Category Archives: Multiple Man
Stage Four: Depression – X-Factor #227
Oh woe is me.
Are comic books even worth it anymore? They’re just not going to feel the same. I won’t have X-Factor to look forward to every month, at least not my X-Factor. Sure the title will still be coming out, but my favorite character is dead. My favorite superhero has been killed. My favorite fictional character of all time has been mur-diddily-urdlered!
I am infinite sadness.
But cheer up, Sean, you might say. Death is a joke in comic books these days. Everyone from Bucky to Aunt May has come back from the dead, so it’s only a matter of time before your favorite character returns. Heck, he’s already ‘died’ once before and come back. His super power is essentially a get out of ‘dead’ free card.
Some of you might even punch me in the stomach and tell me to ‘grow up’ because it’s just a freakin’ comic book!
And to all of you I’d say, “It’s just not the same.”
Stage Three: Bargaining – X-Factor #227
What’s it going to take, Marvel Comics and Peter David, for you to see the error of your ways and bring my favorite comic book character back to life? To ensure that he makes it through this wild, strange trip you have planned for him? I want him back on his feet and having fun by March. You got that!?
Maybe this is cosmic punishment for having not yet read Peter David’s Dark Tower series.
It’s not like I don’t want to read Dark Tower. It’s all in a big pile there on my desk, waiting for me to get around to it. So how about that, PAD, what if I read Dark Tower? Then will you be kinder to my favorite character? What if I go back and read your original Incredible Hulk run, the one that everybody says is awesome? I don’t even care that much about the Incredible Hulk.
But I’ll do it if it makes you happy!
Is it that I’m not buying enough X-Men series? But I don’t care about Generation Hope, X-Men, X-Men: Legacy, New Mutants, Shiny Mutants, X-Treme, X-Boys, X-Gobbledegooks, etc. Whatever the hell else you’re publishing. Don’t take my indifference out on my favorite character!
I think the real problem is that X-Factor just has too many characters. Why couldn’t he kill one of them?
Stage Two: Anger – X-Factor #227
YOU KILLED HIM!! YOU BASTARDS!! HOW COULD YOU?!?
NERD RAAAAAAAAGE!!
He’s my favorite comic book character! My favorite superhero! Why did you have to kill him!? What does it accomplish!? The book is doing great! There are a ton of good stories! Death in comic books is a joke! So why kill my guy!? You’re all a bunch of bastards! He was a really fun and popular fictional character.
X-Factor is going to suck now. Hello Cancelville!
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Anger is the second stage of grief. Here are the others:
Stage One: Denial – X-Factor #227
It's not just a river in Egypt
There is hope.
Yes, my favorite comic book character was killed in X-Factor #227 today. A sword plunged through his torso, there was blood everywhere. Oh man, oh man, he’s dead! But he’s not really dead. How do I know this?
Because he wakes back up on the very next page – sort of.
I still don’t want to spoil who dies or what happens. I’ll save that for my review of issue #227, which will be posted within the next day or two. But right now, I’m still reeling from the death of my favorite superhero. Yet even though he was killed, there’s still hope that this is not the end. There’s a lot of hope, actually. A metric ton of hope. And not just the usual ‘nobody stays dead in comic books’ kind of hope. I mean real, on the page, hope that this is not the end, just the beginning.
He’s not really dead, people, and I can prove it.
Spoilers after the jump.
Why Don’t They Make More Multiple Man Action Figures?
Superhero action figures are still a big industry. Just take a walk down the toy aisle at your local Wal-Mart. It’s lined with action figures from all the latest movies; everything from Iron Man and Green Lantern to Toy Story and Pirates of the Caribbean. There are also action figures for WWE wrestling, video games like Halo and, yes, comic books. Just because most action figures come from superhero movies doesn’t mean companies out there aren’t making action figures from superhero comic books.
But why aren’t they making more action figures of my favorite superhero, Multiple Man?
They made this piece of crap once upon a time, but it's crap. Crap I say!
I’m not just squawking like a needy fanboy who wants a toy of his favorite superhero. I ask from a marketing/sales point of view. Think about it. Multiple Man’s super power is to make duplicates of himself. As if he went through a Xerox machine. Therefore, if fans wanted to recreate Multiple Man’s power with his action figure…they’d BUY MORE ACTION FIGURES!
I know I did.
How is this not a no-brainer for toy makers? You usually only ever need one action figure of a character to be happy. But with Multiple Man, poeple would and should buy multiple versions of the same toy to recreate his super powers! More sales!
And it’s not like toy companies wouldn’t touch someone as unknown as Multiple Man. They’re constantly pumping out superhero action figures, not just popular characters like Spider-Man or Batman. They dig into annals of superhero comics to give really obscure characters their own figures. Blackheart, Ms. Marvel, the Metal Men, Captain Ahab, the Wrecker, USAgent, Morph, and many, many more all have had legitimate action figures in the past. And the companies try crappy little gimmicks to recreate their super powers. Cyclops’ eye visor will light up. Wolverine’s claws will pop in and out of his forearms. Spider-Man will come with a plastic web. Nightcrawler had suction cups on his hands so that he’d stick to windows.
Multiple Man needs nothing more than the simple act of BUYING MORE ACTION FIGURES!
Multiple Man has only had a small selection of action figures over the years. The picture above was the first ever Multiple Man action figure, and it was a comic book convention exclusive. It’s essentially a crappy Spider-Man action figure repainted to look like Multiple Man. You couldn’t buy it in stores. I ordered one on e-Bay. Only recently has he been getting any toy aisle recognition.
Multiple Man got a Heroclix token, a Mini-Mates figurine and only last year did he get a legitimate Marvel superheroes action figure. I bought three of them. But they’re his crappy, bad guy Ultimate version using the costume he wore back in the 1980s!
Yes, I own them all.
Compare this to characters like Batman, Spider-Man or Wolverine, who get dozens upon dozens of action figures each time a new line or wave comes out. And they give them crappy little gimmicks. Like Sky Dive Batman, Disaster Control Batman, Combat Belt Batman, Turbojet Batman, Web-Cannon Spider-Man, Night Shadow Spider-Man, Hyper-Tech Spider-Man, Vampire Spider-Man, Anti-Vampire Spider-Man, Werewolf Wolverine, Battle-Ravaged Wolverine, Spy Wolverine…
So basically, I just really really want a cool, legitimate, well-made Multiple Man action figure. Is that really too much to ask for?
Henchman-4-Hire 