The Tease of Things I Don't Need

The List -- A Second Pass

Still too soon to really know what'll work and what won't (among the majority, which remains unseen) but that won't stop me from combing over the list again. I started doing this Friday night, but decided I'd already spent more than enough time on it with my previous post. Better to let it rest before wading into it again. The Bunnyman did a reaction post to it - in both the previous comment block and on his blog.

Let's see... let's start just by splitting them into rarity levels and quick reactions where I haven't already given them.

The commons:
1.Captain America (Ultimate)95 Is this the sculpt we saw with the smoke grenade effect at his feet, and the wings on his head so that we know... he's the Ultimates version in disguise as the 616 original..? No, as it turns out it is the Ultimates version, and it looks so fantastically crappy I will only link to the image. I'll hope for a decent dial and if it comes through I can swap sculpts.
2.Iron Man (Ultimate)154
3.Captain Britain (Ultimate)119 He appears to look essentially the same as the 616 version with the same or similar power set, so I should be able to fold him in painlessly.
4.Gargoyle (Isaac Christians)58 Curious choice. Presumably the Defenders just picked up another member.
5.Guardsman 32 Essentially a tough, generic flier.
6.Moon Knight 38
7.Crossbones 47 Commented on in the previous post.
8.Wonder Man 117 Hopefully Seth has an interesting twist or two in store. The sculpt is reportedly the red safari jacket and sunglasses look.
9.Hulkling 72 I'm indifferent to the character, but interested in how they handle his shapeshifting powers.
10.Patriot 38 Indifferent as a character on his own. Maybe I'll have Moon Knight fight him. There should be a couple Black Power/White Power jokes in there.
11.Stature 50 Can one have enough teenage, female giants?
12.Shang-Chi 58
13.Piledriver 140 Commented on in the previous post.
14.Stingray 29 I suppose if someone had to be majorly hosed it's a good thing he's aquatic. 29 points? Really? I'm not looking for Iron Man, but geeeeeeez. Famed, technologically-innovative oceanographers don't get no respect. When will Jacques Cousteau come back and kick some ass?
15.U.S. Agent 75 Oh, he's nuts and is part of an era that saw the slide into bad times, but I'm actually glad to see him in here finally. He's the sort of ends justify the means version of Captain America I could see the Bush Administration signing off on. If I play him and win, fine, and if I play him and he has his ass handed to him I can enjoy that, too.
16.Luke Cage 85 I'll be interested to see what's done with him. Very likely an Avengers TA this time, but will there be much reason to not use the more expensive Fantastic Forces veteran with a Spiderman, wildcard TA? We'll see.

The uncommons
17.Living Laser 91 Reportedly a transparent, yellow sculpt. And at least it's another villain.
18.Blazing Skull 68 A cool addition.
19.Darkhawk 56
20.Dragon Man 130 At last! I put his pic up top. He's standing considerably more erect than I'd have expected and the head's oddly small for the character (I'd have preferred the sculptor went back to the Kirby originals), but other than that I'm pleased with the look. I'm presuming his stats ramp up a little as he takes damage and gets upset.
21.Toro 64
22.Iron Widow 118 Commented on in the previous post.
23.Lionheart 85 Why?
24.Black Panther 92
25.Quicksilver (Ultimate) 63 And we needed this because..?
26.Scarlet Witch (Ultimate) 72 See previous remark.
27.Vision (Ultimate) 98 If this version flies, I can replace the female sculpt with a proper one. If not, then she can keep the drag queen of the sea (see #40) company in storage.
28.Wasp (Ultimate) 49
29.Taskmaster 140
30.Iron Lad 75 Reportedly his sculpt looks as if he's taking a dump, which reflects some of what I was feeling when the Young Avengers storyline reached the point of a brainless time paradox.
31.Ronin 55 Eh. Clint? Is that you in there?
32.Red Skull 123

The rares:
33.Abomination (Ultimate)150 Presumably a giant based on what I dug up on the Ultimates version, He seems to look good enough to kinda sorta pass as the proper version, though I may have to do some modding.

.. though, looking at the dial reported for him...

... I'm not sure if it'll be worth the time. He's theoretically difficult to harm (though Outwit'll easily take care of most of that) but... I don't know. Maybe he has a cool White Power?

34.Baron Zemo 95 Presumably this is the WWII version Cap ended up seeing buried in a landslide.
35.Bucky 30 I'm interested to see what's done with this version.
36.Falcon (Ultimate) 75
37.Thin Man 63 An odd choice, but hopefully a fun one.
38.Giant-Man 82 I'm looking forward to this version from the very early Avengers days, complete with the reported "Genius" superpower.
39.Spitfire 68 From the battlefields of WWII (and recently rejuvenated for today), it's a super-speedster who reportedly has a special power that allows her to create a sort of smoke trail.
40.Namor (Ultimate) 151 Commented on in the previous post. Ugly and (to me) useless.
41.Union Jack 60 Another WWII era freedom fighter.
42.Starfox 121 I'm verry curious how they'll do the dial of someone who flies, is fairly strong and damage-resistant, and who can give people orgasms at range.
43.Molecule Man 113 Should be interesting.
44.Grim Reaper 65 Heh. A good touch, and another reason for having a new Wonder Man in the set.
45.Thunderstrike 100 Something for the early nineties crowd, and not one I expect to disdain.
46.Namorita 98 Look! She's back from the dead!
47.Wiccan 54
48.Yondu 53 Okay, well, it's a fun bit of old school.

The Super-rares:
49.Two-Gun Kid 50 Interesting choice. I'm curious to see how he's handled.
50.Winter Soldier 70 Brubaker won me over to the idea of Bucky returning this way, despite some weak, weak links in the chain.
51.Spider-man (Red Armor) 111 Looking forward to the Webbing power.
52.Citizen V 58 Another one I'm curious about.
53.The Colonel (Ultimate MOE) 118 An Ultimates villain. Don't know, don't especially care.
54.Ares 275
55. Hulk (Ultimate) 187 As another Hulk, and reportedly a giant, I'm looking forward to it.
56.Hawkeye 56 We don't yet know if this is the Young Avengers version or not.
57.Scarlet Witch 35 Hmmm. Convince me that we needed another one.
58.Quicksilver 49 Did we really need another one this soon? Is this an Avengers version, or one for him as he is now, as a non-speedster with new powers due to the Terragen mists?
59.Wasp 37
60. Cap and Bucky 138 Not a fan of the duo concept, but it's the only one in the set and this could be fun. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

To one degree or another, presuming reasonably good sculpts and dial, I'll want:
All sixteen commons
At least ten of the sixteen uncommons
Probably fifteen of the sixteen rares
Eleven of the twelve Super-rares

So, tentatively, I suppose this is looking to be a successful set.

Still, being a comics geek's blog and all, and this being the Internet, where speculation is the sport of choice and we tend to work without a wire so far above the ground that it's a matter of faith, I want to break this down a little more.

Let me dive into this and say which ones I consider to be the ones I'm most looking forward to in terms of characters. Generally these are ones I've been wanting to see since early on, even if some of them are relative weenies: Shang Chi, Crossbones, Stingray, Piledriver, USAgent, Living Laser, Dragon Man, Baron Zemo (I'm presuming that this will be the original), Bucky, Giant Man, Spitfire, Molecule Man, Grim Reaper, Thunderstrike, Namorita, and Yondu.

It's interesting to consider some of the teams this set will theoretically allow to hit the map in one stroke, the most complete of which will be the (terribly named) Young Avengers: Hulkling 72 pts, Patriot 38 pts, Stature 50 pts, Iron Lad 75 pts, Wiccan 54 -- coming in at 289 pts as a 5-character team. With three of them being commons, one an uncommon and one a rare, it's even within the realm of possibility that someone might pull the 5-member team from his two-booster combination during the Coming of Galactus tournaments. Speculation continues on whether or not the super-rare Hawkeye 56 pts will be the sixth member of this team - the new, female version - or...

...will it be the original? In favor of that is the appearance of Scarlet Witch 35 pts and Quicksilver 49 pts, which given their point costs might be, along with Hawkeye 56 pts, versions from the start of their Avengers career as 75% of Cap's four. I'd feel much better about that line of thought if the total of the first three added up to something telling -- something that one of the newer Captain Americas we have would simply fit into snugly for a team, but those first three hit 140 points. Still, adding the experienced version of Cap from Armor Wars, at 90 pts., would bring that to 230... I don't know. Seventy points for Feats on a four-person team is excessive even by my standards.

On the plus side of this argument, here's a shot of Quicksilver in his green costume with the white lightning stripe across the chest, so it appears he's from way back in the day. Cool. Presumably his sister's that way, too.

C'mon, Hawkeye..!

Next week (if not sooner) will tell the tale on that.

I did notice that once I really started to look at it in the framework of the Coming of Galactus tournaments and sealed games in general, I'm finding myself warming to even the Young Avengers. The odds of pulling a themed team even from two boosters isn't bad. Honestly, were I to pull the 5-character Young Avengers team from two boosters I would likely run it.

Going back to the WWII heroes, those who have worked at some point as a member of the Invaders (either in WWII or when relatively recently re-formed under a plot by the Red Skull,, we have: Blazing Skull 68 pts, Thin Man 63 pts, Toro 64 pts, Spitfire 68 pts, Union Jack 60 pts, USAgent 75 pts and Cap and Bucky 138 pts. Or, use the 30 pt Bucky and another Cap... I don't know if the Ultimates timeline had an Invaders. I'm going to wait to see how they look and whether they all have the Invaders keyword on their cards before I start forming teams. Suffice to say that there's a good likelihood a a brick will yield considerable flexibility in forming an Invaders team of some sort.

I'm not looking forward to the set the way I was Supernova - that set had so much going for it - but after a few downbeats I'm interested all over again.