The Tease of Things I Don't Need

Sinister Spiders (Well... some of them...)

Okay, they've been spilling some more info from this set as the working week rolls to a close, likely expecting much to stand revealed by the middle of next week anyway, so I'm going to look at some of it in a little detail. This is a Heroclix post with some comics angles thrown in, and will likely lean heavily on Spider-man, so unless most or all of that is of interest then don't...

When word came along that we were getting a full REV (Rookie/Experienced/Veteran) treatment for Spider-man in this set it wasn't the most welcome news for some of the players. After all, this is the eighth Marvel expansion since the game's launch in May of 2002 -- making it the ninth Marvel set when one kicks in the very first one, and we've had an REV of Spidey in four of the previous sets.

Okay, the purist could point out that one of them was meant to be the Ultimates Spidey, but, really, who can really tell a difference in this form? Additionally, there have been several Spidey uniques, including a couple from very particular parts in the characters' history, from when he was touched with a bit of cosmic power to when he experimented on himself and grew two extra pairs of arms. That's a fun and appropriate use for a unique --- something unique.

In some players' eyes Spidey's been done to death, and each time they see him appear anew they lament that he's taken a spot that might have been taken up by one of their personal favorites who might be yet to be made into clix form, or who perhaps only had one version before this and it was (in their eyes) botched. All understandable complaints, and all with some degree of merit.

With this set the set designer's decided to use the sweep of time when Spider-man was sporting an all-black costume, and reflects it in interesting ways in the dials. We're given in more than one respect a Spidey who will play differently than the earlier versions. Not only that, but play well.

The rookie and experienced Spider-men iterations have more in common with each other than they do with the veteran. Why? Well, as long-time Spider-man fans will tell you, the black costume Spidey started to wear was an alien memento from an event that some fans remember fondly and others roll their eyes over, largely as a function of their ages -- and more significantly what age they were when they read it: The first Secret Wars.

I won't get into any of that other than to say that while Spidey (along with a cross-section of heroes and villains) were off on an alien world constructed with the express purpose of serving as an arena, Spidey's costume was shredded. Being untold light years from home left him in something of a fix, until he came across a machine that appeared to respond to his thoughts and make him a new costume... except that it was jet black rather than his familiar colors. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, and soon finding that this costume would respond to his mental commands, changing shape, etc as desired, he stuck with it. The 51 point rookie dial is meant to look at the days of working with that costume.

The most significant difference in this version (compared with previous interpretations) is the dark blue in nearly all of his Damage slots: Shape Change. At the same time as this set is to be released Shape Change is scheduled to receive an upgrade. It will force anyone who wants to attack Spidey to be subject to the roll of a single, six-sided die. If a 5 or 6 comes up Spidey and the costume have managed to trick the would-be attacker into thinking he's someone or something innocuous, even friendly, forcing that character to either attack someone else or to move. A very handy extra layer of defense. Since the bright red in the first Defense slot is Super Senses, which provides the same 33.333% odds of evading an attack, he has this protection down the entire dial. After Super Senses the Energy Shield/Deflection (green) and Combat Reflexes (pale yellow) provide some additional protection by raising the Defense value by 2 for ranged combat and 2 by close combat, respectively, so later in the dial Spidey's designed to either get completely away or go into a clinch. On his final two clicks he also gets Stealth! All together, he's nicely and interestingly protected.

A side-note: Since the current, Stark-designed costume Peter's wearing also has these psycho-receptive morphing characteristics, and this version also has the wildcarding Spider-man TA, this could be used on an Avengers team.

Shape Change, Energy Shield/Deflection and Combat Reflexes also present some new opportunities thanks to Feat cards that arrive with this set.

First, Shape Change gets a nice boost with the Camouflage card, which for eight points grants a stealth-like state to the character each time he's adjacent to a wall or other blocking terrain. He blends right in. Someone who's right next to him can take a swing at him, of course, but from range no one can see him to attack. That's a significant bit of language. It's important to note that someone looking to do something not in the nature of an attack (Outwit, Perplex, and Probability Control, etc.) will still be able to see him. So, an Outwitter could just turn off Shape Change and nerf the effect.

Since it's not based on hindering terrain the Ultimates and Superman TAs shouldn't be effective against it either, but who knows what the rules arbitors will decide? It's a new ball game.

Energy Shield/Deflection and/or Combat Reflexes open up the possibilities for another Feat: Heightened Reflexes. This provides yet another single-die throw, 33.33% chance of evading damage, though this time it's only when confronted with an attack from Charge, Hypersonic Speed, Running Shot or a Transporter's move and attack ability... which is nothing to sneeze at. For 10 points it could be worth it.

Also - and I'd almost forgotten this, for 3 points someone with Leap/Climb and/or Combat Reflexes (look familiar?) can get the ability to reposition himself in close quarters with one or more opponents immediately following an attack via the Vault card. Couched in an incredibly clumsy run-on sentence, if it works as intuited it should be a fine way to spend three points.

Enabling a character to reposition himself after an attack can sometimes be crucial, not only to potentially set the stage for another attack on an adjacent figure but also to possibly open a line of sight for another of your pieces to take a shot at the same target.

Although I'm surprised to see the elements behind the living costume disappear so quickly, plainly the rookie is all we're getting of it aside from the Symbiote LE. That being a prize LE, though, I'm not going to waste the keystrokes on it for now.

Eventually he came to realize that rather than a technological artifact the costume was a living being, a symbiote living off some of his life energy and even controlling his body part of the time when he was asleep, Peter opted for a harsh separation. The spurned and ticked off symbiote went on to link with someone who who had personal reason to hate Peter Parker and begat Venom, who in turn begat Carnage, who in turn, well, much was begat to remind us where the term misbegotten comes from.

Despite separating from it, Peter decided to stick with the motif -- it was the '80s and black was a fashion statement I suppose -- hence the dial for the 77 point experienced version (seen above), where Shape Change has vanished because Spidey's costume is now just black cloth. He gets some late-dial Close Combat Expert, though, to make him potentially more of a damage-dealer at the end.

This dial brings one new trick via an opening click of Barrier. It's a potentially interesting feature that may come in handy as the experienced Spidey has been made arch-enemy with all three levels of The Rhino. (Dial as yet unrevealed.)

The 106 pt veteran shows a wilier, more confident Spidey, hence the addition of Perplex up front. With the ES/D and Combat Reflexes still in play from the middle of his dial on, though, two of the three Feat cards mentioned above are still an option. A base cost of 106 may be a bit more than some people will want to spend on Spider-man, and it's likely to make the cost of adding Feats more prohibitive, but the expanding game is all about options.

The vet has the Avengers TA, and I suppose is meant to show us Spider-man during his brief time as a provisional Avenger a few years (our time) back, and then again in the early days of the "New" Avengers, before he started to undergo new changes.

Since the turning point that caused Spidey to go back to his old red and blue togs was when his old foe Kraven the Hunter went out on violent rampages while wearing a duplicate black costume -- Kraven's way of "becoming" his prey as a prelude to the hunt -- it's fitting that the veteran version of the black-suited Spidey be given Kraven as an arch enemy.

Looking over this trio and the applied Feat cards it appears that the strategy for the development of the game is to nudge players into putting Spidey out into action, gambling on him evading attacks. I suspect much the same will apply in varying degrees to many of the other pieces in the set.

It could worth noting that all three dials, as none of them have built-in defensive powers that reduce damage (only some that help evade it) , if one can work in an extra 10 points Spidey's eligible for Force Field... though I'd probably only consider using it on the experienced, where the opening click of Barrier would see it working up front. The other two would only see it in play while the ES/D is working, and so wouldn't be worth the price. Of course, Pounce remains a good way of getting the most action out of nearly any Spider-man - so long as he has Leap/Climb and no more than 2 Damage showing - in this case he can potentially get four uses each for it out of the R &; E, and 3 from the vet.

Options, options & probabilities. Numbers and dice rolls, with statistical modifiers.

I'm not counting on any more list updates until Monday. Fifty eight items - clix, cards, bystanders and other tokens - up so far, and most of the ones I'm most looking forward to yet to be revealed.