~ Amber

It’s a brand new year and we’re looking to get more involved with this blog like we had when it first started a year ago. What does that mean for you guys? Figure Previews, of course!

Wizkids started the year off right by finally giving us a sneak peak at the greatly anticipated (at least by me) Trinity War Heroclix Set. Who better to start the year off with than the Man of Steel himself – Superman!

The Sculpt

As far as Superman sculpts go, they’ve all pretty much been done before (we even got a Clark changing in a phone booth sculpt) but it’s nice to see him flying again. While he was flying in Teen Titans (and a few non five figure boosters), we’ve seen a surprising amount of grounded Kryptonians. We’re also seeing him yet again in his Nu52 costume which appears to be the norm now since Justice League 52’s focus on DC’s current iteration on the classic blue and red suit. Over all not bad looking as far as sculpting a figure we’ve seen in nearly ever set for the last 12 years.

The Dial

Superman comes in at either 250pts for 10 clicks of health or 115pts for 5 clicks. He’s got a handful of Keywords that are all named; Justice League, Kryptonian, Metropolis and Trinity. He’s got the Superman Ally Team Ability which right off the bat is going to give him an unoutwittable (by normal means) Improved Targeting: Ignore Hindering and Improved Movement: Ignore Hindering. This Superman also has a trait that hands out that team ability to friendly characters with a lower point value and the Justice League Keyword as well as giving it to Batman and Wonder Woman even if they aren’t of a lower point value. The most important thing to keep in mind with this trait is that there are currently ten(!) different iterations of the Justice League Keyword and this only works with one of them.

Top Dial he’s pretty beastly. We’re looking at a 12 Movement with Hypersonic Speed, 12 Attack with Super Strength, 19 Defense with Invincible (Finally an accessible Superman with Invincible) and 5 Damage with Inspiring Hero. This white power is incredible, there’s absolutely no downside to this and should be rolled for every turn regardless. Not only do you get the regular benefits of Leadership – remove an action token from an adjacent friendly character of a lower point value and add an action to your action total – but on a successful roll (5 or 6) you get to modify the Attack and Defense Values of ALL FRIENDLY CHARACTERS (which by the way will include Superman himself). Even if you don’t need another action that turn or there’s no friendly character adjacent to him, even if you are running this man as a One Man Army you get a 1 in 3 chance every turn [you have this power] to give him +1 Attack and +1 Defense!

As the dial turns you don’t see much of a drastic drop in his combat values. By click two his Defense power, True Invulnerability Comes From Within, shows up which allows him to use Impervious and at the beginning of the turn if he was hurt by an opposing character’s attack the previous turn heal him of 1 damage. Now Superman has Indomitable and on his first click he has Invincible. Why do I point this out? He’s not about to take pushing damage and off of his first click Penetrating Poison isn’t going to affect him, which means there’s fewer ways to damage him not through an opposing character’s attack. Later on in the dial when this power shows up – for which he has it clicks 2 – 5 – he’s more susceptible to a Penetrating Poison attack but even still there’s very few ways, safe for Special Powers and Mystics, for him to be damaged without it coming from an opposing character’s attack. Of course this isn’t going to allow him to heal on turns where he wasn’t attacked at all but it will make him a little harder to kill off the bat as he’ll not only be soaking damage with his reducers, he’ll be healing back some of that damage the following turn.

By click 4 he’s moved on from Hypersonic Speed to gain Running Shot and he’s lost his Inspiring Hero power but only to gain both of them back on click 6 which is where his Experienced Dial begins. Also on click 4 we see the first appearance of his Special Attack Power, Freeze Breath, which is a suped up version of Incapacitate. At Range it works like Energy Explosion and in Close Combat works like Quake. I have to say I LOVE this power. This is the first time I’ve seen his Freeze Breath represented in a completely thematic way, allowing him to target more than one character with Incapacitate. He has this power from Click 4 to Click 7. Afterward he regains Super Strength.

It’s not until his final 2 clicks that we see him really weakening. His Movement is now 9 as is his Attack and his Defense has dropped to a 16 while he’s only doing 3 damage. He gains Charge and then Side Step, has a click left of Super Strength and his reducers have given way to Super Senses. However he’s not out of the fight just yet as he gains Ranged Combat Expert for the first time to make one final stand.

Overall this is a great looking and well designed Superman, easily playable as a 250pt Beast and formidable even at 115pts. I’m looking forward to seeing him do some serious damage in sealed though he’s not likely to make too big of a splash in the overall Meta.