Welcome back to Comprehensive Reviews, today we’ll be taking a look at Solomon Grundy. One of the original beat sticks from Hypertime whom was graced with a new version in the recently released Arkham Asylum set.

So whenever you’re ready click, “Full Story” to access the full review.

You know as I sit here on the train getting ready to review Solomon Grundy I can’t help but note his little motto, “Solomon Grundy Born on a Monday.” His character largely revolves around being born and dying. Which seems oddly fitting somehow (in my mind) with him being “born” in DC’s first set Hypertime and being once again present for DC’s last set (well at least Wizkid’s last set). It’s probably silly, but it’s just something that hit me on this review.. I’m weird.. I know... Anyway onto the review!


#HT073 R Solomon Grundy Team: No Affiliation Range: 0 Points: 49

6 10 14 3

6 10 14 2

6 10 13 2

6 9 13 2

5 9 12 2

5 8 12 2

5 8 11 2

4 8 11 1

3 7 10 1

2 7 10 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

The very first available Grundy is the extremely cheap 48 point rookie from Hypertime. He doesn't have any range, he's not a flier, and he's got no TA. What he does have is a ridiculously long dial. 10 clicks for 48 points gives him an average cost of 4.8 points per click!

His movement is pretty low. It starts at a 6 and even ends at a 2 by the end of his dial. Good luck getting him into combat on his own. He's also got no powers. This wasn't so bad when Hypertime was initially released as he could be taxied and attack immediately following the taxi. Because of this, low movement wasn't a big deal. Fortunately at 48 points he leaves plenty of room for a TK piece to help get his bulky butt into combat.

Attack values are actually pretty darn respectable.. He's got a starting 10 which is still good in today's game to hit a target with a decent defense. It works down to a 7 by the end of the dial, but it's a fairly slow decent to 7 AV which can keep him relatively viable for the length of the game. He's got super strength on the first 3 clicks (all of which have 10 AV) which is going to give him a decent amount of damage potential.

Defense he's in the toilet. He's suffering from Man-Thing syndrome with the low 14 Defense to start which goes down to a 10 by the end of the dial. It's pretty bad that someone with a 0 AV could actually stand a chance of hitting him at any point in the dial (without the need for a critical hit). He does have toughness, which isn't the best damage reducer, but what do you want for 48 points? Toughness lasts from clicks 1-6. He does have one other defensive thing going for him. He's 48 points! If your opponent dedicates any outwit on him or someone who can deal 3+ damage (3 if they are outwitting the toughness) to get him off the 10AV+SS clicks, then he's probably made up for the effectiveness he'll have lost. At 48 points he'll probably be going under the radar until it's too late and he hits hard. Even if that only happens once!

Damage wise he's got lower values than I'd like to have seen on him, but it was good for the time. He's got a starting 3 damage followed by 5 clicks of 2 damage and then 1's for the remainder of the dial. With super strength coupled to his first 3 clicks he has the potential to hit for 5 damage on the first click or 4 damage on clicks 2 and 3. A 48 point piece who can deal 5 damage without the need of a damage roll (ala B/C/F) is decent. But when it's coupled with a 10 AV and gives him a good probability of getting off one really good shot.. Well that makes him a pretty darn good 48 point piece.

Is it 100% representative of how Grundy is in comics? No.. not really, in terms of playing a team and needing to put Grundy on for a theme purpose, he does pretty well assuming you've got a TK piece! One good hit is all it could take him to make him worth his 48 points if he and an outwitting friend can bring a 150+ point piece to their knees.

#HT074 E Solomon Grundy Team: Injustice League Range: 0 Points: 69

6 11 15 3

6 10 14 2

6 10 14 2

7 10 13 2

5 9 13 2

5 9 12 2

5 8 12 2

4 8 11 1

3 7 11 1

2 7 10 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

The experienced steps up the cost to 69 points.. Still hardly game breaking.. He's got the Injustice League TA now. Honestly, that TA is pretty well worthless so I'm not going to mention it too much. If you can get it to work.. great.. if not.. well it's just changing Grundy from a 60-65pt piece to a 69 point piece..

His movement still stinks, and he's still only got 10 clicks of life. He once again starts at a 6 and ends at a 2.

Attack value is up more to a starting 11, which really gives him the potential to lay some pain on anyone in the game at this point. An 11 AV on DC's heroclix wasn't overly common back in HT, which made him a great piece to play. The AV works down to a 6 now by the end of the dial, and it's still coupled with the same starting 3 clicks of super strength.

Defense is at least up to a starting 15, but still works down to a 10 by the end of the dial. Is this a huge improvement? Not really.. Toughness again stays for clicks 1-6.

Damage got a slight boost by adding more clicks of 2 damage and removing a few 1's. Other than that the same tactic for the Rookie applies.

I wouldn't bother much with the Exp. He's not going to bring much tot he table. The 11 AV can be substituted with the gobs of perplex that are available in the game anymore.

#HT075 V Solomon Grundy Team: No Affiliation Range: 0 Points: 75

7 11 15 3

6 10 15 3

6 10 14 2

6 10 14 2

6 9 13 2

5 9 13 2

5 8 12 2

4 8 12 1

3 7 11 1

2 7 10 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

The Veteran was one of the pieces that helped me administer a beat down on my first few games of heroclix ever. He's 75 points now and has lost the IL TA. Is he worth it, Honestly.. I think so.

His movement starts at a slightly more respectable 7 speed but still works down to a 2 by that 10th click. It will at least give him a little bit of a chance to maneuver himself around the field. Still a TKer is best!

Attack value is at an 11 to start and works down to a 7 by the end of the dial. Super Strength is extended out to click 4 this time.

Defense is still low starting with a 15 and working down to a 10 by the end of the dial. He does have a change of powers here though. He gets and keeps Impervious for 2 clicks before switching to toughness which stays until click 10 (which is blank). This gives him a lot more potential to stick around for longer than one turn. If SG gets TK'd into combat the impervious does give him a chance to completely avoid any extra damage he'd take. It gives him potential to be more than a one hit wonder.

Damage is up a little, he's got 2 clicks of 3 damage which is nice since it makes him push-able on the beginning clicks, which further help his cause to be more than a one hit wonder (in terms of the modern game). Other than that everything else is just meh.

So when would he be worth paying more than the 48 point rookie? I still like the Vet Solomon. I think he'd be a great choice to play instead of the Rookie when you're playing larger point games. IE the way the 48 point Grundy is viewed in a 300 point game is what you want the 75 point Veteran to be seen as.. So maybe 400-500 points. In games like this you'll also be seeing opponents dragging out pieces with higher than normal AV's which the 11 AV helps against. SO I think the Vet is actually a decent choice. The Rookie still may be the best choice overall though of the HT pieces.


#AA018 E Solomon Grundy Team: Injustice League Range: 0 Points: 115

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8 8 16 3

8 9 16 3

8 9 16 3

7 10 16 3

6 10 15 3

6 10 15 3

6 9 14 3

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Then there is the new "Experienced" version.. "Oh boy!" I thought, "I'll play him with 2099 Hulk, some form of Spider-man, Supernova Kang, and the Supernova Thanos as a throw back to that team many moons ago that Grundy administered a swift kick tot he booty." And then I saw the dial.. And those hopes were dashed!

Frankly for 115 points, I don't know who thought his dial was really an improvement over what existed. He's got the IL TA which is STILL ####, so that didn't help.

His movement is at least up to an 8 which is somewhat respectable. IT works down to a 6 by the end of the dial which is much better than a 2. He gets charge for the first 3 clicks. The only huge advantage this gives him is the ability to be TK'd a bit shorter than right in your opponents face and let him charge in while picking up an object. He switches to Flurry for clicks 4-6 which at least give him some extra damage potential.

AV is wonky.. He starts with an 8, Hulks up to a 10 by click 4 which stays for 3 clicks before dropping to a 9 on click 7. Did I mention he's only got 7 clicks of life? He's got Super Strength down the length of his dial which is much more "Grundy" feeling, but unfortunately it feels his good AV comes much too late in the game, and there's a pretty high probability he's going to die before he really gets to make use of it. It honestly takes away his ability to be a 1 hit wonder in many cases, as you probably want HIM to attack first, and since he needs to be hit over 1/2 way through his dial first he's probably going to get hit with a follow-up attack that makes him an easy 115 point piece to take.

Defense got a boost to a 16 which stays for half the dial, but 16 isn't that hard to hit. With 17's being an average defense for pieces that cost 100+ points, Grundy is lacking and there should be multiple options on a team to deal with his low defense. It works from a 16 down to a 14 on the second half of his dial. He does have decent damage reduction with impervious to start for 2 clicks, before going on to invincibility for 2 clicks. From there it's toughness for 2 more clicks and a single click of regen at the end. The positive note.. A bad regen roll puts him back on his "best" clicks. The bad note.. He's only got one click of Regen, and often times that's close to impossible to end up landing on.

Damage wise he's got 3's down the dial this time. This is a bonus since at any point in his dial he can deal 5 damage (more on the flurry clicks). But once again 1/2 his potential is lost that if he is the person who hits first he's probably going to miss (thanks to the 8 AV) and if he's hit first then there stands to be a very good chance that your opponent will just follow up and finish him off (or stay out of his melee range).

It should be noted here (thanks loyal readers!) that the new Solomon Grundy does have the indomitable ability which will give him the potential to push much more often. Because of this his value does go up a tiny bit, but ultimately he remains relatively easy to kill relatively quickly..

It's a big disappointment.. for 115 points there's no way I'd ever pick the New Solomon Grundy over ANY of the old ones.. Sorry dude.. What a horrid showing..

And because it’s a classic I leave you with this little piece of comic gold!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGQEAiZJMco

Thanks for stopping by this week! Next week I'll be taking a look at a number of Generics and Commissioner Gordon. It should be fun! Cya then!

You probably *should* mention the fact that the new Grundy is Indomitable. It might not make him good, but it sure does make him a LOT better

this is true. Indomitable helps a little.

what he needs desperately is a couple of perplexers.
just up his attack. or theme him with a bunch of gothamites which always seem to have perplex.

I agree. The new Grundy is just bad. What a disappointment.

Whoops.. somehow when doing the review I missed that.. I'll go back and make an edit right now

Indomitable might have helped more if his dial didn't look so darned pushable. Those seven clicks also look really tiny when you see them right next to the original Grundies.

Sad, because I was looking forward to a new Grundy, but they dropped the ball on this one.

Well It's not even that his dial "looks" pushable.. It really boils down to him having about 1 great click and 2 "ok" clicks that are worth wanting willpower on.. The rest of the dial.. Lets face it 8AV sucks..

What's the HT Experienced version's AV on his last click? You say 6 but the dial says 7. You also say the Vet has 4 clicks of Super strength but the dial still says just 3.

I agree that the new version isn't a very good piece but if your opponent can't deal well with damage reduction he's hard to beat. Of course who (besides me) makes a team that can't deal well with damage reduction (stupid police theme team!)

I tried out the new Grundy with a bunch of other Golden Age villains and although my team won it sure wasn't thanks to Grundy. He goes down like a chump.

Next time I'll save some points and field the old vet Grundy. In my experience he's pretty easy to take down too, but at least it might take longer.

When I think of Solomon Grundy I think of the fact that Superman never made any money, saving the world from him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihUIPlLw2ZE

MY STICK!!! but yea grundy is arse!

Thanks for the review. Yeah, I gotta say, for 115 points I was expecting quite a bit more for Solomon Grundy. Oh well, if he's ever re-done again then maybe they'll get him right.

Thanks,

My biggest problem with Grundy is that NO VERSION of him has the "Injustice Society" Keyword, though he was on multiple incarnations of the team, and even has the IL TA show up on a couple of dials.

The AA version of Grundy doesn't bother me so much. My brother played him in "No Man's Land" Event Dial scenario and between the "Native Survivors" and "Consolidating Territory" he had no trouble hitting for big damage.

I keep wondering if he was designed with MoE in mind. With that ability, plus indominatable, he'd be kinda fun.