Seven Little Superheroes

Seven little superheroes
will vanish one by one,
Seven little superheroes,
soon there will be none...

So chortled the Chameleon in an episode of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. Loosely based off Agatha Christie's 10 little Indians, Seven Little Superheroes follows the exploits of Spider-Man, Iceman and Firestar as they travel to mysterious Wolf Island, meeting up with Dr. Strange, Namor, Captain America, and Shanna the She-Devil, all of whom received cryptic invitations to spend the weekend at a resort turned death camp, a sort of Club Med meets Club Dead.



Throughout the course of the episode, Chameleon uses an array of death traps, eliminating the heroes one at a time, occasionally taking their place in disguise to keep the heroes fighting amongst themselves. Namor falls first, tricked into swimming in alcohol (drying out his skin).

Namor = Whiner

"It's not water..."

...the Sub-Mariner cries in an incredibly campy moment - as though the Prince of Atlantis idiotically blundered into the trap because he was unable to smell a FULL SWIMMING POOL of Alcohol. This from a guy who spent 20+ years as an alcoholic in a wharfside tavern, before Johnny Storm sobered him up with a hot shave.


The episode is full of unintentionally funny Saturday morning cartoon cliches including annoying animal side-kicks, nonsensical death traps and a villain who talks to himself too much, using no logic whatsoever in his revenge attempts.

For instance, Captain America seemingly drowns early in the episode, showing up later caged in a prison, along with the rest of the heroes who were thought dead. Rather than kill off the heroes in the initial traps, Chameleon brings them all together to die at the hands of a giant bomb - he's wired the whole island to explode.

I'm sorry, but if Dr. Strange can't escape a simple cage,
he needs to hang up his cape.

Of course the Continental's master plan doesn't work - and why should it? As explained in the story each of the heroes had individually defeated the master of disguise in the past, so why Chameleon thought bringing them all together would result in anything buy a 7x whupping is a mystery.



From the beginning where Spider-Man finds his invitation taped to a random NYC skyscraper ledge (Chameleon obviously *knew* the Wall-Crawler would find it), to the number of times Chameleon chooses to impersonate scantily clad woman (he's got issues I tell you), this episode's got it all.

Web of Spider-man debuts the long awaited appearance of Spider-Man’s first “supervillain” (the mugger who shot Uncle Ben doesn’t count) better known as Russian Actor Dmitri Anatoly Smerdyakov Kravinoff. Or is he? As a Master of Disguise you never really know.

By all accounts he’s a normal human who has used costumes and technology to impersonate people from Daily Bugle Publisher J. Jonah Jameson, to Incredible Hulk nemesis General Thunderbolt Ross (apparently he has a thing for cigar chomping military hot heads). He’s even copied Peter Parker at one point.

picture courtesy HCRealms.com

His clix dial showcases mimicry abilities a Skrull would be jealous of, and given the amount of people he’s fooled over the years you have to wonder why this guy wasted his time fighting Spider-Man and robbing banks when he could have been a multi-million dollar multiple Oscar winning actor.

Unfortunately his combat prowess is all stage training. Chameleon has a sordid history of defeat, not only at the hands of Spider-Man, but also his supporting cast. Mary Jane took a Louisville Slugger to his kneecaps, Aunt May fed him some Ambien laced oatmeal cookies. In short, the guy knows how to lose.

picture courtesy HCRealms.com

Chameleon’s Heroclix dial represents his rather timid nature - he’s lurking in the shadows (Stealth), using some chemical concoction (most likely Rohyphenol) to Incapacitate his victims, and wearing disguises (Shape Change) to avoid detection.

Perhaps the most interesting defensive ability on his dial is Mastermind, if only because you have to ask - do I really want to keep this guy on my team? Do I really need to save his 9 AV to share with other Syndicate team members? Some Perplex or Outwit would go a long way in helping me decide.

One thing is certain - while he can’t do a lot of damage...
... the Chameleon is annoying.

For starters, Stealth is going to block Line of Fire, which means an opponent will have to get up close to deal with him. Once there, he’ll use a disguise to confuse would be assaulters - half of all attacks will avoid him, and even if he does take one to the chin, he can pass the damage off with Mastermind.

Judging by his stats, Chameleon is not an attack piece - he’s an annoying tie-up piece.

Someone who’s hard to get away from.
Someone who uses cunning disguises & manipulations to get his way.
Someone who drugs you when you’re not looking.
Someone who wears a smoking jacket?
Oh my gosh!

He’s the Continental!