Oct.13-19 - More Returns and Changes

Not Much Evil Shall Escape Their Sight

Here's a look at the figures in the upcoming Green Lantern Corps Heroclix set.

I'm continuing to avoid all spoiler threads for October's Supernova set. I know that as a minimum (unless my personal financial picture turns very bad) I'll be getting a case and a brick of that. No need to inspect the goods beforehand as I've already decided to buy.

Looking for info on the next two collector's sets, however, is something I've been doing.

I've already quietly looked over the Invincible set and largely shrugged. I don't expect to be ordering one of those. Sure, there are some nice pieces in terms of dials - Omniman will likely become some players' favorite, but I have no connection to the characters and simply haven't been struck by much in the set, including their Guardians of the Globe TA that is rumored will add an Incapacitate to any damage-dealing attack.

The Green Lantern Corps set, however, is a different matter.

While never a strong fan of the Lanterns or their Corps, I'm still familiar enough with them to be interested. They have a place in a universe I know reasonably well. Besides, any character that can transport up to 8 companions at a time is going to be innately useful. So, this is a set where I'm interested in seeing all the details, kicking the virtual tires, before placing an order.

While there is only one level of any figure in this set - making each representation unique in the strictest sense - for some reason they decided to give each figure its own experience/rarity color level.

Lording it over the rest here as the only Guardian in the set is Ganthet.

At 286 points on a silver-ringed, unique dial, we're presented with a suitably impressive set of stats and powers, though I'm sure there will be some who will be disappointed by such a cosmic personage only having a single target and a 10 Range, and will find his Defense Values, which peak at the opening 18, to be inadequate. However, along with Attack Values that start at 12 (for two clicks) and only drop to 9 for his final three (all three of which have Pulse Wave), Damage Values that start and end at 5, never dropping below 3, and a rainbow dial which makes him useful on every click - sometimes multiply so given various Free Action powers as Leadership, Outwit and Perplex - he has the rare Quintessence Team Ability.

Quintessence grants Ganthet an immunity to both pushing damage and Outwit, making him maximally useful and leaving the user free from worry that points will have been wasted on powers that will only be turned off.

His final two clicks also include Regeneration, so since this is already an extremely expensive figure why not go 12 more points and give him Automatic Regeneration, so he can bounce back as far as his 6th click without having to use an action on it? Oh, sure, since he doesn't have to take push damage you can skip that card, but it'll require using an action to attempt to regenerate, and as I mentioned above you're already spending 286 points, so will 12 more really break the bank? It isn't as if this is going to be a piece one will use in a low-point game anyway. Since Ganthet even looks like the late Barnard Hughes, giving him an easier means of cheating death seems oddly more appropriate.


Abin Sur, the Green Lantern whose final act was to pass his ring onto Hal Jordan, is understandably made as a silver-ringed unique.

At 137 points and a Defense that peaks at 17 I suspect that in an average game he's going to have a large target painted on him unless he resorts to the ploy most experienced players will, unfortunately, immediately peg him for.

See, he starts with a click of Ranged Combat Expert, which makes him a candidate for Trick Shot. The usual ploy is to have a GL carry shielding characters around him (usually ones with Stealth) and then strike from the safe zone behind the meat shield. While very effective in terms of a game, it's not in the least what one would consider behavior befitting a hero.

That aside, he has a fairly versatile dial, a nice Range (10) and especially by the light of recent sets some excellent Attack Values. His nine-click dial is fairly deep, and he potentially remains useful in at least one fashion through every click of it. He has ample Telekinesis, including being front-loaded with three clicks of it, so he can be an effective launch platform for some allies.

I doubt he'll be many players' first choice, and far less that he'll see much play that at least initially represents the character, but he could prove an asset to the right team -- I just don't expect that team to often be less than 400 points.


Arisia, who became a Green Lantern as a teenager, distriguished herself on many missions and ultimately died in battle, is a red-ringed veteran.

At 103 points Arisia has a seven-click dial that's versatile and remains useful throughout. While very support-oriented - between the initial click of Barrier and Enhancement, then shifting to Perplex for her second and third clicks - she also ramps into more of a warrior's mode once she's a few clicks in, gaining Running Shot on her final three clicks.

Her Attack values are what I consider to be solid (3 clicks of 9 & 10 each, and a final one of 8) and the several clicks of Energy Shield/Defelection help protect her from taking damage on her second, third and final clicks. She should almost immediately be considered to be a 113 pt piece because it would be foolish to not give her the 10 pt Force Field card, granting her Toughness on every one of her clicks.

Arisia's early Speed (10) and Phasing/Teleport will enable her to get herself and some allies almost anywhere they need to go. The opening click of Incapacitate demonstrates that she's not a bloodthirsty opponent, though her opening 3 Damage shows that she can do damage if she needs to. Her opening click of Enhance also lets her help an adjacent ally be a greater damage-dealer at range.

The biggest drawbacks are likely her 8 Range -- hardly bad, but not spectacular -- and, as with all of her fellows in this set, single target attack.


Katma Tui, wife of another GL - John Stewart - is represented as a blue-ringed, experienced dial.

At 89 points for a 10-Ranged, 8-click dial, she is in some ways a nice bargain. An opening 17 Defense is adequate - especially on a flier since she can get the ranged Defense boost of hindering terrain without the mobility problems - and combined with an opening click of Willpower she can get into position and act again the following turn without pushing.

By her final few clicks she shifts from combat mode to becoming a support piece, between the Phasing/Teleport and GL Team Ability allowing her to do short-range evacuations, to her final two clicks of Barrier to enable her to provide cover for herself and/or some allies.

Completely absent from her dial is Telekinesis, though, so Katma won't be launching any of her fellows into battle. Also absent are any move and attack powers -- most notably Running Shot -- which may take her down a few notches for many players when considering her for a team.


The birdlike Tomar Re is represented with a blue-ringed, experienced dial.

A superb 12 Range, two opening clicks of Running Shot, 10 Attack Value and 3 Damage and an opening Defense of 18 all jump out at me.

At the mid-dial he shifts more fully to being a support piece, as Telekinesis and Barrier appear on click #4, the former staying for three clicks and the latter just for two. On his second through fourth clicks he has Enhancement, too, so he can increase the damage of an adjacent ally -- always a bonus in a character who can carry up to 8 non-flying allies with him.

A couple of the corps-creatures are ones that have a fan following but are more generally considered to be comic relief additions to the group. If nothing else, they are to some degree funny animal additions to the corps. I'm sure there are fans willing to sing praises to the glory of each, so I will leave such things to them.

The squirrel-like Ch'p, native of H'lven (presumably some alien races were too short of funds to buy all the vowels they like. I suppose we should be grateful they didn't just go the route of the Polish and try to make up for it by cramming in more consonants), is represented as an 82 pt, blue-ringed experienced piece.

Ch'p presents us with another variation on the GL theme with the inclusion of two clicks of Defend (on his second and third clicks), combined with his highest defense values. This combination is spectacular in a character who can carry around so many other pieces at once, and for that alone (and he does offer much more than that) I expect Ch'p to find his way onto many teams out in competitive clixdom.

His Attack values move towards a peak just past the mid-dial. His second click is the sweet spot for squirrely's dial, between what's mentioned above and his highest Speed value (10), telekinesis and Running Shot.

His 8 Range, as with Arisia's, neither bad nor spectacular. It works better during the earliest portions of his dial, between the opening Barrier and the two clicks of Running Shot. By his final two clicks he's still useful for moving others around and potential clean-up. A solidly useful piece, even if (perhaps even moreso because of?) one that's goofy-looking.

Speaking of goofy, the final piece in out set review is the doglike G'nort.

Native of G'Newt (see Ch'p above), he's presented as a rookie, which very much befits a character whose career never really went anywhere despite having a good heart and occasionally finding himself in the midst of actually important conflicts.

One very important item to note - and something to demonstrate this is truly the rookie level for the character - is that G'nort lacks the Green Lantern TA. At this stage in his career he wasn't an authentic GL (though he himself believed otherwise), having gotten his ring from a different source that was merely posing as the Guardians. So, G'nort can only carry a single non-flier.

I can understand the unpredictability factor G'nort represents meriting him an opening click of Probability Control. However, I'm utterly baffled why G'nort, of all characters on this list, is given Outwit -- much less two clicks of it. This is a character who has generally been presented as a moron... so perhaps we're to take this as a Forrest Gump factor? Perplex would seem more appropriate, but perhaps it was thought that was too useful -- too likely to improve the performance of his teammates -- for a character who is more likely to get in one's way. But still... Outwit?!

While waiting for the final figures in this set to be posted I took a moment to look over the dials and point costs of the Green Lanterns, looking for likely match-ups that form solid, round numbers as teams.

Within the GLCorps set itself, Katma Tui and Tomar Re constitute a 200 pt team. They've worked together in stories, and the dials are fairly complementary. As with any of these GLs it's a waste of their TA to just have them pal around with their fellow ring-bearers, as they can't carry each other. Still Katma and Tomar make a nice 200 pt unit to plug into a 300 pt or higher team.

At least at my casual glance (I haven't made a list, including their points) that's the only pair of two to form a roundly divisible by 100 pts duo. I didn't press ahead with that since it's neither important nor an effective way of looking at the pieces, espcially given the TA in question, but in the past we've seen game designers cost pieces so that they neatly form round-numbered teams, so I thought it was worth taking a quick look.

Considering how integral Feat cards have become to the game, though, that adds another level of complexity to any such builds. With all of the Barrier, Energy Shield, Defend and Telkinesis on some of the GLs Force Field is a nice 10 pt addition -- just remember that it can't be used on anyone who has Toughness, Invulnerability or Impervious anywhere on his dial. So, Abin Sur, Katma Tui, Tomar Re, Jade and some of the others on the full Green Lantern TA list can't use this card. (The conflict arises because Telekinesis is one of the possible prerequisites, and it isn't in the Defense slot, so someone might claim that Abin Sur, on his second click, would reduce damage by 2 for his Invulnerability and an additional 1 for the Force Field.)

With some of these packing a fair amount of Willpower, both 10-point Shellhead (also one to consider for Ganthet, since his push-protected Quintessence TA means he can spend a great deal of time with two tokens on his dial) and even a 5-point Indomitable. Also, the one-time use Protected seems a suitable 8-point expense for any of these characters, as their rings should have at least a once-per-game edge as automatic protectors. (Interesting that all of these Feat cards are ones from Marvel sets.)

All in all, not a bad set, and I'm sure all of the sculpts will look more interesting in person -- it's always that way. Aside from them taking shots of early mock-ups they always seem to give the photography job to someone whose talents suggest he should be working for the DMV.