McFarlane DC Multiverse Mongul vs Superman review

After Superman died, four other heroes each went after the mantle as either a successor or claiming to be the real Man of Steel. While Superboy, Eradicator, Cyborg Superman, and Steel each had separate priorities that would all intertwine as they mostly clash with each other, the real Kal-El would eventually return back in black with a recovery suit that slowly helps regenerate his powers while utilizing rocket boots and guns if need be. Meanwhile, Mongul II stands out from his Pre-Crisis counterpart as the ruler of Warworld, and during the busy ass 90s-era of DC stories, he would destroy Coast City and establish his rivalry with not just Superman but also the Green Lantern known as Hal Jordan. He would later be an ally with the likes of Hank Henshaw, who also had beef with the two heroes I just mentioned. I'd rather let you all read the comics instead, so let's instead review these two!

Here we have Superman in hand, seen here with a Punisher-like design thanks to the bullet harness, mullet, and dark color scheme. Hell, if he had the silver boots (which would be better as we'll get to), that would have been a step closer to resembling Frank Castle. Yeah, Twitter normies, I bet those jokes on Batfleck being compared to the Punisher come off being weird with this revelation, huh? As for the figure, it is a reuse of the Earth-2 Superman body, which makes sense and should be the standard for general comic Supes. However, we don't have any new parts for the trunks nor the boots; the former shouldn't have the belt, and the latter could have easily been painted silver to make the leftover tooling work fine. I'll give McFarlane credit and say they sculpted the sheath for the knife that doesn't even come off (and that sounds like a problem already), but we have the parts for legs without boot tops or a belt buckle, so why not opt for those unless they're undersized next to this figure? Also, while McFarlane figures are easy to disassemble, I haven't gotten around to removing the harness on his chest so I can appreciate the logo. Don't get me wrong, the figure is fine if a bit standard for the line, and the black suit looks cool with the harness, but the tooling could have been more effective without the leftover costume details that made sense on his old suit.

His head sculpt is the same from the Page Punchers version of the character, though slightly better painted and just as fitting for the costume we have here. My favorite part has to be the blue shading, as it helps compete the look of mullet Superman. I still want to get the Mullet Superman head from the Return of Superman body, the same one reusing the TDKR version, but he is pricy as hell. Much like the body as a whole, articulation is the same as well as coming with the alternate splayed open hands we've seen before. They do appear to have the muscular veins present so these should have been resculpted to be proper gloves unless they are super tight on him.

The guns are the biggest highlight of the set, and the sculptwork on them is pretty good for the most part. Would love to see some ports to allow some blast effects as Supes shoots bad guys (which would probably trigger the LARPers who only know of Superman from Redditors and shitty video essays saying he should be wholesome), but the paintwork is at least reminiscent of the comic shading in a way.

For a few comparisons, I have the Snyder Cut black suit version to show how much changed between the two, even if Cavill still had no issues with his powers once he regenerated in the sun. The differences with the Cavill version still coming with the cape and not coming with the silver cufflinks may not be comic accurate, but I am still forgiving of it since the suit was already great (especially the richer blue on BvS compared to MOS) and it makes me think of the equally sexy black suit for Spider-Man 3. The comic figure we have here is not to be confused with the Sonar Suit we got earlier; that is a post-Crisis version that operated in secret throughout the New 52 universe for the storyline Superman: Lois and Clark (not to be confused with Lois & Clark: The Adventures of Superman starring Dean Cain or the CW show Superman & Lois).

As for Mongul, this figure is a repaint of the Mega-Fig we got a few years back, only in a more classic color scheme of hot pink and silver. While a wash is applied to help accentuate this larger figure, it does present a problem on the upper arms; they're still textured and veiny like bare skin despite having them covered by sleeves! I don't know if it's supposed to be that tight in his body, but wouldn't it make sense to smoothen the details of his arms?! On the bright side, those are still his arms rather than belong to a different character, but I am reminded of how Hasbro reused the arms of Hulkling for one of the Wrecking Crew members (Bulldozer specifically) and would have accentuated the details of bare skin on the arms if a wash was applied. It doesn't ruin the figure 100% like the errors on the first Hush Batman or the everything in New 52 Superman, but it makes me wish they spent a little extra on more than just the paint since it looks cool on him.

His head sculpt is similar to the original release of the character, and the paintwork might be even better with the wash applied in his skin to go with the maniacal grin showing his rotting teeth and his soulless dark eyes. Being a part of Warworld does that to a motherfucker. His articulation is slightly different from the normal figures, including a ball joint with the neck system burrowed within the torso, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, rotation at the elbow, single jointed elbows, wrist rotation, inward hinges for said wrists, a single ball joint for the torso, standard McFarlane hips with slightly worse range with his thicker diaper piece, decent thigh rotation, double jointed knees, and ankles that barely pivot and hinge yet have very tight toe-ticulation. He comes with no accessories but he previously came in his modern colors individually. I would almost prefer this one if it weren't for the solid green forearm guards. 

Here we have Mongul next to a regular Superman as well as Green Lantern, which almost makes sense given the two share a rivalry with the Lord of Warworld himself. Makes me want to get a few more villains for the GLC since Supes has enough of the main faces for his Rogues Gallery.

Overall, as much as this set does some things good, Ink know there is room for improvement. Mainly for the specific costume details on Superman and not having the arms textured on Mongul. If those had been fixed, all I would complain about is the lack of blast effect potential for the guns and no alternate hands still included with a Mega-Fig. A set like this goes for around $80, and I paid around $65, but at this rate maybe I should be happy the license transfer means I won't have to give a fuck about what Mattel does since I'll be one step closer from retiring full time collecting.

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