"Atlanta, Georgia!!! Are you ready to RAWK?!!?"

Wow! It’s been nearly a solid month since my last F.U.N. feature? That shouldn’t happen.

As a refresher, the F.U.N. acronym stands for figures and teams that are:

• Friendly: Not built to win at all costs, thus squeezing any enjoyment out of the game either for the opponent being crushed or for myself if the team still somehow fails due to terrible dice results.
• Useful: Not built to lose, either. This team or figure’s got something going for it.
• Neat: There’s some quality about the team or figure that’s interesting or unique or goofy or whatever.

Anyway, since young guest reviewer Morrison did the Armor keyword this week, I thought I’d sort of tie into the week’s theme with a F.U.N. review of the character Armor from the new Giant-Size X-Men set!
_____________________________________

One of the newest X-Men, young Hisako isn’t going to win games by her 66-point self. With no Charge or range, her fighting ability on the Heroclix field looks pretty limited. And she’s got an activation click holding her back as well; she’s not contributing much at all to the game until at least turn 2.

All this makes her a Friendly piece, I guess. What’s Useful about her, though? Plenty.

• She has the X-Men TA and keyword. This makes her a natural to team-up with characters whom she can X-heal and thus push to her own better clicks.
• She’s got 18 Defend on her 2nd click via a Special Power. That’s super-useful for most of her X-pals.
• She’s got Impervious, too.
• AND Super Strength. AND Blades/Claws/Fangs. She can actually fight up close.

All this can lead to some Neat combos, including these:

• She’s a great tagalong for either of the new Wolverine figures, whose 17 DV can benefit from her boost.
• She’s an excellent “ball” for Mutations and Monsters Colosuss’s “Fastball Special” SP on her first click. The damage will put her on Impervious so she can pretty safely tie up Colossus’ target. (Heck, she’s even good for the original (and horrible) Fastball Special feat. But you should never use that. N-E-V-E-R.)
• She’s a great bodyguard for the new Professor X, whose 16 DV is a bit fragile.
• At 66 points, she makes for very solid Mastermind fodder. And again, the 18 Defend is helpful to those characters as well.
• If you resist pushing her immediately, she’s a good piece to use as an X-Men TA battery for allies who need to push. They get healed and she gets to her best clicks (which, again, is good for the ally, too).
• Try her on Teen themes as well. I keep wanting to team her up with Legionnaires or Impulse (DC 75th).

Armor can just plain make your team better. But she’s become one of my new favorites because she does all that by not being overbearing, and she’s a neat character with a neat sculpt.

And, I admit, I have a weakness in Heroclix for using young female characters to beat up brawny opponents double or more their point cost.

Have a great weekend of Heroclixin’!