Sunday, May 6, 2012

DC Infinite Crisis Wonder Woman

Presenting Wonder Woman from DC Infinite Crisis Toy Series 2. We originally mentioned this particular Wonder Woman when we featured Wonder Woman from the DC Direct Wonder Woman Toy Series 1 where I took a swipe at how bad this particular figure is.

Rather than just leave it at that, I thought I'd take the time to actually show the figure so that it could never be said that I wasn't fair.

Infinite Crisis Wonder Woman was sculpted by veteran toy-sculptor Sam Greenwell - known for his work in DC Direct, Marvel Select, Blizzard, and Diamond Select - and is based upon the artwork of Comic-book artist Phil Jimenez - who's best known for his portrayal of muscular yet feminine superheroines - think Xena, but taller versus Xena's stocky appearance - including Power Girl, Marvel Girl and of course, Wonder Woman as you can see in the image on the right.

What's to like about DC Infinite Crisis Wonder Woman? 



This is the Wonder Woman from when DC's Holy Trinity (Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman) were out to kill each other for political differences. Batman had just created the OMACs, Wonder Woman had reverted to being a stone cold killer and Superman was still being an idealistic boy-scout.

This Wonder Woman has one of the best facial sculpts that I've seen for a Wonder Woman. We've talked about the face for example of the  Wonder Woman from the DC Direct Wonder Woman Toy Series 1 which looked more like Olivia Wilde than a woman from the Mediterranean, this particular action figure has a more Greek goddess face that's truer to women from that melting pot between Asia, Europe and Africa.

Even if her face tends to be quite dour. There's also a nod to the Queen of Fables story-line of the Justice League of America (JLA # 47) as penciled by Bernard Chang (?) that compared Wonder Woman to Snow white with skin white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony.



What's NOT to like about DC Infinite Crisis Wonder Woman? 


Let's start with her sculpt. I honestly do not believe that Sam Greenwell did any justice to the work of Phil Jimenez. Wonder Woman's body does not have the muscle tone that Jimenez is known for. If anything she looks.... chubby. This is disappointing considering that John G. Matthews was able to copy the muscular sexiness of Power Girl from the same series. 

There is some tone in her arms, but it's not much and not very visible. 

Also, Have you noticed the SD card that's standing between her legs? That's the only way I could prop her to stand. She does have a peg-hole and the figure did come with an Infinite Crisis branded stand, but because she's so top heavy and one leg is longer than the other, no matter how you peg and pose her (that looks good), she will tip over. This particular Wonder Woman tipped over so many times that the peg broke and it is still embedded in her foot. People have suggested that the cape can serve as a support, and it does. But it still tips over. 

Next up is the design. Here's the original artwork that led to the development of the Infinite Crisis Wonder Woman next to the Sam Greenwell version:


Let's note how Phil Jimenez is not shy about giving his heroines overfllowing breasts. Sam Greenwell took that away. Next up is the sword. Why is Wonder Woman armed with a short rapier? I kinda got the impression she was using a broadsword in the comic-book.

Then there's the cape. We're not talking about the discrepancy between the color of the capes because Jimenez eventually went with the blue-white and red-trimmed cape versus the red and gold. If you were to look at the cape closely, you'd notice that it's hand-painted and hand-painted poorly.


She actually stands better with one leg behind her as it shifts the weight to the back:

And of course this is DC Direct so it hardly moves:

DC Infinite Crisis Wonder Woman is available on Amazon for as low as US$ 21.49 and as high as US$ 39.95 or (PhP 925 to PhP 1,720). I wouldn't pay that for this unless you just kept the figure in its packaging and never bothered opening it because it really doesn't display well.


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