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REVIEW: JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED "THE LEAGUE UNITED" HEROES 6-PACK
By Thomas Wheeler

There's something about the Justice League, even as action figures. Take their show off the air after several highly successful and impressive seasons, and the action figure line continues. Determine that most retailers are no longer interested in the line, and Target decides they'll make it an exclusive, and it continues. Even MattyCollector.Com gets its own Justice League exclusives from time to time. The League endures.

And now, there's a couple of impressive new six-packs of figures, with a number of characters that were either preposterously scarce the first time around, are being introduced in new versions, or are entirely new to the League collection.

There are two such six-packs, one with heroes, called "The League United", and one with villains, called "Mutiny in the Ranks". This review will take a look at the hero set.

I should mention that the villain set is notable for turning out no less than five, out of its six, figures, that have never before been part of the Justice League Unlimited action figure line previously. The sixth, Lex Luthor, is a logical addition, and is a slight recoloring of an existing version of the character. However, the set is certainly worth it for the other five all-new figures.

The hero set is somewhat different. Only two of its figures are entirely new -- Mr. Terrific and Hourman. However, two of its others -- Supergirl and Elongated Man -- are being presented here in versions previously not available, and the Supergirl figure is extremely different from its predecessor. A fifth figure, Obsidian, was part of a three-pack from some time back that was notoriously hard to find. And finally there's Superman. Let's start with him.

SUPERMAN - Okay, he's no stranger to the Justice League action figure line. He's no stranger to the action figure world in general. But I can't quite bring myself to say, "Oh, it's just Superman". You don't put the word "just" in front of "Superman". The man of Steel is the quintessential super-hero, and essentially the foundation upon which every super-hero -- not just those from DC -- has been built.

Rocketed to Earth from the doomed planet Krypton, faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, etc, etc. I believe that Superman is easily one of the most recognizable fictional characters of the modern world. He shares a lofty position with a very meager handful of individuals that probably consists of himself, Mickey Mouse, maybe Snoopy, and a few others. Even people who have never picked up a comic book in their lives have heard of Superman.

So, how's the figure? Very nicely done, indeed. It's a fairly straightforward animated-style Superman, as one would expect it to be, and given the sculpted "S" symbol, as well as the sculpted detail on the boots, clearly the figure uses Superman-specific body molds.

I will say this -- the paint detailing is a little neater than I've encountered at times. There's certainly been no shortage of Superman figures just within the Justice League line, and I've encountered a few here and there where the factory managed to mess up either the red paint on the trunks, or on the boots, or did something weird to the eyes. Superman's boots and trunks are very neatly painted, and his eyes look just fine, thank you.

Let me also add this. I'm pleased that Mattel has chosen to use a fairly dark blue for Superman's costume. I look around at several other Superman figures I have -- a DC Universe Classics Superman, a 9" cloth costumed Superman that Hasbro made about ten years ago, and a Mego Superman. The Mego Superman has a fairly light blue relative to the others. So be it. Back then, in the 1970's, that was fairly accurate. But in recent years, in the comics, the blue of Superman's costume has gotten a bit darker than just the blue once used, which was basically just a straight blue right from the printer's ink. It doesn't make the character come across as any darker, or I wouldn't approve of it, but it does somehow make him seem a little more imposing. I'm pleased to see the coloration reflected in modern action figures of Superman, including this one.

Let's take a look at the other "Super" in this set:

SUPERGIRL - this line been screaming for a new Supergirl. The previous Supergirl figure offered as part of the Justice League Unlimited series utilized the now-defunct white-and-blue "cheerleader" costume.

Okay, technically, I don't have a problem with that. What I DID have a problem with was that they made the figure so tiny relative to the others, that she looked like she was about ten years old.

Supergirl is celebrating her 50th anniversary in 2009, and one thing she's gotten out of it is a new Justice League figure, and it's a pretty decent one, really.

In the animated series, Supergirl first turned up in the "Superman" animated series, and at that time, reflective of Supergirl's likeness, if not origin, in the comic book, she wore the white-shirt uniform. This carried over to the "Justice League" series, when Supergirl started to turn up in the "Unlimited" seasons.

However, in the comic books, around this same time, the character of Supergirl underwent a rather decided quantum shift. The individual that had been Supergirl for a number of years was not technically Superman's cousin or even Kryptonian. The powers-that-be at DC Comics decided that it was time for Supergirl to once again be both, and so a story was put forth that brought back Kara Zor-El, Superman's cousin, and very much a Kryptonian.

While the animated adventures didn't really need to deal with this, since there, Supergirl had always been Superman's cousin, they did decide, admittedly fairly late on, to update Supergirl's costume to reflect her remade comic book counterpart. They dispensed with the "white shirt" costume, and brought back the more traditional colors.

This slightly older Supergirl appeared in a very notable episode that also saw her travel to the 31st century, where she met the Legion of Super-Heroes, and ultimately decided to stay with them -- leaving Green Arrow and Green Lantern to try to explain to Superman that one of the reasons his cousin had decided to stay 1000 years in the future was because she'd found a new boyfriend whose name happened to be Brainiac -- Brainiac 5, anyway.

However, it was a cool thing to see this more traditionally-garbed Supergirl in the animated series, if only once, and I'm also pleased that we finally have a figure of this version of Supergirl, especially given how tiny the previous one was.

The figure uses the standard female body molds, which is fine with me. Okay, so they see common usage. At least they look good. At least Supergirl doesn't look like a busty ten-year-old anymore. The figure is wearing a dark blue shirt with a bare midriff, red skirt, and has the "Super"-style boots painted very neatly on the legs.

The "S" symbol has been stamped on the figure, rather than sculpted as on her cousin, but it has been imprinted very neatly. I might liked to have seen it done without the black outline around it, however, but that's my only real complaint. The overall paint detailing on the figure is excellent, and very neatly done. A red cape has been attached at the shoulders.

The figure has a new headsculpt, which -- well, on a scale of 1 to 10, I give it an 8. It comes up a little short. It's just a little TOO cartoony relative to how the character appeared in the animated series. Honestly, it almost looks like an animated version of Barbie.

The hair is a separately molded piece that has been glued on. The facial details have been neatly painted, but the grin on the mouth is just a little too cheerful. Still, I'm nitpicking here, and I really shouldn't. Overall, it's a good figure, and it's certainly a vast, vast improvement over its predecessor.

Now, let's consider two figures that have seen previous release:

OBSIDIAN - I am convinced that this figure was included because his previous release was part of a three-pack that barely saw the light of day. Now if we could just get Big Barda again at some point.

Says Wikipedia: He first appeared in All-Star Squadron #25 (September 1983), and was created by Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway.

Obsidian is the codename of Todd Rice, the biological son of Alan Scott and Rose Canton, respectively the Golden Age superhero Green Lantern and villain Thorn. Todd was raised in an abusive adoptive home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He finds out in his late teens that he has a twin sister, Jennie-Lynn Hayden, alias Jade. They meet, discover they both have superpowers and, operating under the assumption that Green Lantern was their father (which they did not know for certain at the time, but did eventually learn to be true), decide to follow in his footsteps.

As Obsidian and Jade, they were founding members of the superhero team Infinity, Inc., a group composed mainly of the children, grandchildren, and protégés of members of the Justice Society of America.

Obsidian apparently inherited a potential for mental illness from his mother, Thorn. At one point, Obsidian turns evil, using his shadow powers to first steal all shadows from an entire city, then to spread darkness over the entire world. It is during his time as a villain that he kills his foster father. His father, with the aide of other JSA members, defeats him. Obsidian retreats to the Shadowlands, the otherdimensional plane from which he derives his powers. Later, he joins the mystical villains Mordru and Eclipso to seek vengeance (unsuccessfully) on Green Lantern and the JSA. Following his defeat, Obsidian is cured of his mental imbalance.

After being cured, Obsidan retires. Todd's powers went dormant during most of this time, but they return, following the death of his twin sister Jade during Infinite Crisis. He has since then returned to being a superhero. Obsidian appears during the year long "52" event. Watching a televised parade, he sees Luthor's "Everyman" superhero team going by. Enraged that one of the members is named "Jade", he angrily confronts the group, endangering innocent people in the process. The Everyman heroes protect the crowd and Obsidian is talked out of doing anything drastic.

Prior to Justice Society of America (vol. 3) #1, Obsidian joins the JSA. He serves as the security guard of their New York headquarters. He's remained pretty much a hero, although given the nature of his past and his powers, and some erratic and ill-tempered behavior here and there, the JSA still keeps something of a guarded eye on him.

As to his powers and abilities, unlike his sister Jade, whose powers resembled their father's, Obsidian has various shadow-based powers from his father's exposure to Shadow energy after a battle with a villain named Ian Karkull. Obsidian is connected to the Shadowlands, a dimension of primordial, quasi-sentient darkness. At will, Obsidian can merge with his own shadow and possess the shadows of others. In his shadow form, he is stronger than in human form, can pass through solid objects and can fly. After being corrupted by the Shadowlands, Obsidian was able to control his shadow powers to the point that he could grow to enormous size and create objects out of shadow, in a similar way that his father and sister can create objects out of green energy.

One interesting note, based on the character's name. Although the term "obsidian" does tend to convey a dark color, technically speaking, obsidian is a type of rock, in and of itself not related in any way to the character. And yet the Wikipedia entry notes the following: On the new Earth-9, a version of Obsidian that can transform himself into stone exists.

Obsidian's appearances in the Justice League animated series have been limited to cameo appearances, and he has never had any spoken line. His presence does throw a mild mystery into the series, as Alan Scott has never appeared nor ever even been mentioned. Did the Justice Society at one point exist in the animated universe?

The figure, as I said, was previously released, but was virtually impossible to find. The character has an interesting look, so I'm certainly not going to complain about his inclusion in this set. Obsidian's costume is blue and black, although it's been shown in the past that the black, which also covers Obsidian's face, may be, at least partially, a manifestation of Obsidian's shadow form, as much as anything. I only recall seeing this once, so it's just as possible that much of the costume is meant to be black fabric.

The blue portions of the costume include a headpiece, that leaves the face exposed (although the face is black, except for white eyes), a fair portion of the chest, back, shoulders, and trunks, rather high gloves, and boots. Obsidian also wears a grey cape with a fairly high collar. There is a silver clasp on the cape, and he also has a silver belt, and some silver trim on his boots.

Obsidian might not have had much to do in the animated series, but I'm pleased to finally have the action figure, and Mattel has done a good job with this one.

Now let's look at the other previous release, although this one has been altered somewhat from his original release:

ELONGATED MAN - Says Wiki: Elongated Man is a reserve member of the Justice League. His first appearance was The Flash #112 (May 1960). He was partially created by Julius Schwartz, who noted he only created the character because he didn't realize DC Comics had acquired Plastic Man in 1956.

As a teenager, Ralph Dibny was fascinated by contortionists, or people who displayed feats of agility and seeming elasticity. He learned that all of the body-benders he spoke with drank a popular soda called "Gingold." Ralph set to work learning chemistry and developed a super-concentrated extract of the rare "gingo" fruit of the Yucatan, which gave him his elasticity.

Ralph Dibny was one of the few Silver Age DC heroes to reveal his secret identity to the public, and also one of the first to marry his love interest. He and his wife Sue Dibny effectively became partners, solving mysteries and participating in Justice League adventures as equals. They were also notable in having a stable, happy, and relatively trouble-free marriage — an anomaly in the annals of comic books.

Sadly, in more recent years, tragedy has plagued them both. During the "Identity Crisis" mini-series, Ralph Dibny played a central role in the events of the story, with the main arc of the series revolving around the DC Universe's response to the murder of Sue Dibny by Jean Loring, ex-wife of The Atom. The healthy, stable relationship between Ralph and Sue, and the events that led to and resulted from her death, were used as primary narrative devices throughout the series for examining the respective personal relationships of other JLA and JSA members (and to a lesser extent, members of the supervillain community).

The effect of Sue's death on Ralph (compounded by the fact that Sue was apparently pregnant at the time of her death) would come to shape his character significantly in the events following Identity Crisis, eventually culminating at the end of the weekly series 52.

Over the course of "52", Ralph follows a trail that he believes may lead to the restoration of Sue to life. Ultimately, it's a trap set forth by longtime enemy Felix Faust, a mystic who has been trapped in the tower of Doctor Fate. Ralph dies at the end of the adventure, but before long, he and Sue start turning up as ghosts, and more recently, have learned they can temporarily take control of living people, much like the character Deadman. They've also turned up among the Black Lanterns in the currently-running-as-I-write-this "Blackest Night" storyline, and I have no idea how that's going to play out.

The Elongated Man gets his abilities from a combination of drinking a soda named Gingold and his natural latent metahuman physiology. The extract interacts with a latent gene that Ralph has, thus activating his super powers. It was revealed in Invasion #3 that it was a metagene reaction to the Gingold elixir that had always provided him with his stretching powers, meaning that he is, in fact, a metahuman and that an ordinary human would not develop such powers through ingesting the extract. Also, most people are extremely allergic to highly concentrated Gingold.

As his name suggests, the Elongated Man can stretch his limbs and body to super-human lengths and sizes. These stretching powers grant the Elongated Man heightened agility enabling him flexibility and coordination that is beyond the natural limits of the human body. He can contort his body into various positions and sizes impossible for ordinary humans, such as being entirely flat so that he can slip under a door, or using his fingers to pick conventional locks. He can also use it for disguise by changing the shape of his face, although this is painful and difficult for him. Ralph's physiology has greater physical limitations than Plastic Man; there is a limit to how far he can stretch his finite bodily mass.

He is largely able to withstand corrosives, punctures and concussions without sustaining injury. It has been demonstrated that he is resistant to high velocities that would kill an ordinary person and that he is also more resistant to blasts from energy weapons that would kill ordinary humans.

In addition to his stretching abilities, Elongated Man is professionally trained as a detective and is highly skilled in deductive reasoning. Often considered one of the most brilliant detectives in the DC Universe (compared with Batman only differing in the actual course of their logic), he is a talented amateur chemist as well. A meta-side-effect of his powers coupled with his detective skills is enhanced olfactory sense, allowing him to "smell" when something is "not right", or if a clue or mystery is at hand. This results in a rubbery "nose twitch".

Elongated Man appears in several episodes of the Justice League Unlimited voiced by Jeremy Piven. This is the first television series in which he has made an appearance. Although he appears in numerous episodes as a background character, Elongated Man has only three speaking roles.

The character's presence in Justice League Unlimited was largely due to the fact that, for whatever reason, the show couldn't use Plastic Man, who is arguably the better known of the two.

As to the figure -- this is not the first Elongated Man figure. The difference? The costume. Elongated Man, in the comics, originally wore a light purple jumpsuit with rather wrinkled arms and legs -- apparently the DC Universe had yet to discover an analogue to the so-called "unstable molecules" invented by Marvel's stretchy super-genius, Reed Richards, that allowed him to extend himself without having to wear a costume that looked like an old sock.

Somebody must have come up with something later on, because some years later, Elongated Man graduated to a red and black costume, that maintained its lines better. Sometime later -- and carrying over into the animated series, Dibny wore yet another costume, which brought back the light purple, joined with white trim.

It was this costume that was made as the first JLU Elongated Man action figure. The one in this new set gives us Dibny in his red and black costume. I'm especially pleased with this, as in my opinion, it was Elongated Man's best outfit, even if there's no shortage of red-garbed super-heroes out there, and even if the overall color scheme, if not the pattern, used the same colors as Plastic Man.

The costume is predominantly red, with a wide, V-shaped black stripe down the front, a yellow belt, and black gloves and boots with yellow tops. The headsculpt is excellent. It's a perfect animated representation of Dibny, with the somewhat wavy reddish hair, the rather long face, and a grin. Dibny enjoyed being a super-hero. He thought it was all a great adventure.

Really, on the whole, this is an immensely cool action figure of a cool and amusing, but not silly, character from the Justice League roster.

Now let's turn our attention to the two newcomers in the set. We'll start with...

MR. TERRIFIC - There have been two Mister Terrifics in the DC Universe. The first, a man by the name of Terry Sloane, was part of the Golden Age, and was a member of the original Justice Society. That's not this Mister Terrific.

The modern Mister Terrific is an African-American man by the name of Michael Holt. He first appeared in the pages of The Spectre -- of all places -- in 1997, and was created by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake.

Says Wikipedia: At a young age, Michael Holt showed remarkable intelligence, reading and assimilating the works of Bohr, Einstein, Planck, and Feynman, the pantheon of theoretical physics, at the age of six. He studied advanced science, space, and time "while other children struggled through Sesame Street". Michael grew up with his mentally challenged older brother, Jeffrey, whom Michael loved dearly. When Jeffrey died at the age of 15, Michael was devastated.

Holt displayed "a natural aptitude for having natural aptitudes", as he called it, easily picking up and retaining complex skills and abilities that other men spent their entire lives perfecting. Before he began his career as a superhero, he already possessed 14 Ph.D's (two in Engineering and Physics -- including doctorates and masters degrees in Law, Psychology, Chemistry, Political science, and Mathematics), was a self-made multi-millionaire with a high tech firm called Cyberwear (subsequently sold to Waynetech) and was a Gold medal winning Olympic decathlete.

The accidental deaths of his wife and unborn child were a devastating blow to Holt and while contemplating suicide, he was met by the Spectre, who told him about Terry Sloane, the Golden Age superhero known as Mister Terrific. Inspired by Sloane's life story, he took the name Mister Terrific and later joined the current Justice Society of America, eventually serving as its chairman.

He initially wore ordinary clothes and a leather jacket with Sloane's "Fair Play" emblem on the back. He currently wears a T-shaped mask composed of electronic nanites, a black and white costume with red trim, and a collarless jacket in the same colors (the black sections of tunic and jacket forming a "T") with "Fair Play" written on the sleeves and "Terrific" across the back.

For a time he acted as spokesperson for Tylerco and consulted that company on industrial espionage and security matters in exchange for that company helping fund a youth center Terrific had started.

Holt has a friendly rivalry with Batman, his opposite number in the Justice League of America (in his identity as Bruce Wayne, Batman owns Holt's business). Michael Holt has encountered Terry Sloane twice through time travel, with Sloane expressing pride in having so worthy a successor. Holt has been noted as the most intelligent member of the JSA in its history, surpassing his predecessor. He describes himself as the third smartest person in the world, and this notion now appears to be an accepted truth within the DC Universe.

He is aided by his "T-Spheres", floating robotic spheres which can do many things, including project holographic images, project laser grids, serve as cameras, link with outside data networks and orbital satellites, open electronic locks, allow him to fly by bearing his weight, explode with enough force to send Captain Marvel flying back, generate powerful electric charges, and strike as flying, projectile weapons. They respond to his mental and vocal commands.

He is invisible to all forms of electronic detection. Despite a claim to Black Lightning in Infinite Crisis that "I've got one superpower: I'm invisible to technology," this may have been a simplification. In all other instances this ability is tied to nanotechnology woven into his specially designed "T-Mask" (which is molecularly bonded to his face and can appear and disappear at will) and costume. Mr. Terrific was apparently the only super-hero whom the OMACs could not detect. The only exception to his invisibility however, is that of the Red Tornado, who for reasons yet unknown, is capable of seeing Terrific, despite being an android.

In the Justice League Unlimited series, Mister Terrific was portrayed as one of the leas strategists for the team, and when Martian Manhunter took a leave of absence, Mister Terrific filled in as the main coordinator of team efforts, diving members into effective groups to deal with various crises as needed.

The figure is excellent. Obviously, since Mister Terrific wears a jacket, some modification to the basic figure form was needed. This was accomplished with a "vest" that duplicates the main body of the jacket, and special arms that reflect the loose-fitting sleeves, as opposed to the usual tights. The main costume is black with limited red trim, and the jacket is black with considerable white trim, and some red line trim. The wording that appears on the comic book characters jacket is absent here for the sake of animation simplification.

The T-mask has been done in dark grey, with red eyes showing through it. Distinctly absent are Mister Terrific's T-spheres, which is fine by me. Offhand, I don't recall seeing them in the animated series. There's a DC Universe Classics version of Mister Terrific out there, where, much like "Skeets" on the Booster Gold figure, they attached several T-spheres to Mister Terrific's back via transparent plastic "pipes". Frankly, in both cases, I think there's a point where accuracy should take a back seat to looks, and these looked pretty ridiculous. I'm not complaining that the JLU version of Mister Terrific is T-sphere-free.

This really is a very good figure of Mister Terrific, who, arguably, is a character that might've been a tough sell on an individual card, but as part of a set, fits in very nicely.

Finally, we have the other first-timer in the set.

HOURMAN - At the risk of making a horrible time-related pun, this guy is pretty badly overdue. There was allegedly a 10" Hourman figure over a year ago, although I never saw it. I did, however, assume that a 4" one was on the way, but one never showed up. Until now. Sort of makes me wonder how long this guy's been in the works.

The original Hourman was a Golden Age hero, whose real name was Rex Tyler. He invented a pill called Miraclo, which gave him super-strength and other superhuman abilities -- for one hour. Talk about having to pick your fights carefully.

Years later, his son, Rick Tyler, would take up the Hourman mantle, although his original costume bore no resemblance to the original. In more recent years, the son has taken after the father more closely fashionwise.

The limited character profile on the back of the package to this set of figures indicates that this is the modern Hourman, Rick Tyler, so let's have a look at the character's background a bit:

Rick Tyler became the second Hourman when the Crisis on Infinite Earths threatened all of reality, and he used one of his dad's Miraclo pills to save the life of Beth Chapel, who he grew quite fond of. His father strongly disapproved of Rick's actions, knowing the addictive effects of Miraclo and tried to prevent Rick from taking up the Hourman mantle. Nonetheless, Rick ended up trying to join a team of other 2nd generation heroes known as Infinity, Inc.

Rex was able to temporarily convince his son not to, although Rick continued to try and persuade him. Matters became worse however when Rex, along with his teammates in the Justice Society of America sacrificed themselves to fight eternal Ragnarok in Limbo. When Northwind and Beth Chapel came to tell him of the news, Rick ran away in grief. Eventually though, Rick returned to becoming Hourman, wearing an outfit similar to his father's in honor of him. Shortly afterwards, Infinity Inc. disbanded.

Eventually, Rex and the rest of the JSA returned from Limbo and he and Rick were reunited. Father and son would only spent a short time together, when the villain Extant killed Rex and some of his allies from the Justice Society during the event known as Zero Hour.

Rick remained retired from the superhero business for a long time, and in that time he met the new android Hourman. This android had been engineered by his time travelling father from Rex's own DNA. Although Rick intensily disliked the new Hourman, he was saved by the android when he transported Rick into the Timepoint (a place where time stands still), so that he would be spared from an unidentifiable alien illness.

The two would grow closer when the android then cured Rick of his illness and bestowed him two gifts. Rick was now able to see one hour into the future, as well as being given time with his dad in the Timepoint. The Hourman android had plucked Rex out of the timestream before he was killed fighting Extant.

Rick resumed the mantle of Hourman (adopting a new costume in the process), using a new, non-addictive form of Miraclo, and joined a makeshift JSA in defeating the Ultra-Humanite. Rick remained with the JSA after this battle and began growing close to Jesse Chambers, who was the JSA's business manager and also the superheroine Jesse Quick.

Rick is still part of the Justice Society of America and is now married to Jesse Chambers, now going by the name Liberty Belle.

Hourman was given a special hourglass that caused him to experience random visions of one hour in the future. He also uses the drug Miraclo, which grants him super strength, speed, agility, reflexes and durability for a full hour.

Without Miraclo, Hourman is no more powerful than a regular human. He can only use one dose of Miraclo a day, as its long term abuse may prove detrimental for his health. Hourman's Miraclo is dispensed directly into his bloodstream by the hourglass amulets embedded in his costume's gauntlets.

The Wikipedia entry notes that Hourman's appearances in the Justice League Animated series were limited to background appearances.

So, how's the figure? Pretty cool, although somewhat curiously, the costume looks to be a variant of its own. It doesn't really match either the Rick Tyler or Rex Tyler Hourman costumes. It's not even especially close to the android.

In fairness, it does use the Hourman uniform colors, which have traditionally been black and yellow. But there's also traditionally been more black than yellow on the costume, and that's not really the case here.

The bulk of the costume is yellow. Hourman is wearing a black cowl, accompanied by a dark grey cape with a hood. Most of the torso is yellow, except for a black region around the stomach that tapers into black trunks. The boots and gloves are mostly black, with yellow trim, and yellow hands for the gloves. There is a stylized hourglass symbol on the chest, white surrounded by a red outline.

Don't get me wrong -- it's a cool uniform design. But it does sort of fall into the "What the -- !? Where did this come from?" category.

But I'm not complaining. After the announcement, at least, of a 10" Hourman figure, I was sort of hoping that there would be a 4" one following soon after. Well, "soon after" might not have been the case, but we finally have a 4" Justice League Unlimited Hourman figure. And at the risk of making one more bad time-based pun -- better late than never.

So, what's my final word on this set? I'm extremely impressed. Although it may not have as many truly new characters as the villain set that's also out right now, what it does offer is really just as impressive. There are two brand new characters in here, with Hourman and Mister Terrific, two distinct improvements (in my opinion) on previous releases, in the form of Elongated Man and certainly Supergirl, a figure that was near impossible to find during his first release, that being Obsidian -- and hey, a cool Superman. I'm not going to say anything negative about him.

And I'm not going to say anything negative about this set, either. I remain concerned about the future of the Justice League action figure line. There are some figures that I know Mattel wants to do, and that I would very much like to have. More of the Crime Syndicate. Modern animated-style figures from the Super Friends. I want to see these happen, and I hope they will.

But in the meantime, there's still some very cool and very impressive Justice League figures to be had, and this set most assuredly qualifies. The JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED "THE LEAGUE UNITED" 6-PACK definitely has my highest recommendation!