DC Multiverse Justice League Superman review

Oh, Henry Cavill Superman...you nearly had it all before Warner Bros. messed everything up. You were a cinematic Superman I took seriously, you met a Batman that was great like his predecessors, and you also would have had a great story arc that would be more complete than the Donner films. Unfortunately, nostalgiatards went after the series for not being like the Christopher Reeve days, Justice League's tone was butchered, and Joss Whedon and Geoff Johns made reshoots with the awful CGI face edits. Now you have no head in Shazam and likely no new film for the time being. Maybe when Geoff said to revise your list, he probably meant as ways Superman shouldn't be done when reflecting on all the errors Josstice has done.

Now you see why fans have been running the Release the Snyder Cut movement since the release of the movie, as they want to see Superman scenes that were done better than what Joss Whedon and WB did with the awful theatrical cut of the movie. That said, perhaps the action figure side of things will be a lot better than what we'd think. DC Multiverse is Mattel's equivalent to Hasbro's Marvel Legends, so perhaps they can make a figure that's more worthwhile than the Jossticified Superman, right? Let's find out in my review of the DC Multiverse Justice League Superman!

So here we have Superman, looking good for a DC Multiverse figure. The blue of the suit looks shiny, which was something that I feel was carried over from the BvS suit (since the Josstice suit either had a no black suit or the awful filter of the movie making the color of the suit look even brighter than it should be) The red boots could use a bit of a shine to them to make them look a bit less toyish than they are right now. The cape is something I'm mixed on. I like that its cloth and it looking metallic, but it looks sort of limp, and the material makes the cape look see-through. While not bad if the cape was made for a toy made for kids, it does look somewhat lacking compared to a more rubber material cape. That may work best for a dynamic flow, but I felt it would be hard for it to work with posing. Speaking of, the part that is rubber is not quite glued on there right, with it looking like it's put at a bit of an angle, which is noticeable at the back.

The figure's face sculpt looks fine, yet it doesn't look like Henry Cavill. Again, it wouldn't be a bad thing if this was a normal 10 dollar figure, but I do wish that Mattel took notes from Hasbro and take advantage of making the figure look like the actor. Still, it's better than the CG monstrosity.

For the figure's articulation, Superman has a neck swivel and is slightly on a hinge, letting him look up and down just slightly, but not enough for flying poses. The shoulders are on swivels front and back, and they hinge in and out. There's a bend at the elbow and the hands swivel. There is a waist swivel, but there is neither a diaphragm joint or an ab crunch joint. Hips move front and back on one joint and in and out on another, in what's called a T-joint. I don't like this point of articulation nowadays. It was alright for the older figures, but it's nowhere near as nice looking like the standard hip joints. There's a swivel above the knee, a bend at the knee, and some ankle hinges. Certainly would be acceptable for a toy made 10-15 years ago, but not for a 20 dollar toy that'll be put next to its competitors.

There are no accessories that come with Superman, which means no swappable hands, an alternate head for laser vision, and no flight stand for flying poses (not that it's expected for today's figures), but he does come with two pieces of the Steppenwolf build-a-figure. They are the waist and head of the character. We will get to the Steppenwolf BAF once we're done with the rest of the wave.

For a figure comparison, here is the JL version of Superman next to the Movie Masters Superman from Man of Steel, the BvS version of DC Multiverse Superman, and a Toys R US variant with darker colors; there was a version of Superman that came with a cloth cape in the SDCC 2015 2 pack, but beyond that, still the same figure. Movie Masters Superman does look good, though I feel the colors aren't 100% accurate, with Superman's suit not being quite as blue as it was in Man of Steel. Superman from the BvS line had a slightly lighter blue than the MM version, and the TRU version has the darker colors that he likely had in his battle with Batman in the rain. While the stiffer capes may not look quite as good for posing, they do look better than the cloth cape of the JL version, with the material looking a bit too cheap for the toy. I don't know which one is the best of them all, though that's due to Mattel not really making more of an effort to make the more recent figures feel special. The faces of the previous figures also have better likenesses to Henry Cavill (and accurate skin tones) compared to the JL one. Alas, there's not much to make the JL Superman feel worth getting compared to the previous versions.

Overall, Superman's an alright figure despite the issues that a majority of DC Multiverse figures have had before. If you already have previous versions of the character, you'll probably do well with those than to buy yet another barely altered version of the same toy you own just for the Steppenwolf piece. Just something to make the release more interesting beyond what people already got. It's just a shame not much was done for a figure like this. Then again, Josstice barely did anything good for Superman, so WB, you know what to do.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐