|
Cold take: making every Daredevil story about ninjas is as boring as making every Spider-Man story about the multiverse.
Rebuilt by Matt Murdock and Elektra, the Fist
is a team of ninjas on a mission to take down the dark order known as the Hand.
Before Daredevil "sadded" himself into prison, Elektra found a book revealing a secret history of the Hand: long before Matt's mentor Stick led "The Chaste," there was another group dedicated to opposing the evil of The Hand, but it required both a king and a queen to lead it; Matt wasn't interested in helping Elektra, so that's why she needed to prove herself to him. Her plan worked, and soon they were the (now-married) co-captains of The Fist. Why did it need to be a new, secret group when The Chaste were already an established thing? Why did it need to be named The Fist when that name had already been used at least twice before for things related to the Hand? I don't know, why did Daredevil have to go to prison when that was a thing that had already happened, too? Writers repeating existing ideas just because they don't get to have their name on the originals is what keeps the Suicide Squad and Scourge in business.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of this figure reuses the
existing Hand Ninja molds, because why wouldn't it? Ninja clothes are ninja clothes. It's more than just a repaint, though, because Dennis Chan has been asked to sculpt new pieces: the torso, loincloth, and the new head. The limbs still go back to Doctor Strange movie toys, but the new bits do just enough to keep this from looking like a repeat of what we already have. The paint, too; like his royal leaders, he wears a red suit with black (or in this case, dark grey) on the arms and legs and a sash across the chest, so he looks like part of the same team.
The figure comes with two heads, and the first is the same from the existing Hand Ninja figure: mostly hidden behind a hood and mask, with just the eyes visible. The eyes are still blank, though white this time, not green. So different! Also, while the Hand's mask was a darker red than the rest of the hood, the Fist's is the same red as everything else.
The second head is the new one, and it's much more distinctive.
The Hand serve a demon called "The Beast," which is why they're able to resurrect dead people so easily (Elektra, Doctor Octopus, Wolverine, Northstar, Bruce Banner, Frank Castle's family, etc.). Apparently the Fist has at least some degree of the same mysticism, because the second head is a skull wearing a hood. Not like Taskmaster, like Skeletor - an actual skull. The mouth is open, so we can see this isn't just a creepy mask he's wearing, he's as skinless as Ghost Rider. The hood is new as well, and shaped to fit snugly on the headbones.
That's all we get for new things, though.
The articulation is the same as before, with the new chest having the same kind of balljoint. Remember the Hand ninja's straight sword, and sickle accessories? Well, we still get the sword, but it fits into the belt instead of a scabbard, and we only get one sickle instead of two. Also, no open hands, just fists or ones to hold the weapons.
We're not going to be army-building Fists the way we did Hands, because the included Build-A-Figure piece isn't as infinitely collectible - there's a difference between having a thousand Stilt-Man legs and having a thousand Mindless One left arms.
The Fist Ninja is... okay? The concept of Daredevil getting own own army of superpowered ninjas and villains and forcibly making them be good guys made for a great story, but this toy is... just fine? Not really special, other than the inclusion of a creepy skull head. Take that, put it on Emperor Palpatine's body and make your own Grim Reaper. But when Hasbro is insisting a toy like this should be priced at $25, it's not too hard to see why real stores refused declined to carry this series.
-- 01/08/24
|
