Karl "Hair10" Markovich was one of the earliest HeroClix rules arbiter for Wizkids for many years. He's since left the world of arbiting, but his legacy still stands. We sit down with Karl to get his thoughts on HeroClix, and more.

The Le: So are you an avid comic book reader these days? Any favorites on your pull list?

Hair10: Yep. My love of comics is what got me into gaming in the first place. Other than some Magic, I was never into CCGs, minis games, etc. The comic aspect of HC pulled me in.

Right now I mostly read DC titles... the GL books, Bat books, JSA, Wonder Woman, Power Girl, Secret Six, JLA, Booster Gold, Outsiders, and probably a couple that I'm forgetting.

For Marvel, it's a much shorter list... Punisher, Wolverine, X-Force, and Ms. Marvel. I've lost interest in a lot of Marvel over the years due to the storylines going on. The Clone Wars pretty much killed Spidey for me and Grant Morrison did the same for X-Men. Once I quit a title I tend not to go back.

I do pick up a few indy books too, but those tend to be more tongue-in-cheek type books... Bomb Queen, Empowered, Herogasm (from The Boys). I've followed Fallen Angel from DC over to IDW and pick up Red Sonja too.

The Le: What HeroClix rules do you think desperately needs changed/fixed, and why?

Hair10: The first one would be Perplex. It needs to go back to the old way of the effect ending at the end of your turn. It's taken a completely abusable power and pushing it into a whole new realm of borken right now.

(current) PERPLEX. Once during your turn (but not during another action), as a free action this character modifies by +1 or –1 any combat value (including range) of a target character until the beginning of your next turn (it can target itself). A character using this power must be within 10 squares of the target and have a clear line of fire to the target.This effect ends immediately if this character loses Perplex or is defeated, or when the target is damaged or healed.

(old) PERPLEX (OPTIONAL): Once during your turn (but not during another action), as a free action this character modifies by +1 or –1 any combat value (including range) of a target character, including itself, until the end of the turn. A character using this power must be within 10 squares of the target and have a clear line of fire to the target. This effect ends immediately if this character loses Perplex or is KOd, or if the target is damaged or healed during this turn.

Second would be a reworking of the keyword rules/bonuses. They seem like they were completely thrown together with no real sense of a "comic theme" behind them.

I'd retract the -2 to movement for carrying... it's unnecessary and everyone has problems remembering it to boot. Giants would once again tie up movement 2 squares away if I had my way. They were made marginally better with the changes they received in FF but that was a huge takeaway.

I'd also allow multiple characters to use a single copy of a feat. Maybe people would have to write down their team to keep it straight, but it would mean people wouldn't have to have multiple copies of things like Protected without paying through the nose for them. I think it would make things more equitable for players and bring down the price of some of those in-demand cards. edit from Karl: now that feats are 'Print & Play' this one isn't such a big deal anymore. WK took care of that issue I have, albeit in a slightly different way. Regardless, the end result is the same. :)

The Le: What were your thoughts on Batman AlphaClix?

Hair10: It could have been something special... a new opening to HC for new players. Instead it was an attempt to reuse something that WK spent resources developing (the ActionClix rules) and just make some money back on it. The opportunity was there to do something with with HC but it was lost. Even with the current rules and figures, they would have been much more playable if they would have incorperated team abilities into the figs (but of course, the ActionClix rules had no such mechanic). More than a couple of the figs would have been playable from the set at least.