Oct.13-19 - More Returns and Changes

In a dark future...

I'm still waiting for a brick of Origin. I had been waiting for two bricks of Origin from Gathering Ground since the set's release March 7th, but this past Monday I received a note from Brandon D. at that operation, telling me that they were "very, very, very sorry" but that they were ultimately unable to obtain the cases they'd ordered. My money was being refunded.

So, I hit a bookmarked ebay sale for bricks at what was essentially the same price... and realized this was actually a good opportunity. Sure, this is the longest I've waited after a set's release to reach a resting point on a set, but the delay helped me see that three bricks plus the loose ones I'd gotten would be overkill. Sure, just one more brick will not finish out Origin completely for me, but two would almost certainly bury me in far more extras than I'd want. So, I just ordered one more on Monday.

Anyway, I was hoping it would hit here by today (seller said item would be shipped within a day of payment -- I PayPalled it -- and sent via Priority Mail) but such was not to be. However, something I'd ordered from someone else this past weekend did, and that's what this post is about.

Back around 1993, Marvel Comics launched a new line of comics set on a possible future for their universe of heroes and villains, set in the year 2099. For the most part these were future age versions of each named character - completely different people and teams in the roles. I was never a fan of the line, as Marvel was turning out loads of depressing crap at the time (hmmm... sounds familiar...) and I didn't need to see them compounding the error by reaching into the future.

Still, this is Heroclix, and I was interested in a few of the pieces. When I saw the 2099 set offered for less than it would have cost me to order it as part of the now-defunct Collector's Club, I decided to go for it.

Hitting the least interesting pieces first, I'm going to start with one of the characters who means zip to me: Ravage.
Really, this is one of those pieces that will likely disappear into my collection, never to be played by me because I have no connection to the character as the character, and he has no direct connection to the heroes or villains I do know. I mean, aside from Dr. Doom dipping him in liquid adamantium and shooting him into space (which I only know from reading a bio) the guy hasn't any connection to anything I know and care about.

Not a bad dial, though. For 60 points he brings some game with him. Add 15 points for Pounce and he becomes an initially aggressive, close-combat damage-dealer who can take damage and pushing. Spend 12 points for Automatic Regeneration and he could bounce back to take down an opponent who thought he was all but finished. I could grow to appreciate his utility, but getting past the lack of a character connection is tough. Maybe he could be one of those time-displaced hordes Kang points at opponents?

Next up is another character I didn't know anything about until I looked it up.

A mutant who can attract onto and absorb into his body metal from his surroundings, granting him strength and damage resistance. Yeah, another damned, dimly-conceived mutant.

A former outlaw, he became born again in the law and hooked up with the 2099 era's version of SHIELD.

An interesting dial, many will eschew it for the combination of an attack value that never exceeds 9 and a lack of both special movement powers and certainly any sort of move and attack powers on top of having no range except if he decides to pick something up and throw it. The three clicks of Regeneration in the middle followed by two closing clicks of 17 Defense and Invulnerability make it likely he'll be able to survive some attacks, and he could be a threat anywhere on his dial... but given how dominated the game is with ranged attacks, how much Outwit is usually out there and how hittable his raw defenses are I'm mostly seeing 92 points for an opponent.

If he at least had a few clicks of Charge I'd suggest a flier with some ranged attack capacity carry him around, use his SHIELD TA to boost the damage of their attacks and then let him Charge out to deal more damage next time. Alas, though, he does not.

Next we have a slightly more familiar-looking character in Ghost Rider.

This version's origin isn't based in magic, though, but in science, as a dying man projects his intelligence into cyberspace and emerges as the controlling intelligence in a robot. Okay, maybe it's not so far off the magic mark...

I was surprised to find that this double-based figure wasn't a transporter. No reverse-imaged wing symbol on the base and nothing in the errata, so here we have a flier without the benefits of a transporter but the deficiency of being a double-based figure, and thus a larger target. Still, for all that he's a solid piece for 60 points.

Being a flier he can carry a non-flying passenger. He has minor ranged capability (4 range) and is mostly a close combat fighter. An opening 18 Defense with Toughness helps get him out onto the board and into Charging range. Plant him over hindering terrain and he has a 20 Defense from range, but beware of that double base -- if both halves aren't on hindering the part that isn't will still have only 18. Much the same applies later in the dial when he's on one of his three clicks of Stealth.

Three opening clicks of Charge make him a more aggressive fighter, the second through fourth clicks have Blades/Claws/Fangs, too, so his damage-dealing potential is high. Unfortunately he's another one whose Attack Value never rises above a 9, so a little Perplex and/or Probability Control on his team would prove worthwhile.

Stealth, Shape Change, Combat Reflexes and a final click of Regeneration (hey, that's something of a theme so far -- maybe by 2099 there's adequate healthcare) help keep him in the game, too.

Next up we have a mutant (::yawn::), but this one is a super-speedster, so we'll forgive him his origins. Iiiiit's Meanstreak.

For 71 points he's not the best Hypersonic Speed out there -- another piece with just a couple clicks of 9 AV and then downhill from there, and a Damage that stays at 2 (but a very steady 2), so Armor Piercing would be worth the 10 points, especially since he has three clicks of Flurry in the middle of his 7-click dial. The Ultimate X-Men TA (and what sort of statement is that? That, of course, the future is the province of the more highly aggressive?) allows him to fix on a certain character or team symbol and get a +1 to his Attack Value against that target, so a good choice in that regard could make him much more effective.

Three clicks of Super Senses, two more of Combat Reflexes, and a a final two of Energy Shield/Deflection all provide defense boosts, albeit more selectively as one goes down.

Next is another familiar name overlaid on another new character: Punisher.
This version's ended up as an enforcer for Doom.

With an 8 Range, two targets and three opening clicks of Running Shot, he takes the prize for longest attack reach in this set. Apparently, in the future myopia is rampant. I blame the counter-evolutionary effects of optometry. A fairly tough damage-dealer with another 7-click dial and a wildcard TA, his dial looks good but I'm not sure I'd say he's 104 points of "good." is final few clicks, including the final one with a Defense upswing of 17 and Willpower, are mainly good for running away -- for short distances of "away."

Another familiar name and color, but visually disturbing, we have the 2099 version of the Hulk.

At least we know that in the future one will still be able to find purple pants.

The sculpt, for me -- like the character itself -- is unimportant, but I'm looking at this as a Hulk dial. Whether I'll go as far as to pop this guy off his base and put an extra Hulk sculpt on it remains to be seen. We know we'll be getting a new (albeit Ultimates) Hulk in late June's Avengers set and at least one mainstream version in November's Monsters & Mutations.

For 123 points we have a 10-click dial with some solid stats - no huge Attack Values, but a steady 10 for his first four clicks - and a Giant status. Being a Giant in this game allows him to move more freely, strike enemies within 2 spaces of him as a close combat attack, and forces most other characters to have to stop 2 squares away from him.

For 123 points (135 with Automatic Regeneration to get the most out of those two clicks of Regeneration) he's an interesting Hulk option in a fairly anemic field. The lack of move and attack powers still limits him, though, and his dial fails to ramp up in most respects in a fairly un-Hulk-like manner. Still, it's an interesting enough one for me to want to give it a try.

Finally, at least for the figures in this set, we have Doom. And, in this case, it's actually the Victor Von Doom we know from the this era.

Well, at least that's who he is conceptually. Hurled into the distant future, Doom found a corrupt government and decided everything would be better off under his rule. Eventually he became President. I guess Diebolt will still be making voting machines.

We have an interesting, 150 point interpretation of Doom. More of a calculating manipulator than someone engaging in direct confrontation, he's nonetheless he has some of the best stats in the set, particularly with respect to Attack Value; out of his eight clicks four of them are 10 and two are 11. His two clicks of 9 AV are on slots that not only have Psychic Blast but Probability Control. Opening Stealth for two clicks, he's a flier, too, so he's able to get onto and off of hindering terrain easily, and can carry an ally with him if need be. That's followed by two clicks of Running Shot. His final three clicks have Teleport/Phasing, so he can get out of a tight spot if need be. His first four slots have Outwit, too. His final two clicks of Defense have Regeneration on them, too, so he has the potential to bounce back.

Really, his only real defect is this damned, creeping myopia -- it must be something in the environment. Maybe the smog's really bad. Despite having two targets he only has a 6 Range. Is that enough of a deficit to keep me from using him? No, he's useful enough to give a try. Outwit and Probability Control both work out to 10 spaces, after all, and the opening Stealth should help allow him deeper access onto the map. It's an interesting option when choosing a Doom for a team.

Also in the set are two Feat cards.

One is Call To Arms, which allows one to... motivate one of one's characters back to action. One assigns this 10 point card to a character that has Mastermind or Support, and if you choose he can then use this card as a power action. He sees an ally with one or more tokens on him, clears away the tokens and deals him 1 click of unavoidable damage. The benefit, presumably, is that since the piece has now been cleared of tokens he's free to act again if the player still has an action. The target character has to be adjacent to the Mastermind/Support figure and can't be adjacent to an enemy, so I suppose the ideal one to use this on would be ranged hitters with fairly steady stats or, better still, one whose stats improve across one or more clicks.

The other is far more direct and useful: Nanoarmor. For 6 points a non-giant character can ignore any attack damage dealt by objects. Someone comes roaring in with that Soda Machine for a hit and those 3 extra points of Damage are ignored.

As you can see, this wasn't a must-have set, which was why I didn't rush to get it when it first came out. Maybe it was the delay in getting the rest of my Origin boosters warping my tiny mind...