As promised, I’m back for part two of my look at the Blackest Night themed wave of DC Multiverse. If you need to get caught up, I checked out Kyle Rayner and Deathstorm a couple days back. This wave has been out there for a little while, and you are likely to see some older DC Multiverse reviews turning up here from time to time as I try to get caught up on a stupidly huge backlog.
The packaging is standard DC Multiverse stuff, but the Collect-To-Build assortments come in wider boxes to accommodate the extra body parts. As always you get the figure stand and collector card sealed to the back of the cardboard tray, otherwise these window boxes are collector friendly. I’m a big fan of the Blackest Night story and was happy to collect the DC Universe Classics releases, so needless to say I’m excited to be opening these as the boxes have been lined up on my shelf for a while now. Let’s start with Superman!
As far as nightmare versions of Superman go, this one is pretty damn freaky. The black suit is covered with that basketball-style texture that’s become synonymous with modern superhero costumes these days. The silver trim against the black makes for quite the striking combo, especially since the silver paint is so shiny and vibrant. He’s got segmented bracers on his forearms and a gross necrotic yellow tint to his skin, which is followed up by sculpted veins and fissures in the arms. His cape is a shredded mess, falling off the back in several strips and looking ragged near the bottom edge. I like that the bold S-emblem on his chest is all sculpted in an extremely pronounced fashion, giving it some wonderful depth. About the only thing I don’t like here are the ball-shaped ankle joints, which break up the flow of the boots, and are left as unpainted gray plastic.
The head sculpt is fantastic, with more of the necrotic flesh and a nice bit of paint wash to bring out some of the details and create some shadows. The creases and cracks in the skin are appropriately gross, his nose is completely rotted off, and the sunken black around the red eyes look like he’s literally burned the area out with excessive use of his heat vision. A familiar hint of his trademark cowlick makes the whole visage even more unsettling. And the real winning feature here are the corn kernel teeth! This is just great stuff!
I’m passed the point of running down the articulation for this line, as it remains constant throughout. Suffice it to say, it’s pretty damn good and Supes is fun to play around with. He does not come with any accessories, and his only set of hands are balled into fists, which works for me! Next up… Batman!
Black Lantern Batman is an equally imposing bit of horror with an absolutely stellar costume sculpt. The gray suit has more of that texture sculpted throughout, as well as some seemingly purposeless straps that run from his thighs up to connect at his abs at a point. There are some pouches sculpted on his belt, and both the bat symbol and the Black Lantern Corps emblem are sculpted as well as painted, which is a wonderful touch. The silver emblem really pops on what is an otherwise muted deco. The blue boots and gloves are segmented and have jagged blades coming off of them. Ah, but what I really love here are the spikey bits growing out of his shoulders that look like partially mutated bat wings, which give him a really creepy silhouette. The rest of the cape is tattered at the edges.
The head sculpt here is OK, but it’s a big step down from Superman’s. You get the same yellowed necrotic skin showing around the lower half of the face, and the mouth is open in a perpetual scream, showing rotting teeth and some nice depth to he bat-maw. It’s creepy for sure, but nothing about this sculpt reaches the sharpness or complexity of Superman’s and the white pupils on the eyes feels like an afterthought. It’s not terrible, but this one just feels like it was sculpted and painted on a Friday afternoon.
Again, you get some solid articulation here and no accessories. His hands are both sculpted in a grasping or reaching fashion, which is pretty good for displaying him in shambling zombie-like poses. Both Bats and Supes are solid figures. Oddly enough, I’d say I like Batman’s body the best and Superman’s head sculpt the best, but either way the compliment each other really well. Now let’s build Atrocitus!
The last time I got an Atrocitus figure was twelve years ago as part of Mattel’s DC Signature Collection and that review is worth a click just to see how unbelievably shitty my photographs were back then, as opposed to average and passable now. Anyway, this Atrocitus is a straightforward build with the body, head, shoulder piece, and four limbs making up the parts. I had a ridiculously difficult time getting one of his arms to peg in before noticing that it was because the loose shoulder ring was backwards. Once I popped that out and corrected it everything went fine. I really appreciate McFarlane’s approach to doing only four figures for their Collect-To-Build stuff, but these can be a lot harder to get together than Mattel’s old line. With that having been said, Atrocitus is together and looking big, imposing, and pretty damn fine!
The black suit is textured and you get some nice sculpted panel lines in the boots and gauntlets, which can be easily overlooked in all that bright red plastic. There’s some extra glossy red paint used for the tabard that runs down his chest, and the snappy silver Red Lantern Corps emblem is sculpted as well as painted. I particularly like the way the abs piece hangs down over the pelvis to avoid that rubber diaper look that this line is known for. The black and red deco looks amazing and conspire to create a superb deco.
The head sculpt is pretty good, although the huge wall of teeth feels a little lacking. I’m not sure if it’s the paint or sculpt or both, but I feel like it could have been better. With that said, I like the texturing to the skin and the various creases and crevices in the downturned brow and the piercing golden eyes. The face is bookended by armor cheek pieces and that is surrounded by the high collar on the shoulder armor.
Despite being a big and bulky, cobbled together rage monster, Atrocitus sports all the articulation points of the regular figures and I didn’t have any problems with the limbs coming apart at the connection points. He has his right hand balled into a fist and his left hand open and kind of relaxed, which work well for posing and he’s just a whole bunch of fun.
I think this was a pretty solid wave of figures, and one where I would have easily purchased each one even if the Collect-To-Build incentive wasn’t there. Indeed, I’m hoping that we get another Blackest Night themed wave eventually or at least some more Red Lanterns, because I really loved how Mattel gave us quite a few. Granted, with Necron being a Mega Fig release, the next logical Collect-To-Build is already taken. Which reminds me, I still need to pick that one up. The MSRP on these figures is $24.99 each and at the time I’m writing this review, this wave is pretty widely available at discount. Heck, even a while back I was able to pick them up for under $20 each. I’m certainly glad I did, but I would have been just as happy getting them at full price.
FigureFan Zero 