McFarlane DC Multiverse Batman (Cowardly Lot) & Lieutenant Gordon review

Two Batman storylines get a bit of McFarlane spotlight in the form of Cowardly Lot and Year One. The latter was best known for giving the Dark Knight an origin story regarding how he tackled his first year as a superhero in a DC relaunch of sorts after the first of many continuity reboot from the comic company itself, while Cowardly Lot, part of the Infinite Frontier arc, focused on the return of Scarecrow, a new Gotham Police project known as the Magistrate, and manipulation used into the elite of the city. As you can probably tell, I don't have the Year One version of Batman since I always felt that it was not only too small but also had even shorter arms than the Cowardly Lot version of Batman. Plus, with my interest in a Batman with a wired cloth cape that fits well enough with his JLU appearances from the DCAU, why not go with him despite his Red Platinum status? Yes, anyone not in the know should be aware that he is labeled as such due to Todd McFarlane making figures that are not specifically tied to a chase variant and are made in smaller quantities. In this case, Batman seems to have more in stock than lesser known characters, so I got him without issue. Let's see if he and the even-harder-to-get Walmart exclusive Commissioner Gordon are worth picking up!

Here we have Batman in-hand. This figure will not have any editing done to the saturation, brightness, etc, because of how annoyingly difficult it is to NOT wash out any details. Seriously, the mix of the usual black and the sometimes very very dark grey results in a figure that already blends with the black background. That being said, I should mention right away that this is a retool of the Hush buck, so named as he has some slight tweaks to the sculpt (namely a smoother torso than the raised emblem on the Hush version), and it's led to a tampographed but thankfully applied and aligned right. The proportions on the Hush buck are known to make Batman a little taller and bulkier than the Rebirth and Knightfall bucks, yet that combined with the costume's coloring and the logo to an extent make him feel more like a comic or corporate-mandated evergreen version of Batfleck. Yes, moreso than the Dark Knight Returns version that inspired him. Hear me out, weird as that sounds: you know how Disney and Marvel tends to go for having this brand synergy between their 2010s era cartoons, the MCU, and the generic Marvel branded merch like coloring books and Dollar General toys? That's the same feeling I get from this Batman design: part of a company-wide requirement where the generic DC merch and any cartoon series of the week should match the movies coming out for the sake of recognition. Not saying that Snyder is the blueprint, because I'm pretty sure this costume design was just like any other Batman costume in comic history, but there is a hint of that combined with what happened to Marvel marketing after Disney got rid of the iconic Scott Johnson Marvel Universe promo art we used to get.

Ignoring the slight paint specks on the head sculpt, this is easily the best non-closed head sculpt McFarlane has ever made for a Batman figure, though it isn't saying much since we previously got the first version of Hush Batman with an awful open mouth expression that looked like he was getting annoyed, and then the 2-pack with Spawn had a slightly better sculpt yet nothing like this. The gritted teeth heads found on the damaged Knightfall and Task Force versions of the KF buck are decent yet better fit in the context of the figures they were made for (TF version still has weird lip stick). While his articulation is standard for all McFarlanes, I should mention that the ankles and wrist joints are more ball-shaped and thus don't blend in with their sculpts as well as on the Knightfall. He has the same hands that were first used in Three Jokers, and while those were complained about for when we get alternate hands that don't match, we at least have another pair that come with molded Batarangs for him to hold as if he was about to pierce some skin! The last Batman figure to have done that was with the same company's Batman Begins figure, and it's funny how the Dark Knight Returns has him use those but no company (to my knowledge) recreated that. You could probably snip the Batarangs off to make regular fists, but we should have come with a pair of regular fists and accessory holding hands for a regular batarang as well as a grapnel gun, instead of one and the other mixed together. I also love the wired cape, which is one of the best things Todd did until a certain incoming Batman lacks that feature. Stay tuned.

As far as prior versions of Hush Batman are concerned, the main iterations mostly include Bruce Wayne in blue and gunmetal gray like the one on CL as well as a black and gray version. They make for good versions of the character but those capes would always take up space. The other character we have is Harvey Dent as Batman, who was part of the Batman: Reborn storyline, itself based on Grant Morrison's Batman and Robin run where Dick Grayson took the mantle after Bruce's death in Final Crisis; Two-Face's look is based on the Battle for the Cowl arc, hence why he's do ning a Batsuit whose colors are eerily similar to Harley Quinn's. And yes, we got a Batsuit Harvey befire a traditional Two-Face (minus live-action, for example). If you recall my Spawn/Batman crossover review, that figure used an outdated neck joint where the head and neck are a single piece, and the movement is at the base of the neck. Cowardly Lot Batman now has the better system where the double ball peg is in the middle of the neck where the head would connect.

For a comparison, here we have him next to the black and grey Knightfall version of the character. The costumes and proportions are obviously different, but the height is what makes the compatibility hard to stomach. Maybe you can go the DCAU route and pretend Knightfall is BTAS and Cowardly Lot is TNBA-onwards. Despite the scale differences, I think I could rock with CL Batman being my default McFarlane figure for a comic display thanks to him scaling better with the JLA.

As for Jim Gordon, this is him as a lieutenant rather than a commissioner, though it made sense given he would have just earned the first title mentioned before getting promoted to captain. This figure is a reuse of the Constantine mold, a character I have a small bit of interest in getting despite him being niche compared to Batman in general. The reuse makes sense given how the dude wears a trenchcoat as rugged as his experience tackling Gotham crime, though while a lot of the finer details are picked out, I am going to knock some points off for the tie not being painted all the way. Maybe he has a clip-on, but if the loop is still on there, why leave it unpainted? The rest of the figure works fine as it is, even with the wrinkles in his skinny pants. That being said, those hands are uncharacteristically huge on him, almost as bad as the ones that came with Page Punchers/DC Classic Superman! I hope there is a pair of hands that Gordon could use that don't make him look like he struggles putting his coat on.

The head sculpt is accurate to how he appeared in Batman: Year One, which also gave us the adaptation played by Gary Oldman in the Dark Knight trilogy. Even though this isn't 1:1 to the actor's likeness, I think I know who this guy will be standing next to in my display. Anyways, same articulation as before, but be sure not to mess up the glasses even if they're glued in place. His sole accessory, a gun, thankfully comes to us in a 12+ box instead of an 18+ box that has "NOT A TOY" stickers on it after hearing of the stupid audacity that is WB's firearm restrictions on its licensees.

Since I don't have Year One Batman, I got something even better: Batman Begins! Yeah, Gordon may not be 1:1 with how he appeared in the trilogy, but at least he makes for a good stand in given how closely he resembles the actor inspired by this iteration. That being said, while Red Platinum Batman is fairly easy to get in spite of his sticker, Jim Gordon, being a Walmart exclusive, has the opposite issue. On top of being a retail exclusive, preorders for him and Year One Batman were frequently canceled, an issue as bad as when truckloads of Killing Jokers and Page Puncher Supergirl's were stolen. Apart from his somewhat scarce nature, I already have issues with the hands and his tie, but I also wish he had an extra accessory like a hand holding the Joker card to work for endings of both Year One and Batman Begins. I recommend him since you're likely going to want this more than Gordon dressed as Batman, but as always, good luck finding him.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Cowardly Lot Batman)

⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Jim Gordon)