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Of all the Captain Marvel Legends, how is it the one character we were most looking forward to is the one who has nothing to do with her?
Dr. Paul Duval discovers his ability
to turn his body to stone and becomes the transmuting mercenary, Grey Gargoyle!
It's not so much that he "discovered" the ability as is it that he "accidentally spilled something on himself." Ma homme has a master's degree in chemistry, but doesn't know you should wear gloves around the lab? There really is no such thing as a "normal" Marvel Universe scientist. The effect is limited to his right hand, which Medusa-fies anyone he touches, turning them to stone for about an hour; when he uses the power on himself, he also turns to stone, but somehow remains animate. Sure, that makes sense. He started out as a Thor enemy, so being strong and durable served him well there. He's been shuffled to Iron Man and the Avengers in general, but has only ever fought Carol Danvers in passing.
The figure mostly uses the medium body, but gets new hands and feet: they're clawed, because when Jack Kirby designed the character, he was really trying to lean on the "gargoyle" imagery (with the cape even serving as wings). A lot of artists will often forget those, and simply draw him with normal blue, striped boots, so if Hasbro had given him the usual feet, it probably would have been okay; instead, they went to all the trouble of sculpting individual toes for him. The hips on my figure are slightly wobbly, as though they're not sitting securely within the body.
His face has a great expression, a big sinister grin that really suits him as a villain. Perhaps the silliest thing about his design is that, despite being a six-foot chunk of living concrete, he still feels the need to wear a little domino mask to conceal his identity. A mask, trunks, boots and gloves, and a cape - that's all he wears. The rest of him is just (stone) skin.
Since he doesn't wear a shirt, Grey Gargoyle's cape requires loops to go around his arms, and the sculptor has remembered to
include them. Looking at it, though, you'll notice that much like this series' Captain Marvel, he's molded from semi-translucent plastic. At least, the cape, head, and torso are. Why is that, exactly? His light gray stone has darker speckles on it, so it's possible they were a mix-in, just like Genis-Vell's "stars," but the arms and legs are solid, and they have the speckling too; if it could be painted on there, why would it have to be embedded on the trunk? Making the outer space body translucent works, because it's like we're looking into it - stone is not exactly known for letting light pass through.
Grey Gargoyle has no accessories, because he doesn't use any.
The only thing we could think of they might have given him would be a partially fossilized head you could give to Thor or Iron Man? But it's been a while since they've released either of those guys, so there wouldn't be any guarantee buyers would have them. Oh well. He does get the head of the Kree Sentry Build-A-Figure, so that's something.
The only other action figure Grey Gargoyle has had came from ToyBiz back in the '90s. But he's a classic all-around villain who's cause problems for lots of different heroes, so getting a modern take on him is quite welcome.
-- 03/05/19
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