POP! Heroes – New 52 Aquaman (PX Previews Exclusive)

Company: Funko

Series: Heroes DC Universe

Year: 2013 (?)

When I started collecting POPs back in 2013, I was pretty darn sure I didn’t want an Aquaman POP. He was pretty readily available, but he was easily the least desirable of the Justice League members available at the time. So I passed him up, thinking if I ever changed my mind I’d just pick him up then – after all, he was a core member of the Justice League, they’d keep him in production indefinitely, wouldn’t they?

Well, as anyone who’s since tried to track him down since can attest, the answer is “NO!!!”, accompanied by a swift blow to the testicles. Regular Aquaman came and went in a relative blink of an eye. The New 52 versions of him, GL, Flash, Supes, Batman and Wonder Woman showed up in Sydney stores back in about mid-2013 and sold through just as rapidly. Most of them started popping up again in the last few months – and Aquaman wasn’t among the restocks, either. I resigned myself to using a BvS Aquaman for my Justice League, as reviewed here. This was fine and all, but wasn’t ideal.

Yet it seemed that the chase wasn’t over; While visiting New York, I found myself in the Midtown Comics store near Times Square, and this guy was lurking on the shelves there. Huzzah!

Now, when most of the New 52 versions of some previously-released POPs came out, they reused the same sculpts and slightly altered the paint. Aquaman was different, though – gone was the Shazam head, replaced instead with a new hair sculpt. The body remains the same, though it’s been upgraded to a slightly different paint job – gold on the scales instead of orange.

And on the topic of paint, this one is pretty cleanly executed. Last year I bought the metallic version of Deathstroke, and I was disappointed to discover that his back hadn’t been painted properly, so I was afraid the same thing would happen with Aquaman’s scales here. But fortunately it’s been done properly here, as you can see in the back picture below.  

Aquaman didn’t exactly blow me away, but it is quite satisfying to have found him. The Jason Momoa figure is a great take on him (and really, quite a bit better in terms of sculpting and design) but there’s something appealing about having all of the classics too. 

Lego Dimensions: Aquaman Fun Pack (71237)

Aquaman is a huge joke in the comics world; many of you are probably already rolling your eyes and scoffing at the prospect of me even mentioning Aquaman on the website as you start to read this article. He’s had an image problem for years, and DC knows it too – when they relaunched the Justice League back in 2011, they were sure to include a scene that made his powers look spectacular even in comparison to his super-powered companions. And to be fair, it did look pretty cool. It's like a weird 90s throwback to the era of EDGINESS, but not in a bad way. 

Pic from here

You'll also notice that Jason Momoa's portrayal of the character in the about-to-be-released Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice looks more than a little different to the likeness of the minifigure we are looking at today. DC and Warner Brothers obviously want to distance themselves from the Robot Chicken-esque image of Aquaman that is permeating popular culture.  

So why even pick this Lego set up? Well, I've had as many laughs as anyone else at Aquaman, but just like the above picture demonstrates, he can be pretty awesome from time to time. Also, I plan to eventually have a complete Justice League (or some variant thereof) and any Justice League worth its salt includes Aquaman. 

The minifigure looks to be identical to the release of the figure that was in included in the last two sets he was in, late last year and back in 2013. He's got the Bieber-style hair, scale-mail print on his chest and a plain green pair of pants. He's also got two faces -- one neutral, and one angry. I prefer the more neutral one myself, but your mileage may vary. He's also armed with his signature gold trident -- it's identical to the ones featured in the Atlantis sets from a few years ago.   

As with Chell in the Portal pack, the instructions only cover how to build the minifigure (which you probably could have figured out yourself). So you’ll either need a copy of the game or to visit the website for further information on how to build his vehicle. At time of writing, I can’t find a pdf version, but here’s the video that I used to build the Aqua Watercraft. The other two modes should be pretty easy to find too.

The included vehicle/s is pretty underwhelming. This might befit the Aquaman’s borderline joke status. The Aqua Watercraft is not too bad; it kind of looks like it could have been a vehicle in the 1980s Super Powers action figure range. But it's not in the same league as some of the other microbuilds we've seen in this range, such as Wonder Woman's Invisible Plane or Benny's Spaceship. The other two are just kind of blah -- though they may be of value in the game itself. And the green and orange colour scheme is unusual for Lego, so the pieces may also be of use to those interested in MOCing. 

Aquaman retails for $24.95, but you can theoretically find him for $20 at a few stores. I’ve only seen him in person once so far – and bought him straight away –  but I’m sure we’ll see more copies pop up over the next few weeks. If you're like me and don't actually own the game, the cheaper option is definitely the better one.  

Wonder Woman #36 (The New 52)

Image copyright DC Comics 2014

The New 52, eh? It’s something I have mixed feelings about – I was quite fond of the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe, flawed though it was, and I wasn’t thrilled to see it go. But like any other business, comics is a money game and I’m lead to believe that The New 52 relaunch back in 2011 did some pretty good business – so it looks like we’re keeping it for the foreseeable future.

All of this, of course, is a very long-winded way of essentially saying that I’ve read very little of the New 52, outside of the Justice League, so I’m not up to speed with all the current continuity. So please forgive any errors I may make as I write about this issue.  

This issue has been out for a couple of weeks now, so I’m hardly first cab off the ranks in reviewing it – think of this a catch-up before issue #37 arrives. 

First things first – the art. It may be shallow, but I do often find it difficult to read a comic when I don’t particularly like an art style, and that’s one of the main reasons I never picked up any of Cliff Chiang’s run on this series over the last few years.* But now that David Finch is on pencilling duties, I’m planning to be all over it. Even my perennial favourites Jim Lee and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez have disappointed me from time to time, but I’m yet to see comic art by David Finch that I don’t like.

While I wouldn’t say this is his all-time best work, it’s still pretty darn good. Sensation Comics have thrown us a myriad of interpretations of Diana over the last few months, some of them better than others -- this issue, on art at least, blows all of them away. 

And with that we move on to part 2 – the story. Written by Meredith Finch (David's wife) it does an adequate job. As might be expected, there’s not a whole lot in the way of plot advancement; a lot of the issue seems designed around easing in the new creative team, and introducing (or perhaps re-introducing) characters who we can assume will be important in the upcoming story arc. There’s also something of a recap for readers such as myself, who haven’t been reading the last few years of the book; The Amazons are annoyed at Diana for her liberal views, and allowing men onto Themyscira, which is bound to cause trouble in future issues.

Image copyright DC Comics 2014

In terms of the larger plot arc, there’s someone or something who’s controlling the weather, causing natural disasters. The JLA cameo, which is to be expected, as does Swamp Thing. I really appreciated this, as he’s long been one of my favourite DC characters and often doesn't get the love he deserves.

Image copyright DC Comics 2014

The issue finishes with a fairly abrupt cliffhanger, which I won’t reveal here. How the consequences unfold over issues to come remains to be seen, but I'm certainly intrigued.  

Wonder Woman #36 comes recommended for WW and David Finch fans alike. It’s not groundbreaking, but it shows promise for strong future issues from this particular creative team – here’s hoping it delivers to expectations!   

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*Cliff Chiang is not a bad artist, btw. His style for WW just hasn't really clicked with me. 

DC Unlimited Hawkman

Company: Mattel

Series: DC Unlimited

Scale: 7”

Year: 2013

THE BACKGROUND

I’ll freely admit that I know very little about Hawkman. A quick scan of his Wikipedia page doesn’t do a lot to clarify his history either. In terms of fame, he’s a second or third stringer, which may explain why his continuity has been allowed to go all over the place since the 1980s. But these issues aside, he’s a very visually striking, cool-looking character, so I keep an eye out for him whenever he pops up in a JLA or crossover book.

A couple of months ago, I was away on holiday in the UK with my wife, and I had the pleasure of visiting Forbidden Planet – which, combined with a hectic time at work and Christmas/New Year is why the blog has been a little quiet the last couple of months – and I spotted this figure in the stores. I’ve seen very few of the DC and Batman Unlimited range in Australia, so I decided I’d pick him up. I’d had my eye on the figure since earlier this year, but hadn’t been able to justify the purchase at the time. So how did he stack up? Read on to find out!

THE PACKAGING

The DC/Batman Unlimited boxes look great, with the figure displayed clearly, cool box art and some nice copy on the back. They’re a little larger than your average action figure box, clearly designed with MOC collectors in mind. However, opening it will destroy it completely – and MOC collectors should be aware that the packages seem quite easy to damage. All the figures I saw in the shop seemed to have quite a bit of shelf wear – not an issue for me, but irritating for those who keep it in the box.

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

This particular figure is based on Hawkman’s New 52 appearance. I’m yet to read any of the (now cancelled) Savage Hawkman, but I think it’s a pretty good redesign of the older costume. The older design sometimes looked like taxidermy gone wrong, so the more helmet-like approach is a good one. It’s a nice mix of realistic and comic book exaggeration.

This is my first DC Unlimited fig, so I’m pretty vague on what’s new and what’s reused from other figures in the line. His chest and arms look like they could have come straight from the Masters of the Universe Classics line, and apparently his wings are reused from an older DC Universe Classics Hawkman. Speaking of which, his wings look great – definitely the best I’ve come across on an action figure.

Hawkman’s articulation isn’t quite at Marvel Legends level, but it’s still quite good on paper. Here’s what’s featured:

*ball-jointed head

*ball-jointed shoulders

*swivel biceps

*hinged elbows

*cut wrists

*ab crunch

*cut waist

*t-crotch

*T-thighs (mimicking a ball joint)

*cut thighs (near the boot tops)

*hinged knees

*rocker ankles

*hinged and foldable wings

An impressive selection on paper, but somewhat lacking in execution. The helmet means he can look down and straight ahead, but can’t really look up. The lower halves of the legs are coloured gold and appear to be moulded in a softer plastic than upper halves. Possibly because of this, the rocker ankles appear to be stuck and the left knee has a very limited range of motion. Additionally, the harness across his chest restricts the cut waist and the ab crunch. The ab crunch is neither here nor there to me, but not being able to move the waist is quite irritating. I stuck him in a freezer for an hour or so, but that doesn’t appear to have fixed any of the articulation issues.

EDIT: Hawkman's ankles now work, and his left knee works much better than it previously did, though it's still not perfect. The ab crunch is still stuck, but it wouldn't be much use under the harness anyway.

ACCESSORIES

Hawkman comes with two accessories – his axe and his shield/claw thing. The detailing on both is nice, but they’re cast in a very soft plastic. My axe was a little warped in the box, but seems to have sprung back into shape after being removed from its packaging.

PAINT

The paint job could probably best be described as solid but unspectacular. The dominant colour is gold, which looks pretty good – but after seeing it next to the Nightstorm Predator’s gold paint (review to come!), it doesn’t hold up quite as well. Still, this is more a comic-based than “realistic” figure, so flatter colours aren’t a major issue.

There’s a bit of gold slop on his face, around the lines of the mask. The upper thigh hinge has also chipped some green paint off the paints – it seems a little strange that the piece wasn’t just cast in green.

The best part of the paint comes on the wings, though. It’s essentially a simple drybrush that picks out the sculpted detail, but the effect is quite impressive – as I mentioned above, these are definitely the best wings I’ve seen on a figure.

OVERALL

I’m satisfied with Hawkman as a souvenir from a holiday, but I would be much less pleased if I’d bought him on home turf, if that makes sense. Though he’s not a bad figure, he is definitely overpriced.

 At nearly $35 AUD, Hawkman is not offering enough to be an “adult collectable” but is clearly not intended as a toy for children, “Age 4+” labelling notwithstanding. Nor would it stand up to childhood play, with its articulation issues. The average NECA figure costs around $30-35AUD – and I’ve had various articulation issues with them too. But the level of detail in sculpting, paint and overall quality is (generally, though not always) streets ahead of this figure.  I appreciate that a lower production keeps the costs up, but for what is on offer, I don’t think this should be selling for much more than the average Ninja Turtles figure. Get the price point to around $20 and I’d probably buy the whole range – but for the current pricing, I don’t see myself picking up any more of the DC Unlimited figures.

But to finish on a more positive note, his own Egyptian backstory does make him a cool accompaniment for the Nightstorm Predator.