It’s the second to the last Marvel Monday of 2022 and I’m continuing my jaunt through The Controller Wave! Last week I checked out the new version of Madame Hydra, so let’s just get both of the ladies of this assortment front and center. And that brings us to Quake… or is it Maria Hill? It’s both! And since this seems like a good opportunity to toss in the SHIELD Agent two-pack that Hasbro released a little while back, let’s have a look at those figures as well!

While this release is intended to be either Daisy Johnson or Maria Hill, Daisy wins out and gets the name Quake on the front of the package, and that’s the head that comes on the figure. Maria’s head is off to the side, as well as two pairs of her hands, and the BAF parts. We’ll start with Quake…

Here’s a great example of a pretty simple figure that works very well. Quake consists of a blue femme buck with painted white boots, sculpted shoulder straps that are also painted white, and a belt and two thigh straps, which are sculpted separately and worn on the figure. You also get a zipper pull running down the front of the top, which reminds me of the zipper pull from the original Madame Hydra that they left off the one in this assortment. Did they leave the zipper pull off of this Madame Hydra figure just so Viper and Quake wouldn’t look so similar? Maybe! You do get a spiffy SHIELD insignia printed on her left shoulder. The only thing I really have to nitpick here is that the chest doesn’t run very flush with the lower abdomen. It’s no big deal, but it does give the figure a little bit of a mismatched appearance.

The portrait is pretty good, although I don’t have a huge attachment to this character so I can’t really comment on the likeness. I can barely even remember what she looked like in the comics. I do like the hair sculpt’s tussled look. The printing on the eyes and lips do their usual thing of looking blurry when you get in close with the camera, but it looks fine with the naked eye. The seam running down the center of her throat is a little unfortunately placed.

Quake’s gauntlets are very well done, consisting of sleeves that fit over the forearms and the hands that peg in afterwards. They’re sculpted with the fingers opened and spread as if she’s working her mojo. And look! Quake is sporting double-hinges in the elbows and bicep swivels! It’s always nice to see a female Legends figure get this articulation upgrade. The rest is right in line with what we usually see in the Legends ladies, making Quake loads of fun to pose and play around with. And with a quick swap of head and hands, you can turn Quake into…

Maria Hill! And I think the transformation works pretty well. Sliding off the gauntlet sleeves reveal white painted gauntlets underneath, and you get a choice of splayed figure hands or gun holding hands. The gun is a compact automatic pistol and serviceable but not really special. I do think it would have been cool if Hasbro included an attachable holster or something, because Agent Hill doesn’t have anywhere to put her shooter when she’s not holding it.

The Maria portrait is pretty decent, with a shorter and more tidy coif. I like the stray strand that crosses over her forehead. She also has her trademark earpiece and microphone on the right side of her cheek. I like this look enough that I probably would have picked up a second figure to display as both, but this one has crept up in price a bit lately, and it’s more than I’m willing to spend now. It does make me wish Hasbro would release a female SHIELD agent two-pack. I’d be all over that! And speaking of which…

Here’s the SHIELD Agent two-pack that Hasbro did release. I’m pretty sure this was a Pulse Exclusive, and I got it back in the beginning of the year along with the Skrull Soldier that released at the same time. The figures come in a fully enclosed box with some nice artwork on the front, and you get a tissue-paper bag with all the extra stuff to customize your agents.

I gotta be honest, I was not thrilled with these when I took them out of the box. The joints are horrifically gummy and it took a lot of work just to get them to stand naturally without looking weird. They are identical, with the same blue buck with painted white boots and gauntlets and SHIELD patches stamped on their shoulders. They also share the exact same gear, which includes a shoulder strap with a chest holster and non-removable pistol painted silver, double waist belts with plenty of pouches, and a double thigh strapped holster on the left legs with more pouches. The gear looks really bulky and awkward, and why include a faked out gun holster on the chest when they have functional holsters on the hip? All this stuff bothered me at first, but the more I played around with them, the less irksome it became, and eventually I was able to have some fun with them.

The figures come out of the boxes wearing full tactical helmets with painted visors and breathers. One visor is painted red and the other is silver, which in itself is kind of weird. I appreciate the desire to make them look a little different, but why would you have two different color visors? Maybe I’m over thinking it. Besides, you also get three unmasked head sculpts to mix things up.

To show SHIELD’s ethnic diversity, the heads include Caucasian, African-American, and Asian portraits, all of which are excellent sculpts, especially considering they’re just supposed to be generic dudes. I’m not sure if these are based off of Hasbro employees or just completely made up, but I think they did a great job on all three, making me wish I had a third body to display them all on. Oh, I get it! Hasbro wants me to buy another two-pack! Well, that’s no going to happen, but I do like these unmasked heads better than the helmets.

As for the other extras, you get some pairs of hands, and some weapons. You get a pair of gun holding hands for each figure, but you only get one pair of fists between them, which I thought was really cheap. You also get a set of gesturing right hands, one pointing with one finger, and the other pointing with two. They’re all good choices, but not including a pair of fists for each figure really cheeses me off. As for the guns, each figure gets an identical pistol, which is kind of a futuristic design, or at least not like any pistols I’m familiar with.

Additionally, you get two identical rifles, a third with a foregrip, and a BFG with a red magazine. The guns are OK, but I don’t really love any of the designs. I would have rather had some real-world weaponry included with these guys, but at least it’s a pretty generous assortment.

These figures all go together very well, which makes it rather serendipitous that I waited to open the SHIELD agents until now. Quake works great as either Daisy or Maria, and I even liked trying out the Daisy head without the gauntlets as a generic female SHIELD agent. Yes, the SHIELD agents took a little time to grow on me, and I’m still not a fan of how bulky their equipment looks, especially the pouches on the thigh straps, but in the end they won me over and I’m glad I picked them up.