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Spiderman is up there as one of my favourite superhero characters. Going all the way back to the 90’s and watching the cartoon of Spiderman on the BBC, I’ve loved him. I guess there was something in Peter Parker that I could relate to. Picking this expansion set of Marvel United was another given because I really wanted Spiderman to play with. The set has not disappointed and here’s why. Now let's talk about the Enter the Spider-Verse Marvel United expansion!
Additional Heroes
Spider-man. The character I most wanted from the set and he doesn’t disappoint. A well-balanced character with a similar quantity of attack, movement and heroic actions, but perhaps just leaning towards those heroic actions a little more, quite a few of these in double combos, so for example a movement and heroic action on the same card. Your friendly neighbourhood Spiderman is a useful team member.
Ghost-Spider. Arguably even more of a hero than Spiderman. The Ghost-Spider has more emphasis on those heroic actions and movement and less on the attack. She will balance well with some of the more aggressive and attack focused characters.
Miles Morales. Miles is slow, very slow with very little movement tokens. Plenty of heroic and attack actions but he’ll need the support of a mover, otherwise you best hope the villains move his way when it comes to the final fight.
Spider-ham, an outstandingly aggressive hero here. Spider-Ham is all out attack with a bit of movement on top. Don’t be fooled by this cute looking character, he packs a huge punch.
Green Goblin
It took me a little time to get my head around this villain, I suppose that is to be expected with a villain as cunning and vicious as the Green Goblin.
Ordinarily with a villain you deal all his threat cards on to the 6 starting locations, not here, instead you make a separate threat deck. There are numerous ways these cards are then dealt, the top one being when the Green Goblin BAMS (as well as dealing some damage to heroes). You deal one threat card in the next available clockwise direction. Guess what? Every single one of Green Goblins Villain cards has a BAM on it, so they will not stop coming. Maybe not a problem as there are only 6 cards I here you say? My interpretation though, is when your heroes complete a threat, it is not discarded, it is returned to the bottom of the threat deck to be recycled later on in the game. You will still get tokens for completing the threats so you can get to taking on Goblin. But usually the heroes get some respite as well after taking out a threat. No such luck with the Green Goblin. He’s an excellent villain, good luck!
Secret Identity Challenge
This one really adds a challenge to the hero’s game, who already have plenty to do. We know from all the Spiderman works that there are people out there after the real identity of Spiderman, and that is what this challenge is, to ID our heroes.
During set up we have 3 journalist tokens placed on 3 of the 6 locations. 2 go either side of the heroes starting point and 1 with the villains starting location.
When a hero is in one of these locations, if they do anything other than move, they gain an exposure token. They can opt to use a heroic action to move the journalist token on and you don’t need to be in the same location to do this, however you will receive an exposure token for moving them on.
When the hero receives 3 exposure tokens their ID is revealed and two things happen. They take 1 damage automatically and the next time they have a turn, they play one card face down in the story line, essentially missing a turn. They can still utilise the last players actions though.
This is a tough rule. There is already a challenge to get the mission done without this sort of distraction compounding the issue. If you are one of those players finding Marvel United too easy then this is a great expansion to add to your play. I have found it so hard to date.
The great thing with this challenge though is that it can apply to all and not just the above Spider-man cast which is very cool and classic Marvel United for the cross over plays with other sets.
More Locations
Classic and iconic Spider-man locations such as Oscorp Tower, the Brooklyn bridge, the Daily Bugle are included within this set. You have a total of 6 more to mix that play up a little and give the heroes those much-needed bonuses. Plus, if playing Green Goblin, there is the chance of getting those location bonuses more than once.
Final Thoughts
I have always been a huge fan of Spiderman which is why Enter the Spider-Verse was a no-brainer. I do love the character so this expansion was an easy pick up for me. The characters included are all awesome fun to use. It is just that additional challenge that is brutal and I didn’t expect that, as well as another uniquely awkward villain to try to stop. It keeps you on the edge for sure. I think the entire expansion is a brilliant inclusion to the Marvel United universe.
