Marvel Legends Infinite Series: Captain Marvel

I've been a fan of Marvel's cosmic heroes and stories since the early 90's with Jim Valentino's run of Guardians of the Galaxy. Since then I've enjoyed just about every other cosmic story, thanks to the Annihilation story bringing many of these characters back to the modern spotlight. One of these heroes I've enjoyed following has been Carol Danvers. She has gone by many different names in her super hero career: Ms. Marvel, Binary, Warbird, and Captain Marvel.

Captain Marvel first appeared in the pages of Avenging Spider-Man #9 and this Marvel Legends figure from 2016. I wasn't sold on her new look at first, but the more and more I see her in the comics I'm fine with the new appearance. Of course Captain Marvel will be getting her own movie within the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2019 and I can't wait!

At some point Hasbro started using the same packaging for two different characters in the same wave. Captain Marvel shared packaging with the Scarlet Witch and was branded "Maidens of Might". She was part of the Odin Build-A-Figure wave and came packaged with Odin's head, cape and axe. Standard fare packaging, not much to mention here.

Now I'm not the best when it comes to identifying reused parts from previous Marvel Legends, but the basic build of the figure is pretty good...though I feel she has just a bit too much junk in the trunk! The paint that makes up her new costume is spot on to her comic appearances. Her sash is a loose piece, but not really removable. In the accessory department she comes packaged with is a different head, which we'll get to in a bit, and an energy orb that fits around a fist.

I know some fans don't care for Carol's new shorter hair, but it doesn't bother me. The hair itself is sculpted quite nice, however I'm not sure how I feel about her facial expression. There is virtually no emotion in her face what so ever. Bland. 

Well at least if you don't care for her unmasked look, you can pop off the head and swap it out for the mohawk look. At first I hated this look, but now I really dig it. I think it's a great sculpt and looks great. It's how I have her displayed in my collection.

Articulation is standard fare. If you've seen any of my Marvel Legends reviews then you'll know you're better off heading over to Instagram if you want dynamic action poses and shots! Captain Marvel is one of my favorite non-Spider-Man related figures to date. The female proportions are in check and she resembles her comic self well. Good paint and sculpt makes this figure a must have if you're a fan of the character. 

Heroes Aren't Hard to Find: Charlotte Mini-Con 2018 Haul (part 2)

If you stopped by the blog yesterday then you would've seen the first part of my Charlotte Mini-Con haul from this past weekend. One of the things I noticed with this show is that there were more "modern" comics in the $.50 boxes than I normally see. I assume this is because dealers over ordered on certain titles. Sucks for them, hooray for me! Because of this, I grabbed several books that I may not have messed with before.

This is the only copy of Super-Villain Team-Up that I own. It's a series that I've often thought about picking up, but rarely do I find issues in the boxes I comb through. I paid $1 for this book. Overall it's in pretty good condition for it's age.

A-Force is one of those titles that I picked up 1) because they were $.50 each and 2) because I found all but two of the issues. This is the 2nd volume of the title. It started as a Secret Wars mini-series, one that I didn't buy/read. I sat down this morning before I jumped into my work and I worked the Civil War II issues into my stack of books I'm currently reading. Yes, I'm that far behind on my reading...I'm about half way through reading CW II and most of the accompanying issues.

I'm glad I did sit down to read the pre-CW issues of A-Force as I greatly enjoyed the story and the art. I hate that I'm missing two issues, but I went ahead and read #1-7. I'm a big fan of Captain Marvel and I've enjoyed reading She-Hulk in the past. Good stuff.

I got back into the Avengers stuff last summer after finding all but one issue of the Avengers Standoff story at HeroesCon. This has led me back to reading more Avengers related titles, especially after looking over what's happening currently in the Avengers family of titles. Since I'm still behind in my reading, it was fun finding a few books I needed to fill holes. It'll make my reading that much more enjoyable once I get to these titles now that I have the majority of the issues.

I read the first volume of Uncanny Avengers for awhile and I enjoyed seeing mutant characters interact with long time Avengers. I picked up the Secret Empire crossover issues of Uncanny Avengers and shortly after I started finding back issues for cheap. I figured if I go back to at least issue #15 and fill in the holes that should make for a fun read.

I have to be honest. Secret Empire got me back into reading Captain America. I really hadn't read a Cap title since he was "killed" in the first Civil War event. When I heard what they were doing with him, I was intrigued. In a way it reminded me of what they did w/ Peter Parker and Doctor Octopus in Superior Spider-Man, a series that I LOVED. I was able to piece together all of the issues off the rack from various comic shops until I got caught up with the current issue at that time. 

Of course this means I didn't have any of Sam's Captain America title. I still don't have many, so I was glad to find these. All but the Steranko variant were found in the $.50 boxes. Flipping through a few of these issues I saw that the former New Warriors character, Rage, played a part in the story with the AmeriCops. His appearance alone made me want to read this title.

I found all but this one issue of Captain Marvel's title that crossed over w/ CW II at a comic show last fall, so the timing of finding issue 10 was pretty perfect. I've already got it qued to read as I'm getting close to finishing this event.

My brother has asked me on more than one occassion as to why I wasn't buying/reading Champions. I love Humberto Ramo's art and I'm already reading Nova and Spider-Man (Miles Morales). It makes sense that I should. I was tempted to pick up the Champions issues that crossed over w/ Avengers, but there is only so much money to go around. Having found several issues for $.50 however now has me looking to fill in the holes.

I found the first 7 issues of Contest of Champions last fall, but the last issue was nowhere to be found. I was glad to find #8...now I just gotta find where I put the other 7 so I can sit down and read them!

I can't get enough of the 80's/90's stuff from Marvel. The Siege of Darkness story I first learned about through the old Marvel Universe trading cards. I've slowly been picking up the various issues of this storyline and I just happened to find this issue of Marvel Comics Presents.

Speaking of 90's Marvel, I found the last 3 issues I lacked to complete Nightwatch's title. Very happy about these 3!

Amazing X-Men is a title I never would have thought to look for. I'm not a huge fan of the mutant titles, but I grabbed these solely because Firestar was part of the team/story. I guess you could say I have a soft spot for former New Warriors characters.

The only non-Marvel books of my haul (well technically I guess you could say these are Marvel titles) was Rune. My first exposure to Malibu Comics came with an issue of Godwheel #0 packaged inside Wizard magazine. As I learned more about the characters I became more intrigued and started to pick up select issues, mainly of UltraForce and Rune. Being a fan of Marvel's cosmic books, it was fun seeing the Infinity Stones, Adam Warlock and other Marvel characters interacting with the Ultraverse characters. It's a shame that Marvel really can't do anything with these characters these days.

Well, that wraps it up! I was surprised at just how much I found. I didn't expect to find so many books from recent years, but I'm glad I did as I have begun to expand my reading horizons a little bit more lately. Had I had more time, more money and my back and hip not been bothering me, I'm sure I could have brought more home with me. That's OK though, time for me to get back to reading and gearing up for the next local show in the spring.