Cosmic Dust
Wizkids surprised me today by giving us a sneak peek for the Avengers set (we'd been told we weren't getting any for couple weeks), this being for one of the characters we'd seen the sculpt for: The Red Skull.
This version of the Skull is from a particular moment in his career when he briefly had control of the Cosmic Cube, a device that could transform the user's wishes into reality. Seth provides a write-up on how he approached it.
The dial's fairly straightforward, if... somewhat disappointing for a representation of someone who had the power of the universe in his palm. While I can accept much of it as a mixture of his not having come to true grips with the power he wields and the sheer hubris of believing that the game is won and so he can just toy with an opponent, the 6 range seems vanishingly small.
The dial's the dial, though, so we shall roll with it.
The new "white" power flexibility is used here on the Damage slot, so that on his first four clicks he can choose Outwit, Perplex or Probability Control, taking a 50:50 risk each time he uses it that some feedback will sting him for a click of damage. Clarification on whether or not he has the option to use more than one of those powers in a single turn, since they're all powers that are normally thought of as Free Actions, will need to be made. Similarly, whether or not the Probability Control option stays in play during attacks made against him or an ally will need to be stated.
For 123 points we get a... reasonably good figure with the Hydra TA, but I must say that my first reaction is disappointment. Still, I have to let it settle in, come back to it, and even then it may take getting the piece into play to get me to really appreciate it for its nuances.
The green at the bottom front of his card marks him as an uncommon, and the article notes him as a unique, so we have the first uncommon (rarity) unique. The unique status now only means that only one of these can be on a team.
Still, I may not have seen the last use of my old Clobberin' Time version, adequately Feated up. At least he had an 8 range.
The write-up concludes with a reference to next week's sneak peek (so, I suppose they are doing a weekly countdown to the set's release) likely as Iron Man, though it could just as easily be the "Iron" Spider-man, as that's also someone who's an Avenger.
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Comments
The 'Cosmic Cube' power itself -- the ability to use either Outwit, Perplex, or Probability Control for four clicks -- is handy, but I'd be tempted to give that to the Skull without any omnipotent plot device to justify it. It's exactly the sort of thing that villains of his sort should be able to do. I'd like to see a Joker with similar abilities.
If Seth is going to give us a Cosmic Cube powered Skull, though, well, we need some Mind Control, some Phasing/Teleport, some Shape Shift, and, as you note, a much greater range, and waaaaay better damage. A Power Cosmic TA wouldn't go amiss, either.
Honestly, though, I've never been thrilled by the idea of a Red Skull with Cosmic Cube. It's not like he has these powers all the time, or, in fact, that he had them more than once, for a brief period. I do like the Power Cosmic Dr. Doom, which I know has a similar context to it, but, well, I think the PC Doom is just a helluva good Dr. Doom, and even so, he's not quite as good as the Vet from Clobberin' Time.
My problem with the CT Skull is that piss poor attack value. It may be merited (its not like the Skull ever landed a punch on Cap, after all) but to my mind, it severely limits his usefulness in a game. And I do think villains like the Skull need some kind of mental edge -- Outwit, Perplex, Probability Control -- to simulate the fact that, well, they ARE the arch enemy to a formidable hero.
Overall, I can't see that either of these version of the Red Skull will be particularly accurate representations of the character as he generally appears in comics. Still, I guess the new one comes closer, and is much more useful in an actual match.
Seth plainly got it into his head to try to capture a snapshot of comics history, and so to represent not what the Skull was capable of at that moment (which, as we know, would have been virtually anything) but what he was doing in that state of mind at the moment.
I was never truly happy with the Cosmic Cube's existence -- a cool concept, certainly, but it's almost completely unbridled magic, and there aren't many writers (fewer still in comics) capable of building a truly satisfactory tale around such an object.
All that said, as more or less mentioned in the write-up, had Seth chosen to give him a range of at least 10 I would be much more predisposed towards this interpretation -- he should be able to do more than simply be a support piece beyond a range of 6.
Still, looking at him as you're choosing to - ignoring the Cosmic Cube - really is the direction to go, not only in erring towards a better match but also because how often is one going to really want to try to time-shift the Skull from that moment into a game?
The CT Skull does have a poor AV, and as is typical of most of the earliest sets he has miserable drop-offs that make the back half or more of his dial little better than being on life support.
Should I want to have this one come across as truly the Skull with the Cosmic Cube I'd likely layer on Feats, probably including not only ICWO but doing so with Oracle on the card so that he'd have that Outwit and PC to draw on, too. It might entail a minor battle with a rules lawyer or two, but that should allow him to potentially use the ICWO's Perplex, Outwit or Leadership in the same turn where he could also use one of the character card-granted Cosmic Cube abilities. That, Fortitude, Repulsor Shields, Nanobots, etc., he'd break well past the 200 pts mark... but someone with that level of power should anyway. I suppose I'd just have to mark up his 6 range to still being used to only targeting things he'd pull a luger on.