He’s fun, flexible, and will bend over backwards to help — Plastic Man just might be the perfect superhero, in many ways. The only thing he isn’t, in McFarlane Toys‘ hands, is perfectly packaged — you’ll have to buy four figures to get all his pieces together. Fortunately, the four other figures are the type all ’90s Justice League fans will want.
Stretching the Concept
Inspired by Grant Morrison’s run on the relaunched JLA — a back-to-basics take reuniting DC’s biggest-name heroes as a team — McFarlane’s four-figure wave (five if you count build-a-Plas) includes Batman (of course), Superman (ditto), Green Lantern (John Stewart) and Aquaman (Peter David-style).
The Batman figure is perhaps the most obvious — he’s an all-black, 1989 movie-style version of the comics rendition. Though Batman often wore a two-toned costume in the comics themselves, several covers depicted him as all-black. This figure also resembles the first Toy Biz prototype for the 1989 Batman movie figures, which was initially a Kenner Super Powers figure painted black. (The production version featured an original sculpt.) McFarlane’s looks to be a Three Jokers Batman in all-black.
Superman is as ’90s as Superman gets. Fans who didn’t live through the era may wonder exactly what was up with this redesign, a radical change-up that also gave Kal-El electric powers and eventually split him in two. It was an odd moment in the character’s history, but definitely toyetic.
Before Jason Momoa, Peter David made Aquaman cool again, giving him a beard and a hook hand for a more grimdark era that did not approve of orange shirts. It didn’t last, but the long hair and beard occasionally return.
Finally, here’s John Stewart in a more classic Green Lantern costume. Expect to see that body used again a few times.
This JLA wave launches preorders starting March 13 at most of your favorite online retailers. Have your own plastic pal — the one named Visa or MasterCard — standing by.
