Heroclix Hit Some Of My Geek-Out Buttons Again

I mentioned it briefly last month, but I haven't really discussed Heroclix since summer of 2008. Well, it the license was up in the air for awhile, and even though the releases started up last fall, I haven't really had an opportunity to play much. I still like to keep up on happenings, since you never know when I'll get back to playing regularly again.

The Web of Spider-Man set came out earlier this week. I'll probably get around to purchasing the figures I want sometime, as there are several figures I want that were released in this set. It's not about the numerous Spider-Mans (excepting that Cosmic Spidey), as I already have more Spider-Mans from various sets than I have teams I'd use them on. The fun is in seeing what characters that haven't been made into Clix get the honors each time. In that regard, this set worked out great for me, I'm at least moderately interested in about 50% of the set. Compare that to the last DC set, when there were only 3 figures I wanted, and one of those was a new character (The Parademon from the Secret Six). It's nothing against the set, I think a lot of people liked what Brave and the Bold had to offer, there are a lot fewer characters at DC I'm interested in. Plus, they made a lot of Duo figures, and I don't care for those.

With Web of Spider-Man, they tapped the Prowler, Puma, Rocket Racer, Will o' Wisp, people! Even gave them all (and Sandman) "Outlaws" as a keyword, which means I'm not the only one who remembers those stories in the early '90s where Spidey formed a team out of his old foes who reformed. Throw in Molten Man, Cardiac, The Spot (!), Solo*, a new Black Cat while they're at it, I'm pretty happy.

There's even a J. Jonah Jameson figure who can stop anyone he can sees from using the Spider-Man team ability. That can be handy given the number of characters in the set with that team ability, but more importantly, if your opponent uses JJJ, you could have Spider-Man leap over and punch his lights out! You know Webs has been wanting to do that for years, and you can make up whatever story you like to explain why Jameson's involved in the fight, and why Spidey would punch him. Actually, coming up with stories to explain why two teams are fighting, or narrating it as it goes along is a lot of the fun for me. Especially if your opponent goes along with it, which isn't always the case. There were some very serious players at the store back when I played regularly, in addition to the folks who wanted to have fun with it. While still wanting to win, mind you.

It's not all Spider-Man related characters, either. There's both Red Hulk and Red She-Hulk, if you liked those characters and wanted to use them. I don't, but why focus on the negative? I'm sure someone is ecstatic to have them, either because they love the characters, or just because the figures do serious damage. I'm more excited about them providing another member of the Runaways (they added five members with the Hammer of Thor set last fall), the U-Foes, and best of all, Groot! After they added 4 members of the team in Hammer of Thor (Star-Lord, Moondragon, Phyla, and Rocket Raccoon**), Groot was one of the last ones to need a figure. Just leaves Jack Flag, and who knows, maybe it'll be his turn in the next Marvel set (the next set scheduled for release is a DC 75th Anniversary set). I love I can say with a straight face that Jack Flag might get a Heroclix soon, but I think the designers like comics as much as the fans, and they want obscure characters to get some love, too.

It's got to be a mostly thankless job. The set comes out, and if some folks aren't complaining about one character being included, it's other folks complaining a character was omitted. Or that this character was made too powerful, or too weak. I know I've sat around the store with the other players and wondered why they were making another Robin, or wishing they'd made Stingray's dial a little better***. Still, if you're a smarter player than me (or if I'm having a particularly clever and/or lucky day) any character can be useful, so it's better to have a particular character than not.

* While he lives, terror dies! What a putz, but a putz who can teleport.

** Surprisingly, Rocket's clix didn't simply say "You are playing Rocket Raccoon. You win."

*** OK, I was the guy who felt Stingray could have been tougher. I just figured he gave Iron Man some trouble underwater, he could be a few points more, maybe get some better values.