I haven't had much time for the realms this holiday season, but I've been keeping a close eye on this set and I haven't been disappointed. Sorry to have left the thread for this long, but let me correct that immediately and continue with the reviews.

#zh041b Prime Mirage - Worthy of the green ring around her dial, Mirage balances the extreme multi-utility of her sideboard dials (and these days there are a LOT of useful options to grab at 40-50 points) with the high-risk of how it is implemented. By hanging everything on a 50/50 shapechange roll, there exists a good chance that none of those sideboard characters will ever actually reach the board. It also means that the player can't pre-plan the first couple of switch-outs like you can with SfoSM Chameleon, since you will necessarily need your opponent's involvement before Mirage can tap into any of those dials. Even with those limitations in mind, a little luck can open a world of options for a Titans team which makes Mirage well worth playing.

Y'know, the next time we get a Titans theme in a set, if we get an 80's Starfire I would accept a prize kit sculpt re-use if the dial was labelled "Mirage". It was probably her most memorable appearance.

#zh017 Experienced Donna Troy - This version of Donna is actually who she was when I first started reading comics, so imagine my surprise to later learn that she was an amazon and formerly Wonder Woman's sidekick! The 50 point dial here is simplistic but functional, the sort of dial that would make a good impression in a sealed event or a new player learning the game, but doesn't have any bells and whistles to attract the attention of a seasoned player. Her more expensive starting line is suitably more competent, capable of more mobility and taking an extra hit or two. Her special power is neat; functionally it's not THAT different from super-senses or even just replacing the Inv with Imp, either way you get a 1/3 defensive roll on top of your armor. But using the space to pay homage to Donna's personal history makes her a more interesting dial, and IMO getting a successful Amazons or Hypertime roll paints a different picture of what's happening on the battlefield than a simple Supersenses or Impervious roll.

#zh101 Experienced Wonder Woman - What a sassy firecracker Diana is when you let her take the tiara off! I'm almost surprised she didn't get the "Bad Girl" trait, but I suppose that does make sense. Even when she's "street", Diana is still the same caring woman deep down, which is respected with the inclusion of Empower on an otherwise straight up flying brawler. I really like this dial because of how offense-heavy it is, Diana will be heading towards her STOP click fast but she'll be punching well above her weight class as she gets there. Reminds me of Hawk in that sense. But the jewel of this dial is definitely the end dial STOP and replace; I love this mechanic, as you probably could have guessed, since it adds value to the many past Wonder Woman dials in a player's collection. I would go so far as to say that this STOP-replace mechanic should entirely replace Alter-Ego and Promotion mechanics, or at least in many cases going forward. It's not hard to imagine a black costume Superman or an in-training Bruce Wayne that similarly has an uncertain swap-out and encourages players to select their best 100, 150 and 200 point options from their collections.

#zh041a Veteran Wonder Woman - Liefeld's pocket's and shoulder pads ain't got nothing on Artemis' impossible hair! An appropriately combat-focused dial that doesn't invest any points in ally-buffing abilities, Artemis' exploit and blades display the viciousness that Diana comparatively lacked. Personally I prefer the more expensive option that opens with the hunting bow, not because it is necessarily the best use of 30 points but because the bow is another part of what sets Artemis apart from Diana. I do think I'd have preferred to drop her damage down to a 2 in exchange for some stealth-busting improved targeting and/or precision strike, I dunno. I could be wrong though, perhaps a blunt 3-damage helps set Artemis' style apart from more accurate characters like Green Arrow. The end dial sacrifice play is notable especially because it ISN'T a stop-click, which makes landing there a rare thing that harkens back to the end-dial suicide-bomb clicks of the pre-carded era when it felt like a Christmas miracle when your opponent punched you JUST hard enough to land you where you wanted to be. As magical as those moments are, I imagine in the modern era we'd see Artemis donning a white lantern ring a lot to get the most out of her Requiem.

#zh069 Experienced Catwoman - Now's as good a time as ever to ask: what exactly is the "Bad Girl" trait representing, within the context of a comic book battle? Do the girls strike a pose, Charlie's Angels style, and everyone in the fight pauses for a turn to marvel at how bold and badass they are? Is it a callback to the Danger Girl TA from Indyclix? Does it work against Northstar?

While this dial features several interesting features; the giant-reach whip that was also recently seen on the HQGG Catwoman, a thief mechanic that FINALLY accurately represents Selena completing a heist plot during the game, the Politician keyword (??) and an interesting defense breakdown that doesn't look like Catwomen we've seen in the past. But I'm in agreement with everyone else that being able to call-in a feline familiar (or building your army with a swarm of them!) is just too cute, and it steals the whole show. This would be a fine, even excellent dial without Isis. But with the Isis power I am just in love.

#zh010 Rookie Layla - Here's a bad girl that I wanted to love, but ends up being a one-night-stand instead. Unfortunately I think your lack of familiarity with the character is showing here Baron; nearly all of her powers are dialogue taken from her first appearance, and the Hypnotic Totem power (and plasticity that follows it) is something that got dropped from her character shortly after her introduction. So I suppose as a "Bloodlines" Layla this is accurate enough, but I was hoping for the semi-regular side-chick from Lobo's solo series that never failed to bust the main man's balls. And for most of that history Layla's dial would probably look a lot more like the recent Duchess dial from HQGG.

But hey, that does give me more motivation to put together my own Bounty Hunters set in the future.

#zh033 Veteran Strata
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#zh103 Veteran Garv - Doesn't really feel fair to review these two seperately. Alone they are somewhat interesting bricks that focus on defense, rather akin to some Colossus dials. Together and at full points they are quite intimidating to see across the board, with rock solid defense and forming a backbone for the LEGION. I appreciate that there is significant differences between their defenses so that they don't just play as clones of each other. And when you have a Mastermind like Vril Dox, he can shunt incoming damage onto the tank that is best able to handle it depending on whether it is penetrating or not. Are the exciting? Perhaps not, at least not in the way that many of your other dials are just screaming "Play Me!", but they are a crucial pillar of any LEGION team that is going to be worth it's salt.

#zh009 Veteran Captain Comet - Thank you for bringing back the Mutant keyword for this dial! If I thought for a second that Wizkids could be trusted to restrain themselves and apply keywords judiciously, I would campaign for the return of Mutants, Psychics, Teens and Kids. Unfortunately Baron Impossible doesn't run Wizkids though.

Like Donna Troy, Comet here has two very different options depending on whether he's a team player or starring on the center stage. The 100 point dial is fine, bringing support for his team and firepower of his own. I'm sure he'll pull his weight on a LEGION squad. When you pump him up to 160 points, that's when things really get interesting! His traited ESD and anti-placement function is huge, and I would usually choose this dial just to grab that and put the screws against colossal retaliation and slowing down TK alpha strikes. Would be interesting to pair him with fi012 Heimdall just to see how their defenses play together. His special powers are almost as interesting - it's a shame that Superstrength no longer works in conjunction with HSS, but with his indomitable Comet might be able to land himself sent to a double-coined enemy and take his time winding up the hit. The photographic memory is useful and works almost like a memory mini-game for the players... I just hope it doesn't start arguments!

There's too many possibilities to consider... I haven't even begun to consider how his wildcard TA would combine with SSoSV teammates to change how he functions. Lastly I'll say that his conditional Outwit/Perplex protection is lovely, and like the Power Cosmic version of Divine Aura that I've seen on some of your Heralds, I really appreciate how this adds value to the Future keyword and makes Outwit/Perplex on those characters feel a little bit superior to the common outwit seen on your run of the mill nosey reporters and caped detectives.

#zh031 Veteran Lobo - My apologies ahead of time if I get long-winded here. Not only is Lobo one of my all-time favorite comic characters, but you've crafted a really beefy dial here. With three starting lines, the option to add the Spazfrag on top of any of them, and the Calculator TA, there are about two dozen different ways to build Lobo onto your force. What value for you money!
100 points - While I usually shy away from playing my favorite characters at lower point costs, it is very hard to walk away from the opening 5-damage-flurry and the options it represents. With a little assistance from a friendly TK like Captain Comet, that can be a big ol' beating coming at the opponent for a VERY affordable 100 points. His attack value of 10 is the only fly in that ointment, but on the right build the Main Man trait and the right support can fix that. Another solution is Angrir's or Skadi's hammers, which fix his attack value and his mobility and offer other benefits besides. With the Spazfrag: I was expecting to see a special ability that lets Lobo ride his bike even with his opening Battle Fury. Unless the pilot rules have changed? It's hard to keep track. Assuming rookie Lobo can't pilot the bike, it's disappointing but understandable as a balance against that opening flurry, especially with the Bike's free-move-to-Bounty and free-eject abilities, it would essentially mean a 12-square charge-flurry swing.
150- Opening with a potential 13 attack and decent mobility likely gives Lobo and opening advantage at the start of the game. All things being equal, you probably get to land at least one decent hit against your enemies before they do. Lobo is best at taking the polish off of a big tentpole, and would likely be wasted attacking anyone worth less than he is. Luckily, if he is put up against a balanced or swarm strategy he should do alright, since a click or two of damage puts him into those flurry clicks and a swarm strategy would have a tough time overwhelming Lobo's regenerative abilities. With the Spazfrag: In addition to handling the mobility issue above, the big advantage is that Lobo becomes equally able to dish out ranged damage as he is close combat damage. Whether using the Spazfrag's RS and Sharpshooter to fire around opponents, or popping Lobo off and then pumping up his damage with Enhancement, there's lots of options so Lobo will be laughing past opponents CR or ESD.
200- At this point the Main Man and Excessive Violence become not just possible, but likely. Being 200 points means that you can probably count on Lobo getting that +1 attack value down his dial, even if you are playing in a larger game. The 4 damage with exploit weakness and superstrength means we should see some pretty gross his for 4, 5 or 6 penetrating damage with each swing. With the Spazfrag: I LOVE that Lobo on his bike can be a full 300 point team and isn't just a point-shoot piece like others are. When you field Tyrant or Imperiex you may have a gimmick but for the most part they are just a tower of defense and damage daring their opponent to take them down. Lobo and his bike offer so many options that the player fielding him will have just as many hard choices to make as his opponent, if not moreso. Managing Frag tokens and when to hop on and off the bike will separate a skilled Lobo player from an amateur.

After all that praise, there are a couple of shortcomings, but I don't think I'd even call these "criticisms" because a character as deep and unique as Lobo is maybe impossible to adequately fit into any heroclix dial. So there are elements of his character that were neglected in favor of showcasing others, and I respect those decisions. It also leaves me with fertile territory to explore when I do my own Lobo dial sometime. The biggest omission is the somewhat random element that feels crucial to Lobo's comedic appeal. Lobo is anything but predictable, and I feel that the "Excessive Violence" function could have been replaced with some dice-hijinks, maybe even incorporating the wizkids D20 for some truly wacky ultra-gore. Lobo is also quite vulnerable to outwit... while not something that never happens (especially when Dox is around), Lobo never falls for the same trick twice, and any scheming smartypants that thinks they've figured out a plan to pull one over on Lobo will discover just how intelligent our bounty hunter can be by the end of the next issue. So while an outright Protected: Outwit isn't called for, I think that some sort of conditional protection (a roll off? Divine Aura type?) would be true to the character, especially if it was unreliable. Lobo's unerring tracking ability, his dog Dawg, his friendship with Etrigan the demon, his affinity for space-dolphins, there's still so much untapped depth to this character that no one dial could contain it all. But hey, that's just an excuse for more sculpt and costume swaps!

It still kills me that DC gave up using Alpha Centurion and Agent Liberty. I love both of those characters, and I would love to use the Baron's dials for them in Heroclix.

thanks, garganis. I've been looking forward to these

#zh041b Prime Mirage - wow, yeah. that would definitely make perfect sense for a mirage debut without her own sculpt. on a similar token, i'm surprise they didn't do the same with copycat as a renamed domino or even malice as a renamed polaris (though the sculpt is of her riding lorna). as you pointed out, mirage is all risk/reward. she can bring a ton for her point cost, hot dice can make her a painful tie up with an absurd longevity but if your dice are cold she'll be left out in it. risk makes the reward even better

#zh017 Experienced Donna Troy - I thought her darkstar tenure was woefully underrated. then again, I was a big fan of ferrin colos and the darkstars to begin with, and wish they'd done more with them. these very distinctive iterations are the kind of things i'd wish to see more of the frequently clicked. it'd spice things up and at least generate a bit more excitement than another slightly different version of the same thing. plus it'd make comic accurate line ups more accurate. I was going for a cheap but potent filler for the rookie but a little more flavor on the exp. just having 4 TAs up top seemed a very donna thing to do, especially as it points out her true enduring characteristic - the constant fluctuation of who she is. while the KC ta was changed to range senses, hypertime has retained its original function of base-prevention, which should polish the pseudo-esd of her amazon ta well and highlight her range focus as a darkstar

#zh101 Experienced Wonder Woman - spot-on seinfeld reference. very apropos for a '90s set, so bonus points, there. . this short-lived era was actually my favorite for diana. there was a humbleness to her that was paired with this unbreakable resolve to help, whether she was champion of themyscira or not. and I love how back in the '90s dc was sticking it's thumb at the hot mess marvel would turn out to be. when there was a mantle change, the jla basically looked at artemis' sense of entitlement to take not just a place on the jla but leadership and laughed her off with a "who are you?" while electing diana to led them, much to both their surprise, because they cared about the person, not the costume. with a handful of the jla SRs, I was going for aggressive 75pters. I wanted diana to stand on her own before the upgrade shenanigans, which seems on-theme for this era. then the sp, which has great potential if you can pull it off, still takes up a lot of your sideline slots to balance things. but on a less flashy side, she can be self-sufficient right out of the box as the dial qualifies for all 3 options in a pseudo-regen kind of way

#zh041a Veteran Wonder Woman - and as much as I enjoyed her snub, artemis grew on me thanks in no small part to her truly heroic sacrifice I nodded to with that end-dial sp that takes some work to get to. not only is it not a STOP click, as you pointed out, but it affords no defense, instead giving you another offensive tool to stack with the charging furious blades making your strategy with her clear: get as much out of this click while you still can, potentially setting up an 8(!) if her bcf shines favorably on you for an epic conclusion that you and your opponent will be talking about well after the match. I prefer the archer option as well (and not just because it afforded me another excuse to push a generic archer kw ) as that top dial is deliberately sparse. sure she's got the sp to enable the range, but it's really just stat situational bonuses and a simple defense. her role isn't tricky or complex, it's all shoot first and ask questions later

#zh069 Experienced Catwoman - who can turn down a kitty? the internet runs on them. isis made for a good last minute capstone on this dial that i'm so glad I put in there. plus it was a call-back to her awesome debut in btas, which is definitely '90s nostalgia at its best. the bad girl shared is a callback to the danger girl ta and the cheesecake sex appeal of that vampily defined the fad (and was called back to by wk with fairchild). as for the politician kw, it's an admittedly obscure reference to that era when she ran for mayor of nyc, but was stymied by the trickster outed selina's alter ego. I wanted Selina to be playing her own game, but if you cross her path she can turn into a vicious fighter at the flip of a switch. i'm frankly surprised we've never had a Selina with mm, given her flirting with both sides of the law, nor ever getting one with both batman ally and batman enemy TAs

#zh010 Rookie Layla - le sigh, I had hoped to make a Layla you'd like, I knew how much she was a favorite of yours. admittedly, unfamiliar I knew from my research that the totem got dropped early on, but I kept it a focus of her track to give her a bit of a distinction from other brawlers and to make this dial more about the bloodlines era, highlighted by her strength flavor text. I hope the literally ball-busting in her ew will at least polish her end-dial

#zh033 Veteran Strata
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#zh103 Veteran Garv - I think that's a very fair way to describe them. not super exciting on their own, but backbone players that are surprisingly powerful together. I mixed up their imperv/invince to play up their different skin-types and to give them something different, and to balance the differing defense bonuses they provide. as the 2 powers are arguably better (but imperv is giving the higher "tier" from wk) and range is given the higher defensive emphasis, the way to keep them equal in value was to criss-cross those effects

#zh009 Veteran Captain Comet - . i'm so glad comet turned out well. I think my passion for the character was conveyed by the nuances. I was really a fan of his pseudo-superman era and how they played up the otherness of his intelligence as his primary power, something to rival dox and keep him on his toes. there's plenty of patchwork history to pull from when making the dial and I tried to include all of it with this work. the most notable thing for me, which i'm glad you noted, was the mutant kw and how on-point it would be for the captain. I think the solution would be to make it generic and grandfather the business out of it to some dials. it would certainly make the wording of SPs on sentinels, caliban and mimic SO much easier if it were. comet's conditional serves as a silver bullet to a ton of flavor-of-the-month mechanics as well as polishing his own tk down the dial. and I hadn't even realized til you pointed it out just now how meta (the fun meta, not the cutthroat meta) his sp is in requiring the player to remember how they'd used it last to get the bonuses of the captain's photographic memory .

#zh031 Veteran Lobo - by all means, long-wind away! that's what this thread is for, after all, discussion of the dials, the characters they represent . at the 100 pt option I decided untraditionally (it is lobo, after all) to put his best dmg on his lowest dial, but pair it with some weaknesses to overcome: no move&attack, bf preventing carry or range, lowest attack, lowest defense, but then that flurry makes it hard to dismiss out of hand. the good news is that they have changed the piloting rules, so a lean/mean/efficient lobo build will be dangerous as all get out. when we look at the midpoint option we now see him with his highest attack but lowest dmg, more balances to the layout I was trying for to provide a give & take to your opening option. it gives you the cheapest range option available to him that pairs best with the full points on the bike, so you can mix&match his points and the bike's points for your custom build. and at the full lobo you get his best defense, paired with his deepest dial. I love how you've delved into the different combinations at each point value with each of the bike's values. I was going for that customization and modular build between the two, letting you field lobo as 100, 150, 175, 200, 225, 250, 275 or 300 depending on your choices. as for the constructive criticism, I certainly favored emphasizing the fragging and there are more depths to the character I didn't cover. I think in the same way that the op kit highlighted his now defunct ability to spawn blood-droplet clones or the sm dial's emphasis on dawg, that there's room enough in the character for more dials to be made, frankly, than what we've gotten out of wk thus far, especially with varying values. I'd like to see one with that turns-the-tables outwit effect or somehow capturing his unpredictably resourceful brand of violence. those are neat ideas. or a dial that spawns space dolphin pogs and brutally punishes any fool that hurts one of them

thank you, kindly, hatut. i'd love if the next inevitable superman set had a metropolis focus so we could get some more of his unclixed cast of characters like these forgotten gems. there's tons in superman's rogues gallery that have yet to be made, too, like prankster, morgan edge, cerebus, atomic skull I, bloodsport, terra-man, neutron and dabney donovan

#zh002c Prime Garryn Bek - I have a real affection for support-tier characters being made into heroclix dials, without being relegated to being bystanders or making them way more competent than they have any right being. Ideally, they should feel close to being simple resource dials (like the well-received NML Penguin) that can be taken out by a persistent opponent. The Betty Brants and the Foggy Nelsons of the comics world. Garryn Bek seems like he's at the very upper tier of that, being a very fragile dial with sub-heroic stat numbers and an empty defense slot. He doesn't even have a decent right hook like Rick Jones or Lois Lane might. But behind the safety of a desk, man oh man, can Bek ever make miracles happen. Obviously he's intended to direct a swarm of generic allies; LEGION soldiers make sense thematically and will be twice as effective supporting their named lieutenants. Bek might also be fun standing at the back of a Mob Rule or Jamie Madrox team, and thanks to his trait you don't even suffer that much for breaking theme.
Red Tape is an excellent power that encourages Bek to get close enough to the action to put himself at risk, which I like a lot.

#zh002 Experienced L.E.G.I.O.N. Soldier - While both dials are great, it's the B dial that I'd reach for first. Mostly because the defensive B-dial is useful even if you only have one or two on your force. That Security Subscription power is never not going to be useful, but is especially helpful on tentpole teams. The A dial only really shines when fielded as a swarm WITH an appropriate LEGION leader-character like Dox or Bek, and will probably need some Outwit or Enhancement to bring any real stopping power against armored opponents. Still, I'd be looking for about 6 of these for my collection to round out LEGION armies.

#zh059 Unique Starman - I have a confession... I don't really "get" all the love for the Jack Knight run of Starman. I realize I'm in the minority, I've read the first couple volumes of the omnibus. The best thing that I can say about it is that the relative obscurity of the Starman cast of characters (as compared to iconic Gotham or Metropolis) is that does feel like a superhero story that isn't hamstrung by being tied to it's own status quo mythos. Like The Tick, or Captain Laserbeam, or Megamind or Astro City, Starman and Opal City feel like a generic thrown together "comic book superhero setting" full of pastiches so that the author can tell the story he wants to tell without ruining an established iconic hero.
The dark, shadowy art also feels at odds with the bright, red-spandex wearing silliness of Ted Knight. It's like if Christopher Nolan directed a Flash Gordon movie.

Apparently I have poor taste in comics.

Anyway, the dial itself has some really fun components. The biggest being the O'Dare family, which honestly kinda steal the show. I'd be very interesting in putting this crew onto some Police theme teams, especially with Mason O'Dare present to defend the sometimes cannon-fodder generic cops we get every few sets. The other O'Dares fill niches that we've seen other cop dials fill before, but at 5 points apiece there really isn't a more price-friendly competitor for the job and you've done a great job of making each unique and valuable in their own way.
If I could only have one, I do think I preferred your Jack from your JSA set (and now post-TMT equippable weapons and legendary wielders are a thing, his "Infernal Devices" trait could probably be streamlined a bit to bring it into format with Wizkids' equipment rules). But Starman Jack as a leader of Opal City and the O'Dares is a fresh and very different animal and I'm sure a love letter to any fan of the series, of which there are many.

#zh037 Rookie Manhunter - In a set full of outrageous 90's costumes, Manhunter may take the gold medal for MOST x-treme of all. No part of the gigantic shoulder pads, bright white and red color scheme, delicate cape tassels and superfluous knee-bandanas says "stealthy agile hunter". Which I guess explains why he doesn't actually have stealth anywhere on his dial, even though it would help his performance tremendously. This makes him a great candidate for the Bat-Utility-Belt Resource, IMO. Visibility concerns aside, Manhunter's dial otherwise looks like a very mobile Prey-seeking missile that will do a great job at taking down ONE of your opponent's team, so you'll have your fingers crossed to be matched up against tentpole and OMA teams. The Star City keyword is pleasing to see; like Argus, Manhunter is a great new addition that helps round out a range-heavy roster of archers with with close combat expertise.

#zh036 Rookie Fate - Fate's costume highlights one of the problems of 90's costume aesthetics; when you spend all your time thinking about accessories and brush aside the core outfit as "trenchcoat" and don't think about it any harder than that, you may look down in the middle of an action scene to realize your hero is wearing a blank black body stocking. But that's a damn cool head/shoulders though, right? That's what matters here.
Fate has an interesting set of powers that at first left me underwhelmed but after a more thorough analysis I'm suitably impressed. About the only enemy that Fate will be out of luck against is someone packing Invincible. Most other defenses; shape-change, reducers, mystics, and most recently the threat of colossal retaliation - Jared can cut his way through, if slowly. This "feels" right to me, he's got an impressive loadout but there's no versatility to it, which is what you might expect of a more traditional spell-slingers. What hurts an otherwise interesting design is his lack of named keywords or synergy with a potential mystics or warrior theme. Is there not an excuse to give him JSA, since he was in their first issue? Probably not, but it would go a long way towards pulling him out of the tackle box to field.

Primal Force
#zh012 Rookie Claw
#zh013 Rookie Meridian
#zh026 Experienced Golem - So these three characters form the core of a new team subtheme, Primal Force. You got your attacker, a taxi/tieup, and a brick. All in all nothing here is too shocking, although no one could say that they aren't good at what they do.
The originality shows up primarily in their reimagined Mystics TA trait, which is interesting. It gives the impression that action tokens represent the ebb and flow of primal elemental magic swirling across invisible ley lines. What would be more interesting would be if there were further characters that built upon this, somewhat like how Bombshell Zatanna is able to shift Bombshell tokens around on her team. A wizard type character who is able to manipulate the ley energies that the Leymen embody, if such a character existed in the comics, would be the perfect capstone to this team. But, given the relatively small dent that Primal Force made upon the DC landscape, my suspicion is that the team simply never developed that far before being cancelled and disbanded.
The mention of Meridian having a day job as a gym instructor at Ted Grant's gym makes me laugh, because it adds weight to the feeling that the DC and Marvel universes have become so bloated with metahumans that half the people you meet in your daily routine... the bank teller, the grocery bagger, and your local gym instructor apparently... are all former, failed superheroes who never caught on and now go about their boring mundane lives with their super-powers comfortably in their back pockets, to be brought out maybe as a trick to show off at parties. Like one-hit wonders that are long since past their MTV heyday, I can imagine these aged heroes getting stopped on their way to pick up their kids from daycare by someone asking, "Hey, weren't you that guy? From that band... uhh... Primal Force?" and seeing the mixture of delight and disappointment that someone remembers them, but only incorrectly.
"Actually it wasn't a ban... Hhmph. Yeah. Yeah that was me."

#zh045 Experienced Jack O'Lantern - Before we had the new Suicide Squad trait in HQGG, Baron had already pushed the limits of high-performance for high-risk characters with Jack here. For only 40 points, it's worth looking into how you can keep him away from Outwitters that will ruin him. My first thought was to make a team of Nekrun, the Bat God and 5 Jack O'Lanterns played as generic Halloween-themed demons.

#zh046 Experienced Red Tornado - I like this dial a LOT more than the TT SR, which I pulled in my brick still have yet to field. For one thing, I really don't feel the loss of the 18-Impervious that version had - since when has Red Tornado ever been in the league of guys like Superman and Captain Atom in terms of invulnerability? Reddy gets smashed apart all the time! And the Charge-quake-forceblast combo, and the double-action hurricane power, both do a much better job of realistically simulating his wind powers than a modified-TK. Enough so that I look back on that SR and am really very disappointed now that I see what it COULD have been. Finally, the conditional willpower is very fun. Unfortunately it would likely mean he's not reliable enough to be meta, but for casual play it would make games more interesting for both players, so that's a win to me.

#zh003 Rookie Green Arrow - He's straightforward and reliable, plays well on his own but also makes a great sidekick, and is budget-friendly for larger teams. This isn't the deepest Green Arrow I've seen, but he plays his part well and the 11-precision strike down the board gives him a certain finesse that fits well with the character of Conner.

#zh040 Rookie Triumph - Well now this is a switch. The 90 point dial is... forgettable, for the most part. Much like Triumph the character I suppose. Competent but not a standout anywhere in his dial, the main reason to include him on your team is to be accurate to a particular era or issue of justice league (which makes me wish he has a Justice League Task Force keyword, or a trait that worked like an ATA, or even just name one of his powers that). But the 30 point dial... well now, that's a different story! For an investment comparable to a resource or possessor-entity, we get most of the same usefulness of this second or third-string attacker dropping into the game just as things are reaching a critical juncture that will likely see one player or the other taking a definitive lead based on whether or not the first few big attacks land successfully. Building the rest of your (presumably Justice League) force at a 30 point deficit isn't going to turn the tide against you, but 5-6 turns into the game you will be happy to see reinforcements arriving to help.

I agree with other fans that the countdown clicks are a great way to lower the cost of the dial (by more than I thought was possible) while drawing attention to the character's most memorable feature. While we might never get Triumph clixed, we might someday see a Sentry who works a lot like this.

#zh020 Experienced The Ray - Quick question for comic buffs... where was the Ray during Blackest Night? Feels like he could have been a huge help to spectrum-deficient Lanterns.

I think the biggest thing holding Ray back is his 2 range, which forces him to base any opponents that he wants to pulse wave. Bumping that up to 3 or 4 would mean that he could hang one square back and avoid being tied up and setting himself up for close combat attacks. I have no doubt that was intentional in his design, but I think that doing so should have netted him a biggest cost discount. Same with his regeneration... while healing a click every turn is great, without reducers to help stall for healing time, Ray probably won't get more than one or two clicks back before his supersenses fail him and he's KO'ed. I'd be happy to pay 75 points if his range or attack was bumped up slightly... with this dial, I would expect to cost him at 50 to 60.
Apart from the cost, I do like how speedy he is and the progression from RS-PW to Hypersonic. I also like his defenses relying on dodging-powers and healing (I just think it ought to be cheaper). Wasn't this version of Ray known for making hard-light constructs? Would have been neat to have some interaction with the War of Light Lantern Constructs.

#zh067 Experienced Aquaman - I agreed with the other posters who were thinking that the first draft of Aquaman's dial went a bit overboard but now that he's been tweaked I am a lot more comfortable with his power both for the cost and for the character. He's still quite good, as long as he has some water on the map. He reminds me a lot of Hypertime Aquaman in the simplicity of his dial and the power placement, which is appropriate given the era of his costume. I have to say that 25 points is a fair bit to pay for only one extra click and traited perplex, so I think most often I'd play him at 75 points and find somewhere else to spend that 25 point more effectively.

#zh039 Veteran Aztek - Here's a familiar face... I remember seeing that add for Aztek all over the DC comics I was reading for months in the early 2000's. Remember the Y2K panic? And the 2012 doomsday prophesy that also amounted to nothing? I'll bet Aztek does. Would have been interesting to see what Aztek would have done in 2012, if he'd lived that long. Given that Aztek owes his origin to the Q-Society, and the Q-society was funded by Luthor for the express intent of creating a superhero he could have in his pocket, would it not be fair to give Aztek the Lexcorp keyword, just as Matrix and Alpha Centurion have?

Aztek's got a really sweet suite of powers and stats. Nothing overwhelming, but enough variety that he is very push-friendly, especially with the addition of a free charge-attack when you do. This is one of those dials where you're eager to get to each new click because of what it will add to your team, whether that be outwit or support or Hypersonic speed. He's not a suicide missile like the Wonder Womans of this set though, since his Uno power clearly encourages the player to keep him at least a little protected. So he is best used judiciously and a skilled player will have to time the pacing of the game just right. And if they do, a solo Aztek on his last two clicks will probably end the match in their favor.

#zh038 Veteran Bloodwynd - Admittedly, I don't know much about Bloodwynd (does anyone?). Except that he sounds like a metal band. But still I'm surprised to see what I'm learning... until now, I had always thought that J'onn had simply adopted Bloodwynd as a disguise for some reason, not that there actually was a separate character that had possessed J'onn. I foresee the B dial getting a lot more use than the A dial; not only does it skip the negative "my motivations are my own" (which is interesting, and I'm in favor of cost-saving flaws being built in to a character as we saw with Jack O'Lantern earlier, but when you run afoul of this one you're going to want to beat up your own character for being a jerk to you). But also because the possibility, however remote, of playing through a decent second-string brick dial and then getting to split it into TWO decent figures is just too tempting. The only flaw I see with that is that Wizkids hasn't given us a Martian Manhunter at 100-points or less that would be comic accurate without a sculpt swap. Your choices are White Lantern, New 52, or Year One pre-superhero J'onn. It's a damn shame that DC is so committed to putting Cyborg into the JLA roster, otherwise we would have gotten exactly what Bloodwynd needed in the Elseworld's fast forces.

#zh065 Veteran Hawkman - Hawkgod! Complete with ridiculous midlife crisis man-ponytail. While somewhat fragile, Katar brings a ton of pain with his A-dial and (if you can find your way to outdoor terrain) the B-dial is pretty difficult to pin down. Like a bird Katar will go down hard if someone does manage to tag him, but until then he'll be a valuable strategic asset with his support powers, as a taxi, and pinging an attack or two with his range. While the Hawkmen and Hawkwomen you gave us in your JSA set overall create a more complete picture of Hawkman's long and storied history for the true Hawkfan, this dial is a neat package that does all the vital elements of what Hawkman NEEDS to do contained in a single dial. And after contributing so many dials to cover Hawkman's golden age and JSA incarnations, his sci-fi JLA persona needed to be brought up to snuff as a worthwhile alternative too.

#zh002c Prime Garryn Bek - I absolutely 100% had to make bek. he has the power of bureaucracy! (a word I constantly misspell). the open-ended mechanics of this game are rife with possibility for his kind of skill-set. I went back and forth on some implementation ideas and ultimately settled on playing off of the tiered bonus of the theme team game, letting garryn shift everyone up a notch. given how important theme is (or is not, but always part of the conversation) i felt it was the right way to tap into the meta with bek. as for his bitty click of red tape, i always want pieces to have something to do beyond just showing up. this was particularly important given how many actions he's bringing to your force. so i called back to the old bibtb dark beast's style for garryn's own layered debuff layout. the sp was intended to be, as you pointed out, just enough incentive to keep him from turtling in the rear and thereby balance his potential by exposing his fragility. plus i love the irony that his own sp would be nerfed by its anti-wall-of-text effect.

#zh002 Experienced L.E.G.I.O.N. Soldier - they are definitely polished by dox or bek and especially by them both. in a proper swarm, they'd whittle down any opposition quickly thanks to the s.h.i.e.l.d. ta provided by dox and the extra actions from bek unfettering their force. but yeah, it's hard to pass on that security subscription's effect, and the cheap barrier will provide value for the extras up top and very helpful tieup for the firing squad after. I've always been a fan of the short-lived split dial technique and try to employ it in my generics to remove wasted KO click space and give you more bang for your buck. when i do, i tend to lean towards a generalist/offensive option and a supporty piece to make your internal teambuilding more strategic

#zh059 Unique Starman - ...i would love to see that Flash Gordon movie . i appreciate the kindness towards the fandom from the outside and your kind words for the dial itself. the o'dares are certainly a scene stealer, great for the points but if your opponent takes them out they essentially make you pay twice for them as a counter balance and putting points on pogs takes a lot of the sting out of them. but beyond the peter the hunter riff, i wanted jack to have some tricks of his own. the anti-meta sp and the flavor , but i think the sp in particular is going to make him stand out due to the effects-ending mechanic being fairly unique in the current state of the game. i'm mostly glad that you still dig my old jacky-boy more . thanks for the plug

#zh037 Rookie Manhunter - i was very glad to be afforded the opportunity to work in more obscure and varied style dials for the geographic KWs. thank you, '90s-style events with your emphasis on themed annual character introductions. i like your description of manhunter as the anti-tentpole. he's definitely an assassin that reaps the most benefit taking down a big gun, but he's cheap enough to hopefully still pull his weight after he's taken down a cheaper prey. but man is he '90s. to the max

#zh036 Rookie Fate - how about posthumously awarding the jsa kw on ko? that is an interesting analysis of the costume there. it is surprisingly minimalist once you look passed the arm. the dial too has a simplicity to it that's subdued but as you noted, shouldn't have a problem getting passed most everything if you've got the time.

Primal Force
#zh012 Rookie Claw
#zh013 Rookie Meridian
#zh026 Experienced Golem - they comfortably fit into archetypes which i tried to make to the best of their respective abilities. i always loved that little book probably more than it deserved, but it just struck a chord with me an had an unassuming earnestness to it. the is leaning on how their mystical medallions ambiguously worked, lending them more oomf when under pressure and in need, so i linked it to tokens. your impression of ley manipulation as it were would probably work well for dr mist, their founder ...if he didn't bite it in an acid bath immediately in the zero issue . then again, dials have been made on less . all the cards on the table, primal force is actually the main reason why I've always wanted dr mist clixed, even more so than for global force or his short stint on justice league dark.

#zh045 Experienced Jack O'Lantern - i almost went with another equipment design, but decided to affect it differently since without the equipment (initially) he wouldn't have anything else going for him, which led to the hyper-weakness design to give you punch for the buck. combined with the streamline of the abilities and their relative cheapness, let me shave his cost down tremendously. i always design with a subtheme perspective in mind, so it's always interesting to see where you go with things outside of the box

#zh046 Experienced Red Tornado - i like to think of his impaired wp (which is glass half empty for point consideration) as glass is half full for potential implementation . likely not meta, no, but hopefully fun in the windy things he can do. i drew inspiration from the old collateral damage rev in their all purple interpretations of his abilities. since the sculpt was similar to that era that it'd be a nice nod and reinterpreted, combined and remixed those abilities a bit. reddy does get smashed all the time and works best as backup attacker as opposed to the main guy. i guess the tt sr could be thought of as his first appearance when he tanked the jsa and jla?

#zh003 Rookie Green Arrow - once i thematically limited him to standard powers only as a nod to his straightforward archery style, it certainly limited my approach, so i tried to assemble a vanilla dial that would still be compelling in today's game by giving him an appeal of precision, fittingly highlighted by his consistent precision shot. he's not going to ever be a centerpiece, but should always be a good teamplayer

#zh040 Rookie Triumph - i think the sp's essentially tk + dmg could lead to a few tactical aids, particularly if backed up by captain comet or anyone else with anti-placement effects, or simply frustratingly dashing a charger's hopes or anyone else with kb resistance unexpectedly where you want them to be. but the main event is easily the rookie dial's countdown for sure. most countdown clicks only start at 2 or maybe 3, so i figured going way deep into the time cut will really ensure a deep cut on the price. but that time dilation could really swing things just when you need them to, as you noted, and it fits his distinctive character, which is always my design priority.

#zh020 Experienced The Ray - it may just be differing play styles, but his big appeal was intended to be his short range. even with 3 or 4 and its 2-square radius, there's enough wiggle room to scuttle a single target pw. but with only adjacency in play it can be almost guaranteed. i'd perplex down bop black canary's range all the time to make that happen. perhaps it might make things more appealing if you though of him as a close combat character, that just happens to point blank pw? his stacked defenses are designed to keep him alive in base and once he makes his move. but if you're interested in more conventional range pew pew pew, his sp was intended to afford that. this ray could make hardlight objects, but i was trying to keep him streamlined for his purposes

#zh067 Experienced Aquaman - nice kurt russell reference there. in fact, kurt might have been an awesome arthur back in the day, now that i think of it. the initiative bump of his should go a long way to making sure he gets map choice and the second aspect of his to come into play. while you can get a lot more for 25pts in a piece these days, i'm more of a mind to reach for the exp, the sturdier top click and 6 clix of perplex, but i tend to play much more than 300pt matches and that 25pts isn't as big a bite. i am glad that the 75 option appeals, it was a deliberate throwback to the hypertime revle and was an attempt at that another fierce 75pt jla piece for the set

#zh039 Veteran Aztek - i didn't give aztek lexcorp because luthor's involvement in the q-society was unknown to him, and once it became clear, he cut ties with his benefactors. matrix and centurion actively worked for luthor jr's lexcorp during the era, hence their kw. i think it would be luthor to get a q-society kw if there'd be enough folks to warrant it. i'm glad you enjoy the offbeat pacing of his dial. he's not afraid of the occasional push but you're right in that you'll definitely want him to hang around til the end and turn things around. uno is another '90s character like starman and hitman to get a 3rd act finale, though it's unfortunate in his case that his run was so short to begin with. the ultimate man had a lot of quirky potential. but it seems aztek has been conceptually revisited post rebirth, just unfortunately not with uno

#zh038 Veteran Bloodwynd - ugh, don't get me started on what nu52 did to poor j'onn . the penalty on the a-dial was another jackolantern penalty to get him cheaper with the infusion of character. i had thought of costing the a-dial cheaper than the b, but thought the mystics ta offset it. what do you guys think?

#zh065 Veteran Hawkman - thank you, kindly. i'm a big hawkman fan, going back to getting the awesome super powers action figure when i was a kid. the absence of this version of katar (nu52 is not quite there) makes a lot of '90s jla feel like they're almost there. being able to put him with hotpants diana would make me smile across the map so much . on that token, he's another attempt at a fierce 75pt jla piece, to make a backbone for the team. the interaction of his 2 modes should optimize his deployment strategy and make a skilled player a harsh opponent. and between him and artemis, now it seems like ponytail would make for a good special object

#zh062 Veteran Guy Gardner - So happy to have an non-GL Guy for once. I wasn't sure if we'd see this or the "Warrior" version of Gardner. The anti-green powers abilities are both thematically fun and quite useful against many opponents. That's probably what saves the "pick a fight" power actually; I rather dislike the option of having to succeed with not one but two attack rolls in order to damage. But, if you can be reasonably sure that Guy is not going to get his defense outwitted, he can be a fantastic tie-up against the RIGHT opponents and that is a good argument for grabbing them into adjacency, even if you miss the follow-up attack.
The 135 point version is likely in the middle of the brawl well before the pick a fight power even shows up, so a smart player should do their best to charge in against someone with green powers in order to do well after taking a hit or two. The blades, flurry, charge and other close-combat powers are a good way to emphasize the viciousness of Guy not bound by the Guardians' rules (well before the Red Lantern era).

#zh053 Unique Weapons Master - So shouldn't THIS guy have some protection from Green Lanterns too? I guess not. I've never heard of this guy, kinda surprised he got a spot in this set, but could have some interesting potential when more equippable items get rolled out past TMT. One of my own goals for a Bounty-Hunter set will be to introduce a set of sci-fi guns and ammo items to balance out the sword-and-sorcery items from TMT, which Weapons Master will appreciate I'm sure.

#zhs002 Light Object Leather Jacket - Makes Theme teams work better, so I approve of that. I don't mind the point cost either, but taking up one of three potential item spots on the board is a biggest cost to pay. TBH I think an untapped niche for future characters will be to add additional item slots to your build, in the same way that Jarvis adds more Avengers ID cards to your sideline.

#zhs003 Light Object Pouches - Same goes; I'd love to stick extra pouches on ALL my characters, and have no problem paying 2 points for each (feels like an ATA almost) but we need a Leifeld chase fig that auto-equips them during force construction or something. Taking the time to walk to, clear, then action to equip the pouches is the biggest drawback.

#zhs004 Wax Lips.... no wait, Light Object Shoulder Pads - For a minute I thought this was just really terrible armor, but then I realized that it's really there to help characters deal with pushing and mystics damage. Potentially useful, and perhaps one of the first items that you might not want to pick up right away (unless... are all items' effects automatically considered optional? Or will it always trigger the first time 1 click exactly is taken? Much more useful if you can get the healing when you choose you want it).

#zhs005 Light Object Two Guns - If Wizkids won't give us Professor Hulk, we'll damn well build our OWN Professor Hulk! I think for an item as generic as "two guns" I would have been fine with just adding a second target and 6 range, and leaving it to the player to divide damage as they see fit. Perhaps bump up damage by one if they have printed 2 or less. I think I understand what you're going for here, I just would have approached it from a different angle. I'm sure you considered several different ideas for this and have your reasons for settling on the one you did, I just don't care for the visual of a secondary little "ping" off to the side after making your main attack.

#zhs006 Heavy Object BFG - This gun, on the other hand, I like very much. The extra costs to speed and potentially losing it help to define the difference between a good wielder and a poor one. You know who might play really well with this? ws042 Bullseye. You know who I would use it with? dxf012 Grizzly.

#zh052 Unique Heckler - So, is Heckler a ripoff of The Mask, or is it the other way around? Either way, he'd be an easy repaint/mod if you wanted to play Jim Carry's green-faced living cartoon, and would pair up well with Slapstick and Madcap and Impossible Man to see who can annoy your opponent the most. I think this is the first time that we've seen conditional STOP clicks, and it brings an interesting new dynamic to the click; if you manage to land a hit, you're going to want to KEEP on hitting as much as you can to make the most out of the opportunity. This guy would be amazing with the Sloth Sin equipped as a relic or resource.

#zh060 Unique Waverider - This dial needs a meta function to do justice to the character of Waverider, and you didn't disappoint, at least as long as you spring for the extra 10 points. Apart from the anti-ID and anti-shifting focus trait, Waverider plays like a poor man's Silver Surfer, which is entirely accurate. I enjoy the interaction with the Past and Future keywords, his built-in defensive PC, and I agree that his primary role should be taxi/support and only occasionally popping out an attack or two. He's a touch character to clix (and a tough one to sculpt I'm sure, but with some clear plastic could look awesome, so I'm glad he's a SR) but you did a good job making someone who enforces the time stream, yet doesn't just repeat the mechanics of Immortus or Rip Hunter.

#zh107 Experienced Batgirl - This is the sort of character that is a perfect fit for a prize LE; just a niche representation that does something significantly different from most versions of the character, and is a character that is easily available elsewhere if someone isn't able to get out to tournaments or isn't able to win often. Barbara here is mostly a played-straight Year One rookie sort of dial, with a budget friendly cost and modest abilities. Her self-sacrifice and Hypertime team ability are the only things that set her apart as part of a specific storyline. I WAS thinking that when Parallax and/or Extant appeared later on that we might see a mechanic that grants theme-team bonuses to Hypertime characters, but I suppose if a player really wants to recreate Parallax's team there's nothing stopping them, theme bonus be damned. Neat inclusion in the set; not someone I couldn't live without, but I'm happy she's here. And it says something when even an afterthought dial from Baron feels more accurate than half of the best efforts of the Wizkids design team.

THE SOVEREIGN SEVEN
#zh007 Rookie Cascade
#zh056 Unique Cruiser
#zh030 Rookie Finale
#zh055 Rookie Rampart
#zh029 Rookie Indigo
#zh012 Rookie Reflex
#zh058 Rookie Network
I'll bet when you designed this subtheme you had no idea that trekos027 Mr. Spock would be right around the corner, huh?
Like Primal Force, this subtheme looks like they would be fun to play as a force but might take a few tries to get the hang of them. The biggest hurdle for the Seven is that with so many optional traits and special powers, you're asking a player to keep track of a lot of info all at once. Since this is a team that you're likely to see all together or not at all. If I was playing them for the first time I'd definitely take a piece of paper to write out which optional traits I paid for, how many food tokens I've got, and other abilities I'm likely to forget about while trying to roll 7's.
Like Primal Force, the Seven also fill a lot of the stock character niches, with a few extra spots for finesse characters like Indigo. In a set with Geist, Argus and now Indigo too, it'll be fun to see entire brawls playing out in the shadows with the other characters completely unaware what's going on.

CHASES
Overall I want to start by saying that "big bads of the 90's events" is a fantastic idea for a chase theme. This really is the perfect option for chases because when you pull one, you should feel impressed and excited to play it, and want to make your chase the centerpiece of your team. Chases should not be "gotta collect them all" like Marvel Zombies or Servants of the Great Darkness, nor should they be throwaway one-panel gag characters like alternate-universe Deadpools with no history or fanbase. A set of chases like this though would help sell the set (seriously this Zero Hour set would be flying off the shelves) and players wouldn't feel pushed into spending ludicrous amounts to get EVERY chase, as long as they could trade around the community to get their favorite chase.

#zh078 Unique Bane -
Gorgeous, right out of the gate. This definitely is a Knightfall-specific Bane, but since most people consider that Bane's best and defining story that doesn't bother me one bit. There is definitely room for a Secret Six, post-Venom Bane in the game, but not here and I'd have been fine not seeing the keyword on him. I'd also swap the position of the Arkham Asylum and Gotham Underworld keywords... Venom-rage Bane is more at home with the other Asylum crazies, while calm and cool Bane is the one that should be leading the Underworld lowlifes. The shifting focus approach is genius, allowing players to set Bane in their game at just the blend of raging steroid-monster and brilliant tactician that suits their personal taste (and you'll rarely find two Bane fans that agree exactly where this is). I think that the Bird, Zombie, Trogg OPG ability is my favorite of the two because it describes a beautiful scene where Bane brings even the most expensive Batman dials low with a devastating, inescapable final hit. "I Will Break You", while having the cooler name, in function actually works a lot better in a match against a Colossal OMA piece than it does against Bruce. Which creates the rather hilarious mental image of Bane dropping Galactus across his knee to cripple the cosmic planet-eating giant. A great addition to the game for those oddball matchups, but I'm very happy that option A is available for an all-Gotham game.
Aside from the show-stealing One-Per-Game abilities, Bane's dials give him great options for finesse fighting on A or brute brawler on B. Making the flip from B to A tied to action tokens and granting the Colossal Stamina ability is a wonderfully subtle touch that escapes lesser dial designers. My only suggestion to make it even more comic-accurate (at the cost, perhaps, of adding too much complexity to the dial) would be for the A -> B swap to be a free action "when Bane has zero or one action tokens". I can understand the decision to leave that out, but just putting it on the table there.
I am a little surprised to see no clicks of Superstrength anywhere on the dial (either the first click, or click 4 and 5 of the B dial would look best I think, depending on how you think it would impact his playability). I'm also surprised that all of this costs only 100 points! Bane EASILY outmatches many other 100-point characters in the game. I could see this Bane being costed anywhere up to at most 130 points and still being considered competitive by some, though at 140 I think most fans would call him a ripoff for the cost (but still within the realm of "I wouldn't put it past Wizkids to do this"). An interesting matchup to see play out in a game would be Bane against the recent chase KHAAAAAN! from the Star Trek set, and of course Azrael Batman from this same set.

#zh077 Veteran Doomsday - You definitely had your work cut out for you to keep up with the Con-Ex Doomsday that's been fetching high, high prices and most fans feel is a fair representation of the beast. The evolution mechanic is an interesting alternative approach than the all-STOP click defense dial of the Con-EX. I think it makes Doomsday a bit more scalable, allowing even schlubs like Blue Beetle to contribute what they can in the early game when playing against "Rookie" Doomsday. Honestly, if this was a real chase I would demand a switchclix sculpt so that I could play the 150 dial with the sm043 Doomsday sculpt. If such a thing were possible, even better would be an option to play Doomsday at 400 (450? 500?) where you have to get through his "tied up" dial first, before sculpt-swapping to this 300 point beauty here in the middle of the game. The "Death of Hope" trait gives Doomsday good incentive to target Superman (or the Radiant!) instead of picking on the easy points, which is a detail that the Con-Ex ad other Doomsday dials always seem to overlook.

Doomsday does have a couple of flaws though. One is mobility. Terrain doesn't bother him sure, but on many of his clicks he'll be walking-and-basing which doesn't give off the impression of someone who was described as moving at Flash-like speeds. If those Flurry clicks had some added sidestep, or giant reach maybe, it would help a lot and do something to prevent tieup and keep-away strategies from being effective. And while I love Bone Spurs as a power, the placement of that and other powers on the dial is a bit boring and predictable when Doomsday is on the board. I'd much rather see Bone Spurs pop up as a surprise on clicks 2, 3, 8 and maybe even 11 if you wanted to give Doomsday more incentive to not ALWAYS choose to use Regen but instead risk staying on his last click. I tend to think that click 1 should have Superstrength instead for sure, just to reflect Doomsday's actual behavior in the comics. I'm still very impressed and it is a very worthy take on Doomsday, I just see an opportunity or two for a little fine-tuning.

#zh076 Veteran Lord Chaos - This is an example of a chase that would be gold to some and trash to others, spurring a healthy secondary trade market. I don't think I've ever read a comic with this guy in it (I take it back... he was the villain in the future Team Titans book, right?) but I know the 80's Titans has a big oldschool fanbase that would happily have some decent enemies for their Titans to fight. Aside from Trigon and Deathstroke (leading generic soldiers, since we don't have a modern Slade with H.I.V.E.), the Titans don't have a lot of options for comic accurate battles. Fearsome Five, I guess?
This guy is quite well suited to battling large swarms of smaller figures. I doubt that I'd ever play the 140 dial though, the 200 point addition just adds a whole lot, including giving him better Divine Aura protection. Numb Dust is just mean though, and while you're at it why not throw in Garryn Bek's Red Tape too? It's not like Lord Chaos was going to have a named theme-team anyway. Chaos Reigns is a little bit tricky to grasp and I can imagine newer players stumbling on it a bit until they've seen it played by a more experienced player. Overall though, like many of the Godly set, Lord Chaos is is a great tentpole to bully teams of smaller figs but might not do so well against similarly high-costed characters. He looks like he'd have a radical sculpt though.

#zh075 Unique Neron - This guy is long overdue... I was expecting to see him as far back as JL. Yet here we are in 2018 and still waiting...
At 200 points, Neron is an imposing figure but doesn't rush out onto the battlefield. Which is a limitation entirely in keeping with his personality. His dial reminds me a lot of the two cosmic-powered Joker dials that we've seen (especially that 19-Mastermind click). He looks powerful enough to go toe to toe against Blaze & Satannus if you want to play a "Reign in Hell" scenario. Not too shocking, but a good option to have. If there was a Abnegazar, Rath and Ghast that totalled at 100 points even then the team is all ready to play.
Then there's the 40 point option where things get interesting. I really like what you're attempting to do here and I think you've made a really great effort at it. By and large, I think the mechanic works great and if your opponent allows themselves even a single reroll or perplex then he'll begin worming his influence onto the board in the hopes of making a grand appearance in person in the later game. Although it's funny to think that Battle Fury, of all things, will keep your soul safe from the Devil. "When you feel the urge to sin, children, just allow yourself to lapse into a BLINDING RAGE!"

While "No Perplex, No Prob Control" might be worth the investment of 40 points in many games, I do wonder if people would consider it too big a risk that you might go up against a straightforward team that just relies on attacks and numbers without needing those powers at all? What I mean is, it'd almost be better if there was some way to offer, or even force, your opponent to use PC or Perplex. No one immediately comes to mind, but are you aware of any existing characters that grant perplex to your opponent? I know some that offer beneficial modifiers, but I'm not sure if any are specifically called "perplex"?

But y'know what, in the end, I personally don't mind risking 40 points just to have Neron perched on his throne next to you, enjoying a goblet of soul-wine as he spectates on your heroclix game.

#zhs001 Light Object Neron's Candle - Okay, so this solves half of the problem. I would say that you should just have at least one Mind-Control character on your force of the board to force your opponent to pick up and light the candle, but with new Mind Control rules that's no longer an option, is it?
A neat enough item though that helps feel Neron's presence even if the chase fig isn't anywhere on the table. And if he is peeking in from the sideline then it gets extra spooky for an opponent that already spent the 10 points to bring the candle in.

#zh074 Veteran Cyborg Superman - Was Overpower really the best art you could find of this costume? Also, I would like to suggest that you take the proactive step of assigning him the Skynet keyword. We live in an era of Pacific Rim clix, Star Trek clix, and soon B:TAS clix, so you never know.

Unlike the last four chases, Cyborg Superman doesn't feel like a tentpole that dictates how you build the rest of your team around him. Instead he feels more like a single powerful weapon that can come or go as he pleases, working equally well (or not at all) with any allies you'd like to pair him with. Whether that's Mongul or the other Superman or even New Krypton soldiers. Oddly, the only immediate strategy I see would be to pair him with wxm068 Captain Britain or other "home turf" characters to put your opponent up between a rock and a hard place. He's a fiercely powerful character to be sure, someone Kal cannot let his guard down against. I also appreciate that how his technopathy powers appear in several interesting applications instead of just being slapped on as a a few clicks of perplex as a lazy design team might do.

#zh073 Veteran Monarch - After the disappointing Crisis dial, I'm very happy to see this guy get a second chance at a proper dial. What's more, it's his original appearance rather than be "Countdown" Monarch, who was slugging it out with Superboyman Prime in the middle of a big cloud of villain decay. About the only thing missing from the makeup of this fig I think is the soldier keyword... not so much because it is Captain Atom under there (I understand that it is ambiguous), but because he's a militaristic leader and I'm thinking about what generics I'm going to field alongside him, especially with that World Domination power.

His opening dial is great, with running shot and a good wallop that your opponent can't let run around unchecked for long. But at the same time with stealth and a strong defensive line he's intimidating to approach and engage with, and even moreso thanks to his Hypertime trait that punishes any opponent that tries and loses that game of chicken. After going a couple rounds, then you reach the hidden identity which is where this dial goes from great to brilliant. The "Unmasked" power is amazing, and earns Monarch a top 10 spot for sure. Effective or not (it's ultimately up to the dice to decide, and you might well wind up with one of Harley's Hyenas as the ultimate despot of the future) either way you will have a unique game experience every time you play this piece. And that's why I'm so excited about this dial. In a way, it adds replay value to every single character in my extensive heroclix collection. ANYONE could be Monarch! Even Stan Lee!

Best Reveals
It turns out that Monarch was secretly...
Morgan Freeman! dkr026 Lucius Fox

George Takei! Hellooooo~! trekos050 Lt. Sulu

I, for one, welcome our new overlord. aouB002 Giant Ant

#zh072 Veteran Extant - I'm happy that this guy got a spot among the chases, as I always thought he was a neat villain in his own right even though some would argue he was only a Dragon to Parallax during Zero Hour. These days, with Monarch now being Nathaniel Adam again, where exactly did Extant come from? He's sort of like Time Trapper I think, where his identity, motivations and secret identity are all smothered in a big layer of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff.

Extant has some restraint to him; the movement power helps give him a leg up on his enemies but is as unpredictable as time-travel should feel. Whatever the result of the time-jump is though, since it won't work with Pulse Wave or his attack power (as far as I can tell?) this helps measure Extant's actions and makes his player use him more tactically than just rushing in all guns blazing. His damage power is a nasty late-game surprise for your opponent if they aren't expecting it, and will help draw-out Extant's lifespan without going the obvious route of reducers/regen. His attack power looks interesting... I must admit that so far I haven't figured out exactly how to best exploit it, or the full ramifications of it's wording. At a glance it looks like 3 penetrating (or well, unavoidable) damage, which isn't all that special. With the exception of the handful of reverse-clicked characters appearing in this set, in which case Extant would simply make standard attacks against them to avoid having the power backfire on him. I suppose there might be reasons why you'd want to heal an enemy Damage, but if he's that close to exploding, surely just KO'ing him is the simpler and more effective solution?

Perhaps Extant isn't as ripe for abuse as other cosmic characters that show up and need to be errata'd half a year later. But at only 145, he's fine to just be a mid-level heavyweight who functions a bit out of step from the rest of the board.

#zh071 Unique Parallax - I've been hanging on to my cd219 Parallax sculpt for the day that I have a dial like this to play it on. WoL Parallax not only shows his villain decay in his dial (arguably outdone by both Kyle-allax and Entity-Parallax in the same set), not only has the stupid and inaccurate movement, but worst of all... he lacks the white streaks on his temples!

This Parallax is not a Hal Jordan possessed by an evil influence, but a man driven mad. A product of an era of comics where a story of a hero fallen from grace could be told without sanitizing it for the sake of marketability to more sensitive age demographics. His first (and by that I mean clicks 5-7) few clicks are likely to land hits as needed to begin the climb up to click #1, although a smart player would begin by targeting small fry and working their way up just as Hal did. Hal's biggest weakness is hesitation; if he doesn't draw first blood, a reasonably executed one-two of mid level strikes could knock him past Invincible and into a very vulnerable state ripe for a KO by close-combat strike. "Ten Power Rings" could be used to help separate the threats from the targets in the early game, but any turn that Hal isn't attacking and healing is a big risk. "Crisis in Time" also helps slow the opposition down and buys Hal more time to put his plans into motion, and of course makes naturally allies of action-token manipulators. Odd to think that Mr. Freeze and Grey Gargoyle might be some of Parallax's best friend. "Crossed the Line" puts some extra teeth on Hal and the scary high stats will serve him well in huge games where he's likely to trade punches with a Sun Eater or Specter.
"Remolding The Universe In His Image" is obviously the marquee power of the dial, and it certainly is neat. I think the only disappointing thing about it is considering how many games will be significantly swayed by the point that Hal has already dealt out (at least) 23 clicks of mostly-penetrating damage to the opposing team? In a 1000+ build total, okay. Most of the time it probably won't be seen, or could have just read "you win the game".

That's my one nay-say though, everything else about this dial is gorgeous and I don't want to diminish it at all. I'm happy to see NO Justice League, Green Lantern or Sinestro Corps keywords on him. I laugh a little that his only named keyword, Coast City, is likely to team him up with Cyborg Superman as an ally.

Oh, uhh... with a click #0, and click #12 being KO's, is this dial even printable?

#zh019 Veteran Conduit - For years growing up in the 90's, whenever I would visit the toy aisle at the local department store, looking through the racks of action figures to add to the collection that my brothers and I had at home, was Conduit. Movie and TV driven waves of merchandise would come and go... when a new TMNT movie hit, it was Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Conduit. When the new Transformers show debuted, it was Megatron, Cheetor, and Conduit. Conduit shared shelf space with countless permutations of Todd MacFarlane's Spawn and every Bat-vehicle you could think of. I always thought his design was cool and interesting and I knew he fought Superman which meant he was important, but I'd never seen him in any videogames or cartoons or anything, so nobody ever bought him.

At 140 points, Conduit is enough of a badass to survive in Metropolis. He might not be enough to bring down most versions of Kal-El, but he isn't to be taken lightly and would make a fantastic addition to a Superman Revenge Squad, especially thanks to 'I KNOW'. Surprised to see no Metropolis keyword. I don't know if this is just my misunderstanding of Wizkids' policies, but after Lana Lang and Pete Ross got dials, I was under the impression that Smallville was carried under the umbrella of Metropolis, rather than splinter off into it's own nearly-useless keyword. Assassin might be appropriate too, even if he wasn't a hitman or bounty hunter, his behavior and mode of attack fit with the CIA's preferred assassination methods. The "Pipeline" trait also makes me think about what sort of soldiers he would be best to lead, and typically most players reach for a shared generic keyword.

I KNOW and Pipeline are both interesting traits that give Conduit more presence and make him more dangerous to your opponent's biggest gun. Armor Overload is a nice vindictive option that isn't required but if you happen to be in a position to take a bite out of someone of higher points you might decide it's worth losing Conduit over. It'd have to really be worth it though, because Conduit's final clicks are capable of throwing out some massive damage if he's left unchecked. So much so that at 80 points, he's a steal if the player isn't afraid to push him onto the 3+RCE sweet spots. His self-perplex power is fine to have but is the least interesting of the special powers.

As others have said in this thread, making Conduit an agent of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. in new 52 continuity would have been an interesting way to bring this character back. A Luthor that can "recruit" onto the Superman Revenge Squad in the way that G.W. Bridge or Amanda Waller do would work as well.

#zh061b Prime Lex Luthor II - I'm not sure I see how this is a head-swap repaint of Vril Dox, but I guess it's all hypothetical anyway. As a return to Businessman Luthor that we haven't seen in a while, this dial does a few things really well. First is the stunning 19-Mastermind defense. It's a great way to portray Luthor's human fragility yet his seeming untouchability even to the most powerful hero on the planet. Some players (especially younger ones who have trouble thinking in abstract terms) may find this frustrating, but to me this describes the inexhaustible layers of backup plans, wealth-bought bodyguards and legal loopholes that Luthor used to keep himself out of jail in the wake of many a caper. "Supergirl's Boyfriend" builds on this and helps ensure that Mastermind fodder will be close at hand, but IMO I'd rather have explored this unique aspect of Luthor II in less generic terms. What I mean is, even though the power is named after a very specific relationship dynamic never seen before or since in any era of Luthor or Supergirl's varied histories, the function of the power works equally well on Mercy Graves or any old generic thug even. Also, it should probably say "immediately" or "after actions resolve" to clarify the intent of the timing. "Team Luthor" is much better handled IMO, having something of the opposite effect; it still works with any generic soldiers you want to use, but not it adds personality and invites the player to imagine (or mod) little Lexcorp uniforms onto the men that Luthor is enhancing.
The end-dial martial arts side of Lex coming out is a worthy nod to the many workout scenes we'd see to make exposition dialogue more interesting (for a while it seemed like Lex Luthor and Wilson Fisk conducted all their business meetings while bodyslamming gym instructors). And the final hidden bomb trait is an okay way to give him a bit more punch, but I am of the mind that it's a bit too specific. Luthor the businessman/scientist did always have some sort of gizmo ready to "help" Metropolis and show up Superman, and I think this might have looked more like avm016 Red Skull's "Build Me A Doomsday Weapon". While the movie had Red Skull attempting to take over the world in an enormous cube-powered flying wing, Red Skull is no more "the villain with the big airplane" than Lex is "the villain who plants bombs everywhere". So to summarize;
19-Mastermind:
Team Luthor:
Supergirl's Boyfriend:
Explosives Trait:

#zh014 Veteran Alpha Centurion - Happy to see this guy in the set, and I think you did a fair job with his stats and powers and keywords. Pax Romana is nice, but ultimately just helps him do his job a little better under certain conditions. If there had been an option for stealing Clark's thunder I would have made room for that instead. Also, I'm really surprised not to see the "Wait, that's not Superman..." trait from the SMWW set show up here.

#zh018 Veteran Agent Liberty - I don't know anything about this guy. If you'd told me he was a Savage Dragon or TMNT pastiche character, I would have believed you.
His dial is fine, functional. But without character popularity or a strong strategic motivation to build a team around him, I imagine you'd see him played about as often as other notable Justice Leaguers like Godiva and Ice Maiden. This might have been a good dial to approach like Jack O'Lantern, increasing player interest by dangling to budget-friendly cost in front of their noses and balancing that out with hardwired drawbacks.

#zh104 Veteran Supergirl - I'm also surprised that we haven't seen this Supergirl costume in clix yet... perhaps it'll appear in the upcoming B:TAS, which I'm told has characters from across the Timm-verse. A translucent flame element would be an improvement, especially if it was a detatchable sculpt piece like Juggernaut's Helmet. Shunt is a very useful power against OMA teams, kept in check by Supergirls' lack of willpower. Supergirl/Edward Nigma could be a dangerous combo though. Not a game winner, but against the right opponent you might be able to keep them perpetually action-tokened. Guardian Angel is much more interesting though; using Probability control to represent Linda's efforts to help her allies (or getting mad when she can't) is a simple way to accomplish a lot. Aside from that, her dial looks like a fair representation of Linda's power levels and capabilities, and giving her the Mystics TA helps distinguish her from other Supergirls, as does Poison.

#zh106 Veteran Steel - This one would be a pass for me. Sorry, but with a few other very playable Steel dials representing John Henry still readily accessible, this one would have to do something significantly different from them in order to stand out. 30 second reboot is underwhelming because it isn't likely to turn a game around, just stall and draw things out. The Kinetic Hammer power is legitimately something new and different... it's just not something that I personally remember reading about or having much of an impact on the comics landscape. For others like CaptainNifty I'm sure this is a much more exciting opportunity to play a cool power from the comics, but for me I'd rather have seen this slow go to Aegis Armor Steel, or perhaps 52 Everyman Project steel-skinned John Henry. Or the badly needed remake of Natasha Irons Steel.

#zh070 Veteran Superman - Well you'll hear no dissenting opinion from me, this Superman dial is a masterpiece.

While "definitive" is a tricky term to throw around, for many people like myself who grew up in a post-Crisis world the Superman described first by John Byrne, then the pivotal Death of Superman arc and the Superman:TAS would define who Superman is to us. Superman was a titan, not a cosmic skygod who could sneeze planets out of orbit, nor a trumped-up muscleman who could be humiliated by anyone who lucked onto some kryptonite. Also, Superman had a very clear and well-understood moral code: he'd been forced to use lethal force ONCE against General Zod and his cohorts, and vowed never again to take a life. I've even seen Superman use non-lethal force against a friggin' Xenomorph in the Superman vs Aliens crossover.

The first highlight of this dial is the offensive loadout. Traited full-movement charge, damage that scales up against stronger opponents, and opening flurry or Precision Strike/PC mean that Superman's actions are going to make a huge impact on the game. It also provides a layer of protection against Outwit, which would otherwise be Superman's most glaring weakness; by loading Kal with such a broad spectrum of powers, your opponent is likely to run out of Outwits before Superman runs out of usefulness. Which brings me to Superman's rock-solid defense slot, the second big highlight of the dial. Although he's not unkillable, hurting Superman is never going to be easy and what's more the "Defending the Weak", combined with plasticity and Super-hearing does a brilliant job of forcing Superman's invulnerability right in your opponent's face and taking away the familiar tactic of ignoring the hard-to-hurt guy and focusing on the vulnerable spots in your opponent's team. Clark's support powers are the third reason why this dial is so great, demonstrating that Superman is by no means a simple brute nor is he a lone wolf.

I can't say that anything could ever be a "definitive" Superman. This isn't a Silver Age ridiculous dial, that's what sm001 Superman is for. This isn't a Year One or an Electric Blue or an old and jaded Superman. But as far as capturing an era of Superman comics that attempted to cut away the fluff and distill Superman to his core appeal, man oh man did you ever nail it here. The only complaint anyone would have? "They finally created the perfect Superman dial, and then they stuck him with the damn mullet!"

I honestly thought you were going to draw more attention to the haircut. I do see the Impervious power's name and it is appreciated, but it must have taken restraint not to incorporate a detatchable-sculpt mullet mechanic or something.

I'll be back with one more post to run down a top ten from the set soon!

#zh062 Veteran Guy Gardner - I love me some gardner, and i'm also disappointed at the lack of diverse options for this guy's storied career. I had taken a shot at the warrior era earlier so I thought the weaponer's ring would be a blast. i'm still surprised it wasn't in WoL given all the alternate ring jobs there, tbh. this way I was able to lean on all the inherent color-coded aspects of this game to pull across the infamous yellow impurity. the vet should definitely be in the thick of it before his tk+ shows, but that can be used to pull in more of the "right kind" of opponent as you put it. the follow up attack is left open ended so that he can swing at another once making the tactical move to reposition an opponent. his 's ignorance of esd and cr makes that double attack roll more tenable. there's a few dials in this set with some end dial offensive spikes, something about the '90s was all about going all out, and that fits guy to a tee regardless of what era, so I knew he had to hand it out to the very end and his own quote made good flavor text for it

#zh053 Unique Weapons Master - a good chunk of my setlist was influenced by the skybox cosmic teams cardset from '93, which his sculpt pic shows. it also let me get another villain outside the chase theme in this hero-heavy set. plus the setup of teleporting an array of powerful equipment practically designed this itself in this era. he'll do well with objects in this set and once wk starts producing more scifi equipment as you proposed

#zhs002 Light Object Leather Jacket - in many ways, the weakness of the leather jacket is only more thematic. in taking up a slot for another more obviously useful object it serves to highlight that this was choice made to absolutely look cool regardless of the circumstances

#zhs003 Light Object Pouches - another softer option that's intended to highlight these objects were made more for fun and cheekiness than meta. or perhaps crit miss protection is the very thing you'll need for a specific build ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#zhs004 Light Object Shoulder Pads - cool, it's pretty subtle but might be like the above. this one isn't worded optionally, so your opponent might be able to force your hand early, but at the worst case topdial you'd still heal that click given

#zhs005 Light Object Two Guns - once I established my theme for quirkiness in these object interpretations, or at the least, a less obvious approach to them, I wanted to provide something beyond basic.

#zhs006 Heavy Object BFG - yes! grzzly can finally get his daggum gun! good call, there

#zh052 Unique Heckler - the mask has 5 years on heckler. and in addition to the crazy characters you mentioned, he's already been known in continuity for his party crashing keggers on the watchtower, so there's that working for him. he's designed to be a fun (for you) annoyance (for them) and to fill the offbeat character slot every set should have at least 1 of.

#zh060 Unique Waverider - fortunately, this type of powerset does well in clix so I was able to go to the well again for some different effects that represent matt's character a bit more specifically. in particular, his optional was geared towards trying to prevent the rise of the monarch from Armageddon 2001. I also wanted his time master to complement my rip dial should you want to pair them for some continuum control. the strategy aspects of him leaning on support first then secondary attacker is a good analysis of his plot device appearances in comics and something I was trying for

#zh107 Experienced Batgirl - that's a high complement, sir. I try to make sure none of my stuff is phoned in (to varying degrees of success, i'm sure ) and I wanted to make this bab familiar yet different enough to be from her own story.

THE SOVEREIGN SEVEN
#zh007 Rookie Cascade
#zh056 Unique Cruiser
#zh030 Rookie Finale
#zh055 Rookie Rampart
#zh029 Rookie Indigo
#zh012 Rookie Reflex
#zh058 Rookie Network
I hadn't seen him, but he'd certainly be a helpful boon to the sovereign seven. there are a lot of moving parts to this team. fortunately, if you do field the 7, you can get all of them and all of their optional s for a clean 400pts so there won't be a problem remembering which ones you've got. the optional s are mostly there for if you field them on other teams without the characters the key off of as i'm not a fan of leaving points on the table with abilities you can't use because of a lineup. that was most felt with aou vision. you're right in that they are a fairly archetypal team, too, designed around teamwork which I attempted to enhance via their synergy s. your comment about indigo points out the similarity in character types that was flooding comics of the '90s. in this set I had to juggle several stealthy types, bruisers, tk champs, shooters galore and speedsters seemingly more than other sets and still make each dial seem different. hopefully, I succeeded at that

CHASES
thanks, man. i'd hope this one would appeal. i was concerned the chases might not have a pop in the way more recent ones have, so i'm glad that the concept of an overarching theme would still pull them in

#zh078 Unique Bane - - bane's KWs were intended to be a bit more catch-all and the thing i think wk needs to do with sf figures is to mix up their KWs so that you can take advantage of the mechanic to field the package deal on a more diverse playing field based on which dial you start with. i gave Arkham to the a-dial since it was specifically referencing his work to unleash the halls of Arkham on bruce. the brute got the underworld kw for the flexibility. i will break you came first and has a cleaner mechanic imo, with an albeit more specific use. and snapping galactus across the knee is a delightful visual . bird/trogg/zombie has a much more general use and plays well with his sp for an increasingly despairing assault to the inevitable as it plays into his gang-up gauntlet debut strategy. i opted not to give him strength as cce is more reliable and stylistically mirrors the emphasis on the a-dial as well as the full length sp. as for the action token modification to the a->b sf switch, i can see the thematic benefit of it, but i prefer the idea of him being able to venom pump when pressed with 2 and then being able to make use of the colossal stamina to catch an opponent off guard with a violent act of desperation. i hadn't thought he was undercosted, given the dial length and the individual abilities, that i felt were greater than the sum of their parts in how arranged. i think you'll feel you're getting your money's worth but if he were more, it'd probably push the bounds of the value

#zh077 Veteran Doomsday - first of all, nice callback to obscure character radiant. up until the conex i think i wouldn't have had much of an uphill battle to make a good doomsday, but he dropped right into hearts of fans. i agree that i'm not a big fan of his emphasis on taking out the little guys as that's not his style. they're collateral damage on the way to his challenge which drives him. fair criticism on your fine-tuning. doomsday is sure to plow through a lot of guys quickly, but i think he'll be based and basing much of the fight and then the charge isn't aiding him. giving him that flurry coupled with his dmg spike and his spiked knuckles makes him intimidating to take a shot at as the retaliation is likely to ruin your lunch. i was hoping that flow would make your opponent scared to hit him and scared to leave him alone. the strength i reserved for his exp line to give him the traditional dmg boost once he was lowered in cost and ability so the discounted doomsday would still bear the name well. the incentive for sticking around the end dial instead of regen would be the stats paired with flurry and his ability via steal energy to keep making use of that stop click once he's maxed out on evolution tokens.

#zh076 Veteran Lord Chaos - i consider him the ugly duckling of the chases. the least known with the smallest impact footprint by far, so i knew he in particular would need a dial to sell himself, as it were. i went for a lot of interlocking abilities that would present a feel of dread and oppression on the battlefield while giving him raw power in the dial itself. i appreciate your analysis on this one and i think i'd always reach for the vet, too, to get the most out of his packet

#zh075 Unique Neron - i know, right? how has he not been clicked? he was HUGE in the '90s, literally everywhere thanks to underworld unleashed. smh. as for the demons three, missed it by that much . i feel his character is really at the 40pt, in how he operates in comics. i included the full 200 to give you that power represented (as it should be) but he's far more a manipulator behind the scenes than anything. btw, i almost spit out my tea laughing when i read the bit about blind rage against temptation . i'm unaware of anyone that can force or grant perplex/pc off the top of my head. i was about to call out gleek as the monkey's paw, but he only grants stat bonuses . i think there's a healthy risk at fielding neron, which adds a bit to his appeal (and balance) but one with great odds as it's rare to find a team without those 2 abilities in their pockets.

#zhs001 Light Object Neron's Candle - yeah, the look on their faces if the lord of hell is leering at their object placement from the sideline . but that's what they get for making a deal with the devil in the first place, kids. the more you know. great visual, garganis

#zh074 Veteran Cyborg Superman - overpower was not the best art i could find of that costume, but it was the coolest . a little nostalgia on nostalgia. nostalgia squared. and back in my day we didn't "merge with the terminator" on the first date, mr henshaw, but he'd be able to theme via robot kw at least. his technopathy is just too open to ideas for me to stick to one, so i threw a couple ideas out there, mixed and matched til i got them where i wanted with some fun overlap to make it pretty tightly interactive. the big boom was the driving force behind the design, and a self-imposed desire to implement a less chase, so that meant the dial had to hold on well on it's own merits. in addition to characters that would benefit territorially, he'd do really well with characters that play off of debris or basically anyone with stealth once all the walls come down

#zh073 Veteran Monarch - i was hoping for something fun like that. just make it neat for both players to see whom it was all along and employ the fun kind of meta. and by the time he's at that back dial he'll enjoy that dig at the opposition as they flinch at the betrayal and what it'll mean to attack their ally's future self. starting with hypertime and stealth was a mean play on my part, which is only furthered by trading the stealth for esd which will still thoroughly enjoy his . oh, and we are a go on the soldier kw. good call

#zh072 Veteran Extant - excellent application of the dragon trope. and another good comparison to time trapper. extant is living up to his name in that respect, or at least anachronism could work for him. the p/t+ will at the least function almost like a mega sidestep for a follow up. but it's mostly about positioning with a chance for one of two advantages you should be prepared for as you're right in the intentional non-compatibility (for balance) of his track. the ability is a bit more than functioning as unavoidable dmg because you have to remember that it's not damage at all. so it circumvents stop clix, or mystics or abilities that say "can't take more than x dmg" or just about anything. once it hits. you're jumping down your own timeline 3 clix. on the reverse flow dials it'll be unexpected, on dials relying on stop clix, it'll be hilarious and on wild dials it could be downright mean.

#zh071 Unique Parallax - it was always going to come to hal. his fall was as much a signature of the '90s as the death of superman, batman's broken back and diana's loss of the mantle. early '90s was all about shaking up the marque characters and they managed to do it soooo much better than marvel's recent fumbling. halallax just needed to be here, even if the set wasn't named zero hour itself. as with monarch and phase, i went with the original intent, implementing him pre-retcon to harnass the story itself, though the negative perplex is a nod to future plot points. i also could not resist the implementation of "I've crossed the line" on a dial with a starting line you're trying to cross . i tried to give him the tools he'd need to make the climb to 0, and the 10 rings is intended as more of a jericho missile. you fire it once to make the most of it as unlike barrier, it'll be providing cover for about 10 rounds, mirroring the countdown of the dial as well. and thematically, be the antithesis of cyborg superman's big boom. yeah the effect of hal's own big boom will be fairly muted outside of big games (or against swarms), and that kind of balances it to an extent, but i like that it exists. "you win" should totally be a game effect somewhere . as for printable, sure? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#zh019 Veteran Conduit - this guy always had an amazing visual and I was sure he was more important than he was . he was such a '90s guy and he debuted in a zero issue for superman making him a must-include as one of the few non-chase villains here. btw, thanks for the kw suggestions, i'm definitely adding assassin and metropolis to round him out. the 2 s were character-injections and helped to passively represent his spy roots and his network without having to make generic fills with little to flesh them out. it'll also greatly define your strategy in an anti-doomsday way, getting you to target the easy support to bring down the isolated tentpole in his grief. I gave him a deep offering of armor overload to let the player control his progression. since his dial is U shaped, you'll be able to self-damage from weaker clix up to your sweet spot, if you're daring.

#zh061b Prime Lex Luthor II - fitting dox II and luthor II as a/b slots had a lot of thematic similarities I couldn't pass. both sculpts would feature them seated in chairs and I kind of flubbed dox's jacket to be repainted as luthor's suit (not depicted) to make it work. it's take some stretching but I think it could play out. I wanted the supergirl relationship to have a nod, especially with both being here, but I wanted to try for a less obvious route of making their synergy work, and opted to keep the effect of yanking in mm fodder when the sc flops open-ended so he'd be ready in any event. especially as he's designed defensively and offensively for teammates. i'm glad you dig the design of 19mm. I like to think of the value as reflecting how good of a mastermind he is. the go-boom was reflecting how he went out in the books. wiring metropolis to blow was his idea, so I just went with it. and yeah, jr was in a near-constant workout montage as if to reinforce his new body.

#zh014 Veteran Alpha Centurion - the "wait that's not superman" callback was a good idea. I was going to say i'm not a big fan of it, but as I was typing this I just thought, you know, that's not the point. the callback is where it's at. I edited it in.

#zh018 Veteran Agent Liberty - I play ice maiden . I was hoping for a crisp dial that's not bogged down by tricky stuff and just wants to do his job well.

#zh104 Veteran Supergirl - the neat thing about super angel girl from a clix perspective is just how different she became, so I went for those differences in the dial. the guardian angel should be a fun effect, especially since it can't be countered and can be counted on for a boon regardless of how the roll turns out. plus, it's just too easy of a repaint to get a neat costume that's far too absent from clix. of all the the supergirls there are to pull from, they just keep giving us nu52. let's get more of the army of supergals in here

#zh106 Veteran Steel - ah, that's a shame. I was a huge fan of morrison jla and this dial was of my favorite era for steel, leaning on some distinctive aspects of his armor that showed up in the battle with prometheus.

#zh070 Veteran Superman - the mullet is all part of the charm! thank you, kindly, for your review of this dial. it was a love letter to the specific yet fleeting "modern age" superman from crisis to flashpoint that defined heroism so well he was brought back in rebirth. that was my superman. and while I can respect and even enjoy others, he's the one I adore. I hope other fans of that era of the man of steel can see my care for him in this dial and can find their own enjoyment of a time gone by in this dial, and in this set, too.

looking forward to your top 10, my friend

My Top Ten

Honorable Mention: The items. Hilariously 90s. I'll equip Cable with some of them for sure.

10. Weapons Master: I'm a sucker for equipment, plain and simple. This guy could do some great things with it.
9. Green Lantern: Kyle's lantern mechanic is yet another beautifully unique Baron construction. I wish it had perhaps some more powers on it to better show what the battery is capable of, but all in all, it's an impressive design.
8. Aztek: What a nice-lookin' dial. Well-balanced, with great specials...damn. A+ design, even though I barely know anything about the character.
7. Hero Cruz: This guy could be hard to get rid of if you're up against people without penetrating damage or with low natural damage. He's also versatile and capable of serving as either a great taxi, a good supporting attacker, or a cheap Probability-Controller.
6. LOBO & Spazzfrag: It's the Main Man. All I need to say.
5. Superman: This is the Man of Steel. What a way to finish your final set.
4. Bane: The Arkham Origins Bane is my favorite Bane because he shows both sides of Bane: the schemer who sent Gotham into a crime wave, and the crazy-powerful brawler who broke the Bat. This dial uses the since-created Shifting Focus masterfully to enhance the representation of both sides.
3. Neron: SFoSM Mephisto's split-dial was fun as a way to play the Devil as a good manipulator, but it felt lacking. Like Bane, this dial improves upon an existing one (albeit one of a different character) in a way that is reminiscent of the original but also refreshingly new.
2. Parallax: WoL Parallax was good, maybe even great. This guy is PHENOMENAL, as is befitting for the centerpiece of the set.

#1 is....*drumroll*

CYBORG SUPERMAN

I love people who use objects in fun ways. He uses them in EVERY fun way, he has multiple starting lines of mayhem, the Destruction of Coast City is powerful, thematic, and would be so so so much fun to pull off...this dial is awesome. I will print it someday and stick it on the old Cyborg. And when that happens, I promise to give you a full battle report.

thanks brainy, I've always appreciated your support, enthusiasm and encouragement throughout my work. i'm glad you liked the objects, they were an unabashed knowing glance back at the ludicrousness of the '90s so that we could enjoy the gems on the other side of it.

10. Weapons Master: he was designed with meta potential. as equipment develops into more of a thing we're going to see his potential rise. I like designing characters that are open ended and can grow and develop as the game does

9. Green Lantern: if I were tacky enough to put my own top 10 list out, kyle would be high on it in that I think with him I did something very different that worked out and i'm a bit proud of that. kyle should at the least play very differently and in theory be effective if it works out in plastic as I think it did on paper

8. Aztek: that's cool, i'm glad he's ringing true despite the dearth of material and sparseness of familiarity. I try to advocate for those forgotten fellas and I hope someone carries that on after my retirement

7. Hero Cruz: awesome, i'm glad to see more guys show up on the lists, and I think it's cool you picked up cruz. I fell in love with the werewolf wild dial when I saw it in asm and I saw the potential of it being applied in so many ways beyond that, as my body of work has tried to show. it's like a compact sf all on 1 dial, which is even better for the c-list and below characters that aren't going to get multiple slots in a set

6. LOBO & Spazzfrag: they were intended to be a big seller for the set on name and concept alone, but I had to back up the name with worthy dials or the main man would break the fourth wall over my head

5. Superman: thank you so much, that means a lot. given the history of the character in clix and how often he's made, making yet another one had to have meaning. this is what I see in superman and i'm glad i'm not the only one. I wanted to go out on a high note and thanks to all y'all for receiving clark so well

4. Bane: I think my complaint is that wk leans too hard on venom and not enough on the brains or even the undrugged warrior skills of bane in their design. it may not be an entirely fair analysis but I long for an earnest d.a.r.e. program bane that's scary on its own. I think sf may be the way to get the best of both worlds

3. Neron: it was impossible to work on this guy without the champ mephisto on the forefront of my mind. so I did my utmost to not copy what was done but do a different riff on the same tune and with the new sideline active verbage, the way became clear

2. Parallax: awesome. if i'm going to name a set zero hour, I've got to deliver halallax, am I right? geoff johns has done a lot of good stuff, but I disklike that we've lost the best story of a hero's fall from grace. I tried to keep that and his misguided goals in the dial and I've found that for me at least, dials that convey character turn out to be the best

1. CYBORG SUPERMAN: i'm really glad that so many of my chases made your list. I want there to be fun at every rarity level, but chases should be chase-worthy, right? I went all in on the object shenanigans and i'm glad it paid off. a few extra tweaks is what this game is all about. just a simple twist on something that already exists breaths so much life into the game. I love the framework they've given us and I love when they surprise us with the simplest twist in their designs making a big impact on a dial. that magic is something I've tried to capture most. that and a big ol world-changing boom

If this was a real set, I'd be driving myself insane trying to get these chases. They're probably the best part of the set. There's so much work put into them.

TOP 10
10. #zh009 Veteran Captain Comet
Comet lands somewhere between the standard Superman-type brick and an abstract Marvel-style psychic powerhouse. Fertile ground for new play styles that you make good use of here. I think that's kinda of why I always liked the character as well. He also feels like the protagonist of some of the more outlandish pulp sci-fi novels of the 70's and 80's. He doesn't do anything that completely blows my mind (which is why he isn't higher on the list) but he has a lot going for him and he advances some existing game mechanics in new and exciting ways.

9. #zh042 Veteran Eradicator
Similarly to Captain Comet, I'm impressed with Eradicator because you clearly avoided the lazy man's road and did a lot more with this dial. Similar to how a character like Eradicator can be written off as "Superman, but not as good" by a lazy writer who isn't interested in researching or thinking about who he is in any greater depth, it would have been easy to phone it in and make a dial with some reducers and some move-and-attack and said "that's basically him, right? Good enough". But because you cared, we get a dial that accomplishes many of the same things a Superman dial does, but goes about getting there completely differently. The intricate interactions and decisions that the player will have to make when deciding which of Eradicator's powers to tap into and whether or not to target himself with his Outsiders TA make him so deep and gives him far, far more replay value.

8. #zh054 Experienced Hackrat
While all the Psyba-Rats are fun and they'd be more fun together, Hackrat is my favorite of the group. While we've have other "Man in the chair" pieces before, both from Wizkids and from yourself, this is the first time I can remember seeing hacking represented in the way that Hackrat's keyword-specific remote-targeting mind control does.

7. #zh005 Veteran Ballistic
I always knew he'd be in my top ten somewhere, and after looking things over it looks like he made it as high as #7. Pretty good for a working joe without special powers or traits! There's just something I find really appealing about his solid defense and capable stats across the board, especially now that we have options like Punisher's van and the items in this set to customize him with.

6. #zh043 Experienced Arsenal
Arsenal is similar to Ballistic but gets a slight lead because he brings his own special weapons. Arsenal's fantastic selection of options in his attacks will make him a star addition to Suicide Squad, Checkmate and Outsiders teams. On Star City and Teen Titans teams he's less exciting because he'll likely become a little redundant in the era of Trick Arrow Tokens.

5. #zh063 Unique Green Lantern
I think Kyle and his Lantern have made it onto everyone's top 10 list so far, right? I can understand you felt it was a risk when you were making it, but trust us, it's a home run. The reason that I didn't rank it higher than I have is that I didn't feel like the game was really lacking playable Kyle Rayner dials, and with the Green Battery resource around there's options to customize him to your liking. But still, 50 points for Year One Kyle is fantastic and different enough from the WoL Veteran Kyle that one does not replace the other.

4. #zh073 Veteran Monarch
Infinite possibilities for play make this guy a winner. And it's impressive how much personality you were able to put into the dial just from his enigmatic Armageddon 2001 appearance. I would play this guy a lot I think, as long as I can find appropriate generic figs for him to lead.

3. #zh078 Unique Bane
The complete opposite of the minimalist jw057 Bane, I love this dial because I feel like it can be the centerpiece to an accurate recreation of Knightfall. There's nothing I know about Bane in the 90's that isn't represented here, which is impressive. The only areas left open to explore are aspects of later character development, which is why I didn't feel the Secret Six keyword was necessary here. Bane gets the #3 spot because if this dial appeared in most sets he would fetch Chase fig prices and stay there for YEARS, like GSX Magneto or Legacy KC Green Lantern.

2. #zh031 Veteran Lobo + Spazfrag
It's really only fair to treat these two as a single entry, even though they are two dials. While I explained where this dial does have some shortcomings, there is nothing on this dial that is wrong or shouldn't be there. And with three starting lines on each dial and tons of complimentary powers and options, Lobo could be played again and again and it'll never be the same play experience.

1. #zh070 Veteran Superman
Superman gets the top spot for some of the same reasons as Lobo and Bane; it doesn't feel like any of Superman's powers or personality got left behind on the drawing board. Very often Superman dials gets complaints because a player doesn't feel like their preferred power got enough focus. "Oh, it's good, but this Superman doesn't use his freeze breath at all", or the eternal debate between "Faster than a speeding bullet means Hypersonic!" versus "Superman doesn't run from a fight... that means Charge!". Maybe it's just because you and I read the same selection of Superman stories Baron, but to me this dial strikes just the right balance between these competing ideas and gives the player full access to Superman's powers but tempered by Clark's personality. He hits amazingly hard... but only against the targets that can take it. He is nearly impossible to hurt... but will put himself in front of his allies to take as many hits as possible. It's great.

What puts him above the ingenuity of Green Lantern's dial, the completeness of Bane's dial and even my personal love for Lobo just for being Lobo, is that Superman is among the most often dialed characters in the game. Everyone is quick to point out how Bane is unfairly characterized as a dumb brute, so any dial that adequately includes his evil intellect will surpass them. Lobo's barely been attempted, still being unfortunately fringe in the 21st century. So if your Lobo wasn't perfect, we'd all still like it because there were so many improvements over what Wizkids gives us. But Wizkids puts a few Superman-inspired dials in every DC set for over 15 years now, and who knows how many fan-made attempts at hitting that sweet spot. So Superman is far from was "unexplored territory". This is a dial that was in direct competition with that mountain of other attempts and some of them have been pretty good too, so the bar was set VERY high. But you still managed to vault right over it.

Honorable Mentions: Geist, Jade, Superboy, Parallax

IN DEFENSE OF THE 90'S SUPERHERO AESTHETIC

I've seen a few comments pop up in this thread here and there disparaging how awful 90's comics were, and I feel that's somewhat unfair. Yes, the 90's took themselves too seriously and lent themselves to excesses in both art and story. But there's no reason why that can't be FUN.

It's easy for us to look back at the golden age and enjoy their simplicity. We all know that space travel and radiation don't work like that NOW, so we forgive the early writers for their mistakes. We look back at the Silver Age and we're not phased by it's campiness, seeing it as part of it's charm. Some of us can even look back at the grittiness of the Bronze Age and appreciate it's noir aesthetic, whether that's DKR or Watchmen or later imitators and parodies like TMNT and Punisher. So why can we not appreciate the 90's "Modern Age" (as it was once called... now more often unfairly called the "Dark Age") with a more forgiving eye?

Properly enjoying a 90's comic series is like escaping into an ongoing toy commercial. Every villain is a card-carrying member of the trade union of villainy, every hero is the equivalent of a nuclear superpower, every line of dialogue delivered with at least three exclamation points. Saying that stories like this are unrealistic is missing the point. By the time we hit the 00's we would see the rise of postmodern writers who liked to point out how awkward it would be getting through doors with giant shoulderpads, or how uncomfortable the muscle-bulging ass-presenting poses would be for an actor to portray. But in the mentality of the 90's, these characters didn't NEED to fit through doors... they blew up walls when they needed to make an entrance or exit. It didn't matter how uncomfortable their poses might be, because no live action actor could possibly compare to those muscles, breasts and jawlines anyway. Everything is larger than life and impossible and that's why it's a fun escapist fantasy.

Complaining about the excesses of 90's superhero comics is like complaining that Professional Wrestling is fake. Yeah, we know. That's why we're here.

thanks, garganis, for this flood of reviews and support at the end of the thread. I appreciate your constructive criticism and pushing me to continually improve. you've been a big voice and a big boon to my humble corner of the creative corner

10. #zh009 Veteran Captain Comet
I've always felt that comet has never gotten his due. with a huge sea of material in the dc universe, it's a real shame he can get lost in the background noise. I think the closest thing was a shortlived revival of mystery in space and his push during l.e.g.i.o.n. then on top of his comic book c-list status, the one clix they gave him is infamously bad. i'd rather he be known for something else and I'm glad I was able to give him enough of a dial to give him a bit of buzz here, and hopefully point out his potential to (fittingly) future fans

9. #zh042 Veteran Eradicator
thank you, kindly. eradicator sneaks in to my heart thanks to his association with favorite (and of course, short-lived) era of outsiders. when making characters that are a similar trope or a pastiche of the familiar, I try to focus on their distinctive and polish them to make it clear why this character needs to be (re)made. eradicator was always a shooty superman. and while I don't like my superman dials to be shooty focused, eradicator on the other hand absolutely needed to be. plus anytime I can fit and outsiders on the same dial is just a design win for me

8. #zh054 Experienced Hackrat
wow! totally unexpected. i'm super pumped that hackrat made your list. that's really cool and makes my design philosophy of treating every character with respect worth the effort. also, i'm super surprised that "man in the chair" is not an actual tvtrope trope yet

7. #zh005 Veteran Ballistic
ha! I actually got you with a vanilla dial . that makes my day. good job, kelvin, you delightfully '90s guy

6. #zh043 Experienced Arsenal
I really enjoyed this one, tweaking the interactions of rce and making you feel like the choices in your stat boost application is like picking the weapon itself, and that's before equipping something for free. I think of the +attack as the bola and the bow and the +dmg as the boomerang and the bullets, but that's me, it's open to interpretation . plus, lots of alliteration . I've always wanted a better arsenal-era roy, especially for outsiders and later '90s titans. we've gotten a few great speedys, let's see a non nu52 arsenal, wk

5. #zh063 Unique Green Lantern
thanks, man. that is awesome. high risk, but as it turns out, high reward for this one. we've certainly gotten a ton of kyles of late, but I think there's still room for a rookie green kyle to be made. and as open-ended and varied as the gl powerset is, getting experimental with it and try out new things. ew017 is one of my favorite dials from ew and one of only a handful I picked up because they accomplished a neat lantern on the cheap, but not at the cost of character but instead by doubling down on it with a clever weakness. that helped me to refine kyle.

4. #zh073 Veteran Monarch
thanks for the kw suggestion. and the infamous identity twist of the monarch, the first big meta spoiler affecting comic industry and essentially the death of surprise reveals just had to be showcased here in some way. i'm glad I made him chase-worthy and i'm more glad I made him fun

3. #zh078 Unique Bane
that is high compliment, indeed. there's several niches of bane left to be explored that I don't get tired of the prospect of a new bane dial yet. while dkr014 is my go-to, I feel like that itch hasn't quite been scratched yet and I really hope it will be soon

2. #zh031 Veteran Lobo + Spazfrag
that's cool and that's my goal. a real versatility to lobo we don't have in clix. when I go to build a team that actually has lobo in it, he winds up being a "fixed point," in that there aren't really many options for him to be played at. that's the kind of character that especially needs to be remade with multiple starting points to mix things up. getting to combine the into that point value mix really opens lobo up, and he's definitely the kind of character intrinsic enough and popular enough to take up 2 slots in a set this way

1. #zh070 Veteran Superman
especially given the challenge of whom he is and as the last of my dials to be posted, that means so much to me that he rings true. this was my attempt at a definitive dial, and whether I got all the way there or not, the definitive superman quote to me has always been "superman is what I can do. clark is who I am."

IN DEFENSE OF THE 90'S SUPERHERO AESTHETIC

that's an awesome treatise on the '90s, btw. the passion was there and the release of the absurd in favor the willful suspension of disbelief makes so much sense in that context. well-reasoned and well-put!