Kang

Time for villainy. Kang, a fearsome warlord with a mysterious past, has conquered the Quantum Realm and rules over all citizens with a brutal totalitarian hand. Mmmmmmmaybe not the best idea to mention a "brutal hand" and a Jonathan Majors character in the same breath? This really is a "he said, she said" situation, but there are enough allegations of past actions, enough warnings shared between women from those who would know, that Marvel's insistence on preemptively tripling-down on him feels weird. His acting has been great in both his appearances so far, but that doesn't excuse dickery in real life. (Just ask Warner Bros.' Fantastic Beasts series how it goes when you try.) The likeness on this figure really is outstanding - not just the sculpt of the face, but the paint, too. Rather than having a blue face, like comicbook Kang, MCU Kang has a skintone face illuminated by blue light. This one duplicates that incredibly well, with the blue darkest around the edges and fading to a lighter shade over the forehead, nose, cheeks, and lower lip, like it's being lit from above. Lovely! His eyes are blank white with dark outlines, and he has his two vertical scars. His costume is taken directly from the comics: purple helmet and collar, big green tunic, a purple bar running down to join the collar and belt. There's purple trim on the drape, and solid belts and gloves. It's nice when comic movies aren't ashamed of their roots. Obviously there are a ton more details, both in the shapes and in the texture, and this Kang is wearing a cape - something that isn't totally unheard of in the comics, but is definitely uncommon enough to consider a distinctive trait of the movie character. It also fits with Jack Kirby's general usage of capes, where they were reserved for characters who were - or at least considered themselves - godlike in their powers. Kang's floppy shirt does mean a few differences for the articulation: rather than a swivel waist and a hinged torso, he simply has a balljointed waist; and thanks to how far the shoulders come down onto the arms, he can't lift his arms at all - not even out to the sides. The neck is very expressive, but even that can't make up for not being able to do anything with the arms. The skirt is split up the side to allow the legs to go all over the place, but the skirt was already sculpted plenty wide, so it didn't need to be. Kang, as an action figure, is just here to stand around. We could have stuck with Mattel's Secret Wars if we wanted that. Hot Toys has a toy of Kang, and theirs gets energy blasts for his hands; this one gets nothing other than alternate gestures. How dull! This is a $25 figure. Hands aren't enough. At least (unlike some figures we could name) Kang comes with some Build-A-Figure pieces. The BAF for this series is Cassie Lang, and he gets both her heads: masked and unmasked. With purple over green and a big disc on his chest, He-Who-Remains was dressed like Immortus, and now we've got green over purple, signifying Kang. The character has been terrific both times he's appeared, and we look forward to seeing more of him, even if that means he'll have a different face when we do. -- 09/02/23