~ Amber

Next up for the Trinity War Previews we have the big man of the Crime Syndicate Ultraman. This is only the second time we’ve seen this Evil Superman in Clix and I honestly couldn’t be happier. I love the Crime Syndicate.

The Sculpt

Compared to the last time we saw Kal-Il this sculpt is definitely an improvement but then again it has been almost ten years (a lot can happen in a decade) The sculpt on it’s own merits isn’t flashy and we don’t have any excessive translucent parts to add to it but the pose is nice. It embodies Ultraman’s sinister demeanour quite nicely and sets him apart from his Earth 1 counterpoint. Here’s hoping that creepy serial killer face comes out just as good on the physical sculpt.

The Dial

Ultraman comes in at 225pts or 125pts with the Crime Syndicate Team Ability, Flight, Indomitable and Improved Targeting: Ignores Hindering which essentially puts him on par with Superman without having to give him the Superman Ally Team Ability. As for keywords we’re looking at the named Crime Syndicate and the generic Ruler.

Considering the fact he’s got a simple rainbow dial (meaning no special powers) it gives us an idea just how much a Team Ability like Crime Syndicate can cost a figure. For those not familiar with the Team Ability – which considering it has only been given to six figures in the past 12 years, that’s a lot of us – it’s like a super up Theme Prob.

CRIME SYNDICATE Characters using the Crime Syndicate team ability can use Probability Control. When a roll is ignored because of this team ability an action token must be placed on a friendly character on the battlefield or the roll is not ignored. Uncopyable.

So this is going to work within the same restrictions as regular Probability Control. You’ll need Range and Line of Fire to the attacker, it doesn’t take an action to activate and you can’t use it if you can use Probability Control already. (which on the flip side will keep a Crime Syndicate figure being able to use theme prob) What sets this apart in a big way from Theme Prob is that the action token can be assigned to ANY FRIENDLY CHARACTER. Might be worth having a couple of 3pt bystanders hanging around to soak up CSA prob tokens.

Aside from his awesome Team Ability, Ultraman has a singular trait that says his powers and abilities can’t be countered while occupying hindering terrain. This is great, for when you can pull it off. Modern Age maps haven’t been all that generous with the hindering terrain lately which really encourages you to put him on a theme team and hope for map choice or to try and utilize his Super Strength defensively instead of offensively. Have no idea what I’m talking about? Well let’s look at Super Strength.

SUPER STRENGTH When this character moves due to its own action, it may either pick up an object or place an object it is holding. The object must be picked up from or placed in either a square the character occupies or an adjacent square. If this power is lost or countered while this character is holding an object, immediately place the object in the square this character occupies.

A recent update to Super Strength now allows you to drop an object you were holding. On the clicks he has Super Strength he also has Hypersonic Speed and an 8 Range. If you’re holding an object it might be beneficial to attack at range with Hypersonic and place the object underneath you afterwards instead. It’ll only work on the first two clicks of his high point dial but it may just be a neat strategy to get that Trait working for you.

Overall his stats aren’t outstanding and his Power combinations are nothing too special and at times can be contradictory – having Hypersonic Speed and Ranged Combat Expert on the same click just doesn’t jive well with me. For a character who is literally Superman’s evil twin there’s so much more that could have been done with this character especially considering he was previewed at the same time as one of the best depictions of Superman we’ve ever seen.

His lower point value might see some play but this beast is better kept to sealed and Crime Syndicate Theme Teams.