Namor

I really like this piece. No, really. I think this piece is the best in the set. It's incredibly well balanced - with move and double-attack (flurry) as well as a pretty beefy defense (values and powers) and a deep dial. This is what I want in a primary attacker. You throw on fortitude and you're looking at what pieces like Doomsday or the Hulk could have been. I would LOVE to see a new Doomsday with a dial like this - just to get him on even keel to take down Supes.

Without Fortitude, Namor runs the risk of being mopped up by a Batman-esque team easily. Throw in a perplex or 2 and some outwit to get rid of the charge power and you're Namor's practically toast. At 150 points, he's one of the best valued pieces in the set for what he does. You don't get indomitable but I mean really, do you need it. His dial doesn't dip much - in fact it goes up at some point and since it's so deep you can push a few times and not worry. Lastly this piece rounds out two teams that have been lacking a piece of sizable strength, or defense - the Defenders and the Illuminati. The Defenders, obviously, since Namor possesses that team's symbol - which gives a much needed boost to the Defenders defense pool. The Illuminati, which should be a dominant theme team, finally get a piece worth 150 points. I don't think anyone will be whipping out Professor X or Iron Man in a competitive game; Mr. Fantastic is decent for the points but doesn't really get to be game breaker. I would love for a bonus if you field all 5 - like infinity gems or some other condition that let you form Voltron, but alas that is not part of this fine game. A great Illuminati team is probably at least 3 years away - pending that comics remembers that the Illuminati exists.

This brings me to open up the conversation I had with Brian, who asked what I might play this week if I played. My team would have been a "fuck this Marvel set, I'm taking it out on everyone" and the team would include:
Skrull Ms. Marvel w/ Protected
Namor w/ Fortitude & Protected
Gee
Spiderman x2

That comes out to 499 points. I'd have used Ms. Marvel to pick off secondary attackers while launching Namor w/ Gee at the primary attacker. Ms. Marvel would end her move at some point near Gee so that she can pick Gee up and place him next to Namor when he has to move on to another target. We've already established that Ms. Marvel is a bitch of an attacker - this would be a total dick move because she'd get reduced to a transport / harassment piece. Spidermen on the other hand would just tie up any piece that doesn't have a breakaway for free (leap/climp or hypersonic) or get in between the line of sight of a support piece w/ outwit or probability control so they can't affect the main battle.

This team is incredibly offensive with no support on its own - just remember to use protected when you need it and not to push Namor too often until the protected is popped.