Pulp Arcana Studios: Born Again

Marvel Legends Daredevil: Born Again

When Marvel television decided they were going to do a Daredevil show, I was mildly excited. Matt Murdock, crusading lawyer by day and costumed vigilante by night, was always a character I enjoyed in comics, and one that I felt would make a fantastic transition to live-action.

With both the original series, and the recent Born Again series, Marvel delivered two things I was not expecting. One, an absolute master class in acting and tension between Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin; and two, some of the most brutal fight scenes filmed for a series. The combination gave the character and world of Daredevil gravitas and power, and I highly recommend watching the show, even if you aren’t a comics fan.

The original Marvel Legends television version of Daredevil is incredibly hard to come by at anything less that insane prices. So when I saw it announced that Hasbro would be doing a figure for Born Again, it caught my attention. Having recently taken a look at the CT Toys Daredevii figure for a comic style version of the character, let’s see what Marvel Legends and the MCU are bringing to the table.

A PULP ARCANA FIGURE FIELD REPORT Mission Brief:

Artifact Identified:

Daredevil: Born Again

Marvel Legends

Hasbro

OUT OF THE CRATE:

Marvel Legends brands their boxes with the iconography of the specific wave the figure is from. For this Born Again Daredevil, the standard Marvel Legends box has the logo from the series across the bottom alongside the Marvel Television imprint. The dark red with the black city skyline looks great against the black of the box.

The figure itself is visible in a clear window and there is an image of Daredevil from the show on both the side and the back.

The packaging is nothing special, but it doesn’t need to be. It is clean and effective, and allows you to see exactly what you are getting with this figure.

THE DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS:

Once in hand, the first thing that immediately catches the eye is just how good the face sculpt is on this figure. I have been watching Daredevil: Born Again while I have been posing the figure and the likeness to Charlie Cox is uncanny. This feels like a serious step up for Marvel Legends in terms of their portrait work. I am definitely excited to see what comes after this.

I’m a big fan of the design of the suit for Born Again Daredevil and this figure captures it really well. Instead of the vibrant red of the comic suit, we get a deep maroon, broken up by black accents. Gritty and striking at the same time. the costume also has a bit of texture that adds to the overall aesthetic.

Accessory-wise, our boy Matt here comes with two gripping hands, one right fist, and one expressive open left hand. I would always love to see more hands, but this combination works great. His customary billy clubs have a great design and good paint applications, and fit perfectly into a holster on his left thigh. I do wish that the clubs combined into the short staff we see him use in the series, but alas, we miss out on that. Instead we get a black length of curved cord to simulate the rope and grapple in the batons. This is a great addition and really looks good when posed. It is not actual cord however, rather a static plastic accessory, so the curved shape that you see is what you get. It can be bent a bit for some poses but it is absolutely not a wired piece where you can bend and shape as you please.

MOBILITY AND MANEUVERS:

Daredevil is an extremely acrobatic character, and as such, you want the articulation to reflect that grace and flexibility. What we get here is really good for articulation, but falls short of greatness.

Let’s start with the good. The arms are excellent. The double-jointed pinless elbows give a deep bend and the shoulder joints can raise the arms into a full T-pose. While we don’t have true butterfly joints at the shoulder blades, there is a little piece in the socket that gives a bit of extra movement. Likewise, the legs are great as well. Full bend at the double-jointed knees and a wide range of motion at the hips gives great posing opportunities.

Where things get a little more limited is in the ab crunch. Daredevil has a fairly limited forward crunch. This is likely to preserve the aesthetic of the suit at the abdomen, but I did find it just a little bit limiting. I found myself not quite getting the more extreme poses I was looking for. Honestly, not a huge knock against the figure by any means, but a limitation.

A pleasant surprise though is the head joint. The movement on the head and neck, combined with that great portrait gave me poses that had a lot of emotion. While the figure may not have Spider-Man like flexibility, it absolutely can nail those trademark Matt Murdock brooding and grieving moments.

I have to add that I’ve had this figure on my desk for about a week now as I have slow-rolled my way through the Daredevil: Born Again show, and I can’t seem to put it down. There is just something about the combination of the solid feeling of the figure, the smoothness of the joints, and the texture of the costume that combine to make this figure a nice little piece of hand-candy. Pausing moments in the show to see if the figure can recreate them has been a blast, and to its credit, it has managed this really well.

RECOVERED EVIDENCE:

FINAL RECKONING:

Marvel Legends for me have become a great comfort line for me. Almost all the figures I have gotten (almost. I’m looking at you X-Men 97 Jean Grey) have been really solid. Born Again Daredevil is that and more. While the articulation is not quite where I would like it to be, the look and the feel of the figure make up for it. The more I have this figure in hand, the more I like it. I have a feeling that even after my binge watch through the show is done, this figure may not leave my desk.

RELIC RATING: 4 (maybe 4.5) out of 5

Born Again Daredevil looks great and feels even better. Perfect for fans of the show, but also for anyone looking for a great figure to play with.

Filed by Mark Gelineau of Pulp Arcana Studios for Fanboy Planet