A couple weeks back I checked out the first half of McFarlane’s Dark Knight Trilogy figures with Batman and Scarecrow. Today, I’m looking at the second half of that wave with Joker and Two-Face, which also gives me the rest of the Collect-To-Build pieces to finish off Bane! The night is darkest just before the dawn, so let’s go…

I’ve got nothing new to say about the packaging, other than if it weren’t for the Bane figure parts, I probably would have just picked up Joker and Batman in this wave. But then I was very happy with how Scarecrow came out, so I have no regrets yet. I should note that I opened these figures a while ago and am using McFarlane’s official solicitation packaged shots, which shows a weird, almost metallic paint scheme for Joker and that’s obviously not what we got on the final figure. Two-Face comes with Bane’s torso and Joker comes with Bane’s head and three sets of his hands. Let’s start with Two-Face…

So, this is the figure in the wave that I was probably least excited about, but now that he’s in hand, I think he’s a pretty cool figure. Sure, he’s a guy in a suit, but I really like what McFarlane did with the damage to the jacket, which is both sculpted and painted on. Overall, I like McFarlane’s suit body a bit better than Hasbro’s Marvel Legends version, but I’d say they’re both more or less on the same level. The sculpted sleeves on the arms definitely match up with the suit-vest a lot better here. The jacket has a nice trim fit and the slacks have a hint of a crease running down the legs. The ball joint under the chest is handled well and the tie being sculpted separately looks great. You even get a little texture to the suit, shirt, and tie for that added pop.

Of course, the head sculpt is the main draw here and it has it’s ups and downs. McFarlane’s portraits work great for comic characters, but they definitely fall short when it comes to their movie figures. There isn’t much of a likeness to Eckhart and the paint on that side of the face is too basic to look all that realistic. The damaged side is pretty horrific, and I mean that in a good way, although I think it could have used a glossy wash to bring out some of that gore. I think this portrait works fine for having a Two-Face in my DC Multiverse collection, but it’s probably going to disappoint people looking for a solid version from the film.

Articulation is standard stuff here for the Multiverse line, which is as solid as always. Dent’s left hand is sculpted with his coin, which was a great choice, while his right hand is sculpted with a trigger finger. Of course, you’ll have to pick up one of McFarlane’s gun-packs to give him a shooter for that hand. All in all, I like this figure a lot, but he didn’t surprise me into loving him , like Scarecrow did. If not for the Bane piece, I would have happily gambled on picking him up at clearance, but I’m sure not angry at picking him up at full price. Moving on to Joker…

This is the figure I was looking forward to the most in this wave and he does not disappoint. I’ve seen a lot of gripes about how he turned out, and I honestly can’t understand them, because I think he looks fantastic. I really dig the billowy sculpt to his purple trench coat and the sculpted sleeves blend with it pretty well. The green vest and shirt collar and tie are all sculpted together, which still looks fine, although they are missing the patterns from the screen worn costume. Finally, the baggie purple striped pants lead down to his brown shoes. There’s also a sculpted gold chain leading from under the vest.

I think the portrait was a sticking point with some collectors’ early reactions, but I like how it turned out. It’s certainly not perfect. The makeup should have been more spotty and rough, but I’m still very happy with what we got. In terms of movie based likenesses, I’d say this is one of McFarlane’s better ones.

Like Two-Face, Joker comes with a trigger hand but no gun. Honestly, if McFarlane couldn’t give us a gun, they should have just given us a knife instead, which feels conspicuously absent from this set. Even a hand with a playing card sculpted into it would have been welcome. The left hand is sculpted into a fist.

You do, however, get a big pile of cash, which is a damn cool accessory, and works great as a throne for him to sit on. So yeah, I’m going to go against the grain and say that I love how this figure turned out. A few tweaks could have made it even better, but I dig him. And that brings us to Bane!

I’m a little saltier about this figure since McFarlane revealed the Gold Label Bane with his coat. It sold out fast and even if it didn’t, I wasn’t about to drop another $45 just to get the coat. I think it was a pretty shitty use of the Gold Label line and companies need to watch how they screw over collectors by reissuing better versions of figures so soon after the initial offerings. With that said, this one looks pretty good. The tactical vest has some pretty sharp detail, I love the wrappings around his right wrist and hand, and the rugged pants are replete with sculpted pockets. All in all pretty nice work!

The portrait is pretty good. It actually looks like the eyes are printed rather than painted. There’s also some nice dry brush weathering on the mask. The lines between his skin and the mask have a little slop here and there, but you have to punch in pretty close for it to be a problem.

Despite being a Collect-To-Build, Bane has all the usual articulation seen in the Multiverse line. I did have some issues with the legs staying put with this figure, but after a lot of cursing and excessive force, I think I finally got them to stay put. You get three sets of hands with Bane, which feels a little excessive. These include fists, relaxed hands, and gesturing hands. I would have much rather we got a knife or playing card hand with Joker rather than these, but I’ll take them anyway.

I don’t buy a lot of Multiverse Waves when they first come out, but this one I jumped on and I’m still glad I did. Especially since these don’t seem to be dropping in price as fast as some of these figures tend to do. While I’m not as big a fan of these movies as most, I do love these versions of the characters and they are certainly a massive step up from the shitty Mattel ones I have from forever ago. Oh wait… we’re not quite done yet…

Yeah, I also bought the Gold Label Joker for some reason. It’s made even more ridiculous by the fact that this is a Jokerized Joker. Yup. I’m probably not going to open this one, and all I can say is it must have been the product of one of those nights of heavy drinking and retail therapy, because otherwise I’m not really sure why I bought it. I do really like the paint on this figure’s portrait, so that’s something. Also the Jokerized Bane head is kind of cool too. But I certainly will not picking up any of the other Jokerized figures in this wave.