The Tease of Things I Don't Need

Sinister Scans

I know, I know... I start posting again and I keep coming back to clix, which next to no one around here cares about.

This post's a series of scans for pieces we mostly hadn't seen much of so far from the upcoming Sinister set, as presented in Inquest Gamer magazine #134.

Special thanks to Superfro over at HCRealms for coming through with the scans. Don't blame him (or me) for the often lame humor in the captions. It's one of the reasons I don't buy Inquest Gamer.

(This assortment shows us that attack values of 10 have made it into the set here and there, and even a couple of 11s, but by and large we're continuing to see many many 9s and on down. We'll really only be able to judge these well as part of the complete mix, but as I'd mentioned in an earlier post I'm expecting an awful lot of rolling dice between successful attacks.)

First is Arkon, the teleporting, barbarous ruler of an alternate Earth, rendered as an 80 pt unique:


Next is one of the remakes, this one not seen since the very first set -- Bullseye. An attack value of 11 is apparently still (that's all the Infinity Challenge veteran received, and this one's in most other respects better) deemed suffificient for someone whose central talent is a forceful throwing arm matched with an almost unerring aim:


Next is one of those characters I was never very happy with conceptually, as someone who can convert herself into energy, living, moving and obviously thinking at such speeds, has to be written poorly or risk being too swift and powerful to be part of any interesting conflicts. What is this? DC? Still, here she is - and flying, Hypersonic Speed pieces are always useful - the second Captain Marvel:

... and what she started calling herself as part of a name all her own -- Pulsar:


Then there's a cool new take on Daredevil, with the rookie getting the red & yellow costume and the experienced and vet getting the more familair red:

Then there's a frequent comrade-in-arms for Captain America -- The Falcon:

One of the villains turned hero (at least we think so) - The Fixer:


Presented as a a nicely affordable 40 pt unique, we have the Lord of the Savage Land -- Ka-Zar!


A remake from Critical Mass, one of my favorite sets (Jeez! Was that really from December of '03?!), is up next. It's Kraven the Hunter:


Then comes another unique, this time it's the brother (and archenemy) of Black Bolt -- Maximus!

While not the most powerful mind-controller he has three targets and a unique dial, it's Killgrave the Purple Man:


The X-Men get a new version of a character presented back in the second expansion, Xplosion. Welcome to Sinister, Kitty Pryde -- it's Shadowcat:


...another villain turned tentative hero, with considerably less Super Strength than I'd have expected (a single click on each?!) it's Speed Demon:


Remembering that she hasn't always been linked to a flying horse, we have a strong-arming recipient of a bit of Asgardian enchantment and one of the Defenders I've been waiting for, it's Valkyrie:


Finally, another of the characters I've been waiting for since shortly after getting into the game..., even if indications are his stats aren't so hot and he's bereft of any team abilities, it's The Wingless Wizard:



...and that's enough for tonight. I mainly wanted to get these up while they were fresh.

No, wait... I do want to mention at least one of the other characters that Wizkids put up Wednesday, a piece I'd only heard was in the set quite late, and not one I was especially looking forward to. Seeing her (more her dials and Team affiliations, really) has made me interested in adding her to some teams. It's Mockingbird.

Yes, she's a shamelessly derivative character, created as Marvel's version of Black Canary so that there would be an athletic, superheroic, romantic partner for Hawkeye (much as Black Canary has been with Green Arrow over in DC), which unfortunately reinforced the misconception in some minds that Hawkeye was nothing but a derivative Marvel take on G.A. They did work to give her her own, disctinct identity, though, which worked to different degrees for different readers, as you'd expect.

At all levels (I'm presenting all three dials - Rookie/Experienced/Veteran - here at once; click on the image for a larger view) she's an increasingly good and inexpensive tie-up piece with a good chance of surviving an attack and of being able to deal some damage.


As you can see, this is a case where we have a character with a very linear development. The same bag of tricks grown more effective as her skills were honed. The upcoming changes to Combat Reflextes (the pale yellow in the Defense slot) will give her extra protection in a clinch, and then we have a Feat or two that builds off that power in this same set. Given that the rookie is a SHIELD agent and only 19 points, while the experienced and veteran are both Avengers and have costs of 27 and 34 points, respectively, she's potentially a golden addition to a team. She could potentially tie up and even do damage to pieces several times her cost, even with some Feats added to her.

There's always more, but now I'm really calling it a night. 6am comes a little sooner every day it seems.