REVIEW: X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Deadpool (Comic Series)

Produced by Hasbro | Released March 2009

With the arrival of the Deadpool and Taskmaster Greatest Battles Comic Pack any day now, we thought it was a good opportunity to perhaps preview what we might be getting - and provide a baseline for the changes we're in store for - by taking a look at an earlier release of Deadpool, in this case, from the 2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine Comic Series.

Movie Vs Comic Series

As Marvel fans who saw the movie will know, the producers took a few liberties with some of the characters. Perhaps the worst of all was Deadpool. Bearing little resemblance to his comicbook counterpart, Deadpool's involvement in the movie was minimal. And the less said about his new ''improved'' look, the better.

Thankfully Hasbro were at least sensitive to the fans' needs and split the X-Men Origins line into two distinct sub-categories - the Movie Series and the Comic Series. The former represented - as you'd expect - the on-screen versions of the characters, with the Comic Series using not only the original versions but also introducing characters not seen in the movie. Today's Deadpool comes from this Series.

Deadpool

As stated, this is the comicbook Deadpool. It's a pretty good likeness of the character and is - on the whole - a pretty neat figure. The toy is not without its issues though.

The basic sculpt is pretty good. There's a lot of detail even on the basic costume, which features raised contours/seams and is much more than simply a skin-tight suit. His right thigh features a molded-on holster (into which his pistol can be placed) and wrist and ankle straps break-up the lines of the figure well. There are also grooves on his boot soles, which is a nice touch. The head sculpt is also pretty accurate. I particularly like how his nose and mouth ''bumps'' are visible under the mask. It's a subtle effect but a good one.

Over the core figure is a harness and belt combo (which is probably removable but I didn't attempt to do so.) This is a well-produced and designed piece and it finishes-off the look pretty well, giving Deadpool not only two sword sheaths on his back but also an assortment of grenades and other pouched weapons.

Articulation is fair but not the best. There's no waist joint for example and his ankles simply feature rotator joints (so you can't bend his feet forward/backward.) The other minor issue is that the harness can restrict some torso movement to a small degree. He's still pretty flexible, even with his poorly-articulated feet and the harness isues, so you can get some nice poses out of him.

Paint is well-applied and appears fairly accurate to his comicbook counterpart. The black details on his costume are clean and the use of browns and tans on his harness/belt give him an almost ''real world'' look (almost...) without detracting from his red/black colour-scheme. He even has his own logo on his belt buckle, which is a cool touch.

Extras

Deadpool comes with a small arsenal of weapons and - best of all - plenty of places to store them.

A pistol (which fits into his thigh-holster), two Katanas (that fit into the harness sheaths) and a Sai complete his look. Although the concept is good, the execution of his weapons is a little lacking. For one, the Sai is simply too big and looks more like something you'd use to cook hamburgers on a grille. It also has no specific storage space (although you can tuck it between his back and harness.) Secondly the Katanas simply don't stay in his hands - at least not without a lot of balancing and patience. The bladed weapons are also quite sloppily painted. Personally I find the best way to display him is with his pistol only...

Deadpool does not include a stand (the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that's Snake Eyes' stand he's borrowed...)

Final Thoughts

Deadpool from the X-Men Origins: Wolverine line isn't the worst figure I've seen but he does have a few problems. Hopefully the Deadpool from the upcoming Taskmaster/Deadpool Greatest Battles Pack will rectify these issues but in the meantime, if you can live with the poorly-executed weapons and slightly restrictive articulation, there's a lot of fun to be had from this figure. Just don't pay the scalper prices. He's a pretty cool $8 figure but he's not worth much more than that.

Alternatively, just wait and see if you can snag the upcoming Greatest Battles Pack. If the rumours are to be believed, the re-tooled Deadpool is a big improvement over this figure. And if that's the case, then he should be a very cool toy.

Scores

Sculpt	B+
Paint	B+
Articulation	B-
Production Quality	B
Final Score	B

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