Lobo? I do not see that one personally. My two initial thoughts went immediatly to either Bishop or Cable. I thought Bishop was closer with the timetraveling and weapons, but Cable has seen time travel as well and has that metal awesome arm. There are core elements to both characters that can be found within Chrono to some degree.
Edit: Actually, Bishop has a crazy arm as well he stole from Forge.
Also, Platinumwarlock, I think your description of Fanatic is tempermentally similar to Hawkgirl is spot on. I never thought of that angle.
Jean Grey is a telekinetic first and a telepath second, while Visi is clearly the reverse (indeed, I don't think any of her card art depicts telekinesis at all, although I often use this as an explanation for when she uses Wrest the Mind on something like a Plummeting Monorail). To me, it's pretty clear that she's a lot closer to Professor X, apart from gender and lack of wheelchair…both are driven megalomaniacal characters with noble aims but dark personality traits, who are willing to use one of the most traditionally "bad" powers (mind control) to good ends, but eventually go around the bend as a result. (Xavier gets better since he has an ongoing series.)
Haka - The Incredible Hulk
I don't see this at all. To me the most defining trait of the Hulk, separate from all the generic "brick" superheroes, is that he gets more powerful from getting angry. Haka never seems to get mad; he's a happy-go-lucky kind of guy who never seems to take anything personally. I can't think of an exact analogue, but I'd put him closer to the Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing than to Hulk, and probably still closer to Colossus of the X-Men (minus the shiny). Someone who's a better fit than that probably exists, but is increasingly obscure; the best I can come up with is maybe Doc Samson.
Argent Adept - A full-on D&D-style bard, with a touch of Green Lantern's aesthetics.
NightMist - Doctor Strange with a Cthulhu mythos bent.
Argent looks like Dr. Strange (in terms of the visual aesthetic of his powers, more than his costume), while Misty acts like him. I don't really see the Green Lantern in Adept but that's probably a case of personal blinders on me. Also don't neglect to mention how Nightmist's Mist Form equates her to Shadowcat.
Scholar - The Dude abides…with a touch of Richard Dragon
Don't forget his powerset, which is vaguely similar to characters like The Phantom Stranger or Uatu the Watcher, ones who are plugged into the flow of destiny and like to show up at plot-critical moments to be all cryptic and stuff. (Unlike them, he's actually useful.)
The Sentinels themselves are a little more complex, though I see Mainstay as a friendlier Lobo and Writhe seems a lot like Cloak.
The Sentinels overall are clearly a Fantastic Four analogue (although as a joke, which is not originally mine, I like the idea that they're a one-less-member version of the Planeteers with Naturalist as their Captain Planet.) Even to the point of their nemesis being equatable to Kang the Conqueror, who's one of the FF's most pernicious foes. (The FF's actual nemesis would clearly be Doctor Doom, who's Baron Blade to a T, but Baron Blade is the "nemesis" of Sentinels of the Multiverse overall, rather than just of the Sentinels. Although it is interesting that they'll be published in the same box as presumably a new version of BB.)
Pretty sure the picture we have of the Sentinels as a group is a homage to the X-Men, the floating head representing either Prof X or Marvel Girl doing their thang.
Visionary has Mass Levitation and Telekinetic Cocoon, which are both telekinetic-type powers/abilities. And, either way, all of these are meant to be a holistic view (and a generalization, at that), combining both mechanics and aesthetics. Visionary's dark vs. light side, her telekinetic and telepathic abilities, her "morph" into a more powerful power-set...that's more like Jean Grey/Phoenix than Professor Xavier.
Also, what Xavier ongoing series are you talking about? Professor Xavier is dead (again), as of Avengers vs. X-Men.
Haka has lots of straight-up smashing abilities--it's called Elbow Smash, after all--as well as Ground Pound, which is a classic Hulk move. His incapacitated side calls back to the Secret Wars mini-series, where Hulk is literally holding up a mountain. And, I did say (which you left out of the quote)--"With a more interesting personality". To me, Haka is more dynamic and interesting than the standard Hulk portrayal, which tends to wallow in self-pity and self-loathing. Haka's a cheerful dude who teaches kindergarten and genuinely relishes being around other heroes.
All of Argent Adept's powers utilize green energy--take a look at his cards. While that's where the similarities between he and GL end, it's a pretty strong link.
I find that the only real link between Shadowcat and Nightmist is Mist Form...we don't really see Nightmist walking through walls or phasing through goon, which are in Shadowcat's wheelhouse.
I don't see The Scholar as having much to do with The Watcher or The Phantom Stranger at all--his power set is pretty well defined: project energy, heal, and transform yourself into other states of matter. I do see him as that mysterious advisor, which is why I suggested Richard Dragon, coupled with The Dude's aesthetics.
Dark Visionary. Thats really all you need to make the case that Visionary is closer to Jean than the professor. Visionary for me compares just as well to Prof X as she does to any other telepath. The connection to the Phoenix here though is undeniable.
I understand not liking the Haka=Hulk comparison. I think that comparison is hard to escape because of their sizes, melee strength, and a healing factor that is unrivaled. Personality he is nothing like Bruce Banner, but when we are making comparisons, we are not saying they have to be carbon copies, but there needs to be definitive similarities, and Hulk has those. Personally I find Haka to be more Hank McCoy in demenor and intelligence
The Sentinels as a play off the Fantastic 4 is really appropriate I think. You have the brusier in Mainstay/Thing, the inventor in Richards/Writhe, the superpowered female in Idealist/Invisible Woman, and another guy who flies and glows really brightly in Medico/Human Torch.
well, I saw them from the start as X-Men meets Fanastic Four since they are basically mutants, no origin for their powers (for most of them). Also find it funny that the name Jean Gray is used instead of Phoenix since Vi's power looks to be straight out OP from the get go (Psychic Time Travelling, GO!).
When I describe Tempest to new players, I say "the alien son of Storm and Aquaman". Fortunately his concept rocks.
Man, now I want a NightCrawler deck... and Colossus one. Heh, just imagined good ol' arcade X-Men: Children of the Atom with SotM characters. Uhhh a Spiral Villain! Don't care much for Mojo though. I guess the burned Flesh Villian that is a lot of art loosely fits a similar role as Sabertooth (he's everywhere, he's dangerous, but everyone kicks his butt)
@Envisioner: your ability to constantly have a negative tone/attitude in EVERY post you make outstounds me. Congratulations on constancy!
I always see Chrono Ranger as sort of a Jonah Hex. You know, when Jonah was captured by Aliens and made to hunt people for Mogul? Unless I'm imagining that....
Also, doesn't Visionary's costume come from a Jean Grey Uniform?
And I always think of The Scholar as Iroh/Hoenhiem with a bit of a Dude mixed in.
I've always thought that Wraith was "Batman by way of Peter Parker" and Haka reminds me of a more responsible version of Valiant's new run of "Archer and Armstrong"'s Armstrong.
Expat seems like what would happen if a child of an unredeemable Magneto became The Punisher.
Chrono Ranger reminds me of Jonah Hex, but I've not read much Hex.
I made a set of character selection cards a while back (you may remember I asked for help on here). One side has a picture of the hero with the generally accepted "analogue(s)" printed below it. The other side has a difficulty-colour-coded radar/star/web diagram (cribbed from a file on BGG) to give a rough indication of how focused the decks are to elements like offence/defence/deck manipulation/support, with a short description of how the hero plays. I intended the cards to be a useful resource, especially for new players, to be able to make an informed choice about who to play.
It took ages to actually make them. Editing descriptions, laying out cards, printing, spraying with acrylic, cutting, corner rounding, sanding (where the spray wasn't as smooth as I'd like).
And most of the time people completely ignore them. No-one's ever said, "Wow, Jean Grey! I HAVE to play Visionary!"
I still end up doing my tiny "hero in 2 seconds" descriptions - Legacy: makes everyone else better, Expat: normal with guns, Tachyon: does lots of stuff very fast, Wraith: lots of gadgets, Unity: makes robot minions.
I'd love to share them, but since the radar diagrams came from someone on BGG, I'm not sure it'd be right for me to post them. I don't want to look like I'm claiming credit for someone else's work.
(However, if someone were to send me a private message, I could try to help in some way…)
