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Pojo's HeroClix "Click of the Day"
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WMNOE |
Here's Cosmic Boy:
The Legion of Super-Heroes. Sounds kind of big doesn't it? Well it is big,
huge even. Hundreds upon hundreds of issues of continuity have been written
(and retconned, and retconned again, ad nauseum). The original premise is
this; in the 30th Century three teenage aliens, inspired by the historical
records of Superboy (the ORIGINAL Superboy, aka, Clark Kent as a teenager)
decided to join together in a super-hero club. Each of the three had a
special ability (related to their alien heritage), and the original three
grew to several thousand at one point. Legion continuity has gotten so
screwed up over the years, partially due to John Byrne, and partially
because of the MANY MANY continuity reboots.
I'll explain the problems with their origins today, and maybe Friday I'll
talk about the different reboots of LSH. If you read the above paragraph
about the origins of the LSH you may have noticed something about Superboy
being a part of their origin. In the Silver Age, when the Legion first
appeared, they appeared in the Superboy comic, which told the adventures of
a younger Superman. These stories were all in current DC continuity, though
sometimes they were completely incongruous. It was the Silver Age, what can
I say. Anyway, the Legion appeared in Superboy Comics for quite awhile,
before spinning off into their own series. The 30th Century DC Universe
became a viable continuity on it's own, and soon you have comics about the
current and future DC Universe coming out concurrently. When John Byrne was
hired to reboot Superman after the continuity fixing Maxi-Series Crisis on
Infinite Earths he decided that there never was a Superboy. Fine for
Superman readers, not so good for LSH readers, since now, the origin for the
LSH made absolutely no sense, and thus all the stories where Superboy
appeared with the LSH never happened. DC fixed the problem by removing
Superboy from the origin and "retconning" the rest of the stories (retcon is
a contraction of the phrase
"Retroactive Continuity Fix", a phrase which I'm not going to even touch
right now.)
This week we're going to look at two of the original three Legionnaires, and
just because we don't have the third one on the schedule, I'm going to give
you a
bonus review part in today's review and part on Friday's review.
BTW - all of the Legionnaires are given a flight ring when they joy the
Legion, so they are all flyers. Also the Legion Team Ability is to be able
to copy any other team ability, which makes Legion members much more
attractive as support pieces.
Garth Ranzz is otherwise known as Cosmic Boy, and is one of the founders of
the Legion. He's a reasonable 68 points, but he only has Telekinesis and
Leadership
for powers. His starting stats are Speed and Attack of 10, Defense of 15 and
Damage of 2. He has 6 clicks of health. A great support piece, he can be a
telekinetic taxi, but I wouldn't call him a heavy hitter.
Cosmic Boy is a level 4 uncommon, easy to pull, cheaper to buy as a single.
The sculpt is just passable though, the paint ops on the eyes can get really
sloppy, though he does have his classic costume. I think I'd have preferred
that they use the pose from the cover of the Cosmic Boy #1 Mini Series,
which you can check out here:
http://comicbookcovers.dyndns.org/comicsdb/viewcover.asp?
Title=Cosmic+Boy&Issue=1&Filename=cosmicboy1%2Ejpg
It isn't a great cover, just a cool pose.
My Ratings:
Playability 3 of 5
Collectability 3 of 5BONUS REVIEW Part 1 of 2
Garth Rann was also one of the founders of the Legion. Originally known as
Lightning Lad, he's now better known as Livewire. A native of the planet
Winath, Garth is able to generate and channel electricity internally, but
that's not a natural ability of Winathians. Together with his older brother
and twin sister, Garth "borrowed" their parents' spaceship, and crashed on
the planet Korbal. They intended to use the native Lightning Beasts to
recharge their ships' power cells, but were knocked unconcious instead. When
they awoke, the Rann children had gained their lightning powers. Together
with Rokk Krinn of Titan and the abovementioned Irma Ardeen, Garth foiled an
assasination plot against wealthy industrialist R.J. Brande, who rewarded
the teens with the resources needed to form the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Over the course of the next couple of years, Garth lost his right arm (which
is why it's a robotic version now), fell in love with, and broke up with
Saturn Girl, took charge of the Legion, and gave it up. Also, in current
continuity, he's considered dead (he apparently met his demise in Legion
Lost #12).
In my next review on Friday, I'll look at his actual Heroclix piece. |
| Ed Po |
Cosmic Boy makes a great taxi, whether your using
telekinisis or just
regular carrying. He has a speed of 10 and an attack of 10. So, it won't
matter whether you taxi with telekenisis or carrying. I prefer carrying,
becuase then you can just taxi back. Cosmic Boy has a damage of 2, so if
your gonna carry a figure into the field he can also pick off weak figures.
You don't have to use Cosmic Boy as a taxi, I prefer Paramedon Scouts as
taxis. He has 2 clix of leadership for that extra movement. It seems that
all members Legion of Super Heroes all have low defense, Cosmic Boy only has
a defense of 15. To make it worse Cosmic Boy has 5 clix of health. Becareful
what you do with him, or he won't be on the field for long. Aside from the
lack of defense Cosmic Boy is a solid figure.
Cosmic Boy is an uncommon, level 4 rarity. Auctions aren't going very high
for this guy. If you don't manage to pull him, you can just easyly win an
auction on ebay, for as low as $1.00 + shipping and handling. His set on
ebay is selling very cheap, too. No more than $4.00!
His sculpt is ok, not too bad or good. It's just him flying with his hands
out. I'll give him an extra .5 for his suit, it looks pretty good.
Ratings:
Playability: 3.75/5
Collectability: 2/5
Sculpt: 3/5
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Spyders
Webbing |
Today's review is...Cosmic Boy. When I first took at look
at him, I thought,
so what? He's got flight, Telekiness, and Leadership. Look again. Instant
combo! Team this guy up with the JLA, have him taxi for free, using
Leadership to
get you and extra action. Next turn, TK the guy you're carrying into the
fray,
and rest a turn. Rinse and Repeat. The 68 points is a little much, but hey,
with three clicks of Leadership and a whole life dial of TK, he's worth it.
Here's the verdict.
200:2/5
300:2/5
400+:4/5
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|
James May |
Cosmic Boy. The name sounds like a failed Disney movie.
So it fits well with him.
For being a founder of the Legion, I expected more from this kid.
Telekinesis for his whole life is good, but once you realize his life is six
clix, it seems less impressive. Like Captain America over in the Marvel U,
he's mainly one to stay behind and wait for late game to actually fight.
Before that, his Leadership ability can give you a free chance to shove your
buddies into battle.
To make up for what he lacks, he steals. He IS a wild card, and using that
faction, he could gain Stealth with the Batmen to help hide him from your
enemies.
200- 3/5
300- 3/5
400- 3.5/5
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