(A piece too long, it’s not to be bothered with unless you’re into Marvel comics and/or Heroclix)
Now that boneyard’s list for November’s Mutant Mayhem Heroclix set is nearly complete, it’s time for me to start seriously considering whether or not to let my order of a case stand. Okay, barring a sudden financial reversal and some harsh belt-tightening, I’m nearly certain to let this stand and become my early Christmas present to myself. I’m just trying to see if I can justify it, okay? No? Okay, then I just like to watch myself talk. Happy now?
My current auctions (you knew there was no way I wasn’t going to plug them while they’re still running) are demonstrating to me that I can get at least some money back on many of the extras I might pull, and while I don’t get to play the game very often I still enjoy it when I do get to play. Obviously I’m feeling some need to justify this to myself or someone…
[Side note on how complete the list is: The current “confirmed” list has 39 characters in it, while the complete set (28 REV characters + 12 uniques + 1 Double-sized fig) will have 41, so only two are missing, and one of them will be some sort of generic. Boneyard’s been very dependable, so there’s not likely to be any major surprise forthcoming in terms of the set’s roster.]
I’m going to try to carve up the known into levels of personal interest. My comments will be in italics, all other info is from boneyard’s list.
Clix I’ve Been Waiting For – these are characters, great and small, who have been to varying degrees conspicuous by their absence:
Loki (U) Hey! Thor’s adopted brother – just in time for Thor (from Clobberin’ Time) to be retired from official gameplay! Better late than never, and who cares about Restricted tournaments anyway? As the being inadvertently responsible for the formation of The Avengers, aside from being Thor’s most-featured foe, Loki’s well overdue.
Wonder Man (RE solid V clear energy version)
Havok (current outfit with clear plastic plasma arms)
Mimic – I’m perhaps foolishly presuming this is Calvin Rankin, the original version. I’d heard some mention of a newer version of the character popping up, though, but I’m currently too lazy to investigate it. If it’s some new version this would fall into one of the lower levels of interest for me. Having seen how they handled the Absorbing Man in clix form I’m not expecting anything more genuinely representative of the comics version – there’s no power defined in the rules to allow someone to mimic anything but a team ability - but it could still be a fun dial.
Donald Pierce – see below.
Sebastian Shaw – Donald and Sebastion almost dropped into the next category down, but that Hellfire Club/Dark Phoenix arc was the Claremont/Byrne team near the top of their collaborative game -- though it did move Wolverine into the slice & dice behavior they’d hitherto had him eschew… but the pros and cons of that is a major geek debate best left for another place and time. If any thought’s gone into Shaw’s clix version it should be a fun one – much like the Hulk, an opponent’s not going to want to hit him because his power level will go up. If they have any imagination they’ll have his final click be his most powerful. Both of these should probably be uniques, but they’ve been around long enough that they could play it either way.
Firestar (#43-45) Starting life as a cartoon character, she was folded into the Marvel universe well enough. I'm expecting a flyer with not particularly impressive attack stats.
Puck – It’ll give us all a chance to do Bob & Doug MacKenzie impressions during games for the first time in years, maybe even dredge up their Christmas album for a replay… and then we can go back to being sick of it again by Christmas, eh? I predict bad Canadian accent jokes will be a staple at the marquees for this set.
Sasquatch (RE - Orange, V - White) A good, large, tough close combat piece, probably with an activation click necessary on his lower levels at least.
Northstar- I’m still thrown by there being a Northstar but no mention of his sister, Aurora. A fast flyer, I’m not sure what else they’ll do with him. Maybe Exploit Weakness to represent homophobia throwing off his opponents..? ;)
Snowbird – I’m expecting just another flyer with Blades/Claws Fangs. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
Gladiator – Presumably the alien superman with a mohawk. A flying powerhouse is seldom a bad thing. I haven’t read anything with him as a part of it in roughly two decades, so maybe he’s gone through enough changes to warrant an REV. My first impulse would be that he’d be a unique, though.
Man-Thing - Sure, he/it goes back to ’71 or ’72, but I still tend to think of him as one of the “new” characters, though the sense that he’s both derivative and, honestly, intentionally lacking in any character doesn’t help him get a good seat at the Christmas party. Presumably a damage sponge like DC’s Swamp Thing clix turned out to be, though without Swampy’s Phasing, this will be a useful piece. If it’s at all true to the comics version it’ll be loaded with Regenerate and probably have at least some Poison. With a movie coming out it was inevitable they'd want a clix version of him out there.
Vanisher (green and red costumes) – yeah, yeah, he goes all the way back to X-Men #2 circa 1963, but he’s never been a character to generate much nostalgia. Giving him Phasing and a huge Speed would seem to be in order, though I doubt they’ll go as nuts as they should with the Speed.
Silver Sable - When one gets down to it she’ll be another clix in the Black Widow mold, I’m guessing.
U-Men (generic) – Generic characters – which is to say one could build a force of them without upsetting someone who would be scandalized if one ran more than one of the same named character on a team - based on an arc by Grant Morrison, and there’s some room for surprises on the dial.
Shadow King U (#93): An old, old foe of Professor X’s – and the character Grant Morrison should have invoked instead of creating that conceptually lame, lame psychic sister for Xavier…
Black Queen (Jean Grey) (unique?) It damn well better be a unique. There’s not enough history there to base an REV on this character.
I imagine they’ll be fine, and maybe there’ll even be some neat dial design surprises involved, but did we really need yet another version of these?:
Spider-Man (#58-60) This will be the fourth full REV set for Spidey, who’s also had three unique forms to date. Maybe this one will finally give us the two attacks with Incapacitate so many of us have been waiting for. Now that they have Close Combat Expert to use they can give him a Damage of either 1 or 0 on the Incap clicks, with CCE, so he can punch someone if he needs to but won’t have an option to fire web “bullets.”
Hulk (Grey Hulk) (#82-84) Mailaway "Irradiated Hulk" LE - clear green Hulk (Inquest) Uh… it all sounds okay, I suppose. Will this be Mr. Fixit without the gangster panache?
Wolverine (bandanna and bone claw version) (REV) That must sound so… fruity to anyone on the outside. Hell, it sounds that way to me.
Blade Okay, so this only the second version for him. Hopefully they’ll avoid a sculpt that led to all of those rabbit/rodent teeth paint jobs we saw on his Infinity Challenge version, and give this new version a ranged attack since both his comics and movie versions have that.
Could be fun, useful clix, but I don’t care a whit about the characters they’re based on:
Deadpool – The madcap favorite of many, it seems, he’s one of those characters who came on the scene soon after I’d grown weary of all the titles he was appearing in. I’m happy on behalf of those fans who’ll finally get their fave in clix form, and hope it’s a mobile, surprising and useful piece, but, well, this section header’s already said the rest.
Cable - see Bishop
Bishop – Cable and Bishop are two examples of what happens when writers try to milk a superb story (in this case, the two-issue “Days of Future Past”) for years and years afterwards. Still, I know some people have been clamoring for these. So much depends upon when one started reading comics. For me, these characters – especially Cable – epitomize “scraping the bottom of the barrel.”
Blink – Should we be watching for Shudder, Cough, Sneeze and Facial Tic in future sets?Longshot – I really liked this character for three or four months back when he was introduced. Then again, I also bought a Phil Collins album or two, so these things happen.
Fantomex – I don’t even know who this is. It almost sounds like a diet soda served at a Southwestern US-themed restaurant, doesn’t it?Domino – she makes sugar, doesn’t she?Bastion – let’s seat him next to Fantomex. Maybe they know each other.
Scalphunter – I don’t know about the character, but wouldn’t that be fun to put on a business card?
Vertigo – What’ll be in the next set: Mal di Mare?
Harpoon – Arr! (Yeah, yeah, I know… this is another of the Marauders, like Scalphunter and the presumed version of Vertigo mentioned above.)
N'astirh (U) A big, red, winged demon to pal around with one’s Goblin Queen piece, if you have one. Could have a nasty bag of tricks, and be one of those pieces people hope to pull at a marquee. Possibly.
Ultimates Giant Man (Bat-Sentry sized figure) (#97?) I'm almost tired of him already.
(Hey! If I stay and eat lunch in my office I can get a surprising amount of typing done. The pizza's gone cold, but one can't have everything.)
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