It's been a while, but here we have part 2 of my Speedster overview, this time talking about the villain side. These are just going to be quick little overviews of the special stuff they bring, just because actual uses of Speedsters in general are over in my first post.
These guys are a little bit different to the heroes, but occupy largely the same role- a piece to annoy henchmen while being really annoying to take out. As beater pieces they have a lot more competition from things like Killer Croc, Clayface and King Shark, and as such can't be seen in that role because they are on the whole worse in that regard.
Going to go over both versions of Eobard at the same time because they aren't all that different to each other. Both have Scientific, Speedster:5, Dodge and Fast, fairly standard overall, and their stat lines are almost identical, with the exception of willpower and endurance. TV Eobard is 7 rep cheaper, and brings a few more valuable traits to play with in my opinion. The comic version has Phase Strike as a unique power, which is expensive and super unreliable, so not worth using (Brutal or Devastating would instantly make it a choice, but he has neither). The TV one previously had this power, but it is now replaced by Kinetic Tornado, which is a really cool power I've found. It's relatively inexpensive, decent strength and good damage and effects means you have a good use for Eobard zipping near objectives and forcing groups of models away from them, making it a tougher choice as to what the opponent will spend their resources on in any given turn. The TV version also brings some Speedster-related traits which are situational but very helpful in Tachyon Device and I Know What I'm Doing, and the ever thematic Survivor. Survivor just means he is slightly more annoying to kill, and is a better trade-off overall than the +1 endurance comic Eobard has, while still not being a complete negative play experience for the opponent. Tachyon Device lets him add up to 2 extra Speed Force Counters to himself if there are none in the pool at that point, which really only lets him work at his full potential when another Speedster is present, instead of being hamstrung by going second. I Know What I'm Doing is a once per game ignore Paradox, which really shouldn't be happening all that often anyway, but with Kinetic Tornado having a 6+ Paradox there's always the chance of it happening, so it's nice to have.
All in all, I think the comic Zoom is just a bit dated, and could use an update, but the TV version definitely stands up to the modern standard of models.
Red Death is the cheapest of the villain Speedsters, which is always something to consider, but he operates very differently to the others. He is far more Batman than Flash, having high attack and strength but lower movement and Speedster level to compensate. At Speedster:4 he doesn't have access to some of the more impressive powers, but the lower cost ones are what shine far more anyway, so it isn't much of an issue for him. Muscle Growth as a power isn't as useful on him, as he is already at strength 3+ (you can go to 2+, but why not just use more attacks?). He will usually be attacking the same amount of times as a Barry Allen would, but he has one power that makes him quite an interesting and pretty good piece to use. His unique power Black Bats is cost 2, no paradox, making is incredibly easy to do, and all it does is give all enemies within 4" the Enervating/2 effect. If he can get into a group of models in the Speed Force phase, this is huge, as he can just strip 2 counters off of every single enemy. Willpower 4/5 henchmen? 2 or 3 counters this turn, he'll do it again whenever possible and can chase you down when needed. Martial Artist also plays into this, as if that big group of models do decide to try and take him out, they can't gang up on him to do it, and have to get through defence 5 to land a hit. Only other thing to say is Bipolar is a little bit of a negative, possibly losing him a counter a turn, but it can also give him one too, and at 50/50 chance is ok to work around considering everything else. Not the best of the Dark Knights, but they're all excellent and Red Death is very far from bad.
Johnny Quick has had a little bit of an update with the latest round of updates to resin, but it still isn't all that much of a change. He's almost identical to comic Flash except for Willpower (which is "compensated for" by Criminal), which makes sense given the character, but in neither case does it make a model that's very useful. Molecular Vibration isn't a bad power, allowing for some close up shutdown (combo with pushes on scoring models for some fun) and it's gotten a reduction in cost now too, allowing Johnny to do a little bit more with his Speed Force. Atomica is also a pretty nice trait, although the most valuable targets (high defence models) are more often than not higher movement as well, so it's not all too reliably happening.
All in all, he's a very mediocre model and not really worth his rep. If you're looking for a Speedster pick Red Death or TV Eobard. That's all I have to say.
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