McFarlane DC Multiverse 1989 Joker & Black Canary review

What do Jack Nicholson's Joker and Black Canary have in common, you may ask? Very little beyond their DC heritage and having some connection to a version of Batman or some vigilante character. I also wanted to look into seeing who is more of a worthy Collector Edition figure after the price hike occurred as well as some figures missing the mark more than others. As for why Jack Nicholson Joker is not a Theatrical Deluxe, this is due to the character being based on the Batman 89 comic rather than the actual movie, meaning they can do a looser recreation of the character without paying too much for his likeness. While casuals probably know who Jack Nich Joke is, some, if not most of you, may not be familiar with Black Canary so I will go over a brief history lesson of her: the title was originally given to Dinah Drake, one of the earliest heroines from the Golden Age while debuting in The Flash (Jay Garrick)'s comic run. She would later become a member of the Justice Society. After the Crisis on Infinite Earths story arc, Dinah Lance, the current bearer of the Black Canary role, would stand out for both carrying over her mother's martial arts expertise and her metahuman abilities, including the Canary Cry. She would later join the Justice League before more recent stories have her as part of the Birds of Prey in addition to having a relationship with Green Arrow.  The New 52 series would merge both mother and daughter as a single character before separating them in Rebirth, which is where we get her figure today. Let's see how both turned out!

Here we have Jack Nicholson Joker in-hand, which is a partial reuse of the Joaquin Phoenix incarnation of the character. The suit is at least consistent with what the character should look like, but the physique of the character is a little thinner than what the actor was associated with. Near as I can tell, Jack was slightly stocky for the traditional build or the Joker, meaning that this body is not exactly film accurate compared to a purpose built sculpt. However, as being A version of Jack's character instead of THE version, it makes up that aspect with the color scheme of his suit. The purple, baby blue, and orange are already good, but the tie and especially the checker pattern pants make this figure much more premium than one could expect. Sure, the pattern will break up from how the knees work, but that's action figure logic for you. That being said, the jacket's a bit too rubbery, almost having the feel or an Airheads candy...

The likeness to Jack Nicholson, as we know it, is far from spot-on. It's honestly closer to what we'd find with Hasbro's pre-digital facial scanning tech, but given the circumstances with the actor's royalty fees skyrocketing faster than economic inflation, it could have been worse. That being said, my copy seems to have a slight issue with the hair not going all the way down, leaving a small yet noticeable gap in near the ears. His articulation is generally standard with the McFarlane range, even with the coat over the body, though the wrist joints, at least for the pegs within the forearms, are almost stuck due to the holes including paint that dried up after they were attached. As a result of this, the hands can only swivel at one point, and depending on what angle the crevice lies after pegging it in, you either have the wrists bend inwards/outwards or up & down. I recommend heating the forearms up with boiling water for half a minute and then pulling the joint off without turning it. Hopefully, that will work if the paint keeping it stuck in place is dealt with. In fact, there is this weird tendency of some lubricant left on parts of the figure likely meant for the joints, but word of advice for all toy assembly workers in Asia: let the parts dry before attaching the wrists! Oh and he has his super long gun used to shoot down the Batarang, but it's bent out of the box. He should get a doctor to check on that, as his neutral left hand gesturingly showcases.

His bang gun is thankfully painted crisply without having the white look pink given it'a a tampograph on red plastic. You can also switch the hair with a hat, which will be my preferred display option with the character along with his cane. Do keep in mind that the different handle grips may widen the hands' circumference slightly.

He also comes with a megaphone, though mine is warped out of the package given how flexible the material is, a similar issue with some McFarlane accessories where the plastic is too rubbery. On the flip side, leaving him without his hair makes for a funny bald Joker display. If you remember when I reviewed Zatanna, her hair came off and some people wondered why. Beyond maybe switching her with the Platinum version's angry face, it was possible that the hair feature was meant for when she was an Elite Edition (thank God she wasn't). Here, we have a proper use of such a gimmick, and I generally like the number of accessories we come with; two guns, a cane, a megaphone, two headpieces, and 3 pairs of hands is good value, though some points are taken off for the rubber quality.

For a comparison, here he is next to Michael Keaton Batman...and I know many are about to go "b-b-but wait a minute that's the Returns costume, heavens to Betsy what are you smoking?!"; first off, I prefer the Returns costume, and second the version of 1989 Batman I have sucks. So for a hypothetical world where none of the Burton/Schumacher Batman villains died in the same movie they're involved in, and Batman never got recasted, this would be how I would imagine their looks to consistently be (apart from making Joker closer to the actor likeness). As for the Platinum Edition, it is based on the vintage toy colors rather than the film's deco; the various shades of pink combined with the remaining blue and orange almost has a tropical Skittles vibe. As for the Joker, I ended up liking this figure more than I expected, though it is not 100% perfect. The coat feels like candy when it shouldn't, and the accessories being warped is irritating. That being said, I dug how much value for money he has for his accessories along with the many paint apps on the legs, and the likeness is better than I expected it to be (even if not 100% perfect). If you can get this figure for your Burton/Schumacher display, he won't look 100% live-action next to the others but it could be worse.

Here we have Black Canary in-hand, and if the body type and painted-on dress are anything to go by, this is a reuse of the First Appearance Wonder Woman. While I can see the intent on using a simpler mold to make the tooling fir a character wearing street clothes, I don't know if BC is that built compared to an Amazonian, it really shows how limited McFarlane is with what they can reuse for their female heroes versus the male cast. Granted, more male DC characters exist than females, but I wish we had a smaller body type that wasn't just Knightfall Catwoman. That being said, ai can at least say that the paint apps for the blue shirt, despite merely being printed on, is thankfully crisp and without any major QC errors. Nothing feels blurred or sloppy like when Hasbro paints skin on a clothed body. As for the fishnet leggings, they're complimentary for someone like her, and they've been made of actual cloth rather than being printed on. Which makes me wonder if this is part of the Collector Edition budget or not because Zatanna has her fishnets painted on. Still, it at least captures that "hot and deadly" vigilante chick who's not looking for a fun night. I wish her hair had shading, however; it looks too close to wet spaghetti noodles.

Her head sculpt, however, looks less than stellar, at least with this smirking expression. Just the way it looks too much she's either got plastic surgery, is a smoking addict, or has eyebrows too thick and w wire profile too off. Far from an ideal hot chick and one of the weakest McFarlane head sculpts for the fairer sex. 

She comes with trigger finger hands that do nothing but show she can hold her neutral face (which is better) and a surprisingly decent screaming face (even if she isn't fully opening her mouth to convey her yelling ability). Thankfully, no tongue stuck inside the head like with Guy Gardner and Mister Terrific.

The most unique accessory for Black Canary is her leather jacket, another instance of a figure coming with an accessory like this as we saw with Captain Boomerang (only at smaller size this time). Kind of helps hide her arms being more muscular than normal for someone like her. I even like her logo being printed on the back, which is the closest thing to represent her superhero role in a way.

Here is my attempt to recreate her character art associated with the packaging, which makes me wish she had some.effecr parts to represent her Canary Cry. IDK, reusing the same hands we got with Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, and now Black Canary kind of feels repetitive as hell, especially when the trigger hands can easily be replaced with a whole new effect part to simulate her attack. The cloth/leather goods are cool, but I kind of like the Platinum version more for costume design living up to her name more than the exposed skin and blue shirt (not a bad thing though). Regardless, while I like having another Justice Babe in the collection, I wish she had more effort put into her than what we currently have. Mostly for the head and accessories, because she feels less worthy of the price than Joker.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Joker)

⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Black Canary)