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REVIEW: WizKids DC HeroClix Justice League Trinity War Expansion Set
Three Justice Leagues, Bad Guys, 7 Deadly Sins, & An Ultra-Chase...
DC Comics HeroClix players and collectors, it’s been a long wait but your time is now. The DC HeroClix Justice League Trinity War set from WizKids is in comic book and game stores everywhere, and today we’re going to be taking an in-depth look at what’s hitting gaming tables everywhere. As we talked about when we unboxed a brick of the new set, it brings to life characters from the 2013 DC Comics event by the same name and focuses on the three Leagues: Justice League, Justice League of America, and Justice League Dark. Of course that’s not all, and the set includes several cool sub-themes of villains including the New 52 Crime Syndicate and characters who would play important roles in the Trinity War follow up event Forever Evil.
For a quick history lesson, the last DC HeroClix set was the Flash, and boy did it ever focus with laser precision on the Scarlet Speedster and characters from his world. Justice League Trinity War is more of a “traditional” set covering a wider range of heroes, villains, generics, and unique characters. Most of those come from current or recent New 52 storylines, though there are a few surprises and throwbacks. This new set follows the standard release pattern with five-figure boosters (shipped in bricks of ten packs), a ten figure Primer Gravity Feed with single-figure packs featuring re-used sculpts with new dials, and the Crime Syndicate Fast Forces pack with seven (!) new dials for that team. There’s also an Organized Play prize kit only available to brick and mortar stores with a Limited Edition prize figure and new double-sided map. As always we’ll dive right into the main booster set starting with the commons.
Just like Flash before it, Justice League Trinity War has some very specific themes which we will see as we move through the standard rarity levels in the set. Predominantly those include the three Justice Leagues, the Crime Syndicate, and Villains (and specifically characters from Forever Evil). The 18 commons also feature the usual assortment of generic figures for building up your armies and swarm teams, here with an interesting collection of an Atlantean soldier, the monstrous Trench, D.E.O. Agent, Blackgate Guard and Blackgate Inmate, and everyone’s favorite new Parademon! As commons these should appear pretty frequently and be relatively easy to collect, though some players are going to “need” quite a few of their favorites. For the Leagues, the common slots bring a new version of the JL’s Black Lightning as well as the first ever figure of Justice League Dark’s Black Orchid. The Justice League of America is very well represented here with Catwoman, two versions of Doctor Light (including the Prime), Katana, and the long-awaited Vibe. Tiny Atomica and the Sea King are the common Crime Syndicate members while villains here include Copperhead, Signalman, and the New 52 Bizarro.
The uncommons of Trinity War follow in much the same vein as the commons, though with some surprising additions taking the place of generics. 17 figures here include the Justice League’s Aquaman in a powerful new take on the character, newly slimmed-down Cyborg, and the Forever Evil-minted “hero” Lex Luthor, JLA’s Firestorm, Green Arrow, and another new version of Stargirl, plus Dark’s fortune teller Madame Xanadu and the undead I, Vampire. On the other side of the fence are villains Ocean Master, Scarecrow, and mystical Dr. Sivana as well as the unholy trinity of the Crime Syndicate with Ultraman, Owlman, and Superwoman as well as that world’s Alfred Pennyworth as the Outsider. The uncommon Prime figure is the Flashpoint version of the Outsider, and also appearing in this rarity slot is the undersea queen and heroine Mera!
Moving on to the rares we’ve got 17 more figures along mostly the same lines. The Justice League adds one member here with the rookie Element Woman while the other two Leagues get three each in Dark’s latest version of Deadman, Frankenstein, and Blue Devil and JLA’s Vixen, Green Lantern Simon Baz, and Hawkman. All of those are remakes but are highly playable and welcome in the Modern Age of HeroClix. It’s in the rares that evil really rears its ugly head, though, with eight dastardly characters! The Crime Syndicate fields the vicious Deathstorm, robotic Grid, speedster Johnny Quick, and Volthoom-infested Power Ring while from the pages of Forever Evil come a new Killer Frost, super hard to kill Shaggy Man, immortal Vandal Savage, and Parallax-powered Sinestro. Lastly, the rares include the New 52 Shazam and for his Prime version a classic Freddy Freeman.
Guess what you’ll find among the 13 super rares of Trinity War? If you guessed more Leaguers, Crime Syndicate members, and villains you’d be right! The set lives up to its name in more ways than one with the “Trinity” of DC Comics: incredible new versions of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. The Justice League of America only gets one addition here but it’s the epic powerhouse of Martian Manhunter, while Justice League Dark adds the mystical trio of John Constantine, Zatanna, and Tim Hunter. There’s only one CSA member among the super rares, another version of the twisted Outsider but this time wielding the power of Pandora’s Box! From the Trinity War and Forever Evil storylines come the hulking Despero, cursed Blight, antihero Black Adam, and Alexander Luthor as Mazahs! Finally, the super rare Prime (based on the Constantine figure) is Nick Necro.
A year ago if you had asked most DC readers and HeroClix players which characters they thought would be chases in Trinity War most would probably have responded with the Question, Pandora, and the Phantom Stranger. As we know now WizKids got those out of the way in the previous Flash set, leaving room in Trinity War for the Seven Sins! That’s right, scattered throughout bricks of the new set are Envy, Sloth, Pride, Greed, Lust, Wrath, and Gluttony, the entities of sin that plague humanity. Each one is a translucent monster with unique powers and abilities. Speaking of sins, this set also includes 3D objects of the seven monsters randomly inserted in boosters that you can use on your teams or attach to the two new resources (more on those later)! Lastly, WizKids did something really crazy with this set, introducing an entirely new rarity level: the Ultra-Chase. That distinction belongs to White Rabbit, a unique, impossible to catch (see what they did there?) character encountered by Batman in the New 52!
It should come as no surprise that Justice League Trinity War, like other recent HeroClix sets, has some really incredible figures with respect to sculpts and paint jobs. Along with the huge variety of characters there’s a similar range of poses ranging from big action to subdued and scholarly. Just check out the posing and action styles of figures like Black Lightning, Green Arrow, I, Vampire, Deadman, Martian Manhunter, and Tim Hunter for examples of the variety. Some of the figures whose sculpts I particularly enjoyed from this set (and there are lots from all rarity levels) include Doctor Light, the surprisingly cool Blackgate Guard, Cyborg, Ocean Master looking tough, the armored Lex Luthor, Green Lantern launching into the air, Deathstorm with his swirling energy, John Constantine and Zatanna with their magical effects, the hulking Despero, Mazahs calling down the lightning, and of course the chases with their incredible level of detail. As always too there are figures who are made by their textures, whether it’s for armor, leathery skin, fur, etc., and some of the standouts in that department in Trinity War are Black Orchid, Atlantean, Copperhead, Aquaman, Mera, and Shaggy Man (awesome!).
Nothing can ruin or obscure a good sculpt more than a crappy paint job, and thankfully side by side with the improvements in poses and details are paint applications from WizKids. The Trinity War set has lots of great examples of the current level of paint detailing, among the best in the world of prepainted miniatures. As always there’s great use of translucent parts for magic, energy effects, lightning, blasts, and the like on figures like Black Lightning, both versions of Doctor Light (one more than the other), Vibe, Firestorm, Shazam and Freddy Freeman, Deathstorm, Power Ring, Johnny Quick with a Speed Force trail, Killer Frost, super rare Outsider, and more. Of course, all seven of the Deadly Sins chases (and their 3D object counterparts) are translucent with different colors and some added paint effects that look awesome. Armor and weapons are highlighted with metallic paint as seen on examples like the regular Doctor Light’s silver costume, Cyborg’s metal parts, the Grid, Blue Devil and Frankenstein’s weapons, and Lex Luthor’s battlesuit. Some of the overall paint jobs I like the most in this set include the aforementioned common Doctor Light (just an all-around great looking figure), the Parademon, Madame Xanadu with the intricate designs on her dress, Dr. Sivana and his creepy magic eye, Vandal Savage, the awesome Parallax-powered Sinestro, and Zatanna. Overall I was very pleased with the eyes especially on the figures in this set.
While the previous set had a major new mechanic in the Speed Force, Trinity War doesn’t debut anything crazy but continues lots of the recently introduced and improved features of HeroClix. Here you’ll find Improved Targeting and Movement, Tiny Size, multiple starting lines on quite a few characters for more team building options (including unique versions like I, Vampire), “stop clicks,” the Speed Force trait on Johnny Quick, interesting token applications (Mera’s Thirst, Luthor’s Subterfuge, Deadman’s Spirit markers, etc.), customizing your in-game needs with figures like Element Woman and Vixen, figures that apply bonuses when played alongside specific allies, bystander creation with White Rabbit, and more. There are also some new shared abilities like the super rare Trinity’s cooperation through their “A New Kind of Justice League” traits granting additional powers and team abilities. Similarly, each of the chases allows you to add its respective 3D object version to your team through the “Sinful Influence” trait!
Of course, figures in every new set have unique and challenging special powers and traits for players and judges to learn, and Justice League Trinity War is no exception! In the trait department you’ve got fun stuff like Catwoman preventing adjacent enemies from using team abilities, Prime Doctor Light “Bouncing around the World at Light Speed” to boost his speed value, Madame Xanadu declaring “It’s in the Cards” to get a random chance at healing her or her allies, Ocean Master’s incredible “Tidal Wave” flooding the map, the Prime Outsider opening a “Sinkhole” to drop all elevated terrain, Blue Devil letting his allies ignore Mystics, the choice Zatanna gives you to run her dial forward or backward, Blight not dying unless he gets hit for the exact amount to land on KO, Mazahs stealing powers from enemies he KO’s, and White Rabbit’s “Bio Fission” with bystander Jaina Hudson. Some really neat special powers pepper the set too, and just a few cool ones include Vibe forcing nearby opponents to activate movement powers with double power actions, Green Arrow’s last gasp “One-In-A-Million Shot” using Ranged Combat Expert on any outdoor character, Shazam’s (or should I say Billy’s) opening gift of +1 to combat values for allies, turning off the ability to ignore pushing damage by the Grid, Sinestro’s “Death to the Guardians” shutting off opponents’ Quintessence, and Black Adam using Quake with full printed damage! And those are just a few of the interesting, useful, and potentially game-breaking powers in Trinity War.
Of course, there’s much more to Justice League Trinity War than just the main booster set. Also on store shelves now is another blind package series with the single-figure booster Gravity Feed with new dials for ten of the figures from the main set: Aquaman, Mera, Atlantean, The Trench, D.E.O. Agent, Parademon, Black Orchid, Green Arrow, Firestorm, and Lex Luthor. Especially for fans of these characters or the keywords they bring to the game, as well as generic swarm players, these even rarity figures are a great way to build up your forces. On the other hand, what you see is what you get (or is it?) with the Crime Syndicate Fast Forces pack, advertised as a six figure set of evil doers from a parallel dimension. These of course are new dials for the Crime Syndicate core family as seen in the main booster set with Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Power Ring, Johnny Quick, and Deathstorm... plus the set includes a bonus Atomica “puck” figure! Read all about the figures in both the Fast Forces pack and the Gravity Feed in our review HERE. Players can also add cool new items to their tackle boxes with the Trinity War Dice & Token Pack featuring heavy duty poker chips of six Justice League members (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Cyborg) plus “JL” branded dice.
And there’s still more. WizKids fully supports brick and mortar game and comic book stores, and for Trinity War they came up with two different promotions to get players playing. First up, there’s a new Organized Play kit featuring a Roy Harper Limited Edition figure (based on the set’s Green Arrow) sculpt and a new double-sided map letting players battle in Atlantis or the House of Mystery! At 115 points Roy is the most expensive version we’ve ever had of the hero, and he goes great with his Outlaws including the new Koriand’r that came in the Teen Titans Monthly OP Kit. Finally, offered as an incentive promotion at stores are two brand new HeroClix resources: Pandora’s Box and the Rock of Eternity! Each of these unique game additions empower your figures in new and interesting ways, and both are fueled by the Seven Deadly Sins 3D objects from the set. To learn all about these two resources and how they work, check out the official reveal and explanation on HeroClix.com HERE.
With so many well-known and new characters, great sculpts and matching paint jobs, and highly playable figures (not to mention the seven chases, 3D objects, and the Ultra-Chase) Justice League Trinity War is rapidly selling out at stores everywhere. If you like what you see in this review, don’t wait; call your local store and make sure they’ve got boosters in stock, and don’t forget to inquire about the resources and what you need to do to get them.
Visit HeroClix.com for even more info as well as downloads of rules and maps, and check Figures.com regularly as we continue our reviews of new HeroClix!
Review and Photos by Scott Rubin
Review Samples Courtesy of WizKids Games
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