My comics longbox was very disappointed to see the end of Matt Fraction's fun Defenders run, but it has been replaced by Cullen Bunn's equally fun, and equally HeroClix-friendly Fearless Defenders. There is a conceit of this new series that can make it inspiring to HeroClix players, so the Teams from the Longbox series is jumping right into issue 8 to discuss a 300-point HeroClix force that appears as a team in this issue.

Synopsis: The conceit of the 2013 Fearless Defenders series is that Misty Knight (of the Heroes for Hire fame) and Brunnhilde (a.k.a. Valkyrie) are tasked with the selection of a new set of Valkyrior/Shieldmaidens from among the heroic women of Midgard. This has a wonderful effect on the comics narrative, as it allows for an incredible roster of guest-stars in the book: Misty Knight can "hire" pretty much anybody on Marvel Comic's 616 Earth, and Valkyrie is always looking for potential candidates.

Issue 8 has Misty and Valkyrie crawling through the sewers investigating some 'monster' activity. Here is the 300-point force featuring the series' two main players, as they are joined by a cool guest star and an interesting shieldmaiden candidate: No-Name of Brood!

130 (FI 005) Valkyrie
73 (GSX 028) Elsa Bloodstone
70 Unique (ASM 044b) Misty Knight
25 Veteran (CM 006) Brood Warrior
+ 1 x 2 Additional Team Ability Avengers (Heroic Age)

= 300 Points

The highest-point figure on this force is the common Valkyrie from the Fear Itself event boosters. Valkyrie is a character that took a while to be represented in HeroClix; she first appeared in the 2006 Sinister set and then has reappeared in the Hammer of Thor set three years later. Luckily for HeroClix players who are fans of the character, there has never really been an ineffective representation of Brunnhilde.

This latest version of the character has a lot going on the dial, and she is perfectly capable of being a tentpole for this force. She has the potential for significant damage output courtesy of Fearless, and she boasts two types of move+attack. The first is the very standard Charge, but the second comes from her . Should one of her allies KO an opposing figure, or even KO themselves, Valkyrie can appear in the square of the defeated character.

V Valkyrie Points: 130 Range: 0
Team: Avengers
Keywords: Asgardian, Avengers, Defenders, Deity

10 11 17 3

9 10 17 2

9 11 17 2

8 10 16 3

8 9 16 3

8 10 17 3

7 10 17 3

7 11 18 3

KO KO KO KO

At the Side of the Slain: Whenever a character is KO'd, after actions resolve, you may place Valkyrie in a square that character occupied.

Fearless: Valkyrie can use Blades/Claws/Fangs and Flurry.

Valkyrie is a single-die-rolling machine because of Leadership, and Blades/Claws/Fangs, but to further expand on the potential for single die rolls, I encourage adding the Additional Team Ability Avengers (Heroic Age). This force doesn't have a lot of TAXI options, so an extra chance to remove an action from the tentpole can offer some great opportunities for Valkyrie to be ready to attack.

Avengers (Heroic Age) Cost: 2 per character
Prerequisite Keyword(s): Avengers

When a character using this team ability is given a move action, after actions resolve roll a d6
that can't be rerolled. On a roll of 6, remove an action token from that character.

Elsa Bloodstone is a character that has only been made once in HeroClix, during the Giant-Size X-Men booster set. That single representation was then and remains today a great HeroClix figure. Ms. Bloodstone has a dial designed to hurt the un-hurtable, but she also has a useful 6 that can be used to deal with targets that just don't want to be adjacent to her dial full of close-combat pain-giving. Note that only Valkyrie is enough points to remove tokens from Elsa Bloodstone via successful Leadership roles, something to keep in mind during positioning these two figures.

V Elsa Bloodstone Points: 73 Range: 6
Team: No Affiliation
Keywords: Mystical, Nextwave, Warrior

8 11 17 3

10 10 17 2

10 10 18 2

8 10 17 2

7 9 16 2

7 10 16 2

7 9 16 3

KO KO KO KO

Monster Hunter: Elsa Bloodstone deals penetrating damage to characters over 250 points. She modifies her attack value by +2 when attacking characters that possess , , or the Monster keyword.

Misty Knight is one of the many characters that was first introduced into HeroClix as a bystander token (in Fantastic Forces) but was finally made into a character with an actual dial (in Amazing Spider-Man). I'm not thrilled with the fact that the only 3D version of Ms. Knight is as part of a figure, as the available clix-of-life for one-hlaf of the dial don't do as much justice to the character as I think she deserves, especially for 70 points. We have to work with the dial we have (unless the BST token is intended to be used as a mechanism to put Valkyrie into position) so we play the hand we are dealt and use this version to the best of our ability.

This figure does have a few things going for it, the most important being the natural 3 damage top dial. This is reinforced by a 5 attack, and the posibility of improving ranged attacks from Elsa Bloodstone by use of the Police team ability. Her Leadership power is mostly wasted on this force, but it does offer the possibility of removing tokens from the Brood Warrior.

U Misty Knight Points: 70 Range: 0
Team: No Affiliation
Keywords: Detective, The Hand, Heroes for Hire, Martial Artist, Police

8 10 17 3

8 10 16 3

8 9 16 2

7 10 16 2

7 9 15 2

KO KO KO KO

Daughters of the Dragon: When you build your force, choose a 70 or 140 point cost. In addition, each time you reveal your force, choose the green (Colleen Wing) or yellow (Misty Knight) starting line. If you chose 70 point cost, this character has the "single fist symbol" and is KO'd when the first red line is crossed. If you chose 140 point cost, this character is KO'd when the third red line is crossed.

Stark's Freeze Ray: Colleen Wing and Misty Knight has a range value of 5 and can use Incapacitate and the Police team ability.

Heroes for Hire: Colleen Wing and Misty Knight can use Leadership. Give Colleen Wing and Misty Knight a power action and remove an action token from an adjacent friendly character with the Heroes for Hire keyword.

No-name of Brood was specifically made in the Mutations and Monsters 5-figure HeroClix set as "Brood", but the 49-point figure does not fit on a 300-point team, so I've reached back to the 2003 Critical Mass set to choose one of the Brood Warriors. With point values of 18/20/25 to choose from, I went with the Veteran, but I can understand other players trying to save points for use with a relic or special object. The rookie version of the Brood Warrior can offer Valkyrie a faster chance to get into battle by sacrificing herself quicker. On this force, the figure is not much more than a taxi and a means of annoyance.

V Brood Warrior Points: 25 Range: 0
Team: No Affiliation
Keywords: Animal, Brood, Warrior

8 9 14 2

8 8 14 2

7 7 13 2

6 6 13 1

6 5 12 1

KO KO KO KO

My advice on playing this force is to advance such that your force will not get sniped, because the mobility is limited. If you are very lucky with ATA and Leadership rolls, you may be free of action tokens such that the force can quickly get into position to attack on turn 2. I advise keeping Valkyrie back, since she can pop into place after a KO of any figure (opposing or friendly). This is a good reason to try to have either Misty or the Brood try to quickly KO a short-dial opposing figure.

I have really enjoyed this comic series so far, and I'm hoping that at least one of the series major players (Hippolyta) eventually makes it into a future HeroClix release.

Thanks for the article. A great read!

Neat. I just read the first trade and then immediately made a valkyrie team.

the new team doesn't have a brood and clea and mirage are part of the team

i know you said issue number 8, i'm talking about issue 9. I just had to be "THAT" guy

If you look at how the Teams from the Longbox series is structured, you may notice that team builds are typically structured around individual issues and arcs. My intent isn't necessarily to construct a force of representative of all issues or all members.

Issue 9 has several great rosters: Bar Boys, Good Girls and Bad Girls. The Bad Girls (like many villains) are widely unrepresented in HeroClix, but the other two groups are mostly existing...so stay tuned!

thanks for the article. i'm hoping marvel's hippolyta gets clicked soon


it's times like this that I remember the greatest misstep of modern wk: the silver ring around colleen wing & misty knight. if it weren't for that I know I wouldn't be the only one that would buy 2 extra copies and shave of 1 each of the second sculpts to quick-mod solos that could merge

I agree that the unique-ness of a duo figure that also serves as two different solo figures is annoying...especially since neither of those characters exists as non-BST outside of that single unique HeroClix piece.

I'm also disappointed that the 12-click 140-point duo has the single options at 70 points for 6-clicks of life each. Having only 5-clicks for half the 140-point cost strikes me a peculiarly unfair. I'm not ignorant of the (current) meta involving the Heroes for Hire keyword and Additional Team Ability, but most problems with that aspect of game balance involve the ATA more than this figure.

I'm seriously hoping for individual versions of both Misty and Colleen, as well as a first version of Marvel's Hippolyta.

I'm looking for suggestions for existing HeroClix dials that would best represent Hippolyta. The best dial I can think of is the Mighty Red She-Hulk. The only problematic feature of the dial is the revert feature of the stop click, but if the revert is ignored the rest of the dial well represents the character. Until I can settle on a good stand-in, I expect that the full Colleen Wing and Misty Knight dial will be used to represent "Misty Knight and Hippolyta".

The Flashpoint Wonder Woman is a great dial for Hippolyta (ignoring some of the peculiar effects relating to the Flashpoint powers), except that the dial doesn't have flight. The TabApp Wonder Woman figures are also good, but they lack the Blades attack that Hippolyta uses.

Elsa Bloodstone is still one of my favorites.

there's a dc 10th anniversary common wonder woman that's 84 points, thats a pretty good match. Thats the one i used in my line up.

That is a good choice, and has a cost that is friendly for team building. The Incapacitate is an unfortunate stand-out for me, as Hippolyta has been very blood-thirsty so far.

I'm toying with the idea of using the HoT common Valkyrie as an early-series stand-in for Annabelle Riggs. The damage output is crazy high for the character, but the synergistic special powers seem just right.

yeah i agree with the incapacitate isn't right, but the reason i liked her she has a couple of key words that work perfect for Hippolyta and of course the points

and for Annabelle riggs " now bear with me " pippin from the fotr set, except for his exploit, and the fact that he's a he. Check out his powers and tell me what you think.

For me, Fearless Defenders and A+X bring back the fun in comics.