That is not how it worked. 

That section never existed mate. 

Yes, I know that and understand how it works.  I’m saying it would  have been more elegant to have the cards with the defense keyword instead have a ‘defend’ keyword that also counted as defending so that it was in line with attack and thwart.  It would work the same as it is now (only play it during an attack, etc)  except you could trigger other effects off them.  
 
  But regardless, considering the fact that they aren’t the same i find it strange that they are lumped together as the same entry in the rules reference.  

 
 

It no longer says it counts as a ‘defense’ when you play that card as it did under the old rule.     So it seems like  you can’t trigger counter punch off it.   
 
I still don’t understand why they have both ‘defend’and ‘defense‘.    Just using ‘defend’ alone would have been sufficient and would have never led to rules question of is a ‘defense’ considered ‘defending’ for the purpose of triggering these cards.  

For anyone viewing this in future, since I imagine the original poster has made up their mind by now, I think opening packs by cycle is good mix of variety and not getting overwhelmed by the card pool.
So start with the Core Set, then when you are ready to start The Dunwich Legacy open the deluxe and all the Dunwich Legacy mythos packs but leave The Path to Carcosa sealed.

There were some issues with the very initial packs of Arkham as well.  I had a lot of trouble tracking down Essex county express specifically.  And I seem to recall dunwich legacy and miskatonic museum and the core sold out fairly quick too and had similar posts asking about when reprints would occur.  It is just as you said though.  Demand is higher than their initial conservative forecasts ( even though I’m sure the  initial print runs were significantly greater than Arkham’s) and it should iron out now that they have seen some expansion sale numbers just as it did with Arkham and the majority of their releases.  

I don't think this is a reasonable view. It was either they release the product they had early, and the rest of what they were able to in January, or just release the same amount all in January. I don't see how the latter is in any way preferable to the former, since it's not like they would have magically had more in that case.

Eleanor and Beravor were in fact created for the board game Middle Earth Quest long before the lcg was born, alongside 3 other heroes (Argalad, Thalin and Eometh). 4 of them made it to the lcg and 3 of the 4 to the core set with brand new illustrations).

Jeez people, calm down.
they literally said the next expansion announcement will come on the 28th
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/12/31/ffg-live-in-january/
 

Right.... so it isn’t dormant.

Right.... so it isn’t dormant.

The Spider-Man card draw ability only triggers when the villain initiates an attack. The villain ONLY initiates attacks against heroes. You choose to defend with an ally after you would draw the card for Spider-Man.  So you would get the card even if an ally (or another hero) jumps in front of an attack originally meant for Spider-Man.

And also would never get a card when defending for another player.

The Spider-Man card draw ability only triggers when the villain initiates an attack. The villain ONLY initiates attacks against heroes. You choose to defend with an ally after you would draw the card for Spider-Man.  So you would get the card even if an ally (or another hero) jumps in front of an attack originally meant for Spider-Man.

I just played through return to dunwich 2 handed. I used a Mark deck upgrading all in on the Springfield, telescopic sight, marksmanship, etc.  I paired that with a Calvin deck.
i actually enjoyed using the Springfield.  My idea was to have as many enemies as possible go after Calvin and use Mark to snipe them off.  While Calvin’s damage is low, if I pull an auto-fail once, that is great.   If he is riding the line on health, then I either just evade the enemy or just use Calvin to kill it with meat cleaver to manipulate his horror. 
The games I was able to Get Mark fully kitted up were fantastic.  Especially in Where Doom Awaits.  I parked Mark on the Sentinel hill locations and just one shotted most of the enemies from a location away.  That scenario is particularly nice because a lot of the enemies don’t necessarily spawn on top of you.  
Overall, they survived and won the campaign.  They had a good run of Essex, but didn’t quite defeat that scenario. They had a tough time with the broods but did barely get 2 of 4. Otherwise they defeated each other scenario.  Mark did pull his weight but Calvin definitely wound up being  MVP.  I had Anna Kaslow in the deck and often was able to get 1 or 2 five of pentacles out. Calvin running at 6 or 7 across the board is certainly glorious.  
 

I just played through return to dunwich 2 handed. I used a Mark deck upgrading all in on the Springfield, telescopic sight, marksmanship, etc.  I paired that with a Calvin deck.
i actually enjoyed using the Springfield.  My idea was to have as many enemies as possible go after Calvin and use Mark to snipe them off.  While Calvin’s damage is low, if I pull an auto-fail once, that is great.   If he is riding the line on health, then I either just evade the enemy or just use Calvin to kill it with meat cleaver to manipulate his horror. 
The games I was able to Get Mark fully kitted up were fantastic.  Especially in Where Doom Awaits.  I parked Mark on the Sentinel hill locations and just one shotted most of the enemies from a location away.  That scenario is particularly nice because a lot of the enemies don’t necessarily spawn on top of you.  
Overall, they survived and won the campaign.  They had a good run of Essex, but didn’t quite defeat that scenario. They had a tough time with the broods but did barely get 2 of 4. Otherwise they defeated each other scenario.  Mark did pull his weight but Calvin definitely wound up being  MVP.  I had Anna Kaslow in the deck and often was able to get 1 or 2 five of pentacles out. Calvin running at 6 or 7 across the board is certainly glorious.  
 

And they also released an entire campaign....
As stated above, Mansions would probably be the best example used  to forecast releases for this.  
The pace of releases really isn’t all that different from mansions of madness.  Mansions did have the advantage of being able to frontload the content carried over from first edition( which this game obviously cannot do) however,   in general they had a big box and small box each once a year.  Which is essentially what we will most likely be getting.  We don’t know the size/contents of the Journeys big box expansions. By the comments made during the AMA it sounds like they could be bigger than mansions big box expansions.  The figure packs have less physical content than mansions small boxes but was accompanied by the release of a greater amount of digital product..so I call that a wash.
 
And regarding radio silence......  Again, we didnt see that  immediately after mansions release because of the first edition carryover products releasing.  Since this game doesn’t have that benefit we shouldn’t expect something similar. For mansions, the time between the  first fully 2nd edition small box RELEASE and the subsequent first big box ANNOUNCEMENT article (which, conveniently, is where we are in the journeys product life) was six months.   Based on that previous example we shouldn’t expect any articles for a while yet.

While true,they have released sets in their ideas line that are certainly not designed and aimed at kids.  For example, the ‘Friends Cafe’ set.
 
Depending on on the quality of project proposed  (hard to say since it can’t be viewed currently) it is well within the realm of possibility that a mythos or Arkham files inspired set could be released via LEGO ideas.
Depending on the route taken it could have a similar vibe to the Monster Fighter sets from a few years ago
 

And they also released an entire campaign....
As stated above, Mansions would probably be the best example used  to forecast releases for this.  
The pace of releases really isn’t all that different from mansions of madness.  Mansions did have the advantage of being able to frontload the content carried over from first edition( which this game obviously cannot do) however,   in general they had a big box and small box each once a year.  Which is essentially what we will most likely be getting.  We don’t know the size/contents of the Journeys big box expansions. By the comments made during the AMA it sounds like they could be bigger than mansions big box expansions.  The figure packs have less physical content than mansions small boxes but was accompanied by the release of a greater amount of digital product..so I call that a wash.
 
And regarding radio silence......  Again, we didnt see that  immediately after mansions release because of the first edition carryover products releasing.  Since this game doesn’t have that benefit we shouldn’t expect something similar. For mansions, the time between the  first fully 2nd edition small box RELEASE and the subsequent first big box ANNOUNCEMENT article (which, conveniently, is where we are in the journeys product life) was six months.   Based on that previous example we shouldn’t expect any articles for a while yet.

Just that he should be because we already have him in the other spheres and he is  a perfect fit for the description of what the rules say the spirit sphere represents.
 Spirit Ê: The sphere of spirit emphasizes the strength of a hero’s will, particularly that hero’s determination, resilience, courage, loyalty, and heart.   
Otherwise nope, nothing to suggest he is a lock.  I have figured for a while now that since leadership Aragorn was the first hero (card #1), that we would get the spirit version as the last hero released.  
An ally Aragorn also NEEDS to happen though.
 

I'm confused because all the information we have is, literally, two threads down (at the time of this posting, of course).
Bottom line is that more information will be coming early next year.
 

Większość gier które obecnie wydawane są pod szyldem FFG (asmodee), jest o tematyce Sci-Fi... Wkurza mnie to, bo nie przepadam za kosmicznymi klimatami.. Zaledwie kilka tytułów różni się od tej tematyki seria Arkham jak i seria Legend of the Five Rings.. i to wszystko.
 
Asmodee skutecznie niszczy rynek gier o tematyce fantasy. Smutne to, bo zamykacie sobie ścieżki dla nowych klientów. A tematyka amerykańskich super bohaterów jest już tak przejedzona że się chcę rzygać na samą myśl.

For those not speaking Polish, the guy wrote:
Most of the games that are currently released under the FFG (Asmodee) banner are Sci-Fi ... They annoy me because I don't like playing sci-fi games... Only a few titles differ from this topic, for example the Arkham series and Legend of the series Five Rings .. and that's all.
Asmodee successfully destroyed the fantasy game market. It is sad because they are scaring away new customers. And the subject of American superheroes is already so abused that I'm gonna puke just thinking of it.

Already feeling that this game has been abandoned...
Really need some expansion information and a release roadmap!!

I didn't say it was game breaking.