For my second Forgotten Hero of 2023, I present another First Comics character: Steven Grant’s Whisper. Along with Nexus and Badger, Whisper actually started out in Capital Comics before being published by First after Capital’s demise. Whisper last showed up in a one-shot in 2006. I own exactly one Whisper comic, and it’s not even an issue of her own series. It’s this Crossroads comic, featuring a team-up between Whisper and Jon Sable, Freelance. Despite having a cool cover, it’s bad.
As a result, I knew next to nothing about Whisper before I decided to make this conversion, so I looked up her story. She’s Alexis Devin, an American, but trained in ninjutsu by her Japanese Yakuza stepfather. As a child she had polio and this training helped her overcome it. Alexis was working as an architect and wanted nothing to do with ninjas when she was drawn back into the conflicts of the Yakuza against her will. I guess there’s more to the story, but that’s the gist of it. She’s a ninja, and it was the 80’s. The world was ninja crazy back then.
To make Whisper, I started with these two Heroclix miniatures: The Punisher and Elektra. I’ve always hated this Elektra miniature because it looks stupid, and like many Heroclix, the factory paint job is abysmal. The Punisher sculpt is pretty bad-ass. Unfortunately, I needed that wall he’s standing on, because I have no ability to sculpt one myself. (The Punisher plays no further role in this tale.)
I started by cutting the spear apart and repositioning her arms. I removed the sashes from the spear, but kept some of the handle for each hand. Then I chopped off her hair and her skirt and filled the gaps left behind.
I spent a lot of time filing down her head. Like many conversions, this one looked horrible during the process. I couldn’t get the image of Elektra with a massive head bandage out of my mind. I reattached the sashes as a belt and some flowing wrist wraps. I shaved down the spear shafts to look more like swords.
I wasn’t about to keep that stupid pose, so here’s where I used the wall. Now she’s leaping from a high ledge, ninja-style.
Once primed black, she immediately looked better.
Turns out Whisper doesn’t have flowing wrist wraps, but I like the look of it as it gives the character an illusion of motion. I didn’t do much to the wall other than weather it a little and give it a slight highlight.
And there she is: Whisper. Overall, I think she looks pretty good. She looks a lot better than that Elektra miniature, anyway…
Excellent conversion Keith, have to agree the Elektra model was awful, so you’ve really made a silk purse out of a pig’s ear ! LOL Know absolutely nothing about Whisper, so was interesting to read, and you are not wrong about the 80’s fascination with ninjas with all the movies that came out around that time.
You couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a ninja movie back in the 80’s. Thanks for the kind words, Dave.
Excellent conversion work and paint-job. Whisper really looks the business.
Thanks, Simon! She’s one of those minis that looks like utter shit until she’s done. But I like how she turned out.
Wow mate that is a transformation! I have that Electra figure and are are so right to say it’s s**t, it really is one of the worst. I’d never even considered it as conversation fodder it’s that bad, but now she looks great. Nice paint too, I too have no knowledge of Whisper but that us the idea right. You’re smashing it this year mate.
Cheers Roger
Thanks, Roger! I went back and forth on which miniature to use. I considered a Catwoman miniature, but then I’d have to deal with the goggles and whip, and a Boom Boom X-man miniature, but the pose was pretty meh. Ironically, I chose the Elektra for of all the sashes because I thought Whisper had them, too. I was just going to reposition the arms, but that didn’t solve the stupid pose she was left in, especially after I removed the spear; so I got the idea to have her leaping off something and used the spear shaft for swords.
All shitty Heroclix figures areconversion fodder… I might even find a usefor that godawful Spider-Man figure you sent me. Anyway, lovely conversion and congratulations – a character that I’d never heard of. I will continue with mine when I return, as currently drinking cheap Spanish beer in the sun what we Brits refer to as ‘abroad’ (i.e. anywhere other than the UK).
I’ve noticed your foreign hob-nobbing because I follow you on Instagram. And I sent you that horrible Spider-Man miniature because, as I said, I suddenly realized there was no reason for me to own the shittiest Spider-Man miniature in the world when I can just give it to you, instead. (TBH I expected you to send it on to Roger, and then Roger to someone else, and so on…I had hopes that shitty Spider-Man miniature would become a gaming legend…)
Once again you’ve taken two minis and combined them into something way better! You’re not wrong about the Elektra figure, it’s bloody awful and deserved to be chopped up just for the sake of it 🙂
The result is an excellent conversion and it was a great idea leaving those flowing ribbon things as they really add a sense of movement, and your painting is spot on to the comic book. Nicely done!
Thank you, Matt! Much appreciated! I think I’m pretty much done with Forgotten Heroes for this year, but you never know. It was a small crowd this year, but with some new folks who have completed some pretty great stuff. I’m always happy to take part in Jeremy’s challenge. It’s a lot of fun!