This looks like the world's most painful sunburn.
These mighty maidens are gamma-fueled
powerhouses, with enough strength to punch a mountain to pieces!
As you can probably tell by the fascinatingly vague biography that says next-to-nothing (and also by the use of plural nouns), this figure is one of the ones in Marvel Legends Series 4 to come with a variant - and in this case, the variant is a really interesting character, so we really hope Hasbro puts her out at some point, so we can actually tell you all about her. But not today. Today you get to learn about Red She-Hulk.
When he thought Domino had uncovered his secret identity, Red Hulk hired a group of mercenaries to hunt her down. While they fought X-Force, Red Hulk was blindsided by a new Red She-Hulk, who was wearing the tattered remains of Domino's costume. Her identity was a mystery for a while, but during a fight with Skarr she was impaled on his sword and reverted back to human form, revealing Betty Ross, who'd been thought dead for years.
When this figure was first revealed, we thought
she was just a repaint of ML2 She-Hulk. Then, looking at in-hand pictures, we thought it was ML2 She-Hulk with the unzipped top. But now that I actually have her (via Amazon, thanks to one of our readers finding them all listed), it's clear that this is 100% new sculpt. While Jen's swimsuit-like costume was sculpted with raised seams and all sorts of wrinkles, Betty's is nothing but paint. Well, her top gets some sculpted details - the zipper, some underwire, stuff like that - but the rest of her torso is only anatomical. Is Hasbro really expecting to reuse this body in the future? Who for? How many seven-foot-tall women are there in the Marvel Universe? Amazingly, while the booties are only painted on, the hands have fully sculpted gloves.
We already knew the head was going to be new. She's got appropriately bushy hair, painted with two red streaks in the front. The face is quite lovely, as well - possibly the best-looking ML Hasbro's made in their six years with the license. They've made some notorious uggos in their time, but if Red She-Hulk is any indication, that's behind them.
The red used for She-Hulk is more plasticky than
the one used for Red Hulk, but she still looks good. We're not sure what the difference between Red She-Hulk and Red Tornado is, but she doesn't look cheap. While the boots and gloves are matte black, the black on her unitard is gloss. The purple areas are slightly metallic. She's got black lips and yellow eyes, and silver outlining on her zipper.
The figure is 7" tall, so she's slightly shorter than the previous Shulkies (not counting the Savage version, obviously), but her articulation is better. She has a balljointed head, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge elbows, swivel/hinge wrists, balljointed torso, swivel/hinge hips, swivel thighs, double-hinged knees, swivel/hinge ankles and swivel feet. It's all very well designed, and makes for one of the best Marvel Legends women ever.
Red She-Hulk comes with one accessory: the enchanted uru sword she used as a member of "The Mighty" during the Fear Itself event. That's a really weird choice. Yes, she kept it for a while after the
story, but if anybody had read Matt Fraction's Defenders series, it wouldn't have ended at issue #12. the sword is silver and metallic red, and has a very distinctive shape, but that doesn't make it a logical choice - especially when they could have given her a big gun and one of Elektra's sais, like on the cover of Hulk #16.
She also comes with a piece of the ML4 Build-A-Figure,
Hit-Monkey. A major piece: the entire body, sans head and arms. Since Hit-Monkey is a small figure and only split among three figures, the torso and legs come pre-assembled. And since all three of the figures he comes with have variants, odds are good you'll be able to pick up a complete BAF on the cheap, if you don't want the big figures.
But really, if you're skipping Red She-Hulk, you're missing out. She's a terrific Marvel Legend, and even with her weird accessory, it's better than being empty-handed. Marvel Legends Series 4 isn't in stores yet, but when it finally does come out, keep an eye open for her.
-- 04/22/13
|