As the world's oldest superteam, the Justice Society of America has been around long enough that many of its original members have had kids of their own, who have grown up to be a second generation of heroes. It makes sense, then, that a lot of the JSA's current villains are legacy characters, too.
Son of Dr. Joar Mahkent, the original Icicle, Cameron Mahkent doesn't use technology as his father did. Years of exposure to an experimental freeze ray had altered Joar's DNA, and Cameron has the biological ability to create cold, freeze objects and people or to lower the temperature of a room or other area. As a side effect, Cameron's abilities made him an albino. Icicle is one of those villains who's just in it for the money: he's not a nice guy, but he isn't a madman; he has a strong sense of loyalty and teamwork.
Icicle (the current one) was created in the '80s to be a member of Injustice Unlimited, the opposite number to that era's incarnation of the Justice Society, Infinity, Inc. He was pretty much forgotten until JSA was relaunched in 1999 and he joined the modern Injustice Society. This figure, based on Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, is his first time getting a toy.
The majority of the figure is the
standard body inexplicbly developed for this Target-exclusive series: it's slightly larger than the usual DCU bodies, but has the same kind of somewhat cartoonish styling, meaning it fits in with the rest of your collection well. He does have a few new pieces, however: the forearms are thinner than usual, and the hands have long, pointed fingers; both are molded from translucent plastic designed to make him look icy. There's also an ice collar over his shoulders.
For some reason, Icicle was redesigned when he showed up in "Public Enemies" (the comic, not the cartoon) - he's normally a fairly human-looking guy (with ice for hair), but Ed McGuinness decided to make him the bastard son of the Snow Miser, with a stupidly pointed nose and chin. Well, "goatee," at any rate. He's got sandy blonde hair, which is even dumber.
Since, unlike Mr. Freeze and Captain Cold (two of the villains he teamed with in the story), Icicle's powers are natural rather than technological, he has no accessories. No gun, no ice blasts, nothing. Yes, he comes with Brimstone's left leg - the mandatory BAF piece for this series - but that's not an accessory, it's a pack-in. Big, giant, 4¾" leg, cast in black and painted red in the middle.
It has to be Icicle's unique design that earned him a spot in this lineup. He only appeared in two panels in the original comic (it's Superman/Batman #3, if you want to count for yourself), and is tucked
away in the background of every scene he's got in the movie... all 55 seconds or so. I mean, come on, we couldn't even get a decent screenshot of him. This is far from the character's normal appearance, but the odds of Mattel ever making another Icicle figure are slim - heck, I wouldn't even give him much of a chance from DC Direct. The design is crap, but the actual execution of the figure (paint, construction, sculpt, etc.) is good, so at least you won't feel too bad about buying him solely to build Brimstone.
-- 05/08/10
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