IF–and that is a giant if that won’t happen as long as the lucrative cow is still pumping out cash—but IF Marvel Legends were to be wrapping up, and IF I forced myself to come up with five hero-type character figures (out of thousands that I still want/need)that would make me feel better about the line ending, who would I choose?
Well therein hangs a handful of hard choices. There are so damn many, which is why I’m limiting this to just the good guys. It’s nigh-impossible to do it with villains, because we naturally get more heroes than villains as it is, so my villain want list is far larger. I don’t think I could narrow the villains down to five. I might not be able to narrow the heroes down to five. Someone’s going to get left off. Someone’s feelings are going to be hurt. Someone’s going to cry.
It might be me.
But let me see if I can keep it to five. In no order, if the line were to end, I need:
Classic Drax
Drax has had a variety of incarnations, and I’ve been a fan of them all at one point or another, from the modern incarnations to the time when he was dumb as a bag of chowder but Hulk-sized and Power-gem enhanced. But the smaller, early appearance Drax is the one I needwant the most. One of the first issues of Avengers I read featured Drax, and it’s stuck with me ever since. I want the Hulk-sized one from the 90s also, but the regular sized classic Drax is a huge hole in my collection.
Doc Samson
One of the Hasbro Dark Age releases, Doc Samson is due for a massive upgrade from that terribly articulated early figure. While he’s had a handful of nice costumes, I need the lightning on the red shirt, the blue pants and the yellow boots. I need an exact upgrade from the previous figure, but this time not having those awful, dreadful hips. I’ve got several excellent Hulk figures, so I feel the lack of a GOOD Doc Samson figure more and more.
Safari Jacket Wonder Man
I’m definitely a fan of his first appearance look, his second appearance look and plenty of his costumes before or after, but his Safari jacket look is my personal white whale. It has a pulp-era adventurer quality that any ionically powered hero would be proud to be seen in. or something. I don’t know, I just know I need him. Every time he’s made, it’s in some variation of the same thing. Toss a jacket on that sumbitch.
Slapstick
The 90s peaked in 1992 when Slapstick was created. All that other stuff with the mutants and the Jim Lee and the whatever paled in comparison to the single greatest creation of the decade. He was practically forgotten for a while, but then came back, and is…probably going to be forgotten again. But that doesn’t mean this pinnacle of superhero comic book achievement doesn’t deserve to be immortalized at last as a Marvel Legend.
Power Man
It has been a long, long time since Power Man’s ToyBiz figure. We’ve had Luke Cage figures since then, but we haven’t had a brand new yellow shirt, tiara-wearing blue pants yellow boots snazzy dressing Power Man. One with—and I don’t want anybody to faint at the idea, so brace yourself—two fists. That’s right, a left fist and a right first, with no slaphand in sight. I guess he could come with an alternate slap hand if you’re into that thing, but…two fists.
So that’s five. I realize the list is redo-heavy, but one wants what one wants, and that’s what I want. This list could change at any minute. It could change from writing to posting. I could make a separate list with never-before-made figures. But even if there are some repeat costumes of characters, the upgrade alone would make it all worth it.
But this line won’t be ending anytime soon. These all have a chance. These and so much more. Of course they’ll be 40 or 50 dollars a piece by then, but what the hell.
