. I read "The Gauntlet: The Lizard" and
thoroughly enjoyed it. I had planned to pick up other trades and
continue to follow the story, but for whatever reason I didn’t.
Then
this whole Superior thing happened. Lots of people lost their shit
about it. I was not one of those people because 1) I was not
currently reading any Spider-Man comics, and 2) I have been reading
comics for around thirty years and I know how these things work. Otto
Octavius might inhabit Peter Parker’s body for a year, or two, or
five. But someday Peter Parker would return. Also; much, much
worse things have, can, and will happen in comics from writers less
talented than Dan Slott. While I wasn’t going to run out and start
buying Spidey books because of the change, I also had faith that the
creative team – and more importantly, Marvel Comics (and Disney)
knew what they were doing.
Eventually
this new Spider-Man showed up in a couple of the books I read
(because comic books) and I liked him. I liked that he was kind of an
asshole, I liked that he clearly felt that he was better than
everybody else, I liked that other characters weren’t just ignoring
the fact that Spider-Man was behaving differently. And I really
liked that he was just trying so hard to be a good person. But was
still an asshole.
So right
around the time I was starting to think about maybe checking out some
Superior Spider-Man comics I found the new Marvel Legends Infinite
series (this is a toy review – remember?), which includes a
Superior Spider-Man figure. I didn’t buy it at first because I was
only planning to buy Black Cat and Carnage. I want that Ultimate
Goblin build-a-figure, but not if I had to buy Beetle or Boomerang or
stupid Jamie Fox as Electro or that amazingly crappy Amazing
Spider-Man.
I’ll
save all of that for a future review.
The
Superior Spider-Man figure caught my eye for a few reasons. The head
sculpt looked really neat, I liked the color scheme, and it came
with… wait for it… AN EXTRA PAIR OF HANDS!!! There are few better
accessories in my opinion than alternately posed hands. I mean,
barring essentials like He-Man’s Power Sword or the Punisher’s
guns.
That
first day I picked up Marvel NOW! Cap, Red Skull, a Hydra Agent, and
an AIM Soldier. Once I got home I kind of wished I had bought the
Superior Spider-Man. I woke up the next morning feeling the same way.
So on my way home from work I stopped by Target, hoping they’d
still have one and hoping it would still be $14.99. They did and I
bought it and now you lucky Phantomaniacs get to read about it and
find out if you should buy one, which you will easily be able to
because they are warming pegs everywhere
now.
FIRST
GLANCE
It’s
the eyes. Those goggle-looking eyes with the bronze paint look so
cool. Otherwise this is yet another use of the plain Marvel Legends
male buck.
With
extra hands.
EXTRA
HANDS.
PACKAGING
So
classy! I really like these new boxes. They have a great shape, they
display the figures well (and in a neutral position most of the
time), and draw the eye amongst all of the other toys in the aisle.
Whether they’re on pegs or sitting on a shelf they are easy to see.
This one
comes a little closer to having an actual bio, as it takes more than
one sentence to explain just what the heck is going on with Superior
Spider-Man.
LOOKS
Let’s
start with the head since that’s really the only thing to talk
about.
It looks
great. In the box. Upon closer inspection things kind of fall apart.
The
sculpt is nice if you’re the type of person that can accept
Spider-Man figures with painted-on webs as opposed to sculpted webs.
While I prefer the latter I can accept the former if the deco is good
enough. Sadly, this one isn’t. The paint is a disaster (much like
the Cap figure). I don’t know what the heck happened to Hasbro’s
QC department, but it’s a shame because these figures have solid
designs and concepts. Sculpts, even. But this Spider-Man’s webs are
a mess. There are parts that don’t line up, there are terrible
scuffs in the paint, and the plan to use black paint on a red body
was not a great one. The joints have visible red portions that just
look bad.
Crap. I
was supposed to be talking about the head.
Well,
it’s a Spider-Man head. The eyes do look cool. I like that they are
raised and have edges around the lenses. But c’mon, man –
Spidey’s little button nose isn’t even centered.
The body
is just a plain buck, so the paint really needed to be spectacular.
Or at least amazing. Unfortunately, like the head, the web of
Spider-Man is a mess. Edges don’t line up and there are multiple
scrapes and sloppy parts. Sculpt-wise the upper body is good. It’s
a lean physique that has a Spidey profile.
One
detail that did impress me was that each of Spider-Man’s fingertips
– on both sets of hands – has a raised bulb. I don’t know what
these are, but they are clearly some sort of important detail that
true nerds would be mad about if Hasbro had missed it. They look neat
and add a little texture to the otherwise plain figure.
The
lower body is weird. I would imagine that Peter Parker is going to
have some muscular thighs, but these are huge. They don’t fit the
crotch piece that was used and look really odd. There are paint
scrapes all over the legs and feet. The feet are painted to look like
the weird shoes that a lot of the superheroes seem to wear now. But
they aren’t sculpted that way.
ACCESSORIES
This
Spider-Man comes with Ultimate Green Goblin’s right leg and a pair
of extra hands posed for web shooting.
The
hands switch out easily. I’m impressed with the paint on them –
it’s probably the best deco on the whole figure. The lines are
clean and consistent and there are no scrapes on mine.
I might
get around to reviewing the Goblin figure, but I want to go ahead and
point out that it’s using lots of parts from the Avengers Movie
Hulk, which I for some reason never reviewed.
FUN
While
the paint on this guy mostly looks like shit, it is a heck of a fun
figure to play with.
The
articulation is fantastic. We’ve seen it on other Spider-Man (and
non-Spider-Man) Marvel Legends, but it’s still very solid. The
figure can do most things you would want a Spider-Man figure to be
able to do, but it still has a relatively nice looking profile. Those
big ol’ thighs are the only thing that really looks wrong.
The
double-jointed shoulders work really well. The double-jointed elbows
and knees have very deep bends. The ankles and feet have a great
degree of motion and allow the figure to squat. The neck joint is
great – it’s a ball joint combined with a hinge to allow the
figure to look directly up.
The
figure is also balanced really well. Not only can you achieve a vast
number of poses, it can stand unassisted in most of those poses.
Despite the deco making me really sad, I played with this guy for a
while and took lots of pictures. It’s definitely one of the
best-designed figures Hasbro has produced as far as being able to do
what the character it represents should be able to do.
OVERALL
Dammit,
Hasbro. This makes 2 new Marvel Legends figures that easily could
have been “5”s and because of shitty QC lose points. This is no
way to re-re-relaunch Marvel Legends.
I like
the idea of this figure, but the execution is lacking.
3
out of 5
You
should have no problem finding this Spider-Man at Target or Toys R
Us. It’s one of four figures from the current Infinite series that
are always
on the pegs. The others are the inaccurately named World War II Cap,
Marvel NOW! Cap, and movie-style Amazing Spider-Man, which also has a
shameful paint job. But I might end up buying one because I want
Ultimate Green Goblin way more than I want Mandroid.
Y'know, if I were you, I'd give the movie Spider-man figure a try. he's a really fun figure, with some great articulation, and if you decide you don't like it, well, the boxes for these new ML's are easily resealed.
ReplyDeleteIf I buy it, it'll be for the Goblin part. I can tell from the box that I don't like it. I just can't tolerate those lazy joints like Bandai does them. A red peg in the middle of a blue elbow drives me nuts. I don't think there's any excuse for that kind of thing.
DeleteThe webbing is meant to be than way. The new design does not have symmetrical and even webbing like the classic costume.
ReplyDeleteIt appears to have been drawn many different ways, but none of them show the webs failing to connect, which is what I had a problem with. Check out the close-up pictures.
Delete