McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse JLA Batman review

JLA Batman is an essential component of my DC shelf. The Grant Morrison/Howard Porter run on the Justice League stands as one of my all-time favorite series to show to someone who wants to get into comic books.

McFarlane Toys has been diligent in knocking out every costumed version of Batman in figure form, so it was a given he’d tackle the JLA Batman look. We get what I assume will be their first crack as part of the Collect to Build Plastic Man wave.

Let’s see how this figure met my expectations.

Packaging:  McFarlane isn’t changing the Multiverse packaging at this point. That’s great for consistency’s sake and doesn’t bother me since I open and recycle this boring setup anyway.

I do appreciate how clear McFarlane makes the Collect to Build character. It’s hard to miss this is all about Plastic Man and he’s got the main art on the back of the packaging.

Likeness: While this is clearly meant to be the JLA Batman, McFarlane sculptors used the wrong reference model for this look.

Porter largely drew his Batman with raised points at the shoulders to mimic the Bat logo silhouette. Unless he was moving the cape draped along his shoulders to largely hide his arms and chest save the target logo. Sans the shoulder points the cape is probably the best option for an action figure.

McFarlane hoped to accomplish this look with The Three Jokers Batman figure (check it out on Amazon). That’s a much beefier take on Batman and isn’t an ideal match for the sleeker Porter Batman. This figure is wider and thicker than the Electric Superman and Martian Manhunter. And in any circumstance, Batman should not be the muscle of the JLA.

The head sculpt features a lot of extra detailed texturing and very small bat-ears. Of all the available bases save the Dark Knight Returns figure, this was the worst possible base for this version of Batman.

McFarlane Toys has a solid base for this take on The Dark Knight and as usual it’s the Knightfall Batman (on Amazon) with a different utility belt and the cape with raised shoulder points from the Flashpoint Batman.

Scale: The 3J Batman is too wide and also too tall. It was fine for an out of continuity Batman that would stand apart from other main universe Batman allies but doesn’t work for one standing next to Electric Superman, Kyle Rayner and Martian Manhunter.

Course, the JLA scale is kinda all over the place with Martian Manhunter being the shortest of the four.

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Paint:  There’s a common misconception that the JLA Batman colors are all black. His cape, cowl, boots and gloves are black but his bodysuit is a charcoal grey.

The all-black color scheme is more of a Batman ’89 inspired setup. There’s a little fuzziness around the logo’s raised circle, which seems unavoidable. The utility belt is very clean.

Articulation: Batman has the standard 22 points of articulation. Naturally he needs to be able to hit all kinds of poses from punching, kicking and the occasional crouch.

The articulation with this figure is solid. His head and neck are one piece, so it doesn’t have the usual setup. It’s different, but not a big problem.

His mid torso joint doesn’t have great range as the lower portion is what’s really providing the movement.

JLA Batman has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders [with pop up/down point]
• butterfly shoulders
• elbow
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hip
• thigh
• knee
• ankle
• toe

Accessories: McFarlane Toys is up and down in terms of what figures get a generous amount of figures and which ones don’t get much at all. JLA Batman does get the grapple launcher from the 3J Batman.

That’s a fair trade given the other inclusions.

As usual, Batman gets the trusty black stand. These are some of the best out there in terms of just a flat, basic stand. Characters nicely lock into place and rarely still tumble while on them. And of course he gets the trading card with the bio.

JLA Batman also comes with a surprising number of pieces for the Collect To Build Plastic Man. He’s got the stretched-out arms including a left arm with extended fingers and a right arm that makes a lasso/loop.

Additionally, he’s got the two head sculpts. One is a cocky, smiling expression while the other is a playful puzzled expression. That was pretty cool to get some extra display options for a CTB figure.

Worth it? McFarlane Toys figures with CTBs are $25. That’s a fair price, but I was fortunate to catch a Target sale where these figures were down to $17.49.

Rating: 7 out of 10

The figure in itself isn’t bad so much as it’s a very poor representation of the JLA Batman. All of the parts for Plastic Man make it an essential pickup.

Where to get it?  The JLA wave has a wide release so you can find it in Target, Walmart, GameStop, etc. Failing that go ahead and grab him on Amazon.

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