Talk about a new and short lived character! Obscure and very odd choice but at least the new Marvel Legends of Poison is Venom/symbiote related. This action figure I can appreciate. With all that said, let's check out Poison and see how his introduction to the action figure world is handled.
Venomverse is a story that mimics the idea of Spiderverse (duh). Alternate worlds where different Marvel characters gain the Venom symbiote. And just like Spiderverse, there are god-like beings who are using Symbiote characters for their own purpose. Poison was once Peter Parker in his Black Symbiote outfit. The what if storyline of Spider-Man never separated from the (in)famous symbiote that would we know as Venom is what this particular Spider-Man represented. Long story short: there are beings called Poisons who use Venomized characters from Marvel from alternate universes as a means to bolster their army. The reason for this, I am not entirely sure since I didn't read the story. I'm not sure how long the Peter Parker Poison lasted but I have a feeling that Carnage was the one that mutilated him.... or something.
The funniest thing is that Hasbro's bio for this "Poison" is about another Poison from another alternate What If universe where the events of "The Other" took a different route. Not going to go through that in detail, but yeah, definitely not the Poison they are describing here.
Need I ramble on just how disappointing this is?
The design of the Poisons is to contrast the idea of how Venom and any other Symbiote related characters are in terms of design. Symbiote related characters are usually messy looking and have their symbiote counterpart writhe unnaturally all over their body. The Poisons usually look 'cleaner'. Their designs pay homage to the particular Marvel character they infected but still distorting them to the Poisonized design. Since Spider-Man in the black symbiote was dominantly black with a white emblem, Poison flipped that color scheme, making him dominantly white with a black logo. Also, Poison Spidey looks more armored and sharp rather than slick and skin tight. The logo also has this tendril like look rather than it being flat to the body. Poison's face is hard to describe but it's definitely different from the original look of Spider-Man.
I think Hasbro did an excellent job on putting VenomVerse Poison in plastic form. The body mold they used seems to be a new mold. It has unique sculpt in it that I don't recognize, which really fits for Poison. The fact that they created a new body mold for this character is kind of shocking since he is obscure and short lived (and then we get long standing and popular characters like Psylocke who get recycled body and hardly any sculpting). I'm not complaining since this might be a gateway for other characters, but it just really makes me think about Hasbro's priority with these characters. Regardless, it is well done and the emblem having that unique look is something I would say is pretty nifty.
I had to dim some of my lights because Poison's color didn't react tot the white background half the time. But the color, though not a lot of variations, is actually pretty good. It's ivory or pearl white which really does a great job making sure the black 'living' logo stands out. Also, the sculpted line work have some silver highlights here and there; for an action figure lacking some color variations, this one looks pretty good, honestly.
Articulation is pretty good and this new body delivers on what we can expect from a Marvel Legends. The new logo doesn't hinder any of the ab crunch and the sculpted pieces does very little to deter the arms' range of movement. Poison's lower half is also easy to work with and I was able to get some good poses with him; neutral, dynamic, spider-y, and all of that. But without any kind of alternate hands or faces, I was limited. It was expected when the accessories the figure comes with is the BAF piece. Over all, I had a pretty easy time working with the articulation and posing Poison around wasn't at all a chore. And even if his 'living logo' got in the way, it gave some dynamic look where it counted.
Obscure and short lived, Poison is not someone I would expect to have a Marvel Legend action figure so soon. Though I think Hasbro is trying to pull out characters that are obscure both in the past and present. I think overall, they're doing a great job. I just think that the lack of accessories will always be the downfall for most of these characters. Still, they did an amazing job with Poison and I do hope that other characters will get as much attention.
Until Next Time!
Commentaires