CRITICAL HIT: CLOSE COMBAT EXPERT

Give this character a power action. It makes a close combat attack against a single opposing target character; modify this character’s damage value by + 2 for the attack.

Unlike Forceblast (our other purple power), Close Combat Expert, just got better. There's actually quite a few characters that sport both Super Strength and Close Combat Expert (and Charge). This tiny change finally lets us use Close Combat Expert while holding an object.

If there's one complaint I have, it would be the Rule Of Three, which is still in effect. Anyone with a power called Close Combat "Expert" should be able to bypass the Rule of Three when using a Heavy Object (at least when not moving). Think about it...

CRITICAL MISS: LEADERSHIP
At the beginning of your turn, give this character a free action and roll a d6. On a result of 5–6, add one action to your action total for that turn and this character may remove an action token from an adjacent friendly character with a lower point value.

At first glance this looks like an excellent change, but upon closer inspection you'll find that it's a terribly unbalancing change to a power that already worked very well. It kind of feels like Michael Bay got a hold of the rulebook and said, "let's take something that's quiet and works well, and add lots of explosion and shaky camera angles!"

That may be exaggerating a bit, but not by much. Reducing a successful Leadership roll from 4-6 to 5-6 is simply not a very good trade off for such an abusive benefit. If anything, the original 4-6 result should have stayed the same and the "remove action token" effect should only work on a result of 6.

This change is going to be especially potent for S.H.I.E.L.D based teams. It's particularly odd that they would take a perfectly balanced power like leadership and boost it up to this monstrosity.

Major Critical Miss on this one.