Hela

First it was Elrond. Then it was Thranduil. Now it's Galadriel's turn. When it comes to turning elves evil, the One Ring has nothing on Marvel! Ragnarok-obsessed super being, Hela threatens the balance of the kingdoms on her quest for power and dominion. If we did video reviews, you know this one would keep cutting to that South Park clip of Kyle yelling at Cartman to "stop saying 'hella'!" Fortunately for you, video reviews are garbage, so you're being spared that particular brand of stupidity. For now, at least. While Fox is still putting their X-Men in "realistic" costumes and doing... whatever the crap it is they're doing with the Fantastic Four, Marvel Studios is over here just lifting Jack Kirby designs straight out of the comics and putting them on the screen. It was one thing to put a giant face on a planet, but it's entirely another to re-create Hela, headdress and all. The last Hela (comic-based) had a reused body with painted details; this one is a fully unique mold with every crazy line on her suit sculpted as a raised element. Holy crap! She's still a giant, easily 7" tall even if you're not counting her horns, but the fact that her costume elements are all molded on makes this an outstanding figure. And then we get to her hat! It's so big that you have to pop her head off the neck ball in order to even get her out of the tray. She's a 12-point buck, with her antlers spreading wide, curving around each other, and reaching upward. They're molded in multiple pieces, obviously, but no assembly is required on your part. She woke up like this! Clearly she's not going to wear that crazy thing for the entire film, because the figure also comes with an unmasked head, featuring long, billowing black hair. With the sunken cheeks and the dark circles around the eyes, this looks more like one of the Olsen Twins than Cate Blanchett - somebody should ask Scarlet Witch if they're related. Hela may have a new body with lots of sculpted detail, but Hasbro didn't cut any corners when it comes to the articulation. Like most Marvel Legends, she moves at the ankles, knees, thighs, hips, torso, wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, and head. The armor on her shoulders keeps the arms from raising to any outlandish degree, and you won't want to bend her knees too far, since her cape is PVC instead of softgoods, and so won't flex that far out of her way. Beyond the cape and he extra head, Hela has only one accessory, a sword. And it may be a movie spoiler. She is, in the comics, an excellent swordswoman, but this is not her normal blade. Rather, the design of it (as well as the color of the plastic it's molded from) suggests that this is All-Black the Necroblade, a weapon from the comics specifically used to kill gods. In the books it was wielded by a different character (the one ultimately responsible for making Thor unworthy), but the shape is unmistakable. Hela does of course come with some pieces of this series' Build-A-Figure, Gladiator Hulk. Despite her large size and unique molds, she gets the right arm and some sort of axe thing - you almost would have expected the head or something, right? If you didn't get the SDCC Hela (and a lot of people didn't), you never need to worry about her again: this isn't only a great movie figure, it's a perfect stand-in for the comics, as well. -- 10/02/17

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