Wong

Time for the sidekicks to take the lead! Wong takes over for The Ancient One as Sorcerer Supreme and leader of Kamar-Taj, teaching a new era of sorcerers to protect our reality from mystical threats. Wong, in the comics, was only ever Dr. Strange's manservant, a background character with nothing going on, so making him as important and active a character as the first movie did was pretty impressive. It's like the difference between Michael Keaton's Bruce Wayne's Alfred and Robert Pattinson's Bruce Wayne's Alfred (or maybe even David Mazouz's Bruce Wayne's Alfred, but definitely not Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne's Alfred). Anyway, he's an active character, so now he's got an action figure. Wong is played by Wong - Benedict Wong, who was also in Kick-Ass 2, so someone should really update that list at some point. I'll sadly admit that I have trouble telling him apart from Don Lee; my only consolation being that someone asked me after watching Eternals to confirm for them that Wong and Gilgamesh aren't played by the same person, so at least it's not just me? It's lots of dumb Americans! Wong being the new Sorcerer Supreme was one of the bigger surprises to come out of No Way Home, but it makes sense: if Stephen was dead for five years, they couldn't very well leave the world unprotected, and just because he came back it doesn't mean he should automatically reclaim the title. What's the over/under on him getting it back by the end of Multiverse of Madness, though? In the comics, Wong was a skinny little bald dude - come to think of it, pretty much the way The Ancient One looked. He even wore green robes, similar to her yellow! Is there a connection there we don't know about? Like, was his concept art just repurposed as hers? Movie Wong wears darker colors, all shades of purple/magenta with a dash of yellow blended in. He has baggy pants beneath his robes, and asymmetrical coverings on his forearms: light lavender wraps on the right, and a golden metal bracer on the left. His articulation is as good as you can expect from someone wearing long robes around his legs, moving at the feet, ankles, knees, thighs, hips, waist, wrists, elbows, biceps, shoulders, neck, and head. the thigh joints are superfluous, since the knees are swivel/hinges, and balljointed hips are pretty extravagent for someone who can't lift their legs or move them to the sides more than a few millimeters. The balljointed waist is nice, even hidden behind the ornate belt as it is. He has two gesturing "spellcasting" hands and one to hold an accessory, which is the only way we know it belongs to him. The set includes a big Chinese sword, which isn't anything he used in the first film, and could easily have belonged to the series' Build-A-Figure if not for the extra fleshtone hand. He's also got the same two mandala hands as Bimplesprim Corbomite. Even in the same color! Brutha can't get some green or red up in this piece? As mentioned, Wong comes with a BAF piece: Rintrah's left arm and alternate fist. Wong was important enough to get an action figure from the first movie, though the Marvel Legends ignored him. Of course, it also ignored The Ancient One, Kaecilius, the zealots... so it really isn't a slight that he was left out when only two characters from the movie made it in. His in-universe promotion means we finally get a proper figure of Stephen's best buddy. -- 04/24/22

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