The Book of Songbird

[Ronin]

The Book of Songbird

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 number and name are #043-045 / Songbird.

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Character Bio - Melissa Gold ran away from home at an early age, after her mother was sent to prison and she was left with her alcoholic father. She adopted a harder persona in order to get by on the streets, and started calling herself "Mimi", after her mother. Her moniker eventually evolved into "Screaming Mimi" after she fell in with the wrong crowd and wound up a cybernetically-enhanced supervillain with sonic powers.

After several years of working with criminal groups like the Grapplers and the Masters of Evil, Melissa was selected by Baron Helmut Zemo to join the team that would become the Thunderbolts. Though her new persona as Songbird was initially created as a ruse to help "Citizen V" and the rest of the Thunderbolts gain the public's trust, Melissa found that she genuinely enjoyed being a superhero. When Zemo's master plan reached its endgame, Melissa joined most of her teammates in revolting against him.

After saving the world from falling under the sway of a madman in a purple headsock, Melissa stuck with the rest of the reformed Thunderbolts and came into her own as Songbird. She has since lead multiple incarnations of the Thunderbolts herself, helped to reform several former criminals, and gone toe-to-toe with baddies ranging from Zemo to the Green Goblin.
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-Rulings and Clarifications-

• N/A

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-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:

• As a Mutate, Songbird has these Mutate Synergies.
• As a Charlatan, Songbird has these Charlatan Synergies.
• As a potential Crime Fighter, Songbird may gain these Crime Fighter Synergies.
• As a figure with the Super Strength special power, has these Super Strength Synergies.

Outgoing Synergy:

• Songbird may turn a Unique Hero that is a Criminal or has the Repentant personality into a Crime Fighter. Current Criminals and Repentant figures.
• Songbird's Thunderbolt Loyalty special power allows her to take a turn after a Unique Crime Fighter or Charlatan Hero that shares a class with her, and her Sonic Construct Defense special power allows her to boost their Defense numbers. Current Crime Fighters and Charlatans.

Immunities, Benefits, and Weaknesses:

• As a flying figure, Songbird interacts differently with these special powers.
• As a figure with the Super Strength special power, Songbird interacts differently with these special powers.
• As a potential Crime Fighter, Songbird may interact differently with these special powers.
• Songbird's Sonic Construct Defense special power allows affected figures to roll an additional defense die against normal attacks from Symbiotes. Current Symbiotes.

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• Thunderbolts Strategy Guide
• Defenders / Heroes for Hire faction strategy

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

• Initial playtest: Ronin
• Second playtest: Lazy Orang
• Third playtest: b57123m
• Fourth playtest: Ronin
• Fifth playtest: TrollBrute
• Playtesting Summary
• Art: Comic, Figure, Background
• Art by Arkham
• Screaming Mimi created by Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio, and John Byrne
• Songbird persona created by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley
• Comic Art by Declan Shalvey

[Ronin]

NAME = SONGBIRD
SECRET IDENTITY = MELISSA GOLD

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

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 4

LIFE = 5

MOVE = 6
RANGE = 4
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 5

POINTS = 180

THUNDERBOLT REDEMPTION
At the start of the game you may choose Songbird and up to one other Unique Hero you control that is a Criminal or has a Repentant personality. For the entire game, the chosen figures have the class of Crime Fighter instead of what is listed on their Army Cards.

THUNDERBOLT LOYALTY
After revealing an Order Marker on the Army Card of any other Unique Crime Fighter Hero or Unique Charlatan Hero you control that is within 5 clear sight spaces of Songbird and before taking a turn with that Hero, if that Hero shares a class with Songbird, you may take an immediate turn with Songbird. After using this special power, you may not take any additional turns with other figures you control other than that Hero.

SONIC CONSTRUCT DEFENSE
When defending against a normal attack, Songbird and all figures you control within 4 clear sight spaces of Songbird that share a class with her add 1 to their Defense numbers, or 2 to their Defense numbers if the attacking figure is a Symbiote.

SUPER STRENGTH

FLYING

Original

Spoiler Alert!

THUNDERBOLT REDEMPTION
At the start of the game you may choose Songbird and up to one other Unique Hero you control that is a Criminal or has a Repentant personality. For the entire game, the chosen figures have a class of Crime Fighter instead of what is listed on their Army Cards, and if:
-you did not choose any figures, after revealing an Order Marker on the Army Card of a Unique Charlatan Hero that you control and taking a turn with that Hero, you may take an immediate turn with Songbird.
-you chose one or more figures, after revealing an Order Marker on this card and taking a turn with Songbird, you may take a turn with any other Unique Crime Fighter Hero you control that is within 5 clear sight spaces of Songbird.
After a figure takes a turn with Thunderbolt Redemption, you may not take any additional turns with any other figures you control.

SONIC FLYING
When using the Flying special power, Songbird may add 3 to her Move number. If she does, she cannot attack this turn.

SONIC CONSTRUCT DEFENSE
When defending against a normal attack, friendly figures adjacent to Songbird add 1 to their Defense numbers, or 2 to their Defense numbers if the attacking figure is a Symbiote.

[Ronin]

Comic (first one is far and away my favorite option):

Spoiler Alert!

Mini:

Spoiler Alert!

Alt Mini:

Spoiler Alert!

Background:
not sure yet - something pink-ish?

[Ronin]

One quick design note is that I was thinking about a Carry-type power or even a multi-figure carry here (and said as much when I posted Songbird in the lounge), since it's pretty common for her to form discs for her non-flying teammates to ride into battle on. I was worried about a bonding power plus a carry being a bit much for her, though.

I want to keep her around the 180 mark, and it seems like being able to bond Meteorite and Songbird, plus carry 1-2 units around is the sort of thing some builds could take really nasty advantage of.

Also, it's occurring to me that if I really want to get some kind of carry in there, I could come back and do sonic constructs that would work for her and Klaw (her tech is based on his), in the style of the green lantern constructs. That way it could have its own cost attached and plenty of room for whatever balancing factors it needed without driving Songbird's cost or eating up space on her card.

So... let's consider the carry idea shelved for the moment.

Aside from that, I think I covered most of my other design points fairly well when I last posted Songbird in the lounge. So here's that restated, for anyone who missed it the first time around (or doesn't have Danger Room access and just really likes reading design threads):

Songbird is the character that gets the most development over the course of the series and is also the most constant presence throughout the book's run, and she grows from a flunky into a genuine hero and a leader for the team.

So what I want for her is to have her be playable either with the original T-Bolts, or in a more heroic-looking build, without feeling terribly overcosted in either, which is what eventually led me to the current version of Thunderbolt Redemption. Something similar could be done with multiple versions of the character, but I do kinda like the class/power flip (sidekick to OM hub). Not sure how other people feel about that, though.

The original take on the power was much simpler and was basically the first part, sans the bullets, but it was useless in a Charlatan build and I wasn't really satisfied with it for a a leadership power either, so it fit into zero of the two niches I wanted.

One small note is that my previous drafts didn't have Super Strength, but Sonic Construct Defense let her have it when defending against a normal attack. I decided to streamline a little bit and just put it on her card. She does technically have low-level Super Strength, but it's more of an informed ability; you might never pick up on it without reading guidebooks or what have you. But I figured it made sense for her as a construct-user, in the same way that it does for characters like Jean Grey.

[Yodaking]

I worry that we don't have enough Charlatan figures to test her with effectively. Maybe have the bonding work exactly the same for both versions, then the Criminal to Crime Fighter tests will be enough to get a good feel for what the Charlatan team ups will play like.

[johnny139]

My gut thought is that the first power is really stuffed and a bit clunky, but the rest of the card is simple enough to keep things simple enough overall. I mean, I'll have to see how it looks on the card, too.

I don't disagree with Yodaking, either - but hopefully we'll just err on the side of caution here and test the Thunderbolts extensively as a faction. I'm having similar trouble with the Runaways... tough to plan things out when everyone's so interconnected.

I'll also lobby to use the Hammer of Thor mini on the card if at all possible... but I'm a sucker for translucent plastic.

[Ronin]

There's really only two more Charlatans in the tank (out of the T-Bolts at least; can't speak to any other cases where we decide to reuse the class. I admit it would also make sense for the Dark Avengers). Citizen V's value is going to be more in his own leadership stuff and I don't think he'll necessarily be a big target for her bonding. Which leaves Techno and MACH-I, who are both going to wind up as fellow ~180 point figures and neither one of them particularly nasty.

We've only got two Charlatans, but they're the heaviest hitters she'll have to bond with and I really heavily doubt any of the other Charlatans will be as valuable as Meteorite. The Charlatans are never exactly going to be the Mutants, and the options most likely to drive her cost are already available.

I also really like that Hammer of Thor mini, but I erred on the side of the incredibly abundant super-cheap option.

[Lazy Orang]

Well, whichever gets picked, I know what figure I'm getting, and it aint the one in the OP.

[Ronin]

There's also a nicer-looking one from the Civil War set that came out this summer, but it's even less available and also costs at least a few bucks (as low as $3 on ebay, $11 on Troll & Toad). I picked up the Civil War one, mainly because I could easily grab MACH-IV at the same time, and MACH-IV actually doesn't have a cheaper figure available. I'm reluctant to go for the more expensive options for her as the official thing, though.

[johnny139]

Yeah, I looked at the Civil War one as well. $11 definitely feels too high for me, but $4 is within the acceptable range for me.

Also, I forgot that we already had Meteorite out! I was thinking it was just Atlas... so yeah, that should definitely fill out her options.

[Ronin]

Worth noting that T&T only just started stocking the Civil War set (and CoolStuffInc hasn't yet), so that one's price may still be a bit inflated. The Hammer of Thor sculpt is cooler-looking anyway, though.

Also, forgot to respond to this:

Originally Posted by johnny139

My gut thought is that the first power is really stuffed and a bit clunky, but the rest of the card is simple enough to keep things simple enough overall. I mean, I'll have to see how it looks on the card, too.

I admit that the wording could use a little work (it says 'for the entire game' three times right now), but I do like it mechanically.

Sonic Flying is also kind of expendable to me. It's a pretty light theme touch that we've foregone on other heroes who could've had it. I'd be willing to drop that and leave her a two-power card if we're concerned about space. Not that Sonic Flying is exactly a huge source of clutter, but it would trim a little bit, and I do like two-power cards.

[TrollBrute]

I like where she's at right now. One option would be to drop Sonic Flying and split the second bullet of Thunderbolt Redemption into it's own power. Also would help with the name, Thunderbolt Redemption is a bit weird on that front if you decide not to choose a figure.

No time to check the Index right now, is there anybody we want to hit under Repentant that isn't covered by Charlatan? Trimming that would also help the first power a little.