Sorry to be harping on this a bit more, but a friend asked me about it, and I realized I couldn't actually quote any specific rule (i.e. in the comp rules), nor could I give a clear indication of a rule of thumb.

When do you check the team affiliation of a character you are recruiting, when it is in your hand, when it is on the chain, or upon it having entered play?

Previous discussions seem to have indicated that affiliation is checked while the character was in your hand, but I would love if someone could clarify why.

Thanks all.

While a character card is not an object, this is as close as the current rules get.

The logic is straightforward: the game cannot look forward in time to determine what affiliations the character will have upon resolution.

The only choice then is to go with what we already know: the affiliations the card had while in your hand.

I guess my confusion simply stems over the fact that it doesn't check while in the "on the chain" zone. And I know, for the vast majority of situations it doesn't matter, in fact the only ones I can actually think of are Armored Spider Suit and Goblin Glider in combination with a team-up card (Marvel Team-Up wording) or Lacuna.

Ah well, thanks for your help Zaxx.

There's no reason to check while on the chain as modifiers which alter affiliations typically affect only characters in play, or character cards in your hand, deck and KO'd pile.

Even if that were not the case, you're still generating an effect based on the information currently available.

What the character will become has no bearing on what it currently is.

It was the whole "for each SS character you recruited this turn" line. The question originally came up when a bunch of us were musing over when the affiliation of recruited chracters was checked.

This question has been answered multiple times. The affiliation of the character that is being recruited is checked as it leaves the hand to be placed on the chain.