Superman REV

DC Hypertime

Today's review - Superman, the man of steel.  The most popular DC comic book figure ever created. Everyone had HUGE hopes for this figure and for good reason.  Unfortunately, when he was released, and the wave of fan boys bought this piece by the dozens, they noticed one thing that ruined everything; his low damage values.

The Rookie (155pts): This figure offers all the major powers you need to be a serious contender.  Decent range, high speed with charge, high attack with super strength, a decent defense with impervious (which was rare at the time) and … a base two damage…  Surely that’s not right, is it?  How can Superman be given such a low damage value?  To me (and 99% of all the other HeroClix players) this ruins what could have been an amazing piece.  Give this figure a base 4 damage and he would receive lots of play, even in today’s hypersonic speed filled environment.  This is a great piece if you can overlook this low stat.  Damage is the way you win games though, it’s almost impossible to consider this piece playable.

The Experienced (173 pts):  This version is a littler better then the rookie, simply because of the higher damage.  Most of the stats are still the same as the rookie, but we have one extra click of impervious with a higher stat, one extra click of life and as I mentioned before, the higher damage value of three.   I’m not going to say this piece is weak, he is far from that, but when he is compared to the figures that are being printed today, he is slightly overpowered.  A comparable piece would be the new unique Thor.  He is 13 pts more, offers practically the same team ability, has a higher attack, better range,  MUCH higher damage, running shot and dial that ends almost as strong as it starts.  Now, after comparing theses two figures, you can see the HUGE difference.  And exactly why I say Superman is so underpowered.  Now, give this piece a base 4 damage – and we are talking!!!  I suppose the base 3 damage works just fine, but you better hope you can make some successful impervious rolls, as his late dial drops pretty fast!

The Veteran (219 pts):  Superman without the Superman team ability? Why?  He is Superman; there should be NO OTHER team ability that replaces his own, period.  Now, getting to the actual piece, this guy is a house, no doubt.  Then again, what else would you expect for 219 points...?  Charge, super strength, impervious, leadership – he has it all, EXCEPT - high damage.  This is still the weakest part of all three figures and it’s a serious thorn in the side of players who choose to give this piece a chance.  As I did with the experienced version, I’ll compare this Superman to a popular figure with a comparable point value – Magog (209 pts).  When they are side by side, you see many differences.  Magog has a higher attack, which is maintained throughout his dial and he deals MASSIVE amounts of damage!  These two stats alone will turn most players away from the Superman and more towards the power house of Magog.  This comparison alone is enough to show how poorly Superman was pieced together.  They could have made one of the best figures of all time, but instead they made one of the biggest flops!

Overall:  Damage says it all.  This piece will struggle against today’s popular pieces.  He does not have the speed, damage or strong late dial that it takes to compete in today’s environment.  I give Wizkids a very large thumb down on these figures.
 

It is probably not a mistake that the Superman REV from Hypertime is the highest point REV set in the game.   There are only a handful of figures that break the 200-point barrier, but all of them are Uniques or Limited Edition save Veteran Superman.   

Still just because the Man of Steel is such a high point figure does not necessarily mean he translates to one of the most powerful Heroclix in the game.

The Rookie comes in at 155 points.  Starting Speed of 10 with Flight and 5 clicks of Charge means he can easily take the fight to his opponent. His starting Attack of 10 is right at the average for a figure of this cost.  His range of 6 helps and combined with the Superman Ally ability Superman can go after the figures hiding with Stealth and knock them off the board.  His Damage is where he falls short.  He has 2 throughout his entire dial, which is really low for the Man of Steel in my opinion.  Granted he has 5 clicks of Super Strength and once he loses that he gains 3 clicks of Close Combat Expert (CCE), but this means without an object in his hands at the beginning of the game he can’t even wound someone with Invulnerability or Impervious.  That doesn’t make sense.  His starting Defense of 15 is low, but he has 2 clicks of Impervious.   The nice thing is that after he loses that even though he only has Toughness his Defense jumps to 17.  Combined with 9 clicks of health he should be around for a while. 

The Experienced jumps up to 173 points and it is basically a tougher version of the Rookie.  His starting Speed and Attack stay the same, but his starting Defense goes up to 16, and Damage up to 3.  Throw in an extra click of Impervious and an extra click of health and this version although more expensive is a little more well rounded.

The Veteran jumps up to 219 points and becomes a member of the Justice League.  This makes sense since he spent a lot of time with the Justice League, but you lose that vaunted Superman Ally ability which would be nice since his range goes up to 8.  It’s the same flaw that gets Veteran Batman.  He gains the JLA team ability, but loses that vaunted Leap/Climb Stealth combo. Otherwise Superman’s Speed jumps up to 12, and his Attack up to 11.  His Attack dial gets a little deeper while his Defense now has 4 clicks of Impervious.  He also gains Leadership down his entire dial.  Again I understand why Superman has Leadership, but from a Heroclix standpoint how valuable is it?  Basically Superman is so expensive you will never have enough figures to need Leadership unless you maybe playing a 1000 point game.

Overall I want to like the REV of Superman, but the low Damage really holds me back.  Look at Vetran Ulik. For 147 points he can do 6 clicks of Damage with either CCE or a Heavy Object. I think Superman should have started with CCE on every figure.  I think if I had to choose the Experienced seems the best for the price. The Superman TA is really useful and his dial is more well rounded then the Rookie, but the cost isn’t outrageous like the Veteran.  I think the other main thing that hurts the Superman REV is that the OWAW Limited Edition Superman and the Unique Kingdom Come Superman really show what the Man of Steel should be capable of doing. Yeah they are more expensive, but the addition of Hypersonic Speed makes Superman a destructive tour-de-force.  It makes him just nasty.  Get one of those two versions if you can for the best representation of what Superman should be. 

Overall Score: (Out of 10.  Score of: 4 = horrible, 5 = below average, 6 = slightly above average, 7 = great, 8 = outstanding)

Rookie Superman – 6.25

Experienced Superman – 6.5

Veteran Superman – 6.5