Well, they have been shipping the game out so let’s talk.
Johnny Rocket is the speedster
instead of building up speed by counting his discard he has “momentum” keyword ongoings that do something when played and then sit there waiting to be destroyed to power up other cards. many cards include “you may play a card” allowing him to chain through his hand. he also has a great support card that lets an ally search their deck for an equipment and put it in play
Johnny’s variant card is an homage to DC Showcase #4 first appearance Barry Allen Flash breaking out of a movie reel frame. The power lets you shuffle cards from hand face up into your deck that trigger as soon as they are on top of your deck. very cool art callback and great thematic being in 3 places at once skipping through time.
Doctor Metropolis is a city spirit
a lot like a hero Akash deck modeled off Captain Cosmic’s constructs as her limbs. his targets have the “location” keyword, a keyword shared by cards in the Freedom City environment deck making him very useful in that environment just like fighting Omnitron in Omnitron IV. His locations do self-damage, so they don’t last too long. I plan on playing the variant that heals all locations as its power
Lantern Jack is a cursed ghost bringing truth, justice, and revenge attempting to atone for his own sins
Super low HP but almost all his cards heal him even if he is at or above max HP. (this is one issue with the rule book saying to put HP tokens on a card as damage instead of my preference to place tokens on a card and remove them to show damage.) The more truth/justice/revenge he brings to the world the stronger his tie to the world becomes
Eldritch is the master mage
he puts spell cards into play and some of his cards and his innate powers put tokens on his cards and then at the end of tun you may remove tokens to do something. a bit like Argent Adept in long set up and crazy pay off. Oh, I can’t play cards or use powers? removing tokens is neither of those. His Nemesis Malador the mystic also has the Spell keyword on his cards.
Daedalus wears a power suit with gravity control inventions
His gimmick is drawing cards as a cost of using effects and his equipment dose damage to him and destroys themselves if he has over 7 cards in hand. his resource management needs him to “balance” or “juggle” things
Star Knight has a suit of power armor that draws on cosmic energy
In the Multiverse Scholar, Lifeline, and Haka draw cards and discard cards as ley line magic/mana that is kind of like ley lines. Star Knight moves cards from her discard to the bottom of her deck to use some effects as she draws on universal cosmic energy. very neat as the mechanic is thematically similar. the variant card is another member of the Star Knight order, an alien with a single snake like tail instead of legs.
The Raven is a ninja detective
gadget attacks that hinder more than high damage. Tactic cards do something when they come into play and when they are destroyed and destroy other tactics when played.
Captain Thunder is a flying brick with thunder and lightning control.
Good tanking and support. lots of melee, sonic, and lightning damage
Lady Liberty imagine Wonder Woman built as a D&D paladin instead of a D&D fighter
lots of healing, melee/radiant damage, other support.
Pseudo telepathic shapeshifter
Some cool infiltrator/deception tricks and psychic support
Shape cards give him cool attack or defense tricks and destroy other shape cards. can’t wait to play him in fixed point.
Bowman is an archer with trick arrows
most one-shot cards have arrow keyword and other cards let you search / retrieve or play arrow cards or do something when you discard arrows
Siren weather controller
her cards are more about changing the battlefield then Tempest she also has more hero damage, but she can also destroy her own cards and has a card that prevents all damage she does to hero targets
It does? I’ve always played the way you prefer (initially add the tokens to represent current HP and remove as damage is taken), mostly because it ensures we can easily determine highest / lowest with just a glance around the table (instead of having to do math every time) (and that’s how GTG does their demos) but I didn’t think the rule book said either way. 
I checked both the SotM and SoEP digital rulebooks I have and didn’t see anything. Did I miss it? 
