Greased Lightning

Yes, the Marvel: Sinister Heroclix expansion set has been out for a few weeks now and I’m finally getting around to writing a review of it. Well, one character in particular: Whizzer/Speed Demon.



At first, I was upset that the “geniuses” at Wizkids had gotten two separate characters mixed together: Whizzer, a member of the Squadron Supreme and Speed Demon, a member of the Sinister Syndicate. But, after some research in my handy dandy Marvel Universe Handbooks, I discovered that Speed Demon had in fact gone by the name of Whizzer early in his career. Chalk one up for Wizkids…they got this one right.



One thing I don’t fully understand however, is the gross imbalance of speedster characters as they are converted into the Wizkids realm. Why is it, that Jay Garrick, the original Flash could reach a land speed of 480 mph* has a movement value of 20 in Heroclix and Wally West, a subsequent Flash, could run as fast as 750 mph but the highest value of other Flash figures in Heroclix only reached a modest 14?

(* He is given the rank of CL1000 according to the game mechanics of the Marvel Superheroes RPG – stats were pulled from www.classicmarvel.com)



Let’s compare another speedster, Quicksilver:

His stats in the MUH show him as having hyper running with a rank of Shift X speed (but then it says 750 mph, which means the power rank should really be CL3000, just like good ol’ Wally West mentioned earlier. Either that, or if it really is SHX, he can only run a measly 180 mph.)

However, his stats on the Classic Marvel website credit him with only a rank of CL1000 for running, meaning his land speed is equal to Jay Garrick: 480 mph.)

However you slice it, Quicksilver is still pretty fast and his powers didn’t translate very well into the Heroclix ‘verse, since his first incarnation in the Infinity Challenge set gave his R/E/V versions starting movement values of 12/13/14, respectively.

They cleaned him up a bit in the Armor Wars set, however, when they gave him starting values of 12/13/13. Yes, his Veteran level is just a tad slower than the previous version, but they finally give all three levels the Hypersonic Speed power in addition to the Flurry power that was the only movement power they gave to the Infinity Challenge version.



It is the opinion of this fanboy, that the Unique Flash from the Hypertime set should be the standard for the rest of the speedster characters in the Heroclix game. These guys are fast! Granted, there aren’t many other Heroclix figures that have a movement value as high as 12, but there are some out there, such as 2 Veteran versions and a Unique version of Iron Man. HE’S NO SPEEDSTER! Let’s give the speedsters the powers they deserve, even in a fantasy based game like Heroclix.
Speed Demon, for one, definitely deserves a movement value faster than a mere 10. That’s par with a ton of non speedster characters and it’s just a slap in the face for fans of speed-based superheroes (or villains).

That’s why, why I make my custom LE version of James Sanders (Speed Demon), I’ll give him a starting movement value of at least 14.

Anything less would be uncivilized.