Team: Batman Ally
Range: 4 /
Points: 65

What I really like about the veteran Azrael is that he can charge in for two damage, then push for a follow-up for four.

After a hit, he stays dangerous with a mid-dial BCF backup plan for two clicks, or can use the opportunity to run thanks to Leap/Climb.

What appeals to me the most though is his end spike as his attack rises to a nine, and he even gains Support to heal his allies. That second last click is actually the best, as he'll be tough to hit in close combat and has permanent stealth from ranged threats being one of Batman's allies.

This is a great low cost figure! Effective from beginning to end, and has some versatility with his movment, attack, and damage powers. His defense works to keep him around for awhile. Great figure!

I don't pretend to understand how Azrael gets Support, but I don't much care either. This guy rocks! Charge in to hit a small guy, push to hit a big guy. Golden!

a fairly long dial laced with good powers (even support o_O) all the way down. one of the best bat allies for the price!

I've always loved this fig.. hate to lose him to retirement

EDIT: Lunge made me take another look. He looks even better!

while more blades with some flurry combined would have been nice, this figure is extremely playable especially for the low cost. This is my favourite character comicbook wise so I play it every opportunity I get and Jean Paul rarely lets me down put some armor piercing on him and he works even better.

It is clear that whoever designed Azrael's dial did absolutely no research on the character at all. Support? I can rest my case there alone. The power combinations are poorly designed as well. CCE doesn't work with charge and once he gets blades and super strength he loses charge only to get it back at the end of his dial when he has support. He also shouldn't have the Mystical keyword and should have Gotham City. The one thing that makes him a much more playable piece is Lunge. It is almost a must if you are going to play him. He should have had a higher attack value along with a flurry and blades combo and late dial regeneration. This figure should have been very similar to veteran Ultimates Sabretooth with some leap climb and CCE. He works well as a secondary attacker and later as a great support piece to heal your allies. He shouldn't have support, but I will gladly use it with his 19 defense while in stealth and 9 attack. Let's hope that when and if they ever get around to making a new carded version that they get it right.

Azrael's back-loaded support power comes from the time he spent working with Dr. Leslie Thompkins, during and after the "No Man's Land" story arc. After a long night on patrol, making people bleed, he took solace in stitching others up in the light of day. During his first day on the job, Leslie commented that he was a natural born healer.

I have to completely disagree. That was two pannels in one issue out of 100. Bruce and the others have stitched each other up from time to time when Alfred wasn't around. Donna Troy was pratically a nurse to the other Titans for years and none of them have support. Stitching up a few people hardly qualifies as medical training let alone the support power. If that issue is where the designer created the dial from, then you can easily tell that they did no further research on the character. Again, I don't agree at all with the support power, but I will use it in a game.

The designer simply chose to take an interesting snapshot of where the character was at the time of "No Man's Land". Whether or not you agree with his choice is irrelevant to it's accuracy. As for his power combinations, Azrael wasn't exactly the sort of character who would use his abilities in an overly efficient manner to begin with.

The whole point to my post is that it is not accurate which is relevant. Being an aid to Dr. Thompkins does not make him a healer. Especially in this game. Compare the character to the majority, if not all of the figures that have support. He was created for the sole purpose of being the perfect killing machine. His dial should reflect that. As for the power combinations, I could easily cite numerous examples as to why he should have charge with blades and super strength. While he is a playable figure, the designer did not do the proper research on the character and the powers were combined poorly.

While I have to question whether or not you might be a little too fanatical towards the character to be completely objective, I think we can both agree that character accuracy is highly subjective when looking at any Heroclix dial. Everyone wants their favorite characters to be exactly in line with how they personally perceive them to be in the comics and everyone thinks their own interpretation is correct. One of the many reasons Heroclix is such a great game is that there's room for all those interpretations to exist together, and with new dials being designed all the time, hopefully we'll all be satisfied in the end.

Hardly fanatical, but as someone who has read everything the character has been in, I can easily say that support is not among the powers the figure should have. Also, I just don't understand why a designer would make a figure who's powers are not compatable. Azrael is not the only figure that suffers from this. There are too many to count. It just makes the figure that much less playable. I'm just glad that we have feats like Lunge that make figures like this playable again.

Despite our difference of opinion on dial design, it's great to see another Jean-Paul Valley fan out there. In all honesty, I hope that WizKids will someday release a version of the character that you consider to be more accurate. We may get his Black Lantern incarnation as early as this year.