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REVIEW: DC Collectibles Greg Capullo Designer Series Two-Face Action Figure
Tragic Batman Villain In Iconic Art Style...
Light and dark, good and evil, order and chaos. There aren’t a whole lot of characters who embody all of those dichotomies at the same time like DC Comics’ Two-Face. The general story of Harvey Dent is pretty well known; he was a prosecutor in Gotham City before an attack left him scarred both physically and mentally leading to his adoption of the supervillain Two-Face persona. The dual-natured character is no stranger to collectibles, especially after his appearances in films and video games, but the latest entry from DC Collectibles presents a really cool version in the Greg Capullo Designer Series. Today we’ll be taking a closer look at that figure, which you can find on store shelves right now.
As with their statues DC Collectibles has standardized its action figure packaging. You’ll find Two-Face and the rest of the Greg Capullo Designer series figures in a clean and sophisticated window box in white with magenta, black, and gray highlights. The front of the package names the series while the character’s supervillain name runs down the right-hand side of the window, though which you can see the figure and its accessories. One side of the box repeats the info from the front and adds a grayscale image of the character as drawn by Capullo. Finally, the back of the box depicts three other figures in this Designer Series: Batman (Year Zero), Commissioner Gordon, and Batgirl.
What’s so special about the Designer Series? While most of the action figures DC Collectibles has been releasing in the past few years were generally modeled on their appearance in major books like Justice League, the Designer figures focus on a specific artist known for a unique style and bring that look to physical form. The recent Batman run has been very popular thanks to both the writing of Scott Snyder and the art of Greg Capullo, so it was a no-brainer for DC Collectibles to translate his characters to action figures. They bring a neat mix of realism and superhero proportions, and expert paint applications and materials really make them look like 3D art.
Like many of DC Collectibles’ action figures Capullo’s Two-Face stands about 6 ¾ inches tall, which seems appropriate for the character. Of course he has the traditional vertical divide between his normal and deformed sides, and in the specific artwork on which this figure is based the character has raw, almost zombie-like exposed flesh. Capullo’s version of Two-Face is also notable for his dapper attire, rocking a suit, shirt, tie, and shoes in offset black and white that always reminds me of the similarly-colored aliens from Cheron in Star Trek The Original Series.
Two-Face’s sculpt looks great, and it really cements the quality and range of this figure line. Most of his body is sculpted clothing and there are tons of small details including buttons, hems, creases, pockets, and the like, and even his shoes look great. As with Red Hood from the same series Two-Face’s jacket is soft rubber over his torso which gives his legs a little bit more freedom to move forward and back at the hips than it would if it was solid plastic. I really like the depth and thickness of the figure’s tie and collar; it all comes together for a really lifelike appearance. Naturally that leaves Two-Face’s head and hands, where the art style of Greg Capullo is in full force. The “evil” side of Harvey is pretty gross, with exposed sinew and muscle through which peeks bone and teeth. Look closely and you’ll see all sorts of muscle striations, layered tendons and ligaments, the ruin of the villain’s left ear, and of course the void where his eye once was. That hand matches the facial appearance though his fingers and thumb appear more normal. Speaking of normal, Two-Face’s right side is handsome and distinguished with thick hair, and a strong profile and chin. Like in Capullo’s art, thick lines add detail and depth to the character, notably on the forehead, above and below the eye, and on the chin. Harvey’s right hand is perfectly normal and sculpted into a fist about to flip his coin.
As I’ve noted (and as you can see in the photos), the figure’s clothing ensemble down to the dress shoes stands in high contrast with gleaming white and deepest black, offset and opposed (mostly) down the middle. Sloppy borders and spillover would kill a look like this, and thankfully Two-Face has none of those problems. His shoes add a little more flavor too with a band of gold on the white one and silver over the black. Harvey’s normal side has a slightly pale skin tone that looks really nice with the darker shaded sculpted lines I previously discussed. His eye is a piercing blue, hair a deep brown, and the coin in his hand shiny silver. And then there’s the other side... Dent’s ruined flesh is gross with deep red musculature topped off by a glossy finish and surrounded by pink viscera. Specks of white appear where the orbital bone protrudes, and his teeth on that side are yellowing from exposure. Both Two-Face’s nose and ocular cavity are pitch black, cold and lifeless.
Long gone are the days of extremely limited articulation in DC Direct figures, and DC Collectibles’ current mandate is to include as much poseability as makes sense and looks good with a figure’s sculpt. Two-Face here certainly isn’t “super articulated” but he has enough joints to display him in a few solid poses that will look cool on your shelf. He has a ball-jointed neck, shoulders, rotating and hinged elbows, wrists, waist, hips, elbows, and ankles. The leg articulation sounds a little better on paper, though, with restricted movement and some balance issues. Two-Face is best on solid ground and his own two feet. There’s also a hole in the bottom of the figure’s right foot in case you have a stand (not included) that you want to use with him.
Two-Face grips his decision-making coin very tightly in his right hand, so much so that it’s non-removable and there’s no alternate hand to replace it. His damaged left hand is sculpted open so he can carry and wield either of the two handguns included with the figure. These are solid, one piece black semi-automatic pistols that fit well in his hand with his trigger finger in place. I guess the second gun is a spare in case you lose the first one? It’s always nice to have more good accessories for this scale so I’m not complaining.
Along with the latest wave of Greg Capullo Designer Series figures Two-Face is available now and you should be able to find him at your local comic book/specialty store or favorite online retailer. He’s a great addition to any Batman collection and like the other Designer Series figures highlights the cool ways DC is bringing unique art styles to life. I think he looks great and I had a lot of fun posing him at different angles with his coin in one hand and the pistol in the other. Flip a coin and decide which of Two-Face’s sides will be the prominent one in your display.
Review and photos by Scott Rubin.
Review sample courtesy of DC Collectibles.
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