Action League Firestorm Vs. Deathstorm

I've been collecting figures in this scale and style for years now, ever since I spent three months lying to my wife by claiming I couldn't stand the Star Wars Galactic Heroes figures she loved, all so she'd be surprised when I gave her some for Christmas.

Firestorm doesn't generally appear on the list of superheroes I care about, though with Gail Simone working on the relaunch, I expect that might change. At any rate, when I originally purchased the rest of these, I skipped this one. It wasn't that I didn't want it, just that I wasn't willing to spend ten bucks. Especially since I had a feeling the price tag wouldn't stay that high forever. In a wave with Superman, Green Lantern, and the Flash, Firestorm's a pretty obscure character. As such, he wound up warming the pegs for months until the Times Square Toys R Us apparently decided the space was too valuable, as you can see in the picture above.

At less than five bucks, I decided I could use Firestorm after all. Like I mentioned earlier, one of my favorite writers is taking over his book, so my opinion of the character might be changing soon. On top of that, the sculpt and paint work here are stellar.

Of the two figures, I actually prefer Deathstorm, though he's even less a desirable character to me than Firestorm. Deathstorm comes from Blackest Night, when dead superheroes and villains were resurrected. Without going into too much detail, he's the fusion of two characters, one living and one undead. The character is visually cool in the comics, though I can't imagine we'll be seeing much more of him anytime soon.

The look of his skull is absolutely beautiful, and the fact they did the character at all is extremely impressive, though I'm at a loss to explain why they're willing to cater to obscure characters and not women (memo to Mattel: 12 year old boys don't know who either of these are; next time make Batgirl and Supergirl instead).

I absolutely love the Black Lantern symbols on Deathstorm, as well as the translucent flames on both figures. These are great toys, despite having some balance issues (another memo to Mattel: plastic stands are cheap; INCLUDE THEM).

So, great toys at a great price, thanks to the obscurity of the characters. Can't argue with that.