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Pojo's HeroClix "Click of the Day"
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WMNOE |
Wild Will's Reviews:
This week is a departure for us. Over on the message boards I put out a call
for the Heroclix that you, our readers, want us to review. Well I only got
one list from "Heroclixmasta" but it's a good one, so for the next two
weeks, we'll be looking at the HC that he wanted us to review. See you could
have had your name in the COTD reviews too, but NOOOOOOO, you didn't send me
an email. For Shame.
First up is Doomsday Veteran:
Here's today's lesson on how to improve sales on your flagship comic book
title. First make sure that your flagship character is media saturated, you
know, film, television, books, songs about your character, etc. Then,
in the medium where he started, i.e. comic books, make sure that nothing
ever really changes the status quo. Or if it does, make sure that it's clear
that it's an "imaginary" story (and as Alan Moore wrote so eloquently,
'aren't they all?') or an "Elseworlds" tale. Then, convienently allow sales
to fall to the lowest that they've ever been. Now, what
do you do to raise sales? Kill him of course.
No, not Kill Bill, it's kill Superman. See around about 1991-92, sales on
the Superman "core" titles (and at that time there were four, Action Comics,
Adventures of Superman, Superman and Superman:The Man of Steel) were dismal.
The powers that be got together one weekend and decided the best thing to do
to raise sales was...(insert villianous music here), kill off Big Blue.
Great idea, especially if from the start they intended to resurrect him, and
for all intents and purposes this is known to be the case.
Once you've decided to kill the mightiest of mighty, now the problem lies in
who does the deed? If you allow a long established villain to do it, like a
Lex Luthor, you've got problems, namely if he could have done it now, why
couldn't he have done it before? Also, then you have the opposing views of
thousands upon thousands of say, Braniac fans, who felt that their guy could
have done the deed. Nope, the solution is to create a whole new character,
one that has no established history, and have that character kill Superman.
And that's exactly what DC comics did. Dan Jurgens and the rest of the
Superman team created Doomsday, a real fugly behemoth, that first appeared
in the last
page of all four of the Superman titles, along with the tagline "Doomsday is
Coming". Now remember, 10 years ago we didn't really have the internet, so a
lot
of comics readers were nonplussed...then the word leaked that this Doomsday
was going to be the death of Superman, and starting in Man of Steel #18, it
was just that. Doomsday appeared pretty randomly, breaking free of his
underground prison, and cutting a swath right through the United States on a
one-way trip to Metropolis, destroying literally everything and everyone in
his path.
First the JLA tried to stop him, but they were decimated (it could have
something to do with the fact that at the time the JLA was a bunch of second
stringers). Then Big Blue figured out what was going on, and made his effort
to halt the beast. This ran for several issues, culminating in the all
splash-page issue Superman #75 (convienently produced in a Black Bagged
edition, complete with black armband and other tschotskes), where on the
last page, after a bloody and brutal battle, Superman and Doomsday literally
kill each other.
Despite the story being extremely dumb in the first place, it's actually
quite well written and drawn, and in the interim six months there was a
feeling that anything literally could happen in comics, heck they killed
Superman! Well, kids, we all know, they brought him back after a brief
absence, and even though DD was dead too, they brought him back, and gave
him an origin to boot!
The next appearance of a living Doomsday (besides the laughing Doomsday
attached to an asteroid in a random issue of one of the Superman titles) was
in the
Superman vs. Doomsday mini-series, and in that tome we finally got the true
origin of the beast. I won't spoil it for you, because it's a good read, but
suffice to say, he was actually programmed to destroy everything Kryptonian,
including Supes.
This VERY long introduction brings us to his Heroclix counterpart, the
Veteran version. Why WK did a REV for him, I'll never know, since he's only
really appeared at one strength level in his handful of appearances, but
then again, if I understoond everything that WK did, I'd probably be working
for them. In any case, the Vet Doomsday is 174 points, and in this case,
right bloody on. He should cost a ton of points, in fact, he should cost
MORE points, so much so that you can't put him on a team. He never really
acts on a team in the comics...but I digress.
A few quibbles on my part, he only has 10 clix of health, which I think is
way too low. If there's any candidate for a full dial of health, it's this
guy. His starting stats aren't all that great either, 8 Speed, 11 Attack, 16
Defense and 3 Damage. His
powers include Charge, Super Strenght, Impervious, Toughness and CCE.
Nothing to write home about in my opinion. He's also the arch enemy for the
Hypertime
Superman too.
See, my opinion is that they made Doomsday too weak. He's the guy who
took out Superman for cripes sake, I mean, he should just be able to whomp
up and down the playing field. WK did him a great disservice by REVing him,
instead of making him a Unique. They killed the secondary market too by not
making him an
REV, AND because he's such a heavy hitter and available, he's on a ton of
teams that he really shouldn't be. Other than that, great piece.
My Ratings:
Playability 4 of 5
Collectability 2 of 5. |
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M055man |
M055man
Doomsday Veteran
History: Slowly under Metropolis, a great evil is awakening. Slowly ever so
slowly, Dc comics version of Godzilla is coming! Doomsday (Named by the
Flash) is one bad crystal monkey (what he looks like) The first person to
actually KILL Superman (without Kryptonite mind you). He is like the Creme
De la Creme of strong DC villians.
Clix: Doomsday would have been a really great clix if he was 30 some points
cheaper (Veteran Wonder Woman) But in the lackage of such a heavy hitter,
Doomsday can make fairly successful teams. For 174 points you get a beast
with 9 clicks of life, Impervious for 5 of those clix, Toughness for the
rest of dial, 8 clix of Super Strength and 4 clicks of CCE (Base of 3 for
the first 3 clicks, 2 for the rest). Doomsday has the faction of Superman
Enemy, So he is best utilized when you can throw in a Legion member to taxi
him around (I recommend Saturn Girl) and you got some free outwit to use.
Doomsday's starting attack is high (11) and goes down to 10 for his 5 clicks
and 9 for the rest of the dial. Pretty consitant stats if you ask me, 0
range is no problem because he has Charge for his first 3 clicks (Powerless
speed after that for the dial). With the new Indy Rules, Charge is a really
good power for slapping around those pesky stealthers. Doomsday (Like quit a
few other figures nowadays) has one of my favourite power combinations:
Charge and Super Strength. These two powers combined could very well make 5
clicks of damage possible with just one action, and with that high attack,
it's doubtful that he would miss. In sealed Doomsday is much better. You
have a murder machine that has a defense power (key in sealed) for the WHOLE
dial!
Sculpt: Looks like King Kong has crystals growing out of him. Look way
cooler than it sounds, though the facial expression could be perked up just
a tiny bit.
Constructed: 4.4/5 (high pointed, low pointed=2/5)
Sealed: 4.7/5 (Again high pointed, low pointed 2/5)
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Anthony
spagnolia |
What's up. Today, we review my all-time
favorite DC super villain, Da Da Doomsday!
Yes, the beast who decimated the JLA, did some property damage..., oh! And
he killed Superman! Yeah, Doomsday is the only villain who actually killed
the Man of Steel (the Anti-Monitor almost did the deed, in Crisis on
Infinite Earths, but that's a whole 'nother saga.) Okay, let's look at his
click, yes? Doomsday costs 174 points, and he's worth each one. His starting
stats are speed of 8, attack of 11, defense of 16, and damage of 3, with
Charge, Super Strength, Impervious, and Close Combat Expert. Yowza! A
sucessful attack from Doomsday = 5 clicks on the chin! Damn!
For the length of his nine click life, he gets only slightly weaker.
which is an obvious plus. He gets five clicks of Impervious, which I think
is the most any current click has, and then gets Toughness for four. Talk
about defensive! And, don't forget. He's a Superman Enemy ( can you say
Doomsday with Outwit? I can, and I have!). AND, he is Superman's Arch-Enemy(blue
base). Plus, his click just looks cool! So, now on to the ratings...
200: 4/5- stick a medic with him and it's pretty hard to beat him.
300: 5/5- build a team around him, you can't lose!
300+: 5/5- Hey, I ALWAYS use him here! Either him, or my coveted OWAW
Superman. That should give you some idea.
Anthonspagnolia |
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