DC Direct Deadman, Spectre and the Demon
Posted 06/20/01
Overall score - *** out of ****

(originally posted on the Comic Book Galaxy)

These are available at comic shops, both online and bricks and mortar.  These were from Stadium Comics here in Ann Arbor, and were $15 a pop.

Packaging - **1/2
This set is an improvement over the last couple waves, with some decent graphics and colors.

Sculpt - ***1/2
All three of these figures are terrific sculpts.  The Demon stands out as the best of the set, with both a great head and body sculpt.  Deadman is also good, but the hip joints and style of legs seem...odd.  I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but the Deadman body is off to me.

The Spectre is the same sculpt as the original Hal Jordan Green Lantern, except for the left arm.  I've seen this arm elsewhere though - perhaps it was on Dr. Strange?

Articulation - ***1/2
All three of these figures have terrific articulation, although the Demon body sculpt doesn't allow you to do a lot of posing.  This is the kind of articulation we should see on every DC Direct offering.

Paint - ***
The paint ops are hit and miss, at least on the figures I saw.  Be careful when you pick your out, particularly with Green Lantern.  Since his body suit is now painted on over the glow in the dark plastic, you have to be careful to avoid getting one with sloppy lines.

Accessories - Bupkis
No accessories.  How come we get zero accessories for fifteen bucks?  Sorry, but I'm not buying that there just wasn't anything appropriate for any of these figures.

We do get a decent cloth cape with the Demon though, which has a cool rough edge to it.  And the cape that comes with the Spectre has the 'poseable' feature, using a thin wire.  Counting the capes as accessories help, but I'm not willing to go that far this time.

Feature - **
The Spectre and Deadman are both cast in glow in the dark plastic.  It's not a bad feature, but in general isn't one that is particularly unique or cool.  It tends to be difficult to get a good effect, and often the glow is far lighter than you'd expecct.

Value - **
Considering the Spectre is simply a repaint, the whole series suffers in terms of value.  The Demon is the winner here for me, and the only one I would consider shelling out fifteen bucks for.

Overall - ***
The Demon is the best of this series, even though his body sculpt is a bit too preposed.  He's also larger than I had expected, so you may have scale issues when you see him next to your other figures.

The repaint Spectre really isn't worth it, but for fans of Deadman, that figure is fairly decent.  Let's hope the future releases are more impressive than most of this wave.