Jean is my unexpected favourite of Wave 2. She looked rather dull and restrictive in the initial promo images but she's just a joy to pose, her faces turned out with a really great print, and her waist balljoint gets an incredible range of movement.
I have an embarrassing admission to make: I'm watching the new cartoon (took me a few weeks to have the time to binge the first four episodes) and I realized... all my VHS-style X-men are STILL IN THE BOX. I never hesitate to unbox things, but I must've gotten overwhelmed when they shipped, cos I was like: I own Morph. I KNOW I own Morph. Why can't I find him? STILL IN THE BOX. So anyway, mini little X-Mas morning for me realizing I've got like, seven X-Men to unbox tomorrow after work.
FWIW: I was meh on the cartoon returning, but so far, I love that they've leaned in so hard on X-Men as allegory AND how much X-Men has always been over the top soap opera storytelling. It's kinda perfect. (Someone deserves an award for animating the fight in Ep. 3.)
I had that happen recently, too - I put a bunch of figures back in the nearest PFP boxes and then forgot. It was like a surprise Christmas morning when Bruce Banner was inside - THAT'S where I put him! Oh yeah - and I have a Bruce Banner now.
Target and this wave is very weird - they've made the landing pages for Wave 2 unreachable even with a direct link. Before that, I was able to find Jean and Jean Doe available for shipping exactly one time, separately. Ordered both and they both arrived. But aside from that one weekend where people were finding these in Targets (including me), there's been zero sign of this wave at Target. Do we think a flood is going to hit soon? The debut came and went, April 1st came and went, Target Circle debuted today and nothing - where are these?
@schizm I've seen very sparse refreshes for this wave, mostly just Magneto and X-Cutioner. I don't know how they're shipped. The first wave seemed to get a couple of refreshes so I don't think this one is done yet, but it's definitely been more popular.
I saw a Nightcrawler at GameStop early on. I saw X-Cutioner and Magneto yesterday at GameStop, the latter of which I picked up for my comic display. I've often seen Jean and Madeline at GameStop, usually they're the only ones I see. I've NEVER seen a Cyclops at retail, and I haven't seen these at Target at all yet, not since wave one.
I got Nightcrawler from Pulse. They still had some in stock there from the wave but I don't know what's left. He's very good. I did a head and tail swap with the older figure, and now he's like, damn near perfect. The new joints are so much better then the older ones.
Last I checked, the whole second wave was still available to purchase. I wonder when wave three will be shown.
Wolverine, Goblin Queen, and Rogue are pretty much gone at most places already (I cant find any in stock for SRP at least). Cyclops and Storm are soon to follow I think.
I haven't really seen these hit at my Targets yet though, so maybe there's still a bunch floating around in their distribution system?
I'm equally perplexed by the seemingly random choice of Madeline Pryor. In the show, it just came out of no where. Is there some kind of origin to it in the comics? Both Goblin Queen and Madeline Pryor just seem very random.
They summarized it so much in the show that it made almost no sense. In the comics Jean Grey died in issue #139, and Cyclops left the X-Men following her death. While he was away from the team in issue #168 he met someone who looked identical to Jean Grey as shown below (click to see a much larger image):
Madelyne and Scott hook up, they have Nate Summers in issue #201, and she exists in the storyline without her origins being known all the way up until issue #240. By that point Jean Grey had returned, she and Cyclops were semi-together again in X-Factor, Nate went missing because Sinister stole him, and Madelyne is both pissed at Scott and looking for Nate, and she gets bitter and somehow turns to demons to help her find Nate. I had started reading X-Men in middle school around issue #160 so I read most of these issues as they released, but I missed most issues in the low 200s so I don't really know how she got so into demons. Maybe Magik somehow hooked her up with them? I have no idea.
In issue #240 Sinister reveals to Madelyne that he created her as a Jean Grey clone. As someone else noted Chris Claremont had slowly been building up to a Dante's Inferno-type story with a pissed-off Madelyne Pryor eventually using her associations with demons to become Goblin Queen with a vendetta against Scott for abandoning her and their child.
This wasn't Claremont's original intent for Pryor, so it's a ret-con by him since he did write all of those issues--although I think someone else forced him to come up with a way to bring Jean back for X-Factor, so turning Madelyne into Goblin Queen was part of his plan to establish them both as very different characters. To summarize almost 100 issues of slow build in one episode is clearly a challenge, and really you don't get much out of it aside from allusions to those stories from the comics.
IIRC - Madeline was originally just meant to be a way to have Scott permanently leave the X-Men forever with a consolation prize of someone who looked almost identical to Jean (who was dead at the time) and he wouldn't ever be coming back
Once Jean returned/X-Factor came about that's when they had to create the whole clone origin for her
I came across what I'm assuming was a fresh case at Walmart on the way home from work yesterday. They're definitely still trickling in in the northern Los Angeles area at least. Interesting that Walmart seems to be getting the full assortment where Target seems to be only getting certain figures at a time.
I came across what I'm assuming was a fresh case at Walmart on the way home from work yesterday. They're definitely still trickling in in the northern Los Angeles area at least. Interesting that Walmart seems to be getting the full assortment where Target seems to be only getting certain figures at a time.
This is similar to what I saw a couple days ago at a Wal mart. At least they finally restocked this brand.
@left-field Yeah, it is a really nice thing to see. Especially since more and more waves seem to be going away from brick and mortar shelves.
I came across what I'm assuming was a fresh case at Walmart on the way home from work yesterday. They're definitely still trickling in in the northern Los Angeles area at least. Interesting that Walmart seems to be getting the full assortment where Target seems to be only getting certain figures at a time.
What Walmart is this? That has new product and Bruce and Widow in the boxes? All the Walmarts I've been to in the area lately look more barren than usual, like they're getting ready for inventory/a reset/a downsize!
@schizm That Walmart is in Porter Ranch off the 118 fwy. Oh yeah, I didn't even look closely at those MCU figures, but they were definitely just put out as well (along with a some new TVC Star Wars stuff).
Okay - one of these days I'm driving up to Porter Ranch to visit a Walmart with good stock AND the AMC where Nicole Kidman strolls. 🙂
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