Had to comment. I ended up here looking for a better replacement for the only modern Human Torch. Classics F4 are all modern forever and they are all playable, except maybe for their weakest link, the Human Torch. He's awsome... top click. Don't get hit. Honestly I'm okay if they let the F4 stay classic or SR/LE replacement, but there really has been no decent Human Torch alternative yet. I understand this SR was an attempt to represent the 'flame on' mechanic in some cosmicy, alternative style, but some things just don't need doing. On an aside, I think all F4 should be designed to be either all for 300 pts for competitive games or all be 100 each for a fantastic 400 point team. Oh wait...

Should be 125 points and a little better defense and tougher for the points.

A very risky investment for 120 points because of how fragile he is. Sure he's fast, but a 10/17 with Toughness isn't very impressive at that cost, and his least useful attack power is front-loaded. His opening click has a nice speed value, but otherwise is the sort of thing that should cost 20-30 points less, and a solid hit from anywhere dumps him onto a troublingly worse defense. The Nova Flame, which can of course be a game-decider with the right positioning, is also something you have to damage and stun him for and you'd better not whiff or he's in serious trouble. Getting him in the right place and on the right click for that sort of move is a challenge. Given the trouble of putting the Flame on him, it's also kinda sad that you can lose it by being smacked, and then he's pretty hopeless.

He also doesn't have a little platform like the rest of them. I think the others were intended to represent a time while Johnny boy here was dead.

Even sadder, those platforms sculpted may have been intended for future use as a team base, that we never got.

The Nova Flame thingy sounds appealing at first, but in reality is very impractical. In order to pull it off you have to first push him off his first (and best damage wise) click, then wait and clear while he's a sitting duck and hope nobody decides to test his 17 DV Toughness, then you have to Nova Blast him as a double power action and push AGAIN going down to the third click which is also the last click of RS and last click of damage greater than 2. If you can pull this Nova Blast and manage to hit 2 or more opposing figures for 3, it's great, but you still had to take at least 4 turns and do 2 damage to yourself and now you have to clear next round AGAIN and you're down to 9 Movement, 10 AV, 16 DV and 3 Damage. Sure, you still have RS, PB and ES/D and the Nova Flame adds Toughness, Poison and +1 to Damage, but you're a sitting duck again and any attack that can overcome your 18DV from range or 16 up close and does at lest 2 damage to overcome your Toughness, will dispel the Corona effect. And now you're very far down the dial with low stats and are looking at 1 more double power action and 1 more pushing damage if you want to get it back. Oh, and if you didn't manage to pull off that Nova Blast attack earlier and either missed everybody or hit just one target, you'd really be way better off trying to stay on the top click and make regular RS attacks for 4 damage. Sadly Johnny here is the worst figure of the 500 SR FF bunch.

sad but true. i've played the 500pt team a couple times, and even when Reed and Ben were fresh/new figures they couldn't hold their weight. Not enough damage output aside from Thing, who is a slow moving brick with no attack values higher than 10 at 140. The Reed just isn't very effective at 130 pts. The Sue just costs too many points for her damage output. And Johnny is worst of all. Mediocre combat values and overcosted special powers make him a total waste in play.

that is to true