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Last week we reviewed six Avengers: Endgame figures. No way we're topping that this week, so how about two from Infinity War?
Known for his shifting allegiances,
Loki faces evil head on when he is confronted by the Black Order - a sinister group of Thanos' cohorts that includes the menacing Corvus Glaive.
The Loki in this set is a straight repaint of the Ragnarok figure, trading his bright blue for darker colors. The Photo Real paint on the face is less shiny this time, because Hasbro has almost two years more experience applying it. The protective armor on his shoulders and forearms is a dark teal now, rather than silver, and the inside of his cape doesn't get a bright yellow app. Since this is emphatically an Infinity War figure, it would have been nice if they'd molded him a new hand with a knife in it. So he could attempt to threaten Thanos.
What we do get is better, though: the Tesseract! Yes, it's just a trans blue (cosmic) cube, same that last year's SDCC Red Skull came with, and comic-based Red Skull before that, but Loki's never had one before. It doesn't fit too well in either hand, so you'll have to balance it carefully. Two new hands would have served this figure well.
The figure he's paired with is Corvus Glaive, the defacto leader of Thanos' followers, the Black Order. In the comics he's married to Proxima Midnight, which is possibly true
in the movie as well, considering how regularly the two of them work together and the way she reacts to protect him. He's Thanos' most favored general. Corvus is cruel, arrogant and the most loyal of the Black Order, a warrior who betrayed his people and sold his soul to Thanos to pursue a different kind of glory.
Since he was the first one introduced in the comics, he was also the first one designed (with the placeholder working name of "Black Rector," suggesting originally the Black Order would have had religion-themed names instead of space/darkness-themed): they wanted contrast between him and his boss, so while Thanos is big and bulky, Corvus is all lithe and lanky. He looks like he's been stretched out vertically, a taffy man heated and pulled. The toy stands 7¼" tall, with another ⅛" for the ear-spikes on his hood.
Corvus (whose name is the Latin for "raven," thus
maintaining the "black" connection all tehse characters share) looks like some kind of vampire goblin, with his thin, wrinkly face and the sharp teeth. Golden elements are stuck to his gray skin like ornate metal tattoos, or possibly some sort of very thin headgear/crown thing?
His costume is an angular grey armor with thin gold detailing all over. Above that he's got a hooded shawl that hangs down lower on the left than on the right, and features a train long enough to drag on the floor. It's got a surprisingly intricate pattern and a gold wash to bring out the details. There are separate "toes" on his feet, with the outside two being longer and golden-er than the two in the middle. Although this is definitely an MCU toy, the design is close enough to what he wears in the comics that you could easily drop this figure into that collection and consider him passing. Corvus was sculpted by Dennis Chan.
Glaive's accessory is some kind of... pointy... stick... thing. If only there were a name for that kind of weapon!
It has a ridiculously complex set of blades, making it look like it would be a dangerous, threatening item no matter which direction it was moving. According to the comics, he's immortal as long as his spear is intact, but the movies don't get into that: both he and Proxima's spears just seem to be sharp, not as cosmically overpowered as the 616 versions. Only the toy's left hand is closed enough to hold the spear - the fingers on the right hand are more open.
For the longest time, it seemed like Proxima Midnight was going to be the only Black Order member we'd get. Then Cull Obsidian showed up as a BAF, Corvus Glaive is in this two-pack, and Ebony Maw was the sole Infinity War holdover in the first Endgame series. And since the movies didn't bother with the fifth member of the team, that's everybody! Neither of the figures in this set are super appealing on their own, but together they boost each other.
-- 04/29/19
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