The X-Men is easily Marvel’s longest running, most ridiculous, super-hero themed soap opera. The plotlines are incredibly involved, and the conclusions are epic in scale. The X of Swords storyline attempted to smash together a whole host of different plot-threads, all the while various key character waved about a variety of special blades, from Wolverine’s Muramasa Blade to Storm’s glowing Wakandan sword.
Obviously a storyline with lots of heroes waving over-grown cutlery about (and a wide cast of characters) was going to get the Heroclix treatment. Fans should know the drill by now; Heroclix is a collectable miniatures game with very easy to play rules. Each model has a base that rotates, which can be used to keep track of the models hit points and current abilities. Movement is based on the play mat, issues are resolved by rolling 6-sided dice. It’s straight forward and fun to play, and each booster provides more super heroes to play with. They’re a random selection, so you have to keep getting the boxes, which come with 5 models per box.
This booster has some fun models. For example this set gives us Orchis Soldiers as a common piece; these are footsoldiers for villains such as Nimrod and Sentinels. They’re a standard troop type, so if you’re planning on fielding sentinels they’re a fun bunch of low level mooks to field. We also get Sevalithi Vampires (monsters from Otherworld), which are a robust close combat mook. The various blades can also be found in this set; though little plastic weapons on a base can look a little silly, they’re really nice tokens for a thing that’s very useful in game.
We get a bunch of ‘astral projected’ heroes, which is really just an excuse to put these models in clear plastic. Jean Grey, Apocalypse and Mystique get this treatment. Juggernaut looks especially impressive as he’s an explosion of orange.
Otherworld/Excalibur fans will be delighted to learn the range features the dragon Lockheed, Kate Pride (looking very much like a space pirate now she’s grown up), Captain Britain (Betty Braddock and Rogue versions) as well as Saturnyne, who has a ‘aura’ effect on the model, thanks to some clear plastic. We also see Mad Jim Jaspers who is very, very orange and not a unit we can imagine getting much use out of in play unless you really need to equip your units early on.
They are some familiar favourites. The Emma Frost model is sculpted in a ‘tired leader’ style pose, and she generate the Cuckoos as one hit counters. (This keeps in with the comics, as the Cuckoos continually die and come back.). They come in diamond and none diamond for of course. Deadpool is here, with his snorkel and rubber-duck. It’s a fun sculpt and on the board it plays like Deadpool; hard to kill, quite annoying but fun. X-23 is of course in this set, and it’s the version that got sent into a time-warp. So she looks like Wolverine, has the best regeneration powers in the game and has outwit, which is a useful power that let’s you avoid things happening to your team.
This range also features chase cards called ‘Tarot Cards’. These are stratagems that boost certain abilities for a turn. It’s a nice bonus to find in a box, but really it’s just another thing to collect.
This release also includes a (separately available) Play At Home Kit. These kits replace turning up to store events to get an exclusive figure. We get a Map of Otherworld which is a fairly standard play-mat and a card and model for the mutant Pyro. He’s not earth-shattering in terms of rules, being a decent ranged attacked with the ability to hand out flame markers like they’re candy, but apart fromthat nothing special. It’s a nice model, posed mid throwing flame. The release also includes a dice and token pack. Crossed swords replace the 6 on the dice, and the tokens are chunky poker-chip style affairs.
If you’re just after the core heroes, or simply looking to get into the game, check out the Starter Set instead.
Over all, a solid release for Hero Clix players looking to expand their collection of mutants, and some nice pre-painted models for general X-Men fans.
