It happens sometimes: you're strapped for cash, haven't had time to make the rounds, or just don't come across anything you're gung-ho to buy; and the next thing you know, it's been over a month since you've bought a figure in the stores. So, when I traded some yard sale books for credit at Hastings, I picked up the DC Direct Superman: New Krypton Mon-El.
I mentioned picking up the last part of War of the Supermen some time ago, and hated the snot out of it. I think I can maybe finally articulate my hate, now: while I understand that in long-term superhero comics, sometimes the status quo has to be reset, if you do it with casualties in the high six figures in a Superman comic, you're doing it wrong. And with all those dead, it's just about nobody we know, so who cares? And Superman had Supergirl, Superboy, Steel, Steel's daughter Steel, Jimmy Olsen, Mon-El, Nightwing and Flamebird, the Justice League and most of the superheroes on earth; and still lost thousands...utter crap. It was being swept under the rug before the DC Reboot for J. Michael Straczynski's run.
Which might explain why I found the Superman: New Krypton figures marked down to $9.99; and Hastings seemed to have received a couple sets of them. (And some of the later Blackest Night waves, oddly.) I got Mon-El to go with my small pile of Legion of Super-Heroes figures, even though his uniform doesn't quite match.
Yeah, I thought Mon-El's cape-discs were a little bigger, and that his suit was usually closer to a darker red. But even putting aside the source material, this isn't DC Direct's best offering; it's DCD dogging it out just to get something on the shelves. I don't expect the articulation to be as good as DC Universe Classics, but Mon-El's elbows, for example, are just about useless. The neck is a ball with almost no range, so he can't look up or get into a flying pose. And the head sculpt reminds me of Taylor Lautner, which is just unfortunate. I was going to take a close up of Mon-El, but...meh. (This whole post was pretty much on the fly, yeah.) So, not a great figure. I might have to see if I can get a Blue Lantern Saint Walker or a JSA Sand next time, to see if DC Direct pulled those together.
You lucky bastard! I wish I had a store like Hastings near me; I'd trade the hell out of my collection for some figures! I'd be up there every week, and twice on saturdays if they'd have me.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that Mon-El figure does look like crap, and yes he does sport that Taylor Lautner face. If DC was smart, they'd have marketed the hell out of that figure and geared it more towards those insipid Twilight fans. That's why I only buy DCUC figures, unless DC Direct can successfully distract me. That's why I snagged Animal Man and an Ed McGuinness-style Martian Manhunter. Dude, that fucker is huge!!!!!!
Of course now that I have the DCUC version, he just sits quietly in a toybox. The same goes for that World of DC Direct collection they pimped out a few years ago. You know, the toyline passed off George Perez's artwork? I got the Batman from that line, but passed on Aquaman and MM. I didn't like Arthur's hands; they were pointed like he was supposed to be swimming or something. But the BLighting one is pretty cool, even if it apes off of the Marvel Legends Luke Cage figure design-wise.