Clix Conundrum

A pair of Xs

This week brought us full dial previews of the Beast and a new Professor X, along with some other details about Mutations and Monsters... which will have been out for two days four weeks from now. Hopefully I'll be pleasantly glassy-eyed from turkey, etc. leftovers and waiting for the UPS truck to arrive with my clix on that Black Friday.

We know we'll be getting most, possibly all, of the X-Men line-up from their debut in 1963 in the upcoming Mutations and Monsters set, and this week brought two X-Men, though one of them was something of a surprise.

First, we have the details on the debut-edition Beast.


An economical 50 pt piece I'm very interested in seeing working alongside his era-appropriate comrades. Power gamers will not want him because of his stats, a lack of Super Strength and their wanting him to have Outwit despite that not being appropriate to the character at that stage. Yes, he was well-read and on his way academically, but wasn't exhibiting the scientific genius he would later. At this stage he was much more into being ostentatious about his knowledge most likely as a compensation for looking like such a muscle-minded sort.

Me? I'm looking forward to him. The sole keywords of X-Men and Mutant -- the latter being something that other recent pieces left us wondering if it was being phased out -- will be useful. I'd have liked to have a longer list of keywords, including Avengers and Defenders even though they didn't apply until much later, after he looked very different. I'd rather have as much flexibility as possible in team-building, and so I prefer to see characters with a great deal of history given keywords that reflect that, even if it's a rookie version.

To lead them all, it's Professor X, but not necessarily the version I'd expected. At 131 points we've been given a version we can take as being from almost any era... at least any era when he was stuck in that chair.

The biggest complaint - perhaps my only one - is the single target.

The special Cerebro power is a built-in Brilliant Tactician -- allowing him to Perplex the stats of teammates within 10 spaces that he can see -- keys off keywords, not TAs, and they don't even have to be a keyword he has. Also, he can change it from turn to turn, so if on a larger team he has part of the build sharing one keyword and part another he can choose one to boost this turn and another the next.

For more background on what the designer had in mind, including what at first would seem to be absolutely bizarre late-dial stats and powers, go read Seth's design notes. Agree or not on the appropriateness of it, it deserves points at least for a creative twist.