The latest in the ICONS WWII releases by Vigilance Press, The Crown Guard were the British super team that was fighting WWII before the US got involved, fending off the Eugenics Brigade.
Despite being outgunned and outmanned, the Crown Guard managed to keep Winston Churchill alive and convinced the Eugenics Brigade that they were better off attacking Russia than England.
As with Vigilance Force, this is a collection of heroes, so there is probably less utility for the average purchaser than there is with, say, a villain collection.
The PDF does include the necessary Team rules to fit the ICONS Team rules, if you wanted to run a Crown Guard game.
We get Big Ben, the prototypical giant brick.
Espirit is a French agent with phasing and invisibility, hence the name. Reminds me a lot of a random character I generated back for Marvel FASERIP who was ALSO a spy, and also had Mind Control...so I have a certain fondness for the character type.
Excalibur actually carries Excalibur, as well as a couple of other artifacts, making him a tough customer.
Grizzly is an animalistic Canadian hero, who seems a bit like a Wolverine riff taken the opposite direction from Marauder in Vigilance Force.
Illustrious is a bit of an enigma...a compulsive liar with amazing luck and an assumed name.
Ironclad is a living machine, the greatest creation of a dying scientist.
Repulse is The Crown Guard's Master of Magnetism.
Swordfish is the setting's answer to Namor/Aquaman.
Armorer is a supergenius inventor, trying to liberate his native Poland.
And last is John Bull, the only "successful" attempt at recreating the Nazi supersoldier project...leaving him with the appearance of a minotaur.
Again, like with Vigilance Force, there are a lot of obvious homages, but nothing I would call overtly ripped off. Even Swordfish feels like his own man and not like either Namor or Aquaman specifically.
There's the odd piece of art, but there is a big, group picture that you can use to suss out just who is who in the group. It's a good product in a good line...if World War II in ICONS interests you, then I recommend picking it up.
|