What If? WizKids actually made themey LEs from Galactic Guardians

Now let me start by saying I actually commend WizKids on trying something cool and different with the LEs for a HeroClix set. I actually really do like the figures they came up with. However, since I’m a cosmic Marvel fan I feel like I’m getting robbed when it comes to “my set.”

The objects are darn near perfect. I love that I can deputize Steve Rogers on my Secret Avengers team, or beef up my New Warriors team so as not to waste Nova’s Worldmind trait. And I can think of any number of themey ways to use the Cosmic Cube, not the least of which is to have Starlord running around with it.

That said, I’m a little bummed that after getting the New Fantastic Four in the last set (and having 2 of them be Super Rares), and having the regular Fantastic Four as Super Rares in Captain America and this set, we’re getting the Newer Fantastic Four (with 3 out of 4 of the same members as the New Fantastic Four) as LEs here and they’re from a What If book. Sure it’s cool that we’re at least getting “alternate” versions of these characters, but they’re still not radically different from the other versions of these characters that we already have. Soon I’ll be able to field the Rainbow Wolverine Corps and have most of them be modern figures.

So what LEs would I have done instead? There are four characters in the set that spent time as Phalanx Select in Annihilation: Conquest, which would have tied more directly to themes in the set. Granted Gamora is in the wrong costume, but that hasn’t stopped WizKids from attempting radical paint jobs in the past. And how cool would it have been to get Nova, Drax, Gamora, and Blastaar in alternative designs that could be fielded with HoT Phalanx Soldiers and Ultron?

If you lump in the Fast Force pack, two other options arise, Ronan as another Phalanx Select or a Rick Rider Quasar (who happens to be pictured on the back of the Quasar card anyway), although I wouldn’t have chosen that one and a Phalanx Select Nova.

Point being, giving the “regulars” the LE spots in this set, you lose out on the chance to better highlight the marquee characters of this set. As someone who judges at a venue, I try to theme my tournaments both around the storylines being spotlighted and the LEs being given as prizes. However, this set of LEs makes that difficult because of the disconnect between set theme and the LEs themselves. In the past where I’d have Bruce Banner as a prize for a Fall of the Hulks tournament or even Daredevil as a prize for a Shadowland tournament, now I’m going to have tournaments for Annihilation, War of Kings, and Thanos Imperative that really have nothing to do with the LEs being given out.