Fantastic Four Return to Marvel HeroClix

The Fantastic Four will make their long-awaited return to HeroClix in 2020. WizKids Games announced the return of Marvel's First Family to HeroClix during a presentation at the Alliance Open House in Fort Wayne, Indiana on Friday, September 13th. The Fantastic Four will headline a new set, Fantastic Four: Cosmic Clash, in July 2020. The set will be accompanied by a new kind of HeroClix starter set featuring Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, the Thing, Doctor Doom, and the Silver Surfer. This new kind of starter set is intended for 1-4 players to learn the game, will feature new packaging designed to be shelved alongside board games, and includes rules for campaign play [UPDATE: The starter set hits stores in January 2020].

Fantastic Four: Cosmic Clash will mark the first appearance of the Fantastic Four in HeroClix since 2012. Though never confirmed, most assumed that the Fantastic Four's disappearance from the game, as well as other licensed products, had to do with tensions between Disney and 20th Century Fox, the studio that held the film rights to the Fantastic Four. When WizKids released updated rules for HeroClix in 2017, the Fantastic Four team ability was removed from the game and the company ceased using the Fantastic Four keyword.

Those tensions soften seemed to soften as the Fantastic Four began reappearing elsewhere. Marvel Comics began publishing a Fantastic Four series for the first time since 2015. The characters began appearing Hasbro's Marvel Legends line. Upper Deck was allowed to reprint the Fantastic Four expansion to its Legendary Marvel deckbuilding game. The Fantastic Four also began appearing in some of Marvel's digital games like Marvel Strike Force, Marvel Contest of Champions, Marvel Puzzle Quest, and Marvel Future Fight, and there's a Fantastic Four expansion to Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order on the way.

But the sale of 20th Century Fox to Disney seems to have broken down the last barrier. The creation of a new HeroClix set takes roughly 12-14 months from design to release. It seems WizKids wasted little time bringing back the Fantastic Four.

HeroClix fans will be excited about the Fantastic Four's return but could be equally as excited about the return of other characters tied up in the Fantastic Four rights. Doctor Doom has been conspicuously absent for as long as his rivals, most notably from the Secret Wars set released in 2018. Other long-missing characters include Silver Surfer, Super Skrull, Galactus, and Mole Man.

WizKids also just announced the new Marvel HeroClix: Captain America and The Avengers set, which will be the next Marvel HeroClix set to follow September's release of the Marvel HeroClix: X-Men the Animated Series, the Dark Phoenix Saga set, which featured super boosters with 2x2-based characters. The remainder of 2019 will see WizKids release a new Star Trek HeroClix Away Team set, and it's first The Orville HeroClix and WWE HeroClix sets. In 2020, HeroClix will return to the DC Animated Universe with a Justice League Unlimited set. WizKids is also for the first time released unpainted HeroClix figures under their "Deep Cuts" line. The figures come with SwitchClix based and distinct dials.

Are you excited about the Fantastic Four's return to HeroClix? Let us know in the comments.