Miles of Aisles
Whatever Happened To Baby Diana?
Wonder Woman
Kingdom Come Series I
DC Direct
Man, I've been disenchanted with DC Direct for awhile now. Last one I actually bought was a bargain-bin Saint of Killers figure, which ruled, by the way. But still, the line just don't move me no more. It changed the day I saw those beautiful Kingdom Come figures at the local comix shop. Sure my car battery died and killed all my enthusiasm for buying shit, but, fuck the visuals were indelibly planted.
"WonderWoman3" It was a verrrry tall order from the beginning, to design a toy, a piece of molded plastic, that mirrored Alex Ross's stern, Communist-worker-posterish designs - he took the standard bearers of the DC Universe and gave them age, dignity, and an imposing presence, like proletariat gods among men. And that was sort of the point of the whole story, I guess, but is it possible to capture all of the subtlety of Ross's brush strokes into the harder lines and contours of an action figure? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
If you're gonna buy just one figure in the line, you might as well pick up Wonder Woman. About time there's a decent Wonder Woman sculpt on the shelves and, hey man, it's the most realistic Wonder Woman you'll find on the market today. They let her show her age! Thank god! And she looks great, like Bette Davis or Joan Crawford or Marlene Dietrich. Hollywood grande dame meets philosopher king. And how can I put this delicately - they even aged her body in an appropriate fashion (though downright shocking for comic book's inflated female standards). Of course then her costume is more sauced-up than ever, but it works, it works. Striking, trust me.
Plus:
Okay, obviously the biggest plus is the sculpt. My words can't do it adequate justice. Check out the pictures, man - stare agape at the craftsmanship. Christ, it's just like the figure jumped right off the painted page. The face is perfect. End of story. The torso is totally elegant, I have never seen such attention lavished on a clavicle ever before in action figures. She's totally made for display, preferably under a harsher white light to fully spotlight all of the contours of the sculpt.
She comes with the golden lasso! And her hands are made to clutch it!
Minus:
These toys are not made for "playing" in any sense of the word. There is, for all intents and purposes, no articulation. The legs, arms and head kinda move, but it looks all awkward. The best pose is the one she originally comes in, in the box. Clutching her rope, just sort of waiting. Move her at your peril. In fact, you're probably just "supposed" to keep these in the box.
"WonderWoman1"
She doesn't stand on her own. At all. Dammit. Put her against a wall or something.
The paint application is a little sloppy, especially around the molding lines. There's these weird gaps and splotches,
that sort of look like tiny craters. It's a bonehead mistake, especially after so much attention has been lavished on every little detail of the figure, including the fucking creases in her skirt. And the other thing is, the articulation point on her neck is so dark and wide that she ends up looking like some total Bride of Reanimator shit. Crazy, man. It's not like you need to move her head or anything anyway.
But c'mon, the pluses outweight the minuses by far, and once they get those manufacturing bugs sorted out, and hey, slated to come out is Flash, Deadman and Shazam! You love it....
- Matthew Damascus
The men and women of Miles of Aisles cut through hype and speculation to spotlight the best little plastic objects that money (or love) can buy.
