More news from WizardWorld Chicago:
Hush. It is the word leaving the lips of numerous comic book fans. It has sparked debate after debate on several message boards. Perhaps most significantly of all, it is a word that will be immortalized...in plastic.
Seven months following its conclusion, DC Direct will generate a line of action figures based on
Hush, the current Batman storyline helmed by Jim Lee and Jeph Loeb. The figures' concept designs were illustrated by Jim Lee himself, who collaborated with prestigious sculptor Tim Bruckner to create a distinctively tactile represenation of the storyline's cast as fashioned by Lee.
The first wave will incorporate Batman, The Joker, Huntress, Poison Ivy, and the secretive Hush into DC Direct's illustrious line of action figures.
To no one's surprise, the Hush figure was not on hand. However, Huntress was also conspicuously omitted from the display.
Though his on-again, off-again blue cape and cowl remain a bane of Batman fanatics (such as myself), the presence of blue on this rendition of Batman does little to detract from his daunting ambience. In particular, the facial sculpt presents a grim visage with subtle undertones of anguish and determination. It is indeed a figure worthy of the title "Dark Knight."
Batman features articulation in the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrist and knee areas.
The Joker presented in this particular line is a contradiction to the Silver Age "Clown Prince of Crime" DC Direct propagated a month ago. By no means is the face of this figure comical. Rather, it is the face of a man who has snapped; a man who gleans humor from his chaotic miasma of life and death.
The Joker figure features articulation in its neck, jaw, elbows, wrists, hips, knees and swivel-cut shoulders and biceps.
As she is by no means a stranger to the manipulation of others to her own ends, the plastic rendition of Poison Ivy will mystify fans as an optical illusion. Though the figure's lower half may appear untouched, there are articulation points hidden in its hips and knees.
Lee has already commenced design work for the confirmed second wave, which will include Catwoman, Harley Quinn, Nightwing, Robin and Superman. While most of the proposed figures within the second wave have been eagerly awaited by action figure collectors and comic book fans for years, many do not see the need for what will be the third Superman DC Direct has produced in two years.
Series one of DC Direct's
Batman: Hush assortment is scheduled for release on April 28, 2004; the release date for series two currently remains unannounced.
