And now, at last, we come to the final full custom of my More-Than-Complete Guardians of the Galaxy! Only one more post after this, to show a few modded figures and the final, full group shot! But that's tomorrow. Today, I'm bringing you a figure that, personally, I think is one of the best I've ever produced. Sadly, a bit of the impact of this piece will be lost, as 1) his color palette is so limited, he's a bit hard to examine over photos, he's much better in person, 2) my photography is, as always, only barely adequate, and 3) at the moment, I only have a black photo background to shoot against, which does NOT help. Nevertheless, I think I did a spectacular job, and I hope you can see and agree. So, without further preamble, it's the symbiote soldier, the crippled commando, the chicken pox of the Marvel Universe ('cuz seriously, EVERYBODY has gotten stuck with this thing at one point or another), it's Agent Venom!

If you checked out my Angela post, you know my feelings on this character: he's Spawn. Really, originally conceived by Todd McFarlane, military spec-ops, severely wounded, bonded to a shape-shifting psycho suit, now he's got super powers, but he still runs around with guns, swings through the air on projectile grapples, trying to lead a life as a hero, occasionally loses control and kills people, WAY more popular than he has any right to be, the guy is Spawn.

Which is actually, funny story, how I came to make this custom. See, way back at the end of the ToyBiz era (can you BELIEVE it's almost been a decade?), I picked up the Marvel Legends Face-Off 2-packs. In most cases, I was only after one figure, and in the case of Jigsaw/Punisher, I was after the white business suit Jigsaw. The Punisher he came with was actually a very nice figure, but I already had an outstanding Series IV Punisher (so outstanding that no Punisher figure since has topped it, and both ToyBiz and Hasbro tried), so he immediately went onto the chopping block. I'd always wanted a fully poseable Spawn figure, and I just so happened to have a spare Moon Knight (for the head) and a cool Spawn cape I picked up at a yard sale, plus an awesome DC Superheroes Batman utility belt and some other assorted odds and ends, I figured it would be a fast and easy project.

I got him halfway done, then forgot about him for 7 years.

So now we have Agent Venom, and Diamond Select has released an excellent - if oversized and expensive - version of the character that I'm likely never going to get ahold of. No matter. I dig up old Spawn-isher, sculpt and paint the heck out of him, and viola! An Agent Venom figure to be proud of, he'll be the envy of the internet!

Not a month later, Hasbro announced the Walgreens exclusive ML Agent Venom. And the hilarious part? They used the Face-Off Punisher as their base too!

Regardless, I've felt absolutely no need to pick up the official version of the character. Despite some alternate design choices, my Venom easily measures up to the Hasbro figure. I went with a slightly more chitinous, spiky texture to Flash's armor, and though it doesn't show up well in the photos, it does form uniform armor plates and panels over his legs and forearms that look really cool in person. I'm really pleased with the shoulder armor, which is actually pegged through his shoulder ball joints so it hinges independently and allows him a wide range of movement. The utility belt is very solid plastic, so his legs are less free, but he can still do a few decent action poses. And of course, he's heavily armed, as he should be, with a pistol and knife, both holstered/sheathed on his body, on his thigh and boot respectively, plus a automatic rifle/grenade launcher and a sniper rifle for heavy combat. I'm also quite happy with the paint, particularly where the dark gunmetal contrasts with the black to differentiate the "metallic" armor from the "organic" components.

He's bad! He's beautiful! And he's the last full custom of the bunch! Only one more post to go!

Excelsior!