DEEP DISH THEMES:
By The Slice:

ORIGIN: Jack Hart was the son of Philip Hart, a brilliant scientist who developed a revolutionary, extremely efficient liquid fuel called Zero Fluid, and a humanoid alien woman of the Contraxian race. The alien was one of many scientists dispatched to try to discover an energy source to resuscitate the dwindling nuclear processes of the Contraxian sun. Learning of Hart's experiments, the alien assumed a totally human form to keep Hart under surveillance. Hart and the alien eventually met, married, and produced a son they named Jack. The alien woman, "Marie," died in a car accident when the boy was a child. Neither her husband nor child ever learned of her extraterrestrial origin. Jack grew up charming and intelligent, becoming a poetry major at New Haven College in Connecticut. There he met the one girl who wasn't interested in him - Marcy Kane. She would eventually fall for Jack, but tragedy would soon tear them apart. When Jack was still young, Philip Hart perfected his Zero Fluid and decided to donate the fuel to all the free countries of the world. Hart was then contacted by agents of the criminal Corporation who wanted to market the Zero Fluid. Refusing to deal with them, Philip Hart was murdered by Corporation agents before the eyes of his son. Managing to escape, Jack Hart took refuge in his father's basement laboratory Corporation agents broke in minutes later, and their laser-cannon sheared through the laboratory door, striking the vat of Zero Fluid. Doused by the powerful, corrosive fuel, Hart underwent a mutagenic change and began to glow. With an uncontrollable burst of energy generated by his entire body, Hart killed his father's murderers. Vowing vengeance on the entire Corporation, Hart fashioned a costume for himself, plundering his father's collection of armament. The armor somehow interacted with the final stage of mutation and provided a moderator that contained and controlled the release of his body's energy.



PROS: Our only version of Jack of Hearts to date has a great mixture of many useful powers. He boasts such things as Running Shot, Pulse Wave, Penetrating/Psychic Blast, Ranged Combat Expert, Energy Explosion, and Probability Control. That is a lot of options for a character that is only 105 points. He has a way to hurt you pretty badly no matter what click he happens to be on. At the very least, he's going to be able to cause you some hurt before getting taken down. He has a way to bust through even the toughest of damage reducers on every click. He also has a very generous eight range with which to snipe opposing characters. That alone might be able to keep him in the game for some time. By the time anybody comes in close enough to get him, he's melted some faces off.

CONS: Though he does offer a lot of offensive options, he's pretty much the definition of a glass cannon. He is almost ALL offense, in fact. He only offers a LITTLE bit of damage reduction via Toughness as well as a little shielding through Energy Shield/Deflection also. He is a little too easy to deal with. Luckily, being an older figure, he has a decently long dial. He has eight clicks of life where a newer version with the same point cost would probably get 5-6 clicks of life MAX. He also suffers from some unfortunate up and down swings in both attack and damage values. His attack value spikes to it's highest number while his damage is at it's lowest, and his damage values spike when his attacks are either on the low end or just dismal. So, to recap, you have a glass jawed/glass cannon figure that has erratic numbers bordering on bad. We really need a new version of him...

Other Players' Comments/Reviews: Using the Inline dial system, just click on the word bubble next to the character's name and it will take you to the units section comments!

KEYWORD THEMES: (Named Keywords are in bold)

Avengers: One of my favorite Avengers stories ever was Red Zone by Geoff Johns. I just loved everybody on the team at the time, and I think that might have had a lot to do with the fact that Jack of Hearts was there. I don't know if I'm alone in this or not, but I was just completely lost in the story and that is a rarity for me to get so involved that I don't even see the grand reveal of who Dell Rusk REALLY was. I was just so happy with the story, and as a result, here is a team inspired by the comic (ID cards work so well to get characters into the mix that otherwise don't fit the point total, btw!)

Force Build 8551591 0
Set	#	Name	Team	Pts	Value
SV	090	Jack of Hearts		105	$1.99
AOU	023E	She-Hulk		75	SELL
FFOA	006R	Captain America		50	SELL
FFCW	006R	Scarlet Witch		50	SELL
AOU	AUID-003	Vision		5	SELL
WKM	MVID-001	Ant-Man		5	SELL
AOU	AUID-101	Iron Man		5	SELL
NFAOS	NFID-002	Black Panther		5	SELL
Force Total:				300	$1.99

NON-KEYWORD THEMES:

Avengers Infinity
Defenders
Legion of the Skull (Earth X)
Project Pegasus
Stark Industries
Stranger's Prisoners

DEEP DISH DO-IT-YOURSELF:

In this section, I share with you my own homemade dials for these poor characters that have only ever had one or two versions of themselves realized. I'll try not to get too fanboyish with them, but I'm not making any promises! I also invite any of you who like to make fan dials to please share your versions of these characters as well by using the DIAL GENERATOR in the units section on HCRealms.

#027 Limited Edition Jack Of Hearts
Real Name: Jack Hart
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 7
Points: 150
Keywords: Avengers, Armor, Cosmic, Defenders, Project Pegasus, Stark Industries

10 11 17 4

9 11 17 4

7 10 18 3

10 10 17 3

9 9 17 3

7 9 16 3

10 8 14 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Armor Breach: When Jack of Hearts is KO'd, before removing him from the game, make a ranged combat attack with an attack value of 10 that can't be rerolled. The area of effect for this attack is all characters within 5 squares, and each hit character is dealt 3 penetrating damage.
Concussive Blast: When Jack of Hearts makes a ranged combat attack targeting a single opposing character and has a direct line of fire, the areaa of effect for the attack includes all other characters occupying squares adjacent to the squres the line of fire passes through. The target is dealt damage normally, and each other hit character is dealt 1 penetrating damage.
Ultimate Sacrifice: When this click is revealed due to Jack of Hearts taking damage from an opposing character's attack, stop turning the dial. Immediately place Jack of Hearts in any legal square up to half of his printed movement value away. Deal one unavoidable Damage to Jack of Hearts.

This wraps it up for this installment of Deep Dish Themes: By the Slice. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to read it! Feel free to post what you think about the article and just like regular Deep Dish Themes, feel free to nominate a character for an upcoming edition of Deep Dish Themes: By the Slice! Join me on 2/3 when I explore what it's like growing up on as a half-alien super hero in Deep Dish Themes: By the Slice: Invincible!

Your wife made you do this, didn't she?

Great ideas for that hidden gem.

No, she didn't. Jack of Hearts is one of my favorite characters. Seriously under utilized. I even tracked down his first appearance in DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG-FU (Who would have guessed THAT'S where he would first show up?!) and bought it many years ago.

Pretty cool! Always wondered who this guy was... I missed the storyline and I might have to go back and find it. =)

Really like the custom dial. The power combo at the end could be devastating for the opponent.

I'm with you on Red Zone. I was reading Avengers then and thought it was some of the best stuff with an awesome line up- I only recently went back and looked up who wrote those awesome stories and was not surprised in the least. I loved this figure too; he was quite feared in his day, at least in my group.

Love this character. My favorite issue was a Defenders and they were doing a membership drive and boatloads of heroes and villains show up. Jack and Captain Ultra are arguing something like this:

“Listen Jerk of Hearts!”
“Shut up Captain Colorblind!”

shortly after a battle royal ensues



Anyway, used him many times over the years, but not in a while. Maybe I can dust him off and give him some modern support.

Nice....Cool Character. Awesome costume.

Invincible next?!? That's awesome!

This figure is in so desperate need of a remake....Thought we would have got a new one in Gotg set.

Had no idea about this guy...zip, played him a couple times but usually found someone I liked better for the points that was a Avenger. Thanks for the write up.

Would love to see a new Jack of Hearts!!

Back in the day, Marvel had some large, black & white, magazine sized comics. I'm pretty sure that's where I first saw him. He was never fully developed as far as I know, but I was happy to see him briefly in the Avengers!
He'd be a great addition with a new dial.

Yep, deadly hands of kung fu #22 I believe. He was a character that appeared in a large chunk of Silver Surfer comics too. (Also had his own mini series in the 80's as well)

Jack was one of my old favorites too. I would love to see a new version of him.