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Pojo's HeroClix "Click of the Day"
WildWill |
Name: Bane
Set: Hypertime
Numbers: 91-93
Rarities: 3-5
Costs: 61, 76, 85
Health: 9, 10, 10
SSADD: 8/10/15/2, 8/10/16/3, 9/10/16/3
Powers: Super Strength, Toughness, CCE
Exp, & Vet add no new powers
Ranged Attacks: None
Team: Batman Enemy (all versions)
Bane was your ordinary South American lad, you know born in prison, raised
himself to live his life in peak physical condition, and then horribly,
horribly mutated via the consistent use of the fictional drug Venom (first
created by Grant Morrison for the second storyline of Legends of the Dark
Knight. So here’s Bane, he’s a freakin’ gorilla. Travels to Gotham and sets
himself up as a crime lord. Then he goes and does something that no one else
had ever done. He broke Batman. Really. He broke Bruce Wayne’s back, and
forced Bruce to irresponsibly turn over the Mantel of the Bat to Jean-Paul
Valley aka Azreal. That was a big mistake. But that’s another HC review
(actually until they MAKE an Azreal figure, it will have to wait). As so
often is the case, Bane was defeated by the new Azreal-Batman and went into
seclusion, popping up every now and then to pick a scrap with Batman and his
family.
Bane in the game acts pretty much like he does in the comic, he’s a brick.
You like bricks, Bane’s your DC Brick. He’s not too expensive, though he
doesn’t measure up with his Brick counterparts in the Marvel Universe, he’s
a decent clix in the DCU.
The Hypertime set is now UBER old…and as I’ve mentioned before, it’s been
discounted pretty much everywhere. There might be a run on starters because
of the new Catwoman LE offer (what, you don’t know what that is? Check the
message board forums, read the Heroclix Gossip forum!), but single prices
and sets from Hypertime are ultra-cheap on the secondary market. Only 7
sales of Bane’s REV sets have happened on Ebay recently (with quite a few
unsold sets too), ranging from $0.99 to $12.50 for his 3 figure set, with an
average of $4.88 (all without shipping). For Hypertime, that’s not bad.
My ratings – playability first, then Collectability.
Rookie – 2, 2
Exp – 3,2
Vet – 3,3
Next time – the first DC Mail Away.
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Shooter |
Bane
85 points
Range 0; 1 Targets
9 clix of life
Batman Enemy
Super Strength (5 clix); Toughness (7 clix); Close Combat Expert (7 clix)
Luchadores to your corners!!!!! Ok, I’m sorry, but Bane’s sculpt just
doesn’t do him justice. Actually, on a more general level, Bane’s costume in
it’s entirety doesn’t do him justice. And I think it’s fairly easy to tell
why…the lucha libre mask. I personally think that in order to save the
character, they need to lose the mask. But that’s just my opinion.
Ok, looking at Bane’s stats, he is a tank of a click. However, saying that
he has 9 clix of life is really a lie. He in fact has 7 clix of life, and 2
of worthlessness. It is at this point that you either heal him up if a medic
is immediately next to him, run him away as best you can, usually via taxi,
or you wave goodbye to Bane and 85 points. While the latter isn’t the best
option, it is the one that usually occurs the most. With most clix who have
a nice power change or sudden increase on the last one or two clix (IC
Spider-man for example), you are often knocked beyond those clix to KO and
never get to use them. Ironically, with Bane, in every game I have seen him
played, he lands on one of those two worthless clix. I’m not sure why, it
just kinda happens. Anyway, as I said, Bane is a tank. He starts with a nice
speed of 9 and it only drops to 8 on his good clix. His attack value starts
at 10 and stays there for 3 clix, then drops to 9 for another three ending
up at 8 before he totally drops off. He also has some Super Strength at that
time, which really doesn’t advantage him if he’s based (since his CCE will
do just as much or more) but a lot of people forget that objects can also be
thrown, and you can position Bane 3 squares away from a close combat enemy
with an object in hand and just throw that dumpster right on their head. His
defense starts out at 16, and then drops 1 point every other click, ending
with a 13 before the worthless clix. He also sports toughness on every
single one of those clix, and damage reducing powers are never a bad thing.
His damage value is where he really shines. It starts out at 3 with Close
Combat Expert, then drops to 2 with Close Combat Expert for the rest. To
avoid the problems associated with the drop off, I suggest that once he
loses Super Strength, you start moving him back toward the medic, or at
least move out a taxi to him who can bring him back in.
Overall, Bane is amazingly consistent, of course, before the drop, so feel
free to push him without too much hesitation. In fact, the only time I would
consider not pushing him is off of that first click since a 16 defense is
seemingly a lot harder to hit than a 15. I would definitely consider him
worth his points. However, keep in mind that he is probably best suited for
mid to low point games, since there his above average 10 attack value and
consistent dial will be of better use than in a higher point game where
he’ll probably take up too much of your force to not be really versatile. To
put it simply, Bane is a cheap primary basher who does what he does pretty
darn well…but he can’t really do anything else. I could go into ways on
improving him, but there are just too many and there’s really no need. He’s
a very simple figure, and doesn’t need a lot of strategy to use effectively.
Just move in and attack. But if you really want to get fancy, team him up
with a friendly Batman enemy with a low attack like Scarecrow and watch the
fun ensue.
Ratings:
100 points: 3.5 out of 5 (Yes he’s most of your force, but his consistency
and high damage still decimate)
200 points: 3.5 out of 5
300 points: 2.5 out of 5 (He’s too big to be a supporter, but not quite
powerful enough to front the team)
400+ points: 1.5 out of 5 (He’s a pretty big target)
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