Wednesday, 8 September 2010

Is it just me...

...or do the upcoming white lanterns look as if they should be featuring in a washing powder ad?

Tuesday, 7 September 2010

Power of the press

While it might not be obvious from the quality of the prose on this blog, I am a professional journalist. Many years ago I was a humble local newspaper reporter, while these days I work freelance and split my time between editing and writing features for trade magazines.

Perhaps it's not so surprising, then, that I am rather keen on the Reporter keyword – and very excited by all the media-luvvie characters Web of Spider-man is bringing to the table:

007 Spider-man
008 Peter Parker
009 Venom
010 Eddie Brock
022 Spider-man
025 Anti-Venom
035 J Jonah Jameson

By my reckoning that's six pretty playable figures - and Eddie Brock, who's only use might be repainting him as someone being hit by a custard pie.

The two Spidey's are both pretty good, though I prefer the cheaper version over the Back in Black option. It's a darn shame neither have a move and attack power though - surely one of Spidey's strength is swinging into battle and landing a solid punch.

Peter Parker is the first Alter Ego I can imagine myself playing. He's a Perplexer who might be some good as a tie-up piece, but can then turn into a three clicks of pretty hard-hitting Spider-man. Sounds like a good deal for 50 points to me. Sculpt looks OK too.

I think Venom is also really solid. I'm a sucker for up-front Charge and Super-strength, and it will be fun to see how his Tendrils power plays out.

I had to hit up Wikipedia for the background to Anti-Venom. When I finished congratulating myself for not having spent any money on comics featuring him, I took a look over his dial and realised he has the potential to be an interesting piece. I'm not convinced how useful his white power will be, though, given that he must do damage to activate it – and then it stops at the end of the turn. Hmm.

But surely the highlight of the hacks is none other than JJJ himself. Personally, I'd play him even is his dial was blank, but a couple of clix of Perplex for 26 points means it should justify his place in the press pack. Just don't put him on your team if you are planning any wildcard abuse.

Long time no see

This blog has been sadly neglected in the past few months but I aim to remedy that over the coming weeks as Web of Spider-man lands in the UK.

From my previous post some five months ago, it's pretty obvious The Brave & The Bold just didn't do it for me. I didn't buy a single booster and have only picked up a few individual figures - mostly generic Amazons so I can one day have an Asgardian/Amazonian face-off.

The set coincided with a very busy period of work and family stuff - and a brief flirtation with Magic the Gathering after a 10-year break - that meant Heroclix was put on the back burner.

But no more.

Last weekend I cracked open my figure boxes and tracked down a PAC and some dice, and later this week I'll be getting together with the old Brighton Heroclix crew to look at the W0S goodies and play my first game of Clix in far too long.

Can't wait.