Marvel Crisis Protocol Blue Marvel & Spectrum Review

Marvel Crisis Protocol dropped in some new cosmic heroes, the incredible Blue Marvel and Spectrum. Both are flyers with some immunities, but their power sets definitely differentiate them. Let's dig into their cards and see how they stack up.

Marvel: Crisis Protocol - Blue Marvel & Spectrum

This pack brings two new characters to Marvel: Crisis Protocol, the powerhouse Blue Marvel and the leader of the Mighty Avengers Spectrum to the game. Spectrum adds a new Affiliation, the Mighty Avengers to the game with a new leadership that allows members of her squad to be able to transfer some of the Power they gai

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First, we gotta mention a brand new affiliation. With Spectrum, we get The Mighty Avengers, a call out to the 2013 incarnation of the Mighty Avengers team, who initially came together to provide non-profit hero services (nice).

Spectrum comes with the Leadership power Stronger Together Than Apart, which is wildly powerful. When an ally gains 1 or more power, it triggers leadership. This means all of your builder attacks will trigger the leadership. In fact, any ability that gains power will trigger the leadership, which will allow you to spread the power gain around the team. Neat!

As of this writing, the new affiliation contains some awesome characters:
 Spectrum (Leader)
Ant-Man
Black Panther, Chosen of Bast
Black Widow
Blue Marvel
Captain America (Sam Wilson)
Captain Marvel, Cosmic Avenger
Iron Man
Luke Cage
She-Hulk
Steve Rogers, Captain America

So do with that as you will, list builders!

or her card, Spectrum costs 4 Threat, and comes in at 3/4/4 for her physical, energy, and mystical defense, 6 health and a L for speed, so she's a solid leader to come in, blast, and move on.  Her superpower, Energy Boost, really supports her teammates by allowing them to add 2 dice to their attack at the cost of 2 power. Also, thanks to Multi-Spectrum Energy Absorption, for each Wild you roll when she's defending, you can change an attacking result to a blank and snag a power along the way.

For her builder attack, Gamma Strike is up close at 2 range, but deals 6 damage and can stun a defender. From far away, Photon Blast allows her to beam 4 for 4 damage, and she can reroll all of the dice on the attack, so that's a fun way to gain power. Honestly, it's kind of amazing.  Her big hit, Pulsar Wave, allows her to throw on a wild, but it has a typo on the card... it actually costs 4 power. Combine that with Photon Blast, and you can do some real damage.

She seems like a good leader, and I would move her into deep combat.

Blue Marvel on the other hand comes in at 5 Threat (kind of a crowded field with Ultron, Dracula, and Captain Marvel), and has a balanced defense at 4/4/4, 7 health, and a movement of medium.

Also a lot of his powers rely on you rolling skulls. Living Anti-Matter Reactor allows him to add Skull results to total successes, which pairs well with Anti-Matter Blast, which allows him to gain more power per damage dealt, and do a bunch of stuns. At range 4 with 6 dice, this is a pretty decent combo.

Hyper Cosmic Awareness fits in here to. With each skull rolled, he'll gain power. This all pulls up to his big spender, Let Loose. An Area-of-Effect power of 2, rolling 8 damage dice. This could work well with Spectrum's Energy Boost, which would bring it up to 10 damage dice, but this is costly at 5 energy.

For 3 energy, you get either Time's Up or Anti-Matter Barrier. Time's Up is your standard "pick up some terrain or an enemy and chuck em" move, and Barrier allows you to spend energy to reroll defense die for himself or an ally.

Digging into the Team Tactic Cards, we have some fun bits. Spectrum gets Going All Out, which costs 3 power, allows her to line up a beam, and plow through your opponent.

The Ultimates takes good advantage of powers that can change the faces of dice (like Blue Marvel) and can make some powerful energy attacks, with the added bonus of stunning characters around the defender.

Phase Manipulation allows Spectrum to change an attack type to energy, which is kind of cool if you're into blasting.

And lastly, Strange Adventures allows for a WILD NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF H.A.T.E reference.  For those not in the know, Nextwave was a fun book from 2006 from Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen that was a satire of Marvel Comics. Lots of violence, strange humor, really fun.

Pulling in Elsa Bloodstone or Spectrum,  you get a "hit and run" manuever by moving medium when attacked, then the other character can do a blast. Hey, Spectrum has an awesome attack that costs 0, so move her around and beam the other team. And, I don't know, give us a Nextwave affiliation!

Blue Marvel gets his own tactic card, The Man of Marvels. This allows him and an ally to choose some effects, including healing , power generation or movement manipulation. Lots of flexibility there, and I like flexible moves.

Assembly of these models is pretty easy, but I will call out AMG for using a tiny face for Monica, because those tiny faces can be hard to assemble. More solid heads, please.

I'm excited to try out the new affiliation, and really figure out how to fold Spectrum into more of my roster!