Emma Frost is the first female villain I encountered in Marvel Comics. In the early days of New Mutants, she was the headmistress of the nearby Massachusetts Academy where the Xavier kids would have flirty mixers followed by predictable mutant battles. Emma's young team was called the Hellions and each member had a powerset that directly paralleled the Xavier kids, and I always love that simple-yet-effective story dynamic. But the funny thing was that I really didn't like Emma in this era. I didn't became a fan until Generation X in 1994. In this comic, she and Banshee were a co-headmasters of a new young team. She was no longer the one-note villain, but rather a conflicted woman trying to balance her nurturing and aggressive sides. Maybe she was always a multi-faceted character, but it was never so obvious until she was trying to be good. I was nervous we would never get a Legends figure of a dominatrix-looking character like this, but thankfully I was wrong. Let's check out Emma below!
These Pulse Exclusive boxsets have pretty intense packaging. The outer decor of the box is black with a glossy wrought iron fence design. There is a large cardboard loop circling the bottom of the box that keeps the gatefold closed.
Inside the gatefold is a portrait gallery of the Hellfire Club members.
The frames are all slightly embossed giving a great three-dimensional effect.
The main 4-person portrait is removable and is essentially just covering the action figure display beneath. But on the reverse side of the portrait is a detailed behind-the-painting graphic (staples, hanging wire, chipped paint, etc) with a real envelope secretly "taped" there. The envelope contains an invitation to join the Hellfire Club.
Inside the box is a fantastic diorama of the Hellfire Club Inner Circle chambers.
The painted details on the back of the diorama have a fantastic trompe l'oeil effect. I had to keep phyically touching the background details to prove they weren't 3-D. This shot below with the Eiffel Tower and clock on the mantle shows the illusion nicely. I'm very impressed.
This box set comes with a lot of accessories. The ones that can be utilized by the female figures are: a whip (originally used with the 2014 Black Cat), an alternate Selene head, 4 alternate black-gloved hands (note: the whip can only be held with the black hands), 2 alternate white-gloved hands, a book accessory, a Magneto helmet, and a Wolverine mask.
This figure looks so great. I especially love her cape. Unfortunately this same garment greatly limits her poseability.
But without it she looks incomplete.
One of my greatest wishes is for a full original Hellions team in the Legends line - after a complete New Mutants team of course. I love villain teams that are composed of direct parallels of the good guys.
Here are the two men from the Hellfire set, Sebastian Shaw and Donald Pierce.
Time for some Group and Comparison Pics!
Here is Emma with her 2019 Walgreens exclusive figure.
Here is Emma with the Black Queens, Jean Grey and Selene.
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment