The Book of Atlas

[Ronin]

The Book of Atlas

C3G MARVEL SUPER SECRET EXCLUSIVE 55
JUSTICE, LIKE LIGHTNING...


Comic PDF


Mini PDF

The figure used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the Fantastic Forces set.
Its model numbers and names are #016 / Goliath or #017,018 / Atlas.

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Character Bio - Recruited as a henchman by Heinrich Zemo, and then put through the same process that gave Wonder Man his powers, Erik Josten started off his super-career on the wrong side of the law. Originally calling himself "Power Man" (and then "Goliath", when a certain someone objected to his original choice of moniker), Josten clashed with the Avengers both on his own and as a member of the Masters of Evil.

Josten's life began to turn around when he joined Helmut Zemo's incarnation of the Masters of Evil, who disguised themselves as a new team of heroes: the Thunderbolts. Though the team was founded with villainous intent, Josten and most of his fellow team members found themselves loving the heroic lifestyle, and turned on their leader. Though Atlas struggles with mental instability and the demons of his past, he's committed himself to heroism, and is fiercely loyal to his fellow reformed teammates.
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-Rulings and Clarifications-

• Base Clarification: Atlas is a single-spaced figure.
• Q: If Atlas has only 1 Life remaining, can Ionic Imbalance still activate?
• A: Yes. When the number of wounds taken from an attack or special power exceeds the remaining Life of the figure taking the wounds, that figure is still considered to have received all wounds from that attack or special power.
  
  So when you're adding up the number of wounds Atlas would take from an attack, if that number is 2 or more, you have the option to use Ionic Imbalance, even when Atlas has only 1 Life left.

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-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:

• As a Mutate, Atlas has these Mutate Synergies.
• As a Charlatan, Atlas has these Charlatan Synergies.
• As a Repentant figure, Atlas has these Repentant Synergies.
• As a figure with the Super Strength special power, Atlas has these Super Strength Synergies.
• As a Huge figure, Atlas has these Huge Synergies.

Outgoing Synergy:

• N/A

Immunities, Benefits, and Weaknesses:

• As a huge figure, Atlas interacts differently with these special powers.
• As a figure with the Super Strength special power, Atlas interacts differently with these special powers.

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• Thunderbolts Strategy Guide

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

• Initial playtest: Ronin
• Second playtest: Arkham
• Third playtest: Lazy_Orang
• Fourth playtest: Midgieboy3
• Fifth playtest: Tiranx
• Sixth playtest: Ronin
• Playtest Summary
• Art: Comic, Figure, Background
• Art by Arkham
• Erik Josten created by Stan Lee, Don Heck, and Jack Kirby
• Atlas persona created by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley
• Comic Art by Tom Grummett, Gary Erskine, and Chris Sotomayor

[Ronin]

NAME = ATLAS
SECRET IDENTITY = ERIK JOSTEN

SPECIES = MUTATE
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = CHARLATAN
PERSONALITY = REPENTANT

SIZE/HEIGHT = HUGE 8

LIFE = 5

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 6
DEFENSE = 6

POINTS = 270

IONIC IMBALANCE
Whenever Atlas would receive more than one wound from a normal or special attack, before placing Wound Markers, you may roll the 20-sided die.

• If you roll 1 or lower, all figures adjacent to Atlas receive two wounds and Atlas is destroyed.
• If you roll 2-5, place Wound Markers normally.
• If you roll 6-16, the most wounds Atlas can receive from this attack is one.
• If you roll 17 or higher, Atlas takes no wounds from the attack, and all figures adjacent to Atlas receive one wound.

GIGANTIC REACH
Atlas may add 1 to his range when attacking a figure whose base is no more than 6 levels higher than his height or 6 levels lower than his base.

SUPER STRENGTH

[Ronin]

Comic Art:

Spoiler Alert!

Trying to see if I can find any usable art that actually shows his face from when he was wearing his first Atlas costume (which is the one that has the mini), but no dice so far. The difference between the two is mostly just in the color scheme (and a little bit of bulk in the gauntlets/boots/shoulder pads).

UPDATE: Spent a fair amount of time looking and I'm striking out on that front, so the choices for comic art are:
a) the Declan Shalvey piece where he's in his original costume. I do really like that one, but you can't see his face, which I don't think we usually do.
b) one of the ones featuring his second costume. I like that costume better, but it doesn't quite match the original, color-scheme wise.
c) Arkham showed me a pretty solid-looking recolor of one of the latter, designed to make it look more like Atlas' original costume.

I'm not too opinionated here. I like any of the above options, and I'm not sure how important matching the comic and mini costumes is to the art team. I'll leave it up to art team wisdom.

Background Art: Trying to find something city-ish with some buildings to give Atlas a good sense of scale. Here's what I've got so far

Spoiler Alert!

[IAmBatman]

Two reused power for a character I don't know well enough to comment on the theme of - so I'm happy with what you have here.

[Ronin]

One thing I wanted to mention is that I was planning on using the Repentant personality to set up a synergy with Songbird (on her end). Currently, the only other guy with a Repentant personality is Radioactive Man, who is also a thematic Songbird pair.

I just wanted to make sure there's nobody Repentant and unthematic lurking in the sanctum that would throw a wrench into that plan before I go ahead with it.

[Viegon]

I don't know the character at all, but the design looks like a fun, elegant tank.

[TrollBrute]

No issues here. There's a somewhat similar character On Deck right now. They've got similar stats (6/6 vs 5/6) and both have Gigantic Reach, but I think the other powers and different factions set them apart plenty.

Originally Posted by Ronin

One thing I wanted to mention is that I was planning on using the Repentant personality to set up a synergy with Songbird (on her end). Currently, the only other guy with a Repentant personality is Radioactive Man, who is also a thematic Songbird pair.

I just wanted to make sure there's nobody Repentant and unthematic lurking in the sanctum that would throw a wrench into that plan before I go ahead with it.

I didn't check everyone's cards, but I got all likely candidates and I think you're safe on that front.

[Arkham]

I went and edited one of your comic options, the one I thought would make the best comic art. I edited it to have the color scheme of his classic outfit. It looks good on a card, and any flaws will be hidden when it's actually printed out smaller of course. Let me know if this helps:

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by TrollBrute

I didn't check everyone's cards, but I got all likely candidates and I think you're safe on that front.

Cool, good to hear.

Originally Posted by Arkham

I went and edited one of your comic options, the one I thought would make the best comic art. I edited it to have the color scheme of his classic outfit. It looks good on a card, and any flaws will be hidden when it's actually printed out smaller of course. Let me know if this helps:

Ah, thanks, that might come in handy.

[johnny139]

Simple stuff but looks good. I could see his Life coming down to 5 if he proves too strong. Fine with testing from here, though.

Originally Posted by Ronin

One thing I wanted to mention is that I was planning on using the Repentant personality to set up a synergy with Songbird (on her end). Currently, the only other guy with a Repentant personality is Radioactive Man, who is also a thematic Songbird pair.

I just wanted to make sure there's nobody Repentant and unthematic lurking in the sanctum that would throw a wrench into that plan before I go ahead with it.

Out of curiosity - is this a factional (repentant Thunderbolts) or conceptual (repentant people) power? My experience with Songbird could put it either way. If it's the latter, even if we did have other Repentant figures lurking around, I can't imagine it being an issue.

[Ronin]

I was shooting for the latter, so it probably wouldn't be a big issue if someone else had the personality. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anyone that could be problematic.

And I thought about dropping his Life to 5, yeah. That'll be my go-to if he's coming in a little high in testing.

[Yodaking]

Looks cool. Wasn't the Goliath that died in Civil War a black dude?