The saga of Marvel’s highly debatable power-level cards
A boom, a bubble, and ’90s kid nonsense
www.polygon.com
Incredibly in depth article, it's a good read.
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Polygon: The saga of Marvel’s highly debatable power-level cards
- Thread starter Slayven
- Start date
www.polygon.com
These cards were my life in 91. Cosmic Spider Man Holographic was the jewel. I'd buy a complete set now if I could find it.
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Oh. Man. Comic cards.
Early 90s was a time wasn't it.
Hold on remembering the time I ripped the Venom hologram card.
Early 90s was a time wasn't it.
Hold on remembering the time I ripped the Venom hologram card.
Dang this art really unlocked something deep inside my memory lol, I completely forgot about these
Dammit, everytime these things are brought up I have to make sure I know where my one remaining sleeve is.
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Nightshade and Wudarr, man those were the days
"Hubba hubba." lol, truly a beast
They gotta make another class if Hawkeye in there with Cap Beast and spider woman
Nightshade and Wudarr, man those were the days
Wow! Nostalgia. I had these back in the 90s. Christ they opened a can of worms with these lol every kid into comics was arguing in school over these stats. The art was fantastic
Fun article, but it doesn't even get into Overpower, the Marvel (and DC and others) CCG from about the same period. The ability scores there were not only fairly arbitrary, but also had to be balanced enough for a game. These things were even messier because the original Marvel ones didn't have an intellect score, but the DC ones did, and eventually they did a new set of Marvel ones that added intellect to all previous characters and incorporated intellect going forward, while trying to be backward compatible.
he actually meant to say "Buy Hubble Bubba, the gum that is spider egg free!"
Spider-Man is only one point smarter than Wolverine?!Fun article, but it doesn't even get into Overpower, the Marvel (and DC and others) CCG from about the same period. The ability scores there were not only fairly arbitrary, but also had to be balanced enough for a game. These things were even messier because the original Marvel ones didn't have an intellect score, but the DC ones did, and eventually they did a new set of Marvel ones that added intellect to all previous characters and incorporated intellect going forward, while trying to be backward compatible.
You never miss an opportunity to embarrass Hank McCoy
Hank Pym was a 7 (max was 8)
Onslaught was also a 7
🤷♂️
edit: Magneto was also a 7 but then so was Beast. It was all over the map
Hank Pym was a 7 (max was 8)
Onslaught was also a 7
🤷♂️
edit: Magneto was also a 7 but then so was Beast. It was all over the map
Last edited:
Nightshade and Wudarr, man those were the days
Is Spider-Man claiming that Cap America just trained himself strong?
Why is Spidey lying to me?
Didn't Transformers or Beast Wars figures have a form of this in the back of the boxes? I was into those toys a LOT back in the day and I vaguely remember them having something like that.
Yeah, I can see that. Basically "Street Smarts" vs. "Book Smarts".
In what world are colossus and Deadpool villains, but sabertooth a super hero?
1994 Fleer X-men cards, that's where.
EDIT: brother found our set and sent me the new avatar…
1994 Fleer X-men cards, that's where.
EDIT: brother found our set and sent me the new avatar…
Man. I remember those back in the day. I had pretty much all of the first two series.
I still think those are the most accurate and should be maintained. But that's not how things turned out.
It made sense at the time. Shit it still does. 100 tons being the soft cap makes sense to me.
I still think those are the most accurate and should be maintained. But that's not how things turned out.
It made sense at the time. Shit it still does. 100 tons being the soft cap makes sense to me.
I don't remember how, but as a kid, I came into possession of a bunch of Marvel cards from 1991. Especially weird because I was definitely more into D.C. as a kid. I still have them and this thread got me to fish them out of a drawer and give them a look for the first time in years. They're in a box with an index card taped to the top that says "MARVEL SERIES II DON'T LET KIDS HANDLE" which was clearly ignored when they were given to 11-year-old me. I just randomly picked out the card for a villain named Tombstone and the "Did You Know" fact at the bottom is fantastic:
I was going to say something snarky about this making sense since his Intelligence Power Rating was only a 2, but flipping around with some other cards shows that the vast majority of people were at a 2.
I was going to say something snarky about this making sense since his Intelligence Power Rating was only a 2, but flipping around with some other cards shows that the vast majority of people were at a 2.
94 was my fave, the 3x3 pics made them impossible to stop buying
It's funny, the trading cards and Overpower seem like completely different eras but it was probably just like 3-4 years later. Of course, that was the difference between elementary and middle school, so yeah it kind of was two different eras to me.Fun article, but it doesn't even get into Overpower, the Marvel (and DC and others) CCG from about the same period. The ability scores there were not only fairly arbitrary, but also had to be balanced enough for a game. These things were even messier because the original Marvel ones didn't have an intellect score, but the DC ones did, and eventually they did a new set of Marvel ones that added intellect to all previous characters and incorporated intellect going forward, while trying to be backward compatible.
I was in the third grade when the 'power level' sets came out. My friends and I used to play a game similar to 'War' with them, where one kid would throw down a card, then you had to throw someone with overall higher power bars or you lost. Lmao shit got petty because some mutants were OP with the stats.
lol Spider-Man's strength and intelligence ratings were a source a much disillusionment among 90's kids who believed he was the strongest, smartest, fastest, and best fighter of all Marvel heroes.God we got into AR-GU-MENTS over these fucking things.
Absolutely. This was the whole fun of comics back in the day. That consistency. Marvel gave up on that in the 90s which sapped all the fun away for me.This was my guidebook to power levels (and everything else about a character):
