They might be called the “Masters of Mind” on the box, but everyone knows that Vance Astro and Darkhawk are now officially Marvel Legends!
Sure, Darkhawk has been a regular on Marvel Legends Top Ten vote lists since the ToyBiz days, so while his inclusion now might come as more of a relief than anything, including Vance Astro (or Major Victory, if you will) is one of those nice surprises the line has been delivering as of late.
VANCE ASTRO
I mean, Vance Astro should not be THAT big of a surprise seeing as how this is a Guardians of the Galaxy Infinite wave, and he is only just a founding member of that team, but still, Hasbro could have gone in a lot of directions with this figure. This assortment is loaded with a lot of new movie figures, all of which take up a lot of new tooling, so really, Vance was a perfect inclusion seeing as how he is a blank slate with only a new head in terms of original parts. Who would have thought that, just a few years ago, Guardians of the Galaxy would be a mega-blockbuster film and we would be going deep into the roster in Legends, but here we are. Is there anywhere else you want to be?
DARKHAWK
As I said, collectors have been demanding this character for Marvel Legends for YEARS now, so even though I am not overly infatuated with the character, I am certainly glad he is a part of this assortment. This costume is more a bit more modern than my preferred early ’90s version, but it is sharp and looks great for an action figure. Sure, I would have liked the original look (listen to me demand a 1990s comic book look), but I have no complaints with the choice here. I generally associate Darkhawk with Spider-Man and the Avengers, but Guardians of the Galaxy works, too. The wings are actually very well done, and while you cannot remove them (it seems like it was announced originally that they would come off, but I might be making that up), they don’t really restrict movement or posing options.
I have a feeling these two figures will be the ones flying a bit under the radar in this assortment (hence, why they are shared as the “Masters of Mind”), but as a primary comic-based Legends collector, I am quite pleased to have them. I don’t expect them to be as popular as Star-Lord or Yondu, but these are viable characters with a long history in the Marvel Universe, so add them to the collection; they will make it all the more interesting.