I'm super excited for the Shazam! movie now. The character of Captain Marvel himself has never really spoken to me, and even Mary Marvel just never sparked an interest in me. But in the early 2000s, the Flashpoint storyline rewrote the history of Shazam. Suddenly there was a group of six friends (and family) of Billy Batson that each gained a single unique power from the wizard. Those six friends could then combine to form the ultimate hero, Captain Thunder (aka Shazam). Darla's power was the Speed of Mercury. The trailers for the movie seem to show the traditional billy-centric origin, but this basic assortment of figures contain Darla, Freddy, Pedro, Mary, Eugene and Billy and make me think the newer origin story is a big plotline of the movie. I know it's a pipedream, but I would also love for more Darla (and Mary) product in different scales. The 12" and Multiverse lines for this movie were pretty short on character assortment (only Billy and Dr. Sivana included). Let's check out Darla below!
These Basic Series figures from Mattel have pretty decent articulation. She has hinge-and-swivel wrists, elbows, and shoulders. Swivel waist and ankles, hinge knees and hips, and possibly a ball-jointed head. I say "possibly" because it moves like a swivel, but looks like ball. The biggest let-down in the design are the t-crotch hip joints. I would gladly sacrifice the fancy wrists to get better hips, especially since there are no accessories for her to hold.
Darla comes with a little demon-like accessory named Greed. All the characters comes with different versions of these (each named after one of the Seven Deadly Sins). The demons are made of a stretchy, jiggly rubber. It's pretty gross to me but I know kids live for this stuff.
My Darla has a split shoulder socket. It actually doesn't effect her shoulder articulation at all and doesn't look like it will split more. But it's worth trying to peer within the packaging for a pre-purchase inspection in case this is a common defect.
In the Shazam! movie, adult Darla will be played by Meagan Good. Meagan is one of those actresses who has had a prolific career and has a great fan following, but I've somehow managed to only see her in one thing ever: D.E.B.S. It's one of my favorite campy movies about a squad of female assassins. (Plus I love the romantic substory and it stars an old classmate of mine in a small role).
Time for some Group and Comparison Pics!
Here is Darla with two recent Basic figures from Mattel: Wonder Woman (from Justice League) and Mera (from Aquaman).
And here she is with the recent Mattel Vixen figure. They share very similar hairstyles.
Cheers!
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