This November, Marvel honors Indigenous history with Marvel’s Voices: Indigenous Voices #1, a landmark special exploring the legacy and experiences of Marvel’s incredible cast of Indigenous characters in stories told by renowned Indigenous talent.
Marvel has revealed one of the covers of this upcoming book, a striking depiction of one of Marvel’s most prominent Native characters, Dani Moonstar, by Eisner award-winning artist Afua Richardson. Known for her work on the critically acclaimed series, Black Panther: World of Wakanda, Richardson brings the New Mutants leader to life in this vibrant piece showing Moonstar readying her psionic bow for her latest battle. In Marvel’s Voices: Indigenous Voices #1, geoscientist and Lipan Apache writer Darcie Little Badger and acclaimed Whitefish Lake First Nation artist Kyle Charles will team up for a Dani Moonstar story, as the Cheyenne superhero faces the crucial question of what her Indigenous heritage means in the new era of mutantkind.
Marvel’s Voices: Indigenous Voices #1 features stores written by Jeffrey Veregge, Rebecca Roanhorse, Darcie Little Badger, and Stephen Graham Jones with art by Verregge, Weshoyot Alvitre, Kyle Charles, and David Cutler with commentary by Taboo and Ben Jackendoff and a main cover by Jim Terry and Brian Reber.
Marvel’s Voices: Indigenous Voices #1 is out on November 18th!
We’ve got some big entries to tackle this time, readers. The latest Marvel Legends Riders, Squirrel Girl, and Cosmic Ghost Rider, have hit, and I finally got the third Dani Moonstar I needed to complete that trio of New Mutants. We’ll lead off with that . . .
Marvel Legends Dani Moonstar (Walgreens Exclusive): This figure was both a glorious offering and a pain in the ass. I love the idea of offering extra accessories to convert a figure into another character. However, between six Walgreens in my area (in and around Indianapolis), I saw exactly zero over several months. Over time, I did manage to get three on eBay for not-terrible prices. I tried to order on Walgreens.com more than once, only to have the orders fail for various reasons. However, a few days back, I managed to get ahold of the third so that I could put together Dani, Karma, and Wolfsbane.
Dani Moonstar: As the base figure, Dani Moonstar has been a long time coming. One was originally supposed to appear in a wave as far back as 2013. On the upside, it’s finally here, and it looks good. The basic costume and look of the characters comes from New Mutants vol. 2 #1 from 2009. In the case of Dani, the bow and double-ponytail is directly from the wraparound cover. I’m satisfied with the sculpting overall and the team did a nice job on the bow and arrow, distinguishing them from other, similar accessories in the line.
Karma: Similarly, Karma’s look is taken right from the same cover. I like the head-sculpt and the eye effect; the hands are similar to other sculpts that have been emblematic of psychic or magic powers (see Emma Frost, for example). I’m wouldn’t be surprised to see a variant Karma with the cybernetic leg turn up sometime in the future, but I think I prefer this version.
Wolfsbane: Not bad overall, but it lacks a certain flair. The head and clawed hand sculpts are good, but I wish that we had a “human” Rahne head. I would definitely like there to be a Stroman-esque X-Factor Woflsbane in the future to go with Havok, Polaris, Madrox, and the forthcoming Strong Guy BAF. But as far as representing the character for the New Mutants, it’s adequate.
Really, the best part of the Dani Moonstar figure is seeing all three versions together. We have literally never had all three characters in figure form, and it’s great to see. It makes me want to see a similar figure for the boys with heads/hands for Cypher, Sunspot, and Cannonball. Just maybe make them easier to get.
Moving on . . .
Squirrel Girl: This is pretty delightful. A great sculpt (that tale is hilariously huge) and a sense of fun are all over this set. Sure, the scooter is basically the same as the Deadpool version, but it does have the basket. The three squirrels are appropriately cute. Do I wish that they would have done the character as a regularly priced figure with the 3 squirrels still packed in? Sure. But I understand that occasionally certain things are done due to the realities of getting things on the market.
Now, I realize that there are some people out there that don’t like, even hate, Squirrel Girl. Frankly, don’t care. If you don’t like it, don’t buy. This is a great rendition of a character co-created by the immortal Steve Ditko that appeals to a lot fans. They like it, and so do I.
Cosmic Ghost Rider: I’m not going to beat around the bush here. This is AWESOME. I love everything about this set. The cycle is an incredible design. The figure looks great independent of the bike, and the faux metallic finish is nice. There’s an insane of amount of new tooling on this thing; I can’t peg anything from the bike that’s been used before. The giant energy ball “front tire” is great. This is one of those rare occasions that I’m going to write less and let the pictures speak for me.
Personal Note: We
all know what’s up out there. Figure reviews might be few and far between for a
bit. Everyone stay in and stay safe. The column is no fun without you.
So… anyone seen any good movies? Wonder Woman dominated the box office meeting our predictions of how much it earned, but exceeding all the rest. Who saw it? What’d you think? Sound off in the comments below! While you wait to see Wonder Woman again, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup.
For those unaware, there’s currently a standoff between protestors and the continuation of the Dakota Access Pipeline which would threaten the water supply of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. 300 federally recognized Native American tribes and thousands of protestors are in the middle of a stand-off to divert construction, a protest that began in April 2016.
Now, writer/director Josh Boone has posted some beautiful art on Instagram featuring New MutantDani Moonstar. Boone is writing and directing the upcoming live action film, X-Men: The New Mutants, starring the classic Marvel comic characters.
Moonstar, who has gone by Psyche and Mirage, is a member of the Mutant superhero team the New Mutants, and was created in 1982 by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod. The character is one of the highest profile Native American (specifically Cheyenne) characters in comics.
So… anyone seen any good movies? Wonder Woman dominated the box office meeting our predictions of how much it earned, but exceeding all the rest. Who saw it? What’d you think? Sound off in the comments below! While you wait to see Wonder Woman again, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup.