BATMAN

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

"As a child, Bruce Wayne watched as his parents were brutally killed in Gotham City's Crime Alley. Traumatized by their deaths, he devoted his life to becoming the world's greatest weapon against crime-the Batman!"

The gift that just keeps on giving here is McFarlane's Super Powers re-launch.  Boy do I love it, to, like, an absurd degree.  Especially given it's McFarlane.  How much do I love it?  It got me to buy a Batman.  And I pretty much never buy a Batman these days.  Other tangental characters?  Absolutely.  Batman, not so much.  So, um, here's Batman.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batman was released in Series 4 of McFarlane's Super Powers line, under the DC Direct branding.  Series 4 was noteworthy for being the first not to be a Walmart-exclusive, which wound up being sort of late change-up.  The result?  The assortment was kinda under ordered and under produced, so they're generally a bit rare.  The figure stands a smidge over 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Though he was only the line's second Batman, he didn't re-use the initial mold, instead introducing an all-new one (courtesy of sculptor Owen Oertling), this one more closely patterned on the vintage mold.  While the later Superman revision changed things up a little to differentiate, this one's more a direct imitation.  There's some minor differences in exact details, of course, but it's very, very close.  I can't say it's bad, because it absolutely isn't.  And it's emphatically better than the mold that preceded it (which makes it somewhat baffling how many times the original mold got re-used afterwords; it's just not very good), so I can't blame them there.  It does seem a little odd that it's *such* a close match, and I feel like it's maybe a missed opportunity to do something unique, like the Superman, but I really can't actually fault it.  I still don't love the cape clip shape, but that's minor.  One thing I *do* love is the color work.  This is where they actually do work to set him apart from the vintage figure.  The blue has just a little more saturation, so it pops a bit more, and he's also got the black shading at the front of the cowl.  I like the original, but the black is the one major thing missing, so I like taking the opportunity to fix that here.  The application's also quite clean, and he's just got a nice, vibrant feel to him.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like GL, this was before the line had won me over, and I missed this assortment entirely.  I didn't *need* another Batman, because the vintage one serves me just fine.  But, having gotten the updated Superman, I did sort of want the revised Batman to match.  Unfortunately, he's gotten pricey, again like that GL.  Thankfully, the same collection that had the GL also had this guy, so I was able to work out an okay deal on him, meaning I didn't have to feel *too* silly about what I paid out to get a figure I effectively already own.  I don't love him quite as much as GL or Supes, but I will admit he's pretty nice.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

Originally published February 25, 2025