Welcome back to another edition of Comprehensive Reviews! I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season. Welcome to 2008! To kick off this new year I’ll be taking a look at Professor X!

So come on in and let’s take a look! Click on “Read More” to access the full review!

I decided on Professor Xavier for a few reasons. 1) In an un-official poll it was decided by you the Realmers that he was a better review than Gambit (Please vote for the poll I’ve posted here for whom you’d like to see reviewed in two weeks). 2) He shares lots of similarities with “baby new year.” Ok maybe the second one is more of something I thought of just for kicks after already deciding on him. But still.

How is he similar to Baby New Year?
1) They are both bald
2) Neither of them can walk

But seriously, Professor Xavier is one of those figure head mutants. There would be no X-men if it wasn’t for him. Professor Xavier has been a man who’s done many things over the years. He’s ridden in a wheel chair, then upgraded to a floating one. He’s walked, then got crippled again. He’s been an alien, he’s been cloned, he’s lost his powers.. There’s a lot he’s done.

I’ll break the review down as follows:

Under 70 points:
Rookie Professor Xavier (IC)
Experienced Professor Xavier (IC)

Under 90 Points:
LE Prof. Xavier (CM)
Veteran Professor Xavier (IC)

90+ Points:
Unique Professor Xavier (IC)
Unique Professor Xavier (FF)
LE Charles Xavier (M&M)
Unique Professor X (M&M)

Under 70 points:

IC076: Rookie Professor Xavier



The First of our Professor Xavier’s comes in the form of the Rookie from Infinity Challenge. He’s 59 points, and part of the X-men. He’s got an 8 range, with only one arrow. For his point value he’s not terrible, but he’s really a one trick pony.

His movement is rather low, starting at 5. Good luck running away late dial as that 5 works down to a 2 by the end of his 6 click dial. I guess his wheel chair got pretty banged up come late game. Or perhaps he just flat out fell out of it. Regardless of what happened he’ll need a taxi late game to help him move around. It wouldn’t hurt to have one the whole game. Also on his movement slot is the bulk of his powers. For clicks 1-5 he’s got Mind Control. With his single target it’s not too hard to keep him from taking too much feedback damage. The 8 range will typically put him within harm’s way to make the action.
for 59 points his AV actually isn't terrible. He starts with a 9 and works down to a 5. Sure a 9 isn't great, but at least he's not taking up a huge portion of your points. His AV's only Real purpose is going to be for that Mind Control action that he's most likely going to take. I don't really know why they bothered wasting points to put an AV on click 6 (they should have just made it 0). The whole 0 damage thing with no mind control make sit relatively useless. I guess incase you are hoping for a critical hit (but then you still wouldn't need any AV).

Defensively he starts with a 16 and then drops (relatively quickly) to a 10 by the end of the dial. He's got support on his opening 16 defense which ultimately won't help much as most X-men have 16 or greater defense, and with his limited mobility he probably won't be tagging along most X-men.

His damage as I said before is 0's down the dial. He is cheap enough that you can take advantage of this 4 clicks of leadership to give more movement to your other pieces.

Frankly though, for the points and what you get, I'd rather skip Charles and go straight for the Experienced Magneto to lead your X-men. Mags is a lot less vulnerable with more potential (and more team support), at a reasonably higher cost. If you're still bent on playing a Professor X, this guy could work for you, but I'd advise to put a few perplexers on the team to make his mind control work a bit better.

IC077: Experienced Professor Xavier



The Experienced Professor X is 67 points and shares many of the same features as his Rookie. I won’t take too much time on him. He does gain a higher opening AV and a higher ending Defense on his dial for the 8 points. If you don’t have the room to fit on a piece that can perplex the Rookie’s AV up to a 10, or you’ve got the extra 8 points with nothing to do with it you can upgrade to the Experienced, but don’t expect a huge difference between him and the Rookie.

In terms of the “winner” in this category, I’d go with the Experienced, the point cost isn’t too dramatically different, and the 10 AV is important for him as his only way to deal damage is going to be by controlling an opponent.

Under 90 Points:

CM220: Limited Edition Prof. Xavier


Next under the scope is the Limited Edition Prof. Xavier from Critical Mass. Yes this is Professor X in all his Brood Queen goodness.

Here’s a little info from Wikipedia:
Crazy Story eh? Well with Professor X becoming the Brood queen we see a few changes. He’s 78 points and this time has lost the X-men T/A. He’s picked up an extra 2 range, and he can now fly (Take THAT wheelchair!). We also see a smattering of new powers.

His movement is now up (as it should be) to a 9 to start. He works down to a 6 by the end of his dial. The first two clicks he’s still got Mind Control. Particularly nasty is to Use his Flight to Taxi a fellow X-man around and set up your position. The next turn he can hopefully you can use the Mind Control to bring an opponent close to Professor X and whomever caught a flight with him. The Passenger can take a nice opening shot at that piece and next round Prof X can follow up (or two rounds later) with his B/C/F. Sure it’s not fool proof but it gives some options.

So I already gave away a bit with his AV portion. He starts at a 9 and works down to a 5, and unlike any other version of Professor X he's got blades/claws/fangs for the first 4 clicks of his dial, which give this version of the professor the highest damage potential of any of them.

His defense is similarly different than any of the other versions. He starts with a 15 and works down to a 12, but he's got toughness on every click of his dial. This is also something no other Professor X can say they've got. It's not much, but at least it will keep him from being KO'd quite as quickly.

His damage starts at a 2 for 3 clicks and then goes to a 1 for the remainder of his dial. The 2 damage isn't too bad since all 3 of those clicks he's got B/C/F to boost it's potential (and with 5/6 chance of doing the same if not better is nice!). On click 4 he drops to the 1 damage, which makes using b/c/f a no brainer since you can't DO worse than a 1! After he loses B/C/F he's got 1's for the remainder of the dial which doesn't help him. Consider this the point where you may want him to seek medical attention. He opens with two clicks of Leadership, which if you happened to collect enough Brood Pieces might be worth having.

IC078: Veteran Professor Xavier


The Veteran Prof. X from Infinity Challenge comes in an 83 point package. He once again sports the X-men T/A. He looks very similar to the two previous IC versions that I've talked about with a few small upgrades.
First he's got an extra click of life, which translates to a slightly higher AV to start. He also picks up Incapacitate towards the end of his dial. The final Upgrade is the range increase (up to a 10 now). He still can't deal any damage and has his point value elevated due to a full dial of leadership.

At 83 points he's probably the most Capable Prof. X in terms of mind control so far, but almost 1/3 of your team who is banking on mind controlling characters (whom might give him feedback damage) is an awful lot to pay.

I’d definitely pick the CM LE if available, or the Experienced version from the previous category.

90+ Points:

The over 90 point category brings us quite a few variants of Prof X. We’ve got the Hover chair, the Ultimate Make-up (Seriously what’s up with that?), and this ice cream headache won’t go away versions to choose from.

IC145: Unique Professor Xavier


I have always been a fan of the Hover Chair Prof. X. To me that is one of the things that defined Prof X in my childhood, so I’ve always WANTED to like this piece, unfortunately when the game came out I couldn’t find a way then, and I still can’t find a way now. He’s 92 points. He’s got his X-men T/A. He’s essentially an “upgraded” veteran. By upgraded I mean his range has been downgraded to an 8 (maybe if they added a second arrow it’d be ok), he’s lost his incapacitate.

What he’s picked up is a slightly higher movement (6 is not that much better than 5 though), an extra click of defend (15 doesn’t help much) and the ability to deal 1 damage down his whole dial (take that psychic blast!). Why you’d play him over any of the other IC versions is beyond me. It’s probably just for the chair. Yup.. That’s gotta be it.

I condone (since he’s in high stock with IC and Universe) ripping him off his base and tossing him on the new M&M base (I’ll discuss the faults of this guy in a bit). If you plan on using this Prof X, good luck to you.. Let me know how it goes…

FF094: Unique Professor Xavier


The first stand out thing about this Prof X is his eyeliner. I'm not sure who decided this was a good idea, but somehow he's got it. Eyeliner aside.. this guy is NASTY!

He's 99 points making him more expensive than previous versions and comes with some nasty tricks. First he's got a 12, that's right I said it, 12 range! That means his mind control and such reaches 2 squares further than most people can hit you with range. Not just his actual distance, but he's got 3 arrows too! He's an Ultimate X-man, which works great against a particular hard to hit figure (Kc Green Lantern who?) or a team (Fantastic What?) as it grants a +1 to all attack to said target(s).

His movement is still kind of slow, he's got a 5 that goes down to a 2 by the end of his dial. It's ok if he needs someone to wheel him around! Heroclix is an equal opportunity game and the wheel chair does not make him any less threatening in a game! He's got mind control on clicks 1-4. Keep in mind that he's got 3 arrows so feedback damage can pile up quick. In a team that uses a swarm tactics though it's entirely possible to target 2 or 3 pieces with Mind control and go to town and STILL avoid the feedback damage. You could put a feat on him but it limits him to 1 arrow. Keep in mind also that you don't need to choose 3 targets (you can choose 1 or 2) and you've got that extra special 12 range (particularly sneaky on angles) which works with MC!!

The Attack values are nothing to laugh at. The first two clicks on his MC clicks are pretty nasty, with 11 and 10 respectively. He does drop from 11 all the way to a 7 by the end of the dial, but against the right team/opponent it's actually 12-8 which is pretty decent to be honest. More devious than his mind control is his incapacitate when he's on clicks 1, 2, 5, or 6. Why? Because it too works with 12 range (run while you can Superman!) and Prof X doesn't take feedback damage from something like incapacitate. That gives Prof X the chance to lock down 3 characters whom are within 12 squares. We all know that double/triple arrow incapacitate is nasty. Heck Vertigo is a pretty freakin awesome character with her triple incap. Now here comes little old Xavier, half way across the board.. Wait he did what to Sentry and Ares? What do you mean he locked down the medic too!? It's pretty crazy, and definitely a great power that can alter the game more than someone like Vertigo. That nice 11/12 AV makes him extremely potent!

His defense isn't stellar however, so hopefully you've locked down your opponents. He starts with a 13 defense and mastermind. If you've got someone like Wolverine hanging around this might be ok. Most of the other X-men pieces aren't good fodder for taking a hit for the Prof. Ult Wolverine, well he regens nicely! Storm makes a great taxi and that's one of her few uses, so maybe she's worth being the fodder. After that opening click of MC, he picks up willpower for the remainder of his dial. There certainly is nothing wrong with using that willpower to incap/mind control to your hearts content! The DV starts at 13 and works down to a 10.

His damage is chalked full of zeroes, but with so many arrows and such a long range, this is actually ok. He does have a few powers here. He starts with 1 click of Leadership and then picks up 2 of perplex (which helps either his own AV/Range (yes he can have a 13 range!) or his allies. After Perplex he's got Outwit for 2 clicks, then a bare final click. One thing to remember. Perplex and Outwit are still subject to their 10 range. These powers ignore the printed base range and just auto 10. So Outwit may not be quite as useful as anticipated.

Overall a great piece with some great possibilities! He'd do well with someone who can bring up his low-ish defense, or be a great set of mastermind fodder for him. Just don't let his make-up smear when he starts crying because of how ridiculously funny it is to see Ares, Sentry, and Silver Surfer standing on the other side of the map not moving (it must be a big game to play all them on the team..)..

MU104: Limited Edition Experienced Charles Xavier
The Limited Edition "experienced" Charles Xavier changes things up from his other version. Some people don't like him due to his lack of upfront mind control, but ultimately it doesn't bother me too much.

He's 125 points and comes with the X-men T/A. He also comes with a 10 range single arrow.

His movement is a bit different than previously seen. He's got a starting 6 which goes up to a 7, and then falls back down to a 5 by the end of his dial. He starts with a single click of Wheeling shot. I mean running shot. Sorry I get an image in my head and it makes me laugh. Anyway, that click or running shot isn't overly potent to me as he's only got a 6 movement. True it boosts his maximum range up to a 13 (1 better than his veteran Counterpart) but also positions him in a place where he can experience retaliation from someone with a natural 10 range. This is one of the huge advantages to both the Fantastic Forces and M&M versions. After running shot he gets his token 3 clicks of mind control.

His attack values are a bit lower than some of the pieces in his point value range. He starts with a 10 and ends with an 8. He's got a special power for clicks 1-3, Telepath. This allows him to use Psychic blast and Incapacitate. The Incapacitate is nice and all, and certainly will have times when it might be useful, but often it'll be nice to just cut right through damage reducers for 3 damage. Of course incapacitate does have it's uses if we know 3 damage will make an angry Hulk Angrier or something of the sort. After those 3 clicks of special power he keeps his psychic blast for 3 more clicks and then ends with nothing.

Defensively he's got decent defense. He starts at a 17 and slowly works down to a 15 and then bounces back to a 17. The first two clicks he's got super senses. I guess this is based on him reading his opponents mind? After that he gets his second power Psychic Redirection. This gives him shape change for 3 clicks. Nothing overly impressive. Definitely something that MIGHT save your hide, and then again more often than not won't. After psychic redirection it's two clicks of nothing for old cue ball.

His damage starts out at a 3 for one single click and then it's down to a 2 for the remainder of his dial. He has his third special power, Psychic Coordination. I don't like this power very much. It's always nice to have some extra perplex on the field, but clearly for 6 more points the veteran has more potential. Further more it's already proven that leadership makes pieces more expensive. This special power is 4 clicks of leadership included. I think this piece would have done just fine without the leadership portion of this power and probably have fallen to a much more reasonable point cost. After the special power he picks up outwit for the last 3 clicks which is always useful.

Still as I said, the point cost for this Xavier is high for what he seems capable of doing. When it boils down to it the Veteran for a few points more has some better options with some MASSIVE ranged capabilities (whether incap or mind control) which makes this version of Charlie a little lack-luster. Better than the Infinity Challenge pieces? Sure.. Better than the rest? Not a chance!

MU031: Unique Professor X


Ok, First I’d like to say I'm not a big fan of the sculpt. I think the pose looks silly, but more important the placement of his wheel chair makes you HAVE to know his stats (or have them printed out) to actually be able to see what he's got on his dial and at what value. That being said, If I can find another one I'm snapping my IC unique off and tossing it on this base.

He's the most expensive Professor X so far, but for good reason! He's 131 points and once again part of the X-men team. He doesn't have 12 range 3 arrow that the ultimate version has. He does have the 12 range. So what's the big deal? Well he almost screams for mental shields with 1 target but it's his special power that really sets him apart.

His movement starts of pretty normal at a 6 and drops down to a 4 by the end of his 5th click. On click 6-8 he is in his astral form (supposedly) so his stats get an interesting boost. His Mind Control is present for clicks 1-3. Clicks 4 and 5 are bare, and then clicks 6-8 he's got phasing (for his astral planiness (Yes I made that word up)).

His AV starts at an 11 and then slowly progresses down to an 8. It’s nice to see over half his dial with 10+ AV. The first two clicks feature incapacitate which isn't overly impressive with only 1 arrow. But it is at 12 range so it has it's uses. After the two clicks of incap he goes to Psychic Blast for 3 clicks. On these clicks he's still retaining a decent AV and his damage has bumped up to make it a bit more potent. After Psychic Blast he's got nothing.

Defense is where the big bonus comes in (and probably the reason people will gun for him!). He starts at a 17 defense which is pretty hard to hit (for a guy in a wheel chair). He works down to a 15 by click 5 and then starts trending back up (in his astral form). He goes from a 15 back to an 18 as he transitions out of regular to astral form. In his Astral form (clicks 6-8) he's got Super Senses to make him particularly annoying. On clicks 4 and 5 he's got willpower, so psychic blast away as much as you can! I've skipped clicks 1-3, but that's because it requires a paragraph on it's own..

The special power Cerebro is just plan nasty and makes this piece ridiculously more potent. I'd be surprised to find a team played in a REAL high point value game that doesn't have Prof X on it somewhere. What does it do? It allows Prof X to use perplex. But on top of that he can choose to use it to target a single keyword. ANYONE (friendly) in 10 squares of Prof X can be perplexed as long as they've got that keyword, if the keyword chosen is one that Professor X has he too can benefit from the power. Ok this screams to play him with a group of people with one keyword. Even better if you play him with someone who shares his own key word *AHEM* X-men *A-HEM* Sorry.. wicked cough during cold season!

Let's think about this special power for a minute. That +1 to multiple figures can do some ridiculous amounts of damage. Trouble figuring out who to use the perplex on?? Not bad.. In fact it's pretty great!!

His damage isn't too shabby either. He starts at a 1 and works up to a 3 for his psychic blast clicks. After that he works back down to a 1 (during his astral plane clicks). He's got a little more potential with outwit on the first 3 clicks (outwit + psychic blast on click 3 is painful!), and picks up exploit weakness to make sure his damage during his astral plane form hurts a bit more.

So how is he? He's a pretty darn strong piece. He's probably going to be BEST used in larger games (300 pts may not be enough to make him shine), but he's definitely a great Xavier.

So my rating?
For games over 300 pts, the M&M version can't be beat.
For Under 300 points the ultimate Version is going to be an extreme pain and leaves plenty of room to add 200 points of friends to the mix.
Which leaves the IC Unique. He's the best looking (Imo).

Thanks for joining me this week. Don't forget to vote for the review coming 2 weeks from now. Your choices are: Absorbing Man, Wrecker, or Hulk (I think I know which one is going to win!). Speaking of voting.. Join me again next week for the review you voted on, Storm!

What happened to the Charles Xavier dial?

Hrm.. I guess it's not in the units section yet?

On the Cerebro special power...

It only affects FRIENDLY characters. Can't do anything to your opponents.

#104 E Charles Xavier
Team: X-Men
Range: 10
Points: 125
Keywords: Mutant, Psychic, X-Men

6 10 17 3

7 10 17 2

7 10 16 2

6 9 16 2

6 9 15 2

5 9 16 2

5 8 17 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Attack - Telepath: Can use Psychic Blast and Incap.
Defense - Psychic Redirection: Can use Shape Change.
Damage - Psychic Coordination: Can use Leadership and Perplex but cannot use Perplex to modify his own combat values.[/quote]

Did it work?

Two things.

First, Cerebro can only target every FRIENDLY character with the same keyword.

Second, nice review, though with the abundance of low and high-cost mutants and X-Men, it's pretty easy to make a winning 300 point team with M&M Prof X. Coordination is your friend with him.

EDIT: Beaten by madslaut! I'll rep you next time for that Gadget! NEXT TIME!!!!

Minor issue with your review: The Cerebro Special Power only affects FRIENDLY characters, so no perplexing down an opponents whole theme team.

Yeah the new prof is a beast!!! I made a pretty good team with him on it. Just for fun i made a team with him, cassandra nova and jubilee on it. Thats two 12 ranges, two outwits and a person to give damage to or give life when needed.

whoops thanks for the cerebro info, I must have missed the "friendly" part. Oh well. I edited that out!

A friend of mine and I keep going back and forth on who is the better Charlie, the FF Ult-X version or the new M&M version. I got mad love for Eyeliner Charlie from FF, but the new one is the superior fig, in my opinion. One thing to note; some people sneer at the hefty 131 price tag, but it's really just a 111 price tag, because his Brilliant Tactician is built in to his first 3 defense clicks, and how many figs out there can really Bril. Tact. for longer than 3 clicks at the front of their dials, anyway? Additionally, new Charlie can hammer out the penetrating damage on his Psy-blast and Willpower clicks. With 12 range? It's carnival shooting gallery time. Stack that with his extra 3 clicks of ghost life at the end, and he's the best for me.

That is sweet that he has running shot, I wish he had a 12 range though

Cool review. I like the M&M Unique myself. If you want to get him off of mind control you knock him on to psychic blast with willpower. If you knock him past that it is phase supersenses with penetrating damage. He is the best Prof. X because he is not just a mind controller he can run you over with his wheelchair and do some damage.

On a side note next buy it by the brick figure... Prof. X on the big base like the worlds finest, with danger room robots.

The FF Unique Professor Xavier works great with Warlock next to him to share defence. Makes for a great New Mutants team.

I'm with you 100% on this one. Absorbing Man!


That's what you meant, right?