There’s a final category of figure that made certain ones candidates for top HeroClix of the year: The Undying.

Time was, you just had to hit a HeroClix fig once fairly hard to turn it into so much dead weight on a team — and then once more to make it just dead.

But more and more we’re seeing “Stop” clicks that ignore the total damage you just laid on a fig. A key example is Kyle Rayner [War of Light 107].

Starting with 11AV 4 damage Running Shot EE with Perplex got him an initial look for consideration as a tentpole, but his soft Super Senses click knocked him out. Who wants to pay 180 for a piece that’s not even scary until it gets hit to a stop click?

Well, when that stop click is just #3 of seven, granting 19 DV Impervious that even Pulse Wave can’t get around, and he can’t be tied up thanks to another SP granting him Duo Attack with get-out-of-jail-free placement before each shot, and Outwit and Quintessence TA? Actually a lot of players just might, especially given that he has the Construct ability to fit on a Nurse to give himself Regeneration (or Decoy, or Energy Shield/Deflection, or any number of offensive options).

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Even more potent than stop clicks are figures that heal and heal and heal again. Prime among them is Zoom [The Flash 053b], who flirted with a mention among the middleweights in Part 3 but lost out because of his modest 17 DV Super Senses as his only defense. Not so good at his 120 cost. Plus there’s the fact that he doesn’t get good at the fight until he gets a Speed Token.

But if he gets just one. Just. One — which isn’t that difficult with 13 Hypersonic Speed and 11 AV — then he can suddenly use Flurry+BCF during a later HSS attack. Or he can save it for mid-dial, when Speed Tokens really pay dividends for him. There, his Toughness+Regeneration Defense SP gets a 1-3 bonus to the latter’s rolls based on the Speed he’s amassed. And as he continues to hit, his damage SP’s Steal Energy heals him up while adding still MORE Speed.

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And then there’s pieces that don’t even KO properly. Solomon Grundy [Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes 049], already a pain in the seat of your pants (pants he wants, too, apparently) with his Indom and full dial of either Outwit or +1 damage Battle Fury, also free-heals when he’s in water or printed hindering terrain. He’s got a full complement of the best armor on the PAC along with a Regen SP. THEN he’s got the ability to self-revive at least 3 clicks via Resurrection Tokens instead of being KO’d, making him in effect an 11-click dial AT LEAST. With Flurry scattered through his dial, he’s got some opportunities to hit and make more Resurrection tokens. At 200 points, he was too immobile to make the list in any other category. But his sheer length of life and ability to self-heal in three different ways get him here.

And then there’s Bizarro [Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes 039] who, no matter how much damage an attack deals him, will only ever lose a single click of life. His dial is utterly random both in stats and powers, so he can’t mount a true offense without outside help. But his sheer stamina is unmatched even by the others in this category of The Undying.

Say this happens in single turn: a foe successfully single-target Pulse Waves for 4, then a second follows with 3 Exploit Weakness, then a 3rd with 2 damage PPB.

• Kyle Rayner ends up KO’d after the third attack.
• Zoom is KO’d by the first TWO.
• Grundy would be KO’d by all three hits and is forced to use his Resurrection Tokens to rebirth. He’s buried on click #6 of an 8-click dial.

But Bizarro? He only takes 3 damage where the rest took NINE.

In a timed game, Bizarro never dies. So he’s on the Watch List and is, of all the top candidates for Heroclixin’s top ten list, the one most liable to change and either drop or advance in his tentative position on the list.

And that’s why there’s no top ten of 2014 yet. There’s only a collection of nominees that we’ll sum up tomorrow.