The Tease of Things I Don't Need

Looking towards Origin
(Updated 12/26, as full REV & unique list is added.)

The niggardly dispatch of information about new sets from Wizkids has seen people fishing about for any and all news for this DC set, the first new expansion for 2007.

Above is the best shot of the artwork that'll be on the boxes, and here to the right is apparently what we'll be seeing in the figure gallery as a set symbol once they start revealing any of the figures from the set. While their offices are shut down for the holiday weekend there's some hope (however slim) that the pieces are in place for him to trigger the first of the set's sneak peeks in the next day or so. Since it's been made clear that the Heroclix Brand Manager (Mark Tuttle) is the one who decides when such things are done, here's hoping he'll decide to do so instead of trying to starve us into getting excited about the January Horrorclix expansion, for which he is also the Brand Manager. (If that's the plan, Mark, it's not working. If anything I've grown less interested in Horrorclix.)

The most up-to-date listing of confirmed figures from the set (as of Dec. 22) is as follows -- my earlier comments in red, the later ones in blue

CONFIRMED CHARACTERS:
#01-03 Blackhawks (Stanislaus/Hendrickson/Blackhawk) Well... that's darn close to a generic, I suppose.
#04-06 Phantom Lady Now we can dig out Deathstroke and have him kill her again and again.
#07-09 Robotman (Cliff Steele)Good! I'm a big fan of the original Doom Patrol
#10-12 Ray I was going to say the modern one doesn't mean much to me, but then I realized the earlier version didn't really either.
#13-15 Wildcat It'll be nice to see him added -- and to come that much closer to a full JSA team. I'm expecting Willpower, Toughness and Close Combat Expert, primarily.
#16-18 Damage This is another of those "has he been around long enough to warrant an REV?" pieces. With the new JSA roster, though, I suppose he had to come in eventually.
#19-21 Halo Could very well turn out to be a beautiful sculpt and a useful set of dials, but in terms of character interest this doesn't register on my meter.
#22-24 Mano Eh. I'm familiar with the basics of the character, though this will be another of those "which version is this?" pieces, in this case pre- or post-Zero Hour?
#25-27 Shadow Thief I'm expecting a blend of Phasing/Stealth on the dial, mainly.
#28-30 Knockout My first thought is that she might make a nice stand-in for Marvel's Thundra, as they haven't made one of those yet.
#31-33 Copperhead ...and in this case I'm mostly expecting to see a dry run for Marvel's Cobra.
#34-36 Question Will this be a combination of the Vic Sage and Rene Montoya ones in the REV?
#37-39 Animal Man I'm expecting one of those rainbow-ish dials where he'll be Earthbound part of the time and able to fly the rest, with multiple other powers coming and going as he draws on various animal abilities.
#40-42 Cat-Man Reborn as an interesting character, I'm mostly expecting something between Cheetah and a close combat Batman in terms of abilities.
#43-35 Booster Gold I'll be curious to see the new take on a character made in Hypertime.
#46-48 Atom (Ray Palmer? Ryan Choi?) Will we all be looking to see if his eyes are slanted?
#49-51 Mirror Master (Sam Scudder? Evan McColloch?) A classic Flash villain is always welcome. I'll be curious to see how the powers are interpreted in a clix dial. A Transporter with Phasing/Teleport would really make sense here, but I don't know if the designer wants to make him that powerful/useful.
#52-54 Triplicate Girl (Triad LE?) So... did we see something of a dry run for this with Multiple Man's dials?
#55-57 Supergirl (LE Matrix? Linda Danvers? The Girl from Krypton? Kara Zor-El?) It'll all be in the power levels.
#58-60 Hawkman (Katar Hol? Prince Khufu? Carter Hall? LE) I'm curious about any tricks to be used to make him more useful.
#61-63 Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandmark)Could be a nice addition, though she's hardly a favorite character and I'm not sure what to expect beyond another flying brick.
#64-66 Cyborg Superman This is another of those I'm initially surprised pulled an REV, but then again I have no idea what's been done with him since Reign of the Supermen.
#67-69 Steel Another remake from Hypertime.
#70-72 Mr. Miracle (Scott Free? Shilo Norman?) The greatest escape artist rendered into clix form. Hmmm. Leap/Climb, a high Defense and Super Senses would seem to cover most of it.
#73-75 Mon-El/Valor/M'Onel Will we rush to compare his dial with some of the Superman ones we've seen, or with Supernova's Hyperion dials?
#77 Green Lantern/Sentinel (Alan Scott LE)Well overdue.
#79-81 Shazam Could be fun as an REV, I'll be interested in seeing how varied the levels are.
#82-84 Martian Manhunter/J'onn J'onzz Same as for Shazam.
#85 Starman (Ted Knight) A nice addition. Here's hoping for a worthy dial.
#86 Sandman (Wesley Dodds) Looking forward to it.
#87 Blue Beetle III It's conceivable that I could care less, but I'm not sure how that would work.
#88 Mr. Mind (no sculpt?) Mind Control -- perhaps some Outwit and Perplex... but what sort of range?
#89 Jakeem Thunder (and T-Bolt) Persumably with an activation click to make him a little less likely anyone's favorite clix at the start. After that, though, how does one handle a clix dial for a genie capable of almost anything?
#90 Gentleman Ghost More than anything else I'm wondering how fragile/easily bent the sculpt will be. This is a character who went from being a curious Batman villain to someone many of us saw more than enough of during the final arc of the JSA's previous run.
#91 Vandal Savage An overdue character, I'm expecting Super Strength, Outwit and probably some Perplex, much leading Toughness and liberal inclusions of Regeneration -- perhaps not only on his final few clicks.
#92 Johnny Quick (Crime Syndicate) A super-speedster with a probability control TA? If his dial's at all good he'll be one of the more sought-after uniques.
#93 Negative Woman (Doom Patrol) So, we get a Negative Woman before we get Negative Man?
#94 S.T.R.I.P.E. Could be a little fun, though I'm expecting a big target more than anything else.
#95 Batman (Golden Age)I'm not sure what there'll be new here to see aside from minor costume elements. It isn't as if we can still draw on Earth 2 and have him be a JSA member. Maybe, as in the box artwork, he'll be smiling?
Supergirl How Silver Age will this one be?
#96 Superman (Golden Age) Speculation's on just how Golden Age he'll be. Will this be the original one, who could leap great distances but not fly?

To see how the list happens to stand this moment, look at the first post over here.

My base line, bulk spending on the set's already been set, with my usual case plus a brick order now being cut to two bricks from an online retailer (already ordered and paid for) and one from a local retailer. That will bring me 144 clix, most likely including 12 uniques, and 36 cardboard items -- cards and bystanders. What I don't pull directly I should be able to trade for fairly easily. That a named figure is in the second REV slot (Phantom Lady at 4-6) would seem to imply that there's not going to be much in the way of generics in this set, though it's hardly a guarantee. Still, it's a reasonably positive sign that I will only want one of each of the 96 pieces in the set. Sure, bad luck on the bricks could still see me lacking several high-end experienced and veteran pieces, but I'll survive. I'll likely hit a pre-release and at least one marquee, which should mean 6 more boosters and so 24 more clix just there.

When push comes to shove, I remain much more emotionally-connected to the Marvel universe's stable of heroes and villains, and will likely always want to see the addition of a third-string Marvel villain to clix than I will some as-yet-unmade member of the Legion of Superheroes, Teen Titans. JLA, etc. Two DC expansions and only one Marvel one in 2007 likely means my saving a couple hundred bucks when it comes to money spent directly on expansions.

The release date for Origin is now set sometime in March, presumably early March, so it's a while off yet, but I wanted to put together a snapshot post here, a couple days before Christmas.

Tags: Heroclix Origin