Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can! Spins a web, any size. Gets amazing dials, all the time. Look-out, here comes the newest iteration of Peter Parker who always seems to be better than the last version Spider-Maaaaaaan!

New mechanics are tricky with Heroclix. Some of them are great and stick around for a long time while others tend to leave a sour taste in our mouths and vanish in just one set. Split dials that allowed you to shift between two different versions without physically swapping dials was made popular way back in Superior Foes of Spider-Man with Power Man and Iron Fist, and this mechanic keeps popping up. Ms. Marvel was a great addition from The Mighty Thor, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur got in on the fun in Avengers Infinity, and the recent Stealth Sentinel reintroduces the terrifying Alpha Class Sentinel.

How fitting that a mechanic that was birthed from a Spider-Man set is now perhaps one of the best, if not the beset Spider-Man dial in the game.

Just like I mentioned in my intro, it does seem like we’re constantly getting one-upped with phenomenal Spider-Man dials. Handstand Spidey back in Superior Foes was the go-to Peter for quite some time, but once the rules changed and powers linked in traits were susceptible to Outwit and Super Strength could no longer be used during Hypersonic Speed, he took a hard hit. The rare from Earth X last year brought that magic back with another amazing dial full of run-and-gun safety play and some wonderful powers. But his reign was short-lived as the Iron Spider click from Avengers, Black Panther, and the Illuminati gave us the power dial we’ve always wanted for Spidey.

While this dial isn’t as strong as the Iron Spider, it’s quite ridiculous how powerful and annoying it is as he’s the cheapest Pete of all those listed above.

I’m a PC gamer, so I didn’t get the opportunity to play the PS4 Spider-Man game, but I’ve heard that this figure plays exactly like Peter does in the game. Much like Ms. Marvel, Peter can shift modes at the beginning of the turn and give himself some free healing while he’s at it. He’ll need that since he’s only 5 clicks long no matter how you slice it. The powers and stats on this dial are a thing of beauty – it’s tough to find a bad click for his measly 85-point cost, and that’s before we get into his powers and abilities.

Right off the bat, Spidey is rocking some amazing mobility with improved movement over everything except indoor blocking terrain and basically ignoring characters on the map. A great Spider-Man never needs to break away!

Spidey’s first trait is somewhat of a throwback to Handstand Spidey, granting him traited Super Senses, but this time he’s immune to having it countered by Outwit and he has a 50% chance of dodging attacks. Combine this with his Shape Change while in Stealth mode and you have one tough cookie to hit.

Most of the special powers come from Peter’s Stealth mode, with the first giving him Sidestep, Stealth, and the ability to quickly shoot his way through hindering terrain around the map. Even if I didn’t play the game, I can easily envision this as him crawling up walls and web-shooting between the shadows. This gives Peter some fantastic defenses and mobility as Stealth, Shape Change, Super Senses on a 4-6, and Toughness is a ton to chew through for only 85 points, and the Sidestep + blinking makes him highly mobile without using actions.

Coupled with that power on most of the Stealth dial is his offensive power, Eat Webbing, Punk! Incap is great, but it’s even better when he gets it for free. On any turn, this portion of Spidey’s dial gives him 6-squares of free movement and a free Incap, which he can then use his regular action for the turn and Incap a second time as a costed action. By himself, Peter can lock down any character without colossal stamina, assuming he lands his attacks.

We’re not done though. Once Spidey does move into his Fight mode, he picks up a choice of Outwit, Perplex, Close Combat Expert, or Exploit Weakness to couple with his 12-attack and 3-damage. This gives him so much versatility for a melee figure with the ability to either hit hard, hit for a guaranteed amount through reducers, nuke roll-outs, or just be a team player with number boosting. And it’s not like he’s not dealing some decent damage as-is. A consistent 3-damage for 85 points is a lot better than it seems.

Roll all this up and you have a Spider-Man that might not seem as strong on an opening click as others from the past, but a much stronger all-around dial that has better longevity with free healing, and can adapt to whatever team your opponent brings. This is Peter thinking outside the box and becoming the best team member for the job, even if he doesn’t have the Avengers keyword. I highly recommend tracking him down as your definitive Spider-Man. That is, until the next Spidey set comes out and we undoubtedly get a better one once again!

Tools For Success

Numbers are great on this dial, except when it comes to expectations. Even if he’s hard to hit in Stealth, and a consistent 3-damage in Fight is actually quite good, you’ll still want to get his defense and damage values higher. Perplex is going to be your go-to answer and will transform Spidey from an annoyance to a downright menace.

Since luck is something Peter deals with a lot, as is represented by those layers of roll-outs, Probability Control is a great way to simulate that ol’ Parker luck. It’s already tough to hit him, so why not further decrease the chances of you having to roll those dice? This will also help back up Peter’s ability to shut down a figure over and over again.

Spidey is already highly mobile, so a taxi isn’t all that necessary, but telekinesis could go a long way in helping him engage in fights or pulling him out of trouble if he makes it to the end of his dial. Likewise, this will help him get to equipment faster, though most maps will allow him to get to those for free on his own.

Support seems like a pretty decent power to bring to the party since you aren’t dealing with a lot of health and his defense values get pretty low on those last Stealth clicks.

A good ranged attacker is another great option to either soften up Pete’s targets from afar or seal the deal after Spidey lands that first hit. His lock-down makes him a great ally for big damage cannons with low mobility as he can completely stop them from running away.

Map choice is another aspect that I think Spider-Man will heavily benefit from. He’ll need lots of hindering for his Stealth to keep him safe as well as teleporting around for free, so a theme team is almost a must here.

If you can’t win map choice and don’t want to build a theme team, Smoke Cloud is a great way to help him dart across the map on your terms while also helping him stay in cover for Stealth while also dropping your opponent’s attack values.

Equipment is pretty much a must-have on this guy. You’ve already got a stellar dial with tons of options, so why not make it that much better? I like the Power Gem to give him more damage and tons of options for big attacks (all that free movement with Ranged Combat expert for 12/4 is pretty nuts), or the Reality Gem for an extra target so he can double Incap for free along with Perplex. Locking two characters every turn seems pretty stupid-good. Nightbringer is also a great Mandarin ring to make sure Pete’s always hiding.

The Team

I don’t think this is the best team per-se, but I think there’s some serious fun here, and it does relate back to one of my first articles about building a Spider-Man Family Team.

Yep, it’s a team of 3 Peter Parker Spider-Man’s and his daughter from an alternate universe with a wrestling ring, an Infinity Stone, all taking place in Wakanda! Rather than breaking this team down piece by piece, I want to lead you through the decisions that I made.

Our newest Spidey has a fantastic Super Senses that gives him a 50% chance of not being hit, so I figured it would be pretty stupid to maximize the amount of times I get to try to make that work. Enter Wakanda and The Living Spirits Will Guide Us map bonus. In case you don’t remember what it does, check it out:

Once per turn, a friendly character occupying hindering, obscuring, or water terrain may reroll its d6 roll for either Blades/Claws/Fangs or Super Senses.

I didn’t include the rest because we don’t have a Black Panther or an Animal Theme Team, but WOW. Every turn, you get another shot at re-rolling Pete’s 50% chance Super Senses. That seems pretty freaking good, but I felt we could get better.

This is where Spiderling came up. She’s a fantastic little anti-retaliation figure that can actually deal a decent bit of damage thanks to all that Precision Strike and has a pretty good threat range with 10-Charge. Ah, but her defining aspect is her damage power, which is on every click:

Precognitive Spider-Sense: Once per turn, you may reroll the Super Senses roll of a friendly character within range with the Spider-Man Family keyword.

Haha, another reroll for Super Senses! What defense does Spiderling have? Super Senses! See where we’re going with this?

But wait, there’s more! Doesn’t this map also help your Blades rolls? Man, I wish there was a character from the Spider-Man Family with Blades… oh wait. How about the incredibly vicious Venom Spider-Man, complete with self-sustain, huge attack values, and the potential to make more than one attack per turn? Now we get a double-benefit from our map since there’s a pretty decent chance of rolling a 5 or a 6 on Blades and getting free attacks from VSM. He’s also incredibly good at holding his targets down thanks to his Plasticity, and that 18-Super Senses up front should be incredibly tough to get through thanks to all of our rerolls on Super Senses.

Our most expensive character is more of a flex-fit because of how good he is at everything with the Rare Spider-Man from Earth X. This guy finally brings us some Probability Control and a form of retaliation that gives us even more free attacks, which he can then use a regular action afterwards. He’s highly mobile just like our newest Spidey, and he also brings in some more Incap thanks to his web-shooters, but they can just flat out give Immobile if you like, and he has two targets by himself. My favorite thing about this dial is how well it ages from damage. Every click is good here, so he’s most likely going to be our clean-up crew while the others take most of the heat.

I added the Reality Gem over the other equipment I talked about because I like the idea of double-target Free Incap as well as the Perplex giving us more value from his damage power in Fight mode. Now our new Spidey can be a little more deadly in either stance, and is more of a control piece. You’re not getting the raw power from the Power Stone, or the survivability from the Soul Stone, but this is a lot more fun and works better with our build.

With 5 points remaining, I opted for the WWE Ring over the Boxing Ring. This is modern for longer and it also adds to the amount of rerolling we have thanks to it’s trait:

Once per turn, you may reroll the close attack of a friendly character in the Ring. Once per turn, you may reroll the range attack of an opposing character outside the Ring that’s targeting a friendly character inside the Ring.

Unlike the Boxing Ring, you don’t NEED to stay inside the WWE Ring as its bonus is meager. It’s great if you’re inside but you don’t feel like you have to be there to be efficient. I figure this is a great way to protect your VSM and Spiderling on the approach to the enemy team, although you are sacrificing the hindering terrain for the map bonus. Feel free to tweak these 5 points any way you see fit, perhaps with an ID card or a cheap piece of equipment for VSM.

Hey, speaking of this map, it’s pretty easy to blink Spider-Man into a space with the Reality Gem (or whatever equipment you want) as there’s hindering everywhere. Yet another reason why this map is so great for this team!

This might not be the strongest team for the newest Spider-Man, but it looks like an awful lot of fun and swings round and around the principle of having a good time rather than decimating your opponent. It’s great to build fun teams sometimes that can be really good in the right hands. If you do play this team, I recommend burning the map bonus reroll for your Super Senses first before Spiderling as she only cares if you’re close by whereas the map requires you to be in certain kinds of terrain. Other than that, stick to the bushes!

What are your thoughts on this team build? Do you like the synergy more than just building around a singular character and maxing their capabilities? How are you playing this Spider-Man? Let me know in the comments section below!

Thanks for joining me for another Team Build article. I can’t guarantee that this will be the new schedule as I’m still pretty busy, but I’m trying to get as much out there as I can right now while the time is right. In the meantime, I hope you’re enjoying these new builds I’m brining. As I mentioned last time, please let me know in the comments if you run this team. I really want to hear how these work in an actual game rather in just theory.

Take care and remember, the real fun begins when you’re Two Clicks From KO!