Playing the Movies: The Dark Knight Rises

This is my third and final installment of playing the Batman movies. Those that have not seen The Dark Knight Rises probably want to hold off on reading this one, so that you don't run the risk of spoiling a plot point or two. That said, I'm just going to dive in, so read at your own risk.

The Dark Knight Rises starts with a bang, just like The Dark Knight before it. We start with 3 mercenaries getting loaded onto a CIA plane with a Russian Dr. Pavel. Before long, all hell breaks loose, as the Brute(s) overpower the plan:


  45 DKR008A Mercenary
  45 DKR008A Mercenary

 45 DKR008A Mercenary
 45 DKR008A Mercenary
 45 DKR008A Mercenary
 45 DKR008A Mercenary
 40 DKR010B Falcone Bodyguard
 90 DKR204 Bane
---------------------------------------------------------
400 Total


The Falcone Bodyguard my seem like an odd choice to round out the team, but 1) he's a Brute, and 2) he starts with Leap/Climb and could be easily explained away as one of the "boarding" Mercenaries for anyone who's seen the film.


Next we move the action back to Gotham City, where Bruce has been out of the game for a while and really isn't prepared for what's to come:

 40 DKR005A GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
 55 DKR013  Alfred Pennyworth
 35 DKR026  Lucius Fox
 99 DKR027  Commissioner Gordon
 80 DKR202  Bruce Wayne
 50 DKR206  John Blake

---------------------------------------------------------
399 Total

As Alfred does his best to reintroduce Bruce into the world, the Gotham Underworld has other plans:

 80 DKR006 Catwoman
 35 DKR007 The Joker's Henchman #1
 85 DKR025 Scarecrow
100 DKR103 Bane
---------------------------------------------------------
300 Total

Here the Joker's Henchman #1 is the weird choice, but this one comes down to having 35 points to fill and only really him or Henchman #3 as a choice to fill it. I went with #1 because of his Zipline special power. Scarecrow is hear to reflect Crane's roll as Judge of the Guilt in the courtroom scenes.

As Gotham City tries to deal with the emerging threat Batman dawns the cowl, but is a shadow of what he once was:

 40 DKR005A GCPD Officer
 35 DKR026  Lucius Fox
 99 DKR027  Commissioner Gordon
 75 DKR201  Batman
 50 DKR206  John Blake
---------------------------------------------------------
299 Total

Batman fights Bane and although he puts up a fight, Bane snaps him like a twig and throws him into "The Pit" forcing Bruce to rededicate himself to his cause to save his beloved Gotham City:

 40 DKR005A GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005A GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
 49 DKR011A GCPD Riot Officer
 49 DKR011A GCPD Riot Officer
 49 DKR011B GCPD Riot Officer
 68 DKR021  Lt. Gordon
 35 DKR026  Lucius Fox
 75 DKR201  Batman
 65 DKR203  Catwoman
 50 DKR206  John Blake
--------------------------------
600 Total

They're opposed by Martial Artist(s) headed by the reminiscent of the League of Shadows that have taken over Gotham:

 35 DKR002B Shadow Assassin
 35 DKR002B Shadow Assassin
 35 DKR002B Shadow Assassin
 35 DKR002B Shadow Assassin
 45 DKR008B Mercenary
 45 DKR008B Mercenary
 45 DKR008B Mercenary
 45 DKR008B Mercenary
 45 DKR008B Mercenary
 45 DKR008B Mercenary
 70 DKR012  Miranda Tate
113 DKR014  Bane
--------------------------------
593 Total

If you really want to have some fun, and have it available, you could always throw the Gamma Bomb on the Martial Artist team to have it reflect the bomb driving around Gotham. Sure it can't move, but it would put that added tension into the scenario.

That's all I have for this series of articles. As with the other two articles, I welcome your team suggestions in the comments. Also, if you've enjoyed this series of articles, and would like me to continue writing articles in this vein, please don't hesitate to make suggestions. And perhaps most important of all, thanks for reading!

Playing the Movies: The Dark Knight

Yesterday, I walked through some different teams you could run to play through Batman Begins, today we visit the sequel and run though all the fun that can be had with Joker & company. And since the Joker is one of my favorite characters of all time, and this set filled with fun Jokery goodness, I had a lot of fun building these teams. My only big complaint is that the Joker and his 4 Henchmen never work out to a nice round point total, without filling in alternate characters (the route I took) or filling in multiples of 1 or more Henchmen (which I'd never try to do since I've had a heck of a lot of trouble trying to track down 1 of each to begin with, as I'm still missing 2-4 in my own collection).

Anyway, without further rambling, let's start where the movie does with the bank heist with Joker's Gotham Underworld crew:

 35 DKR007 The Joker's Henchman #1
 60 DKR016 Salvatore Maroni
 33 DKR019 The Joker's Henchman #2
 35 DKR207 The Joker's Henchman #3
 40 DKR208 The Joker's Henchman #4
 85 DKR209 The Joker
--------------------------------------------------------
288 Total

Sure Sal doesn't really belong on the team, but outside of duping a couple of Henchmen, it's the only way to get the team to work. You could always say that Sal is standing in for the bus driver if you need an explanation.

The next team is the Gotham City alliance that took down the mob banks, and extracted Lau from his office in China:


 60 DKR017 Harvey Dent
 35 DKR026 Lucius Fox
140 DKR029 The Batman
 50 DKR106 Sgt. Gordon
--------------------------------------------------------
285 Total

Later, Joker and new henchmen from the Gotham Underworld bust up Harvey's fundraiser, being put on by Wayne and his elite Gotham City friends:

 35 DKR007  The Joker's Henchman #1
 40 DKR010B Falcone Bodyguard
 40 DKR010B Falcone Bodyguard
 33 DKR019  The Joker's Henchman #2
 75 DKR104  The Joker
 35 DKR207  The Joker's Henchman #3
 40 DKR208  The Joker's Henchman #4
--------------------------------------------------------
298 Total

Versus:

 60 DKR003  Bruce Wayne
 40 DKR005A GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
 60 DKR017  Harvey Dent
 45 DKR018  Rachel Dawes
 55 DKR013  Alfred Pennyworth
--------------------------------------------------------
300 Total

I didn't actually build a team that uses Joker as Sgt. mainly because it runs into EXACTLY the same problems as the bank heist team unless you actually build him on a team with other GCPD pieces and run it as a Police theme team. However, to me, that just feels wrong. So I jump ahead to the climax of the film. Again we pit the Gotham Underworld against Gotham City:

 35 DKR007  The Joker's Henchman #1
 65 DKR009  Two-Face
 40 DKR010B Falcone Bodyguard
 40 DKR010B Falcone Bodyguard
 33 DKR019  The Joker's Henchman #2
194 DKR028  The Joker
 35 DKR207  The Joker's Henchman #3
 40 DKR208  The Joker's Henchman #4
--------------------------------------------------------
482 Total

Versus:

129 DKR001  The Dark Knight
 40 DKR005A GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
 49 DKR011A GCPD Riot Officer
 49 DKR011B GCPD Riot Officer
 55 DKR013  Alfred Pennyworth
 35 DKR026  Lucius Fox
 99 DKR027  Commissioner Gordon
--------------------------------------------------------
496 Total

That's all I have for today. Part 3 will go up sometime between tomorrow and Tuesday (depends on when I remember and have time to post). Thanks for reading, and if you have feedback, and/or other team ideas that I missed, feel free to list them in the comments.

Playing the Movie: Batman Begins

With the release and general awesomeness of The Dark Knight Rises movie, I'd be remiss to miss an opportunity to highlight some fun teams that you can build from the HeroClix set of the same name. That said, I had so much fun building teams for this article that I actually have to split it up into the 3 films that it represents. Today's feature being Batman Begins, since that's the logical starting point.

Even though this set seems almost entirely filled with mooks and support characters, in one way it lends itself to building a lot of teams that you would see over the course of the films. However, because of the relatively high point cost on characters like Officers, Bodyguards, and Inmates, it actually makes it hard to round out teams.

Most of the teams that you will see in these articles are between 300 and 400 points, because that's really where this set works best. That said, but the end of the Dark Knight Rises article, I do go a little nuts with a couple of 600 point teams. It's also wise to expect that some spoilers might at least be suggested by some of these team builds. So with that, let's dive in!

When talking about Batman Begins the most logical place to start is with the League of Shadows (or in clix/comic terms, the League of Assassins):


 50 DKR015   Master Bruce Wayne
 60 DKR022   Ra's al Ghul
 85 DKR023   Henri Ducard
 35 DKR002A Shadow Assassin
 35 DKR002B Shadow Assassin
 35 DKR002B Shadow Assassin
--------------------------------------------------------------
300 Total


Since this team trains Bruce, and it exists outside of Gotham, there's really no one for them to challenge here. However, it's a nice round build total that represents Bruce's trainers well enough.


Next we move the action to Gotham City and establish Batman and his allies:



 40 DKR005A GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
 55 DKR013   Alfred Pennyworth
 35 DKR026   Lucius Fox
100 DKR101  Batman
 50 DKR106   Sgt. Gordon
 40 DKR205   Rachel Dawes
--------------------------------------------------------------
400 Total

And Batman's adversaries within the Gotham Underworld:

 40 DKR010A Falcone Bodyguard
 40 DKR010A Falcone Bodyguard
 40 DKR010A Falcone Bodyguard
 40 DKR010B Falcone Bodyguard
 40 DKR010B Falcone Bodyguard
 60 DKR016   Salvatore Maroni
 50 DKR024   Carmine Falcone
 85 DKR025   Scarecrow
--------------------------------------------------------------
395 Total

Sure we don't see Sal in the first movie, but if he's taking over in Dark Knight, I think it's reasonable to assume that he's a high ranking crony in Carmine's organization. Plus he helps to round out the team and give it a little more of a punch.

After Batman busts up things at the docks, and tracks down information on what Crane is up to, action then moves to Arkham Asylum where the Inmates aid Crane with his part of the master plan:

 85 DKR025   Scarecrow
 40 DKR004A Arkham Asylum Inmate
 40 DKR004B Arkham Asylum Inmate
 45 DKR210   Arkham Asylum Escapee
 45 DKR210   Arkham Asylum Escapee
 45 DKR210   Arkham Asylum Escapee
--------------------------------------------------------------
300 Total

Batman and the Gotham City Police department close in to try to stop Crane:

 40 DKR005A GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
140 DKR029  The Batman
 40 DKR205  Rachel Dawes
--------------------------------------------------------------
300 Total

Once Batman saves Rachel, he rushes back to his birthday party with Gotham City's elite, while Lucius and Alfred try to take care of Rachel (and the city):

 60 DKR003 Bruce Wayne
 55 DKR013 Alfred Pennyworth
 35 DKR026 Lucius Fox
 40 DKR205 Rachel Dawes
--------------------------------------------------------------
190 Total

Ducard and his League of (Assassins) Shadows crash the party:


 85 DKR023 Henri Ducard
 35 DKR002A Shadow Assassin
 35 DKR002A Shadow Assassin
 35 DKR002B Shadow Assassin
--------------------------------------------------------------
190 Total

The climax of the film pits the Gotham City Police and Batman up against a combined force of Arkham Asylum residence and the League of Shadows:

 40 DKR005A GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
 40 DKR005B GCPD Officer
 49 DKR011B GCPD Riot Officer
140 DKR029  The Batman
 50 DKR106  Sgt. Gordon
 40 DKR205  Rachel Dawes
--------------------------------------------------------------
399 Total

Unfortunately, the last force is not a keyworded theme team, but maybe at your venue you could make an argument that they all show up in the film fighting on the same side:

 35 DKR002A Shadow Assassin
 35 DKR002A Shadow Assassin
 35 DKR002B Shadow Assassin
 40 DKR004A Arkham Asylum Inmate
 40 DKR004B Arkham Asylum Inmate
 85 DKR023   Henri Ducard
 85 DKR025   Scarecrow
 45 DKR210   Arkham Asylum Escapee
--------------------------------------------------------------
400 Total

That's all I have for this installment of "Playing the Movie" but come back tomorrow to see what craziness I come up with for The Dark Knight! Also let me know if you came up with any other fun (preferably) movie-accurate teams.