My first introduction to Marvel characters growing up was the Secret Wars toys.  I remember being in the department store with my mother when I saw a pack of three Secret Wars figures: Captain America, Iron Man, and Symbiote Spider-man.  This was the first time I ever laid eyes on Spider-man’s black costume, and I instantly fell in love with it.  This black costumed figure quickly became my evil Spider-man, or Ninja Spider-man, or Cat-burglar Spider-man.  Basically for me he was Spider-man with an attitude, not the “friendly-neighborhood” Spider-man.  So I have always had a weakness for this costume in figure form, and knew that I would have to get this Marvel Universe version.  According to the card back this is not the alien outfit, Peter Parker is just wearing a black costume to put a little more scare into criminals (like Batman I guess).
     Hasbro did a very good job making this Spider-man look like a comic book come to life.  I initially thought that he had the Silver Surfer/ Iron Fist/ Human Torch body, but this is a new sculpt.  He is appropriately skinny for the character, but still looks strong.   Technically he may be too skinny, but I think he looks good in person.  His muscles are nicely defined, but not ridiculously so (like Iron Fist’s abs).  The eyes are also sculpted, reminding me of the mask from the movies.  I don’t think was necessary, but it is a very nice touch that adds to his design.  His feet look very much like a comic book drawing, skinny at the heel, wide at the ball of the foot, and with pointy toes.  What is not so great is the sculpting of his hands, as both look a little soft.  From most angles his right hand looks like a rolled up ball of plastic, while his left hand looks like a rolled up ball of plastic with five digits coming out of it.  They’re not terrible hands, but I know that Hasbro can do better.  He comes with the same crappy web accessory that series 1 Spidey offered, just this time it is black plastic with gray paint.  This is a pretty solid sculpt with the hands being the only weak point, and I like the exaggerated comic book proportions.

Sculpt Score: 8 / 10

      This is an area where I am less pleased with this figure.  Hasbro has decided to keep Black Spider-man from looking too simple by lightly dusting him with blue.  I understand the idea behind this, but still they should not have done it.  There were a number of these at the store, so I took my time choosing which one to get.  Initially I was trying to find the figure that had the least amount of blue on him, but when I found him he just did not look quite right (basically it looked like he had a blue spot right between his eyes).  So instead I went for the one that had the blue most evenly distributed.  I’m glad that I went with this choice because I don’t think that this blue looks that bad on his upper-body.  In fact, I kind of like the effect that the blue creates going from his head and shoulders down his arms.  Unfortunately the blue on his legs looks silly.  Spider-man has two blue stripes running down the front of his legs, from his hips to the tips of his toes.  Simply said, the blue on his legs looks stupid.  Another problem is that Spider-man has a glossy stomach, and matte everything else.  This creates an effect that if visually disturbing.  On his backside he has a bright blue spots near his shoulders, on each butt cheek, on each calf, and on each heel.  These aren’t so bad since I’m typically not looking at Spider-man’s derriere.  On the positive side of things the white paint was applied very well.  For the most part the white looked good on all of the figures I saw, just some of them had some slop around the eyes and some had too thin of a coat on the body, so if you have the chance, compare a few before deciding which one to get.  The spiders on his chest and back are clean and crisp with a thick enough application to look truly white.  His eyes are also painted very well.  This, like the blue highlights, was an area that had quite a bit of variation so look at yours carefully at the store.
     I wish that Hasbro had just left the blue alone.  Spider-man would look very cool just being straight black and white.  Mine has the blue applied better than any other that I’ve seen, but the legs very distracting to me.  Maybe in another series down the road we’ll get to have Black Spider-man re-released with no annoying highlights.

Paint Score: 7 / 10

      Black Costume Spider-man has good articulation, above the waste.  One slight problem is that the ball joint of his head basically acts like a swivel, but I’m glad that he is looking forward instead of down.  His shoulders and torso, which I’ll describe as being ball joints, both supply a good range of motion.  He also has swivel wrists and single pin elbows that allow the arms to bend 90 degrees.  I am glad that Marvel Universe is not giving these figures double pin elbows, as I think they look awful when straight and even more so when bent.  Unfortunately Black Spider-man’s hips are a little wonky.  He is unable to lift his legs out in front past 45 degrees without twisting the whole thing outwards.  Don’t expect him to do the splits anytime soon either as his legs can get just a smidge over 90 degrees of separation.  Also his legs have a tendency to cock in (you can see this in the package), giving him a slight pigeon-toed look.  Spider-man has double pin knees, which work great, and pin and post ankles, which can only act as swivel joints.
     Unfortunately the combination of the poorly designed hips with the limited movement in his ankles means that Spider-man is very difficult to balance.  He can stand straight up, or with legs slightly apart, but he will not hold any dynamic poses for long.  This may not be a problem for a child who is just going to be holding his figures while playing with them, but as an adult collector this is an issue that really hurts his overall articulation score.  I believe that if either one of these problem areas was corrected then Spider-man would not have the balance issues that he does.  

Articulation Score: 6 / 10

 

Fun Score: 6 / 10

     Due to my fondness I have for this costume that has carried-over since my childhood I would have been okay with spending $8 on this figure, but he has the blue highlights and articulation problems.  With the above-mentioned issues I wish that I had not purchased him.  $8 is just too much money to spend on this figure.  I would recommend going with the regular version of Spider-man instead.  

Value Score: 5 / 10  

Summary

8 - Spider-man has good proportions and well defined muscles, but bad hands.

7 - I wish I knew a way to get rid of this blue that would not damage the soft plastic.

6 - Balance issues caused by poor hips and ankles are the big problem here, if they worked properly he would have been an 8 or 9.

6 - Well built, but disappointing looks and articulation detract from fun score.

5 - Too much money for the problems that he has.