Switched at the Birth of Keywords

Back around HeroClix 5^th Anniversary WizKids made some pretty bold changes to the game. One of the most significant was the addition of character cards and keywords. Love them or hate them they’ve become a big part of team building with a lot of players. At this time, WizKids had made the decision to go back and retroactively keyword their entire library of figures up to that point, which was no small effort.

That said, some sets were keyworded more accurately then others. And although recently some of these errors have been corrected there are still a large number of figures that were keyworded incorrectly and never fixed. My purpose with this article is mostly to point out figures that were either confused for another version of the character or just miskeyworded within an REV. I will not however be going into characters that were placed onto the wrong version of the Justice League. That is another article for another time, and spans into carded figures.

So where should we start? The most obvious place to me is to start with characters that were keyworded as someone else. And my best example of this is Ultimates Phoenix which represents Rachel Summers but somehow was keyworded with Hellfire Club and Past keywords, which would suggest Jean Grey. More importantly she’s missing the Excalibur keyword which is likely the team she’s known best for, at least as the corresponding sculpt is concerned.

Another similarly miskeyworded figure is Mutant Mayhem Experienced Sasquatch which is supposed to represent Heather Hudson of the Exiles yet she did not get the keyword. Conversely Mimic in the same set represents the 616 version of the character yet was assigned the Exiles keyword.

Spring boarding off the alternate reality confusion above, Ultimate versus 616 characters have created a few different keywording issues. Starting with Critical Mass which contained Ultimate Rhino, his Experienced version had the Sinister Syndicate keyword, and even if you counted the Ultimate Six as part of the Sinister Syndicate, he still shouldn’t have had it. His Veteran version has Emissaries of Evil which also doesn’t exist in the Ultimate continuity. Oddly his Sinister version, which represents him in 616 continuity, does not have Emissaries of Evil on any version, but probably should on the Rookie.

Electro is equally messy. His Ultimates version, which is from Ultimate continuity, has Emissaries of Evil on both the Rookie and Veteran and Frightful Four on the Rookie. Again both of these teams are from 616 continuity and again, his Sinister version does not have either team represented, yet should.

Ultimates Dr. Octopus, which again represents Ultimate continuity, has Thunderbolts on his Rookie and Masters of Evil on his Veteran, both of which are 616 teams. That said, he does have a Clobberin’ Time version that appropriately has the Masters of Evil keyword, and I question his getting the Thunderbolt keyword at all anyway.

The last in the line of Ultimate/616 confusion is Fantastic Forces Dr. Doom who has both the Mystical and Ruler keywords, but seeing as how the Ultimate version of Dr. Doom, which this represents, was more of a Monster and was neither Mystical nor a Ruler of anything, these keywords have been incorrectly applied.

Switching lines entirely, let’s take a look at some of the confusion over on the DC side of things. With DC it’s not so much a factor of getting universes confused as it is getting owners of the mantle, or versions of owners confused. For instance, Cosmic Justice Cheetah has Villainy Inc. on a couple over versions, when this figure represents the current Barbara Ann Minerva. Priscilla Rich, the first Cheetah, was the one on Villainy Inc. and would be more logically represented by the Icons version, which did get it for the Experienced version. On the flip side, Icons Cheetah got the Animal keyword on all version, which really wasn’t the case with either Priscilla or Deborah Domaine, who the sculpt represents. This version also got the Society keyword on the Veteran, which should be on the Cosmic Justice version instead. The Icons version should have keywords like Past, Legion of Doom, and Secret Society of Super Villains, all of which are haphazardly handed out at best.

Looking at another DC female icon, Unleashed Hawkgirl has similar issues. This version of the character is clearly supposed to be focused on the evolution of the modern mantle-holder Kendra Saunders. Yet she’s keyworded to reflect her Silver Age counterpart having both the Justice League of America and Police keywords. The Icons starter figure rightfully has both of these keywords.

Cosmic Justice Batgirl, representing Cassandra Cain, has the Detective keyword while Unleashed Batgirl, representing Barbara Gordon, has the Martial Artist keyword. Clearly their identities have been reversed. Granted both have had more recent versions that have straightened out the keyword situation. Unfortunately in the case of Barbara her Unleashed version is still better for the points.

Also coming from Unleashed, Veteran Supergirl, representing the Silver Age version of the character, has the Teen Titans keyword and shouldn’t. Not that I’m pulling for more characters to have generic keywords, but this version of the character would make more sense having the Celebrity and Reporter keywords.

And the last in the line of DC legacy confusion is Experienced Blockbuster from Legacy. The Rookie rightfully represents Mark Desmond. The Experienced version is supposed to represent Roland Desmond dial-wise, but he’s wrongfully keyworded with the Secret Society of Super Villains which only Mark (and the Rookie) should be a part of.

The last and possibly more nit-picky keyword confusion on the DC side comes from Unleashed Kingdom Come Shazam! having the Kid keyword. In Kingdom Come Billy Batson is a grown adult and therefore shouldn’t have the Kid keyword.

Shifting back around to Marvel they also have one legacy error in the form of Fantastic Forces Veteran Ghost Rider. This figure represents Johnny Blaze and not his cousin Danny Ketch. As such he shouldn’t have the Fantastic Four keyword, since that keyword should be tied to Danny.

Moving on, now we look at some Marvel REVs where there were different versions of the character represented across the three dials. The first is Supernova Hyperion. His Rookie version which represents an evil duplicate got the Eternal keyword. Yet the two versions who were actually Eternals lack it.

Next, sticking with Supernova, and one of my biggest pet peeves in HeroClix, Rookie Nova for some strange reason got the New Warriors keyword even though this dial represents the 70s version of the character. However the Veteran which represents Nova past issue 16 of New Warriors and prior to him becoming Nova Prime did not get the keyword. Considering he was a New Warrior the entirety of that time, the lack of the keyword makes no sense.

After that, another pet peeve of mine is Xplosion Storm. Her Rookie has the Morlocks keyword even though the Experienced version represents her as the depowered leader of the Morlocks. That version instead got the Twelve keyword, that makes no sense on a depowered version of the character.

Another character that received the Twelve keyword on the only version that didn’t make sense was Mutant Mayhem Experienced Polaris. It’s the only version of Polaris that does not have her standard power set, yet this is the version they choose to represent her as one of the magnetic poles?

The most confused of the X-Men comes from Critical Mass. Experienced Archangel was given the Defenders and X-Men keywords for the dial that represents him as a Horsemen of Apocalypse. Yet on the Veteran, which represents him back on the X-Men he has the Horsemen of Apocalypse keyword. That being said, Warren has gotten some more modern versions that really make these versions obsolete, but it doesn’t change the fact that they’re keyworded incorrectly.

And last but not least, Clobberin’ Time Veteran White Queen, which represents her with Diamond Skin and no mental powers has the Generation X keyword, even though that team had been long disbanded by the time she gained those abilities. Again, she’s had other better versions since then, and her Giant-Size X-Men version is a far better representation for her days with GenX anyway, but it doesn’t change the fact that it doesn’t make sense on that character.

Sorry for the length and scatterbrained nature of the article. These are just issues that have bugged me, and that I’ve lobbied to have corrected ever since the keyword lists were put out in the first place. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the article, and feel free to comment on anything you see where I’m wrong, or if I missed something important.