Patriot was a pretty cool character and needs to find his way back into the comics. And his toys could use an update to boot. I’m gonna dig into Patriot’s character and the figure, so expect a certain amount of rambling.
Patriot made his first appearance in Young Avengers #1 back in 2005. He is the grandson of Isaiah Bradley, the first Captain America, as depicted in the retconned Truth: Red, White and Black. This is the story about the U.S. Army experimenting with the Super Soldier Serum, and one of their successful tests was on an African American — Isaiah. Spinning out of that, decades later Eli is born, powerless, and grows up with aspirations to be a hero. Taking MGH (mutant growth hormone), Eli gets some powers and becomes Patriot. Later he gets permanent powers when he gets a blood transfusion from his grandpa. These days, he’s retired in Arizona.
He’s a great character with some serious retconned Marvel history, and it would be great to see him reactivated. With Sam Wilson Captain America roaming around, Team Cap could use some more help. Well, that is until Marvel reboots everything later this year.
I like this figure. It is a good figure. It has some minor issues but it is a solid figure. Let’s get the bad out of the way: no fists, huge-ass feet, small head, shield broke out of the box, and some would argue 45-degree pinned hips. As mentioned before, I like these hips, others don’t, debate. The head is a bit small compared to current Hasbro Marvel Legends. If I compare it to Miles Morales Spidey, it’s just a tad off. And there is no excuse for this figure not having fists, the articulated fingers are great, but they don’t make a fist. And the shield armband breaking just sucks, I’ll have to figure out a fix for that, but you can see I am using sticky tack.
There are a ton of great details on this figure: the actual sculpting is top-notch, the belt, the clothes wrinkles, the overall shape of the figure — it is a good solid Marvel Legend from the ToyBiz days.
The articulation is also excellent, with a ton of range of motion in this figure, and if I had to point out one flaw, it’s that the ab-crunch has loosened over time. Otherwise this figure is packed with a ton of movements.
Patriot comes with a base and a shield. The shield, as mentioned, broke during attaching it to the arm. Too bad, really, since I really like this kite shield; it’s got a great shape and pops on the figure. The base is pretty standard and like the others in the box set, it does its bit. The figures can stand on it and it does have a sticker image of them. I’d a preferred something more sculpted, like a Young Avengers logo.
I like this figure. I think he’s in serious need of an update or redo to fix the aforementioned issues, but I like this figure. It’s a great character and the sculpt still holds up well. But he’s not an A-List character and certainly not relevant in comics today, maybe again in the future. For now, you can skip this character, unless you like the character, want to complete your Captain America-themed Marvel Legends, or just want a complete set of the Young Avengers. You can still pick him up here:
