General Marvel Legends

[TENIME]

Looking at her tail in the Smith panels - she looks like a reverse skunk.

All white with a black stripe running down her back/tail.

 

[puckace]

Also I object to her being 'white furred' she should be black with white... like her original appearances and, y'know, like the skunk being she is

Norm as you can see from her earliest appearances her arms and legs are covered in black fur.

Apparently subsequent artists assumed or decided that was costume or something because admittedly since the late 90's she has been drawn like a white furred cat lady.

It has been a pet peeve of mine for decades how they have literally white washed my poor girl

Preach on brother!
Skunk lady all the way.

 

[PantherCult]

I do have to say tjat I love this place specifically because its a place where we can have a pages long conversation about Hepzibah. Where else could that happen? Not even most comic stores these days.

 

[Ultra Seven]

I do have to say tjat I love this place specifically because its a place where we can have a pages long conversation about Hepzibah. Where else could that happen? Not even most comic stores these days.

This is my dorkiest of hobbies, and this is the only place where I can discuss it at-length without having to check for glazed eyes. My comic reading friends don't do figures, and my figure collecting friends don't do comics.

 

[fac]

I think that Paul Smith look is a good compromise - white fur arms, neck, face, yellow/black bodysuit with the white fur fringe being part of a boot, black highlights on the tail.

I would pick that version off a toy shelf without info and know it was Hepzibah. I would not know who that was in the pic TSI posted.

I will say this - it seems that too often when they try to update a character's hair style in Legends it goes poorly - see Shadowcat Kitty Pryde, that one Jean Grey, the darker blue Sue Storm. How do we know what is in style for the young female Mephitisoids?

 

[PanchaMaestro]

But look up Paul Smith's version of that costume from Uncanny 174. She looks great in that original costume.

But does she arch her back in that porn way the modern costumes are designed for? I don't think so.

 

[TENIME]

I would pick that version off a toy shelf without info and know it was Hepzibah.

I wouldn't have if it weren't for older nerds.

I was introduced to the entire X-side of the Marvel Universe by the 1992 cartoon. And she didn't look like that, and hasn't in the comics I started reading in 1992 to present day.

She looked/s the way that's being sexualized by furries, apparently (that's not a fair joke, I know a few furries, and I'M a bigger sexual deviant than they are; they just like making & wearing mascot costumes the same way anyone who dresses up like their favorite movie or video game or comic book characters do - hell, the furries I'm friends with wouldn't fucking DARE have sex in costume: they spent too much on them to ruin them with [extra] sweat or...other...fluids... ).

Where was I going?

Oh yeah, #ClassicHepzibahIsNotMyHepzibah.

 

[TENIME]

Besides, we all know Hasbro is gonna screw one of us over.

They don't give a shit what we want her to look like.

They'll just put her in a convention exclusive multipack that costs an obscene amount of money for what little is actually inside the set, regardless if it's classic or modern.

 

[renfield75]

Besides, we all know Hasbro is gonna screw one of us over.

Hey now, that's not fair. They'll do some bizarre mash-up of classic and modern and screw ALL of us over. Solid white cat lady with a yellow bathing suit and no fur perhaps?

 

[hmmberto]

You know, at the end of the day, I think we should all take a step back and realize how frigging cool it is that we're at a point in this amazing Marvel toy-line where we're arguing about the correct costume for Hepzibah.

... Cockrum look all the way. While the Lee one is technically fine (I've softened on it in literally the past couple days, as I'm trying to accept that if/ when we get her, that's what she'll look like), she'll just look weird on my shelf because my X-Men collection is all 70s/80s looks. But again: we've hit a point where the proper look for Hepzibah is an issue. My phone doesn't even recognize that as a word. I've corrected from "Hezbollah" six times in the process of typing this out.

Thank you! I think this all the time. It's absolutely wild how deep we've gotten into the roster of the Marvel U and that they're still going. We're at the point now where the costume references for the characters we want barely turn up any image results and we've gotta pull up specific issues to find them. That is wild and awesome.

I'm not advocating for an exact representation of her initial appearance. I get Cockrum's art wasn't everyone's cup of tea... and he was really the only arist who dre her for the first 10 years she existed.

But look up Paul Smith's version of that costume from Uncanny 174. She looks great in that original costume.

I also don't want her looking like some generic bimbo the way many of those horrific 90's pin up shots depict her.

I guess we are going to be mortal enemies now

I pulled up Uncanny 107 to see how Hepzibah is depicted and, man - what a trip. That opening splash page with my favorite lineup of x-people, the Shi'ar, the full Imperial Guard, the Starjammers. Beautiful stuff. This might send me down a Claremont X-Men re-read.

The Paul Smith art is gorgeous too, and I do like his depiction of Hepzibah a bit more. I'd take that exact look in a heartbeat.


For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure Dwight was referencing Raza only when commenting on the expense of finishing the team. Which again, is good news, cause it tells me they've at least put some work into developing them.

 

[TENIME]

Hey now, that's not fair. They'll do some bizarre mash-up of classic and modern and screw ALL of us over. Solid white cat lady with a yellow bathing suit and no fur perhaps?

Excellent point, thank you.

*glares at my orange Wolfsbane*

 

[TheGillMan]

Dwight also had some interesting comments about wired capes, basically saying that Hasbro's safety standards makes it extra challenging and costly to implement it compared to how other companies do (he wasn't bragging, and almost seemed annoyed?). He references some innovations in Star Wars Black Series that might be useful - not sure what he's talking about.

Probably referring to the Ronin figure they did that was a convention exclusive that had a wired cloak. I believe the Vader in the Bespin duel set also has a wired cape. Maybe they are able to work around the safety features if they don't plan to sell them in retail spaces where kids could get their hands on them?

Dwight may have mentioned Hellfire Guards because Dan Who was wearing a Hellfire action figure shirt.

The Hellfire figure shirt is Dan Who's channel mascot, Hellfire Hank.

He mentioned them because Dan Who asked him about more army builders, and Dwight said Dan Yun had been wanting to re-release the Hellfire guards. Dwight said he didn't want to just re-release the Hellfire guards but instead update them to the Vulcan mold which may be why it hasn't happened yet.

That's good news. I definitely want to see some stuff like the Skrulls get rereleases.

I think it was discussed awhile back, but if they're considering Shi'ar, Reavers and and Hellfire guards, then I'd like to see them release a whole wave of army builders. I don't know how well it would do in sales, but it seems like it could do fairly well.

Maybe, something like: Shi'ar, Hellfire Club, X-Factor Multiple Man, Skrulls, Reavers, Kree, Doombots and a mandroid BAF.

I've been saying for AGES they should do Multiple Man in army builder packs! I was never able to find the figure of him in his X-Factor costume, and have had to make due with his green costumed look in my X-Factor display. To me, it seems like a no-brainer to do builder packs of him without his jacket. People who already have the previous one would still buy him, and those of us who missed out will finally be able to actually complete that team!

Honestly my take on it is artists are often too lazy to do much research on a deadline so make half assed assumptions and roll with it. Comic deadlines being what they are there was likely no time - even if thete was inclination - to have it revised. Also, the coloring process for all black is tricky, so easier to color it wjith more white highlight than black... and, as you say, another black furred character whitewashed due to limitations of the coloring process in comics.

Even so, her race hasn't changed ... she IS a Mephitisoid - a name that literally means skunk. Color her how you want.. she is still definitively a skunk lady.

This. Don't even get me started on how Moon Knight isn't supposed to be white! His costume is SILVER, as it was a plot point in the old Werewolf By Night stories. No one is trying to argue Silver Surfer is supposed to be white, because he has the color in his name, but the coloring on MK was identical. Hepzibah got a similar treatment, which bugs me. To me, she is forever a skunk.

I read an interesting article about how that song is actually weirdly progressive for its time.

Yep. At the time it was really progressive....the couple really want to fuck, but the social norms at the time prevent them from just going for it. Modern listeners really get hung up on the "say what's in this drink" line, but that was a comic trope of the time period. Usually, it was someone doing something stupid, then they'd say "hey, what's in this drink" trying to blame their blunder on being drunk...the joke being the audience would already know it was a non-alcoholic beverage. One person in the song is continually saying "but baby, it's cold outside" because they think that is justification enough to not venture out, and that people won't view them poorly. The other keeps coming up with objections, but also throwing things out to possibly justify them staying there (see the aforementioned bit about something being in the drink).

Another thing people get upset about in the sheet music is that it lists the lines usually sung by the male to be "cat" and the female as "mouse", but what gets left out is that the couple who wrote the song deliberately did it that way so the song could be sung with the roles reversed...the female could sing the "cat" line and the male could sing the "mouse" part and it would still make sense (the couple themselves frequently performed the song both ways). Also, "cat" and "mouse" were also common terms for parts in a duet with a back-and-forth nature like this.

Sadly, I don't view this tune as anything close to a holiday favorite, and everything I know about it is primarily from knowing the history of comedy from that time period. To me, it's a lot like the modern viewer seeing Blazing Saddles and thinking it is horribly racist, not knowing that, at the time, it was incredibly transgressive and a huge middle-finger to racism. Still, I find myself somewhat defending the tune since it isn't the horrible rape culture celebration many claim it to be.

 

[altcunningham]

Looking at her tail in the Smith panels - she looks like a reverse skunk

Love a woman who's into that position.

 

[hmmberto]

Probably referring to the Ronin figure they did that was a convention exclusive that had a wired cloak. I believe the Vader in the Bespin duel set also has a wired cape. Maybe they are able to work around the safety features if they don't plan to sell them in retail spaces where kids could get their hands on them?

Thank you! I did not know they had done this. I'm glad to see Hasbro has delved into wired soft goods somewhere - makes me more confident that they will inevitably show up in ML, in whatever form.