Hulk

Did you know even She-Hulk has a "Me Too" moment? A group of SHIELD agents forced her to strip and be medically examined "to prove she wasn't a threat" like Hulk was, but were actually recording it for their own entertainment. Dum-Dum Dugan put a stop to their antics, and She-Hulk crushed the tape when she discovered it, but still, it's no wonder she'd be mad! Jennifer Walters struggles to control her anger, and keep the powerful Hulk at bay. Yes, this figure is technically the Hulk, not She-Hulk. During Civil War II (the one nobody read or cared about), Jen was severely injured by Thanos in the same attack that saw War Machine get briefly killed, and ended up in a coma; while she was out, Hawkeye shot her cousin Bruce in the head before he could Hulk out and hurt everybody; so when she woke up and found out her friend and her family had both died while she was unable to help, she felt scared and frustrated and most of all, angry. So angry, that when she got stressed, she turned into a rampaging Gray She-Hulk, something she'd done in the past (then a result of cross-dimensional compression and a gamma-irradiated hot spring) - and just like Bruce when he was grey, she was way less intelligent and way more furious. And boy, does this toy deliver! Her face is not at all restrained, displaying the full bore of her anger right there for everyone to see. Some figures can get by with that sort of neutral expression that doesn't really say anything and isn't at all memorable (quick, there's been a comic-based Steve Rogers Marvel Legend - without peeking, what does it look like?), but a Hulk should never be one of them. You'd think She-Hulk would be a prime opportunity for some cheesesteak, but she seldom is. Savage She-Hulk was just barely bigger than a usual woman and John Byrne's version was tall but willowy, but the "Hulk" version of her is both highly muscular and undeniably feminine. This toy is based more on the art of John Tyler Christopher (the guy who does all those fun action figure variant covers) than any of the interior art, which varied pretty widely over the book's few issues from "Left 4 Dead witch" to "massive ogress." Since she wasn't living as She-Hulk at the time, Jen's clothes were constantly getting ripped when she'd Hulk out, so the toy is sculpted with ripped blue jeans and a white shirt. The shirt is a separate piece attached to the chest, to give a better feeling of depth (no, you can't take it off, you perverts - at least, not to see a complete torso underneath). The figure stands more than 7⅛" tall, and moves at the ankles, knees,thighs, chest, wrists, elbows, biceps, shoulders, neck, and head. Usually we'd say since the elbows are swivel/hinge combos there isn't realy a need for the biceps to swivel as well, but that part of the elbow is so stiff you might miss it entirely. Or, well, overlook it - since the biceps move, you won't really miss it at all. One of the features of this Hulk is that, when she grew, cracks would appear in her skin, as though it, too, were splitting under the stress. They looked like green slashes, as though she'd been fighting Wolverine and that was her blood. The fact that the neon green lines make her look permanently wounded fits perfectly with the PTSD she was experiencing at the time, giving physical form to injuries we can't usually see. Hasbro may be planning a green She-Hulk in the future, because the slashes are simply painted on, not sculpted. Hulk includes an extra pair of clutching hands, but more importantly, she's also got the right arms of this series' Super-Skrull Build-A-Figure: one plain, one stretchy and invisible. Even if the set-up that got us to Grey She-Hulk was dumb, the Hulk comic that resulted from it was an interesting look at mental trauma in the superhero world, with Jen obsessively watching wholesome baking videos on her phone to try to keep her mind centered, or blowing off group therapy sessions because she doesn't think "civilians" can understand her problems. Meanwhile, she's constantly fighting enemies who reflect her own life. Plus one issue is about her going on a Tinder date. The series was a little rough around the edges, but was a decent new take on the character. And it's gotten us this cool figure, which is a success in its own right. -- 03/30/20

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