Some Characters I'd Like To Add To My Gaming

I have to get back in the habit of writing potential post ideas down, because I forgot one I thought of last night before I fell asleep. Oh well. Instead, I'm going to amuse myself by discussing figures I'd like to see in DC's next Heroclix set that haven't been made before. There are a bunch of DC characters that have had figures, that are a bit dated*, that could use a new version, but that's a whole other thing. I don't imagine we'll see any of these in the next set, unless I'm very lucky. DC's next set is a "75th Anniversary", so I'm betting on iconic characters, so the 27th-29th versions of Superman most likely. *shrugs* It's good if you're a fan of those characters.

1) Ragdoll - He's not the only member of the Secret Six not to have a figure yet, but he's the only one of the core group. He'd likely be a low-point piece players could set next to the other person's big brusier, and use to keep him tied up, which seems appropriate for Ragdoll. Plus, I'm curious as to what names they'd give his abilities. Something suitably unnerving, I'm sure.

2) Sand - Offhand, I can't think of any other major members of the JSA that don't have a Clix. They made a Wesley Dodds, the Golden Age Sandman, in Origins, and some of his abilities could certainly be incorporated into Sandy's dial. Sand has the gas gun, and the predictive visions, so that would be similar. Toss in a bit of Marvel's Sandman's dial, or maybe Geo-Force's. Hmm, Groot has a power that represents when he grows to an enormous size, they could toss that in somewhere for when Sand merges with the earth and becomes a giant rock creature (as I remember him doing against Mordru). I don't know if he still carries the wirepoon gun, but that could be worked in, too, I'm sure. He'd probably be a fairly heavy hitter, not on the scale of a Kryptonian, but a figure that could alternate between being hard to damage (if he becomes rock), and just being hard to hit (with the predictive power, or he could turn into a mass of swirling sand, how do you hit that?)

3) Enemy Ace
4) Haunted Tank - I figured I'd discuss these two together. Several sets ago, the designers introduced the idea of Keywords for each figure. Things that summed up character's team affiliations, or said something about who they are. Spider-man might have "Avengers" depending on when in his career it's supposed to represent, but it might also have "Reporter" or "Scientist". The idea was if you put together a team with everyone shared a Keyword, you received certain bonuses. it's not perfect (I don't know why red-and-silver armor Iron Man doesn't have "West Coast Avengers, for example) but they try to cover all the appropriate bases.

In Hammer of Thor, they made a figure called Thor's Mighty Chariot, which was Thor with his chariot and his two goats. They even created a new Keyword, "Vehicle". So with that in mind, why not Enemy Ace and the Haunted Tank? They haven't done any World War 2 characters in a while (Sgt. Rock and a couple of the combat happy Joes of Easy received figures in the second DC set, many years ago), but that's no reason not to add a couple new ones.

I would probably annoy my opponents by going "clankety-clankety-clank" as I moved the Tank across the map. But that's the sound it makes!

5) Unknown Soldier - My father's comics gave me quite an appreciation for DC's war characters, and they're a group that hasn't had a lot of representation. There was a Mademoiselle Marie in The Brave and the Bold set, but it was the one introduced by Rucka and Trautwein in Checkmate, as opposed to the skirt-and-beret wearing, Sten gun using WWII version. Which is still nifty, just not quite what I'm looking for.

Unknown Soldier wouldn't be a powerhouse, but he'd probably be hard to hit (being a master of disguise), and could probably do enough damage that he could clean up the opponent's supporting figures and secondary attackers, who aren't quite as tough. Probably some skill at inflicting damage up close or at range, but maybe not the best team player. He might have some special power where he can choose a particular Keyword, and he can, for example, Perplex (improve, or decrease if targeting an opponent) the values of only characters he shares that Keyword with. It would represent him playing a role for the mission, so he can't demonstrate skills unusual for who he's pretending to be, or he'd blow his cover.

* What tends to happen is the designers come up with new powers, the attack and defense values shift over time, or they introduce a new game mechanic (Sharpshooter). The end result is figures that were great back when the game first started aren't all that useful now, because by the end of their dial they have an attack of 4 and defense of 11, while most characters don't go below a 7 or 13/14 these days.