Wednesday, December 8, 2010

1989 Mayfair Games DC Heroes Martian Manhunter Character Card



As you may have noticed over the past few days, the art on these Mayfair cards is somewhat short of professional caliber. Certainly far better than those early Dungeons & Dragons ads, but not quite up to snuff for the business, and heavy on the swipes. I'm pretty confident this was an original composition because, well, it belongs in a high schooler's notebook. I appreciate that J'Onn's junk was abstract to near cubism, but why is he resting his fey wrists within the dimples of his ass?



Between this card and the 1993 3rd Edition Sourcebook, J'Onn gained 7 Initiative points and the powers of Invulnerability (16) and Superspeed (5.) I'm not sure those powers were covered in '89. Also, they added a limitation to his invisibility that claimed it so strained his concentration that he couldn't use any other powers while it was in effect. It was a weird choice, since that limitation hadn't been present in comics for decades, and when it was relevant, it was actually due to the effects of Formula Z6. Of course, by this point, all those Detective Comics stories were rendered a fever dream, and Middletown U.S.A. had given way to Middleton, Colorado, which received an entry in the 1990 Atlas of the DC Universe sourcebook.

2 comments:

Tom Hartley said...

Maybe someone can send you a scan of MM's character card from the '85 1st edition game. (Unfortunately, I don't have it.)

Diabolu Frank said...

Done, but I'm going to wait for Shag to pony up on Wonder Woman and Zatanna for next year...