Nearly two weeks before the Snyder cut was announced, I was thinking of how Steppenwolf could possibly change his appearance from his BvS appearance to what would be a hypothetical Justice League cut that is not compromised. That being said, Zack Snyder's Justice League uses the design we saw in the Ultimate Edition of BvS, and it's a rather lovely one as far as monstrous aliens are concerned. It's the perfect blend of looking metal and organic, and part of me wondered if the Apokoliptians were meant to be technorganic in the Snyderverse, but their armor is more on-par with the nanotech of Iron Man from Infinity War (except with better CGI) like when he sort of disrobed himself in front of Darkseid. It's a great design and I'm happy we got to see it come to life in the Snyder Cut compared to that weird Josstice version. Now let's delve into reviewing the figure!
Here is Steppenwolf in-hand. Right off the gate, he is a very spiky figure, and while the points are either bent or blunt for safety reasons, you still get a prickly feeling for the guy overall. It's accurate to how he looks in the movie, but it can be a little annoying when your hand or fingers presses onto him while handling the articulation at times. That being said, the sculpt work applied onto the armor is done rather nicely, especially as far as the lines of the metal are concerned; they go well for the segmented armor that retracts whenever he disrobes himself, and while a cliche for anyone who's tired of the nanotech/metal designs that is present in modern comic book movies, it at least works better than whatever simpler designs that the characters had (and don't give me that "oh you're not a comic book fan" if you're praising character designs that you suddenly praised just to shit on Snyder). Back to the figure, the silver paint (or is it metallic plastic?), as well as the dry brush, give this figure a worn look that better sells his days as a war-torn villain in the DC universe. Contrasting those aspects of him are the organic parts of the character, mainly the face, fingers, and toes. They're the exposed skin of Steppenwolf, which further distinguishes him from the metal armor with the dirt brown colors, the textures of those parts, and the overall contrast they present. Certainly less skin revealed than with Steppenwolf, but maybe it's a little too dark for him? Either way, it's great attention to detail, especially with the hands having more fingers and an extra thumb on each other than with Darkseid.
Head sculpt is very well-done, though I will say that while the skin was a little dark in some pics, it is a little less noticeable of inaccuracy when viewed up close and in some lighting. I don't think his skin was too dark in the Snyder Cut, so why he was treated like that is beyond me. At the very least, the details on the face are added on very well, though the eyes do look a little less life-like than they should be (and the left eye isn't applied on properly). Darkseid's eyes were different from this guy, but at least he felt more alive than Steppenwolf does. As far as the articulation is concerned, the head is on a ball joint, shoulders move front and back as well as in and out, the biceps swivel rather stiffly, the elbows bend as well as have a swivel of their own, the wrists swivel, and they hinge in and out (with the same ugly joint design that Darkseid has but worse). There are two torso joints that move around for the diaphragm and the abdomen, the hips move front and back as well as in and out, the thighs swivel, the knees bend, and the feet do pivot unlike Steppenwolf yet they do not swivel at the ankles like with Darkseid. Oh, and his toes have independent articulation while Darkseid has just the one. His electro-ax, which is annoyingly hard to put into his hands, I might add, is sculpted nicely and has some decent paint apps applied, but I do wish that it came with some electricity pieces to add some additional display options. I don't want to repeat the same comments I made on the lack of accessories, but if Hasbro can display their figures with effect pieces, why can't McFarlane if they want to go for the collector route? Just seems so unusual for that to be the case.
For a size comparison, here he is in-between Darkseid and Black Suit Superman. Now, I do think that the average person would find the height between the New Gods and a 6-foot tall human such as Superman to be weird, but since they're 8-feet tall in the movie, it matches the heights that they have, even if Superman was either floating when fighting Steppenwolf most of the time or on his knees when Darkseid walked to him. Whatever the case, the scale works well, and it allows the two to recreate some scenes or add new context to them, like Darkseid facepalming at his uncle's struggles in defeating the Kryptonian!
And for another comparison, here he is with the Josstice version of the character, who may look decent in some areas yet looks pretty lousy as far as the entire package is concerned. The textures of the suit look alright while the hands are both oversized and lack any of the attention to detail that his face has. That being said, it's a surprise that they're both at the same height and possibly at eye level. I'm sure some would wonder why that is the case since one was a standalone figure and the other was a build-a-figure, but I suppose it's not a bad thing. Either way, Steppenwolf trumps Jossticewolf in pretty much every aspect, from the representation to the articulation and the value for money. It's not a fair comparison, but when is an impressive figure in his own right and the other requires 6 underwhelming figures to complete an underwhelming figure that's taller than all of them, I think fans would be happy with Steppenwolf. Though he's not 100% perfect with how loose the shoulders are and how unbalanced he can be at standing, I appreciate how fulfilling he is by comparison to the previous take on the character. Still needs more display options.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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