Oct.13-19 - More Returns and Changes

Clix Fix Nix

Two weeks from yesterday the next Heroclix expansion, Sinister, will be hitting comics and gaming shops. As I rolled the set over in my mind again I was moved towards a decision.

While my enthusiasm for the character selection in the set remains high, my disdain for many of the stat, power and team affiliations (generally lacks thereof) saw my anticipation of the set weaken. Oh, I'm still in for more than a pound -- my long-ago prepaid brick (shrinkwrapped unit of 12 boosters) will be in my hands two weeks from now, and most likely the case I ordered months ago will follow the next day --

(Hmmm... brick Thursday, case Friday, Superman Returns most likely first thing Saturday, and that part of a weekend where I'll be taking the following Monday off and then having Tuesday, July 4th as a holiday... a potentially fun stretch to look forward to if something doesn't step in to spoil it.)

-- but too much information has taken much of the magic of the set for me.

Granted, it could be argued that had I stayed out of the loop, getting the dial info, etc. all in one gulp along with the clix themselves might have been too many disappointments (again, almost entirely with the dials, not the characters chosen) in a concentrated, bitterish pill. On the other hand -- and this is the side I'd bet on -- were I to be opening boosters a couple weeks from now and seeing the pieces for the first time I'd likely be too jazzed about seeing the Wizard, Trapster, Beetle, Valkyrie, Nighthawk, Electro, Swordsman, Falcon, Rhino, Black Bolt, Deathlok, etc., etc. to be immediately bothered by the shortcomings of the stats.

So, with the next set coming up in October being another Marvel set - Supernova - featuring new versios of Thor, Thanos and the Silver Surfer, along with a first time appearance by Hyperion -- all as seen here in these early, promotional mock-ups

-- and promising generics of four alien races (Kree, Skrull, Shi'ar and Badoon), I've decided how I'm going to approach it.

I don't need advance info on the set to make buying decisions as those are already made. My case order for that is already in and I'll be getting a retail-level brick, too (and hoping that that brick is one where most of the alien generics from that case ended up), so, barring financial reversals/collapse all that's in place.

I'm not a competitive gamer, so studying the stats as early as possible for maximum strategic impact isn't a factor. I don't need to know before they're in my hands.

My aim now will be to attempt to avoid all spoilers for the set.

Ideally, as the release date in October (still don't know the specific date) approaches I'll know next to nothing more about the set than I do now. In practical terms I doubt that even if I steer completely clear of HCRealms and try to be careful about what I click on over on Wizkids' site I'll still find learning who some of the other characters in the set are is something that's unavoidable. That's okay, though. My simple aim is to retain as much surprise about the set as possible. If the majority -- hell, if any substantial part -- of the set is a surprise to me when I start opening boosters, it'll be a victory.

Doing it -- that'll be the difficult part.

Of course, it isn't as if I'm lacking more than enough other things to do instead.

Oh, while I'm on the subject of Clix I want to mention that we've just passed through the third New Guy Night event cloud.

I'd made it to the first two and so have the Jessica Drew from the first one and a Batman-allied Supermanfrom the second, but scheduling threatened to make this one something I couldn't easily get to, much less with a requisite "new guy" in tow. (It's a demo event that attempts to entice current players to recruit a new one to the game; bring a non-player and you each get a free, event-exclusive LE.) This past Sunday came and went without me being able to do it, and I'd signed up for a Wednesday night event as a last chance, though that, too was looking slight as the week dawned.

Then, Monday afternoon at work, one of the, well, new guys at work - a pleasant, Costa Rican immigrant who's working for us for the summer and who I'd been talking soccer/futbol/football and comics with the previous Friday said, "Oh, I have something for you."

He'd gone into his comics shop of choice over the weekend to pick up the latest issue of a series he's following and a clerk gave him a promotional clix. As he's not into the game and knew I was - the extras I've lined up on a shelf in my office are difficult to miss - he brought it in for me. I fully expected it to be the recent Free Comic Book Day Wolverine, perhaps a leftover, purple-ringed Batman or maybe one of the Hulks still kicking around... but it turned out to be the New Guy Night III, armored Spider-man. Sure, the proportions between the character and the lamp post are screwy, so he looks more like he's pole-dancing, but in all respects it's a cool variant on any of the Spideys we've seen so far.

Sometimes these things work out in pleasant, surprising ways.