As a kid growing up in the 1970s, I can’t overstress to you the importance of Saturday morning. While the weekdays were devoted to school and Sunday to working around the house or visiting relatives, Saturday was my day.
I would wake up before dawn and, with my Mego super heroes strewn all around me, watch the TV test pattern until it resolved into the morning block of programming. I would wade through the Flintstones, the Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Hour and Scooby Doo, impatiently waiting for “my show.” Unlike the tedious, badly-animated fare that preceded it, the Shazam!/Isis Hour was live action television. While the stories it presented were nothing like the comics, I was still hooked. Forget the Super-Friends — these were real heroes, and young Anthill couldn’t get enough.
I never forgot Isis and neither did DC, who brought the character back in its 2006 52 story-line. Her origin was tweaked a bit, but visually Isis is nearly identical to her TV counterpart of the 1970s. Oh, sure, she’s showing a little more skin these days, but when I saw her there was no doubt that this was my Isis. Of course I had to buy the figure.
Released in 2007, Isis was sculpted by Karen Palinko. Palinko no longer works for DC, which is a shame, because this is one of the most graceful, natural-looking figures I have ever owned. Now, being a married man with two children I must tread carefully here, lest I look like a real creepball: I can’t appear to gush too much over what is essentially a hunk of plastic. That said, the figure is stunning. As a deity, Isis is usually portrayed as beautiful and the figure does nothing to dispel that idea.
I’m not sure if the face sculpt was based on an actual person or art from 52, but its a perfect blend of real-life and comic aesthetic. The proportions are spot-on, perfectly complimenting the slightly-idealized features. The figure’s hair is sculpted to appear wind-blown and looks good in both neutral and action poses. Being an Egyptian goddess, Isis is rocking the requisite gold bling. Her headgear sports a red jeweled scarab while her necklace is a stylized eye of Horus.
The eye motif repeats on her belt. There’s lots of detail in these jewelry pieces, with overlapping plates and heavy edges. As you can never have too much of a good thing, Isis also sports an impressive set of banded bracers. While they might be a little ostentatious for just lounging around the Nile in, remember that this Isis often mixes it up with Earth’s super-powered beings, necessitating her jewelry provide a more armor-like function. I’m not crazy about ’em but I get it.
When it comes to kicks, Isis has us all beat. I don’t care how much you paid for your latest pair, they aren’t a patch on this gal’s footwear. The sandals are another amazing aspect of the sculpt — they’re impressively complex in design and are rendered with serious precision. The scarab motif from the headband is continued here, pulling the design together.
Isis’ paint is quite good. There is zero slop on my figure, other than what appears to be a stray thumbprint on the figures right breast. Even known trouble spots like the sandals are perfect, and these are lines that are only slightly thicker than the hair on your head. It’s amazing QC for a figure released in 2007, and would make many of DCC’s current offerings weep with jealousy.
On the articulation front, Isis had a ball-jointed head, ball shoulders, single-hinge elbows and swivel wrists. Below the waist she has the standard DCD pegged hips and single-jointed knees. While articulation at the waist and ankles would have allowed for more expressive posing, the additional movement is not really missed. Isis doesn’t really need them and the choice to omit these points only benefits this figure. Yes, a waist-cut could have been hidden, but it would have created bulk in an area that the sculpt dictates be smooth and tight. As far as the feet go, any articulation would have diminished the remarkable detail. As long as Isis can be stood in a “summoning the wind” pose I am good.
The only accessory Isis came with was a large blue base with the 52 logo on it. It doesn’t really match the figure’s aesthetic and she stands just fine on her own two feet so into storage it went. Trust me, the figure itself is all you need. DCUC never got around to tackling Isis, which is just as well. Mattel would have never been able to match the level of quality of the DCD release. Fortunately, Isis is a big gal so she looks just fine standing next to your Mattel figures.
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