2002 Recharge 2 CGC

In 2001, Marvel Entertainment Group published their very own collectible card game Marvel Recharge (Inaugural Edition). Everybody thought it was great, because the packaging featured Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Elektra. But after the initial flurry of hype died down, fans realized that firstly the game wasn't actually very good after all, and secondly the rarity of the "pay to win" bonus foil cards meant that those players prepared to hand over the $500 to acquire a full set of "Foil" cards had a distinct advantage.

So what could Marvel do to make things right? Obviously they had only one course of action. Start again from scratch with "Recharge 2", repeat all the same mistakes, but scatter around some photo stills from the 2002 Spider-Man movie!

The starter decks for the second edition contained 50 base cards. Each also contained a set of rules, guaranteed 2 Full-Foil Power Plus cards, and a sheet or two of cardboard counters for use in play. Of the 50 regular cards, 25 of them could only be found in that starter pack. The other 25 were randomly selected from the pool of cards that could also be obtained in booster packs.

Booster boxes contained 36 packs of 8 cards each. Each pack supposedly contained a complete, playable "hand". Foil cards were distributed approximately one foil card per every two packs.

The entire concept of "Recharge 2" was poorly considered and poorly executed. The updated rule-book says "This Second Edition is fully compatible with the Inaugural Edition". But you really have to wonder why anybody would ever use the "Spider-Man" Hero card from the first edition (Power 90) when the Second Edition "Spider-Man" Hero card has Power 100?

The functional changes in the second edition cards are sporadic and generally unimportant. The clear reason for this pointless re-issue was to jump on the bandwagon of the Sam Raimi movie and squeeze some extra profit out of the Spider-Man/Green Goblin hype. But even this is done half-heartedly. The Spider-Man movie tie-in cards on perhaps 20 of the 250 cards. The bulk of the cards are X-Men tie-ins using disconnected artwork cobbled together from various different sources with no obvious overall strategy for design.

The result is an unattractive, pointless, overpriced, shameless, time-wasting cash-grab. You would have to be a moron to collect this rubbish. Also, if you have any Foil cards to sell cheaply, please Mail Me.