Helena Bertinelli is a vigilante similar to Batman. Her parents were killed by the mafia and she donned a costume and went out to stop organized crime. She is often in a purple and white motif suit with expertise in several martial arts, typically sporting a staff, crossbow, bullwhip and some other projectiles. She is not bound by Batman's code, however, and has killed when she decides it is called for.
In the Hush storyline, Huntress saves Batman after a mysterious cut to his bat grapple, landing him with a fractured skull. She staves off some criminals, saving Batman and starting a mystery involving several of Batman's rogues' galleries.
I don't really have an interest in the Huntress per se, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy a really well-done female figure by Mafex for the DC universe that wasn't from one of the many terrible movies. The figure has some amazing articulation and accessories. Five pairs of hands, the staff, two heads and I love that Mafex does bendy wire capes. This one even has a wire in the bottom! My one frustration is that the hands slip out waaaay too easily and the one arm on this one also pops out too easily if you raise it to the shoulder level.
Nightwing is one of my favourite DC characters, Dick Grayson is my favourite Robin and this figure is by far my favourite Nightwing figure. Mafex has done an amazing job of this, and because of Nightwing's basic design, this Nightwing honestly fits in just about everywhere in your collection.
As per the Hush storyline, Nightwing is helping Batman discover a grand plot that involves or touches nearly every main villain in Batman's rogue gallery. He doesn't play a particularly large role, but he does fight the Riddler and his goons. They discover some ash at the end of the scene from the Lazarus pit.
This Nightwing comes with some amazing poseability, and some interesting accessories to make for some great posing.
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Sculpt & Paint: 3/3 Mafex nails it once again with this one, really clean paint, some gloss here and there, and great face sculpting and musculature.
Articulation: 3/3 (31 points): This is fully fleshed out articulation with pretty good range everywhere. The most impressive is probably the butterfly joints that have a large shoulder cap and a large swivel inside the armpit area. It gives a lot of flexibility to the character when using his Escrima sticks. His hips have a second cap inside that allows more motion inwards. He comes with pretty decent ab and diaphragm work. His neck is extremely flexible, and maybe the head sits slightly too high on the top ball joint.
Accessories: 1/1 He comes with everything you need for Nightwing: six sets of hands (punching, grasping, clutching, splayed, knife hands, and baton effect twirling), his escrima sticks, a long wire tied set of sticks, a back plate to swap to store his sticks and two heads (angry and calm, both with great hair).
Fun Factor: 3/3 He's one of my favourite figures outside my Naruto collection. He looks cool, you can pose him so well, he's got great balance and I regularly have him outside my glass Detolf shelves so I can change his pose and put him alongside other characters.
Verdict: 10/10 No notes.
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| Nice look here, if a bit grainy |
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| VERY muscular back |
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| Many a decent accessory. Forgot to include one of the clear poles for the stand (oh well!) |
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| GRIT TIME |
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| This is how you remove the back piece. Interesting to see the Mafex engineering! |
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| Clips work well but they're a little stiff, worried they'll break one day if I'm not careful |
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| Spin time! |
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| This extended stick grapple rope is insanely good. The bendy wire they use for Mafex is really durable and easy to handle |
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| ...also very long! |
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| Look up! |
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| Kinda sweet he can pose on his hands. Very well balanced figure. |
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| Some flying Grayson maneuvers! |
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| All the Hush Mafex figures I have so far. Huntress and Poison Ivy are up for review! I don't think I'll be getting Joker, Harley or Riddler, but who knows! |
Hush is a villainous foil to Bruce Wayne/Batman who tried to kill his parents as a child. He grows up a bit of a psychopath and uses his surgeon skills to literally impersonate other people by sewing on face parts to infiltrate, cause chaos and assassinate others! This is Face-Off but upgraded! In the Hush storyline where he makes his first appearance, Hush is first thought to be Jason Todd in an epic battle at the end, then melts to be revealed as Clayface, THEN the real Hush eventually shows up, and is shot by a reconstructed Two-Face (aka One face now! hah!).
Hush makes a bunch of appearances after this, because what is a Batman villain if they can't escape and do more crime again?! Anyway, this is a pretty great figure. The joints in the foot/knees are a bit loose on mine, but a lot of range here! There's a ton of extras (some of which are VERY small and loseable!!), and they've done some things to make the figure more flexible: the pouches on the belt actually have a hinge that flips up, and the coat is a softer plastic that allows some movement. Being able to swap out the chest decal and belt is a cool feature!
Superman in Batman Hush plays in another bizarre event in the comics. Amongst all of Batman's rogue gallery, all of whom are acting strangely, Superman adds to the list. Poison Ivy has managed to use her pheromonal control and is manipulating Superman into killing Batman. Batman notices that Superman is subtly resisting Ivy's control, and after a classic Batman v. Superman fight, triggers him into wrestling control back. He gets Catwoman to drop Lois off a building. Jeez. Anyway, so he breaks free from Ivy's control to save her, so good thing that worked!
I only own a few Superman figures, but this is my favourite. It has all the classic look with lots of poseability, a wired cloth cape, and a few different head sculpts. The proportions are nice, and the paint is really clean.
The Batman: Hush storyline is an iconic Batman series of comics from Oct 2002 to Sept 2003. It's a pretty convoluted back-and-forth storyline, but it all boils down to a mysterious villain Hush who is manipulating Batman's villains and allies to destroy Batman. These involve pretty elaborate schemes that cause his typical rogues' gallery to behave in unusual ways, all cumulating in the final reveal: Who is Hush?
I read the story and while I liked it and the art, like many comic book stories it's all over the place and tenuously connected. That's just the reality of comic books it seems, no hate! The version of Batman here is very plain and classic: blue and grey with a yellow utility belt. I prefer black and grey so when Mafex offered the alternative, I had to scoop it up!
This figure is fantastic: well-painted and sculpted, poses smoothly, comes with a bunch of accessories and is fun to play with. Unlike the original blue and grey release it comes with a cool gargoyle piece stand! Makes for some iconic posing! Unfortunately, it doesn't come with the unmasked Bruce Wayne head, which I think is one of the best comic forms of his face in figure form!
