Might be good news in the long run as you say but as of now what I know about Atomicmass’ prices, not knowing who, what and where this game is heading is very concerning. There needed to be more information provided so as such I can only go off the article, my knowledge of AtomicMassGames established price points, developmental philosophies and that to me is concerning. By the way I just canceled my pre-order of my last wave citing this announcement and they understood. Even adding others have done the same.

It would be nice if they'd give us something to go on. Either an announcement of the next wave, or some kind of announcement about their intentions (3e? More 2e? Design philosophy? Etc) would go a long way towards settling any upset this will cause.

I think my purchasing of any more X-Wing miniatures is on hold until further notice. Until I see a stable fundamental organizational response on the direction of X-Wing and how exactly  the new development team is comprised.

I am more apprehensive about this than not. Time will tell.

I agree, looks like they are leaning way too hard on the digital integration, which could leave the game stranded the moment they stop supporting the app.

Pass.

My card just got charged for Kang & AHLCG: Innsmouth.  I estimate we'll be seeing both (officially at least) on Friday Oct. 9th.

I think that really depends on player count.  Solo, or even two players, it's good to be able to do a bit of everything.  But with three or four, specialized characters can really shine, because you don't have to worry about trying to do something that your deck doesn't do well.  

Okay, so Lola and Jessica are similar in broad strokes while Jessica wins functionality hands-down.  Guessing roles in Arkham are more strict than they are in Champions?  I like how Justice decks can still sport a few Aspect attacks and contribute that way while Aggression can help out a bit with threat management.  Leadership obviously does both well anyway while Protection can't do much to help with threat in-Aspect but the very nature of it leads to less scheming and has a few ways to deal damage.
Neat to see SW's got her own pseudo-Eye, and a pair of them at that.  Hawkeye will be nice to have but Jessica looks a lot more fun to build and play with!

Not 100% positive on the details since I'm going by memory. 
You would build her deck using 3 roles (think aspects). You had to have 7 cards from each role.
During your turn you pick a roll and can only play cards from that. You can spend one of your few actions to change your role.
On paper she was very versatile but in play she was often extremely limited in what she could do.
Her base stats were average across the board. In multiplayer another player word normally do a vastly superior job at anything you were trying to do.
She was an interesting concept but only seemed to make the game harder.

I think 41 cards is fine. I made up a mock up deck and Nick Fury was the only Basic card I couldn't live without, so I just made a 41 card deck. It will not made a noticeable difference.
I am waiting for the whole set revealed before going super in depth but the basic gist of the pairings is this.
Aggression/Justice: Versatile but few combos, event based.
Aggression/Protection: Most aggressive, cheap cards for ability, event based
Aggression/Leadership: Combo based deck using allies and cheap Leadership events. Mixed event/ally based
Justice/Protection: Very control heavy. Can go event or ally focused.
Justice/Leadership: Can operate out of AE well, ally based, very strong thwarting.
Leadership/Protection: ally based deck using med team and replaying Iron Fist a lot.

The reprints tend to be where they need to put 2 of a card in and therefore cannot add an extra 3 of. I’d have preferred a new ally in place if Hawkeye and Mockingbird in Caps deck, but I don’t generally mind. The announced Ant Man deck has the least amount of reprints so far according to the pack back, so I think it’s generally moving in the right direction...

I think part of the precon decks is the story telling. If a deck tells a story I can really get into it. I imagine Hawkeye assembling with Cap, and I can see Black Widow having the support of a surveillance team.
If every leadership deck came with three copies of Make the call I’d find that boring.
Thats just my take though, it’s kind of the same reason I can’t stand playing Thor Justice, it just doesn’t feel right in my mental narrative. 

I would love it they made the phrase "cash grab" illegal on the internet as it's often used in ridiculous contexts.  Every product FFG makes is meant to generate profit so they can pay their employees and fund new products.  The phrase you are looking for is "Fan Service".  Yes it's definitely fan service.
People loved the joke that was Barkham.  The buzz was overwhelmingly that if they released that sort of product people would buy it.  The devs thought it was a fun idea and there was an audience so they made it.  That's the free market at work.  There is nothing predatory about it.
I'll go on record that I'd love for them to continue to put out parody products for this game.  I'll support every one of them.  Also yes in the article for the product a portion of the profits go to charity anyway.
Update:  I went and looked it up and the charity is Pets for Vets.

Ultimately I think the point of the hunter ability is to make your life miserable. 😉
 
RM

Looking forward to all of these decks. They all look like they are fun with some cool new cards within. 
 
RM

Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) was a tanking comic; it wasn't making money so it got cancelled.  A few years later, as Marvel was trying to bring more leading female characters into their comics, they brought in Ms. Marvel (Danvers).  Similar outfit colors (although less outfit), and similar powers.  She had a Kree origin and a Kree source of powers.  Danvers wasn't known as Captain Marvel until recently.  If you want to say re-purpose, that's fine.  Ms. Marvel didn't sell very well and it too was cancelled and later brought back.  So why bring in Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel?  It's so they can sell comics of a character people have heard of.  That's all.  There's no deeper meaning than that and it's lazy.  They did the same thing with Miles and Riri and it's all laziness.  I think Marvel feared that if they brought them in as new characters, they would have suffered the same fate as "Safe Space" and "Snowflake."  If you haven't heard of those last two characters, you really don't know what state Marvel is really in.

No I've established they're specifically hiring minority writers for minority characters.  Again from the article: [David] Brothers wrote. “Storm is the highest profile black character in comics. But she’s mostly been written by white men, and a very small fraternity of black men, throughout the decades. … Shouldn’t a black lady get a chance at bat?”  (The irony here of course is that Storm was created by two white guys).  This clearly points to the fact that gender and skin color should be more important for Marvel writers working on minority characters than the merit of how well one writes.   
My point has been clearly made.

It's common public knowledge.  If you're an avid reader of Marvel, you know the writers and artists.  Many of these writers were virtual unknowns to the comic industry, nor had any writing or artistic background, which is quite telling.  The sentence "In an increase to have more talent that fits the characters they want to explore.." and "The recent influx of black writers is helping turn the tide from white writers always handling the stories of black heroes," explains their motivation.  Again, lest my words be twisted, there is nothing wrong with hiring anyone of any race, creed, or gender, as long as it is based on merit.  That's how quality is established.  Marvel is not following that standard.  

Wow, it feels like you're intentionally misunderstanding what I'm saying.  Let me make this clear.  Hiring should not be about race or gender.  It should be about merit.  If you want to hire one of two people, you should hire the better writer regardless of their skin color or gender.  That's all I'm saying.  Marvel's hiring practices are not that.  Marvel tends to hire based on race and gender, with merit being a close second or third.  

I never suggested that Marvel should not use Muslim characters or black female writers.  I just gave you a list of popular and successful female and minority characters.  What I'm saying is that now, race and gender have become the primary basis for how writers and artists are hired at Marvel (and also DC).  Typically, merit has been the industry standard for hiring.  That has clearly changed.  Apparently hiring based on merit is a political view now?  It's the same reason Yale is now getting sued for discriminating against Asian student applicants.  Their scores were too high, so they had to deduct points from test scores based on the race of the applicant. 
Stan Lee prided himself on fence sitting with regard to politics.  When a writer attempted to interject their political view into a comic story, as editor, he would have them remove it.  It's the same reason he didn't send Captain America to Vietnam, because he didn't want to make political statements.  He used to get letters from both sides of the aisle praising his comics each claiming a more conservative or liberal bias in his comics.  As a result, in those days, sales were through the roof.        

Ok.  So these two comments that I will quote are tacitly suggesting that I'm sexist, which I am not.  My favorite character to play in Marvel Champions has been She-Hulk (by far).  Marvel has been writing strong women in comics since the 60's.  There has been a plethora of strong heroines for decades, this is not something Marvel has just discovered.  In fact, my bigger question for Marvel's MCU is why they didn't base Captain Marvel on Monica Rambeau, the first female Captain Marvel?  She's a strong female character that, in my opinion, would have been a significantly better choice than what we ended up with.  
Marvel likes making money, but they like social justice more.  If you're unaware of the reckoning that is currently happening at DC, you should take a look.  It may not come to Marvel immediately, but it's on the horizon.  It's not a bazaar conspiracy theory to know that the comic industry is in the toilet because they are driven by social justice politics instead of good story writing.  Look at the latest Wonder Woman cover if you're still not sure.
Marvel isn't growing their audience, it's shrinking.  Black Panther, The Falcon, Dust (the first Muslim superhero), She-Hulk, Spawn (one of the best selling comics of all time), all had or continue to have successful comic sales.  This isn't about female or minority characters, it has never been.  The 21st century trope is to blame bad sales on racism or sexism, when in fact the real reason is that modern mainstream comics have allowed politics to dictate the writing.  Only a Muslim can write about a Muslim character?  Only a black writer can write a comic about a black character?  Only a woman can write about female characters?  This is what drives the writing today, politics, not merit.          

Just got home after a few days away. My Hulk hero pack was despatched but never arrived in the post. Tracking number says it was delivered last Saturday. It most certainly wasn't!!!!
Bah!!!
 
 
 

I got a bit burned out I think, but I was also looking to make some savings as my wife was pregnant with out first child and I was probably spending approximately £100 a month on Comics at the time...
Marvel Unlimited has been great. I picked up where I left off, but you can also just read older stories if that’s what interests you. If I ever catch up, I plan to read some things from the early days of Marvel...

In Marvel's history, character shake up has always been an attempt to revitalize a comic line to make more money.  This never became Marvel practice until the Jim Shooter days in the 1970's, and that's the point.  If you want to obfuscate that point with claims of what other comic companies did during the golden age, go ahead, but it has no bearing on the point I'm making.  We can pretend it's part of the "DNA of superhero comics," but the unfortunate reality is that it is merely an attempt to improve the financial bottom-line of Marvel. 
Hero changes in 2020 however, or no longer prompted by financial need, they're social.  (This is the part that gets me into trouble).  Marvel now panders to the screamers on social media to develop their current comic line.  DC has spent years doing exactly the same thing, and now are now reaping what they've sown as of 2 days ago.  The comic industry is in the dumpster because thy no longer write for their fans, but pander to the loudest posters on social media (who never buy comics by the way).  I just hope Marvel wakes up and realizes that all of their pandering  

Hum.... I've got mixed feelings about your proposition to be honest. 
On one part I admit a stand-alone box would help people not already in the game or not willing to invest much money in it to have fun out of the box and FFG wouldn't suffer from having an income of customers.
Now, I'll say that it could ask much in term of production : reprint the tokens, reprint the rule books, etc. It asks to make those expansion no more expansions but new core sets even in a smaller size and with fewer decks. And the price tag would increase (even a little) by doing so.
 
But maybe others have better arguments in their hand to discuss it ?