Though I took a pass on the Series IV figures, I’m not done with DC Direct’s Blackest Night line. Though I’ve been tempted by the idea of a Black Lantern JLA, I’m sticking to the oversized aliens not likely to get DCUC love. Enter Nekron. He offers some flexibility with his size, so I’ve opted to pick up DCD’s version.

If you just came out of a three-year coma, Nekron turned out to be the primary villain behind Blackest Night, DC’s 2009/2010 event. Before Geoff Johns found a role for him as the latest architect of the DC Universe’s destruction, he was a powerful, but minor, villain with only a handful of appearances under his belt. He was created back in 1981 as the “Lord of the Unliving”, a decrepit ruler of the dimension where souls pass through before going to their final destination. He’s been schooled by Hal, Kyle, Captain Atom, and Wonder Woman to name a few and to make him an ultimate GL villan, Johns had to give him a bit of an update.

Before light came into being, there was darkness, right? Well, in the way that Johns has created a variety of new avatars to be the embodiments of the various spectral colors (emotions) of refracted light, Nekron is the embodiment of darkness / nothingness – created in response to the Guardians and their harnessing of the light. As for his look and his association with death? Well, since light equates with life, darkness equates with death. It makes sense in the mythology Johns has been building, but honestly, I’m more a fan of Johns’ storytelling style and pacing. I enjoy his characters, but I tend to cringe a little bit when he’s crafting a larger DC mythos.

I don’t think a height has been published for Nekron in his modern incarnation, so we’re left to look at the art and decide what size he should be. The one clue we have – assuming DC Direct has access to some style guides – was that the solicit said Nekron would be 7.25″ tall. That sounds about right. Off the top of my head, I can’t remember him appearing much bigger than around 7′ in Blackest Night or any of its eleventy billion tie-ins. He does appear rather large at the end of BN #4 because of the small villains in the background, but looking at the zombies spawning from the ground beneath his feet, he’s not really as towering as that upshot makes him look.

Sadly, as you can tell from the picture above, Nekron didn’t end up at his solicited height. He’s about a half-inch shorter and that makes him a little less imposing if you’ve got a big DCD Blackest Night shelf going. He does retain a slight height advantage over the majority of DCUCs though and that makes him fit in well in my display.

I mention all this scale talk because that’s part of the reason I bought the DCD version. Though we can construe from his past appearances (pre-BN, he almost always appeared as a giant) that he could be much larger, a 7′ foot tall character isn’t a good candidate for a Collect & Connect – which, right now, is presumably the only way Mattel plans on doing him. Should he misguidedly win the poll over the other, larger (and therefore more value for your buck!), characters, then I fear he will be too tall for my tastes. Conversely, if he doesn’t win, then Mattel has phoned in and let us know that he won’t be coming for quite awhile. So, if you want Nekron, DC Direct is the way to go.

I don’t normally do a packaging picture (isn’t that what eBay is for?), but I wanted to this time for two reasons. First, we don’t review DC Direct as often as I would like, so I thought I’d take a minute to showcase their sealed clamshell packaging. So far, the packaging for Blackest Night has been consistent since wave one, though I imagine most MOC DC Direct collectors have learned to not care about having all the packages match. Still, when I’m at the comic shop, it’s cool to see them lined up with the various faction symbols on the front of the bubble. We could use some more reds and blues though.

Second, I wanted to show the scythe in package because it makes me laugh. I love how big it is and I appreciate that the folks over at DC Direct ensured that it was as big as it could be by cramming it into the edges of the bubble.

Nekron was sculpted by Jonathan Matthews (http://www.matthewsculptor.com). He’s one of my favorites over at DC Direct – his work has included the amazing & eye-challenging Black & White Mignola Batman statue, the spot-on New Frontier figures, and those recent Kirby-riffic New Gods. He’s done his usual great work here with Nekron.

It’s hard to find an undetailed spot on the figure. From the wrinkled and tattered robes to the striated, decaying skin, this figure rocks. The robes are made of a soft plastic that allows for the legs and shoulders to move freely and help the figure look more layered than the standard fare.

The two primarily important areas, the head sculpt and the exposed heart are easily the highlights of the figure. The head is great – I love his creepy glare – while the open chest is probably my favorite part. It looks so good that you want to reach in there and squish his heart around. Morbid, I know, but it would’ve been cool if they could’ve gone for a softer plastic in there.

One last bit of goodness is Nekron’s chains. The two shackles are separate pieces and really give an element of depth to the figure. Little details like the latch and the hinge on the back are appreciated, as are the real metal chains. Continue to Page 2 for Paint, Articulation, & Accessories…