Behind every great hero is a great villain. He-Man had Skeletor, Batman had the Joker, and although one could argue that Superman’s equal is Lex Luthor, Darkseid makes for a perfect adversary for the son of Jor-El. Darkseid is instantly identifiable as being evil while Superman is good, and they’re a match for each other when it comes for power and brute strength.

This isn’t the Four Hoursemen’s first crack at ol Darkseid. When the DC Super Heroes line first debuted, Mattel only had the license for Batman and Superman characters. With a range of characters like Scarecrow, Bane, Parasite, and Mongul, the line bounced back and forth between the two properties with each series. It was here that the 4H had their first go at Prince Uxas, second in line to the throne of Apokolips, otherwise known as Darkseid.

Make no mistake; DCUC Darkseid is not just a rehash of a DCSH figure that has been scaled up. His sculpt is all-new with added detail, articulation and accessories that the DCSH entry was not endowed with. The Four Horsemen have always created outstanding re-imaginings of other people’s work, but now their task was to update their own design, so did they manage to school themselves?

Packaging: Darkseid doesn’t have any packaging so to speak–as a Collect-and-Connect figure, he comes packaged in pieces as accessories with each wave 12 figure. Wave 12 saw the revamped DCUC packaging for 2010. Honestly I don’t miss the old blister cards; the new packaging is more pleasing to the eye and a bit more exciting. The new artwork with all the DC heroes and villains on front is really nice. The inclusion of the 75th Anniversary collector buttons featuring vintage art is nice, but it doesn’t add much value for me.

Design & Sculpt: Darkseid is pretty awe inspiring and no matter what they say, size does matter. Scale has been issue with Darkseid. The DCSH Darkseid stood at just over 6″, but still managed to loom over the other figures due to his imposing stature. The DCUC Darkseid stands at nearly 9″ tall, and towers over all of the DCUC six inchers, but he isn’t so big that he dwarves them either. I believe that his height and build should be relative to his prominence and malevolence and the C&C is more fitting due to the nature of the character.

The sculpting is excellent. What really makes Darkseid pop is his rock-like skin is laden with rough texture and cracks in contrast is his smooth blue garb. The face came out great, he’s got a real harsh, demanding look about him

Plastic & Paint: The paint is clean and well done, with a nice dark gray for his skin and a perfect shade of blue for his costume. All of the cracks and texture would have gone to waste if they weren’t highlighted by some good paint work. Most of his costume seems to be molded in their respective colors, so that decreases any room for error.

Articulation: Darkseid is articulated similarly to most DCUC figures with a few changes borrowing from standard MOTUC articulation. He has a ball jointed neck, shoulders, swivels at the biceps, wrists, waist, and the top of his boots, and hinges at the elbows, knees, ankles, and torso. Unlike most DCUC, however, the hips are more traditional ball joints with a swivel at the top of the thigh. The bottom of the tunic nicely hides the otherwise unsightly ball joints. The plastic is fairly pliable, but it does limit the range of motion a little.

Accessories: Since Collect-an- Connect figures are accessories themselves, it’s uncommon for them to have their own accessories, but given the nature of Darkseid, Mattel would have been remiss if they didn’t include any–and fortunately for us, they did. Included with Darkseid’s torso is his Mother Box, which can be held in his right hand, and attaches to the back of his belt. Also, included with his right arm is the Killing Glove. Darkseid’s hand pops off with a good amount of force, meaning you won’t kill yourself pulling it off, but it’s not so loose that it will fall off with a gust of wind. The plastic is pretty firm so you can switch hands as many times as you’d like and feel confident about not breaking it. As deadly as Darkseid is, he looks even more badass with his killing glove. Mattel could have got away without giving Darkseid any accessories, but the Mother Box and Killing Glove are nice little extras that really boost the overall value of the figure.

Quality Control: My Darkseid’s ankles are a tad on the loose side, so getting him to stand can be a little tricky.

Overall: When I first saw Wave 12’s line up, I was only planning on cherry picking from the lot; however Darkseid was the impetus behind me collecting the entire wave. Fortunately, a fellow Poester was able to hook me up with Darkseid’s torso so I was able to skip Mary Marvel. I’m sure I could have saved a lot of money and picked up the DCSH version on eBay, but the updated one was calling to me. While I’ve never actually held a DCSH Darkseid, from what I’ve read it’s an overall improvement in sculpt, articulation, and accessories.

To assemble Darkseid you have to get Eclipso, The Spectre, Copperhead, Dr. Mid-Nite, Mary Batson, and Iron. That will run you a minimum of about $90, but you get six 6″ figures and one deluxe-size figure. If you factor in the cost of Darkseid and count him as two figures, that’ll run you about $11 per figure, and $22 for Darkie, which by that math isn’t too bad.

The C&C is supposed to be a “reward” for collectors who procure all of the figures in the wave. While some of the previous C&C’s have been excellent in their own right, Darkseid is the first one that I can say I was really eager to build.

[raven 4.5]