DCeased Superman

Uh-oh, the Marvel heroes had better watch out! Theoretically, there is no hero better equipped to avoid a zombie plague than Superman. It spreads by blood contact? Almost no one can break his skin by biting or scratching, and if comes across anyone who can, he's almost guaranteed to be faster than them. And while the Anti-Life virus could also spread visually (ie, via digital images, which is why Batman had Barry and Wallace lock themselves away), Superman switched over to X-ray vision the nanosecond he realized what was happening. So how is this Superman a zombie? Well, spoilers: When Flash got infected (want to know how that happened? Read the comic. It's good.), he took off running, spreading death faster than the speed of sound. Superman knew it was a waste of time to try to catch up with him, so he came at him from the other direction, circling the globe to meet Flash head on. The two collided somewhere in the middle of the ocean, and Barry was obliterated. Unfortunately, the force was enough embed two of Flash's fingers in Superman's side, and so any hope the heroes had was lost. Superman, being Superman, tried to get away, to spare everyone left on Earth from his impending wrath. But Clark, being Clark, had to stop to say goodbye to those he loved. He did it via the Speed Force, so it took almost no time, then left for space to try to freeze himself before the virus took over. But "almost no time" is not the same as "no time," so it was too late. And thus, Paul Harding gets to sculpt an angry Superman head with deep scars all through the flesh. They don't line up 1:1 with the art in the comic, but it's still Zombie Superman, which is pretty cool. The DCeased figures are part of the DC Essentials line, which means they use existing bodies. Fortunately, the Superman in this line was wearing his classic costume, not the inferior "New 52" duds, so that means red trunks, yellow belt, and no armor panels on the blue sections. Ah, perfect! The belt sticks out weirdly wide compared to the torso, but his sleeves are sculpted with the appropriate angle to them, and his boots have the appropriate little notch in the front. Like all the DCeased figures, he gets different hands from the earlier release: posed for clawing, to make him look more threatening. The colors used for DCeased Superman are darker than on the regular figure, but he doesn't really have very much blood on him, and no rips in his costume - they couldn't have at least painted some wounds on the right side of his stomach, where Barry jabbed him? The lower edge of his cape is darker than the redt, but that just makes him look like he flew through a fire, not like he's a member of the undead. The shield on his chest feels slightly small, but that's a requirement of the articulation. DC Essentials figures moved pretty well, so Zombie Superman has a balljointed head, hinged neck, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, double-hinged elbows, swivel/hinge wrists, hinged chest, swivel waist, balljointed hips, swivel thighs, double-hinged knees, swivel shins, and swivel/hinge/swivel ankles. The shins probably exist so it's easier to switch boots and thus reuse the molds to make different characters, but why then bother with the swivel at the top of the ankle? That range of motion is already covered by the boot joint, so all it does now is make the foot hard to get flat sometimes. Before the DCeased figures were cancelled, Superman was going to be part of Series 1; when McFarlane Toys agreed to distribute the outstanding DC Direct product, the lineup got shuffled, slightly, putting Clark into Series 2. He's not as much of a zombie as he could have been, even with just some more paint, but it's still a cool figure to get. -- 07/06/22

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