Banshee

Named after a screaming ghost? This would have been an October review if not for Shuma-Gorath shipping early. Banshee agrees to help Professor Charles Xavier rescue the X-Men alongside a new team of mutant heroes. Yes he does, and the more history Banshee is given before that, the funnier it gets. It's like, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, even Wolverine, they were all meant to be teenagers when the story was written, but here was Banshee, a guy who was the same general age range as Professor Xavier and who (we now know) had already had a full and successful career as an Interpol agent. Heck, he's even got a daughter nearly as old as his new teammates! Like, imagine David Harbour working with the Stranger Things kids not as a father figure but as one of their classmates. It'd be weird, right? That was Banshee on the new X-Men team. Which is probably why he didn't hang around too long. It is not remotely surprising that this Banshee is a repaint of the Strike Force figure - not only because of Hasbro's usual "do the variant first, do the original version second" release plan, but because that figure had a lot of unique pieces that make sense to be shared between the two versions. A 1970s collar? Spots for his glider wing-things to plug in? It was all there already, no need to start entirely over. Oh, but wait! Strike Force Banshee had bands around his boots and gloves that this one doesn't, so thoe pieces have been molded anyway! The collar is the same sculpt, with the same bends and wrinkles, but it sits differently on this figure, riding a bit higher. Not bad! What is annoying, though, is that they reused the same heads. Yes, they're wonderful work by rightful heir to a forgotten kingdom Paul Harding, but they're the same wonderful work. Almost every time he does a Wolverine it's a new expression, but here we again get the "angry and clean shaven/calm with muttonchops" heads as before. Hasbro is trying to charge $25 for this figure (and stores are trying to charge $28), was there really no way to give him some different expressions? Especially since, fitting on the previous figure, the play value of both would instantly be upped? Another problem unchanged from the last figure is the wings. When Hasbro made their first Banshee, nearly 20 years ago, it had actual cloth wings that plugged into the toy's wrists, ribs, and right below the knees. These two modern incarnations, while better in many ways, use crummy polyester, not even of the quality of those shirts made from recycled plastic bottles. It's somehow both flimsy and stiff, and the color is only printed on one side: when you're dealing with very strong, vibrant black and yellow stripes, having one side be a sad, pale shade looks like crap. And the thing is, Hasbro knew it would look bad when they produced this figure, because the last one was already out in the world and getting unfavorable feedback; they made the specific choice to produce a worse toy than they were capable of, even knowing for certain that it would be worse. The non-specific parts of the figure are shared with that wrong-sized body Hasbro keeps forcing on collectors not because of its real quality, but because to do otherwise would be to admit they made a mistake. Who among us hasn't continued doing something wrong simply because that was easier for our brain to handle than confessing, even to ourselves, that we'd made an error? You could fix it at any time, you still can; but it's more important for you to maintain the illusion that you've been right than it is to actually be right. At least these legs are old enough that they still have shin joints, eh? Pectoral hinges are a nice addition, especially for a flying character like this, but to really take advantage of the arms' range of motion you'll want to unplug the wings from his sides. There's no Build-A-Figure for this series, but don't worry: Hasbro's got a replacement idea that's wildly stupid! Beyond the inclusion of five hands (two fists, two gripping, one open), Banshee includes a replica comic, a valueless waste of plastic with an image of 1975's Giant-Size X-Men #1 printed on it. It's like that Mitch Hedberg joke about flyers: "here, you throw this away." It seems particularly silly in Banshee's case, since he doesn't appear on the cover. At least that's better than Adam Warlock, who didn't even appear in the issue he came with at all. The plan with the All-New, All-Different X-Men was that some of the recruits just wouldn't make it: an early idea was that the old team being "captured" was just a ruse, and the whole thing was a test - "an entrance exam," as Dave Cockrum put it. And if it was a test, some applicants wouldn't pass. Originally it was just going to be Sunfire and Banshee, but they decided one of the new creations should flunk out too, and that's how Thunderbird ended up on the block. Anyway, the reason Banshee left the book so soon was because he was never intended to stay. Still, this is the last character we needed to finish the Giant Size X-Men team, and even the toy's endemic flaws can't keep that from being cool. -- 11/24/25 Who's your favorite broad Irish stereotype? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.