Mite-y Avengers Part 3 - Giant-Man, the Wasp, and Ant-Man!

Greetings HeroClix Fans!

Once again, we are back to reveal more of the Marvel HeroClix: Chaos War set with another BONUS preview! This time we’re exploring a few different identities Avenger Hank Pym has donned over the years! Let’s start with his most recent nom-de-guerre, Wasp!

Wasp begins play using his 6 range and Running Shot to take the fight to your opponent! Toughness provides some damage reduction for Wasp. Also, Leadership has the potential to add an action and remove a token from a friendly figure. On his second click, Wasp gains a special power in his attack slot with the same name as the power used by his ex-wife, Janet van Dyne. The power, Bio Electric Blasts, allows Wasp to use Incapacitate. If he uses it and hits, deal the target 1 penetrating damage after actions resolve. This power switches in and out over the course of his dial.

Wasp also has a damage power that replaces Leadership called Cybernetic Wasp Goggles that lets him and friendly characters within 3 squares and line of fire that he shares a keyword with use Exploit Weakness if their printed damage value is 2 or less. Mid-dial, as Bio Electric Blasts continues to cycle on and off, Wasp switches damage reduction for damage avoidance as Super Senses is on his dial for one click before he switches back to Toughness.

End-dial, Wasp switches to Super Senses for two more clicks. Perplex also is in his damage slot on those same clicks. On his last click, Wasp loses all damage reduction and avoidance to gain Willpower, and Bio Electric Blasts makes a final appearance.

Wasp possesses the Avengers and Scientist keywords, as well as the Avengers team ability. Wasp also costs 75 points and has the Morph: Hank Pym trait, which allows him to change into his original secret identity, Ant-Man!

Ant-Man possesses a trait called Pym Particles, Shrink, which says, “Once per game, the first action Ant-Man may be given must be a free action to choose a friendly character of 75 points or less with the Avengers keyword. That character possesses [Tiny Size] combat ability as long as this Ant-Man is on the map”. Whether you choose to start the game with Ant-Man as part of your force, or use the Morph mechanic to bring him in, this figure has the potential to make a friendly figure better.

Ant-Man begins play with Stealth to hide himself as he moves to where he will do your force the most good. On any click he has Stealth, he also has a special power called Ant-Swarm that lets Ant-Man use Poison. When he does, opposing characters that occupy hindering terrain are dealt 2 damage instead.

On his second click, Ant-Man switches things up as he trades his special power and Stealth for Leap/Climb in his movement slot to make getting around easier. Super Senses allows Ant-Man to potentially avoid attacks. He also gains Outwit, which will be on all of his even-numbered clicks. On his third click, Ant-Man switches back to Stealth and his Ant-Swarm special power. Ant-Man gets two new powers at this point, Combat Reflexes, to make him harder to hit in close combat, as well as Perplex to help himself or his teammates.

Click four of Ant-Man is the same as click number two with Leap/Climb, Super Senses and Outwit. Click five is again a close-combat click with Stealth, Ant-Swarm, Combat Reflexes and Perplex. Ant-Man’s sixth click is the same as all even-numbered clicks with Leap/Climb, Super Senses and Outwit. On his last click, Ant-Man is the same as his first click with Stealth and his Ant-Swarm special power.

Ant-Man, like the other forms of Hank Pym in the Chaos War set, has the Avengers and Scientist keywords, as well as the Avengers team ability. However, Ant-Man is the only version to have the Tiny Size combat ability. But like the rest, Ant-Man costs 75 points. Like all forms of Hank Pym, he has the Morph: Hank Pym trait. Well, Hank Pym was standard sized, then Tiny Sized. Where does he go from here? How about Giant Size? Here is Giant-Man!

At his 75 point line, Giant-Man begins play with two traits. Like the other Hank’s versions, Giant-Man possesses the Morph: Hank Pym trait. This trait is only playable on his 75-point line and functions identically as it does on Pym’s other figures. The next trait is called “Medium” Size which states “Giant-Man possesses [Standard Defense] and [Giant Size] instead of [Indomitable] and [Colossal]” combat abilities, but again, only on his 75-point line.

At the 75 point Morph: Hank Pym line, Giant-Man begins play with Super Strength to allow extra damage when an object is handy. Toughness will provide some damage reduction from the inevitable counter attack. On his second click, Giant-Man adds Charge to his dial to be able to move and attack.

Mid-dial, Giant-Man has another click of Charge, this time coupled with Quake to try and disperse groups of opposing figures. Invulnerability offers more damage reduction to Giant-Man for two clicks. Quake sticks around for one more click.

Late-Dial, Giant-Man gets one more click of Charge. Exploit Weakness shows up on Giant-Man’s dial for two clicks, and his damage reducer goes back to Toughness. On his last click, Giant-Man sees the return of Quake. Willpower allows Giant-Man to push without fear of taking pushing damage.

As all versions before him did, Giant-Man has the Avengers and Scientist keywords, as well as the Avengers team ability.

This takes us through all versions of Hank Pym’s Morph trait. But, as hinted at on the character card, there is still a lot more Giant-Man to see! Let’s take another look at him:

At 300 points, Giant-Man’s Pym Particles, Grow is similar to the trait on Ant-Man (#015). Pym Particles, Grow says “Once per game, give Giant-Man a free action to choose a friendly character of 75 points or less with the Avengers keyword. That character possesses [Giant Size] combat ability as long as Giant-Man is on the map”. Need a huge helping hand on the battlefield? Giant-Man is here to make it happen!

Giant-Man begins play at his 300 point line using the always useful combo of Charge and Super Strength with his printed 5 damage. The Indomitable and Colossal combat abilities will help him use these powers again on his next turn. Giant-Man has Invulnerability to protect him from some return damage. He also has a special power to start his dial, Building Shove, in which Giant-Man can be given a power action if he is adjacent to elevated terrain. All characters occupying that level of elevated terrain within that same continuous border are dealt 1 penetrating damage and knocked back 1 square. On his second click, Giant-Man trades Charge and Building Shove for some Outwit, which will be very useful from his colossal view of the map.

Click three of Giant-Man’s dial sees the return of Charge. Exploit Weakness will make sure close combat damage sticks for his next three clicks, and Giant-Man replaces his damage reducer with Toughness for a couple of clicks. His next two-click section sees Plasticity show up in his movement slot, and Giant-Man’s damage reducer of choice becomes Impervious. Perplex makes a single appearance at this point in his dial. Giant-Man also gains an attack special power called Swat, that says when given a close combat action, Giant-Man may target all opposing characters within two squares and then divide the damage between them. This power can’t be countered by characters 100 points or less.

Mid-dial, Giant-Man switches back to Charge, Super Strength and Outwit for a click, then back to Plasticity, Swat, and Building Shove for a three more. Giant-Man switches from two clicks of Toughness to two clicks of Invulnerability for damage reduction in this stretch of dial. After this, Giant-Man switches back to Charge and Super Strength for the last time. This click also sees Building Shove for the last time, and the return of two clicks of Impervious.

End-dial, Plasticity and Swat are on the next two clicks and Giant-Man sees the last of his standard power damage reducers as Impervious is replaced with a click of Toughness. Perplex returns to his dial at this point for a few clicks. Giant-Man’s last three clicks are mostly bare, but the special power in his damage slot will be a benefit to whatever force he is on. Avengers, Behind Me! allows Giant-Man to use Defend and Toughness. Two defense values of 18, one having Perplex as well, and a 19 defense can provide a colossal help to his force!

Convention season is right around the corner and Giant-Man will initially be available at the NECA booth during San Diego Comic-Con, then later at Gen Con Indy.

And as it is the 10^th anniversary of HeroClix, we have included with Giant-Man a special figure that pays homage all the way back to the first HeroClix set, Marvel HeroClix: Infinity Challenge, and one of the first convention exclusive figures ever, Ant-Man!

Ant-Man has the Morph: Hank Pym trait that all 75 point versions of Hank Pym in this set have, allowing him to swap versions as needs change. Also added is the Tiny Size combat ability to represent his shrinking ability. Ant-Man still has the Avengers and Scientist keywords, as well as the Avengers team ability.

To increase the original 43 point version of Ant-Man to the modern 75 point version, in addition to his trait and Tiny Size ability, two clicks of life were added, as well as the ability to do a printed 1 damage on every click! (The original Ant-Man had printed 0 in all damage slots!) Beyond these major changes to make him playable in a modern environment, the design concept is the same. Ant-Man has Stealth the entire length of his dial to reflect how tiny he is. He also has Incapacitate for his entire dial, as his ability to sting people with a 4 range is annoying, and not very lethal. Also, Ant-Man still begins play with a 20 defense, and sees this number regress by 1 for every click of his dial. Another noticeable change to make this new Ant-Man more playable than the original is a small boost to his attack values. While the Infinity Challenge version had attack values starting at 8 and ending with 5, this version starts with a 9 attack and ends with 7! And finally, Ant-Man may have the Chaos War set symbol, as this is the current set, but he still has the same collector number as the Infinity Challenge original, #173!

Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to come back next Friday when our Marvel HeroClix: Chaos War set previews continue with a Kree-empowered Avenger!

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