The Fantasy Comic League, a statistic-based review format developed in early 2014, begins 2019 with its biggest change yet. Currently, League participants join four other members in a division and choose which Marvel characters to review by drafting them. Now, after two years of this format, the Head-to-Head divisions have reached the end of the Beta period. In its place, the League introduces the Free-for-All format. This new way of providing statistics on your favorite characters will allow for a more casual, monthly approach and encourage other comic book communities to form their own divisions based on how they want to review the weekly comic books. Please visit our Patreon page on ways to become a sanctioned reviewer or division!
What’s the Fantasy Comic League?
The Fantasy Comic League provides weekly statistics for the characters found in the pages of Marvel comics. The League’s mission is to offer a thorough understanding of, and a direct focus on, the characters and their heroic actions. Characters receive points for their performances in the books based on the following categories: Appearance, Power Usage, Team-Up, Lead Team, Save Civilian, Character Development and Defeat Antagonist. Beginning in 2019, the League will review all the heroes and their powers and not limit their review to characters only drafted by League participants. This will allow the League to record more statistics and develop more insight on character performances.
What’s the Free-for-All format?
The Free-for-All format opens the review system to more participants by removing the need for divisions and draft rules, focusing instead on the individual reviewer’s monthly performance. To review a team of characters, the participant must draft one character for each of the eight Fantasy Comic League team affiliations: Antihero, Avenger, Cosmic, Magic, Mutant, Science, Street and Youth. For each character drafted, the reviewer selects three of their eligible powers for which to receive credit. Team affiliations and powers can be found in the Fantasy Comic League preview tiers. The reviewer’s monthly score comes from their team’s performance in all seven categories.
To offer a way to review a variety of characters, the Free-for-All format offers three separate review challenges: Wild, Tiered and Themed.
- Wild: This challenge has no limitations apart from the team affiliation restrictions and character powers. Any character can be selected for a review team if they fill an eligible team slot.
- Tiered: This challenge limits the number of characters a reviewer can select from a preview tier. A reviewer may draft one character each from the first two tiers (or two from the second tier), and two each from the third through fifth tiers. Team affiliation restrictions and character power rules still apply.
- Themed: This challenge determines what characters are eligible for drafting. Each month, the Fantasy Comic League will feature a theme a reviewer can follow when drafting a team (e.g., all mutants, all female). All drafted characters must satisfy that month’s theme. Team affiliation restrictions and character power rules still apply.
How do I form my own review team?
Fantasy Comic League provides the weekly statistics and encourages all comic book fans to use them to put together their own Free-for-All review team or build a community division. Information on how to become a sanctioned review participant can be found on the Fantasy Comic League Patreon site. Sanctioned review participants can receive access to the League’s monthly podcast, score cards to help in reviewing your team, an entry into the monthly giveaway or recognition on being a top reviewer for the month.
While becoming a sanctioned review participant grants access to insider benefits, Fantasy Comic League gladly invites other comic book communities to create their own way of reviewing while utilizing our weekly statistics. A Fantasy Comic League Review Sheet is available to help in tracking drafted characters (PDF file works best when downloaded to a computer). Should there be any characters not covered in the weekly reviews, or point disputes, questions can be directed toward @FantasyComicLG on Twitter. Please make sure to include #FantasyComicLeague to help promote and grow the League’s review system!
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