Vicious was part of the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate of which Spike also was part of. He, Spike and Julia used to be friends while all working in the Syndicate. Spike convinced Julia to leave it all behind, triggering feelings of betrayal in Vicious and inevitable descent into being a primary antagonist for the series. The series portrays him as a clever, conniving, bloodthirsty opportunist who is willing to do anything to get to where he needs to.
He doesn't change during the series but instead serves as a foil to Spike.
The figure is another spot-on representation by S.H. Figuarts. They've got the proportions, evil grin, clothes, sword, and bird down to perfection. On any scale I think this is superior, even compared with the Play Arts Kai version. I'm glad they made an antagonist for Spike in figure form before anything else, but I would still love to see Faye and the rest of the team.
By the time Arkham Knight rolls around, Harley Quinn has been on kind of a wild ride. In Origins she lives her classic story from a psychiatrist in training under Hugo Strange. In Asylum, she is the assistant to Joker's plan to turn the Asylum into his own funhouse. In City, she goes between being the assistant to the mourning girlfriend who manages to capture Batman, leading a fun play as Robin in the Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC. In Arkham Knight, she takes control of Joker's gang and joins Scarecrow, not for the big overall plan, but simply to destroy Batman.
This appearance and look for Harley Quinn definitely is more in line with the Arkham City version. She has the two-tone leggings with diamonds, hair in two side ponytails, and her baseball bat. One thing added was the puffed shoulders more in line with her Asylum appearance. She does still have the white makeup, but not as much else typical of her previous appearances. For a figure I wasn't sure DC Collectibles was going to give a good treatment of, I'm pleasantly surprised. It has decent articulation and quite a few fun accessories.
Jason Todd aka Red Hood plays a big role in the Arkham Knight series because, spoiler alert...
...he is the Arkham Knight!
The voice acting is awesome and I do love how they handled him in the game. His DLC was waaaaaaay too short and I felt they could have added his origin story from the time he was awoken after dying at the Joker's hands. He is super fun to play though and I wish developers had allowed you the option to free-roam as Red Hood. Apparently, there is some cheat to do that?
Anyway the point is, I finally got it! Red Hood has been on my holy grail list of Arkham figures for quite a while. After over a year or so of looking at eBay, I found one and bit the bullet on the price. It was ridiculously high for that particular figure but to be fair it was only sold at Gamestops. Some scalpers charged an insane amount for what is essentially the same moulding and plastics process that created the other 40 dollars CAD Arkham figures. I discovered my holy grail limit is about 100 considering the original price. Learn something new every day!
Now to make matters confusing, this is NOT the Red Hood that is basically the Arkham knight with this head minus the hood. This is much rarer and harder to find. He's a really cool figure and I dig the aesthetic they went with to create this version of Red Hood. The voice acting for him in the game was great, and I enjoyed the (all too brief) side mission where you play as this version of the character.
This officially completes the Arkham figures I wanted for the Bat-family in the game. I think one of the neatest, though really impossible, things I like is the two massive pistols he has. They combine and link to transform into his sniper rifle, and while they didn't do that here, you can imagine with the Arkham Knight's sniper rifle. His range of movement is pretty good and he has a good weight to him like the Azrael figure. The hood I would've preferred to be removable and the jacket a little softer to allow his ab crunch to move him backwards. Otherwise, his paint and sculpt is great, and am having tons of fun with him in various two gun poses.
