Toy Review: McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Black Canary Contains Multitudes

by Tony Thornley

It’s not an understatement to say that Black Canary is one of McFarlane Toys’ most anticipated releases. Will the DC Multiverse figure stand up to expectations though?

Dinah Lance has one of comics longest and, frankly, convoluted histories. She first appeared in Flash Comics #86 in 1947. She would go one to be one of the key members of the Justice Society of America. Eventually, she would transition from Earth-2 to Earth-1, and after writers realized it was a bit confusing, her daughter would be introduced as the second Black Canary.

The character has since gone on to become one of the most crucial members of the Justice League. Post-Crisis, she was one of the League’s founders. She’s been a frequent member of the team, appearing as one of the main members of the League in the JLI era, the chairperson during Brad Meltzer’s run, and an important reservist at multiple points since. She’s also formed a close friendship with Barbara Gordon, and the main member of the Birds of Prey, sometimes being Barbara’s only agent in the field, sometimes leading a larger team of Birds. On top of all that, she’s acknowledged as one of the greatest hand-to-hand fighters in the DCU, on par with Batman and Lady Shiva.

So yeah, she’s a big gun.

This figure was a great entry for her into the DC Multiverse line. As a collector’s edition figure, she has a few things that other figures do not, specifically her soft goods jacket and (in a pleasant surprise) her trademark fishnet tights. Now, design wise, she’s pretty strong. One of her face plates (the default ‘pleasant expression) is just “meh” but the other two are good. Her jacket looks really bulky in the box, but once she’s out of the package, it looks much better. And the rest of her design is a perfect representation of her modern design.

There’s only one thing I feel like her accessories was missing, and that was some sort of representation of her canary cry. The extra hands were great, the face plates were mostly good, and I loved the jacket. Having some sort of clear effect that could be snapped on her back or neck to represent her sonic canary cry really would have pushed it over the top.

I mostly thought she was good at posing, but her soft goods did get in the way. The tights don’t come off, and that did mean some snags against her knee joints. They also are cut a bit low on her inner thigh, making it look … a bit inappropriate. Her jacket limited her arms slightly, but not in any way that was frustrating.