Silver Age Martian Manhunter
DC Comics released their solicitation copy for their January 2010 comics and merchandise yesterday. And along with the Blackest Night tie-ins and the replica Batman utility belt were the solicits for the next four action figures in DC Direct’s "History of the DC Universe" line: Silver Age Captain Atom, Silver Age Martian Manhunter, Superman as Nightwing and Kobra.
What's wrong with these choices? Nothing, unless you want the characters in the line based on History of the DC Universe to actually appear in History of the DC Universe.
For the unitiated, DC Direct's "History of the DC Universe" line is "inspired" by the art of George Perez as presented in History of the DC Universe, a sort of epilogue to Perez's and Marv Wolfman's Crisis on Infinite Earths that served as a historical roadmap to the new, combined Earth (what we call New Earth today).
"Inspired" in the paragraph above is in quotation marks because of the four figures being released, only the Silver Age Captain Atom actually appears as advertised in History of the DC Universe. The Martian Manhunter does appear several times in the second volume, but he has the more traditional design with the heavy brow that most of us came to love in the 1980s. The design we get here looks suspiciously like Mike Sekowsky’s version that appeared in earlier issues of Justice League of America. It would make much more sense as a part of DC Direct’s “First Appearances” line, but J’onn is instead represented in the black leather fetish outfit he wore just before his death.
Superman-as-Nightwing and Kobra do not appear in either volume at all.
Superman as "Nightwing"
A Kryptonian calling himself Nightwing is appearing in the Superman titles, and Kobra currently has a miniseries co-named for him, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Of course, we shouldn't be surprised. In the last wave of "History of the DC Universe" action figures (wave 3), neither Ocean Master nor the green-skinned version of Brainiac appeared in History of the DC Universe.
These aren't bad figures; they definitely appear to be of the high standards DC Direct usually has. But wouldn’t it make sense for figures that appear in a line based on a comic book to actually appear in the comic book that the line is based on?
The inclusion of Superman-as-Nightwing just boggles the mind. Nightwing was a second secret identity Superman adopted to fight crime in the Kryptonian bottle city of Kandor. He appearead as Nightwing a handful of times in Superman titles of the 60s and 70s. But by the time of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Kandorian identity hadn't been used by anybody in years, and Dick Grayson had adopted the name and a new costume, designed by Perez himself. Between Crisis on Infinite Earths, History of the DC Universe, Teen Titans, Justice League of America, Brave and the Bold and everything else he's done, Perez has practically made it his personal mission to draw every character in the DC Universe. So this begs the question: why give us a Superman variant that, from everything I can tell, Perez has never drawn?
Kobra
Therefore, at the bottom of this article you’ll find a slideshow of characters who should be in upcoming "History of the DC Universe” waves of action figures, should the line continue. None of the characters have had standard six-inch figures sculpted of them (some do have Minimates), and all of them appear at least one time in History of the DC Universe.
The list could have easily doubled, and these are just my personal preferences. No doubt that, as you flip through the pages of History of the DC Universe, you’ll see characters you had forgotten—or some you’ve never heard of—that would make excellent toys for either collectors or children.
The "History of the DC Universe" line should be a showcase for characters who have less chance to become figures in other lines. And originally, that’s how DC Direct operated: they sculpted figures from across DC’s wide mythos. Now, after having reclaimed the rights to create Superman and Batman figures, it feels like every wave of every line has some new interpretations of the World's Finest. There will be over a dozen Batman and Superman figures released by the end of 2009 alone, with another three or four already on tap for 2010.
So, instead of getting action figures of some amazing and overlooked characters, those are being passed over for consideration so we can get a guy in a black bodysuit.
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