Timing, part twenty-three.

When Hasbro took over the Marvel Legends line, it was probably a bad sign that in their first wave, I only wanted one figure, Hercules. And he wasn't an overly popular figure, either: I remember some didn't like his grin, or thought he looked too plasticy. The Ultimate Iron Man and Planet Hulk figures seemed to sell well enough, but the White Queen and Banshee were huge pegwarmers.

Later, Toys R' Us had this exclusive Diamond White Queen, representing her secondary mutation. She didn't come with an Annihilus part, but I did not do very well on building him anyway, and this one looked a little better than her regular version. (I think the same body was used for a Jean Grey as Black Queen exclusive that turned out pretty well, but the regular Emma Frost wasn't high on anyone's list of favorites.)

Somewhere, I have a pile of Emma Frost comics I haven't read yet, given to me by a friend clearing out his collection. I'm not a huge fan of the character, but I do like the fact that she's completely unapologetic for being the way she is, and wanting what she wants. Then again, at least some of that is a facade, covering her pain over the many, many people she's lost in her life. She's like Professor X, in that she's trying very hard to prepare the next generations of mutants, but with a huge fatality rate: she's lost Hellions, members of Generation X, Genoshan mutants...her presence in Norman Osborn's Dark Reign may be an indication of how far she's willing to go to keep the few remaining mutants safe.

In other news: I love the Ant-Man and Isis on that page. The Ant-Man is from the Avengers line a few years back, and to me, seems to look a lot like the current Irredeemable Ant-Man. (EDIT: No, Irredeemable really doesn't look like that, but the full facemask doesn't make me think of Hank or Scott Lang.) Haven't read that, so I might have to look it up to confirm. Isis will be back in this story later, and Ant-Man...maybe. Just had an idea for him, but I'm not sure I know the bad Ant-Man well enough to do it.

Of course, Cyclops was more-or-less only bought because he had a Build-a-Figure piece of the Sentinel; but more bagging on him next time.

I don't know if anyone enjoys these strips as much as I like doing them--it's just fan-entitlement nonsense, but I bought the damn toys, and if I can make a comic I'd want to read with 'em, so much the better. I'm up to part thirty-three scheduled for March, and it keeps going; although I swear I almost have an ending in mind. Really!