The Tease of Things I Don't Need

AKA

With Sinister's debut over two months behind and Supernova just under two months ahead, I'm at the stage where part of what I'm concentrating on is picking up Limited Edition (LE) versions of some of the characters from Sinister.

Today I'll look at my five latest additions.

I'll lead this with an aside that I object to Wizkids' practice of creating prize-only LEs, something I was sure I'd written a handy-to-link-to post so I wouldn't have to restate myself and could also avoid a... Ragnell-ish presumption that my readers are well familiar with what I had to say on the subject... but I can't locate it. Short version: they're trying to draw comics fans and collectors into a competitive play environment that, traditionally, doesn't reward players who try to team up and play the characters in ways appropriate to the characters.

Now, back to the piece...

Sinister brought long-time comics fans a broad assortment of characters many of us had been waiting a long time for, and along with them were some remakes.

The first in this quartet was a new version of Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat (though before that it was Sprite), whose primary power is the ability to move through solid matter. Back in XPlosion we saw a version of her, but this time around, some four years later, we were given a more difficult to hit, more damage-dealing version of the mobile phaser.

This time around, her LE version wasn't simply Kitty Pryde, but is instead the Soulsword Wielder. This is from a brief point in her history when she came into control of the Soul Sword, a mystical weapon. As a matter of budget, I suppose, they kept the same sculpt for the LE as they had for the REV, but that's okay. The difference that tells is in the dial.
It's a trade-off, as wielding the sword apparently required her to be more literally substantial, so instead of a higher Defense Value with Super Senses, she starts off with a more mainstream Defense Value (16) and Invulnerable. In exchange she also get Blades/Claws/Fangs, which means she can potentially deal 6 clicks of damage. Backed up with a 9 attack value, move her next to someone who can't deal more than 2 clicks of damage and watch them sweat.

The back half of her dial's nothing to crow about. While she might be able to come through with some damage against an opponent via a lucky roll, and with that Exploit Weakness it'll cut through if she does, she's going to have to be taking a considerable risk of being hit in the meantime. Hopefully she'll have some X-Men pals around to heal her a click or so.

While this is an interesting variation on the character's themes it wasn't really one of the pieces I was firmly set on getting. Still, it's an interesting variation and it's always nice to have options in this game.

Next we have an old Spider-man villain who's also been a Hulk villain and even had a run-in with the Defenders. While a few years back the Critical Mass set brought us a version of this character, it was one from the "Ultimate" universe and so one of little interest to fans of my stripe. We made due with it, but Sinister finally gave us a Rhino who looks like The Rhino.

A huge, gray, horn-topped, super-strong, charging menace he's a tough character who can deal some damage. His LE version is named Aleksei Mikhailovich -- because sooner or later, if it was the 1960s and an origin wasn't already pinned down, a menace was likely to be given a Communist country of origin.


One of the things I liked about this version was the opening click combination of Charge and Quake, so he can theoretically charge into a group of enemies and potentially hand each of them 2 clicks of damage each, scattering them in the process. He picks up Super Strength after that, his Attack Value moving up to a 10 by the third click before beginning a slow trend down. While he lacks the opening click of Impervious that the veteran version has and the Sinister Syndicate TA of the experienced, but this version presents a potentially useful variation on a theme.

As with the Soulsword Wielder, though, the final couple clicks find this "great horned clod" as The Leader once referred to him terribly vulnerable and not particularly useful.

Next, we have a character who these days is more or less on the side of law and order, but for most of his career was either an agent of Red China or a freelance menace. Come to think of it, he's back to being an agent of Red China, but his current orders are to play nice as part of the Thunderbolts.

A Chinese nuclear physicist seeking to create a weapon to use against Thor, he irradiated himself because that's what cutting edge scientists did in the early to mid-1960s.

This version, Dr. Chen Lu, is, well, him more on his own with no formal affiliation, and was interesting to me not only because this is the only one of his versions front-loaded with Pulse Wave (the veteran gets it at the end of his dial), but this is the only version who gets to use his powers to Mind Control an opponent.


His Attack Value also ramps gently up towards the end, and he has a couple clicks of Steal Energy at the end, two, potentially not only allowing him to get in some late digs but also, in a close combat attack, heal himself a little. The opening Defense of 15 is perhaps a little more hittable than many would like, but it does come with Impervious, so as long as an Outwitter isn't around or someone doesn't have a power to get by it, it'll at leasr reduce the damage by 2, and he has a 33.3% chance of it doing nothing to him at all.

Next, we have one of the LE versions that bothered me. I don't object to the piece itself, but rather I object to it as a prize-only LE.

It irritated me that while the experienced version of Nighthawk was given no team affiliation, the LE was made as a member of The Defenders.

Now, for those of you not in the know, Kyle Richmond was first made into Nighthawk via manipulations by a cosmic games addict called the Grandmaster, and quickly made a member of the Squadron Sinister. Although he had a solo outing against Daredevil, he was a member of the Squadron up until the point when he realized he was the only one in the lot who was both sane and having any human compassion and switched sides by becoming part of the Defenders. So, he skipped the status of an affiliated villain to the that of affiliated here within a single story.

What justification was used for making the experienced version unaffiliated while making the LE one with the Defenders TA eludes me. Oh, the veteran has the Defenders TA, too, and I guess it's supposed to represent Nighthawk over his entire time in the Defenders.

Anyway, the Kyle Richmond LE trades in the second click of Charge on the veteran version for one of Running Shot, and the two leading clicks of Leadership for Close Combat Expert.


The immediate potential for this version lies in the combination of flight, Super Strength, Charge, Willpower and Close Combat Expert right up front. If he can charge in with an object for a hit on one turn, and the next one he can use the CCE to add 2 to his Damage Value. Since he has Willpower he won't have to take pushing damage for doing it.

Finally (and I want to note that this one's on the way, most likely to be here by Thursday), we have another of the LEs that bothered me by offering something both useful and more importantly characterisic of the character that wasn't seen in the REV: The Kingpin of Hell's Kitchen.

This variant of Daredevil was from an arc where he was pushed to desperate measures once his secret identity was made public. He decided that the best way to deal with crime was to be the one in charge, so he beat the Kingpin senseless and declared himself the new Kingpin of Hell's Kitchen, restricting his interests to that area and employing brutal methods to clean it up.

So, what does this version of Daredevil have that none of the REV pieces does?


For one thing - and this is the truly unforgivable part - this DD has two targets, to make that opening click of Incapacitate more useful. To deny two (or more) targets to even his experienced version is a terrible move, and approaches criminal on the veteran version. Anyone who's familiar with the character knows that he frequently throws his billy club, bouncing it off one opponent and into another, usually to disarm or simply stun them.

He also has Perplex, Flurry and Attack & Damage Values that rise towards the end of the dial. To be fair, most of these are acceptable trade-offs since this is meant to capture a DD who's not having to operate solo, compared with the 76 pt. veteran version who has a 3 Damage in the first slot, leads with two clicks of Outwit, has Incapaciate on his second and third clicks, too, keeps his 10 Attack Value on the second click and finishes with two clicks of Stealth. That's a DD who had to go it alone and survive. Still, that single target and lack of late-dial rally were diappointing, and all part of the reason I wanted to pick this other version up.

Aside from these, I've also - a while back - picked up Abner Jenkins, but that's it so far for the prize LEs for this set. There are one or more others from this set I have my eye on, but I'll get to those - or not - a little at a time.