The Tease of Things I Don't Need

Marvel Heroclix Updates

While I wasn’t looking a great deal more information on June’s release of Ultimates the next Marvel Heroclix expansion, arose. It’s almost too much in the way of confirmations, and – as someone who’d already ordered a case a couple months ago, and so isn’t trying to make up his mind about whether or not to buy – it’s bordering on too much advance information.

First, we were given the breakdown of the four new Team Abilities in this set. Morlocks, Ultimate X-Men, Serpent Society, and Ultimates.

While the Ultimates TA finally brings the hindering terrain-negating Superman Ally TA ability of the DC set to Marvel – finally, there’ll be some Marvel figs who can strike from range at Stealthed figures - the built-in Phasing ability of the Serpent Society TA garnered much more immediate player interest. The Morlocks TA is one of those irritatingly contrived set-ups where one has to arrange pieces just so in order to take advantage of it. Essentially, it raises the attack value of a Morlock piece by 1 for each friendly figure that’s adjacent to both the attacker and the target. The Ultimate X-Men TA is allows that piece to declare a particular TA or character as a target early in the game, and thereafter have its attack value raised by 1 in any attacks made up this piece on that TA or character.

Early information on a variety of figures has come along, including stats for the Spider-man, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Captain America and Dr. Octopus, and a pic and some info on the Phoenix III unique can all be found in a cluster of links here.

There are also stats for the Punisher. (The link goes to the veteran stats, and clicking on the “Prev” arrow to the left of them will move you to the experienced and then rookie ones.)

Also, pics of Xorn, Ultimate Colossus and Vindicator have been posted.

The Ultimates version of Captain America much, much closer to what fans felt it should have been from the start in all respects. This is especially true when one considers the experienced and veteran versions, which, thanks to the Ultimates TA, will be able to ignore the effects of hindering terrain, and so be able to move and even Charge without being cut to half speed or stopped dead in his tracks by a little rough terrain. The only room for griping might be in the lack of Running Shot (the ability to move a little and then strike at a distance in the same move) in all levels, and his only having a single target despite innumerable instances where the mainstream Cap, at least, has thrown his shield and disabled multiple targets. Improvements are improvements, nonetheless.

Also, Boneyard has been keeping the confirmed and rumored list for the set up to date. Among the pleasant info is word that we’ll likely be getting a new and improved Hawkeye – albeit the Ultimates version – in this set. They're in the "strongly rumored" portion of the list, and someone claimed to have seen the experienced and veteran versions, with SHIELD and Ultimates TAs, respectively. Unless they cheat him by giving him less than a 10 Range, he should be much more in line with what we'd expected the first time around.

Finally, for those who are even more impatient than I tend to get, Boneyard’s begun a new thread – pure rumor at this stage, with nothing confirmed – for the next Marvel set after Ultimates, which he’s pegging for November. I don't know about you, but I'm not in a rush to wish the summer away.

Update: Pics of limited edition clix that will be the June tournament prizes show us sculpts of the Ultimates version of Electro, a presumably mainstream Mysterio, Scourge, a Hellfire Club guard, and what I'm taking to be the sculpt for a generic Morlock. If you go there and click on the stats, remember that those stats are just for the prize versions. The r,e,v versions in the set itself will look the same, but will have different dials and other names.