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It's useful to remember that Peter Parker is a photographer, not a graphic designer, so his artistic talent lies in duplicating things he sees, not in coming up with them himself.
Julia Carpenter becomes an ally of Spider-Man and
the Avengers after she is given spider-powered abilities by a secret government experiment.
Yes, and all because of who she was friends with in college. Julia hooked up (not like that) (although it was college, so maybe?) with Valerie Cooper, the woman who would eventually become X-Factor's government liason through the Commission on Superhuman Activity. Years later when Julia needed a new job, Val convinced her to move to Washington DC and get experimented on, which must have been one hell of a pitch: "sure, you could become the assistant manager at a store where you already live, but what if you moved 2,000 miles and let a shady doctor inject you with his fluids?" Fortunately for her, the offer turned out to be legitimate and not the start of a Taken movie, and soon enough she was an official government-sanctioned superhero.
It's been 13 years since we got a proper Spider-Woman figure, so this is highly welcome. She's got a pre-existing body, as you would expect, but it's not the same one Jessica Drew used - it's thinner and more toned, which is funny, since (as of the time period this figure represents) Julia is the only one of them to have given birth. She's wearing her classic costume - the one that ultimately inspired Venom, not the one that ultimately inspired Araña. The body is somewhere between black and dark blue, with white gloves and boots. All the paint is very crisp.
The head has a great new sculpt. Her strawberry blonde hair pokes out of her mask and spills a bit wildly over her shoulders and down her back. Her mask leaves her nose and mouth exposed, just covering the eyes with giant white lenses. The paint on the hair is complex, with highlights and shadows that give it a real feeling of depth.
Articulation is the standard for this body,
and the hair hangs far enough away from the shoulders that even the head moves a decent amount. She gets an accessory, too: Spider-Woman's powers are semi-psychic in nature, so she can project "psionic webbing" made from solid thought-energy. Sure. The toy comes with an alternate right hand that has some clear webs flinging off it. There's no wrist hinge in this hand, and the curve of the piece makes it look like a jai alai cesta.
As is traditional, the girl gets the biggest BAF piece: in this case, Molten Man's entire torso, which is so big it has to be packaged in two halves, just like Spider-Ham's Monster Venom pieces.
ToyBiz definitely tried, but they never really got the hang of making female Marvel Legends. Hasbro, meanwhile, has really done a lovely job on this update.
-- 08/04/19
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