The spookiest night of the year is almost upon us, and I’m happy to bring everyone a Character Spotlight on Hallow’s Eve on the eve of Halloween eve! Before we get to the spotlight, I wanted to share some quick updates on this month’s Most Wanted, before voting ends on Sunday afternoon.
- The numbers of the Top 20 are starting to settle a bit. There are two characters who still have an average vote of over 4, but one of them is barely hanging on. The shake-up I reported in my last article has also subsided, but there are still four new entrants on the Top 20 at the moment.
- My call-out of Manphibian’s low ranking seems to have done the trick, as his rank has improved significantly since last week. That being said, one of this month’s newest list members has taken his space in the bottom ten. If you’re a fan of Shiklah and want to see her on the list make sure to vote!
- One of the newest additions to this month’s poll asked for you to list your Most Wanted character. Despite Mephisto’s rank at the top of the list, he’s currently only listed as Most Wanted by a single voter. I’ll have more data on what this list looks like in my end of month wrap up.
- This month’s poll also asked you to suggest someone for the list that isn’t on it. There are a lot of great characters everyone wants to see and I’m going to try to work-in as many as I can. That being said, one name that I somehow left off the poll that will be joining next month: Moondragon.
I’ll have the full wrap-up ready to go sometime next week, but in the meantime, if you haven’t voted, you still have a few days left!
VOTE HERE
Character Spotlight: Hallow’s Eve
I know that in every article I talk about how much I enjoy doing research on a character before writing about them, and that remains true this week. Although Hallow’s Eve didn’t require me to go on a hunt for older, harder-to-find comics, like I had to for Simon Garth and N’Kantu, I instead had the opportunity to watch characters and art styles change and grow over the last thirty years of Marvel Comics.
If you want the full story of Hallow’s Eve, you have to travel back to 1995, into Spider-Man: The Lost Years, which follow Ben Reilly, trying to start a new life, in Salt Lake City, Utah. It would track that a Peter Parker clone would have a natural affinity for red-heads with strong personalities, as Ben finds himself in love with local waitress, Janine Godbe.
Ben and Janine hit it off, but both are haunted by their hidden pasts. In Janine’s case, we find out that after an abusive upbringing from her father, she murders him, changes her name, and goes on the run from the law. Eventually, Janine decides that she can’t run anymore, and after an emotional goodbye to Ben, she turns herself in.
It’s at this point that we don’t see Janine in print for twenty five years. She finally returns in The Amazing Spider-Man at the very beginning of a new story arc for Ben Reilly that will also change the course of both of their lives. Janine is freed from prison, under the assumption that she will spy on Ben, who was hired to be a Spider-Man for the Beyond Corporation. This doesn’t go well (as often the story goes…) and eventually leads to Ben becoming Chasm, and Janine scared for his (and her) well-being.
Finally we jump to 2023. After bringing Janine back into the fold, Zeb Wells continues her growth in the Dark Web story arc. Here, Ben is drawn to limbo, and when Janine follows him, she confesses to Madelyne Pryor that she feels helpless, and wants to be able to do more. Given the opportunity, the Goblin Queen presents her with the finger of the demon, S’ym, which she accepts, and transforms her into Hallow’s Eve.
So what are Hallow’s Eve’s powers? A better question might be, what aren’t? Hallow’s Eve has an endless bag of tricks and treats, filled with magical masks that can help her adapt to any situation.
Over the past few years, Hallow’s Eve has had a number of team-up and solo adventures. First, with Ben, taking over Limbo from Madelyne Pryor, and then soon after losing her place in Limbo, while Ben is imprisoned.
Hallow’s Eve wants to rescue Ben , but first she needs money. This sets up her first-ever solo story, a fun five-issue run, where you finally get a deeper look into Janine’s mind. You also get to see in full display the outrageously fun and creative masks that can be pulled out of her bag. In addition to traditional Hollywood monster masks, Janine has masks of celebrities, other careers, and even other superheroes. In a pinch, she can play a trick on anyone, and find the right mask for the right situation. The image below is a sampling of some of her transformations.
Janine also gets a great team up in her most recent appearance, as part of the Blood Hunt storyline, joining forces with Elsa Bloodstone, White Widow and Dagger to fight vampires.
Hallow’s Eve in Marvel Snap
Hallow’s Eve is a fun character to have added into the Marvel canon over the past few years, and Second Dinner could channel the variety that she offers visually into a brand new jack-of-all-trades card.
Hallow’s Eve - 1/2 - On Reveal: Add 3 Masks to your hand.
Masks:
- Monster Mask - 1/5 - On Reveal: Merge into a card at this location.
- Ghost Mask - 1/3 - On Reveal: Merge into a card at this location. That card gains Ongoing: This card can’t be destroyed and its Power can’t be reduced.
- Mummy Mask - 1/1 - On Reveal: Merge into a card at this location. That card gains Ongoing: Enemy cards here can’t move.
- Witch Mask - 1/2 - On Reveal: Merge into a card at this location. Replace this location with a new one.
- Werewolf Mask - 1/2 - On Reveal: Merge into a card at this location. That card can move once.
- Vampire Mask - 1/1 - On Reveal: Merge with a card at this location. Discard a card in your hand to gain its power.
When designing Hallow’s Eve, I knew that I wanted to incorporate her masks, and as many of them as possible. I also liked the idea of her being similar to Nico Minoru, in that she could also be a spooky, magical, Swiss Army Knife, 1-drop.
I picked the six masks that represent the most traditional monsters, and also those most frequently worn by Hallow’s Eve. Then I tried to connect those masks to some pre-existing characters in the game, similar to Kate Bishop’s arrows.
The Monster Mask is referencing the Monster token from Monster Island, in that the mask itself provides no ability, but has strong raw power.
I thought about having the Ghost Mask reference Ghost, but none of the text that Ghost has ever had specifically references intangibility, which is what Hallow’s Eve primarily uses the mask for. Instead, I’m connecting it to the original Ebony Blade text, which hopefully won’t be too powerful, as the card it merges into will be random, and may or may not benefit from the ability.
There are no Mummy cards in Marvel Snap yet (hello, N’Kantu!) but Hallow’s Even primarily uses the Mummy mask to bind things, so I liked the idea of this mask copying Mercury’s power.
The Witch Mask is an homage to Scarlet Witch, and the Werewolf Mask is a gesture to Werewolf By Night’s constant movement. Finally, the Vampire Card gives you a mini-Dracula - whether you’re running a discard deck or not, so timing here is very important.
I’m honestly not quite sure how powerful this card is. Getting 3 cards added to your hand is great for cards like Mad Thinker or Devil Dinosaur, but if you’re not careful, you’re going to clog your hand, or wind up with Masks that you don’t want to use. The randomness of the masks offsets their power. I also like the fact that they all merge, which helps you save board space.
I can envision a number of different decks wanting to find a place for Hallow’s Eve, but here’s one of my takes on how she could work.
Hallow's Eve Deck - Marvel Snap Most Wanted
I would play this like a mix between bounce, Werewolf, and hand-control. The idea would be to have some flexibility, based on what cards and masks you draw, with Werewolf By Night and Devil Dinosaur acting as your large bodies. The bounce package lends itself to full hands, which gives Mad Thinker some life, and the opponent will have trouble guessing what tricks or treats you have in store for them.
So what do you think? Should Hallow’s Eve be in Marvel Snap? What kind of card would you create for her?
If you haven’t yet, there’s still a few days left to vote. The poll will close this Sunday afternoon!
I also have a few PAX bundles to giveaway, so if you are interested in winning one you can do one of two things: vote in the poll and leave your discord name there OR comment on here on what kind of Mask card you would create for Hallow’s Eve. (If you voted already, but want to enter through the poll, leave a comment here with your Mask and discord name and I’ll cross reference it with any previous voters from this month.)