Dectective Comics #675, Azrael as Batman

When I bought a loose DCUC Wave 16 Azrael Batman on eBay last winter, he looked completely alien to me (a little more on that later in this post). The Knightfall series came out after I was well into college, and I just wasn't paying attention to comics anymore. I only bought the action figure because I thought it looked far out, and so when I happened upon this killer Detective Comics # 676 with an foil embossed cover at Bam's Labor Day sale, I had to pick one up!

Jean-Paul Valley was a Gotham University graduate student who fought alongside Batman as a superhero-in-training, Azrael. When Bane breaks Bruce Wayne's back, Azrael takes up the mantle of Gotham's Dark Knight, and hunts the villain down against Wayne's orders.The enhanced body armor he designed to defeat Bane is what the DC Universe figure above was modeled after. Eventually, Azrael's previous conditioning as assassin loyal to The Order of St. Dumas begins to conflict with his role as Batman, manifesting itself in increasingly violent tendencies toward his enemies, as well as Robin, who was banned from the Batcave & Wayne Manor alike. When Robin (Tim Drake) alerts Wayne to the situation, he  resolves to reclaim his place as the Batman.

Jean-Paul is testing out his his new Bat-Suit in this issue, villain Gunhawk nearly getting the upper hand on him and the police, who nearly kill them both inadvertently. Gunhawk had taken a hostage at the local hospital when told to get in line to receive medical attention to his injured girlfriend. Jean-Paul's new suit holds up to Gunhawk's regular fire, but catches a lucky break when Gunhawk's anti-armor rounds jam up. Jean-Paul tackles him down a flight of stairs, hiding up in the stairwell while Montoya & Bullock read him his rights- lucky for Gunhawk, as Jean-Paul already let mass-murderer Abbattoir fall to his death at this point, setting in motion a downward spiral for this would-be hero.

While Azrael's Batsuit underwent some changes throughout this story arc, the evolution evident among the odd issues I was able to pick up, I was surprised upon seeing the cover for #675- the toy really resembled the character!  Yo Go Re over at OAFE.Net claimed this DCUC AzBats should be red instead of blue, but according to this comic, he's wrong. There's a little detective work from me  :)

More Later- Keep It FUN!

DCUC Wave 16 Azrael Batman

This version of the  DC character is modeled after the Knightfall series of Jean-Paul Valley(1992-1994), who takes over the Batman mantle after Bruce Wanye's back is broken by Bane. Valley becomes violent and estranged from Commissioner Gordon's Gotham City police force, however, and Bruce Wayne has to resume the Dark Knight duties to defeat Azrael.

There are several other characters who used the Azrael alias, named after the Biblical angel of vengeance, including Jean-Paul's own father, Ludovic. Trained post-hypnotically under The System method, a split personality is achieved where the warrior gains superhuman abilities when in costume, believing he is truly the "enforcer of God's will".

I pre-ordered several of this DCUC Wave 16 for a good price on Amazon back in November, and have yet to see one of them. Three weeks ago and already late, Amazon finally e-mailed to say they weren't sure when they'd get them. I'm still waiting. I had not ordered this figure, and so bought him loose on eBay in mid-January while waiting. I wasn't initially interested in him, but his unusual features grew on me- he's really cool up close! While the softer plastic the wings are constructed from have some mild warping, I was surprised they turned out as good as they did. His upper body armor and gauntlets restrict his movement in the wrists, elbows, and shoulders, Azrael Batman does have the double-jointed knee, standard hips, and abdomen joints.

The spines on his calves are a separate piece made of a soft plastic, like the blue chest overlay and gauntlet power strips. It should be interesting to see how these hold up. Take a close look and make sure yours has his belt and all his parts intact- he comes with no accessories. This is a cool and unique figure that I'm glad to have in my diverse DCUC collection.

*DC Direct's Nightfall series Azrael action figure for comparison.
*DC Direct's Batman Reborn Azrael action figure for comparison.
*Mattel's DC Superheroes (pre-DCUC) Azrael action figure.