Thanks.
My thought here was that with so many high defenses in the set, anyone who doesn't build with an intent to be able to hit 17's and 18's kinda deserves to lose to someone playing a Jakeem.
But finding a fig with an 11 AV (or 10 + Perplex) isn't so hard, and a 7 to hit is perfectly average.
That being the case, Jakeem shouldn't be that hard to hurt. And an average hit for 3 damage from his first click will knock him past his best defense, best AV and best damage - to put him down to 17 def with Toughness. From there he's no threat at all.
So if you've built your team around reliance on Jakeem's defense and support, you just lost 40% of your team, and your main strategy.

The one thing I noticed about Jakeem Thunder in the pre-release is that people go right at him not giving him a chance to get to that 19 Defend click. He's going to be a huge target from the get go and w/ no damage reducers to start with one lucky hit is going to cripple him (and by extension) your team. I think he's a great piece but I don't think he's a "no-brainer" by any means.

Sorry, i meant it as a compliment. Here is what i saw in sealed play.

In our prerelase Jakeem with a R Shazam, and E Question and some pog. Was giving people fits. Who do you hit? Everyone went for Jakeem hitting him for normally 3 damage, then he's preplexing, plus RS along with Question perplex was pretty nasty. Not to mention his Inc. keeps lots of figs from getting too him in the first place. If you think of him as a stand alone fig his not great but, 126 points with plenty of low points figs to surround him or a couple other good figures goes a long way.

Gentleman Ghost the one time he was played seemed to fall in 1 or 2 turns of trying to tie up figs. and at 83 points he usually gave up the lead in the match

Very good article and assessments. I would only disagree with STRIPE. Is 18 def can be very helpful for other JSA/WC figures (of which there are a ton). Of course, it depends on what else you pull, but that seems to justify (Fair. Based on how you need to fill out a team.)

I'd agree. That's what I did against him with my Sentinel team (so weird to say that in reference to Alan and not big purple robots), and he caved pretty fast. Of course, R Wildcat doing flurry attacks on you will do that.

I dunno about Lois being quite so high, but yeah, if you pull the WCs for that TA, she definitely is a must have for the point cost (I think I didn't even pull /one/ at the PR, now that I think about it...).

Good Article, but I have too completely disagree with you on the Jakeem Thunder issue.

I faced a JT and Mr Miracle team and only managed to KO 1 figure (left behind when my opponent chased after my Johnny Quick/Mirror Master).

Hitting that 18 defense + Prob Control is a b*(#! in a sealed if you only draw 9 or 10 Attack Value figs.

Technically, couldn't the Sorceror's Quintessence Team ability be considered a move and attack ability? After all, I don't see people complaining about Thanos with his lack of Running Shot.

On the Jakeem thing:

1. A Jakeem team won the pre-release I went to. Out of 28 people, that's not too bad. Especially considering the number of Shazams and M'onels and pretty much everything else.

2. Last night we ran a sealed tourney to celebrate the new set release, and a Jakeem team went 2-1, and almost went 3-0. (There was only 4 of us at the tourney, so 3 of us went 2-1)


So, in my experience, Jakeen is worth at least 3 smileys....

Nice review though....

Its not the lack of move/attack powers, its the lack of any movement powers at all.
Thanos at least starts with Phasing and high movement so he can get in deep or break away easily.
Thanos also gets better when he gets hit (or at least his damage goes up and AV stays good.) Wizard doesn't fare so well.
Mainly its his 3 clicks of Inv followed by no damage reducers thereafter that make him too glass jawed.
Lastly, the Wizard might fare well in higher point games where he can be properly suppored and feated, but in a 300 pt sealed game he's not good enough to hold his own.

Sometimes I just don't get these reviews AZS. You praise starman because he offers leadership, and perplex almost 1/2 down his dial. You gush over him being an 2nd tier attacker, but ding others for going from a 10AV to an 9AV the same way Starman does. You exalt his JSA ability to share defense, yet you ding others due to the NEED to pull complementary pieces(TA needed to share this defense). Starman is seen as a team player once he takes a bit of a hit as well. Starman rates a 4 in your book

But then you look at Jakeem Thunder and see nothing but contempt. JT is just 20 points more than Starman, yet you get PC, 18 defend, and two target INC to start off with - don't forget the same range. JT has either perplex or PC down his entire dial. If that is not being a true team player, I don't know what is. Then realize he can share either 18, or 19 defense for his 1st two clicks AND he's a JSA(something you like about Starman). I just don't understand how you can love Starman(4 rating) and hate JT(2 rating) given what they both bring to the table.

Of course it all depends on what else one pulls. Those 20 points might mean the difference between fielding an E or V hawkman/steel/Booster Gold. It just seems to me that you give credit to some characters, and detract from other over the same things.

I love the reviews, honestly I do. This is just a bit of a debate/observation based on some of the reviews. I just can't honestly see why these two figures rate a 2 point rating difference. If I pull nothing else but REV Phantom Lady and REV Mano's I know I'm going to want a high defense/PCer like JT thunder over middling attacker like Starman. The same could be be said about pulling a whole bunch of good figures as well.

I played Jakeem, Stripe, rookie Atom, and vet Blackhawk at the Ottawa pre-release, and didn't even try to push to Jakeem's 19 defense click. With 3 18 defenses and a 17, the first click of PC seemed more useful to me - defensively and helping me to hit. I placed third, and thought Thunder and Stripe played well, but can't fault their low ratings here. Without the right teammates their flaws are more glaring.

Furthermore, i was fortunate to win the third-place game - it was down to my Jakeem versus my opponent's J. Quick. He crit missed a HSS attack, CSA/probbed it, then critically missed again (for two damage as the CSA token made it a push).

the thing is for his high cost, that 18 defense w/toughness is all he brings to the table. and for over a third of your marquee build total Stripe is just not that good

Ok, since you seem to want a head to head comparison...

Starman: 2 clicks of running shot. Starts with RS, fair damage and good AV. Does better damage on clicks 2 & 3. Offers support later with a whopping 5 clicks of perplex, plus barrier.
I think Starman offers a good mix of offense and support.

Jakeem; 20 points more (if you don't think 20 points is significant, that's on you.)
Has to push to get to his best defensive click. Has to push again to get to a click with good av and RS. Has perplex and PC for support, but don't fill the offensive role as well since the RS and better AV are buried on clicks that are likely to get knocked past. This makes him mostly a support piece, for 20 more points than a fig that fills 2 rolls.
That's the difference.

Also, try not to get mad at me for giving the ratings. I didn't say he was a bad figure, he got 2 smilies which is just below average. Neither fig got 1 or 5, which is a panning. I just don't think Jakeem is that great in this format. Clearly people have different opinions and have posted them.

I think that Jakeem is hurt (in the Marquee format) by the likelihood of what else is to be pulled. Remember, you will get 6 commons, 3 uncommons and 3 rare/unique. For the most part in this set, the rare/uniques are going to be your damage dealers: they have the move and attack, high AVs, and defense busters.

Also note the point values: at 120+ points, Jakeem and the Ori-Djinni approach almost half your build total...and if your pulls are like my PR ones, you are going to have to settle on 1-and-only-1 other big gun, or scrape by with a mob of 60-ish point figures that you have to figure out mobility, and trust that shared defense to protect your figures.

Personally, I would never push Jakeem off of the prob control, without already having the upper hand. In a set like this, I think the re-roll is a much better bet than a (possible shared) extra DEF point.

Actually because of his TA he's pretty good at tangling with flying opponets as well. Most people like to park their ranged attackers in hindering (espacially flyers) so as to make ranged retaliation more difficult. Since hindering generally comes in clusters that take up multiple squares it is fairly likely that Batman can charge into some hindering where he can't be shot at despite his enemy's movement symbol. Thus tieing up a rnged attacker and forcing said ranged attack to deal with Batman's Combat Reflexes.

I played Sandman at the pre-release and he was pretty handy, espacially when helping out Wildcat. The two had a nice synergy. He also tended to be targeted pretty quickly and didn't stay on his opening click for long.

Thanks for these reviews, the've been a high-light of my work days this week.