Holy crap, is it Monday again already? That means it’s time for some Marvel Universe. I finally gave up on finding Scarlet Witch on the pegs. Actually, I gave up on that a while ago, it was just a matter of resigning myself to spending scalper prices on her via The Interwebs. Let’s see if Wanda was worth the extra dollars… her brother Quicksilver says she is… Oh snap! Incest jokes… do they ever get old?

Speaking of getting old… package shot! We see it every Monday, so let’s not dwell on it. The character art is quite excellent and Scarlet Witch fills out the bubble surprisingly well for a female type. I think it’s partly the pose, partly the cape, and partly the effects part. As usual, the “Comic Shot” offends me.

The back of the package has a really odd shot of the figure that is actually missing one of the swivel cuts in the left leg. Weird. She also has a rather lengthy bio describing her powers. It could have been summed up in just five words: “Chick can f’ck with reality.” I’m stunned to see that I actually have all the figures pictured on the back. Kang, Punisher and She-Hulk… they’re all pretty excellent. MODOK is doing his thing on the bottom of the card, sucking at Hasbro’s corporate teat. I love you MODOK and I long for the day when you will appear in a Marvel major motion picture. Let’s see the “average Joe popcorn munchers” try to wrap their brains around you! Actually, once Rocket Raccoon hits the big screen, your debut will probably be somewhat anti-climactic. Ok, enough with the jibba-jabba… let’s bust this witch out.

The portrait is easily the best thing about this figure. The head sculpt gives Wanda a pretty face and the way her tiara (or whatever you want to call that thing) is sculpted looks mighty good for a figure in this scale. One of the top corners on my figure’s tiara is bent a little. I almost thought that was part of the sculpt, but it’s not pictured that way on the back. The hair sculpt is fantastic, particularly the way it looks from behind and the way some strands overlap the tiara. I’m also happy that the added hinge in the neck post means she avoids that whole hunched shoulder look that Jean Grey suffered from. It’s obvious Hasbro put some time and effort into the head.

Unfortunately, the rest of the figure is pretty average. The torso looks too plain. There’s no sculpted muscle tone or anything in her stomach, making it look really basic. I like that the tops of her thigh boots are sculpted, and the high-heeled boots are ok, but she’s got some serious cankles going on. CANKLES!!! Her feet are also kind of stubby and crushed. There’s also something off about her legs. It’s really tough to make them look natural. I like the way her hands are sculpted so you can give her a nice hocus-pocus style pose. The cape is a little longer than it needs to be, but I’m guessing that might be so you can pose her slightly levitating. You can also just pull the cape back a bit so she can stand with both feet on the ground. Unfortunately, Wanda is huge when posed next to my Secret Wars Magneto. On the other hand, the paintwork on my figure is quite good. I absolutely love the shade of red they used. It’s vibrant and shiny and it suits the character very well. The purple is also a nice shade and matches up with the red to produce a very pleasing and accurate deco.

Besides the crappy “comic shot,” Scarlet Witch comes with an energy blast effects part that fits over her hand. I’ve never been a big fan of MU’s effects part. This one will likely go into a baggie and be forgotten.

Wanda’s articulation includes ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, and ankles. She has swivels in her wrists, thighs, and again in her lower legs, just below the knees. The knees are double-hinged, and she has an additional hinge in her neck. There’s no waist swivel, but she is ball jointed in the upper torso. The big things missing are bicep swivels. I would much rather have had bicep swivels than the extra pair of swivel cuts in the lower legs.

Scarlet Witch and I have a bad relationship when it comes to action figures. I’ve purchased the old Toy Biz Marvel Legends version of her twice now and each time I wound up with paintwork that looked worse than a botched custom job. I’m glad to finally have a decent figure of her, even if it is in the smaller scale. She’s not one of the best figures to come out of this wave, but she is a solid enough effort. I was ultimately able to get her for $15. Call me Mr. Unreasonable, but that’s more than I like to pay for my 3 ¾” figures. Nonetheless, living in one of the dark pockets of the country that gets zero Marvel Universe distribution, sometimes you just got to bite the bullet.