Wong & Bats and Dr. Strange

Remember when Marvel toys used to be in stores and you could just go see them and then buy them? Those were the days! If you only know Wong from his movie incarnation, then his comic version would seem almost unrecognizable. And no, not just because he's bald. 616 Wong is the latest in a long line of Tibetan monks who have sworn to be the servants of Earth's Sorcerer Supreme - so Dr. Strange now, but the Ancient One before him, and so on back through the ages. Since he was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1963, you can imagine that he wasn't exactly a great, nuanced example of Asian representation in comics - he made tea and he knew karate, and that was about it. Marvel tried to turn him into a real character over the years, but it never really stuck. The MCU did it in one try. This Wong is based directly on his appearance in the 2010 New Avengers series, when Brother Voodoo was Sorcerer Supreme and Iron Fist was wearing white. Stuart Immonen drew exactly this kind of tangzhuang jacket in a flashback in issue #5 - even the lines on the top of the slippers are a direct reference. The pants should be baggier, but that may have been hard to pull off in plastic. Wong's colorscheme has traditionally been green and gold - green to contrast with Strange's red and blue, gold to show that he's still aligned with the hero and not against him. Although I can't find direct confirmation, I'm making an educated guess that this figure was sculpted by mystical being from the higher planes Paul Harding, because the face absolutely looks like his "Marvel in the '70s" work. Despite being a strong-jawed bald guy, the sculpt sells that this isn't just Lex Luthor having an unfortunate cultural appropriation phase, but is instead an actual Asian man. Eventually Marvel's writers decided that maybe the magician's assistant should know some magic himself, so Wong includes the spell effect alternate hands several figures have come with before. His are pale yellow, with a slightly darker orange painted on the symbols in the center. His standard hands are in a clutching pose, and he's also got a pair for holding accessories, and a pair that's... pinching? Is that what that's supposed to be? The articulation is mostly standard, though we do get pectoral hinges and a balljointed chest (but no shins). At one point, Stephen Strange lost the title of Sorcerer Supreme, and since he'd failed to keep his medical license up-to-date, he couldn't go back to practicing surgery. So instead he decided to start a veterinary practice? Is it really that easy? Surely he'd need to complete a DVM degree and pass the licening exam, which would take the same amount of time as just getting his old certificate back. Being a vet isn't a "fallback" plan for quote/unquote "real" doctors, Stephen. Anyway, being egotistical, he decided that the only real difference between the two fields was the language barrier, so he cast a translation spell on a dog. The dog's name was Bats, and he was an elderly basset hound. His owner of 16 years had a heart attack and had to leave him in a shelter, and he'd been adopted and returned twice before Dr. Strange got him. While attempting to protect Strange from Loki, his tiny old heart gave out, and he died. Loki, not intending this and feeling awful about it, found a way to bring Bats back as a ghost - that's why this unarticulated toy of him is cast in translucent green. There are darker areas painted on his back, remnants of his coloration when he was still alive, and the set includes a clear plastic stand that plugs into his belly so he can float. It's really not surprising that the Doctor Strange in this set is basically just the Walmart exclusive with different colors - that's an outstanding sculpt and a very specific body, so if Hasbro isn't going to use it for another Doctor Strange, who are they going to use it for? Instead of being a bright, comicbooky blue, his tunic is a more muted color, while the symbol on his chest is much much lighter, making for a strong contrast. His cloak of levitation is a more muted red, and he doesn't have the black speckles on his gloves this time - they're just plain yellow. If there was one flaw with that previous Strange figure, it was that the cape was a reused piece from an earlier release. This time, the cape is new. It hangs more closely to his shoulders, and is sculpted flapping to the side instead of hanging straight down. The collar is higher, as well, with the two points at the top reaching straight up instead of curling outward. Like before it's glued into the chest, so if you want to trade ot to anyone else, it will take some work to get it free. (It's also a giant pain in the butt to get out of the plastic tray that holds the toys in the box.) The figure's head is the same sculpt as one of the heads on the exclusive, though you may not notice due to the new paint. Much as the clothing has gotten darker, his skintone is less pink and healthy. The idea is to make him look weak and sickly, which is why it's so funny this is so close to that "cyanosis" shade so many figures were coming with for a while there. The idea is to suggest that he's possessed, also explaining why his eyes are metallic purple. Possessed by whom? By Dormammu! The set includes a second head, that of the ruler of the Dark Dimension. It's the same one from the Series 7 figure (somplete with the same removable black "frame" piece that fits around it), just with the face painted orange instead of maroon, and the flames closer to yellow than red. If this combo of "sickly human face/full Dormammu face" is supposed to represent a specific story, we don't know which one - Dormammu possessing Strange is not-entirely-uncommon occurance. The Alex Ross art on the side of the box suggests it's from 2023's Doctor Strange #3, but that cover was just allegorical, not something that actually happened in the issue. He doesn't include any "plain" hands, just one pair in his spellcasting poses, and then the same set of magical effects Wong had, this time in purple. You can tell whose is whose because Strange wears those yellow gloves, but the effects are so large they'll effectively hide what's behind them, so feel free to give whatever color to whatever character you want. This set was apparently an Amazon exclusive in 2024. You're only getting to read this now, two years later, because it randomly popped up in that "related products" carousel at the bottom of a page. It really is a very nice set, giving us one character who hasn't had a toy before, one who looks different from all the existing ones, and a cute puppy. It just would have been nice to know about it earlier. -- 08/10/26 Did you know about Bats before Marvel Rivals came out, yes or no? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.