Some pretty bizarre things have happened to Peter Parker over the years, including growing six arms and also turning into an anthropomorphic Man-Spider (both in the same story!). But one of the absolute most wildly unexpected occurrences has to be when Spider-Man gained the semi-phenomenal cosmic powers of Captain Universe! And now, Spidey’s most powerful form is immortalized forever as a 6″ figure–the Hasbro Marvel Legends Cosmic Spider-Man figure is now available!
The Right:
To this day, I think those are two of the most “fun” Spidey variants ever made as toys, but I wasn’t sure we’d ever see a Hasbro Marvel Legends of either.
But–! Likely largely than to the appearance of an alternate universe Captain Universe Spider-Man in the epic “Spider-Verse” crossover, an official 6″ Cosmic Spider-Man Marvel Legends figure has become an actuality! Is he any good…?
There are two primary things about this figure that really jump out at me as exceptional. First, the best thing about Captain Universe: the costume! Hasbro went with a slick ultra-metallic blue paint that looks absolutely gorgeous with the white “cosmos” of stars painted on.
Paired with the pearlescent white plastic used on the body, the color scheme on this figure just pops. Hasbro absolutely nailed the best possible combination of color choices for this figure. Beautiful stuff!
The other most awesome thing about this Marvel Legends Cosmic Spider-Man figure is that it comes with not one, not two, but three interchangeable heads!
A Spider-Man Captain Universe masked head was obviously a must, but I was truly surprised that Hasbro opted to gift us both non-Spidey Captain Universe and bearded Peter Parker heads with this figure!
The Peter Parker with beard head is based off the Spider-Verse alternate reality Peter Parker who held onto the Captain Universe powers, and is just a straight-up great-looking sculpt.
The non-Peter Parker Captain Universe head is a bit boring-looking, but hey–this character is never getting redone by Hasbro, so might as well release the head needed to make a standard Captain Universe here too, right?
Articulation-wise, ML Cosmic Spider-Man had the standard amount of poseability that we’ve come to expect from a male Marvel Legends figure (although less than what we’re used to from recent figures of Spidey himself), including the double-jointed knees and shoulders, ab crunch, ankle rockers and swivel waist/thighs/biceps/calves.
The Wrong:
To me, the yellow atom-shaped energy swirls that form around Captain Universe’s hands are pretty much synonymous with the character visually. We’re in desperate need of a new mold for energy effects after seeing the previous two used over and over and over for the past year-plus, so not making up new ones here when they’re so important to the character’s visual signature is a missed opportunity, in my opinion.
If Hasbro didn’t want to tool up new energy effects for this Cosmic Spider-Man Marvel Legends figure, I could have probably even tolerated some recycled energy effects. But none at all is a definite disappointment.
My other qualms with the ML Cosmic Spider-Man are mostly small things: limited range-of-motion in the hips; lack of butterfly swivel shoulders for better posing; some very aren’t blue paint slop on the white parts of the body.
Overall: While I’ve still got my usual nitpicks about this figure, make no mistake: I love me some Marvel Legends Captain Universe Spider-Man. This is one of the most unique Spidey variants that still needed to be made in ML form, and I’m thrilled that he came out as well as he did. The blue paint and white plastic look stylin’, and all three heads included are worthwhile and spot-on. I would’ve liked energy effects, a slightly larger range of motion and cleaner paint apps, but even without those things this is still a really nice Hasbro Marvel Legends figure. Recommended.
GRADE: B+
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What I really want is alternate hands.
I’d consider buying two more of this figure to have one with each head, IF there were multiple hands to differentiate the characters.
There’s only so much you can do with fists.
He needs web thwiping hands, and wide open hands would be great too.
The articulation is good enough, I guess, since this is the “empowered Spider-Man” body where he’s bigger and bulkier than normal Spider-Man due to Captain Britain powers or the Unipower/Enigma Force, which we could pass off as just making him less flexible.
I fully agree that we need new effects pieces, but the Captain Universe effects are VERY distinctive, and wouldn’t really fit ANY other character, so I get why they didn’t.
Plus, the effects from Shocker fit Cosmic Spider-Man a hell of a lot better than they fit Shocker, so that kinda works out.
Hopefully they’ll do a female Captain Universe, since the current Captain Universe is a woman.
That would give them another chance to do the effects parts… *shrug*
Does the bearded head fit on the regular pizza Spidey body?
Yes but it looks kind of off like a bobble head and the neck looks way too thin.
Does the bearded head fit Unworthy Thor…. mmmmm
I finally noticed what bugs me about the masked Spidey Head…Would have been better with Spidey Eyes and a more Spider-Man Shaped head. But I love the Spderverse Story and every Spider-Man and Woman that spawned from this.
But then it would be wrong.
He’s Captain Universe, not really Spider-Man.
Like nearly all of the events of the Acts of Vengeance story arcs, I don’t really count this in my head-canon. Loki shoots magic at some Sentinels, and the Universe has to imbue Spidey with semi-phenomenal actually-cosmic powers to save the day? That book was a stretch even for 1990.
That said, which parts are white painted blue and which are blue painted white? If its primarily a flat white medium build body, its a modders dream even before it comes with extra heads.
I mean….it’s definitely canon. That’s just what the Uni-power/Enigma Force exists to do – it empowers people in dire peril whenever the Uni-power notices their need, and they can use it until they’re done using it to save the world/universe. *shrug*
During Spiderverse, 616 Spidey meets and works with an alternate reality Peter Parker who never gave up the Captain Universe powers. He just kept using it to fight evil, so the power stayed with him. That’s who the bearded Peter Parker head is.
The atom accessories from DCUC Firestorm work pretty well to simulate his powers. Not ideal if you don’t already have them I suppose.
Are those atom accessories removable? I’ll have to hunt through some boxes and find my Firestorm. For some reason I thought they were molded into his hands.
I was thinking the same thing. Firestorm is one of the few DCU figures that I have, and mostly because they nailed it with his look and power manifestation. I’d have to dig as well, everything pre-2017 is still in storage, but I will make an attempt as soon as I get Capt. Universe in hand.
They most certainly are. My Captain Universe is rocking them right now.