Review – Marvel Universe Secret Wars #1, Captain America & Klaw

“Earth’s most powerful protectors and its strongest villains find themselves trapped ona mysterious, patchwork world and commanded to fight by the mysterious voice of the all-powerful Beyonder. While Captain America takes command of the forces of good and prepares for all-out war, the villain Klaw languishes imprisoned in the walls of the ship of mighty Galactus.”
— from the back of the card

If there’s one thing that Hasbro’s good at when it comes to action figures it has to be the 3.75-inch scale. Between Star Wars and G.I. Joe the company has produced thousands of 3.75-inch action figures so it’s no surprise that their Marvel Universe figures have come on fast and strong and now, with the latest releases, they’ve even brought the comic pack concept to the Marvel Universe line. And what better way to introduce the concept than with a (planned) series of twelve comic packs built around the epic mega-series of 1984, Secret Wars?

Packaging

The Secret Wars packaging is surprisingly very little like the single-figure Marvel Universe action figure packaging. I guess this is Hasbro’s way of clearly showing that this line isn’t directly tied to the existing series — the lack of www.furyfiles.com codes is another indication that these aren’t connected — but I have to say that the graphics on this new sub-series aren’t as attractive as the main series.

The figures are packed with the usual rubber bands and plastic casing that all finds its way immediately to the trash. Seriously, Hasbro, I wouldn’t be at all upset if you just packed the toys loose in the blister. It worked back in the eighties and I swear it would still work on me today. I don’t need my toys “posed” in the packs to make me decide whether or not to buy one. Give me neat toys, a great package, and a quality product and I’ll buy whether or not you give me an excessive amount of packing materials. But that’s a rant for another day.

Captain America

The hero in this first Secret Wars set, Captain America starts with the basic version of the figure that was released earlier this year (reviewed here and also reviewed at Articulated Discussion) and then tweaks enough details to give us a classic version Cap action figure. Everything I said in that earlier review pretty much applies to this guy with all but the following pieces identical between the two figures.

• Head – Hasbro gave Cap a new head for this pack, slightly changing the head by adding Cap’s classic head wings. In the review of this set over at ActionFigurePics there’s a minor complaint that the seams were left on the mask but those don’t really bother me. What does bother me, though, is that the paint on the face is a little messy. Not terrible, but the jagged lines are annoying.

• Gloves – This new Cap loses the pouch on each glove and gains the flair that shows these are some stylish gloves. Maybe not Michael Jackson stylish, but Cap now has his classic disco gloves in place of the more military-like design used on the earlier figure.

• Boots – Just as the gloves were changed, the boots were also replaced with more comic-styled boots (well, boots from the eighties, at least). The photo above really shows the difference in boot design between these two Captain America action figures.

Hey! The other thing placing these two figures side-by-side did was show me that my earlier Cap figure has a flawed bicep component. The figure has a left bicep on his right arm, which makes that one arm look a little strange. I don’t know how I didn’t notice this until now.

Other than a few other messy paint spots, and some ragged plastic bits at seam lines, this is a pretty good representation of the Cap of the eighties. The only thing I miss that was on the earlier Captain America action figure are the two straps on the shield that allowed Cap to wear the shield on his back; this new figure can only carry the shield on an arm which means he always has one hand full.

Klaw

I’m not clear on why Hasbro chose this villain for the first pack (Klaw doesn’t even appear in the first issue of the comic) but the figure they gave us looks quite nice. Based on a Black Costume Spider-Man body (according to this review at ActionFigurePics, which I was happy to find since I don’t have a Black Costume Spider-Man and was going insane trying to figure out which body was used), Klaw gets a new head and a new right forearm. Klaw may play a key role in the storyline (see Wikipedia) but for this first pack I would have thought Doctor Doom would have made a better choice. I guess he would have required an entirely new sculpt and mold, though, so Hasbro went with a less expensive option. I do hope we get a Doom soon.

Klaw looks great, and one thing this series has been needing are some great-looking villains so it’s a real pleasure to report that Klaw manages to avoid the largest problem that has plagued this line so far; his face doesn’t suck. You see, most of the ugly figures in this series have been those without a masked face, so seeing Klaw with a great representation of his comic face makes me hopeful that the days of ugly mugs are over for this series. If only they could have solved this problem before releasing Nick Fury (review here). No matter. Klaw’s face looks good and I’m thankful for that.

And not only does Klaw’s face look good but he’s also got a nice paint app, with most of the figure cast in red and a darker red wash applied to bring out the sculpted muscle detail. The face is cleanly painted, with the details fairly neat, and the jagged purple design on the costume almost flawless (a black spec or two on mine look like the brush went a little wild at the wrong time). He may not be museum-worthy, but this guy is one of the nicer paint jobs I’ve seen in this line and he looks excellent on display.

Since he’s based on the Black Costume Spider-Man action figure Klaw has plenty of articulation, with ball-jointed head and hips, hinged elbows and knees, the crunch ab joint, ball and hinge shoulders and feet, twisty wrists, and a twist at the bicep. See this review at Articulated Discussion for a close look at the Black Costume Spider-Man which will give you a better understanding of Klaw’s articulation.

Closing Thoughts

I originally bought this pack for two reasons; to grab a classic-style Captain America and to get an idea of what Hasbro had planned for this sub-series. You know what? I actually find this pack neat enough that I’ve gone from thinking I would avoid any more Secret Wars packs to deciding that I may grab one or two more depending on the characters in the packs. A Kang, for example, would be a must-buy Secret Wars pack.

A pretty good deal (better than buying a single release in this series), a packed in comic book (even if it’s a questionable story), a great-looking villain and a decent classic Captain America makes this a good deal for Marvel Universe fans. You absolutely don’t need this set, but if you don’t have a Captain America yet you may want to grab this instead of the single-carded release. And Klaw is such an obscure villain that I don’t expect him to ever be available again.

Philip Reed remembers reading these comics back in the dark ages known as the 1980s. After reading the issue that was included with this pack he’s amazed that he even read superhero comics back then. Was every superhero issue so forced and packed with so much lame dialogue?