Anti-Monitor Week rolls along (and is looking at a wee bit of an extension) with a look at this wave’s one female figure (shoulda been two, Mattel!): Star Sapphire Wonder Woman. She’s gonna be a little difficult for me to review, there’s really nothing all that objectionable about her, but I just don’t match care for her.

I don’t really know what to say about Wonder Woman here. I don’t really have a strong connection to her in the comics – I think a lot of writers have a very hard time understanding her, and her comic sometimes suffers for it. The last year in particular has been especially unkind. I did enjoy Rucka & Simone’s runs, but ultimately I never read her title for very long it seems.

I do buy action figures of her though. I consider her essential in that respect even though I only had one figure of her (Super Powers) for nearly fifteen years. Mattel had squatted on her rights for most of the 90s, if I recall, and Hasbro only managed to produce a single Wonder Woman figure (Total Justice/JLA) before the rights ended up back at Mattel. Mattel (& DC Direct) has since made up for the drought with the other lines, but DC Universe Classics has only produced two Dianas, a traditional one and this Star Sapphire version.

Wonder Woman wasn’t a Star Sapphire for very long, but DC managed to fill an entire issue with it. As I’ve said earlier this week, a lot of the Blackest Night tie-ins weren’t very good, but the Wonder Woman mini was an exception. Rucka chose to write the three issues as three separate events that Diana experienced during the event, with the third issue focusing on her brief time as a Star Sapphire. It’s an interesting read that sees her battling a Black Lantern Max Lord and then trying to help Red Lantern Mera control her rage. It was a good read, though I might be a bit biased as there was a little dose of the Batman/Wonder Woman relationship that I’ve long championed.

I’m not exactly sure on how much of Wonder Woman’s sculpt is new, but quite a bit certainly is. Some parts of the legs and arms appear to be recycled (the biceps are thankfully beefier though!), but she does feature a unique head & torso as well as new forearms and a ring hand. I can’t say much to the costume design itself, but the sculpted details are captured well and there’s no mistaking who this is if she’s on your shelf. The only lament I have isn’t a big one – I wanted the boot and glove tops to be molded details rather than painted. The new pieces give the figure a nice overall depth, but the arms and legs work against that.

I like the head sculpt, but the DCUC4 version being painted while this one has molded colors makes it a bit difficult so see the similarities. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the Hal heads looking like Hal screaming or the Atom heads being spot-on to each other, but these two don’t look as alike. That said, I think I prefer the sculpt on the Sapphire Diana. I’d like to see it with a normal tiara.

As many paint problems I had trying to find a nice Star Sapphire, I dreaded how this figure was going to turn out. Luckily for me, I did get a good one with the only paint issue being on the star in front of her costume. It’s just not as fully painted as it should be. One other thing of interest in the paint department is the wide open areas around her knees – I don’t remember them being that big in the comics. Anyway, other than not matching the colors on Carol, I was pretty happy with how the paint turned out.Continue to Page 2…