In case you missed the memo, Marvel Mondays are back, and today I’m digging into The Watcher Wave, which came out forever ago! But that’s pretty much going to be the running theme here on Mondays, as I try to get caught up on opening figures that have been sitting around here, and decide if I’m going to keep going with collecting Marvel Legends, or call it a day. And because I’ve been missing a scheduled review here and there, I decided to double up and check out both versions of Captain Carter!

As the packaging suggests, this assortment is inspired by the Disney+ animated What If? series. I recently put this show on in the background while I was doing things around the house, but it never caught my interest enough to want to sit down and actually pay attention. The name is self-explanatory, as it’s inspired by the What If? comics that mixes up continuity and… well… asks the question What If? Duh! Captain Carter’s episode was focused around Peggy Carter taking the Super Soldier Serum and becoming Captain Carter (I guess there was already a Captain Britain in this reality?) and Steve Rogers adopting more of an Iron Man visage with The Hydra Stomper armor. The regular flavor release of Peggy came with some Watcher BAF parts, and we also got a Stealth Suit version that was a stand alone release, but still got the What If? branding. Let’s go with regular Peggy first!

Holy hell, this is an amazing looking figure on almost every front. I’m not sure if Hasbro was actually going for an animated look here, but I think it works pretty well either way, and I wouldn’t be opposed to displaying this Peggy in with my other MCU figures. A lot of that is tied up in the portrait, but let’s look at the body and costume first. Peggy is sporting a beautiful dark blue body suit, with tall brown boots, belt, shoulder straps, and gloves, and The Union Flag painted rather boldly on her front upper body. You also get some red striping on her shoulders and upper legs. The colors here are so vibrant, and overall look really nice. The Union Flag is actually part of the sculpt, and while it could have been painted a little sharper, it certainly doesn’t look bad. Some nice flourishes in the sculpt include the flared bottoms in her boots, and the little pouches on her belt. There’s also a lick of silver on her shoulder harness and her belt buckle.

Coming back to the portrait, there’s definitely an animated twist to it, especially in the somewhat simplified hair. Still, I think the rest of the sculpt could work as animated, comic, or even MCU, as there’s certainly a Haley Atwell likeness there. There’s a bit of unsightly mold flashing on the hair, but other than that this is an absolutely gorgeous head sculpt, enhanced with some solid haltone printing for the eyes and mouth. I’d go so far as to say this is one of Hasbro’s prettiest female sculpts, but it probably doesn’t hurt to have Atwell’s likeness to work off of. I also dig her high collar, which just looks really sharp!

And what’s this? The figure actually has the standard Marvel Legends dude articulation in the arms. Gone is the rotating hinge elbow, and in its place is a proper double-hinge paired up with a bicep swivel. I can’t begin to relate how happy I am to see Hasbro finally make this leap for the ladies. It looks fine, and I hope to see more of this going forward, assuming I’m still collecting these figures. Otherwise, Captain Carter does make use of a ball joint under her chest, rather than the ab-crunch hinge we see in the males, but otherwise she has all the usual points of articulation and is a very fun figure to play around with. On the downside, her left hand is sculpted so that it can hold her shield by the rim, and they wound up giving her a big monster hand. And the hand doesn’t even actually hold the shield, because the grip is too far open! Talk about an epic fail! I really wish, they had included a left fist to swap this one out, but it’s not a big enough issue to ruin the figure for me.

Of course, Captain Carter comes with her trusty shield, and this is a beautiful accessory. You get a really cool design based on the Union Flag with some crisp red, white, and blue paint. Everything is super glossy, giving the shield something akin to a shiny new car finish! The interior of the shield has two sculpted brown straps to slide the figure’s arm through. It works pretty well, and the giant monster hand will pop off to help get it through. On the downside, there is no way to attach the shield to the figure’s back, which is one of the trade-offs of not using the old peg and clip system. OK, let’s move on to Stealth Suit Carter!

The Stealth Suit version is a quick repaint with no new sculpting at all, and yet the fresh coat of paint really makes this figure stand out on her own. It seems to be going for the look of Captain America’s MCU STRIKE Suit and it’s definitely a cool design! You get a darker blue body suit with the Union Flag on her chest painted in silver. The red stripes on the shoulders are also changed to silver, while they are omitted altogether on her upper legs. The boots are now black with brown straps and silver buckles, and the gloves are now painted to be fingerless. And yup, you still have to deal with a giant monster hand here too.

The head sculpt is exactly the same, although this figure has been spared some of the mold flashing at the top center of her coif. It’s possible the hair here is just slightly darker, but even if that’s the case, I’m sure it’s just a natural variant from production, rather than being intentional. Good gosh, I just love these portraits! They are breathtaking!

The shield is now painted in silver and light blue, which looks very nice, but to me the double cross in the center no longer really resembles anything inspired by The Union Flag without the familiar red, white, and blue. I actually wound up getting this Stealth version before the regular release, so it’s tough to say whether I would have still picked up this figure had that not been the case. Probably not, as the regular release is definitely my favorite of the two, but I’m not regretting getting them both either.

And it goes without saying that either figure looks absolutely smashing with the HYDRA Stomper! I was always going to be all in on this wave for The Watcher BAF, but even if that weren’t the case, I still would have picked up this Captain Carter figure. And yeah, that’s saying a lot, since I didn’t really follow the series much at all, and I remember almost nothing about this particular episode. Although I guess we did get a look at her in the MCU in the otherwise dismal Multiverse of Madness! Whatever the case, I’m thrilled to add both Peggy figures to my shelf!