Enter: Typhoid Mary! This Marvel Legends action figure is definitely an obscure character and I honestly don't mind the addition of her in plastic form, I just question why she is in a Venom #BAF wave. Oh well, let's just get right into the review.
I was first introduced to Typhoid Mary through Spectacular Spider-Man comic book. Here she gave our web-head another reason to have an alternate costume by shredding his blue and red threads and made him go out and fight looking like a hybrid of Spidey and a ninja-like get up (basically he just 'fixed' his costume by wrapping bands of cloth around it). From there, I mostly associated her with Spider-Man and Daredevil. I never really think of her as a Venom character, even if the grand scheme of things, she does fit within that lore since Venom is so closely tangled up with Spidey. Regardless, if #Hasbro was going for a "Venom" theme, there were SO MANY other symbiote related characters they could have gone for. Heck, they could have finished the five offsprings but I'm more than willing to bet that they are going to slowly release them through multiple waves. Good marketing plan, that's for sure.
Nothing special about the pose but it is a pretty good prototype figure.
She comes with a BAF piece and a katana with a fire special effect. If the weapon and the effect that comes with Typhoid Mary looks familiar, it should. It's the same one that came with Psylocke from this year! I never knew that Typhoid Mary used katanas; nor was I aware that she was a pyro-telekinetic.
Typhoid Mary has had many costumes and aesthetics throughout the years. Though one thing is a common thread whenever I somehow stumbled into her through my years of reading comics are her trademark black leather themed outfit and her white painted face(most of the time half painted to imply her split personality). I knew she had a small amount of telekinesis at her disposal, but as I mentioned before I was not aware of her ability to use fire or her skill at using a katana. Then again, to go against the Man Without Fear, Spider-Man, and the many street level super heroes of Marvel, one has to be able to stand her grounds. That part of Typhoid Mary(the fighting prowess), is generic and easily found in the many villains that the mentioned super heroes fight. As for Typhoid Mary's appeal, her looks, and how she is presented, I think she has a good enough look to make her somewhat stand out. Black leather may be overused but given enough quirks like Typhoid's one leg fishnet, the corset, and the half painted face, and we have an overall good look. In terms of plastic form, Hasbro did a fine enough job to add Typhoid to their many good looking female action figures.
I'm not sure if I've seen this body mold before. I'm sure most, if not, all of it is reused. If anything else, the hair might be newly sculpted and Typhoid Mary's face does not look familiar from their other female comic book character face. Regardless if what I mentioned are new or recycled, this action figure has a good enough ability to disguise them. I guess my only real complaint is some sculpted lines on her fishnets, but that may be a bit too much work for such an obscure character.
For a character that is dominantly black, Typhoid Mary has more than a few good areas that allows contrast. Obviously the white stands out and having both her flesh and the white parts of her paint and corset being two distinguishable colors that acts as a juxtapose definitely does this action figure some favors. The dark brown hair is also a nice shade that nicely frames the well painted face. Hasbro may not be doing paint details as much as we would want but for the most part, what they do is quite nice.
Articulation is also pretty standard and Typhoid Mary comes with what we would expect from Hasbro. Nothing out of the norm, good or bad. I was able to get Mary in some pretty good poses that are dynamic and fitting for a character like her (of course a lot of them came with some assistance from a stand). Still no double jointed elbows and another thing that's odd is when trying to get a vanilla pose for Typhoid Mary, it's hard to put her arms completely down. The jacket prevents the joint from getting full range of movement. Though that hardly something I can say is a major issue because I don't usually pose my action figures in vanilla poses unless I am taking full 360 shots of them. Her hair, because of the way it is posed does not hinder as much head movement as usual. And as always, I think Typhoid Mary's articulation would have highly benefited from alternate hands and obviously, an alternate face. Still wishing that Hasbro would just make that a norm.
The inclusion of another villainess is not unwelcome. The inclusion of Typhoid Mary in a Venom wave is kind of an odd choice but still, I appreciate it. While Typhoid Mary is not a character that pops into my mind to have a Marvel Legends action figure, she is certainly someone I have come across in my younger days when reading comic books. She may look a bit different than I remember, but saying I have her in plastic form is definitely neat. Sure Mary suffers from the usual debacle the current female characters faces these days in their Marvel Legends form, but with those flaws also comes the good things. One thing is certain, we don't have to worry about having a REALLY ugly female action figure from Hasbro.
Until Next Time!
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