Welcome to Marvel Champions Monthly: a fan podcast about the game Marvel Champions! Join Kennedy, Crimson, Amerikano, and new Aggresive host – Attercop, in part 2 of 3 of our Galaxy’s Most Wanted coverage. In this episode we discuss the the first three scenarios in the Galaxy’s Most Wanted campaign. Beware there be spoilers ahead!
Welcome to Marvel Champions Monthly: a fan podcast about the game Marvel Champions! Join Kennedy, Crimson and Amerikano in part 1 of 3 of our Galaxy’s Most Wanted coverage. In this episode we discuss the new heroes: Rocket and Groot!
Welcome to Marvel Champions Monthly: a fan podcast about the game Marvel Champions! Join Kennedy and Amerikano as we discuss multiplayer play in the game of Marvel Champions!
Welcome to Marvel Champions Monthly: a fan podcast about the game Marvel Champions! Join Kennedy, Crimson, and Amerikano as we discuss solo play with special guest Corey aka InnsmouthBear from the Solo Champions League.
Where you can find links to the discord and signups for the amazing Solo Champions League. You can join mid season or between seasons there’s never a bad time to join in! The episode wraps up with a segment from our friends at the Card Text! Thanks for listening.
KennedyHawk: Howdy heroes! KennedyHawk and Amerikano here from the MCM podcast to talk about a very serious topic. For the foreseeable future we want to bring some brightness to your Saturday morning. The kids are watching cartoons and you need something to occupy your time. Welcome Saturday Superhero Satire where we write a short post about fresh frivolous topics in the realm of Marvel Champions. For this introductory insight we’ll be talking about a highly debated topic. Power Rankings! Everyone loves a good tier list and to debate who’s worst and who’s best. Without further ado let’s present are Power Rankings for Heroic Headgear.
Amerikano: Let’s keep these nice and short, shall we? Because, let’s be real, Saturday morning cartoons don’t exist anymore and YouTube can only hold your kid’s attention for so long.
KennedyHawk: Let’s go from first to worst. The Ultron-like robot that determines how long people read out articles says that most people have already stopped!.
—
1st Place:
Ant-Man’s Helmet (KennedyHawk)
Ant-Man’s Helmet (Amerikano)
KennedyHawk: If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I love pym particles! What I like better is getting the reward of Pym Particles without spending a resource using a permen-ANT on the field. Ant-Man’s helmet is a straight up legend. My favorite part is it’s casual use as a bookend. You would think a hero wouldn’t need more of what they are good at – but in ant man’s case it’s pretty import-ANT. Anyway I’m gettin’ kind of ANT-sy what say you Amerikano?
Amerikano: Wow. Uh, this is the only helmet in the game that I will play no matter the cost. Period. I don’t have any puns, though. Was I supposed to come up with puns?
KennedyHawk: Don’t have any puns – or cAN’T make them? I’ll be here all morning.
Americano: (e_e)
2nd Place
Mark V Helmet (KennedyHawk)
Thor’s Helmet (Amerikano)
Amerikano: A fair cost (2) for +5 hit points is not too expensive for Thor. This gives you a bit of much needed breathing room to set up your board state. Also, playing it gets rid of a pesky science resource from my deck. I want all the lightnings. And those wings(?) though!
KennedyHawk: You know what really makes me sweat as Iron Man? Threat! How does Tony handle it. Certainly not a base 2 thwart and an in kit ready every turn. Regardless the Mark V Helmet offers Iron Man a lot of pluses, well hand size plus per turn to be more specific. How a helmet removes threat from many places at the same time is still a mystery to me. One I’m sure I could solve if I was Tony Stark.
3rd Place:
Wasp’s Helmet (KennedyHawk)
Wasp’s Helmet (Amerikano)
KennedyHawk: The insect duo is complete. I love Wasp’s helmet, the ability to toggle from +1 ATK to +1 THW is amazing. Nadia continues the excellent theme of storing your helmet somewhere not on your head and then using it mid battle. Very helpful! It stings me to say this but at the time of writing marvelcdb doesn’t have the image for this helmet yet. Major shout-out to hallofheroeslcg.com instead!
Amerikano: I’m glad you didn’t come up with any more insect puns. They really bug me. That being said, this helmet is solid. My favorite use is the +1 THW because who doesn’t want 3 THW besides a Justice player? So basically what I’m saying is that it comes in handy for any of the aspects I prefer pair with her.
4th Place:
Thor’s Helmet (KennedyHawk)
Iron Man’s Helmet (Amerikano)
Amerikano: I think the best sting about this card is that is a 1 cost Tech upgrade. It is usually a pretty automatic play unless I also have Arc Reactor and can’t play them both (for some reason). Still, a very solid helmet. I wouldn’t expect anything less from a genius, billionaire inventor.
KennedyHawk: Following the top three is a tough act! Thor’s Helmet gives Thor much of what he already has. Extremely expensive cards, more hit-points, and amazing flowing locks. More seriously the hit point boost is appreciated especially as you’ll be headbutting with a lot of minions and such. Clearly this headgear is very protective – hence Thor is making such a happy face about wearing it.
5th Place:
Captain America’s Helmet (KennedyHawk)
Captain America’s Helmet (Amerikano)
KennedyHawk: Okay – we are getting into the not so great helmets now. Cap’s helmet is so useful I’m going to assume he’s taking it off – not putting it on in the art. Yes – an extra life on a stick is great… until player two draws a treachery to damage each friendly character. Generally, if I’m triggering this ability I’ve either already won the game – or already lost. At least it’s cheap?
Amerikano: Probably the worst card in Cap’s hero kit. But I don’t know if that really tells us much because his kit is pretty amazing. I mean, this one is good for theme? But between Cap’s Shield and Shield Block, I better not be dying!
6th Place:
Bulldozer’s Helmet (KennedyHawk)
Captain Marvel’s Helmet (Amerikano)
Amerikano: What?! Is this even allowed? I need to jump on Discord really fast to ask The Card Text. I’ll won’t even bother putting my thoughts down about my #6 helmet.
KennedyHawk: in perfect Pietro – Bet you didn’t see that coming! 6th place for me falls to this villain’s Helmet. Bulldozer’s helmet hits like a truck – maybe even like a bulldozer. But don’t sleep on this helmet
Amerikano: Nothing grinds my gears like discarding cards from the top of my deck.
KennedyHawk: I know one card I’d like to discard.
7th Place:
Captain Marvel’s Helmet (KennedyHawk)
(Amerikano)
KennedyHawk: That’s right Carols “signature” headpiece. What a piece of junk, nothing screams “Spend me as a resource!” quite like this card. This helmet is so bad it’s the only hero gear not shown in the bottom corner images. It’s like they want us to forget it exists. +2 DEF to a hero I’ll almost never defend with. If this card text was blank it’d only be moderately worse.
Amerikano: Haha. Don’t forget, it might only get you +1 DEF. This is garbage. Straight up basura.
Wait, so what you’re saying is that the only upside to this headgear is that Yellowjacket’s Tech Theft scheme isn’t horrible against it? Barf.
—
KennedyHawk: Well there you have it! Our first of many Saturday Superhero Satire. What’s your favorite heroic headgear? When do you think we’ll get our next helmet? Check back next week when we rank/debate/pull-punches-on another ridiculous Marvel Champions topic.
Let’s take a look at the 16 cards that make up my favorite hero in the game to play: Iron Man
Tony’s Alter-Ego is nice. It’s better than simply providing you a resource because it lets you choose which resource you want. But more importantly, it lets you dig to find more pieces of his essential armor – especially with an unfortunate mulligan.
Iron Man’s ability is pretty straightforward and directly affects how you want to play Iron Man: build his suit as soon as you can. The faster you can do that, the faster you can get into the fray. And, as you’ll see below, I think the hero cards allow Iron Man to do a lot once he’s in the fray.
Cards I Love: Pepper Potts – getting Pepper out early can really help boost the number of Tech upgrades you can play quickly. Also, a well timed activation to give you Aerial and not requiring you to spend a card is satisfying.
Arc Reactor – I’m a big fan of cards that let you ready your identity (Hero in this case). It helps if you’ve just dealt with your Obligation, Business Problems. Or it lets you thwart for 4. The flexibility here is great.
An awesome card that makes Iron Man extremely versatile.
Cards I Like: Repulsor Blast – 1 cost for a potential 13 damage. Why not?
All 5 discarded cards must have an energy resource (including the Energy card) to get to 13 damage.
Supersonic Blast – 2 resources for (most likely) 8 damage is a great value. I typically only play this with Aerial, unless I only need 4 damage to defeat the Villain’s stage or a pesky minion with Guard.
Really, it’s either a 2 cost for 4 damage or a 3 cost for 8 damage.
Card(s) I Dislike: War Machine – AOE cards are conditionally good. War Machine is very helpful against Ultron; not as good against other current villains. I usually find myself ditching War Machine for the wild resource.
I love how thematic his kit is: Tony needs time to get his armor on, without it, he’s pretty much worthless against the villain. Once the armor is on, he can handle just about anything. Thanks for reading!
-Amerikano
Check out KennedyHawk’s Hero Combo Primer focusing on Iron Man and 3 cards from each aspect that combo well with his hero kit:
#klawyourwaythroughmay brings us to Black Panther’s hero kit inspection. In the comic lore, Klaw and T’Challa have a rich history including Klaw killing T’Challa’s father, T’Chaka. Without further ado, let’s dig in.
T’Challa’s ability is nice in the context of his hero kit. I mean, you get at least one Black Panther Upgrade to start and potentially more with a lucky draw and a hard mulligan. But I am a bit disappointed that he doesn’t have a non-setup ability.
Alter-Ego Form
Black Panther has decent health, solid stat line. Retaliate is awesome. Ping damage for the win. How many turns can you simply ignore Klaw’s Weapons Runner? 2. Then it disappears into the shadows.
Hero side with retaliate!
Cards I Love:
Shuri – she is the MVP of his deck, I think. She can not only go fish for Black Panther Upgrades, but any upgrades: aspect, basic.
Just another Wakanda royal family member
The Golden City – getting to draw two cards is so good. The developers tempered this by making it an Alter-Ego action. I’m OK with that. It helps you set up a better board state more quickly, or it sets you up for a big damage dealing turn as Black Panther.
Every hero needs a base of operations
Cards I Like: Wakanda Forever! – the crux of BP’s deck. You can do a little bit without them, but with them, you can do a lot – depending on the Black Panther upgrades you have in play. You make the determination whether playing WF! With only 1 BP upgrade is worth it. Also, the different copies of WF! have different resource types. I think this was a nice touch. Vibranium – with 3 copies in BP’s kit, it opens up more deckbuilding possibilities because you’re probably going to replace one or two of your double resource basic cards with one or two extra aspect cards.
Show me the money!
Cards I Dislike:
Ancestral Knowledge – it’s effect is cool. But you really need this card out and flip to AE when your deck is down to ~3-4 cards for it to really be potent. If my choice is between this and Golden City, I typically choose Golden City.
Who enjoys alter-ego???
There you go. These are my thoughts on Black Panther’s hero kit and how it helps him take down Klaw and other villains!
Welcome true believers. KennedyHawk, Amerikano, and special guest Guzmanco here with a new article that highlights some of the Panel Art behind the cards in Marvel Champions. Each article we will focus on a character or topic and some of their in-game art that comes right from the panels of a Marvel Comic book. We will discuss the card – and the comic it comes from. Guzmanco is a very special guest because they work as a freelancer with FFG and helped select some of the art for the game! I’m sure we’ll get lots of incredible insights about – Ms. Marvel aka Kamala Khan!
KennedyHawk: Guzmanco, thanks for joining us! I’m really excited to hear about the art you selected and how the whole process works! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your relationship with FFG / Marvel Champions?
Guzmanco: Absolutely! I’m an artist and freelance graphic designer who does all kinds of projects. I was fortunate enough to get an internship at FFG a while back and worked with the LCG team. I mostly worked on Marvel Champions and Keyforge but also did work for Arkham, Destiny, and L5R. It was an awesome experience. After my internship ended, they liked my work so much that they offered a contract to keep working on Marvel Champions. It’s been a lot of fun to work on it.
Amerikano: That’s such a cool story! See, kids. Get an internship. It just may be worth it! Guzmanco, can you give us an overview of how the developers (and you) choose art for the game?
Guzmanco: I can give a quick overview of how the art process. It starts off with developer Michael Boggs sending me a list of cards they need art for. Sometimes they ask for a really specific action or item, like Captain America’s Shield. Other times, I’m just asked to find a variety of cool images of a certain hero. From there I use a number of online resources to track down the comics where that person or thing appears. Then it’s just a lot of flipping through a couple hundred issues on my Marvel Unlimited account. When I find a good image, I take a screenshot, note the issue and page number, and send it Boggs. He then works with FFG’s art department and the Marvel licensing team to see which of my images get approved. If I can’t find a good image in the comics, FFG commissions one of their awesome freelance illustrators to make a custom art piece.
KennedyHawk: Well this article’s topic is all about Ms. Marvel. Amerikano and Guzmanco, what is your favorite thing about the character Ms. Marvel, in either lore or in the card game?
Amerikano: Her hero kit seems the most “puzzly” to me. There are some fun combinations to pull off. You rely so much on the events that you choose to add. Because, let’s be honest, a 1-1-1 statline isn’t great. But, it doesn’t need to be. Ms. Marvel has proven that you don’t need to be the strongest or smartest to be a great hero.
Guzmanco: Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to play my Ms. Marvel deck (I’ve been really loving Cap and Iron Man) so I don’t know how she plays. I really like the fun, light-hearted side of Kamala. There are a lot of gritty, renegade-like characters in the Marvel world, and I like that Ms. Marvel is a bit different. I like how she comes from a Pakistani American family. I also come from an immigrant family so it’s cool to see that being represented in a superhero comic!
KennedyHawk: Right on! I really like how she has the potential to grow each time a new event comes out. It makes me constantly look back at her hero kit. Likewise, her character has shown tremendous growth and potential in the comics – so the feeling of growth is very fitting! Let’s get to the cards!
KennedyHawk: Our first two cards come from the same page of the first issue of Ms. Marvel from 2015. Sneak By and Shrink. These two cards obviously work well together so it’s fitting they come from the same comic page! I find Sneak By to be a really potent card and it’s one of the cards that really helps Ms. Marvel feel like a swiss-army knife. She can thwart, attack, and defend with the best of them:
Amerikano: I agree. Sneak By’s 3 thwart for 2 is OK. Using it in tandem with Shrink just makes it sooo good. Also, the fact that she can bring Sneak By right back and thwart with the same copy and not rely on drawing another copy later is a big plus. It’s one of the first things you realize when you play with Ms. Marvel for the first time. As for the panel, Ms. Marvel is trying to avoid a mob of angry locals that think she’s a sell-out. The funny thing is that she mentions to Bruno that she hates shrinking. I love it when I can play Shrink.
KennedyHawk: So for the comic issue, this is the first issue of the 2nd Volume of Ms. Marvel. So readers may have already been familiar with the character – it doesn’t cover an origin story. I believe all of the cards from this article are from this Ms. Marvel run so we’ll be discussing this volume quite a bit. Guzmanco, did you work on the art selection for either of these cards?
Guzmanco: Yes, I found both of these images when I worked on this Hero Pack last year. Before this assignment, I had never heard of Kamala Khan. Like a lot of people, Marvel Champions was my first introduction to the character. I had a blast discovering her and reading these issues. It’s pretty usual that two cards will have art taken from the same page, but this series has some great artwork. I really like the light, airy atmosphere of the water-color gradients. It’s a nice contrast from the sharp, bold colors in most comics.
KennedyHawk: One thing Kamala may have to sneak by… is her parents – just like every teenager. That brings us to our next card art selection!
Home By Dawn: Ms. Marvel #2 (2015) Artist: Takeshi Miyazawa
Guzmanco: It’s very rare that I stumble upon the “perfect” artwork for a card. Home By Dawn was one of those times. The card was originally titled “Home By Curfew”, and I was concerned it would be difficult to find such a specific image when Kamala only appears in a couple hundred issues. Turns out there’s a perfect image in the second issue. When I submitted this artwork, I felt pretty confident it would make the final cut.
KennedyHawk: Nuff’ said. This card is just perfect. I could not imagine a better expression on her face. Hands down the art selection on this obligation is my favorite of all the heroes we’ve seen!
Amerikano: The art works so nicely here. It perfectly captures the types of things a teenage hero would have to go through. On the other side of things. A teenage superhero needs to be able to change into their hero suit fast. So, hiding it underneath their civilian clothing will do the trick…
KennedyHawk: This card is amazing! It’s useful in every aspect and is such a classic hero gesture calling back to some classic comic book imagery. This comes from the first run of Ms. Marvel that began in 2014. Most of the other art is from her second run, when selecting art do you try to find art for a hero kit all from one run typically?
Guzmanco: The process for finding Ms. Marvel’s art was really different, mainly because she is a newer hero with fewer issues available. It’s really unusual for a hero’s art to come from one or two series; Ms. Marvel is pretty unique in that regard. Since I wasn’t familiar with the character, reading her eponymous series seemed like the best place to start. I got lucky that there is a lot of great art in the Ms. Marvel comics.
Amerikano: The art is great and this card is sooo good. Because of Ms. Marvel’s ability, you’re probably going to run more events in her deck than is typical. That makes Biokinetic Polymer Suit a must have card to get on the table fast. Mulligan hard for this one.
Big Hands / Wiggle Room: Ms. Marvel #19 (2015) Artist: Marco Failla
KennedyHawk: Another pair of cards from the same page. It’s amazing how visual Ms. Marvel’s comics are. They really stretch classic comic book action into something you can really see. I love this series and at this point I’m probably going to read all of her runs!
Amerikano: I think it’s cool that the developers got such a new hero into the game so quickly. Also, can we just talk about how amazing of a card Wiggle Room is? It pays for itself. And you can exhaust Ms. Marvel, bring it back just in case your encounter card is Gang-Up or Assault (this has happened to me more times than I’d like to admit).
Embiggen / Ms. Marvel #10: Ms. Marvel #21 (2015)
Guzmanco: Sometimes art gets moved around depending on how the needs for the set change. This piece was actually submitted as a backup option for “Big Hands”. When I worked on “Embiggen!”, I had hoped to find an image of Kamala growing or stretching, but that was surprisingly difficult to find. There are lots of images of her shrinking or going from tiny to normal, but not many that show her going from normal size to giant. In the end, this piece did the best job at representing giant Kamala, given all other production restraints.
KennedyHawk: Fascinating. Does that happen often, art is selected for one card that you really like so it winds up on a different one?
Guzmanco: It happens from time to time, but it’s not super common. The core set had a lot of art that got moved around during development. The art for “The Power of Leadership” was originally submitted for “Indomitable”. It’s usually because card abilities or titles change, and they no longer fit the art. We also have what’s called slush art, which is a collection of cool art I’ve found that hasn’t been matched to a card yet. If I’m ever stuck on a particular card, I’ll browse the slush art to see if I can find something of use.
Amerikano: That’s interesting. I’m assuming that the slush collection continues to grow. I imagine that it will need to grow because there are a lot of cards that need art that aren’t tied to a specific character. That brings us to our last card.
Tackle: Ms. Marvel #8 (2014) Artist: Adrian Alphona
Guzmanco: Selecting art for the Aspect cards is a lot trickier than for the Hero Kits. There are two main reasons for this. First, it’s important to have a wide variety of characters featured in Aspect cards, since they can be used with any hero. There are plenty of awesome heroes in the Marvel Universe, and Aspect cards are the best way to show them off. I like to imagine a future where you can build decks only using cards that feature your favorite hero in the art. The second reason Aspect cards are difficult is because they often represent abstract concepts—such as “Tenacity”, “Indomitable”, “Moral Boost” or “Heroic Intuition”—which are harder to represent than specific objects or locations. I wish all Aspect cards were as straightforward as “Tackle”
KennedyHawk: Aspect art sure sounds tricky but it’s all been well-selected! When selecting art for Ms. Marvel’s aspet cards was the focus on Ms. Marvel as much as possible, or did you try to find a varied selection of heroes?
Guzmanco: Great question! When I received the assignment brief, I wasn’t explicitly told which are Aspect cards and which are for the hero kit. So in this situation, I thought “Tackle” was meant to be a hero card and found this piece for it. I think it’s a situation where it would be ideal to include aspect cards in the Hero Pack that focus on the featured character but nothing gets forced, if that makes any sense.
Amerikano: Cool. I wonder if they did that on purpose. Thor’s pack, for example, seems to have a lot of art on the aggression cards that are from Thor comics. I digress. A brief comment on the issue that the art from Tackle was from: I found it hilarious how Ms. Marvel defeated the giant robot that she is tackling. You’ll have to go read the issue to find out how!
KennedyHawk: Well that’s a wrap for this article of Panel Art! Thanks to Guzmanco for helping us Tackle this issue. It really gave us some awesome insight! Watch for more articles focusing on the panel art behind Marvel Champions on the MCM blog – and join the champions subreddit where Guzmanco frequently provides cart art references in the Card of the Day thread!
It’s time for another Hero Kit Inspection with Amerikano. Is She-Hulk a smashing success – or a raging monster? This is the third hero kit inspection in Amerikano’s series – will he do Crimson proud – or take him to Justice?
This article’s topic: Jennifer Walters a.k.a. the Savage She-Hulk!
Jennifer Walters’s ability to prevent 1 threat from being placed on a scheme is nice. It would’ve been even nicer if it was once per phase. That may have been too powerful, though.
Stopping…
She-Hulk’s automatic 2 damage when you flip to Hero form may cause you to switch over to Alter-Ego more than normal. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing with Walters’s hand size of 6 to She-Hulk’s 4. Plus, this hero kit has plenty of ways to deal with the villain’s schemes.
and Stomping!
Cards I Love:
Focused Rage – exhaust and take 1 damage to draw a card. Card draw is king in a card game. Exhausting the upgrade? Normal. Taking 1 damage? Not a problem. You start with 15 hit points and have a REC of 5.
Split Personality – I didn’t like this card at first, but it is so thematic and it’s unique to her deck. I can imagine the scenario where threat is under control and you really need to recover but want to get rid of a pesky minion. Flip to Hero form. Bam! “Do you even lift?” Play Split Personality to return to Alter-Ego to REC. Also, you then get to draw up to your hand size. You may even end up with some Alter-Ego Action upgrades in hand. (Editor’s note: Check out She-Hulk Vol. 1 Law and Disorder from 2014 for some major Split Personality action)
Getting mad at the mirror… literally
Cards I Like:
One-Two Punch – take our scenario above. Flip to Hero form. 2 damage to an enemy. Basic ATK for 3. Play One-Two punch. Your hero is ready to thwart or attack again. But it’s She-Hulk. You’ll probably be attacking a second time. I’m a fan of cards that let you ready your identity.
Legal Practice – with your innate Alter-Ego ability plus this, you get some decent threat removal.
Cards I Dislike:
Gamma Slam – cost of 4 with a hand size of 4? Ouch. Plus, it needs to be in hand when your health is low to really take advantage of it. But, you’re likely taking a lot of damage as She-Hulk which will allow you to deal a lot of damage at once.
Hellcat – 4 thwart for 3 isn’t very good. If you choose to block, you’re likely going to be sending her to your discard pile and completely lose out on her ability.
Alright. There’s my take on the hero cards of everyone’s second favorite lawyer-superhero 😉
Welcome true believers. KennedyHawk and Amerikano here and we are kicking off a new article series that highlights some of the Panel Art behind the cards in Marvel Champions. Each article we will focus on a character or topic and some of their in-game art that comes right from the panels (or variant covers) of a Marvel Comic book. We will discuss the card – and the comic it comes from.
There’s no better place to start talking about pictures than with — Pictures of Spider-Man! Today we’ll look at the books behind 5 cards that include Spider-Man in the art.
Spider-Man: Core Set #1A: Spider-Geddon #1 (Variant cover) Artist: George Perez
KennedyHawk:This art comes from a variant cover to the Spider-geddon event crossover – so not exactly from a panel but cool comic art in itself. You can read this issue in the Marvel Unlimited app as Spider-Geddon #1. First, let’s discuss the card itself. Spider-Man is the hero form for one of the core-set heroes. He has a cool ability that happens when an enemy initiates an attack against him. I really like this hero ability, it rewards you for staying in hero form and using cards like Get Behind Me! Amerikano – do you have any favorite uses for Spider-Man?
Amerikano: I think that Spider-Man’s solid 3 DEF statistic makes him a great candidate for a multi-player Protection hero. Without getting too much into his hero suite of cards, he has Backflip which allows him to take 0 damage from an attack (AMAZING!). This allows Spider-Man to constantly steer the Villain in his direction which allows teammates to deal lots of damage.
KennedyHawk: Great points! Now let’s discuss Spider-Geddon #1. This is the sequel event series to Spider-Verse. The Inheritors are potentially coming back and it takes a slew of spiders to stop them. This issue is mainly the spider-army teaming up to try and stop the Inheritors arrival. It showed off a slew of alternate Spider-totems. My favorite was definitely Spiderman UK a combination of Spider-Man and Captain Britain from Earth-833. Did you have a favorite character in this issue?
Amerikano: So. Many. Spiders. Honestly, the Inheritors were my favorite. Immortal Energy Vampires that eat Spider-people. So cool. Verna was probably my favorite Inheritor. Did you see the way she spoiler Spoiler’s spoiler? Wow.
KennedyHawk: Right, totally creepy and very different from the villains from the Spider-verse movie. Ironically, Peter Parker (616) from the card art isn’t even in this issue! But the art for his card is just from a variant cover. I hadn’t read this series but had read the original Spider-verse and this definitely lives up as a great sequel. On to the next card…
Enhanced Spider-Sense: Peter Parker: Spectacular Spider-Man #299 Penciller: Adam Kubert
KennedyHawk: Why don’t you tell us about this card, Amerikano?
Amerikano: Canceling the “When Revealed” effects of a treachery card from the encounter deck is really good. If you’re able to play it, you may not need to face Vulture. Or, you may stop the Villain from scheming when he only needs 3 threat to win. I just wish that it wasn’t a Hero Interrupt. Maybe it would’ve been too strong if it was simply an Interrupt.
KennedyHawk: This issue was pretty cool. The first page sets the story so you don’t have to read much background. It was cool to see Spider-Man at odds with hero friends. But I miss some good old fashioned Spider-teamwork. I really liked the reveal at the end it got me to read the next issue as well!
Amerikano: For me, the coolest part about this issue is the very beginning. A Spider-Man/Black Panther altercation-turned-fist-fight that was cut short due to Hawekey’s Explosive Arrow (that Spider-Man caught while giving Black Panther a knee to the ribs, by the way). I mean, I guess it’s pretty cool that the Tinkerer was upgrading villains to try and defeat our hero once and for all. The image used on the card is from the panel where Spider-Man realizes that the Tinkerer has somehow affected the other heroes from using their abilities, including Vision’s phasing. Big blow to the good guys.
KennedyHawk: Big blow indeed! But heroes always find a way to get back up — or ready? That brings us to our next card!
Tenacity: Amazing Spider-Man Family #3 Pencillers: Todd Nauck, Val Semeiks, Colleen Coover
KennedyHawk: Alright the next card is Tenacity, a basic card from the core-set. I originally overlooked this card but recently I’ve really liked running it in decks where a character likes to pump their stats – like leadership Captain America. I haven’t found a big use for it, but it comes from Amazing Spider-Man Family #3. Have you found a fun use for this card yet? I’m really excited to try this out with Spider-Woman to use her stat buff as much as I can!
Amerikano: It sounds amazing with Spider-Woman’s 5-5-5 buffed up statline. I like to run a couple of these in my Ms. Marvel Aggression deck. I try to add as many Physical resources as possible so I can pay the cost. It’s expensive, but it readies her for her ability. Assuming you can pay the cost of the event card, you may be able to play the same event 3 times by using Tenacity!
KennedyHawk: The issue itself is kind of cool, the series is a short lived series and that recaps takes from all over the Spider-verse (nearly half a decade before the Spider-verse was a thing). In the first story you get to see snot nosed nerdy high-school Peter, basically… me. The panel is Spider-Man saving a foe from being crushed by a broken crane. Pretty tenacious… There’s 4 other stories in this huge issue, including stories about: Peter and Mary Jane (married couple in another universe), the real Parker family hero – Aunt May, a story about 616 Spider-Man, and a look at the troubled past of Harry Osborn. Did you have a favorite story?
Amerikano: I mostly like to read comics for the action and adventure. But #3 taught a nice lesson. As Spider-Man was coming to grips with his new-found superstrength, and unexpectedly walloped an opponent, he decided he needed to make it right. But, on the way to finding that opponent, he ended up saving hundreds without swinging a punch. Which is a good segway into the comic that the next card comes from.
Amerikano: Enhanced Reflexes is a Basic card from the Ms. Marvel Hero Pack; the sister card (cousin?) to Enhanced Awareness (Captain America Hero Pack) and Enhanced Physique (Thor Hero Pack. I could have easily seen Daredevil on a card called “Enhanced Reflexes”. Spider-Man works, though.
KennedyHawk: The community has really been enamored with the art from this card and it’s pretty awesome. Such a classic Spider-man post (pose?). Funny enough, Spider-Man’s signature set doesn’t really rely on energy resources. But Iron Man and Captain Marvel both love them. Any other cool combos with this card?
Amerikano: I think this card is fine for any deck that wishes it had more Energy resources. You mentioned Iron Man and Captain Marvel. I think Thor decks appreciate Enhanced Reflexes, too. I do like the fact that the card allows the resources to be out in front of you instead of requiring resources from your hand. It may just be the difference in playing that one extra card.
KennedyHawk: The card sort of acts like a resource filter. It takes 3 resources to play (including the card itself) and it turns all those resources into energy resources! And the issue, it kicks off a new era of Spider-man! I really liked this issue, it’s the start of his most recent run. It features a lot of heroes pretty angry with Spider-man and it slowly gets into one of a few reasons why. It’s got a ton of classic villains: Kingpin, Beetle, his new roommate Boomerang (Yup, you read that right) and giant alien space bugs! Plus a guest appearance from *spoiler-spoiler*(
Amerikano: I like the way this issue is set up. Spider-Man comes to the aid of other superheroes, but as he’s punching the space bugs, internally, he’s brooding as to why everyone is mad at him. What I don’t like is when heroes think that everything is their fault. I’m all for humility in a superhero, but c’mon, I get a little tire of the “it’s all my fault” routine. Anyway, rant over. I won’t get into the specifics of what exactly happens, let’s just say Peter took advantage of a bad situation. But, I agree with the community, I think the variant cover artwork is pretty awesome.
KennedyHawk: A lot of changes happen in Peter’s life in this issue and it’s time for him to take some responsibility for his body-snatched actions! Speaking of responsibility, our next card is…..
Great Responsibility: Civil War (volume 1) #2 Penciller: Steve Mcniven
KennedyHawk: Our final card comes from the Justice aspect, and we can’t write enough to do this series justice – Civil War. This is from the great unmasking of Peter Parker. This panel will haunt Pete and shape this role in the Marvel Universe for years to come.
Amerikano: Did Peter make the right decision by revealing his well-guarded secret in joining Tony Stark and the U.S. Government by signing the Superhero Registration Act? That’s one for you to decide. Read it and make a decision for yourself. You won’t regret it!
KennedyHawk: The comic plays out quite differently than the movie. The entire issue begins with the New Warriors making a reality TV show about super-herodom. They try to stop a team of villains including Nitro from attacking a school and inadvertently cause Nitro to explode causing massive public outrage. At its core the book is still about conflict between Iron Man and Captain America. Politicians propose a super-human registration act forcing heroes to register to continue superheroics! Spider-Man has a very different role and unmasks himself to the greater world. What does that mean for the loved ones in Peter’s life? Who wins the war in the end – we don’t want to spoil it so you’ll have to check it out on Marvel Unlimited
Amerikano: After that summary that doesn’t do the comic justice (yes, I did. C’mon, it’s an article about Spider-Man!), let’s look at the card. I mean, with a name like “Great Responsibility” could the art feature anyone other than Spider-Man? I think it could maybe have been a Protection card, instead. That being said, I think the developers got it right by making in Justice.
KennedyHawk: For sure. I would have loved for this to be a Protection card. I think that it fit’s the Justice theme. It’s pretty cool, one of the few ways to prevent yourself from threating out! I really like this in decks where characters want to take damage. Mainly She-Hulk, but also any character when I’m playing with some protection chump to heal me!
Amerikano: Watch it. I might just use my shield for a resource next time.
—
Well everyone, thanks for reading our discussion about some of the Panel Art that ends up on Marvel Champions cards. You can follow the Marvel Champions Monthly Podcast facebook, twitter, or podbean page to see more articles like this in the future – until then check out these series for some great Spidey-art!
