Yeah… I had to crap out of delivering new content last Friday, but it’s a brand new week and I’m optimistic about being back on track. And for today’s Marvel Monday, I’m pressing through with the Armadillo Wave and a look at crazy shouty person, Shriek!

Shriek continues to add to the Spider-Man flavor of the assortment, and because she’s on the petite side, she gets the Armadillo torso crammed into the package with her, and boy is it crowding her! I had heard that Shriek was going to appear in this wave before actually seeing the solicitation shots, and I’ll confess, this is not the version I had in mind. Give me the version on the Amazing Spider-Man #393 cover and I would have been a much happier person. But, let’s get her out of the package, have a look, and try not to hold that against her.

I’m assuming this is a recent look for Frances, because it smacks a bit of the OMG CUTESY look that Marvel seems to be going for these days, which is kind of at odds with the sultry and insane version of the character I prefer. That’s not to say it’s a huge departure in terms of costume. Her black and white body suit is familiar enough and it looks good, although I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss the ample show of cleavage and solitary buccaneer boot. The paint lines are pretty clean, and while white paint over black plastic is usually a nightmare for Hasbro, it manages to look pretty clean and vibrant here. Nearly the entire costume is executed through paint, but you do get a belt and bangle on her left wrist, both of which are separately sculpted pieces.

The portrait is fine, but again I prefer her with the more voluminous 90’s headbanger hair. It would have also been cool to get a Cable-style effect part for her left eye. I think the blur effect from the halftone printing is a little more apparent here because of the black and white (and blue) contrast, but it really only starts to break down when you get in close. My biggest issue is she just looks too happy, cutesy and nice. If you’re going to give her a smile, at least give her a crazy smile. I obviously don’t know what’s going on with her in the current crop of comics, because I don’t read contemporary Marvel, but she definitely looks like she’s lost her edge. Obviously, it would have been nice to get a shouty head, but this is likely one of the cost-saving figures in the assortment, so that was never going to happen.

But what’s this??? Double-hinged elbows? Swivels in the biceps? ON A G-G-G-GIRL??? Yeah, we saw this on Captain Carter in The Watcher Wave, and I’m surprised to see it here again. I like it so much better than the rotating hinge elbow that we usually get on the ladies, and I hope to see it continue. Additionally, Shriek comes with three sets of hands! You get a pair of fists, a pair of splayed hands, and a pair of totally useless accessory holding hands. Really, Hasbro? You give Shriek a third pair of hands, but we don’t get the splayed crawling hands with Integrated Suit Spider-Man? This makes no sense to me. Oh well. The splayed finger hands here work well for focusing her sonic attack, or it would if she had a shouty face to go with them.

Despite what it probably sounds like, I don’t dislike this figure at all, it’s just not the version of the character I wanted. Indeed, everything about this figure is executed quite well, from the sculpt to the paint. Yes, I wish they omitted her third set of hands and a third set to Spider-Man from last week, but sometimes it’s tough to understand what the peeps at Hasbro are thinking. I’d like to think we might still get a more classic version of Shriek with a proper screaming head… maybe a Doom Maidens box-set? Eh, probably not, but you never know!