First of all, the name sucks. Nobody knows what to call it. The way it works is that the overarching rules is called the "Vs. System," which is a generic card game design that has been painted with the IP of DC and Marvel Comics. If Upper Deck wanted to, they could make a Vs. System game featuring the cast of Hamtaro. Although it is, at heart, combat-oriented, the Vs. System is intended to act as the GURPS of CCGs, designed to fit and intermingle any license(s). (Somebody did this before and it flopped, didn't they? I vaguely recall an anime card game that used different anime properties in one game, and didn't the Hercules and Xena and something else games all work the same way? Was it StormWatch?)

So anyway, the games just plop a Marvel or DC logo atop the Vs. System logo. Do we call it Marvel Vs. and DC Vs.? The Upper Deck site limply refers to the games as "Marvel Comics" and "DC Comics." This is bad news for marketing. What they should have done is come with a great generic-yet-appropriate name for the comics-related releases, subtitled with 'Powered by Vs. System" or somesuch. (But still use the nice blankish Vs. cardbacks so you can mix all sets.) I hear the word "OverPower" might be available.

I'm currently referring to both games as "Marvel/DC Vs." although I could see myself shortening that to just "Vs." in the future.

Anyway, there's a lot this game gets right when it comes to being comics-faithful. Especially when compared to previous comics-based card games. Let's go back to OverPower, a common foil for CCG pundits. OverPower's notion was that you pre-select four heroes... and your deck consists of the cards that represent their powers plus a ton of lame-o cards with numbers from 1 to 8 printed on them. You had to buy a shitload of cards to get the good super-power cards for the four specific heroes you liked. And I should know. And then once you built your deck, you invariably got to a point where you realized OverPower was just classic War with modifier cards.

Vs. puts the heroes in your deck and puts specific powers directly on them, more along the lines of creatures in Magic (they even have the expected Attack / Defense numbers.) Each hero has a cost, which you pay with resource points... which are generated by playing any ol' card facedown (Hey! Are they ripping me off?) This is actually a smart way around the decade-old Magic Paradox: you have so many cool cards to play with, but half your deck has to be stupid Land cards. Playing any card as a "resource" means you'll never be mana-screwed. Bonus: Even though you'd expect the best-of-the-best characters like Batman or Spider-Man to be mega-expensive, there's actually several different versions of most heroes. So there's a cheap Batman, an average Batman and an uber-rare pricey Batman, all with different powers. So you don't have to wait until the end of the game to drop a Batman into play. And, unlike OverPower, if one of your heroes gets knocked out, you can just play another copy of him next turn.

I'm currently testing out a Fantastic Four deck with six cards for each of the classic Four members. Since you can only have one unique character in play at a time, six might be too many and I risk clogging my hand... but you can discard an extra hero card from your hand to instantly "power up" (+1/+1) an identically-named card in play. So that might help. Hey, I'm new to this.

There's two ways to pay for cards... which can be confusing to newbies. Characters and Equipment must be paid for ("recruited") with resource points, which is exactly what you think. You have 4 points, you can buy 4 points worth of stuff. Locations and Plot Twists, on the other hand, have a threshold cost instead. You just need to control X resources to play the card... so if you have 4 resources, you could conceivably play six different Plot Twist cards with a cost of 4 or lower. Bad Design Note: there is almost no visual difference between the recruit cost on a hero and the threshold cost on a location. They probably should have tacked a tiny cutesy icon by those numbers to remind you which is a recruit cost and which is a threshold cost; it would make learning the game much easier. Bad Design Note #2: Calling the action cards "Plot Twists" is terrible. It breaks the fourth wall and talks down to comics fans. Plus, how will that translate to a Hamtaro set?

The worst part of the whole game is the math. Totalling your combat damage can really slow the game down, even though it looks simple on paper. Let's say I attack your 3/4 character with a 6/2 character. Assuming nobody plays any Twists to jerk the numbers around, my guy does 6 damage to your guy - "stunning" him - and sending 2 points of breakthrough damage to you personally. 6 (my attack) minus 4 (your defense) equals 2 points breakthrough. But you also have to take damage equal to your guys recruit cost since he was stunned. Plus, your guy does 3 damage to my guy, stunning him... so I have to take damage from the stun (although no breakthrough... only attackers cause breakthrough.) Counting up all that can get really tiresome - especially if there's a lot of bonuses and such flying around - so try to play with somebody who can run fast mental math for you.

So, you know, math is tough. It's a necessary evil. But I maintain that any equation with more than one operator makes a game seem slow and overly complicated.

At the end of the turn, you get to untap everybody who is tapped and resurrect one stunned chracter. All other stunned characters are discarded. Whoops, not "tapped"... Vs. uses two terms to cover the much-loved act of tapping. Exhaust(ed) and Activate(d). They mean the same thing, they just have situationally appropriate shades of meaning. The dude is tapped regardless. Another subtle moment of confusion, but not a game breaker.

I like it; I'm ready to invest. The card design is nice... both the backs and the front templates are identical across both sets, so you can mix Marvel and DC characters without messing up your visuals. Although odds are I will never do that, being the slavish fanboy that I am.