There's been several interesting entries in cloth-customed SPIDER-MAN ORIGINS

Tag : Elastic Glove
There's been several interesting entries in the 9",cloth-customed SPIDER-MAN ORIGINS line, characters that don't quitefit into Spider- Man's universe, and yet are still popular enoughcharacters on their own to warrant being included in the series.This review will take a look at the character backgrounds andfigures of three of them.

WOLVERINE: Is it odd that Wolverine should turn up as an actionfigure in a line whose official name is "Spider-Man OriginsSignature Series"? From a conceptual standpoint, yes. Up untilboth characters ended up in the New Avengers for a time, Wolverinehadn't really had all that much to do with Spider-Man. And then oneof the first things he did was make a pass at Spider-Man's wife,Mary Jane Watson. Granted Wolvie has always had a thing forredheads.

From a marketing standpoint, Hasbro was introducing a new line of9" cloth-costumed action figures, a format that hadn't beenseen in the world of super-heroes for quite a few years, andWolverine's popularity is certainly legendary. It'd be prettydanged silly NOT to include him.

There are some characters in the world of comics (and elsewhere),where one feels sort of silly repeating their origins. Anyone who'seven interested in the character is going to have some idea oftheir origin. Wolverine, on the other hand, is another matter.

Comics-wise, Wolverine was first introduced in a two-issuestoryline in the pages of The Incredible Hulk, where the characterfaced off against the Green Goliath as he invaded Canada,Wolverine's home turf. Not long after, Wolverine was brought intothe initial revamp of the Uncanny X- Men, and has, to one degree oranother, remained with the team ever since.

Certain things were known about Wolverine. He was a mutant,possessed of a healing factor that allowed him to rapidly heal fromalmost any injury. He had heightened senses, especially his senseof smell, and could readily scent out almost anyone he was on thetrail of. He had an unbreakable adamantium skeleton, and adamantiumclaws, three on each hand, that emerged at will and could slicethough just about anything. He also had a nasty temper and atendency to fly into a murderous rage.

Some things were speculated. It was suspected that Wolverine wasfar older than he appeared. An aspect of his healing factor waslikely that it had considerable slowed his aging process. He hadreceived his adamantium skeleton as the result of an experiment bya covert agency operating in Canada, his mutant healing factorbeing the one thing that had allowed him to survive the process. Hehad likely worked, before and after the experiment, in a number ofhighly covert pseudo-military projects. But even Wolverine himselfdidn't know his entire past. Repeated procedures had robbed him ofmuch of his memories, and others had been implanted. He gave hisonly name as "Logan", and didn't seem to recall muchelse. He had clearly had experiences in Japan during his life, andwas knowledgable in the ways of the ninja and the samurai.

One of the greatest shockers came at a point when Magneto literallyliquefied Wolverine's adamantium skeleton and pulled it out of himthrough his pores. It was suspected that this would have cost himhis claws. And yet some time later, they emerged -- as bone!Although Wolverine later regained his adamantium skeleton, he hadalways believed that his claws were strictly metal, and had neverbeen a natural part of him.

After over a quarter-century of confusion, hints, clues, retcons,speculations, and detours, the truth was finally published. Asix-issue mini-series, entitled simply "Origin", revealedWolverine's past for the first time:

The series, set in 19th century Alberta, Canada, also as suchgiving a clue to Wolverine's true age, depicts Wolverine as JamesHowlett, the son of John and Elizabeth Howlett. In contrast to thequickly healing Wolverine, James is a sickly youth who requiresround-the-clock care. His parents hire a young girl named Rose towatch over James and keep his spirits up.

On the rare days that James is allowed to go outside he and Rosespend their time playing with a young boy they know as"Dog" Logan, the son of Thomas Logan, groundskeeper ofthe Howlett Mansion. Thomas and Dog live together in a small shackon the poor side of town. Thomas is an abusive alcoholic and ishighly resentful of the Howletts, particularly John Howlett. Atfirst his resentment seems rooted in the fact that he and his sonhave nothing while John Howlett has everything, but it is laterrevealed that he has been carrying on a secret affair with the ladyof the house since before James was born.

After Dog commits such heinous acts as trying to force himself onRose and killing James's pet dog, John Howlett fires Thomas and hashim thrown off the property. This only adds to Thomas' hatred and,in a drunken rage, he and his son break into the Howlett Mansion atnight armed with shotguns. Thomas finds Elizabeth in her bedroomand tries to convince her to run away with him when they are bothconfronted by John Howlett who gets into a fistfight with Thomas.

Awakened by the noise, James enters the bedroom just in time to seeThomas shoot and kill John. Enraged and horrified at seeing hisfather murdered, James extends his claws for the first time. Hekills Thomas, slashes Dog across the face, and passes out. Rose,blinded by fear and not thinking straight, takes James and runs offinto the night. The police are summoned to the mansion and theyquestion Dog, who blames the killing entirely on Rose.

With Rose blamed for the death of the Howletts and James exiled byhis bitter grandfather, the two friends set out for parts unknown.They join a mining colony in British Columbia where James (who haslost all memory of his parents, his childhood, and his name, due tohis trauma) adopts the name "Logan" and struggles underthe harsh working conditions of the mining colony. As his mutantabilities develop, James becomes strong, acquiring the nickname"Wolverine" from his fellow miners. During his time atthe mining colony, James speaks less and less of the past to Rose,often immersing himself in hunting and the physically demandingwork of daily life in the colony.

Unbeknownst to James and Rose, Dog has tracked them to BritishColumbia. On his deathbed, James's grandfather had a change ofheart and asked Dog to find his grandson so that he can see him onelast time. However, Dog is still nursing a deep grudge againstJames for killing his father as well as scarring his face andagainst Rose for spurning his advances. Following their trail, Dogfinds Rose and James at the mining colony and attempts to beat himto death in front of a large crowd. Just as James prepares toextend his claws and kill Dog, Rose is accidentally knocked intothe fray by the crowd. Impaling herself, she dies in James' arms.Driven mad with grief, James becomes feral, living in the woodswith wolves.

After an unrevealed amount of time, Logan returns to civilizationand works as a soldier in the Canadian military during World War I.After the war, he embarks on a series of adventures leading himaround the world. He sees action during World War II, participatingin D-Day and the liberation of the Netherlands.

In another story, the serialized "Weapon X", BarryWindsor-Smith creates the backstory for the man who would becomeWolverine. Taking place prior to his first appearance, Logan isrevealed to be a drifter who was discharged from the army forwounding another soldier on a firing range. Unaware of his past andsuffering from long-term memory loss, Logan goes to a bar where heis drugged and taken to the Weapon X facility in Canada, run by themysterious "Professor" and Dr. Abraham Cornelius, alongwith a secretary, Carol Hines. Wolverine is shaved, and the pairrealize he is regrowing his hair at an accelerated rate, and theirdrugs wear off too fast due to his healing factor. After the grouptranquilizes him further, they begin to transform Logan into WeaponX, reinforcing his skeleton with adamantium, brainwashing him intoa killing machine and giving him false memories. The Professoreventually discovers that Logan is a mutant, a fact that was notdisclosed to him by his superior, whose identity is never revealed.Shortly thereafter, Wolverine escapes the facility, killing nearlyeveryone except for the Professor, Cornelius, Hines, and MalcolmColcord, a soldier. He flees into the wild, where he encountersCanadian government employees James and Heather Hudson, who enrollLogan in Department H. This would eventually lead to his fight withthe Hulk, and his subsequently being contacted by Professor X, andjoining the X-Men.

Along the way, throughout his early adventures, he would meet andwork with Captain America, Ben Grimm, Richard and Mary Parker, theparents of Spider-Man (so I guess there is a connection), as wellas Sabretooth, who would ultimately become his deadliest enemy.

Although all of this was presented in the comic books, it remainedunknown to Wolverine until the "House of M" storyline.One consequence of that event was that Wolverine regained all ofhis memories. All of them. That realization was shown in one comicbook as causing secret agencies all over the world to destroyrecords, entire complexes to be burned to the ground, and more thana few agents to commit suicide rather than face the consequences ofWolverine with total recall of his past. The storyline"Origins and Endings" showcases Wolverine tracking downhis past to settle old scores.

Despite his gruff demeanor and somewhat feral appearance, Wolverineis actually highly intelligent and highly skilled, and honestlydoesn't enjoy killing, or slipping into the berserker rages thatcause him to run wild. Wolverine is a master of virtually all formsof martial arts and fighting, both armed and unarmed; as a samurai,he is especially skilled in the use of the katana. Wolverine hasalso received vast training as a ninja thanks to his mentor Ogunand and trained for 5 years with Bando Suboro at the ninja villiagein Jasmine Falls. He can also use nearly all types of weapons,traditional or modern, long or close range. Wolverine is anextraordinary hand to hand combatant with sufficient skills todefeat the likes of Shang-Chi and Captain America in single combat.He also has a wide knowledge of the body and pressure points. He isalso an accomplished pilot and highly skilled in the field ofespionage and covert operations.

Due to his increased lifespan, he has traveled the world andamassed an intimate knowledge of foreign languages and cultures. Heis fluent in English, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Cheyenne,Spanish, and Lakota; he also has some knowledge of French, Thai,Vietnamese, and German.

When X-Men ally Forge monitors Wolverine's vitals during a DangerRoom training session, he calls Logan's physical and mental state"equivalent of an Olympic-level gymnast performing a goldmedal routine while simultaneously beating four chess computers inhis head."

Logan adheres to a firm code of personal honor and morality,despite often displaying a rebellious and irreverent attitude, muchto the frequent annoyance of more straight-laced X-Men such asCyclops and Professor Xavier.

I'm not even going to try to list all of the Wolverine actionfigures that have come about over the thirty-plus years of thecharacter's existence. The first was a Marvel Secret Wars figurefrom Mattel, but there have been plenty since.

Of course, Toy Biz made Wolverine as part of their Famous Coversline, but comparisons here should be more limited than in the casesof some other heroes, because to a fair degree, Hasbro's Wolverineis wearing a different costume.

The two Famous Covers versions of Wolverine featured Wolvie's twobest- known costumes, his original blue-and-yellow, and theorange-and-brown costume developed for him by John Byrne, who moreor less made the comment, "Since when are yellow and bluecolors for a wolverine?" Obviously he's not familiar with theUniversity of Michigan. However, both costumes are well-knownWolverine costumes.

Toy Biz designed the figures to have removable plastic masks. Thismade sense from one standpoint, in that Wolverine's unmasked faceis just as well-known as his masked face. The strange, upswepthair, the furry sideburns, and the bushy eyebrows are just as mucha hallmark of the character as the mask with its dark, upsweptsides. However, translating a removable "helmet" with itsown distinctive features down to a 9" action figure level andenabling it to fit over a molded plastic head, with rigid hair thatcertainly has its own distinctive features, is not easy. No realfault on Toy Biz's part, but the fit is not all that great.

Hasbro, conversely, designed their 9" Wolverine with his maskmolded as part of his head. While as such we don't get the treat ofWolverine's unmasked face, given that the figure is otherwise infull costume, this was certainly the right course of action totake.

Wolverine's costume is his most recent one. Like most of the X-Men,Wolverine has been through quite a few costume designs, especiallyin recent years. At one point, Marvel seemed to be trying to basethe X-Men costumes on somewhat more super-heroic-looking versionsof what they wore in the movies. Unfortunately in Wolvie's case,somebody thought it would be a good idea for him to wear an openjacket with his hairy chest hanging out. Come on, already, some ofus may be trying to read and eat at the same time!

Fortunately, the comics got past this, and returned most of theX-Men, including Wolverine, to more appropriate costumes, andWolverine's current garb is a good one. It is an updated version ofhis classic yellow-and-blue outfit. That costume had yellow shirtand legs, blue trunks, and black sharp-pointed striped along thesides. The new uniform is mostly yellow, with blue running from theshoulders to a point just above the knees along the sides, withyellow pointed stripes along the sides in the blue area, and at theshoulders. Wolverine's belt, mask and gloves are black, and hisboots are blue with black trim. It's worth noting that Wolverine'sglove and boot tops are distinctly sculpted just for this figure,as they have additional detail sculpted into them. Wolverine's faceis am appropriate scowl.

Wolverine, like the other Hasbro 9" Marvel figures, is sewninto his costume. It's not a practice I especially approve of, butI can't deny that it makes the figure look good, not having aproportionately too large strip of velcro protruding from the back.Just hope I don't ever have to do any repair work on the figures.

Certainly one of the trickiest things to accomplish with aWolverine figure is the claws. They can't be made from too rigid aplastic or they might live up to their reputation a little toowell. Unfortunately, this has resulted in very soft claws in a widerange of Wolverine figures over the years -- Famous Covers, MarvelLegends, and just plain run of the mill X-Men figures -- that havesort of flopped all over the place.

Hasbro, I honestly believe, has created the best Wolverine clawsI've yet seen on an action figure. They're fairly rigid, but I haveto assume they met safety standards or the figure wouldn't've beenreleased. They're evenly spaced, slightly curved as they should be,and of a good length.

Any downsides to this figure? Hardly. About the only very vaguevisual remark I might make is that Wolverine almost looks too"typically superhero". In the comics, Wolverine is arather short and fairly stocky guy. He's muscular, and he'spowerful, but he's also a bit stocky. This figure, using the samebody molds as everyone else Hasbro has produced in this series, isalmost -- ALMOST -- too thin. But not really. The shoulder padsjutting out help compensate for this, and honestly, he doesn't lookbad at all.

Really, I think Hasbro has done an outstanding job with thisWolverine figure, and any fan of the X-Men in general or Wolverinespecifically will enjoy having him.

CAPTAIN AMERICA:

Although in recent times he was responsible for the recruitment ofSpider-Man into the Avengers, prior to the Civil War, and he has,on occasion, teamed up with the Web-Slinger and stated on variousoccasions that he had the utmost respect for Spider-Man and hiscapabilities, and has clearly never believed the bad press leviedagainst the Wall-Crawler, Captain America hasn't exactly been allthat frequent a presence in Spider-Man's world.

Not that this is a complaint with regard to getting a new figure ofhim. Certainly Cap is one of the major players in the MarvelUniverse, and is actually one of very few characters active in theMarvel Universe that pre-dates the Marvel Universe.

Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, he first appeared in TimelyComics' Captain America Comics #1, dated March 1941. Timely was theprecursor to Marvel Comics.

Steve Rogers was a scrawny 4-F, unfit for military service in thedays of World War II, but determined to somehow serve his country.He became the subject of a dangerous experiment called"Operation Rebirth", which involved the development of aso-called "Super-Soldier Serum" that, if effective, couldtransform even the most hapless weakling into a fighting man in topphysical form. Rogers would be the subject of this experiment.

The experiment worked, and Rogers was transformed to a man in peakcondition. But before the Serum could be widely manufactured, itscreator, who had kept the details of the formula secret in his ownmind, was gunned down by a Nazi spy. There would be nosuper-soldiers. There would be only one man -- Steve Rogers.

President Roosevelt determined that the country needed a patrioticsymbol to rally around, and so helped devise the Captain Americaidentity for Rogers, including a circular, perfectly balancedshield that was made of an indestructable alloy. Much like Rogershimself, the development of the special material was a one-timedeal and could not be duplicated.

Rogers also received intense training in all forms of hand-to-handcombat, including a wide range of martial arts and acrobatics, andhas extensive training and experience in tactics in battle.

Rogers would continue to fight the Nazis over the course of WorldWar II, either on his own or with a team of super-humans known asthe Invaders, which featured British hero Union Jack, Namor theSub-Mariner, the original Human Torch, and others. He would alsogain a sidekick named Bucky. James Buchanan "Bucky"Barnes was essentially a camp mascot where Steve Rogers was postedin his non-Cap identity as a bumbling Army private. When Barnesstumbled across Rogers' secret identity on one occasion, Captrained the young man in the same forms of unarmed combat that hehimself had learned, and gave the lad a costumed identity.

In 1945, during the closing days of World War II, Captain Americaand Bucky tried to stop Baron Zemo from destroying an experimentaldrone plane. Zemo launched the plane with an armed explosive on it,with Rogers and Barnes in hot pursuit. They reached the plane justbefore it took off, but when Bucky tried to defuse the bomb, itexploded in mid-air. The young man was believed killed, and Rogerswas hurled into the freezing waters of the North Atlantic. Neitherbody was found, and both were presumed dead.

In 1964, when Marvel started to publish their new "team"title, The Avengers, it was decided to bring Captain America back.He was discovered in a primitive form of cryogenic suspension,frozen in a block of ice. He was safely thawed out, and joined themodern world to the best of his ability. He has served fairlyregularly with the Avengers ever since, and maintained his ownadventures over the decades in his own title.

Captain America is arguably best presented as an unwavering, heroicicon of the American ideal, and until recently, served this roleeffectively and with distinction. However, in more recent issues ofthe comic book, the writers chose to take Captain America in adifferent direction, weaving more socio-political commentary intothe title, and making Cap more of a soldier than a super-hero,giving the character a harder edge, and taking away much of theidealism that made the hero what he was.

In the course of the Civil War, Cap was one of the focal points,resisting the idea of government registration of super-heroes, andgathering a small army of like-minded super-heroes to his side tofight the pro-registration forces. In the final issue of the book,when Cap realized that the ongoing battle was causing more damageto civilians and their homes and property than resolving the issue,he surrendered to authorities. Following his surrender, SteveRogers was indicted on multiple criminal charges. As he was broughtto a federal courthouse, a sniper shot him in the back. In thecrowd chaos that ensued, he was wounded an additional three timesby gunshots to the stomach and chest. Rogers was taken to ahospital, where he died. The assassination was orchestrated by theRed Skull, his longtime foe from the days of World War II.

This was, in my opinion, a sad ending for one of the finestsuper-heroes ever created, who had been horribly misused in recentyears. Marvel Entertainment Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada hascommented that a Captain America comeback is not impossible,although it would not be Steve Rogers wearing the mask. Thecharacter's death came as a blow to co-creator Joe Simon, who said,"It's a hell of a time for him to go. We really need himnow." The comic book series continues.

Personally, I don't think Captain America has a very positivefuture ahead of him in light of these developments. If it's notSteve Rogers under the mask, it's not Captain America. Grantedalso, nothing is forever in comic books. Heck, they even broughtBucky back after 60 years.

There have certainly been a wide range of Captain America figuresover the years. The last 9" cloth costumed one was from ToyBiz's Famous Covers line. And a comparison between that one and thenew Hasbro one is not only almost unavoidable, it's fairlyinteresting, as well.

In the 1990's, super-heroes in many comics took on ratherexaggerated bodily proportions. "Massively muscular"seemed to be the order of the day, and to a fair degree, Toy Bizduplicated this in their line. The Famous Covers Cap seems almostcartoonish compared to his newer Hasbro counterpart. The upper bodyis implausibly wide, if nothing else. But there's more to it thanthat.

One thing that Toy Biz did with these figures which I always foundannoying as heck was that many of them were sculpted with thesewide- open "screaming" mouths. Cap, unfortunately, was noexception to this. It just doesn't look very good. Worse than that,though, is the star on the uniform. Cap's costume is undeniablypatriotic without precisely ripping off the American flag. Thecostume is mostly blue, with a single white star on the chest andback. There is a band of red and white stripes around the stomachand lower back, and the lower sleeves are also white. Cap has redgloves and boots, small white "wings" on his mask, andthe letter "A" on the front of his mask.

The star on the Toy Biz Famous Covers figure is downrightludicrous. It is this massive, five-pointed white blotch that is sohuge and used such a massive load of what I assume was ratherthick, white textile ink, that I distinctly recall having troublefinding one at the time where the star didn't have some significantcrack in the dried ink! It really looks like a caricature of thefigure. Additionally, the red and white stripe section is a littlesmall, and the stripes too narrow and numerous.

Here we reach something of a point of contention. How many stripesshould cap have on his uniform? It's never been establishedofficially, and has depended considerable on the artist. But in myopinion, the Toy Biz Cap takes this to excess almost as much as thestar.

Now let's consider the Hasbro figure. This Captain America has amuch more reasonable facial expression. If anything, it almost goestoo far in the other direction from the Toy Biz extreme. The faceis almost bland. But at least his mouth is closed. If the Toy BizCap has one advantage over the Hasbro Cap when it comes to theheadsculpt, it's in the eyes. There's a fierce determination in thefigure's eyes that just somehow isn't quite there in the Hasbroone, and I almost think it has to do with the placement of themask's sculpted and painted eye holes. On the Toy Biz figure,they're upswept somewhat. On the Hasbro figure, they tend to comedown under the eyes more. The Toy Biz Cap's eyes are also a palerblue.

However, on the whole, I have to give the advantage to the HasbroCap figure. The facial expression is far less exaggerated, morereasonable, and the "A" is more neatly done, as well.

Then we have the star on the uniform. Hasbro, thankfully, knowswhat a star is supposed to look like. Both the front and the backof the uniform have a very nice, evenly rendered, proper,five-pointed star. No exaggeration here. No huge blotch of white.Just a nice, properly designed star. The uniform is sewn up theback, but not in a single vertical right up the middle of the back.This would have damaged the star on the back. Instead, there aretwo seams along the back of the shoulders. While I am not fond ofthe fact that Hasbro sews these figures into their costumes, makingthem unremoveable in case repair is needed, at least they're doinga really nice job of it when it comes to accommodating anyornamentation on the back of the costume.

Cap has plastic gloves and boots that secure the costume at thearms and legs, and a plastic belt. And, of course, he has hisshield. And if it weren't for the fact that the Toy Biz CaptainAmerica's shield has two elastic straps on the back of it and theHasbro Captain America's shield has a large plastic clip, I'dalmost think they came from the same mold. The two shields arealmost precisely the same diameter, and even the stripes look to bethe same width. The only real difference, other than how the shieldattaches to the figure, is that the star on the Hasbro Cap's shieldis very slightly smaller. I also gave the shield a gentle toss. Itflies well, but I wouldn't recommend doing this in a room offragile breakables. Cap might be able to fight the Red Skull, butyou're on your own if you break your grandmother's favorite vase.

The Hasbro Captain America also has a far less exaggerated physiquethan his Toy Biz counterpart. Although the body molds used forthese Hasbro figures was originally created for a DC-based linethat came out around the same time as Famous Covers, that DC linewas largely based on classic DC characters that were drawn beforeeveryone in comics turned into steroid cases for a while. And thatera, to a fair degree, has passed, thankfully. So a more agreeablyproportioned Captain America looks entirely appropriate.

On the whole, I am very impressed with this Captain America figure.He looks good, is well-made and well-articulated, and is certainlysuperior in almost all respects to his Toy Biz predecessor. It's ashame what's been done with the character in the comic books, butthat's nothing to fault the action figure for, and if you're anysort of Captain America fan, you'll like this figure.

DAREDEVIL:

Daredevil is one of those characters that sort of straddles thefence as far as fitting into Spidey's universe is concerned. He hasa lot in common with Spider-Man. Like Spidey, he tends to be a more"street- level" hero who tries to stay out of the morecosmic-level affairs of some of the more powerful heroes andvillains -- and he's generally been more successful at it. He'salso, like Spider-Man, pretty much a loner. Daredevil has neverbeen much of a team player if he can help it.

Daredevil is one of those characters that -- well, you sort of hateto consign him to the B-list, since he's been around for over fortyyears, but it's hard to envision him as one of the A-list players.One doesn't really tend to think of Daredevil in the same breath asSpider-Man, Captain America, the X-Men, or the Fantastic Four.

Maybe if his movie had done better...

Daredevil is Matt Murdock. Matt was the son of "Battlin'Jack" Murdock, a champion prize-fighter who by the time Mattwas a young man, was well past his prime. Jack Murdock didn't wanthis son to grow up to be a dumb pug like he was, good for nothingbut sparring in the ring and eventually getting used for a used-uppunching bag. He insisted that Matt study every chance he got, andmake something better of himself than a boxer. Matt complied,somewhat reluctantly, although his devotion to his studies earnedhim the derisive nickname "Daredevil" among his peers inthe tough neighborhood in which he lived.

One afternoon, Matt saw an elderly blind man crossing a street infront of a large truck that had lost control. Without hesitating,Matt shoved the elderly man out of the way. The truck careened andmissed them both, but not before its cargo, a dangerous radioactivesubstance, was loosened. Directly exposed to it, Matt Murdock waspermanently blinded.

He continued his studies, learning Braille, and going on tograduate and then on to study law. But the substance that hadrobbed Murdock of his sight had given him some interestingcompensators. All of his remaining senses were heightened tosuper-human levels. He could hear a person's heartbeat with suchprecision that he could tell if they were lying about something. Hecould taste the number of grains of salt on a pretzel. He couldpick out a single person's perfume or cologne in a crowded room.

And, he had gained a "radar-sense", an ability to detectthe contours and shapes of everything around him, and how far awaythey were from him.

He also learned that, apart from all of this, while he had neverbeen encouraged to build up his body as he had his mind, he wasn'tin bad shape, and had a punch almost as powerful as his father's.Seeing no reason not to keep in decent condition as long as itdidn't interfere with his studies, Murdock embarked on a physicaltraining program that soon had him in top form.

It was right about this time that his father made a grim deal witha corrupt boxing promoter known as "The Fixer". Murdockwould be paid for his fights, but also directed as to theiroutcome. One time, when he knew his son Matt was in the audience,Jack Murdock was directed to take a fall. He ultimately reneged onthe deal, refusing to disgrace himself in front of his son. He laidout his opponent and won the fight -- but lost his life when TheFixer had him killed.

A grieving Matt Murdock swore revenge, and designed a costume forhimself. He took the mocking nickname that he had been given inschool, "Daredevil", and used it as his new identity,chasing down The Fixer and his cronies.

Over time, Daredevil continued to improve as a crime-fighter. Hedeveloped a perfectly-balanced billy club to use as his soleweapon. He became an expert acrobat, able to bounce acrossbuildings almost as well as Spider-Man. And while he never quitegarnered the same level of accolades as the Avengers, he became arespected and noteworthy crimefighter in New York City, even as his"secret identity", Matt Murdock, went on to become onehalf of Nelson and Murdock, a legal firm with a sterlingreputation, founded with longtime school-friend Franklin"Foggy" Nelson.

Daredevil's adventures in the comics over the years have beenconsiderable. Among his most ardent enemies have been the Kingpin,and the assassin Bullseye. The Daredevil comic gave artist FrankMiller his first major break in the business. He has had a romancewith the ninja assassin Elektra. And despite a visage and a namethat some might consider questionable (I do sort of wonder why hewas left off the recent Marvel Comics based set of United StatesPostage Stamps -- along with Thor -- given a few of the names thatmade it), he remains a well- regarded hero in the Marvel Universe.

As with a number of these 9" cloth-costumed figures thatHasbro is making, there's a Toy Biz Famous Covers counterpart tocompare it with. And frankly, in this case, it's little contest.The Toy Biz version comes across pretty poorly in most respects.

For starters, the Toy Biz version has that annoying, wide-open,"screaming" mouth. I would dearly love to know somedaywhat Toy Biz's rationale for this was. It looked ridiculous oneverybody they did it to, and they did it to a lot of characters.

Secondly, the Toy Biz Famous Covers Daredevil has these mitten-likegloves. At least one of them has a separate thumb, for the handthat isn't clenched in a fist, I'll give it that much. And I sortof like the faux-leather glossy red finish they gave the gloves.But it still doesn't look all that great. And then there's thesegreat big plastic boots. It looks like he's prepared for an arctichike in these things.

But the one, major, glaring goof on the Toy Biz Famous CoversDaredevil, that was pointed out at the time it was first made, isthat Toy Biz messed up the uniform's insignia. Daredevil's logo isa double "D", two letter "D"s, interlinked. Theone further to the left is higher than the one to the right. ToyBiz got it backwards, so that the "D" to the left islower than the one to the right. All the way through whateverstages leading up to mass production that this figure went through,and nobody caught something THAT obvious.

The Hasbro Daredevil figure is vastly superior in a number ofrespects. For one thing, he's a bit more muscular. Toy Biz hadseveral "male" body molds that they tended to use intheir Famous Covers line, most of them somewhat exaggerated to onedegree or another (such was the style of the times), but forwhatever reason, they chose the skinniest one for their Daredevilfigure. I'm not saying DD is a powerhouse, but he's not that thin.The Hasbro body is also somewhat better proportioned in the chestand shoulders. If I have one minor complaint about the Hasbro bodyin general, it's that the lower legs tend to look a little shortand skinny compared to the rest of the body.

The fabric, although almost precisely the same color red as theFamous Covers version -- something I consider rather unusual givenhow hard it is to match colors sometimes -- seems to be generallysmoother and perhaps of a higher quality.

The gloves and boots, typical for the Hasbro figures of this line,are molded to the arms and legs and help secure the fabric uniformin these areas. Additionally, the hands and "boot feet"are molded in the proper color, articulated, and attached to thefigures arms and legs directly. Such is the case here.

The "horns" on DD's mask are also a little morepronounced. Don't read too much into this. "Daredevil" isjust a name, and the costume reflects that. It's one of those"inspire fear in the criminal element" bits. There'snever been anything to indicate that Murdock has any connectionwith anything satanic.

And, certainly of note, Hasbro got the logo on the chest right.

The one area where the Toy Biz figure comes out a little bit aheadis with regard to the billy club, and its holster. The Toy Bizbilly club is a two-piece unit, just like Daredevil's, and it canbe assembled into a single length, as well as separated into itstwo pieces, and actually stored in the holster attached toDaredevil's left leg. By comparison, the Hasbro Daredevil's billyclub is just a single piece, and the holster on the side ofDaredevil's leg is strictly decorative. However, given the overallsuperiority of the Hasbro figure compared to its Toy Bizcounterpart, I consider this a decidedly minor point. And, giventhe articulated fingers of the Hasbro Daredevil figure, he hasabsolutely no difficulty gripping the billy club firmly andeffectively.

On the whole, Daredevil may seem like a slightly odd addition tothis line. He's not really as major a player in the Marvel Universeas some characters. And yet, the flip side of that coin is thisthat one can imply by the name of the like -- Spider-Man Origins --that it is at least supposed to feature characters that have atleast some connection to Spider-Man's universe. And Daredevil hasturned up there from time to time, more often than some moreprominent Marvel characters that one might expect to see as actionfigures sooner in a general Marvel line. It's worth mentioning herethat this 9" figure line has recently (as of this writing)undergone a name change to "Marvel Legends SignatureSeries", at least for one entry, a Cyclops figure exclusive toTarget. Where the line goes from there is anybody's guess, but thatname change does open up the possibilities.

Still, Daredevil is a reasonably prominent part of the MarvelUniverse, and this is certainly a very agreeable 9"cloth-costumed action figure of him, and superior in almost allregards to his Famous Covers predecessor (which is a decent enoughfigure and I don't want anyone to think I'm outright slamming it onprinciple). Although this 9" Spider-Man Origins SignatureSeries seems to be out of most stores at this point, it shouldstill be possible to turn it up, even on the secondary market, andany of these figures -- Wolverine, Captain America, or Daredevil,are certainly worthy entries in the line, and all have my definiterecommendation!