I'm not personally a fan of the "Chucky as Horror Movie Hub" idea. Doesn't really hit the mark for me.
I like the idea of L_O's changes to the SP design. Giving Chucky some passive end-of-round damage once he's been animated. Maybe just:
... if the Inanimate Marker is not on this card at the end of the round, you must, if possible, choose an figure adjacent to Chucky and roll an unblockable attack die against that figure
That ensures that he doesn't just take one turn and then do nothing until the end of the game.
That said, when I look that those armies from the tests I'm not too surprised that Chucky underwhelmed. That first army is all-melee and Cap is the focus. If Chucky hits me, but I'm engaged with Cap, then why would I deal with Chucky? I'm better off just punching Cap again.
The second army had a smidge of range with Jean, but it doesn't look like she used Telekinesis to isolate opponents next to Ragdoll/Chucky. So once again it was just a matter of pounding on the unit in front of you and ignoring Chucky.
Things I'd look for in an army to maximize that version of Chucky are:
- Ability to activate him when convenient (Iron Patriot, Robot, Zemo) or chain activations off of him (Harley Quinn 1, maybe Zombie, maybe Nebula)
- Ranged figures that can pick at an opponent from a distance, thus making them deal with more clingy stuff if they try to ignore an animated Chucky
- Figure Movement to bounce opponents around and make them keep dealing with Chucky. Magneto or Whirlwind or the like is very nice. Angel works the other way, by allowing you to retreat with your non-Chucky figures, so that the opponent has to advance again. An awesome option is Phobos, because he can move opponents in a way that triggers LEAs for Chucky. (And how cool is it to pair Chucky with the God of Fear!)
IP/Nebula/Angel/Chucky/Ragdoll? Zemo/Phobos/Chucky/Ragdoll/Harley? ProfX/Magneto/Mentallo/Chucky/more mutants? I'm spitballing here but you get the idea.