From Panel to Play: Blue Marvel & Spectrum

A brilliant scientist and superhero, Adam Brashear gained superpowers in an accidental explosion while trying to harness anti-matter from the Negative Zone. After exposure to an unstable event horizon he created, Adam gained exceptional strength, the ability to absorb and control energy, and he even stopped aging. He began a second life as the masked superhero, Blue Marvel! Tragically, he was asked to retire in the 1960s when his ethnicity became known and it threatened the “societal stability” many hoped to uphold.

Blue Marvel receded from public view for decades until recently, where he joined multiple versions of the Avengers and has once again become a public name in the heroic community. Blue Marvel aids other heroes not only as a powerhouse that cannot be stopped, but also as a mentor, leader, and genius-level advisor.

In Marvel: Crisis Protocol, Blue Marvel enters as a powerful all-purpose 5 threat with multiple well-known powers, but infused with his powerful anti-matter themes! While Panels to Play might traditionally look at attacks first, with Blue Marvel it’s important to start with his Living Anti-Matter Reactor rule. This game changing ability makes him count skulls when rolling attacks, defense, and dodge rolls! This ability changes every other attack and action Adam Brashear might take in a given game, and needs to be calculated along with all other interactions he takes. Alongside this comes his powerful Hyper Cosmic Awareness, giving him an additional power each time he rolls a skull, further increasing his chances of having enough power for his abilities.

Blue Marvel’s first attack, Anti-Matter Blast, is a straightforward range 4 energy attack that gains energy per damage dealt, with a chance to apply stun with a wild result. Range 4 is especially useful for targeting those melee characters that are weak to energy attacks or keeping him in a useful position. Alternatively, his Let Loose attack costs 5 power and rolls 8 dice of damage in the A2 range, and has a chance to pulse out and deal one more damage after damage is dealt, while also subtracting one power from Blue Marvel.

While players might be focused on his powerful attacks, he also has a strong yet pricey throw ability in Let Loose, which can throw size four terrain or characters within range 3 up to medium range. This is a strong throw that can help with finishing off tougher characters or just moving them off of points. His most powerful ability might be Anti-Matter Barrier, which allows himself or another allied character within range 3 reroll any number of their defense dice, including skulls! Just don’t forget to leave Blue Marvel’s, since those count as successes already.

If all that wasn’t enough, Blue Marvel also comes with a utility team tactic card. Since he already wants to keep allies within range 3, this is especially easy to get a valuable turn out of, and gives 3 useful choices to each character within three of Blue Marvel, including himself!

Monica Rambeau gained superpowers when she was exposed to extra-dimensional energy from a stolen device and became able to control light and energy. Over the years she has fought evil under many monickers, including Captain Marvel, Photon, just Monica Rambeau, and finally Spectrum again. What always remained stable was her impressive powers and dedication to service as a hero. She has served as a team leader and mentor to many a hero, and was even considered the most powerful Avenger on a team alongside multiple gods and kings.

Spectrum brings a Gamma Strike attack that gains one power and can Stun, as well as a solid Beam 4 energy attack that will most likely be used much more than her Gamma Strike due to it’s similarity of gaining one power on attack, long range, and impressive ability to reroll all her attack dice for each hit. Her strongest attack is Pulsar Wave, with 8 impressive dice rolled and the ability to choose energy or physical for the typing. She can also throw the target before damage, and even gets to place herself within range one of the target after the attack, really strengthening her possible movement in a single game further than just using her long move.

Spectrum’s Energy Boost superpower allows her to spend 2 power when herself or another ally are attacked and increase their defense roll by 2 additional dice. This ability in addition to Blue Marvel and her leadership allows a team of high defense characters to be even tankier and hold out longer than they otherwise could. Additionally, her Multi-Spectrum Energy Absorption allows Spectrum to change her attacker’s successful results into blanks for each wild Spectrum rolls during defense.

Spectrum not only brings her abilities as a versatile powerhouse, but also a new leadership with Mighty Avengers! Her leadership, Stronger Together Than Apart, lets any allied character gain one less power when they normally would and instead let another allied character gain that one power. This could be used when attacking, defending, or even when gaining power from other superpowers or abilities. This opens the door to many flexible play patterns and perhaps helps Spectrum bring along powerhouses or utility characters that want to help out other heroes with their superpowers. A sample Mighty Avengers roster at 17 threat might look like:

• Spectrum
• Blue Marvel
• Ant-Man
• Captain Marvel, Cosmic Avenger

This allows Stronger Together Than Apart to place power where it might be more useful than otherwise, perhaps by giving Captain Marvel more power so she can sustain her cosmic form for longer than expected and give you an upper hand!

Spectrum’s diverse leadership and teams are represented in her team tactics cards in MCP. With Ultimates we have the team powering up for a super powered, focused strike by sacrificing the team’s energy. Strange Adventures shows Elsa Bloodstone and Monica Rambeau teaming up to hunt weird science monsters gone wrong, reminiscent of their time in Nextwave. Phase Manipulation lets allies change their attack types to any energy type, showing off Spectrum’s ability to transform energy from one type into another.

The Spectrum and Blue Marvel character pack brings 2 powerhouses to your Marvel: Crisis Protocol teams and allows the exciting Mighty Avengers to join the fray!

If you’d like to have Blue Marvel and Spectrum join your Mighty Avengers squad, you can pre-order their character pack from your friendly local game store or through the Asmodee webstore now!

That’s it for today. Until next time, Atomic Mass Games, signing off!