Feeling really conflicted about this, because I'm about to deny who this is.
The packaging for Series 12 identifies this as Nemesis, but like Hasbro taught us 15 years ago (and Diamond Select reiterated a year after that), "Nemesis" is merely the legally-clearable name that will allow toy companies to get the character properly known as "Holocaust" into stores. But this Build-A-Figure is not Holocaust.
Holocaust was (allegedly) the son of Apocalypse on Earth-295, but had no 616 counterpart. He was a fairly normal-looking adult, until Magneto destroyed his body and left him stuck in that big suit of armor. This figure, on the other hand, depicts William Rolfson, the son of 616 Apocalypse and the woman who served as Famine when he first appeared. William is only in his mid-teens, rather than being an adult, and looking like a fiery skeleton is a natural part of his mutation, not the result of an accident; he also doesn't use the same supranym, which is why we can confidently say that this is not Holocaust, it's Genocide.
(Yeah, no putting that name onto store shelves, either.)
"Nemesis" (wink-wink) is the Build-A-Figure for X-Men Legends 12. You don't have to buy Wolverine, but get the other six figures in the series and you'll have everything you need for your own Hol-- no. Your own Geno-- nope! Your own big spooky evil armor man action figure. Everything you need for your own big spooky evil armor man action figure.
It's kind of creepy that William is the son of Famine: we first met her in X-Factor #12, when Apocalypse appeared in her room
to recruit her (she already had thematically appropriate food-disintegration powers). But notice, that's "her room," not "her house," because she still lived with her parents; she was high-school age, on par with the New Mutants. And she certainly didn't spend very many years around Apocalypse, so... "ew." She was afraid Apocalypse would view any offspring as a threat, and so hid the boy away. Presumably he originally had a body, not being born as a skeleton floating inside a ball of energy, but there's always a chance. While the old BAF had a skull and even a bit of ribcage visible, this one just gets the skull.
The original Holocaust's armor was influenced by Joe Madureira's love of anime, which is why it was basically a big, rounded suit with energy flowing inside it. (A lot of sources credit Roger Cruz with its creation, because he drew the first published appearance, but that's wrong:
he was simply copying Joe Mad's work. See also: Marrow.) Genocide's armor is solid, and its design draws from more modern sources, as you'd expect. Rene Aldrete sculpted the surface with the appearance of dinged-up metal, and it looks like plates of armor worn over a flexible rubber suit beneath. It's still very imaginative, it's just drawing from different sources for its inspiration. The fact it's solid with a big clear faceplate in the helmet rather makes him look like some kind of dead astronaut, but whether that's intentional or not is left for you to decide.
On the plus side, this time we don't have
any pieces that want to snap due to the way they were constructed. Instead of being hinged, his helmet is fully removable, held in place by two sturdy tabs. His right arm is a large, squarish blaster (opposite arm from his Age of Apocalypse forebear) with a hose that runs from just above the elbow to plug into what (on a spacesuit) would look like small maneuvering jets. Elbow tubes? He really is Apocalypse's son! A pair of cylinders stick out just behind the helmet, and the rear of the suit is sculpted with a spinal support column.
While William's energy is still
primarily yellow (as seen in the flames visible around his head), his armor isn't clear and is therefore free to be another color. They've gone with a very coppery red look for him, though the comics would sometimes shift that all the way into true brown. There are broad, angular lines inset on the surface, and those have been painted a lighter dull orange, which gives the feeling that they're windows through which we can see the radioactive plasma sloshing around inside him. Like how a bottle of laundry detergent has that line down the side where you can see how much is left.
The articulation on this figure is better than the 2009 version.
Genocaust has swivel/hinge ankles, double-hinged knees, swivel thighs, balljointed hips, a balljointed chest, double-hinged elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, a balljointed head, and a hinged jaw. Since his right arm is a big cannon, only his left wrists get a swivel/hinge joint (he has a closed fist and an open hand). His shoulder pads are the "War Machine" style, where they're on a ring taht fits over the shoulder peg so they can move with the arm instead of blocking it. This is the first time we've seen it on a Build-A-Figure, which means it's the first time we've gotten to see it before it's permanently attached to the toy.
Holocaust and Genocide are different characters the same way Cable and Nate Grey are different characters: ie, they may have the same genetic makeup and powers, but they're not direct analogues of one another the way, say, Peter Parker and Peter B. Parker are. So while it would have been preferable to get an "Age of Apocalypse" Nemesis that was up to modern standards, allowing that admittedly so-so older one to be replaced, it's also cool to get, in "Dark Angel Saga" Nemesis, a character who hasn't had any kind of toy before. So it's a second-place offering, but they've done a first-rank job on it.
Nightcrawler | Gambit | Cyclops | Marrow | Husk | Fabian Cortez
-- 09/01/25
|
