From Panel To Play: Pyro

CP82 Pyro

What’s a little pyromania between friends? Today’s Panel to Play gives us our first look at the man gunning to put your local fireworks stand out of business: it’s the mutant flame- manipulator, Pyro!

St. John Allerdyce discovered his mutant powers as a teenager. He spent his early years as a journalist after deciding that his ability to control flame, but not generate it himself, was ultimately worthless. Mystique disagreed. With the addition of a flame-generating backpack and the snappy name of Pyro, he followed her lead through the Brotherhood of Mutants and subsequent Freedom Force.

Pyro’s presence in Marvel: Crisis Protocol heralds the flames. All three of his attacks inflict the Incinerate special condition on their targets. But he’s not a purely one-trick character; each pattern of the flames has its own unique utility. Fire Blast can burn up to Range 4 and generates a flat 1 Power with 5 Strength. Flame Jet is Strength 4, but hits all targets in a Beam up to Range 3, and generates 1 Power for each of them. And for the finale, Inferno rages in at 7 Strength with a Range 2 restriction, and damages all other characters within Range 2 of the target as well.

But St. John isn’t so enamored with fire he can’t think ahead. More cunning than one might expect from a Threat 3 burner, Pyro can spend 2 Power to use the Active superpower Firewall. This superpower doles out the Root and Slow special conditions to an enemy within Range 3 as Pyro strategically boxes them in with flame. Once he’s got them where he wants them, he can spend 3 Power for Stoke the Flames, and add 2 dice to his next attack action that turn.

Leaping tongues of fire across the battlefield is still always the end goal. The more enemies immolated, the better! For this, Pyro relies on his namesake Innate superpower, Fire Manipulation. When he targets an enemy with an attack, if they end up with the Incinerate special condition, he can choose another enemy character within Range 2 of the target and share the love… or, in this case, the Incinerate special condition.

With all of these fire-fueled superpowers, it’s easy to forget Pyro only controls flames; he doesn’t create them. He himself has no immunity to Incinerate. But he does have a protective suit that grants him 4 Energy defense, courtesy of Mystique. It pays to plan ahead.

That’s all for our first look at the mutant matchstick, Pyro! Be sure to check back in the future for yet another installment of From Panel to Play, the series where we give you your first look at how your favorite characters transition to the tabletop in Marvel: Crisis Protocol. Pre-order your copy of the Blob & Pyro Character Pack at your local game store or through the webstore today!

Until next time, Atomic Mass Transmissions, signing off!