Third in a series of “JLU toys from episodes I hated.”
on January 6, 2011 at 12:01 am
Does that make Darkseid I. R. Baboon?
This set, one bought online from the MattyCollector site, was a pleasant surprise. I am thoroughly in love with it, even though, going in, I wasn’t terribly excited about it.
I was buying it for Kalibak, who was a character introduced to me in the Superman: The Animated Series episode, “Father’s Day.” In it, Kalibak attacks during (surprise) Fathers Day, and Pa Kent is trapped under a collapsed building. What made me hate the episode was how it was executed. Superman knows his father is on the brink of death, buried under tons of rubble. But yet Superman takes his friggin’ sweet time while fighting Kalibak. I’m not talking just about the fighting itself. Whenever Kalibak gets knocked out temporarily, Superman sorta brushes his hands together, turns around, and starts walking as slowly as he can back to where he last saw his dad. Why? Because this episode has 22 minutes to fill, by gum! It was excruciating.
It wasn’t the best foot to start out with, regarding Kalibak. I mean, otherwise, he’s all right. I mean, he looks nothing like his purported father, Darkseid, but I never really understood the genetics of Apokolips to begin with. And he sounds like I. M. Weasel, just like Worf does! How can you go wrong.
Darkseid and Pimp My Darkseid.
But what brought me around to loving this set were the toys themselves. Kalibak’s sculpt is gorgeous. The ones that Mattel takes the time to sculpt uniquely always tend to be, but Kalibak is one of my favorites. I think it’s his asymmetrical expression. One side of his mouth is a grin and the other side tucks into a grimace. Facial expressions can make a toy, and this is a great example of that. It’s also nice that he’s as wide as he is tall. He’s a big block of plastic. He’s only got shoulder articulation, with both his hips and neck fused into the sculpt, but who the hell cares. He oozes personality just through his face.
When I ordered the set, to me Darkseid was just the guy who came with the character I didn’t already have. I have a couple Darkseids already, so while it was nice that this was the Brainiac-infused version from the very last episode, it wasn’t a “must have” figure. I mean, hey, if I display this new version of Darkseid, does that mean I have to put away my Brainiac toy? I don’t think they can coexist!
It's not the Anti-Life Equation, but it'll do in a pinch.
But getting him in-hand, my feelings changed abruptly. This Darkseid toy is kick ass. It makes the vanilla Darkseid look stupid and boring. Brainiacked Darkseid has lots of contrast and color vibrancy. The best part, however, are his new sculpted parts. He’s got a new shoulderpad piece that fits over his head and torso, plus he has new forearms. The new forearms are what especially tickle me. You see that right hand of his that’s sculpted into a “I will crush you” pose? It’s fucking awesome. It’s the best handsculpt in the world. The neutral open-palmed fist sculpts of the older version are very good, but what replaces them is amazing.
So now I need to figure out if I still get to display Brainiac. I guess it’d kind of help if I didn’t, what with all these new army builder figures and space arrangements being what they are, but, let’s face it, that’s a losing battle.
Also, I discovered a few days later that Darkseid is way better at holding the Matrix than either of the two Transformers it comes with. So enjoy an extra photo I tacked on.
Darkseid Prime (or Darkside Prime for us Beast Wars fans LOL) does sound pretty cool…
I’m pretty sure that’s not Darkseid+Brainiac. From the director’s commentary on that episode they just wanted to do a redesign of Darkseid and make him more Kirby-ish — he hasn’t merged with Brainiac.
(I could be wrong ’bout this, of course. Just how I remember it.)
I remember this too, form either the commentary or an interview or something. They said the idea that the resurrected Darkseid was merged with Brainiac was just something fans had assumed, not anything they intended.
I can see how fans made that leap (I was one of them). I mean, the entire plot arc of the season had been about Luthor trying to hunt down Brainiac’s consciousness/programming/pieces/whatever and rejoin with him. Then he finally finds it, gets his magic girlfriend to cast a resurrection spell, and out of nowhere here comes Darkseid with a fresh new redesign and a new toy to play with (that Agony Matrix move he lays on Supes). It would seem, to the man without the DVDs, like the spell botched, brought back Darkseid and Brainiac, then fused them, but I guess I was wrong.
Actually it was confirmed that Darkseid HAD merged with parts of Brainiac in that episode on the Toonzone forums, either by Derick Wyatt or Bruce Timm himself. They said the director on the commentary just had his wires crossed, and that they both were true. The redesign was for Darkseid’s benefit AND was a combination with Brainiac.
Took me a while, but I finally found the quote for anyone interested. It was Bruce Timm, and he also talks about his inspiration from the rock group KISS:
“for the record, i think matt’s either mistaken, mis-remembering or just messin’ with y’all — i thought it was pretty well implied that at least SOME of brainiac’s matter got fused with darkseid’s when he was re-configured and resurrected….that’s how i interpreted it, anyway, and used that to justify designing some spiffier threads for darkseid, which i’d been tempted to do for years anyway…. for my part, the jazzed-up costume IS meant to represent a “new and improved” darkseid, suggesting a vaguely-defined fusion with brainiac, along with a slight “power upgrade” (that line from “destroyer” about ds being “more powerful than i’ve ever been”)…. seeing as the 2 episode titles reference KISS — though i point out that each title is entirely appropos even if one doesn’t get the KISS connection — i couldn’t resist incorporating some KISS-ish elements (notably the platform heels) into the new costume, but the end result is still more “kirby” than “kiss” (i think anyway)… ” -B.T.
So there you go.
You can still display Brainiac. Brainiac made multiple duplicates of himself throughout the DCAU. And even when we believed he was “dead” in the final season of JLU, we already knew he wasn’t because he was in the future in the Legion of Superheroes episode of S:TAS.
Actually Kalibak is the genetic son of Highfather, leader of the New Gods. As some weird clause to a ceasefire between their world and apokolips, Darkseid and Highfather exchanged sons. I forget the other sons’ name, so I decline any geek points I just earned
At least in the comics, the exchange was Orion (Darkseid’s son) for Scott Free/Mr. Miracle (Highfather’s son). Maybe they changed it for DCAU, I dunno.
you know, the Lustice League Cartoon only actively said that Orion was darkseids son, never said Kalibak was Highfathers…. so yeah
Kalibak is actualy High Father’s son, and Orion is Darkseid’s son. They did some sort of trade thing for some reason. I don’t know THAT much. XD
Actually, the son of Highfather that got traded for Orion was Mister Miracle.
Considering Braniac has on multiple occasions manifested in multiple bodies, I think you’re ok.
According to the Wikis: Kalibak is the first-born son of Darkseid and Suli. Scott Free is the son of Izaya (Highfather), the ruler of New Genesis, and his wife named Avia. However, as part of a diplomatic move to stop a destructive war against the planet Apokolips, Highfather agreed to an exchange of heirs with the galactic tyrant Darkseid; the exchange of heirs guaranteed that neither side would attack the other. Scott traded places with Darkseid’s second born son Orion.
Some of the confusion seems to come from the Superman TAS. In Apokolips…Now! Part 1, the Mother Box shows High Father and Darkseid exchanging babies Orion and Mister Miracle for the truce. However, the baby is never identified in the episode as Mister Miracle. Since Miracle was never even shown until Justice League, non-comic fans (even myself) assumed the baby was Kalibak, not Scott Free. And as for the genetics, all of the New Gods are strange and meant to be mythical godlike, so they take on whatever forms their role requires.
I guess you could handwave it and say Superman could keep an eye and an ear on his Pa, and make sure his heart was beating, because he’s Superman and he can see all kinds of things, especially your secret identity and your junk.
The upper arms are new sculpts as well. You can tell because the original figure had more of a round shape. This New Darkseid sculpt has a more blocky look.
I love the set. My only complaint is that they should have had articulation in the gloves/for arm instead of the useless leg articulation. I also wished they gave waist articulation…I’ll admit it might have upset the wonderful sculpt, but It would vastly improve his range of movement…Additionally, I believe at the price point they forced upon us, we deserve a fucking Mother Box and Beta Club! At least they sculpted open hands so they can hold the custom ones we have to make.
p.s. ToyGuru once hinted a while back that “the next six pack would be Apocalyptic” (or something similar, I’m paraphrasing.
Since Target dropped the six packs after the Thanagar & Eclipso sets, fans have assumed Destroyer Darksied, Kalibak and a Parademon or two would have accompanied the obligatory Batman and/or Superman…
You can search for the quote on Actionfigureinsider.com if you’d like, I’m to lazy.