Marvel Legends Power Rankings: Captain America ‘Abomination Wave’

The final wave of Captain America: Civil War Legends isn’t the best we’ve seen from Hasbro, but it certainly still includes a few gems.  Here’s how every figure in the wave measures up.

I kind of feel like this year’s Captain America themed Marvel Legends from Hasbro could have been pared down to two insanely great waves of figures, but Hasbro opted to reach for three full waves of figures (plus a whole bunch of retailer exclusives on the side).  And yea, the result is, some of the releases have kind of felt like filler… but the upside is, it’s still more Legends in the toy line, and that can’t possibly be all bad.

This wave was hurt by some strange costume choices for its characters, and the perplexing decision to pre-release the Build-A-Figure as part of this year’s SDCC box set, which dropped less than a month before this wave hit.  In the end, I think the reception of the figures in the Abomination wave will be very, VERY subjective… but I still wanted to share my rankings, from worst to best.

7. Wonder Man

I know it’s got its fans, but I’m really not feeling the Grim Reaper base body.  It just seems too plain and boring to me, despite its decent height and range of motion in the joints.  I will admit, this buck is a good choice for Wonder-Man… but considering the bland body, the disappointing choice of Simon’s modern, streamlined (and yawn-inducing) costume, and a fairly generic headsculpt, what we’re left with is a pretty boring figure.  I like the alternate translucent purple “energy” hands, which couple nicely with the repainted plasma blasts first released with Havok from the X-Men series, but these accessories alone don’t feel like enough to get excited over an otherwise boring figure.

6. Captain America (Secret War costume)

Here’s another figure dragged down by a sort of dull costume choice.  I understand Hasbro’s desire to include a Cap variant as an anchor for this wave, and while I like this darker pallet of silvers and navy blues, this figure still feels like nothing more than a basic repaint of figures we’ve already seen released more than once.  It’s especially smarting that Hasbro opted for this costume instead of the very similar modern/ Hydra costume, which would have felt like a much more relevant variant, at least in my opinion.

5. Captain Britain

Man, I’m scared I’m starting to sound like a broken record here… Captain Britain ranks lower on the list again due to his modern costume, although I will say this style makes for a more interesting design than Cap or Wonder Man.  The new figure of the Excalibur mainstay actually looks really cool with a great dimensionality sculpted into his helmet-like mask, and an excellent metallic finish on the blues of his Union Jack-inspired outfit.  The Hyperion buck works well to give this guy bulk, and at the end of the day, I’m very happy to have him as part of the Legends collection.  Honestly, his only real drawback in that– while this costume is solid and makes for a nice figure– we’re sorely needing for a classic Captain Britain, because the old Toy Biz figure has very much not aged well.

4. Abomination

The Build-A-Figure in this wave is getting a lot of flak, due to his reuse of parts from last year’s Rhino sculpt.  And sure, it means this version of Hulk’s arch nemesis lacks much of the segmentation that has defined his look over the years… but I’m honestly fine with that.  There’s a really nice bulk and heft to this figure, and he looks plenty imposing opposite pretty much any Legend of your choosing.  I also like the color pallet on this figure, with the reptilian/ crocodile-esque dark shading on the creature’s back and the yellow highlighting on his torso, hands and feet.  The big drawback of this guy is Hasbro’s odd decision to include an alternate deco of the very same character in last month’s Comic-Con exclusive Raft box set.  I wish one of the two had been retooled into A-Bomb, a character we’ve never seen in Hasbro’s 6″ collection, because that would be way more relevant than two different colored identical sculpt of Abomination himself.

3. Iron Skull

Earlier in this ranking, I criticized Captain America for feeling like too much of a straight repaint.  In and of itself, this doesn’t have to be an issue, because if done well, a repaint can be fun enough to feel unique and original.  That’s the case with Iron Skull, a figure I had very little interest in prior to getting my hands on him.  The formula here is super simple… He’s a repainted Iron-Man Mk 42 with the old school Kirby-esque Red Skull head popped on top.  We’ve seen 100% of these parts before, but they’re all so great that they have not worn out their welcome at all.  And the new paint apps are really cool, from the gunmetal grey and red piping of Skull’s armor, to the vastly improved wash and detailing on his headsculpt.  I could care less about this TV-friendly iteration of the villain, but Hasbro did such a great job on this figure, Iron Skull may very well become the go-to Red Skull in my collection.

2. Eel

Here’s what Marvel Legends, at its best, has always been about.  Eel is certainly not the most important mover and shaker in the Marvel Universe– and hell, I doubt there’s a single person out there would claim him as their absolute FAVORITE Marvel character– but he’s still a mainstay among the C-lister bad guys, and Hasbro has done a great job in giving him the toy treatment.  Eel’s classic purple and blue costume is well rendered on the medium sized Bucky Cap body, and the result is a figure who is simple, clean and eye-catching.  The alternate non-electrified hands– an omission who made Hasbro’s new Electro suffer– instead help make Eel feel like a very rounded figure, a cool toy just itching to be beaten up by Steve Rogers and his fellow Avengers.

1. Scarlet Witch (Civil War)

Eel is hands-down the best comic-based figure in the latest Cap Legends lineup, but we also get one more cinematic figure in the mix, and Scarlet Witch takes the crown.  Much like Black panther and Falcon, this figure features a fantastic rendering of Scarlet Witch as she appeared in Civil War, from the very good portrait of Elizabeth Olsen to the wide range of textures and details sculpted into her costume.  Scarlet Witch’s sculpt is 100% original, she’s fully poseable and in great scale with the rest of the MCU Legends.  The figure features two mystic flame accessories which fit over her hands very well, which serve her character perfectly.  There’s been a huge demand for Scarlet Witch since Age of Ultron hit theaters last year, and I’m happy that Hasbro really nailed it with her figure.  Now, if Hasbro would just get to The Vision, we’d have at least one version of every major on-screen Avenger.

The Captain America Abomination Wave and more new Marvel Legends are available now at Mike’s Comics N Stuff.  Click Here to order today!