Among the nigh-endless parade of well-crafted collectibles that DC Direct have been gracing me with recently (for a moderate retail fee), I feel that their line of Infinite Crisis action figures, released this past week, just can’t go without a mention. Sure, I could rhapsodize over the 13” Batman figure with the real cloth attire and an assortment of batarangs, or their collection of mini Who’s Who Dioramas, or even the Alex Ross Justice line of figures with their startlingly realistic faces and excellent character range, but I’ll stick with the Infinite Crisis figures. Sometimes, there’s just too much collectible radness to address in a twice-weekly post.

This set of five figures focuses around some of the major characters of the universe-shattering Infinite Crisis storyline. They retail, as most of DC Direct’s figure lines, for about ten to fifteen dollars each, and are available only at comic shops or online, since they have limited production runs and limited mass-appeal. This separation from large retail chains allows them to produce more obscure (but fan favorite) characters and a much larger variety of characters, putting out at least a wave of five new figures every month, all of them very specific to certain artists and certain storylines. So, instead of five thousand nearly identical Superman Returns and Batman Begins figures clogging up the toystore aisles, we get high quality figures like Blue Beetle and Phantom Lady and Animal Man - things that your average toy shoppin’ kid wouldn’t really be that interested in. We get 15 versions of Batman too, but instead of Party Time Sleepover Batman and Rainbow Strike Force Night Vision Onion Blossom Batman, we get Batmen that have actually appeared in the comics. Ones that make sense. Ones that don’t make me want to tear my kidneys out in a disappointed rage. Ones without the dreaded ACTION FEATURE.

The star of the Infinite Crisis line of figures is certainly Power Girl, and there are two reasons for that. Those reasons are pretty much exposed by her charmingly ridiculous costume, but there’s a third reason also. This is only the second time that we’ve been given a Power Girl figure, and the first time was in the early days of DC Direct before production values were fully realized. She’s a pretty prominent character and an important part of the Justice Society of America, so she’ll be fast to sell out if you don’t grab one now. She’s detailed down to the zippers on her boots, and her presence on your shelf will probably cause women to respect you less. Like most DC Direct figures, she has a limited 11 points of articulation, but it’s enough to strike a few fancy action poses, as aided by the ‘Infinite Crisis’ base unique to this line. These have a small hole in them, the figures have a small hole in their feet, and somewhere in the package, there’s a small peg to join the two. It doesn’t always work and the tiny pegs get lost, but it allows for the most versatility in displaying the set.

If Power Girl is the star, then the enormous Mongul figure is a close second. It’s the largest figure that DC Direct has ever produced in their 1/12 scale line, usually just reducing enormous characters to a more manageable scale when and if they get made. This particular figure stands at over 9 inches tall, a huge difference over the usual 6-inch figure. Scale is a big deal to collectors, you know. You can’t very well have a Spider-Man battling a Flash that’s effectively 4 feet tall. All of the alternate-universe crossover theorems in the world can’t manage to make THAT less ridiculous. It’s all about the synergy. Mongul is tall enough to grasp a hero in his mighty fist and crush them above his head. For all of the vast canvas that is his body, he’s not really all that detailed, but man, is that guy big.

I’ve also mentioned that I’m a fan of Lex Luthor figures, and here we have a young Lex who is extremely notable for one reason alone : he comes with an alternate mullet accessory. Why every figure in the history of figures doesn’t come with an alternate mullet, I don’t know. It seems like the logical addendum to any figure. You know, a ray gun, a jacket, a grappling hook, and an incredibly unfashionable hairstyle. Perhaps it speaks more to his evil nature than all of the planet-crushing antics that he can muster. Being shiny and gold also strikes me as suitably nefarious.

Also in this line is another Superboy figure in a fancy battle-suit and an awesome translucent blue OMAC figure which can alternate between stabby and human hands - something that I aspire to myself, actually. Stabby hands would be really, really… handy. As if blue translucence didn’t immediately key you in to the awesomeness, he’s also got a little flight base, so he can be displayed hovering above the ground. Give me ten of these and we’ll have a real battle goin’ on. Give me about 40,000 and I could re-enact the whole comic. Those guys are bad news.

Even those collectors usually critical of DC Direct’s releases are praising this set, and the story’s not a bad read either. Keep an eye out for the second set in this series, including the classic Superman / Wonder Woman / Batman combo, as well as a Firestorm and a Wonder Girl.

With the release of Superman Returns into theaters on June 28th, Superman mania is in full swing. You can’t go anywhere without being smacked in the face with the iconic ‘S’ shield of the big, blue boyscout, and honestly, that couldn’t be more exciting for me.

I’m not a huge Superman fan. He’s too clean, too powerful, and too outwardly flawless to really garner any sympathies from me. He wouldn’t steal your girlfriend, but he could, and he’d probably be a lot better at a lot of things, and I don’t need that kind of emasculation. Beyond the character himself, that big ‘S’ has always stood for hope in hopeless situations, imaginary or not. So, on some deeply personal level, where that icon of the ‘S’ has burnt its way into our collective psyches, something inside of my brain smiles, whether it’s just to advertise a movie or not.

But every hero must have their foil and their antagonist. Someone to keep them actively fighting wrongdoing and prevent them from falling into indifference. For Superman, who can punch his way through mountains and give you a lobotomy with a finely-honed blast of his heat vision, that archenemy is Alexander Joseph Luthor, affectionately nicknamed ‘Lex’. Alternately a mad genius, a billionaire industrialist, president of the United States, and once a friend of Clark Kent, he’s still nothing more than a normal human in physical attributes. Still, he manages to wreak havoc in the Man of Steel’s life, using resources scientific, magical and alien.

This year is a banner year for collectors of Lex Luthor miscellanea, with DC Direct announcing a good handful of Lex action figures and busts, to be released over the next 6 months or so. So, let’s take a short look at the future (and brief past) of Lex, in action figure form.

The very first Lex Luthor action figure of note came from the Mego Corporation in 1980, in a line of miniature figures called ‘Pocket Superheroes’, a name that would later be resurrected by DC Direct for their own line of tiny hero figures. Mego somehow failed to incorporate Luthor into their legendary 8” articulated figures, instead including a strangely human-sized Mr. Mxyzptlk as the primary Superman villain. What’s scarier is that I can spell ‘Mxyzptlk’ without any kind of hesitation.

In the following years, more incarnations of Luthor showed up in both his purple suit (in Toy Biz’s 1990 DC Comics Superheroes line, miscrediting him as ‘Luther’) and the charming green pants / purple shirt / raygun combo (1984’s Super Powers Collection from Kenner). Sometimes, he’d even don his hi-tech battle suit, still in those same ill-chosen colors, and go blow-for-blow with Superman and exchange knuckle sandwich recipes. In 1997, Time Warner released the Superman Animated Series, which also featured Lex prominently, adding more figures to the accompanying toy line by Hasbro. Still a bit later than that, the Justice League and JL Unlimited cartoon series prompted further figures all executed in Bruce Timm style, but absolutely none of the aforementioned figures stood over 5” tall. Having an action figure that breaks the half-foot-tall mark is pretty essential if you want to be taken seriously. It wasn’t until 2003 that DC Direct released a 6.25” Luthor in their Superfriends Deluxe sets, paired with a cartoon-styled Superman. This Lex is also of note for having the largest collar that an action figure has ever, or will ever, possess. It’s probably safer this way.

In May, DC Direct released their second Lex figure ever, clad in perfectly sensible Silver Age attire. You can just ignore the giant blue blob that he’s wearing for a hat, right? The poor guy’s baldness really gets to him. Try not to stare. Mattel also released a movie-based Kevin Spacey Luthor, though minimal in articulation and still fairly small. I’m not leaving out the ‘Smallville’ Lex Luthor figure. That figure left itself out. You know what I mean. Aside from two tiny Heroclix figures, we’ve scraped the bottom of the salty, Lex-flavored barrel.

The future of Lex is even more exciting. Soon, DC Direct alone will be releasing five new Lex figures. We’ll get ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ Lex, in his green 80’s battlesuit. We’ll get a metallic Lex based on the artwork of Alex Ross in ‘Justice League’ series 5. We’ll get a mammoth 13” Lex with real fabric clothing and complete articulation. We’ll get a tiny Minimates Luthor. And we’ll get a truly whacked-out maniac Luthor based on the art of Ed McGuinness, also in his battlesuit, from the ‘Superman / Batman Public Enemies’ set. Check out the publicity images below and tell me that they don’t represent an awesome variety of Lex.

Finally, Mattel will also be including yet ANOTHER battlesuited Luthor to their DC Superheroes lineup. If all of these similar Lex figures seems like overkill, take another look. All of them represent a different artistic vision of the Lex Luthor persona, a different incarnation of Lex in a different period of comic and world history, from wacky oddball Lex, to President Lex.

I will soon shave my head and join him in the pantheon of great bald men. Patrick Stewart. Telly Savalis. Lex Luthor. And me. Hell, it’s all falling out anyhow.