DC Direct Series 5 Nekron

Funny thing, I haven't opened any of the several DC Direct Blackest Night figures I bought over a year ago, yet I'm opening this bitchin' Series 5 Nekron I scored for cheap a month ago   :D   I've said before, I appreciate the action figure as art, and Nekron here is most certainly the Albrecht Dürer of the form, adorned with the kind of detail that makes other action figures really look like toys.

The packaging on these is collector grade and difficult to open- a knife is required. MOC collectors probably preferred the durability of these to the easily creased card back It was interesting to see DC Direct go back to the card back/blister packaging with the new Series 4 and 5 Green Lantern figures, certainly the less expensive option.

Of additional note: there was some sort of rusty stain inside the plastic, which can be seen to the right of the packaged figure above. I'm unsure how the metal chain attached to Nekron's arm was painted/decorated, but it looks like a real rusty chain- I have to assume this somehow migrated to the inside of the package, and have read/heard multiple reports on this, some claiming the entire front covered with this stain. It's of little consequence to the figure's deco, the character having such a weathered appearance and the rust color integrated into his colors scheme elsewhere on the figure. Kinda creepy though, huh? What if it was powdery DEATH delivered from the Lord of the Unliving himself, scores of unsuspecting nerds droppin' like members of Howard Carter's excavation team??!  Hey, if you croak unexpectedly after picking one up, don't say I didn't warn ya  :D

So much greatness in one figure... where to begin?!  First the negative- he's hopelessly out of scale. While I'm a cherry-picker that has never finished a BAF in his life, Mattel recently offered a great C&C Nekron in proper scale, but with NO SCYTHE. Fail! Mattel has been skipping on accessories a lot lately, and really blew it there! One of the great things about the DCD Nekron is the accessory that's tantamount to the character. I mean, c'mon... he's basically the Grim Reaper; he must have a scythe.

And the detail put into this accessory is perhaps the best I've ever seen, from the wood grain in the handle to the dark metallic shade of the blade's paint app... just, WOW! I mean, just look at it...

Nekron's grisly open chest cavity has a high gloss sheen, realistically simulating the wetness of exposed organs. Awesomely macabre  :D  This figure is full of minutia like this, from his silver eyes to the rusty chains, making him so painterly next to the pictures I've seen of the flat, plasticky Mattel version. The drybrushing on Nekron's hide give him a zombie pallor that would make Eddie the Head jealous, and the sculpted Black Lantern Corps symbol was painstakingly sculpted onto the cranium. Look at his teeth! Nekron's pitted, rusty belt was sculpted and painted to match his metal cuff and collar, adding to the great unity in this deco. 

Nekron's impressive sculpt continues onto his exposed vertebrae in back and down the folds of charred robe. Throughout the figure, a worn texture makes Nekron look like he walked right out of the comics! He certainly has to be one of the most artful action figures I own. Like the other DC Direct Green Lantern & Blackest Night Series figures, Nekron comes with a corresponding base (his being translucent black with the Black Lantern Corps symbol).

Nekron has simple, but useful articulation: bicep joints, cut joint at the mid thigh & forearm, ball & socket shoulders, single hinge elbows & knees, T-hips, and a ball-jointed head. His scythe is loose in his grip, but easy to hold in a few positions, and will stay put under it's own weight upright in one hand with the end of the handle on the ground.

Like a lot of characters I read about for the first time in Jeff John's Blackest Night, Nekron was new to me. Rediscovering comics in the last 16 months or so, I had the additional handicap/joy of having almost no Green Lantern as a youth. Yes Nekron, the archetype of death, is not some new idea, but it was evil and fun! Ivan Reis' artwork was really great on Blackest Night, as was Doug Mahnke's on Blackest Night: Green Lantern- both mandatory reading in my novice opinion. I hear a lot of negative feedback about John's hubris in hogging the DC Universe to himself, but I don't care- I was entertained  :)

Nekron with Mistress Death, apple of Thanos' eye...

*Read more about Nekron at DC Wikia!

More Later, Make It FUN!