Occasionally we look at a statue meant for the American audience, and today we’ll do just that. Being that summer is just about over, we’ll examine a nice-looking girl in a bikini: Aspen Matthews from Top Cow and Aspen Comics.
Aspen Matthews is the central character of the comic book series Fathom. Created by the late (and much lamented) Michael Turner – who also created Witchblade, which starred Sara Pezzini and Masane Amaha – it focuses on a young girl with extraordinary abiliites to control water. She can also turn parts of her body into water, which features prominently in the structure of this statue.
Aspen is manufactured by Sideshow Collectibles as part of their Premium Format line. This means that she’s 1/4 scale, standing an impressive 54 centimeters in height, including the base. The version we’re looking at here is the exclusive version, which has a swap-out right arm.
One unfortunately common issue with statues like this is that sometimes, the character’s face isn’t particularly attractive. For example, Sideshow’s upcoming Psylocke statue – a statue that I was very much looking forward to – looks sort of like a space alien, or a woman who swung for the fences on cosmetic surgery. (I think they tried to make her look Asian or something, but I’m Japanese-Korean and I lived in Seoul for ten years; I can attest that I’ve never seen an Asian person that looked like that.) Aspen, however, is very pretty; some observers have compared her looks to Adriana Lima, which I think is both reasonable and approbatory. She has striking blue eyes, large lips, and an enigmatic expression which looks considerably better than the factitiously aggressive expressions on Sideshow’s upcoming X-Men figures.
Aspen is wearing a fairly revealing bikini, cut high on her hips and showing a lot of underboob. Her bikini has a thong back so if you turn her around, you can see just how nice her ass looks. Unfortunately the paintwork of her thong doesn’t quite go all the way between her legs but I suppose that’s not too unusual.
She’s also obviously wearing a great deal of pale gray growths which I suppose are coral or shells or bone. Regardless, it all adds a great deal more visual interest, as if a pretty girl in a bikini weren’t visually interesting enough.
The base, comprising an assortment of tendrils of water spiraling around Aspen, is impressive in its own right. They are made out of clear resin and feature a color that graduates from clear to blue towards the bottom. Normally I’m not a big fan of these sorts of special effects done in figures or statues as they often look unconvincingly cheesy but here, the result is astonishing. I’m also happy that the water splashes are concentrated on the figure’s left side, which complements the Witchblade statue that I have, as that figure’s tendrils spiral her right leg.
The musculature of the statue is also quite appealing. Aspen’s body build is feminine but obviously physically fit, which looks great.
One very cool aspect of this statue that might not be obvious at first glance is that her legs transition from flesh to water. Like the materials that compose the base, the effect is quite dramatic.
The optional item packaged with the exclusive edition is this right arm, which is also meant to simulate water. I like it but I prefer the regular arm instead, not because I dislike the water effect, but because I think the regular arm makes for a more appealing pose. I like how Aspen looks with her arms turned outwards with palms up; the position of her optional arm disrupts the symmetry of her original pose and doesn’t look quite as nice to me.
I think that this is an incredible statue, one of the best female statues that Sideshow has ever produced. She has an undeniably sexy look, a strong and dignified pose, and all aspects of the sculpt are top notch. The water effects are impeccably executed, which surprised me, as they aren’t easy to pull off. Overall, I think this is the best figure or statue I’ve received this year and one of the best in my collection. Would that Sideshow could do this well on all of their products.
