If you were a super hero in the 1990’s you had to keep close eye on your wardrobe. Turning your back for even a moment put you at risk of having your entire persona jacked right out from under you. Look at Wonder Woman. One minute she was squeezin’ her butt into her familiar star-spangled panties, the next she was covering it with yesterday’s newspaper. Overnight, Amazonion outcast Artemis became the new Wonder Woman: she had none of her predecessor’s patience, grace or nobility, instead being aggressive, impulsive and prone to violent outbursts. In short, she was DC’s attempt at exploiting that inescapable ’90s trend, the bad girl.
I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the character but I really do like the action figure, if that makes any sense. Separated from her confusing back-story and succession of ugly costumes, I can appreciate the merits of the “alternate” Wonder Woman. Her crazy hairdo, winged sandals and exotic weaponry really set her apart from her cousin and provide her with enough identity to stand on her own.
A quick note: Artemis does not come with the axe or the spear you will see her posed with. I needed a few action shots and that crappy bow of hers was not gonna cut it.
Sculpt-wise, Artemis is series four Wonder Woman with a new head. boots and quiver. The face has a lot of personality: this isn’t just Diane with red hair, this is clearly meant to be an entirely different person. She’s actually prettier than Diana, whose blase’ expression and fullness of face really undermine what should have been a knockout figure. Features like a narrower jaw and upturned nose help set Artie apart — I’m glad Matty chose to go with a separate sculpt instead of just switching out the hair on the same head. As differences go these are minor, but distinctions are important to a figure’s overall appearance when it shares it’s entire body sculpt with another character.
As far as articulation goes, Artemis features the standard DCUC setup: a ball-jointed head & shoulders, an upper arm swivel, a single hinge at the elbow and pegged wrists . She has a “T” style abcrunch with a pegged waist, hinged hips, singled jointed knees and feet. Unfortunately, she didn’t receive any additional artic in the arms, making posing her with the bow difficult. The molded-on arrows don’t help much, either.
Paint is hit or miss here. As you can see, the white lines on her boots are more than a little uneven. If I had to guess I’d say this is a result of the little wings on the back of the boots making the figure difficult to hold for whatever poor factory worker was tasked with the job. I know I’d probably get a little sloppy after bashing out a couple hundred of these, so it’s hard to take too much issue with it. At least the stars on her drawers are nice and crisp. The skintone is fairly consistent, which is obviously important when you’re showing as much of it as Artie is. Areas like the breastplate appear under-painted, but getting good coverage from gold paint is always tricky. There’s a bit of red overspray along her bodice-top and some of the panty-blue migrated to the flesh of the legs. The eyes are a bit messy, but it’s not all that noticeable in person.
True to her comic-book roots, Artemis comes equipped with a bow, as well as the (non-removable) Lasso of Truth. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her use a spear as well, but I guess it didn’t cost out. Artemis stole hers from the Young Justice Sportsmaster figure — hey, he’s got a freakin’ baseball bat. What does he need a spear for?
All in all, Artemis is another solid entry in the DC Universe Classics collection. She’s different enough to be noticed, but not so much that she looks out of place. Her headsculpt boarders on the stylized but her kooky hairdo helps offset that. The winged sandals on her feet are a really nice touch and shows that Matty really could bring their “A” game when they felt like it. I know she was tough for some folks to find, but if you can get her for a reasonable price she’s well worth adding to the collection. This time, you can bet on red.
Jason R Mink is the Man in the Anthill
