Actually, Sabretooth. He's playable, but I don't do Brotherhood very often.

Elektra and Spider-Man are for my Marvel Knights themes.

Hobgoblin's going to provide transportation for my Spider-Villains.

Wolverine's going to make a great new partner for Kitty Pryde on my X-Men teams.

Wasp is going to be a fun supporting piece in future HeroChix forces.

-J

Oh. Sorry, RP.

I thought you were just trying to be as subtle as possible about not being excited about a new Elektra. My mistake.

As usual, Elektra is the only new dial that doesn't really impress me out of these revamped clix. Since I'm almost exclusively a comics themed player, her character is already kind of difficult to place on teams since she's not really a "team" player in the comics. Of course, neither is Hulk for that matter, but Elektra is not as much fun to use in my opinion. That being said, the main reason I'm not as excited about this one, other than our multiple other versions of her, is that this dial really doesn't bring much new to the Heroclix table. I break 'em down this way:

#1...E Spidey- Finally, a cheap but very playable and handy version of everyone's favorite wall-crawler with the Spidey wildcard team no less. Leap/climb, super-strength, super-senses, inc., a 10 attack...this one has it all and only for a measly 40pts.! E Moon Knight just got some serious competition, or, should I say, a great ally!

#2...E Wasp- What can I say? I'm a big Avengers fan so Wasp makes 2nd place just for association. However, that association is also key in her playability. The cheapest Wasp before this was her IC rookie at 24pts., and she wasn't even an Avenger! Now, not only is she 5pts. cheaper than the rookie, she's 14pts. cheaper than the Avengers' previous cheapest taxi...E Wasp! Actually, she's also now the Avengers' cheapest Heroclix option and the only one under 20pts. Now, I'll finally be able to round off a lot more Avenger teams with an actual Avenger that fits the point total! E Quicksilver(at 24pts.) will no longer be the cheapest option.

#3...E Wolverine- While E Wolverine and E Sabretooth are neck and neck, I got to go with the good guy and, as ya pointed out, RP, Sabretooth will mostly get used on Brotherhood/ X-men enemy themed teams that I also don't play too often.(I do play 'em more than Elektra based teams, though. ) Wolverine wins out as one of the cheapest versions of the guy with the claws, and also with a 10 attack. The best part, though, is that he IS the cheapest Wolverine with the X-men team. Move over, Marrow, now there's a character with similiar function I actually recognize and like for points in the same ball-park.

#4...E Sabretooth- Even though this fella has trade-offs with his rookie IC version and is even a couple points more in cost, he DOES get the Brotherhood team and a higher attack which makes him better in my book. He's #4 mainly, though, because the last two just aren't as interesting.

#5...E Hobgoblin- Again, not really anything to get excited over, but the presence of a team ability that can actually make this fella more useful puts him higher on the list than...

#6...E Elektra- Ya know, her dial isn't all that bad for the points. The problem is, there are quite a few other Elektras out there just as playable for almost the same points. She's just a little better in a couple ways than the experienced IC version, but, considering the one we just got in CM, the X-plosion LE, etc., this one doesn't bring anything new to the game...except for combat reflexes. I suppose there might be a time when this could come in handy, but it's not enough to say to me "CREATE AN ELEKTRA THEMED TEAM JUST FOR ME!" Now, if she had come with the Spidey or Doom team ability, then she would be a completely different story. Oh well, there's always Marvel Megaverse that will come out in two years and include the same clix as Universe but with brand new versions of the same 6 above.

The cheapness of the new starter figures is because they were designed to make two teams of 100 points - good vesus evil. This also means that they make good modules to add to a 300 point team to make it 400 points, if you need a quick-change of this kind.

Andrew

New starter figures are excellent - kudos to wk. Maybe the best Spiderman yet.

Everyone's right, this Spider-Man is the most playable of all! I'm just dissapointed about how many clicks of life he has.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the new PAC for universe does not list LOF needed for Barrier, just that all the pieces must be within range. Another typo?

It's always been that way....

I find the new rarity indicater kind of odd. I mean, for one thing the Common, Uncommon, Rare idea doesn't seem to fit Heroclix but... Also... Only 8 rares...? And Vet SHADOWCAT is one of them? Vet Viper...? Yeesh. At least Taskmaster and Mandarin count too... And what rarity are uniques?

Happy clixing,
Mike

Actually it hasn't always been that way. Since Indy, Barrier has required LOF to place the first square. I'm curious about this new wording as well.

Addendum to above (too late to edit):

I see that the latest FAQ still has the LOF requirement listed, so I guess that trumps this new PAC.

I started a thread in the Rules Forum to discuss the changes for the rule of 3. They are quite important.

http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showth...threadid=91044

Well, those new figures are just horrid. I am glad they didn't remake Cap this time.

Ok...I dont get it. Why are they doing this again, other than an updated rulebook? The figs dont seem all that different.