This week's Team from the Longbox stays with the early X-Factor as Scott Summers returns to Alaska to find out just what happened to the wife and child he walked out on. The local law enforcement isn't much help with the personal problems, but they do end up assisting Cyclops when and old foe returns.

A 300-point force respresting this comic using one of the newest HeroClix figures and some recently revisited older ones can be seen after the link.

Synopsis: One year into the X-Factor series, Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops finally decides that he should return to Alaska to his abandoned wife (Madelyne Pryor-Summers) and son to explain why he left them and stayed out of contact for so long. When he finds them missing, and most evidence of their ever having existed also gone, he continues his streak of bad ideas by blowing up his family home and getting himself arrested by the Anchorage Police.

Unfortunately for Scott and the Police, their trip back to the station is interrupted by an attack from the Master Mold. Here is a 300 point HeroClix force representing the battle in this comic:

150 (AVX 009) Cyclops
68 (Batman V004b) GCPD Cruiser (piloted)
40 (Dark Knight Rises 005a) GCPD Officer
33 (Streets of Gotham 049) GCPD Motor Officer
+ 3 x 2 Additional Team Ability GCPD

= 297 Points


An entire new generation of comic readers has recently been introduced to the "Bad Choices" Scott Summers I've known for 30+ years, so it felt appropriate to use the most recent version of the character available: the 150-point Cyclops from the AvX X-Men starter pack.

This character is the obvious tentpole of this HeroClix force, and I think it has enough things going for it to pull off some victories. It has to be able to take consecutive actions, and a nice top-click combination of Running Shot, Precision Strike, , and 8 to make the most of his ranged-attack emphasis. The top dial also starts with a special white power that grants Outwit. The combined Outwit/Leadership power is quite appropriate for this comic since Scott was actually using his brains to find weaknesses in the Master Mold and directing the police officers. The destruction of blocking terrain also nicely represents the property damage inflicted by Cyclops in this comic arc.

V Cyclops Points: 150 Range: 8
Team: X-Men
Keywords: Ruler, X-Men

9 11 17 4

9 11 16 3

| | |

8 10 17 4

7 9 17 3

7 9 16 3

6 9 15 2

6 9 16 2

KO KO KO KO

I Can Still See the Dream: Improved Targeting: Ignores Blocking Terrain. When a ranged combat attack resolves, any blocking terrain along its line of fire to the target is destroyed; May make a ranged combat attack when adjacent to an opposing character.

Ongoing Optic Blasts: Cyclops can use Force Blast and Running Shot. When he uses Running Shot, after actions resolve, he can use Force Blast as a free action.

Let's Put The World Back On Track: Cyclops can use Leadership and Outwit. When he uses Leadership, adjacent characters with a shared keyword are considered to have a lower point value.


The reliance on ranged attacks for Cyclops' offense is a serious restriction, but the rest of the force can help with that in a couple of ways. The first way is by possibly lowering the defense values of characters that are the target of ranged attacks through the Police team ability:

POLICE When a character using the Police team ability is adjacent to a friendly character making a ranged combat attack, modify the target’s defense value by -1 if the target is within line of fire of this character.

The second way is by moving opposing figures to where Cyclops can attack them at range. This is easy to do with a (piloted) GCPD Cruiser, using the Clear the Streets pilot ability. This ability is expected to undergo a formal errata to remove the penetrating aspect to its damage dealing side-effect, so I have included the proposed revision in the description of the ability.

Vehicles (and especially the GCPD Cruiser) have caused no small amount of controversy since their introduction to HeroClix in 2012, but there are force builds in which they perfectly play the role in HeroClix as they do in a given comic. In this comic, the Anchorage (not Gotham City!) Police Cruiser plays a significant role both as a vehicle, a combatant and a delaying tactic, so there should be no qualms about using a Piloted Cruiser on this force. You may face some groans, but the Police (and their car) completely supported Cyclops in this fight, and that's exactly how you should play this team!

R GCPD Cruiser (Piloted) Points: 68 Range: 6
Team: Police
Keywords: Gotham City, Police, Vehicle

8 9 17 2

8 8 17 2

8 8 17 2

7 8 16 1

7 8 16 1

7 7 16 1

7 7 15 1

7 7 15 1

7 7 15 1

6 8 15 1

6 8 15 1

KO KO KO KO

(Prereq) Pilot Ability: Clear the Streets: Prerequisites: Gotham City keyword or Police team ability.
(proposed errata) Once per turn, when GCPD Cruiser passes through a square occupied by an opposing character, immediately place that character in a square within 3 squares and line of fire of its current square and deal it 1 penetrating damage, then complete GCPD Cruiser's movement.

(Prereq) Pilot Ability: Cuffed to the Bumper: Prerequisites: Any character with "GCPD" or "Gordon" in its name. GCPD Cruiser can use Plasticity; characters that can automatically break away or ignore characters for movement purposes do not automatically break away or ignore GCPD Cruiser for movement purposes.

(Pilot) Passengers: 1

Tactical Response: GCPD Cruiser can use Perplex, but can only target adjacent characters.

the rules for Vehicles have a number of subtleties that I won't explore here, except the most important one about having the right Pilot to trigger the appropriate Pilot abilities. My favorite pilot for the GCPD Cruiser is the Arkham Asylum Gotham City Detective, but this comic had two motor patrol officers, so I'm trying for slightly more comic accuracy than pure bloodshed.

The two figures I've chosen have all the prerequisites for both Pilot abilities and the chosen Additional Team ability. One of the officers is from the Dark Knight Rises counter-top display set, the other is from a Streets of Gotham vehicle pack. I recommend using the 40-point DKR GCPD Officer as the pilot for a couple of reasons. First, he has the lower movement value, so he may have trouble keeping up and repositioning. Second, staying in the Cruiser as the pilot offers protection for his own single top-dial click of Outwit.

R GCPD Officer Points: 40 Range: 4
Team: Police
Keywords: Gotham City, Police

6 10 16 2

6 9 16 2

7 9 15 2

6 10 15 1

6 9 16 2

KO KO KO KO

Detain for Questioning: Opposing characters subtract 1 from their d6 rolls when breaking away from GCPD officer.

Minion: Following Orders: When a higher point friendly character with the Police keyword uses Leadership, GCPD Officer is considered adjacent to that character.

The GCPD Motor Officer may be slightly harder to come by as it was only available in a vehicle pack from Streets of Gotham. There is nothing extra special about this figure (as used on this force) except that the APB power offers an interesting way for this figure to lower opposing figures defense values without the usual Police team ability restrictions.

R GCPD Motor Officer Points: 33 Range: 5
Team: Police
Keywords: Gotham City, Pilot, Police

8 9 16 2

7 9 15 1

7 8 15 1

6 8 15 1

6 7 15 1

KO KO KO KO

Special Training: When GCPD Motor Officer becomes the pilot for SoG #V003 GCPD Motor Cruiser, the vehicle may be given a non-free action this turn.

APB: When GCPD Motor Officer makes a ranged attack, after actions resolve, modify the defense value of the target by -1 until the end of your turn.

This force will heavily rely on positioning, so the very useful GCPD Additional Team Ability has been added to the force to help provide the Police department figures a little added mobility.

GCPD Cost: 2 per character
Prerequisite Keyword(s): Gotham City and Police (both keywords)

At the beginning of your turn, characters using this team ability that have no action tokens
may be given a move action as a free action, with a speed value of 4.

Note that it is possible to reconfigure this force down to 200-points so they can face off at the lowest Master Mold point value (from Galactic Guardians super-boosters), but a better battle would just be to give the 200-point Master Mold 100 points of Sentinel helpers, feats or resources to bring it up to 300 points.

V Master Mold Points: 200 Range: 10
Team: No Affiliation
Keywords: Robot, Ruler

10 11 18 3

4 10 18 3

4 10 17 3

4 10 17 3

4 10 16 3

4 10 16 3

4 9 16 3

4 9 16 3

10 9 16 2

10 9 16 2

KO KO KO KO

Advanced Sentinel: Master Mold can use Multiattack and can't be targeted by an opponent's Mind Control, Penetrating/Psychic Blast, or Perplex.

Retribution Virus: Mark each character that caused Master Mold to take 2 or more damage from a single attack. At the beginning of your turn, Master Mold deals 1 penetrating damage to the marked characters and each other opposing character adjacent to them, then remove the mark. Each character can't be dealt more than 1 damage per turn by this power.

The Retribution Virus could be extremely painful for the Cyclops team if the Police Department team ability is in play!

Ah. The 90's. I miss those days of comics. Where the background could be orange for no good reason, and no one ever said anything about it. When artists who couldn't draw ankles or wrists just made everyone wear boots and wrist bracers.


Ah.... Nostalgia!

except this issue came out in 87. and this isn't Rob Liefeld art.

I actually remember walking 2 blocks to the drug store and getting this issue off the metal rack right by the front door. Back before I thought Cyclops was a total douche.

Don't forget about the limits to print technology before the 1990s (yes, this was '87 and Simonson is a kick ass artist who can totally draw feet). You can't write off good art just because of the time period.


Very cool article. Recently went through and reread early X-Factor. I wanted to get a Master Mold to put this battle together. =) Any recommendations for a good map with Master Mold and some Sentinels?

Speaking of great cover artist.....how about doing a write up on X-Factor issue 70. LOTS of X-Men/X-Factor folks mulling about with a great Magnolia cover! Would make for a wild team. Added kudos of being the beginning of Peter David's excellent run.

Do you mean Mike Mignola? I was going through some Marvel Longbox and I saw his cover art on something that surprised me (Power Pack maybe?). Unfortunately he did not do interiors.

I know I don't have the complete PAD run, so I cannot promise #70. I would definitely like to see what teams can be made from the later issues of the series however.

Indeed I do! Clearly, I was thinking about flowers when I posted! PAD's original run wasn't too long, but it was filled with humor and pop culture references. Highly recommended, and easy to find in back issue form. I believe the run goes from 70 to 90 to with a couple annuals and Hulk tie ins. In regards to this series, it may not be the best run to highlight, due to the lack of cool builds....but a good comic run nonetheless.

He's talking about this one btw
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__...r_Vol_1_70.jpg
which is awesome and the last issue before the original 5 rejoined the X-men.

You have shades of the original X-factor (Scott, Jean, Bobby, Hank and Warren) holding up the Professor along with a hint to the future in the background (Polaris and the soon-to-be-Strong Guy).
Along with Forge and Banshee who were very influential in the X-men line at the time.
I think that's Dazzler beside Banshee but I'm not positive. I'll have to dig the issue out to be sure.

And Wolverine... because Wolverine just increased the chance of sales :P

I'm actually surprised after all the millions of Wolverines they have we haven't gotten one in that suit.