Hey it’s the first Marvel
Legends figure to get a Quick Crappy Review! That’s because I hold the uncommon
and unpopular opinion that Marvel Legends are often a bit shit, which should do
wonders for my already terrible view count.
In truth some of it’s me, I have a lot of emotional baggage and some of
it is connected to superhero collector’s figures (because of course) but some of
it is the same issues Marvel figures have had since Toy Biz: unappealing art
style (sculpt style?), horribly obviously joints, ridiculous muscle definition,
terrible faces and ugly paint washes, troubles that Hasbro has only been
overcoming once or twice a wave in the last two years or so. Please don’t hate
me.
Anyway Ms. Marvel is from
the Marvel’s Sandman wave of Marvel Legends because Hasbro decided the best thing
for their Legends series was to forgo silly shit like numbers and name ‘em
after the build-a-figure. Sometimes a wave also uses a character name or film
title (e.g. Captain America: The Winter Soldier) but this series doesn’t, it’s
themed around Spider-Man and considered a Spider-Man wave but the web-swinger’s
name or logo doesn’t’ appear anywhere on the packaging bar the names of the
figures (cos there’s a figure called ‘Spider-Man’ in this wave). Ms. Marvel is
this wave’s ‘guest star’, Hasbro have settled on a nice habit of throwing in a
roughly thematic but mostly unrelated character or two per wave as a way of
getting those characters out i.e. Death’s Head II in the Guardians of the
Galaxy Vol 2 wave or Sister Grimm in the Doctor Strange wave. Funnily enough,
those ‘guest stars’ are usually the ones I buy.
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| "Squee!!" |
Meet Kamala Khan, Kamala is
the current Ms. Marvel after Carol Danvers, the regular Ms. Marvel (there was
another one, she became She-Thing, I like her, everyone else doesn’t, let’s
move on), FINALLY got promoted to the Captain Marvel moniker1 where she has
rightfully stayed. Kamala is a Pakistani American, a huge fangirl, fan-fiction
writer and Inhuman from Jersey City and the most loveable Marvel hero since
Kitty Pryde, seriously everything about her is wonderful, she is the little
sister we should all have. Kamala debuted amidst a blitz of publicity and I was
sceptical, I always am when Marvel and DC replace a pre-existing character with
a minority character, I question their motives to say the least, turns out I’m
right to do that just not with Kamala Khan, in fact I’d argue she’s the perfect
way to introduce a minority character: she fills a vacant moniker so no one is
replaced, her book was well written and well-drawn with someone from the
minority as part of the creative process (Sana Amanat in this case) and her
‘push’ has equalled her popularity rather than y’know, being pushed like Hulk
Hogan when everyone considers her Brutus Beefcake at best. I promise to not
make any more wrestling metaphors.
Hasbro have gotten into the
habit of using metallic whenever they can and while I’m not sure Spider-Man
should be metallic but it means that Kamala’s gold is really gold, her shiny
bits stand out - though they’re sadly broken up by the ab-crunch. Hasbro are
starting to learn about overlays and Kamala’s rocking one but I wish her entire
Shalwar kameez-y dress thing (it was made from a burkini wasn’t it?) had been
one, Hasbro could have reused more parts and the figure’s lightning bolt
wouldn’t look strange every time she reaches down. On part reuse (my favourite
thing and yours) as far as I can tell, under the blue everything from the
diaphragm downwards is parts from elsewhere in the line, I don’t buy enough to
judge for certain but they’re generic enough and sure look like parts I’ve seen
before. This would also explain my one sculpting gripe body-wise which is the
muscle definition on her thighs - there’s too much of it, it’s a problem Hasbro
has: their thighs tend to look like a naked bodybuilder’s way more than they
should, in this case the material on Kamala’s legs (and the artwork depicting
it) should mean even if she did have legs this toned you wouldn’t be able to
see this amount of definition. While I’m looking at teenager’s body (and it’s
not creepy, reviewing is fun) articulation run-down: ball joints at the shoulders, ab-crunch, wrists
and hips aren’t uncommon but she also has them as her elbows (to facilitate
part swapping?); her neck joint is fantastic – she has a ball joint and a hinge
up there which not only gives her a better range but does a lot to negate the
unavoidable joint-blocking her hair would create, well done Hasbro desig; her
legs are unnecessarily jointed - she has ankle hinges, double jointed knees,
boot swivels and thigh swivels – why? Why does she need to swivel joints when
she already has ball joints by the vag? I shouldn’t really complain as they’re
both concealed fine (one by the boots, one by the skirt) so we’re really
getting extra joints with no downside but it allows me to complain about
superhero collectors figures again because they have a horrible habit of
throwing in every joint possibly regardless of how it effects the aesthetics of
the figure or if it even makes sense. I feel better now. Ms. Marvel’s mush
looks a little too old but pleasingly she also looks very Indian, some artists
have the habit of drawing her (and any non-white female) as a white person and
letting it up to the colourist to make them look anything but a cracker, but
Hasbro’s sculptors have seemingly put some effort into giving her Asian
features (that roughly match her facial design in-comic, her nose is a little
different shaped) and design have seemingly put some effort into actually
matching her skin-tone to a real Asian person and not just picking a colour
somewhere between a White character and a Black panther, which I’m still certain
is how Disney colour (and cast) everyone who isn’t explicitly one or the other
or CGI2.
Kamala comes with three
accessories but it wasn’t until I sat down to write this review I noticed that
my one didn’t come packaged with the Sandman build-a-figure parts because the
seller had clearly bought the whole wave, made Sandman and then sold off the
figure he didn’t want, I imagine he’s the sort of person who complains about
how social justice is ruining Marvel Comics3. I’d feel ripped off
but as the sandman figure encapsulates everything I hate about super-hero
collector’s figures (the nice list in my opening paragraph) really all it’s
done is save me the time of embaying him and saved you the time of reading
about me moaning again. So if you didn’t get ripped off and got a complete
figure she should have come with the torso and crotch of Spider-Man enemy
Sandman and two embiggened hands/forearms to swap in - out of the box she comes
with her regular sized parts. The embiggened parts are essential and the hands
are lovely sculpt-wise but they’re bafflingly crap, they don’t have sculpted in
cuffs for her sleeves despite being unique pieces and they don’t have wrist
articulation – the latter I can just about understand as it saves money but a
sculpt line doesn’t cost shit. The lack of articulation is slightly compensated
for by the ball jointed elbows but not enough, you gave her 25 leg joins but no
wrists joints, this makes me cross and Kamala Khan should never make readers
cross, she should make them feel only love and the need to buy awesome hats.
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| "Squee!!" "Do you...do you even know who I am?" "Know you? you were the main villain in my Captain Marvel/She-Hulk: Green and Blonde fic! "Oh..." |
Conclusion? Far from a
disappointment - some baffling construction choices bring the figure down but
generally this is a nice figure, wow that sounded almost professional!
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| This is funny if you've read the fist two TPBs |
1
as far as I’m concerned Carol should have been Captain Marvel from the start
but if she hadn’t been Ms. Marvel she may very well have never become a
superhero at all (she was previously a Captain Mar-Vell supporting cast
member). Ms. Marvel was created to secure the ‘Ms. Marvel’ trademark for Marvel
Comics, without that necessity it’s unlikely Carol would have come back. So
I’ll amend my opinion to: Carol should have become Captain Marvel as soon as
Genis-Vell stopped using the name, now she’s been Ms. Marvel so long I find it
hard to refer to her as anything else (I never got used to Binary or Warbird).
2
Disney own Marvel, this tangent is totally not a tangent, honest, really.
3
just to throw my two cents in; it isn’t diversity or ‘social justice’ that’s
the problem, it’s how Marvel are implementing it into their comics , replacing
beloved, popular and movie star characters for instance, never goes down well
and is generally best to be avoided – especially when you’re making millions
off their movies – it puts the new characters at a disadvantage right out of
the gate (and ultimately scuttles any chance of the change being permanent - the likes of Tony Stark, Bruce Banner,
Steve Rogers and Thor Odinson will be brought back as the main Iron Man, Hulk, Captain
America and Thor at some time its inevitable)
and causes resentment from the start, not good if you’re using those
replacements to diversify your roaster, it also makes them feel forced on the
reader which creates more resentment. It’s an easy and lazy way to go about
doing what Marvel are doing and shoots them in the foot, they’re far better off
elevating the minority characters they have (which they’ve done – see Squirrel
Girl, Luke Cage, Captain Marvel, Black Panther), creating minority characters
to fill empty roles (like Kamala Khan, Moon Girl or Miss America) to avoid
getting resentment from the get-go or creating new stand-alone characters and
putting the time, patience and writing quality into them to allow them to reach
the same status as their white male characters.
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