By Chris Troy
HOWDY FPNYC FAITHFUL! We are only a few short days away from New York Comic Con, and as of the time of writing, FPNYC is SOLD OUT of all passes for the biggest comic & pop culture convention on the Northeastern Coast (Fairly certain east coast as well, but there’s a small chance that I may be wrong). Myself and Loran will be at the con all weekend (well Loran for a day), covering the convention for Bleedingcool.com and tweeting 140 character one liners over at @anarchris if you want to keep tabs on the convention and see what X-Men related characters I dress up as during the weekend (yup, cosplay is happening).
For the first time at the convention, Hasbro is finally showing NYCC some love by hooking the con up with not 1, but 2 Marvel exclusives for the show. Representing the Marvel Universe line is the “Compound Hulk“, who appeared in a single issue of Jeff Parker‘s current run of “The Hulk” title. Much like the silver age Composite Superman-Batman, Compound Hulk is half Green Hulk, half Red Hulk, possibly the strongest there is. Possibly. And why SDCC got a exclusive Avengers themed Mini-Mugg box set, NYCC gets one based on the 90s crossover “Maximum Carnage.” This mini-5 packs gives us Carnage, Eddie Brock/Venom, Spider-Man, Demogoblin, and J. Jonah Jameson, with mean this 5 pack is a menace and a threat (to my wallet!), and well worth the money already.
There’s also going to be an Avengers movie panel at NYCC, which is going to be huge as Captain America and Loki will be on hand for it (or at least the actors who play them). The trailer for the May 2012 film went live today, and #Avengers was trending worldwide as a result. It’s also an awesome trailer. With that being said, we have a quartet of awesome movie figures that complement the visuals of the movie well, Captain America and the Red Skull from the Captain America:The First Avenger and Thor and Loki from…well Thor obviously. These figures may not be as pose able as their smaller scaled figures, but they certainly look at lot more like the actors who portrayed the Marvel characters. Plus they all come with stands that connect to provide movie-accurate backgrounds, not to mention an accessory to 2 each. For $20 bucks a pop, you can certainly do a lot worse right? We may even have 1 or 2 Iron Man 2 movie figures in stock, so you can have a Tony Stark to be smarmy towards Cap and Thor.
On the DC side of things, DC Direct’s con exclusive is a “Sickened” Joker figure to tie-in to the release of the heavily anticipated Batman: Arkham City game, due out next week. In reality, it’s the previously released “Arkham 
Asylum” Joker figure with some new paint effects, but hey better than nothing. But if you’re looking to pick up something new and fresh, the third and final wave of the Brightest Day figures have hit the shelf. The final wave focuses on the new Aqualad (who’s a slightly different than the version running around on Young Justice), the original Green Lantern’s daughter Jade, and Hawk and Dove, who went from appearing in Birds of Prey to head-lining their own series. While the image use in the article makes the figures look a bit off, they actually look great in person, and retail for $20 each.
That’s all for part 1. Part 2 should be up before the con, and will feature the latest line of Marvel Universe releases!
