Of Schism and new DC figures

by Chris Troy

Super-late article this week, as I’m split between a new Bleeding Cool project, prepare to speak to the attendees of AnimeUSA down in DC this weekend, and trying to put as much time into my new  video games as possible (Uncharted 3 & Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for the record). Needless to say, I’ve been busy.

So as I’ve said in past articles, the DC Universe Classics line will be coming to an end sometime in early 2012, after 20 somewhat waves. I was under assumption that the line would be rebooted to reflect the new 52 stuff, but Matty Collector has announced that I am WRONG WRONG WRONG! The new line shall be called DC Universe All-Stars, and will kick off in 2012 with a long overdue Larfleeze figure (MINE!) Superboy Prime (Of retcon-punch fame), Flashpoint Plasticman (WHUT?!) & Batman Beyond. I can understand Bats Beyond & Larfleeze, as they’re extremely popular characters still relevant in the new 52, but DC has retconned Superboy Prime from existence with it’s “The Crises never happend” policy, and Evil Plastic Man lasted all of 2 issues of a Flashpoin tie-in mini-series. Odd choices are odd, but hey, at least the line continues to live on. No word if the Build-a-Figure is coming back though. Of course, FPNYC still has plenty of older and rarer DCU Classics in stock, so if there’s someone you’re looking for, you should swing by and see what we got.

On the Marvel side of things, I’ve commented in the past on how solid this fall’s “Spider-Island” crossover was  rad (Where as “Fear Itself” kind of sucked IMO). What I failed to mention which was also great was the big X-event Schism, which was a smaller scale X-Men version of “Civil War”, focusing on Cyclops and Wolverine, (suddenly, it’s very 90s animated series X-Men) and their falling out, which leads to an east and west coast X-Men, both with very different mission operatives. The Jason Aaron written mini-series will be collected w/the Generation Hope tie-ins, as well as the ReGenesis prologue, come January in a single hard-cover, but FPNYC has received all 5 issue reprints w/ black & white inter-locking Frank Cho covers this week, so you can check those out now if you’re impatient and don’t want to wait for the hardcover.

Speaking of Marvel new releases, FPNYC has received another new shipment of awesome Marvel Universe 2-Packs. The previously released classic Iron Fist & Power-man/ classic Captain Britain & Spider-Man are joined by classic Avengers Wonder Man & Quicksilver as well as arch-nemesis-es Bullseye and Daredevil. Note it’s the classic versions of Bullseye and Daredevil, not the Bullseye murdering Shadowland version of Daredevil in black. As far as I can tell, this is the first time Quicksilver and Wonderman have been released in the Marvel Universe scale, where as Bullseye and Daredevil are older, harder to find figures who got shiny new paint jobs.  The duo also come with a Billy Club and handgun, although I’m dissapointed there’s no hospital bed you can put Bullseye in, to reenact some classic Frank Miller goodness. Regardless, these 2 packs can be bought for a little more than 20 bucks, which is less than the cost of buying 2 single carded figures!

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to pit Ghost Rider, Rocket Racoon & Phoenix Wright againist Galactus.