I dig Lydia as a character, Rey Trueno's paid manipulator. Had Arcudi's run not been forced into an early end, I think she would've been responsible for some major twists and character developments.



#034 Lydia

Team: No Affiliation

Range: 0 

Points: 15

Keywords: Spy, Brute


5 9 16 1

5 8 16 1

4 8 15 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

I used reverse psychology...: Perplex. When Lydia uses it, she adjusts a stat by 2. Opponents may select another stat on the targeted character to be adjusted by 1 in the opposite way.

I like that tradeoff! I especially like the possibility of dropping a 2 damage opponent down to 0. That boost in another stat will kinda feel like an insult at that point. "Gee, wow, I guess I'll boost my speed then..."

Damn, I loved Avengers Arena and Avengers Undercover so much, I think I need to track down Avengers Academy. I need more superpowered Battle Royale in my life.



#035 Hazmat

Real Name: Jennifer Takeda

Team: Avengers, Masters of Evil

Range: 6 

Points: 50

Keywords: Teen, Initiative, Young Avengers, Masters of Evil


8 11 16 2

7 10 16 2

6 11 17 2

6 10 17 2

6 11 18 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

A Deadly Glow: Poison, Penetrating. Characters within 6 spaces cannot use Stealth.

Of all the dials, this one got me the most excited. Unclixed character? Check. Lame character? Check. Forced creativity from their power set? Check.

Another cheat on my part, Blackheath acts more like Plant Man, but considering how little Blackheath actually does in T-bolts, I'd like to think that's forgivable.



#036 Blackheath

Real Name: Samuel Smithers

Team: No Affiliation

Range: 7 

Points: 100/75

Keywords: Thunderbolts, Maggia, Scientist, New Enforcers


6 10 17 2

6 10 17 2

| | | |

6 10 17 2

5 10 16 1

5 10 16 1

5 10 16 1

4 10 15 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Botany is MY Domain!: Improved Movement & Targeting: Ignores Hindering Terrain.

Simuloid Synthesis: POWER: If there are not 3 Simuloids on the map, place 1 adjacent to Blackheath.

 Interpose: If Blackheath would be hit by an attack, you may immediately instead switch his position with a Simuloid currently on the map.

 Chlorophyll Camouflage: Stealth & Sidestep.

 Vege-Ray: If a target of Blackheath’s ranged attack is adjacent to Hindering Terrain, the damage is penetrating. If the target occupies Hindering Terrain, the damage is penetrating and deals the opposing character an Action Token.



#036b Simuloid

Team: No Affiliation

Range: 0 


4 9 17 1

Black Ant really confuses me because the real Eric O'Grady was pointlessly killed in Secret Avengers, and his evil LMD doppleganger shows up and is almost immediately placed on a bus till the Illumanti storyline...

But then around and leading up to Secret Empire it's seemed to be implied it's Eric O'Grady again and not a LMD, there's absolutely no mention of him being a LMD or robot and they even bring up O'Grady's past once or twice, Optimistically that was Spencer doing a soft retcon ignoring the LMD storyline, but then it doesnt really explain why he went bad without it either. Maybe it was some Secret Wars hand wave? Who knows.

Oh, there's no Marvel plot device I hate more than LMD. Super cheap, and deprives stories of lasting consequences.

Cynical as this will sound, give or take around the Age of Ultron event, I feel like Marvel comics lost track of continuity minutea, and in the years that followed, every run is essentially its own thing by necessity, what with the company rebooting and relaunching every few months. I'm guessing at this point, writers just use characters how they feel without regard to even little things like characterization.

Everything feels like it's built to be memetic now.

Great dial! But also a bit too good for 100.

Even more than "HA! I was a Skrull spy the whole time!"? That was super annoying. Especially when it happened in books that had nothing to do with Skrulls. I'm looking at you, X-men storyline where Horseman of Death killed Wolverine but turned out Death was Wolverine and what he killed was a random Skrull. As you can tell, I wasn't a huge fan of Secret Invasion.

Many thanks, Sceritz! Abner’s been a tricky one to keep attractive and balanced. I’ve tweaked his “Never Count Me Out” ability for more of a risk/cost.

I see where you’re coming from with the points, but while I think the Abilities are strong, the stats are tiered to the point value. Cheesy comparisons, but compared to sfsm033 Beetle & cwsop028 Mach-IV, I think things look kosher C;

Urrrrrrrgh, yeah, that’s even worse. I’m cool with comics having no mortal consequences for main characters, but one-issue fake outs? Laaaaaaaaame. Damn, Thunderbolts’ Secret Invasion felt like such a leap backwards in quality after Ellis’ run...

Personally, I've always thought of Abe as being on a lower power level in the comics. He always seemed to be pushed in the background of fights when compared with Songbird, Moonstone, and Atlas. His time as head of the Thunderbolts built upon him being sort of weak compared with some of his team, but showed him having strong will to keep the ideals alive and stepping up to be leader just because nobody else would.

But I might be remembering him wrong. It's been a long time.

Interesting! Yeah, Abner led during the early part of the New Thunderbolts run. I could see a case for making a 75/50-point version along the lines of Shocker and Boomerang, but he’s also got an Iron Man-lite powerset and has had some similarly-powered feats.

I could go either way on him, honestly! If there’s interest in a 75/50 point version, I’ll see what I could knock out!

Abe is one of those pieces that could use a a/b/c set for each upgrade. The first piece could be 50, then 75, then 100. He could also benefit from having Techno on the field, if you'd like to build that in.

Mach-1 and Mach-2 should be simple fly and shoot pieces, where v3 should be fairly solid.

Mach X should likely be a Prime that shares a sculpt with Harrier.

They all kind of held back a little bit at first, because they weren't quite sure how to conduct themselves; plus, their first "battle" was a staged scam with the Wrecking Crew.

Jenkins more than proved himself to everyone, including Iron Man, during the big showdown with Zemo.

You're not wrong; an R/E/V-style set with greater focus on the main cast would be another, equally appropriate way to clix the Thunderbolts, given the extreme variance in powers & tactics among characters, even within a single run. Multiples of Mach, Atlas, Songbird, Moonstone, Techno (especially), Zemo all make sense to one extent or another.

This set shoots for a GotG or FL-style holistic version of each character with give-or-take modern rule language and point-costing. That sort of limits characters to single dials, unless there's a case of EXTREME variance in abilities (Screaming Mimi vs. Songbird, original vs. resurrected Jolt, Zemo vs. Zemo with Moonstones, etc.).

I guess I'm saying that I see an argument for a lower-pointed Mach, but for fidelity to the set's conceit, I wouldn't add it as another official piece, but sort of as a bonus dial or a replacement for the existing dial, community response depending.

Heeeeeeeeeeeere's Armadillo! Going by the unit comments, I tried to make him accurate to his fighting ring appearance while keeping his signature tunneling ability.



#037 Armadillo

Real Name: Antonio Rodriguez

Team: Hydra, Sinister Syndicate

Range: 0 

Points: 100/75

Keywords: Hydra, Sinister Syndicate, Rangers, Animal, Monster, Celebrity


7 10 17 3

7 10 17 3

| | | |

7 10 17 3

7 10 17 3

7 10 17 3

6 10 17 3

5 10 17 3

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Tunneler: Carry: 2. DOUBLE POWER: Remove Armadillo & his passengers from the board. On your next turn, place him anywhere on the board and his passengers adjacent to him.