We’ve taken care of two bad guys in this special week-long all-villain edition of Legendary Focus. The first two were world threats that can take on entire teams and win. We’re setting our sights a little lower this time around with a perennial henchman-type who’s got the hots for a certain winged heroine.
There’s a very special subgroup of villains called the Masters of Evil. The lineup changes, the leader changes, the goals change, but just like the Avengers, once you’re a Master of Evil, you’re always a Master of Evil. Whirlwind has been part of several iterations of the MoE, most notably serving under Ultron and Egghead.
Neither of whom have had figures yet.
While we have yet to get a complete version of any of the Masters of Evil, we have more than enough members from various versions to put together a completely respectable team to fight our Avengers. But I can’t really consider any version truly complete unless Whirlwind is present. There’s just something so evocative about his look. Plus the fact that he’s a mutant while not really getting caught up in the extraordinarily incestuous mutant politics means he’s a bit unique. An evil mutant that’s never been a part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants? He’s like a pink elephant or something.
In addition to the Masters of Evil, Whirlwind has spent time on previous Legendary Focus… focus… subject’s Count Nefaria’s Lethal Legion along with Power Man (not Luke Cage, the other one) and the Living Laser (who also needs a figure).
Whirlwind managed to get a 5-inch figure back in the ’90s and a 4-inch figure in the Marvel Universe line, but he has never managed the full Legends treatment. With his oversized helmet and color scheme, he’s an extremely toyetic and lovable character, so he would make a fantastic-looking Legends/Infinite figure. If he’s made, the only real choice would be getting made in the same costume as his other figures: the green and silver with the big smiley-face helmet and the odd antennae jutting out. While he’s gone for the shirtless look before that one, the silver accents the green well and looks snazzy. He’s had a handful of modern upgrades, but they can be made in a few dozen years from now after they make his classic costume. This one has personality out the wazoo. Or the yazoo. Tons of personality either way.
Due to the oddities of his costume, there would have to be some brand-new tooling involved, but the best part is that the new tooling that Whirlwind would require to really make his figure dynamic would be useful for plenty of other characters. We have yet to have a new pair of scaled limbs that could be useful for many other characters — including a classic Black Knight, for instance — so the creation of those legs would see some instant reuse if they wanted to trot out new Goblins, Black Knights, or who knows what other characters. I could make a list, but I won’t. Best of all, the Buckycap boot cuffs are already in place, so all he needs is some swanky overlays for his top half — including that unique helmet of his — like the recent Bulldozer got, and then we could have a very nice Whirlwind.
It seems like most of the villains I’m covering this week are Avengers villains, but you know the cliché: strike while the iron’s hot. It’s the best time ever to be getting all of those mid-level Avengers bad guys out of the way due to the constant deluge of Avengers-related lines. When Ant-Man gets a toy line to himself, you know the world is in a weird place.
I’ve said it before, and I’m going to say it again: we’ve managed to squeak out a full Wrecking Crew, Tiger Shark, and Blizzard. Whirlwind plays in the same stadium as those guys, so let’s give him a shot. Obligatory “blow us away” joke… here!