Happy Retirement!
A wise Star Trek villain once said “Time is the fire in which we burn.” While Dr. Soran was referring to the literal fire in which Picard’s family died, this weekend is an opportunity to examine his words in a metaphorical sense, as four Heroclix sets melt away in the inexorable flames that are retirement.
Honestly, I’m happy to see a lot of it go. Nobody needs more than one Scarlet Witch, Crisis Sinestro is too daggone expensive, and don’t even get me started about objects. Yet there were gems in the early modern age sets and the environment will be far less interesting without them. Without further ado, here are my top five barely-modern-legal figures:
5. Rampaging Hulk
I have a lot of respect for this guy; great sculpt, strong dial, and the SP all Hulks should have, at all times. His only general drawback is his lackluster AV, and only specific drawback was rolling two crit miss quakes against my team on Wednesday.
4. Batgirl
Cassandra Cain Batgirl is seventy points of awesome powers. Her only real drawback is her damage value, but if you can push to charge and leave her in close combat she’s deadlier than a barrel of skrulls and twice as attractive.
3. Danger
I don’t read many comics. Partly because a good portion of my favorite creators are dead, but also because I’m mostly an X-men fan. I enjoyed Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run, and was floored to see Danger in clix form so soon after reading it. Her SP is interesting in that the only reason she was defeated was because both Professor X and Shadowcat Outwitted her, but also because it was that rare convergence of strength, balance, and creativity that all SPs should be.
2. Iron Widow
Avengers was the Sodom and Gomorrah of Heroclix. The lord looked out over the set and saw that the figures had become flaccid versions of a lackluster universe. He saw them forced to wield tepid special powers in a vain attempt at depravity; inserting powers like Smoke Cloud into the defense slot. He saw the shameless greed of five weeks of sealed play, and the lord was angry.
He summoned forth his cloud of everlasting lava rain and a skillet of pop secret, and settled in on the couch in his snuggie.
But then Lot said ‘Hey, what about Iron Widow?’
And the lord paused.
1. Darksied
Crisis Darksied is one of the all-time great Terminal versions, a Terminal version of a character being a figure so close to perfection (in terms of play strength and comic accuracy) that further versions of the character are doomed to clix in the Terminal character’s shadow forever. If you want to win your pre-retirement tournament this weekend, pair him with Gypsy and fight on Krakoa whenever you get the chance.
Honorable mentions go out to Gambit, Stardust, and Stingray. The latter especially has completely slipped under the radar since GSX (pro tip – he’s a scientist!), and is about to slide back into obscurity once more. To that end I leave you with the team my roommate used to win last week’s 300-point modern age tourney, and wish you good clixing:
Professor X 123
Stingray x3 87
Researcher x3 45
Ben Reilly 38
Crimson Gem of Cyttorak 5
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