Marvel: Crisis Protocol – The Vulture Swoops In For A Landing
The villainous Adrian Toomes is coming to Marvel: Crisis Protocol as the Vulture! How does he stack up as a Spider-Foe?
Joining Shocker, Electro, and Sandman we’re finally getting a closer look at the dastardly Vulture. The fourth member of the character pack to be previewed, did Atomic Mass Games save the best for last? Not quite — but the Vulture might just see the most use for a few very specific reasons.
“Adrian was a gifted engineer who created an electromagnetic harness that gave the wearer the ability to fly. After a betrayal by his business partner, he decided to go into the masked supervillain business as the high-flying Vulture. One to always flaunt his intelligence, Vulture once publicly announced his intended theft of diamonds from a local jewelry shop, and while everyone was watching the sky for his attack, he popped out of the sewers to grab the goods and flee through the subway tunnels!”
The Vulture In Marvel: Crisis Protocol
Vulture has some very basic stats. He’s 3/3/3 on defense and only has 5 stamina on both his healthy and injured sides. Nothing to write home about here. However, he’s Threat Level 3 and comes with Flight. That Medium move on a medium base means he’s faster than he looks, too. For me, this is an important facet of the character. Vulture and Shocker are both TL 3 but bring a lot of utility in their respective kits. It’s that utility combined with their (slightly) lower TL that makes them so tempting to take.
Raptor Strike is Vulture’s basic builder attack. Not only does it give him energy based on damage it also can cause a Bleed when you get a wild. This is important because none of the other characters in the character pack can do that. Personally, I think it’s a good thing that each of these characters in the pack does different things as it allows them to create a lot of strange combos you might not see at first.
But back to the Vulture, his secondary spender attack is Skyline Hunter. For 4 energy you get a range 3, 8 die attack, but it allows you a medium throw as well. That could net some extra damage — or toss a character away from an objective. More on that in a bit. Let’s look at his superpowers now.
Hit and Run is his first superpower. For an action you get to both make an attack and then follow that up with a move but that will cost you 2 energy to do. He also has the Abduct superpower that allows him to place an enemy that was within range 2 of him when he starts a move action. That enemy character gets placed within range 2 of its current position. I think that this actually has some huge utility. This isn’t a push or a throw — it’s a place. It also doesn’t have a size limit, unlike this throw. That’s an important distinction to note!
Finally, he also has Scientific Hubris which gains him an energy anytime he gets a crit on any die roll. This isn’t something you can always count on but it’s certainly a nice effect when it triggers. That’s one way to get to that magical 8 energy — if you can manage to do it, the dream combo here is linking Skyline Hunter, Hit and Run, AND Abduct all in one activation. The poor sap who got targeted for these will be so far out of position they won’t know where they are!
The Electro, Sandman, Shocker, and Vulture Character Pack is currently up for pre-order and is slated for a release of May 17, 2024.
“A sinister lineup of villains enters Marvel: Crisis Protocol in this pack! As some of Spider-Man’s most noteworthy foes, Electro, Sandman, Vulture, and Shocker give players even more options when building their Spider-Foes and Criminal Syndicate squads. Supplementing these characters are Sandman’s two Sand Constructs that act as Grunts on the battlefield. In addition to miniatures and Stat Cards for each character, players will also find 6 Team Tactic cards that give them even more ways to accomplish their nefarious schemes. “
Leave them asking: “How did I get over here?!”
