No. 1
Ms. Marvel [Avengers Assemble 055]
Weird and awesome, Kamala Khan embiggens her way to the top of the F.U.N. heap.
- She’s not terribly scary with her stats or damage or anything. And her Embiggen trait leaves her vulnerable to extra attacks that Toughness and Shape Change may not be able to handle. Lack of Willpower and good keywords also hold her back. FELLOWSHIP level: High
- But that Embiggen tho: Her ability to pick a size at turn’s start gives her great flexibility. Ready to fight? Go giant and gain Super Strength with an extra square of reach. Need an AV boost to hit someone or are double-tokened and need to act anyway? Become colossal and get Close Combat Expert and Colossal Stamina. Want to hide? Select Tiny Size and use Stealth. All this allows her to both act as a taxi or get carried herself. She’s also got a full dial of either normal Shape Change or an SP version that heals her 2 clicks on a 6 roll. Add some mid-dial Plasticity+Reflexes and late Flurry+Invulnerability and you’ve got a great use of 66 points! UTILITY level: High
- Only two sparsely populated keywords, Celebrity and Inhumans, holds back the themed teams she can run with. That means her NIFTYNESS is all due to the star power in one of Marvel’s best characters in years! Forget keyword themes and team her with her all-new-all-diff Avengers. She’s a superhero fangirl, so team her up with anybody! NIFTYNESS Level: Moderately High
Just her appearance on a force practically guarantees it’s a F.U.N. one. And that’s why Ms. Marvel is the No. 1 F.U.N. HeroClix of 2015.
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“Just a minute,” some longtime reader out there is wondering, “isn’t this ‘F.U.N.’ list of yours just a list of your personal favorites as usual under a different name?”
No, it really isn’t, reader. While there’s a lot of overlap, the positions all changed and some didn’t even make the grade. Here’s what the Faves list would have looked like:
10
Fitz [Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD 021]: It’s all about those Hoverbots! And it almost made the F.U.N. list, but it requires a Simmons to really make the grade and she’s not quite Nifty or Useful enough.
9
Red Son Batman. From the moment of his revelation, he was a contender to be a favorite with his cheap 55-point cost. Solidified when the dial was shown.
8
Superman II [019a] ties with his somewhat less F.U.N. Fast Forces version. I’m always genuinely torn as to which I’ll play when it’s time to reach for Val-Zod here.
7
3-D Man [Avengers Assemble 013b] was a little bit way too Useful to quite fit onto the F.U.N. list. So he has to be content with being a favorite.
6
Aquaman [Trinity War 201]: He’s one of my very favorite heroes, so of course an Aquaman belongs on the Faves list. But not quite among the top ten F.U.N. list. He’s missing the Justice League-related keywords to have seriously been a contender there.
5
All the reporters in Superman/Wonder Woman with their “The World Needs To Know” special powers and traits: Newsboy Legion, Investigative Reporter, Lana Lang, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane —though hers is named differently — Clark Kent and LE Superman [100] on his “deactivation” click. I work in the journalism field and have a degree in it, so this one does my heart good. One of my standing Heroclixin’ goals now is to run this team and surround a target and use all these SPs/traits on it at once
4
The Atom [Superman/Wonder Woman] ties with setmate Titano [Superman/Wonder Woman G005] above as the colossals I really wanted to have from the set. [Well, OK, I wouldn’t have turned down a Solaris.]
3
“Falcon” America [Nick Fury] became an instant favorite the moment his name was confirmed.
2
Ms. Marvel [Avengers Assemble] was always going to be on this list, for all the reasons listed in the beginning of this post. But she’s a distant second to my number one:
1
Black Panther [Age of Ultron] is far and away my favorite clix of the year. He clocks the competition JUST LIKE THAT.
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That’s enough looking back. In a few days [cuz we need a break], Heroclixin’ will talk about what we’re looking ahead to in 2016.