Merry Christmas, Heroclixin’ readers! Hope you don’t see any of these under your tree.

Usually we rank these and count down to the baddest of the terrible. But honestly, none of these are useless. I can’t even drag them for their flaws like I have in years past. So we’ll just put them in order from cheapest points to highest.

 

Hydra 011 [Earth X 011] 25 points

Taylor gave me an argument on this one because he loves Incapacitate and I …….. do not. But this Hydra chick ranks among the worst because she’s so much less effective than her Hydra 010 counterpart.

With any held object, Hydra 010 can chuck an object 2 squares further than 011’s 4 range for more damage and for 5 points cheaper. He’s also better on the end dial with Plasticity because of the Close Combat Expert. Hers appearing with Range Combat Expert is a poor combo.

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Spiders Man [Earth X 013] 30 points

— I rather like the SP. It’s half of what Incapacitate SHOULD be. But that short range and low DV and too-brief life are all problematic. Basing him makes his SP and defense much less effective. So it’s a no.

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Winter Soldier [Avengers Black Panther Illuminati 016] 45

While his opening stats are good, him being vulnerable to Mind Control from being based is doubly bad due to him being a range piece. Especially with the chance of it being permanent. He’s just not good enough with just 6 range to make running him worth the risk.

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Spider-Girl [Earth X 001] 50 points

I hate Incap in general, and in particular when the range isn’t great and the Running Shot is missing. Maybe if she had Willpower to make up for the lack of first-strike capability, she wouldn’t be on this list, because the AV and 2x targets is what you want in an Incap piece and CCE thrives on pushability. But no, she’s comparatively garbage at this price.

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Starfleet Admiral [Star Trek To Boldly Go 007] 50 points

Outwit puts her too close to the action while using Mastermind frankly hurts more valuable figs than her. Sure, she has Leadership-plus, but the conditions attached to it makes it not much of a bonus.

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Jessica Cruz [Rebirth 056] 65 points

No move+attack and just 6 range both mean she’s just a taxi (and her “Leading the Charge” trait is likely wasted). But the no-cost TK is likely hindered by the fact that her lines of fire are blocked by her many passengers. Plus she’ll need to set up objects in prescient fashion to be able to use them well. Add the lack of armor and mediocre defense and you get this not-so-good wackness.

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Bumblebee [Rebirth 039] 75 / 50 points 

She just doesn’t mesh together. Her SP offers a nice HSS option, but drops her damage to 2. Also, her 2 targets don’t work with Precision Strike and 10 AV is a little underwhelming at her full cost. So what about her 50 point line? Her AV jumps to 11 and she swaps the Precision for Incap, but her damage drops to 2 which means her HSS is wasted on the -1 damage penalty. Outwit isn’t on either top click. She’s fun but kind of a mess.

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Deathstroke [Rebirth 017] 75 points

— Incap works well with his Defiance trait that lets him maybe heal after hitting. What’s wrong is that his first and second clicks should be swapped to make him actually useful for his cost. He’s just not worth anything outside the Defiance theme — one that’s already hobbled by not having a proper build total:

Deathstroke 75
Power Girl [Rebirth 022] 115
Jericho [Rebirth 002] 60
Rose Wilson [Rebirth 003] 60
Terra [Rebirth 004] 65
Kid Flash [Rebirth 021] 75
= 450 points

What the heck is that? And why didn’t Adeline Kane [Rebirth 008], the character who actually formed Defiance, get the keyword?

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Maximus [Avengers Black Panther Illuminati 060] 90 points

His plusses (mass Perplex of friendlies if you build same-name teams, incapacitating Mind Control, TK) are dragged down by his non-optional trait that has a 33% chance of Battle Fury-ing him (so much for that 6 range), or keeping him from costed actions (so much for his Indom). He belongs on such specific teams that he’s bad otherwise.

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Professor X [X-Men Dark Phoenix Saga 035] 100 points

I want to like him (ranged Leadership and being able to shoot/Outwit through walls is good) but losing his Influence upon clearing hurts him too much in early game and his dial’s so short. Better than last year’s No. 1 Worst, Professor X, Dreamer [Xavier’s School 049] but that’s not saying much, esp. at 2x cost!

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This is probably the most clix with 11 AV or better to ever end up on a Worst Of list. Just shows how good figures are this year … nothing is out-and-out terrible.

Well, except this Dishonorable Mention from the Orville starter set.

HM: Commander Kelly Grayson [The Orville 002] pre-errata

Aside from the Enhancement, this SP is supposed to function sort of as a Probability Control of normally unProbable rolls.

But

1. You can’t use Shape Change or Super Senses on your turn
2. You can’t use Leadership in the action phase, when you can activate FREE actions like this SP
3. Which makes this power 98% USELESS and UNWORKABLE (there’s a corner case where you might get caught in a friendly Energy Explosion and need to reroll Super Senses. WAYYYYY OVER INNA CORNER case). But even if it were usable…
4. …You could put the game into infinite rerolls because there’s no limit to the rerolls.
5. This is in a starter set for new fans
6. They had to issue errata for A STARTER SET
7. HOW IS A NEW FAN GONNA FIGURE WHERE ERRATA IS????

 

(Power now reads: “Enhancement. Once per turn, when a friendly character that’s adjacent or has the Planetary Union keyword rolls for Leadership, Shape Change, or Super Senses, you may reroll that roll.”)

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That’s the trash out of the way. Next time Heroclixin’ reveals our favorite figures of the year 2019.