Final WIP: Mimic

X-Men Month continues with Mimic, painted and mostly complete.

As I painted the blue squares running rampant on the yellow field, the “painter’s overalls” aspects of this costume snapped into place. I think that’s one of the crucial design elements, signifying Calvin’s everyman aspects. This is the Exiles version, which is always described as a mutant Captain America on a world with better mutant acceptance; but even this version spent some time in the slammer. You can tell by the van dyke. That’s how crazy the alternate universe is that Mimic comes from, that a premier hero, leader of the Avengers etcetera, can have such a brazenly counter-culture hair element.

As I mentioned when I posted Mimic’s WIP, the base from head to toe is:

• A DCD JLA Aquaman head,
• DCSH Superman torso and shoulders,
• SOTA Street Fighter Ken arms, hands, crotch, and hips, and
• Marvel Legends series 3 Wolverine legs and feet.

Additional elements include rubber bands to bulk up the boots, and goggles from a DST Spike. His X-buckle, a costume element that’s not entirely accurate, was cut off the chest of a cat-head Beast.

In Exiles, Mimic had Wolverine claws, Colossus metal, and, early on, Angel wings. I wanted a vanilla figure that didn’t need additional toy parts to be formidable. This is rethinking the character to better fit an action figure, something I do quite a bit of. Thinking in plastic puts the figure first! I imagine Mimic is copying Beast’s agility, Cyclops’ optic blasts, Marvel Girl’s telekinesis, Thunderbird’s strength, and Northstar’s flight. He’s kind of a mutant Superman, and I tried to reflect this design aesthetic throughout the figure. I did this by, uh, using Superman parts. It is an extremely subtle craftsmanship element.