As we start to close out the week post-Toy Fair, we can start dialing in on what we’ve seen, what’s coming soon, and of course, what might follow those. No better example comes to mind right now me than the Mezco “Knight” Trilogy figures.
This story actually starts off at last year’s Toy Fair. Ascending Knight Batman made his first appearance in the leadup to the show, with some cool 1939-looking promo shots. During that show, and the discussions that followed, Pierre talked about how this would be the first of Mezco’s take on three figures chronicling Batman’s career.
Obviously, this one represents a “Year One” motif. The inspiration seems to pull from all over the place, though, including the series of the same name, but with strong themes from the character’s original early appearance. There’s elements of much more recent Batmen too, like the shorter Dick Grayson gloves to the combat-style boots that instantly reminded me of Paul Pope’s Batman. I see a lot of that in his belt and weaponry as well. Hell, even the Bruce Wayne head he comes with reminds me a little of a younger Ben Affleck — other than the sharp eyebrows and hairline.
This figure was a very slow burn for me. He had the initial misfortune of being the first Batman solicited after Knightmare went on hiatus. I still liked the look, but wasn’t sure there was anything there that I didn’t already get in the movie version. Luckily, he was relieved of the that Knightmare burden, which kind of helped me judge him more evenly on his own merits- which increasingly I could see he had. By the time you lucky bastards got hands on the Toy Fair exclusive, he has gone from “pretty cool” to a must-have.
And leading up to that Fair, we had our first looks at the second figure of the series, the Sovereign Knight. This is your 1998 Micheal Jordan Batman, where he’s at the top of his form, best at his game. The costume style is another composite of modern Batmen designs, with very cinematic and “New 52” elements, with some Rocksteady Arkham series elements as well. The texturing work has a look of almost carbon fiber, and it looked more black and white than the gray it looked in the promo images. Like the large “Golden Age” style bat-cowl of Ascending, the Sovereign Knight comes with two versions of the modern cowl, including one that has the Jim Lee “Hush” style short ears that were also a part of that “New 52” look. Here again, I like the look of this figure, but I’m not yet bowled over by it — it’s tough to beat that Batfleck figure. I can tell already, though, as we get closer to completion, this will be a figure to grab before it’s gone. Seriously, these slow burns are dangerous.
So, we know where this third figure is going to fall in Batman’s career. This is going to be Mezco’s take on “Old Man Batman,” or their second take, to be more accurate.
It’s almost inevitable that there will be elements of Dark Knight Returns in this Batman, as the most famous “Elseworlds” version and one of Mez’s favorites, and this line has progressed immensely since that inaugural figure. Still, I don’t expect this to just be a do-over. With the previous two figures, it’s much more likely this version will also be a blending of several older Batmen.
As for what ones, that’s a tough call. Most of these future Batmen, like Bruce in Batman Beyond, or Kingdom Come, go for a heavily armored look. I’m hoping for maybe something a little more in-between, maybe not unlike the movie Tactical Batman. This version will definitely need an unmasked head though, which would be unlike any production Batman head we’ve ever had. And I’m not sure why, but I can almost picture this Batman with a scruffy beard poking out under the cowl- maybe just as an optional head. It’s funny, I try to draw myself a mental image of this Batman, and all I get are some small details and a bunch of blurry ones.
Of all the many things that Mezco has shown and has teased this last year, this little sub-line within One:12 has become an increasing point of interest for me. And especially the intrigue of how this trilogy ends, with a Batman who can hang out with Old man Logan, Batman Beyond and Cable … that’s gotta be pretty cool.
