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Magneto forms The Brotherhood of Mutants to combat anti-mutant sentiment, but the organization turns into a family matter when he recruits his twin super-powered children, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch to help him carry out his terrorizing agenda.
One, Magneto didn't know they were his kids when he recruited them (he thought he was just saving a couple mutants in trouble),
and two, they're not his kids anymore anyway. They're also not mutants anymore, either. So, first origin: Pietro and Wanda are gypsy mutants. Second origin: they're the offspring of Miss America (who died) and the Whizzer (who ran away) and were just given to the Maximoffs to raise. Third origin: human woman gave birth to them but, scared of her husband finding out about them, wandered off, and the midwife tried to pass them off as the twins of Miss America (who died) and the Whizzer (who ran away), and when that didn't work, gave the babies to the Maximoffs to raise. Fourth origin: the husband the human woman was scared of was Magneto. Fifth origin: we'll save that for later. Read on!
Quicksilver was one of the first Marvel Legends Hasbro made, and it was decent for its time, using an existing sculpt with plenty of articulation. But this one is better, using an existing sculpt with plenty of articulation. What can we say? Sculpting and molding has improved over the years.
However, that doesn't mean everything is perfect. The head is a new sculpt, with Pietro's silver hair swept backwards like he's riding on a motorbike in the strongest wind. Or running. Possibly running. It's a nice sculpt, with the brow knitted just enough to suggest his perpetual state of annoyance with the world, but it's too big for the body. Just slightly, but enough to make it feel subconsciously "off."
Quicksilver is wearing his longest-running costume (no pun intended), the blue one with black trunks, a white lightning bolt on the chest and waist, and white gloves and boots. He started wearing this one after joining the Avengers - before that, his suit was green. technically the neckline should come down lower, exposing skin on his throat and upper chest, but this way was probably cheaper for paint apps. The figure comes with your choice of fists or flat "running" hands, and the fact that this mold has pec hinges makes his speedy poses look better.
Hasbro has a pretty great scam running right now. They'll release a "modern" interpretation of a character (eg Cable, Colossus), then a classic version later down the line.
And not a long time later, either, just long enough that they haven't announced the cool version by the time the newer look is on shelves. Anyway, here's Magneto.
Using the same body as the "All-New, All Different" Magneto figure, this one is mostly differentiated by paint - red and purple, with bands painted around the forearms and shins. It never occured to me as a kid, but those are probably metal, meaning he uses those to lift himself when he wants to "fly." Maybe his big wide belt, too. Like the cape, that comes from the disappointing Series 1 figure from five years ago.
This figure has two heads, both wearing his classic helmet
with the little wings or whatever they are on the forehead. The head he's wearing in the package is calm and reserved, while the alternate is angry, with a shadow over the blank white eyes - in other words, "Jim Lee X-Men #1 Cover D" face. If you want an unmasked head, you'll have to borrow the one from ANAD Magneto (which, to be fair, was a Jim Lee version anyway).
Magneto comes with a swappable pair of fists, plus some trans purple energy effects - the round ones this time, just like we asked for! The color plastic is the same used for the last one's lightning bolts and alternate hands, so you could combine them all into a really powerful display if you so chose.
Let's pause now to discuss Pietro and Wanda's current origin: they're the kids of Natalya Maximoff, an actual scarlet witch, who left them with her brother and his wife when she was busy with witch-business; they were kidnapped for genetic experiments, she was killed by her unnamed husband (and by god, it had better not be the Whizzer or Magneto!),
and then Magneto's wife (who wandered off) and Miss America (who died) and the Whizzer (who ran away) all turned up to one magic castle on the same night to play their parts in this baby-swapping comedy of errors - which was also the same night Werewolf By Night's grandfather was killed, passing the werewolf curse on to his son! Must have been damn crowded on Wundagore Mountain that night, what with two pregnant women, a nervous father-to-be, three or more babies, The High Evolutionary and all his followers, the midwife, a demon, a man possessed by a ghost, and a baronial lycanthrope all hanging around like a fricking screwball farce! Only thing missing was everyone running in and out of various doors in a hallway. Point is, eventually the twins were given back to Django and Marya Maximoff, and the story continues as it did before, but with one question left unanswered: if Magneto's wife was there to give birth and these kids aren't her babies, what happened with that?
Scarlet Witch uses mostly the same molds as Hasbro's previous attempt at her, though this time her red is darker and her pink under-suit covers her entire body, not just the legs. She gets new forearms, meaning her
gloves are no longer just painted on, and the bodysuit is that kind of swirly metallic plastic.
The head is a wonderful new sculpt! We do lose the "Fairuza Balk" head from before, but in exchange, we get a head of bushier, curlier brown hair and a pointier tiara. It's a very Olivier Coipel-inspired sculpt. Her face seems slightly small, surrounded as it is by her luxurious mane, but that could just be
an exaggeration effect from standing next to her watermelon-headed brother.
Her accessories are a pair of energy effects - not the spiky rings she had last time, but the little swirls from Infinity War Scarlet Witch. They're trans pink, and fit onto her forearms decently. I guess technically the cape is an accessory, too, but were you planning to remove it? Probably not.
This set is an Amazon exclusive, so don't try looking for it in stores. The Scarlet Witch and Magneto figures are definite improvements, and Quicksilver is fine (other than his gigantic head). But now we need a modern update of Toad and a Mastermind (with swappable handsome/ugly heads) to finally complete the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants lineup.
-- 08/05/19
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