I know that in my circumstance, the other two rare/u slot big guns I pulled (apart from U Starman) were R Cyborg Superman and V Martian Manhunter...so given the lower cost of Starman and his Running Shot+10AV I felt as if I had no choice but to use him.

IMO: The downside of Seth's good dial design is that while many of the characters will do well in constructed, in sealed play one or two (usually rares/uniques) tend to dominate. It's just my personal opinion, but some of Jon-L's worst (for the constructed game) sets offered great variety in sealed play: X-Plosion (cheap Perplex and Support in sealed leads to great variety), Icons (I saw Vet Superman beat in sealed play), Legacy (I saw several KC Flash and KC GL teams lose sealed events).

That's exactly what he is, a defensive support piece. But he doesn't just boost the defenses of adjacent allies, he also contributes PC (and even Perplex if you want to push him on that 19, although I personally wouldn't do that), AND can Incapacitate characters.

So yes, if all you were getting was the Defend, then he's not worth the points. But when you add PC and Incapacitate to the mix, and some cheap scrappers like Wildcat/Knockout/Catman/Mano/Etc, His value skyrockets.

How is a 12 speed with Phasing a "starting lack of mobility" AZS?

I know you probably meant move-and-attack powers, but I just think that should have been made a bit more clear since the 12/Phasing is actually pretty good for this set.

No kidding. Plus her Poison makes her Jakeem's worst nightmare. Add in the fact that she gets HSS very early on, and Negative Woman most certainly does not deserve the abysmal one-smiley rating in sealed.

As for Jakeem, any figure with PC + 18 Defend + double-target 8-range Incap is at least a 3-star fig. Yeah, he's a support fig, but he's one that makes the team better and can still hurt any enemy on the board for over half his dial. That's worth three smileys, yo.

Re: Barrier on the JSA map...it's very good. Hampers and helps HSS figs and really closes off those LOFs. Won me a tournament on the map a few weeks back.

I played a multiple-barrier Brotherhood team on the JSA map...they did very well...but none of my opponents tried to "make" more hindering terrain to stop my eveil schemes. I guess I must officially change my stance on JSA map/Barrier to "neutral"

I wouldn't say "worst nightmare", as Jakeem can hit her sorry 16 DV with his starting 9AV + PC easily.

Well, here's one more guy chiming in about young master Thunder:

Let's face it, he's not a '2' rating fig. I wouldn't go as far as 4 either, but a steady, average 3. Why? PC and Defend of 18 are a great help, especially for a flier who can carry other figs into the fray. Plex and a 19 Defend is even better, in my opinion.
To explain, I was lucky enough to pull Jakeem in my Marquee today, and also got a very decent brick piece, r. Shazam. I rounded out the force with e. Wildcat (who had the highest attack value available from my pulls) for 297pts. While I do see the value in the PC, I also saw each of my 3 opponents able to achieve an 11att on at least one figure (but only one opponent I faced could manage a 12). So, was I going to keep Jakeem out there in line of sight to use PC with his 18? No way. I pushed him to his 2nd click with the 19Defend, and kept him OUT of line of sight to opposing figs as much as possible. With Shazam able to run out, whack an opposing fig for (at least) 4clix, then jump back (and kiss himself) to a 19defense next to Jakeem, my force was pretty nasty. Since I kept putting Shazam and/or Wildcat between Jakeem and the opposition, no one ever knocked him past that 19def (though it wasn't for lack of trying). I went 3-0, only losing Wildcat once in the first round. I highly doubt that would have happened without Jakeem's formidable 19def protection.
Even without a lucky Hypersonic brick pull like mine, Jakeem could be a major asset to nearly any decent attacker in the set (especially those with ES/D).
-Is he one of the best pulls available for this Marquee? No, that would rate him 5 stars.
-Is he a great asset that one should always consider? Not necessarily, because depending on what you pull, if he doesn't leave enough room on your force for at least one solid primary attacker, you're depending too much on defense and not enough on offense. ...So not quite 4 stars.
-Is he: "Fair, based on how you need to fill out a team"? Absolutely. With just one or two decent primary attackers, Jakeem can make those attackers very hard to hit, and help them out with PC or Plex. Definitely 3 star material.

The Jakeem debate...lots of good points...I can honestly say that his double duty Defend and JSA is really nasty...and if that was all he did he'd be overpriced and worth 2 faces.
But the 8 range, 2 arrows, with perplex makes him a highly effective secondary attacker and truly incredible support piece.
I won 2 different matches vs Jakeems, but it required a lot of rolling (thank goodness for all the flurry in this set), and a lot of figures got sacrificed (KOed), and I usually had to ignore Jakeem (using Outwit on his defend) and deal with either of my opponents primary attackers.
My "favorite" of which was Vandal Savage who did savage my team by pushing past his outwit into perplex...gee Jakeem AND Vandal Savage double perplexing each other...weeeeeeeee. Take 5 dmg, take 5 dmg, take 5 dmg....Jakeem's a beast, and with the right follow up figures just nasty
I'll be glad not to face anymore of him in any sealed events. Bring on the Gentleman Ghosts pls

Further Jakeem props... In today's Marquee, I happened to pull him again! (Since entering into this discussion, I kind of had a feeling I might... and lo and behold, there he was in booster 3.)
This time, though, I didn't pull a brick as nice as r. Shazam. This time my best attack values available were 10's - one on the end of v. Damage's dial, and one at the beginning of r. Supergirl's dial. So, naturally I had to pick Sgirl, pack some 3D objects that help with attack, round out the force with an e. Blackhawks fig and hope for the best.
Now, I didn't win this Marquee... Even though I swept the 1st and 3rd rounds, during round 2 my Blackhawks fell to a lucky roll of 9 from a rookie Mon-el (his 10att vs. Jakeem's 2nd click 19Defend to the adjacent Blackhawks). Since my opponent was managing nice high defenses too (Stripe was carrying a desk to protect the 18def JSA he was giving to Mon-el and e. Wildcat), I was unable to KO anything on his force. When time was called, only my Blackhawks were down, so to speak, giving him a narrow win.
So, with Jakeem's help, a mediocre primary attacker and decent secondary attacker held their own very, very well for 3 tourney rounds. Considering that only one of my figs was KO'd during only one round of the Marquee (and the same is true of the previous Marquee, I only lost e. Wildcat once in that one), I have to reconsider my position: I think Jakeem is worth a 4 rating, even in sealed format. That 19Defend, plus the help of Perplex to let Supergirl (and previously Shazam) go after the opposing fig with the best chances of hitting that 19, is just phenominal... and quite the thorn in each of my opponent's sides. You go, Thunder!

Just like to chime in on the Jakeem debate... I pulled him in my Marque event and built an extremely poorly ballanced team of Jakeem Thunder, E Valor, and the 12 point pog (name?) For some odd reason, I made the mistake of thinking Jakeem was grounded and Valor would carry him around the board.
Regardless, I still managed to go 2-1 practially sweeping my last games after I figured out how to play my team. I lost my first game due Pushing Jakeem onto his 2nd click. NEVER, push him onto that 2nd click for no reason. PC is far more valuable than the 19 defense! My opponent proceded to roll ( I kid you not) Back to back Crit hits, followed by an 11 attack and an 11 attack. Inbetween this I managed to smoke one character for 5 with Valors RCE, then next turn I pushed Valor to crit fail... and that's pretty much all she wrote.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is... no, I don't think Jakeem deserves a 5, or even a 4 in sealed play, due to the fact it only takes one lucky shot... but to give him only 2 stars is down right silly!

I don't know where they are, but I wouldn't mind hearing about all the people that won or came in top 4 at their Marques using U Starman! So far we've heard allot of Jakeem teams placing top 4 or first place, but I haven't heard of any starman teams doing the same.

One last thing... The reason I'd rate Jakeem the atleast a 3 and drop starman down to 3, is because Jakeem brings something unique, and can add a very usefull strategy to a team. Where as starman, I see a whole bunch of figures in his price range that I would use before him! He hasn't impressed me... and he's very easy to KO! AZS states "Starman is a surprisingly useful piece for his cost. At ~100 points you get someone that starts off as an attacker but finishes out as a strong support fig."
Imo, Starman doesn't finnish out, once he's knocked down a few pegs, he's easilly dispatched before he get's a chance to use those strong support powers.

I haven't played in a Marquee, but my PR Starman team went 3-0 and came in second on points. The team defeated a Vet Steel/Exp Hawkman/R Question team, a nasty Vet Copperhead/Sandman/V Mirror Master/Shadow Thief and friends team, and a Vet Martian Manhunter team.

The toughest team turned out to be the Stealthy team, primarily because I had to base them and sit through a series of crit hits. Starman transitioned nicely from a primary attacker (surviving hits deep into his dial) and then acting as a ground support with his Perplex and 8-Range.

I used Sandman at the prelease. He's definetly four smiley worth. He was great paired up with E Wildcat and V Mr Miracle.
I was 3-0 and had second in points.

At the marque I used two different uniques. Batman. Who also earned his four smileys. He was a great tie-up close combat piece. During one game he got into a "swing-and-miss" game with E Shadow Thief (due to Shadow Thief's defense powers and Batman's combat reflexes) and after awhile I wasn't sure who was tieing up who.
The other U I used was Mr. Mind. He was freaking awesome and the main reason why I went 3-0 and won the marque. However, despite how well I did with him I can't really disagree with him only getting three smileys. He wouldn't have been nearly as devestating without having had Mon-el to go along with him. HSS, flying, wildcard, w/ Mr. Mind equals nasty.

Anybody else think that it is a little unfair to Mr. Mind that he is archenemies with Captain Marvel? It's not as though he's really capable of KOing the big red cheese himself. (Unless I misunderstand things and a figure mind controled by the bug would count as the bug for archenemy KOing)

As for the two most contensious figures, Starman and Jakeem, I pulled both in my brick, but haven't had a chance to play them yet. I'll probably use one or both of them at a tournament this weekend. Yay JSA goodness!

I pulled a Jakeem in the marquee, and didn't get the support he needed. I tried him in one round but made a tatical mistake (and the deck was so very stacked against me anyway). My poor performance earned me the Bye for round 3, so I never got to tweak my Jakeem team.

In the first round I passed him up for E Supergirl, E Cat-man w/Disintigrate and V Cat-man. Against a team of R Mon-el and U Superman I crumbled (Mon-el popped Supergirl first with HSS, she missed Superman's high Def, Supes hit her onto her own HSS and Monie pushed to finish her off... whee, there went 192 points!).

Round 2 I tried fielding:

U Jakeem
V Cat-man
V Shadow Thief
E Phantom Lady

300 points even.

I faced:

V Shazam!
U Blue Beetle

Ugh! I made a mistake in placing my cluster of 18 Def peeps, allowing a diagonal square to Jakeem. The big red cheese popped him with a generator, leaving Jakeem on his last click (Marvel use Perplex on his attack just in case... had he done damage Jakeem would have been a display of broken dreams in the museum in one hit). It was down hill from there. I successfully KOed Beetle and Jakeem's PC was helpful, but I wasn't touching Marvel. Things came down to Jakeem v. Marvel. This is where the whole thing got fun. Hopeless, but fun.

Jakeem wasn't proud. He ran like a little punk. Marvel actually hurt himself a few times due to a crit miss on a push and another crit miss. He ended up on a click with CR and Plast, so Jakeem turned around and pulled his 9. BLAM! Shot Marvel for a click! Grinning at his smoking gun he failed to even see the Quake attack that followed up and smeared him across the map.

It was so funny to see V Shazam! giving himself fits trying to chase Jakeem down. I had removed the Thunderbolt from the flight stand after taking 7 damage (explaining that the genie clicked the pen himself after that hit, merely saying "Not so cool."). So a little punk kid was running around the museum being chased by all the thunder and lightning of the world. At the end we figured that it was all started by Billy having the new Blue Beetle over to visit only to find that Jakeem had eaten all of the Doritos. Not satisfied with working things out as teens, they rapidly powered up and threw down. In the end, though, Jakeem promised to never eat all of Billy's Doritos again.

Hilarious!

Darn super-powered teenagers.

I could actually see a fight like that occuring in the comics. Not because of doritos, but because Jakeem was angry at Billy for breaking Stargirl's heart.

Entertaining story, Mr. P... The only thing that doesn't sound right about it is the tweaking of teams. You know that's illegal, right? Even if the House Rules for the venue state you can do such things in normal sealed or draft events (always a bad idea, but if everybody at the venue likes it, so be it), you can't have any House Rules during a Marquee. The team you turn in to the Judge at the beginning of a Marquee is the team you must play for the duration of the tourney, period.