Here we have Black Adam in-hand, who reuses the Captain Marvel version of the Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman body mold. It's always an appropriate choice for someone as powerful and robust as him, Teth and Recovery Suit Supes are two of the buck's uses to not come with a cape (at least in my collection). The black and gold combo is always a favorite of mine, and especially with the lightning bolt on the center. I'm not sure if the boots are painted gold like the bolt, forearm guards, and belt, but if they're molded in a metallic gold, then they're thankfully able to color match the rest of him that is colored gold (hopefully no GPS in sight). All that said, this does just about what I would expect a classic Black Adam to look like, and the body mold will always be one I appreciate they use instead of Hush Superman or AC1000.
Head sculpt is pretty consistent with the likeness to the comic version of Black Adam, at least the classic look with the widow's peak and the ear shape that Dwayne Johnson lacked in his version of the character. While articulation is standard, he can pull off the superhero landing pretty well.
His only accessories are a pair of alternate hands that we got with plenty of other Supermen in this line. Was it hard to at least retool these to come with lightning zapping out of the tips of his fingers? I get that some figures need to have the bubble trays intact for the sake of keeping costs down, but how hard could it have been, really? Also, it looks like some stress formed at the center of the palms, which is the first I'm seeing with this figure. It didn't show up on all the Supermen I own, and I'm not sure if this is a rare issue or not.
For a comparison with a more heroic champion, here he is with Page Punchers Captain Marvel. The same buck they're sharing is at least great for some consistency between Teth-Adam and Billy Batson, and while some retooling to slightly raise the symbols in relief would be even better, reusing body molds based on their lore with Wizard Shazam makes perfect sense. Sadly for Black Adam, he loses to the present day pupil, as just coming with a pair of hands and nothing else pales in comparison to the BB coming with a wired cape and collar, on top of including a comic book for about $24.99! By contrast, Black Adam lacks cloth goods and any comic so to speak, making him less worthy of his slight price hike than what CM got. Shame too because I mostly like this figure if not for how cheap the value is.
As for Kid Flash, this figure is a retool of I believe the Jon Kent Superman body mold. I have that buck as 90s Superboy, the Page Punchers with the disappointing lack of a leather jacket, but as one would probably expect, this figure suffers from keeping the same ridges for the boots associated with Jon Kent. It's always going to be an issue no matter what color the legs are in, but and it makes me wish McFarlane did some retooling to not only reduce the need for any inaccuracies. I'm sure there are boots that aren't too thick for the build of this character, especially since it'd prevent any poor paint coverage or bleeding between any parts colored or molded either in red or yellow. Some may think the build is a little too muscular, but that's to be expected from superheroes built in this era. After all, he wasn't from the time when artists would draw twinks in cosplay.
Head sculpt is kind of dorky, but that's to be expected when you're trying to go for a trademark of your own rather than the eventual task of filling in for your dead uncle-in-law. At least there is a bit of a wash to the hair, and as the articulation is consistently the same with 98% of the line, let's go over the accessories. He comes with a pair of running hands that I wish the other Flashes came with, and he also has some lightning effect parts that to onto the hands to simulate his power through the Speed Force. Normally, I dread putting these on since they don't specify which ones go where or how they're supposed to fit on, but these are a little easier to keep on him than the Snyder Cut Flash effect parts, for sure. You might get them to fit on his eventual grown up Flash suit form thanks to the slightly thicker proportions on the Blue Beetle body.
Here he is with his mentor, and you can tell that photographing these two wasn't easy thanks to the constant change in coloration despite the modern age of cameras we have. In that case, we have a problem where Wally has a more pinkish red than it should be, while Barry Allen shouldn't have that dark of a red for his suit. Maybe Wally should be a bit shorter than he currently is, but then again, I suspect that was a byproduct of using the Jon Kent body mold, who is slightly taller than teenage Wally West. If you want to imagine how he looks next to his successor era self, pretend Barry is using the Wally West tooling.
Overall, Black Adam looks better as a figure than Wally West, yet the latter has more accessories to offer than the old champion could ever offer. It's more of a pick-your-poison situation with these two than I felt with Sinestro vs Brainiac, because a more classic Teth is something many people likely want more than they do a pre-Crisis Wally. Especially knowing how some fans grew up with the DCAU version of Flash, who was Wally in this case. Get whichever figure you want, be it Black Adam to put against Captain Marvel and Superman, or Kid Flash to form your Teen Titans.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (for both)
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