Review and photos by Scott Rubin
Welcome back, friends, to our latest HeroClix unboxing special on Figures.com! Last time around we took a look at the Uncanny X-Men set, and now we’re back with an expansion laser focused on your friendly neighborhood webslinger: Marvel HeroClix Superior Foes of Spider-Man. It’s been a little over three years since we’ve had a Spider-Man themed set and the last one, Amazing Spider-Man, is currently Golden Age so it’s the perfect time. The Marvel universe is also celebrating something of a renaissance of spider characters following the major Spider-Verse storyline and the introduction of fan-favorites like Spider-Gwen, Silk, and others. The new Superior Foes set then obviously includes a few incarnations of Peter Parker as well as his allies and enemies (both classic and modern) plus Spider-Verse characters, Superior Foes, Serpent Society, and more. This expansion even includes several figures designed by HeroClix champions! Finally, but no less important, Superior Foes of Spider-Man will go down in history for introducing the new HeroClix card layout as well as “sketch variant” figures in cool black and white with stark white bases.
When you go to your local comic book or game store it’ll be easy to spot the Superior Foes of Spider-Man boosters as they all have the same graphics. The front panel has artwork of some of the Superior Foes themselves with Boomerang, Beetle, Shocker, and Speed Demon in front of Spider-Man. The booster’s sides show off some of the figures and features you’ll find in the set including the Serpent Society and ClixFX bases as well as classic “Sinister Spider Villains” and the Superior Foes. Lastly, the back panel sums up what’s inside and points you toward the WizKids Info Network where you can find local venues to play.
As I do in all of my unboxing videos I like to take a look at the brick/boosters then skip over the boring parts like opening each box, turning the figures around, etc. so we can get right to the good stuff. Without further ado let’s check out the unboxing of a brick of Superior Foes of Spider-Man (and scroll down for more info and a photo gallery of the figures we pulled here)!
Here’s the breakdown of the figures in this brick (your results will vary of course):
COMMONS (including duplicates)
- 001 Spider-Man
- 002 Black Mamba [sketch]
- 003a NYPD Officer
- 004 Cape Killer
- 005 Thug
- 006 J. Jonah Jameson
- 007 Betty Brant
- 008 Spider-Girl [standard AND sketch]
- 009 Rattler
- 010 Green Goblin
- 012 Dagger
- 013 Stilt-Man
- 014 Shocker
- 015 Tarantula
- 016 Vermin
UNCOMMONS (including duplicates)
- 018 Toxin
- 019 Mary Jane
- 020 Silk
- 022 Death Adder
- 023a Venom
- 023b Anti-Venom
- 024 Cottonmouth
- 025 Hobgoblin
- 026 Jackal [standard AND sketch]
- 027 Anaconda
- 028 Norman Osborn
- 029 Overdrive
- 031 Spider-Man
- 032 Mr. Hyde
RARES
- 033 Beetle
- 036 Cloak
- 037 Moon Knight
- 043 Electro
- 044 Carnage
- 046 Mephisto
- 048 Frog-Man [sketch]
SUPER RARES
- 053a Kraven
- 056 Chameleon
- 060 Superior Spider-Man
Alright, let’s take a closer look here. First off, we didn’t get a chase but we did get a prime and a pretty cool one at that in Anti-Venom; he’s definitely one of the most interesting in this set alongside the zombified Kraven. Plus we pulled the standard Venom too and it’s always fun to check out what WizKids did to differentiate the prime vs. regular paint job or sculpt. We actually did not one of each common (missing only Kingpin), 14 of the 17 uncommons, 7 rares, and 3 super rares. In that last segment I got really lucky with the classic Kraven, Chameleon as designed by 2014 champion Patrick Yapjoco, and the mighty Superior Spider-Man! We got at least one of the generics NYPD Officer, Cape Killer, and Thug, and from the awesome new Serpent Society Black Mamba, Rattler, Death Adder, Cottonmouth, and Anaconda. There were 7 Spider-Man Family members vs. 11 members of the Sinister Syndicate.
Looking at some of the special features in Superior Foes of Spider-Man, all of the figures have the new card design. It’s a cool layout that puts all of the information about a figure at the player’s fingertips, including the addition of the full dial printout on the back. It was a controversial move on WizKids’ part but I think it’s going to further lower the bar for new players to enter the game, and the “pros” are going to continue memorizing dials anyway. This expansion continues to supply some select figures with ClixFX Bases as Uncanny X-Men did before it, though we only saw one here with Superior Spider-Man and his Web marker. Lastly, from this brick I pulled four of the new sketch variant figures (Black Mamba, Spider-Girl, Jackal, and Frog-Man), and for two of them I also got the regular versions. WizKids first introduced black and white comic-style figures in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set, and in Superior Foes there are sketch versions of EVERY SINGLE figure, even the chases! I was a bit on the fence about the sketch variants until I saw them in person. They have a lot of character and look great, and they actually include some neat details like the spider logo on Spider-Girl. Plus, players who are artistic can add details and paint them up if they’d like.
The photos tell the whole story, but this set is full of really nice-looking figures. You’ve got Spider people, symbiotes, snake dudes, armored people, and more making this a hugely eclectic mix of colors, poses, and details. I happened to pull most of the more “calm” Spider-Family members that are standing and looking tough like Spider-Girl and Silk, though there are more in the set with dynamic poses. Even so, the shared Peter and Miles Spider-Man sculpt gives us an iconic pose with the web-shooting gesture along with some nice web texture. The Serpent Society alone encompasses a great deal of unique figures with crazy color schemes, fun poses, and weird body shapes with tails (Rattler), fins and spines (Death Adder), snake heads (Cottonmouth), elongated arms (Anaconda), and more. [Side note, if you’re a fan of the Invincible comic series the Serpent Society makes a great stand in for the Lizard League.]
Street-level and regular humans look good too, with figures like the watchful NYPD Officer, the cocky Thug (with terrible firearm posture), and people like Betty Brant, J. Jonah Jameson, Mary Jane, and Norman Osborn who look like they stepped right off the page. There are lots of cool armored characters showing off their tech including the Cape Killer, Stilt-Man, Overdrive, and Beetle. Then there are just plain awesome-looking minis like the maniacal Green Goblin with pumpkin bomb, the tentacled and fearsome symbiotes Toxin, Venom, Anti-Venom, and Carnage, the absolutely fierce Moon Knight, Mephisto sitting on his hellish throne, the cool mirror effect and presentation of Chameleon, and Superior Spider-Man leaping into the fray with his spider-arms!
By now there have been plenty of Superior Foes previews from WizKids, a couple major unboxings by Scott Porter and others, and the pre-release events in Europe so players who really want to know dials of figures before they get them can find them online. With that being said, we wanted to highlight a few of our favorite characters and figures in this set so you can see the cool stuff they do as well as the new card layouts. First up is Stilt-Man, the mechanical monstrosity who gains in power the taller he is! A base 50 points gets you the villain with no range, the Sinister Syndicate team ability, and one Leg Extension… though you can pay 5 points for each additional set you’d like to add. With two sets he is a Giant and with four or more he’s a Colossal! Even better, his “I Know This May Sound Funny… But I Can’t Feel My Legs” trait lets you remove a Leg Extension instead of taking damage from an attack and try to roll to avoid taking one unavoidable damage. Stilt-Man’s base four-click dial is all Force Blast, Quake, Toughness, and a special power that lets him (when Colossal) be placed where he can make a close attack against someone who attacked him or damaged an ally since your last turn!
Next up is the mysterious Cloak, partner to Dagger and friend of Spider-Man, the original Runaways, and more. Cloak and Dagger actually got their superpowers from bad people experimenting on them with drugs, which is totally not cool. Cloak’s latest entry in HeroClix is a team-friendly 35 points with no range, the Spider-Man Ally team ability, Improved Movement ignoring just about everything, and a trait giving him Carry, letting him carry Dagger AND another character, and giving him the ability to teleport Dagger adjacent to him from up to 10 squares away (and in line of fire) with a power action. Like Stilt-Man above Cloak has a straightforward dial; his four clicks all have Stealth, he has two clicks of Defend and then two of Super Senses, and he rocks a solid zero damage with a special power granting him Shape Change and dealing one penetrating damage on close attacks instead of printed damage.
Moving to one the coolest, if not craziest, heroes in the Marvel universe we’ve got the rare Moon Knight! This latest version of Marc Spector is 90 points with a 5 range, Improved Movement ignoring elevated terrain, and a trait that describes his Tribute token mechanic; he gets one every time he damages an enemy and you can remove one to heal him a click or two when he’s KO’d to bring him back to his last click. Moon Knight’s dial has horseshoe-shaped movement, attack, and defense tracks with the latter mirrored from beginning to end. Meanwhile, his damage is solid 3s until a bump to 4 on his last click. Marc begins and ends his dial with Running Shot while switching to Flurry in the middle, and his entire dial is protected by Toughness. His first four clicks have a special power that bumps his attack by +1 for each enemy that can see him, and his last two clicks offer Close Combat Expert.
Our last preview today is the super rare Superior Spider-Man. One of the more hefty figures in the set, this amalgamation of Peter and Otto clocks in at 125 points with a 4 range, Improved Movement ignoring hindering terrain and characters, and a trio of traits. The first gives him Flurry with built in Probability Control AND a debuffed -1 to defense for those he hits. The second is the familiar “Call in Help from the Spider-Verse” that appears on several figures in this set; when Superior Spider-Man hits an enemy you can roll a d6 and if you roll high enough you can place a friendly Spider-Man Family ally adjacent. Last is “Spider’s Web” which governs the use of the figure’s Web marker to lock down one hit enemy at a time. “Superior” here has generally good stats with great defense, four clicks of 18 and then three of 17. He has a full dial of movement powers starting with Charge and progressing through Sidestep and then Leap/Climb, while three starting clicks of Super Strength give way to mid-dial Precision Strike. Defensively Spider-Man has top-loaded Super Senses and a back-dial special power granting Super Senses, Toughness, and Willpower! Lastly, the figure’s damage track begins with Shape Change, switches to a long mid-dial run of Leadership, and finishes off with Outwit.
So there you have our look at a brick of Marvel HeroClix Superior Foes of Spider-Man! You only have a little over a week to get your hands on this really cool set as hits stores everywhere August 10th. Spider-Man fans, players nostalgic or looking forward to running the Serpent Society, and even just fans of cool miniature figures need to pick up some boosters of this expansion, and just wait till you see these sketch variants!
Visit HeroClix.com for even more info as well as downloads of rules and maps, and stay tuned to Figures.com as we continue our reviews of new HeroClix!
Review and photos by Scott Rubin
Review samples courtesy of WizKids Games
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