To Infinity and Beyond

“I love sequels.” –  Arnold “The Governator” Schwarzenegger, after his back to back election wins in California..

Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back. Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Aliens. All terrific sequels that improved on the original. But for nearly every good sequel there is a good original.

Infinite Crisis was based on a universe-wide storyline that encompassed almost every inhabitant in the DC  multiverse. Since the Infinite Crisis expansion came out before the actual conclusion of the comic storyline, our friends at DC didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag; the result was that much of the storyline's conclusion was held back from the set's content. But by the time I was designing Legion of Super Heroes, the storyline had almost come to its conclusion. My comic fanboy instincts told me that it was a pity that the conclusion couldn’t be shown on cards.

Or could it?

Seconds, Anyone?

During some of our initial design discussions for Legion of Super Heroes, we considered having the mechanics of the set heavily linked with those of Infinite Crisis. This heavy mechanical tie would make Legion of Super Heroes something of a sequel to Infinite Crisis, akin to a 2 Infinite 2 Crisis (thankfully, Infinite Crisis: Tokyo Drift won’t be printed until 2011). That idea was eventually nixed, but I still wanted Legion to have a stronger than normal connection to Infinite Crisis—if only to ensure that the storyline was completed for comic-fan players of the game. As you’ll see at the Sneak Preview, there are many strong elements from the Infinite Crisis storyline that appear in Legion, including the pivotal moment depicted on this card.

This extremely dramatic scene shows the deranged Superboy-Prime being taken down by several heroes, most visibly Robin and Beast Boy (in the background there are members of the Doom Patrol, Teen Titans, and JSA). Right after this moment, Bart Allen and his Speed Force buddies Jay Garrick and Wally West transport Superboy-Prime to the Speed Force dimension in order to hold him in check a little longer.

A Tribute to Lady Liberty’s Champion

Because the moment was so dramatic, I was determined to make sure that the card captured the essence of what was being depicted upon it. To do this, I went back to an old friend of Patrick Sullivan’s, Joseph Jones ◊ General Glory. Patrick has always had a liking for that JLI character—so much so that he occasionally salutes when he plays it, emulating the General’s pose. Forged in Crisis gives all teams (rather than just the JLI) the power to remove menaces from the board like General Jones does. An important thing to note is that while most Finishing Move-type effects merely KO characters, Forged in Crisis removes them from the game. This means that any character that could be brought back—such as Ultron ◊ Ultron 11—won’t have the chance to return. With Teen Titans back on the rampage, you can bet that team attacking will be a force!

This card is also a subtle move back to making teams more relevant. Team attacking, reinforcement, and some of the game's other very basic interactions have had it a little tough of late, and it's very clear that this card can’t easily be used in toolbox decks. Instead, it seeks to reward those players and strategies that focus on the fundamentals.

I hope to see you guys at the Sneak Preview! I’ll be back next week with the Legion Design articles.

Till then,