When Eaglemoss started releasing their Marvel line of figures, fans wondered when and if they would complement it with a line of DC figures. In the first quarter of 2008, the plans came to fruition and the company began to release their DC figures. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, it took nearly a year from then for them to be released and available in the US. Eaglemoss, a UK company, finally got distribution for these figures which are made of lead and you can now get them from a variety of retailers, including Amazon.
Are they worth the wait?
Like any kind of figure, it depends on what you want out of it. Eaglemoss and DC Comics are giving us a bit more than just the figure though and we'll take a look at that before the figure itself. Each release is part of a series where there's an oversized booklet included which can be put in a special binder that they also offer. The first figure and issue in the series is an obvious one as they go for the Batman angle. I've been reading comics off and on since the late 70's so I wasn't quite sure how much use these issues would be for someone like me. To my surprise, I found it more enjoyable than I thought.
The issue is twenty pages in length on a good cardstock. The first nine pages are devoted to the character himself as they recount his origins and work through the various phases. Batman is obviously an iconic character with a lot of history but a lot of it can easily be glossed over or ignored for this kind of format. Once they go over the basic origins, they skip a huge chunk of his history and work through the changes he's gone through with his Robin sidekicks and then they move into the bigger material from the 90's. Knightfall and the Breaking of the Bat get their own sections and they talk about when Jean-Paul Valley took over the role. The Catacylsm event is covered as well and his time as a wanted man.
Having fallen out of reading Batman some time during the Jean-Paul area, reading the summary versions of the events from that point on was quite entertaining and helpful. The origins of Brother Eye are detailed as well as his son. There's some minimal talk about his role in the Justice League, which does obviously skip a whole lot of things, and they omit any real mention of the Outsiders and other things he's been involved with over the years. But these first nine pages cover a great deal of material overall and it has a lot of really good artwork reflective of each area. My only disappointment with this section is that they don't credit the individual pieces of artwork as I'd like to know the artist (or writer where relevant) and where it came from.
DC Super Hero Collection #01: Batman
© DC Comics
Three pages are given over to the classic storylines section, an area that will be contentious for any character. With a character like Batman, there's a wealth of stories to work from and there will always be debate over what should or should not be included. Eaglemoss' writers went with the Detective comics #400 story from 1970 which introduced the Man-Bat under the guidance of Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams. Also chosen was the Batman: Year One storyline from 1988 which is considered the definitive vision of the character in comic form. And it was little surprise that Batman: The Dark Knight Returns from 1986 was chosen as well. The second two choices are very safe choices which meant I was very intrigued by their first choice as it wasn't one that many might think of in this day and age. I was also very pleased that they avoided going with anything from a big event storyline in the last couple of decades since those have felt more like gimmicks than good writing efforts.
The next three pages are devoted to the allies and enemies section and that has much the same kind of problem. Someone will always feel that a particular character is left out when you have such a rich history as this. The choices are all pretty safe and expected ones but I can't bring myself to really complain about it since there's only so much space. Honestly, you could write an entire book on each character in the overall cast and still feel like you were missing out on important things. The final two pages of the issue us where they get a little creative with the “Original Thinking” segment. Here, they have Mike Conry write about the character and his origins in the medium, talking about what Bob Kane did and where his influences came from as well as spending time talking about Bill Finger's involvement in it. Kane usually gets the bulk of the credit so I was really happy to see Finger get his due here.
All in all, I came away from the issue rather pleased. While I can imagine that it would be rather mundane to someone who has read the books consistently for years and has schooled themselves in the history of the character, it was quite a good read for me as I had fallen out of the comics scene for several years during the gimmick blitz of the nineties. Everything is written cleanly and without too much editorializing outside of the last section which is what is intended. The way the issue is written has me looking forward to reading future issues for lesser known characters where more creative and interesting aspects will come up. Batman simply has too rich and full of a history to work with in a short form like this, but what they did here is very good.
But I'll be honest. I didn't buy this for the issue. I bought it for the figure.
I've long collected anime figures of all sizes but my real figure collecting days came many years earlie when I used to play Warhammer 40k and Dungeons and Dragon's before it when you bought and painted lead figures. The Eaglemoss figures are made of lead and they have a wonderful heft to them. When you pull it out of the box and hand it to someone, they're surprised at how heavy it is because you don't expect it. So many things have a cheap feel to it that the weight alone of this gives it a very different feel. Batman has so many different interpretations over the years that they did go with a fairly safe choice here for the design, but it fits well and it has a very detailed look to it with the cape wrapped around him but extended. The figure is hand painted so you can see some flaws here, areas that may not be painted as cleanly as you would get from a mass production line, but there's something about the figure that stands out against those. Each figure is also individually numbered for the collectors market which is a nice touch.
After I got back into comics a few years ago, I avoided buying any kind of merchandise outside of the Ame-Comi figures since they appealed to my anime side and I was intrigued by the non-standard interpretations. When I first saw the Eaglemoss figures back in late 2008, I wanted them right then and there. Patience has paid off and they're slowly getting released here now and I think they're worth the wait. After having the first couple up on the shelf, they're unlike the things I bought in my younger days and they have a more upscale and smaller collectors market feel to them. I don't know that I'll buy each and every figure, but there's a lot to like here and I can see having a very full collection based off of this first figure.
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