[Dark Empowerment Timing]

The card Dark Empowerment states that "the chosen character gains power equal to the damage dealt" but does not specify a timing step during the normal attack sequence for when that would occur. Would this happen during the After Attack Is Resolved step or would it be immediately on damage dealt (or something else)?

[Taskmaster Pattern Recognition and Sacrifice]

If Taskmaster is targeted by an attack from Hawkeye and plays Sacrifice to change the target to another ally, is he still considered to have been targeted by an attack for Intuitive Pattern Recognition if Hawkeye decides to attack him with his second action?

[Control vs Secure on new Riots Spark crisis]

The new Riots Spark over Extremis Console crisis that dropped today says "Players score 1 VP for each Extremis Console they Control during the Cleanup Phase." but does not have any way for a player to Control these secures. Is this a typo? Or am I misunderstanding the difference between Control and Secure?

[Domino Probability Manipulation and Rerolls]

Does this change affect the Reality Gem as well? It doesn't have as specific a timing step as Domino/Mal does, so when does the gem player choose? 

[Alter Egos and High Council/Cloning Banks]

Sort of related, but not about alter egos, If I use High Council/Cloning Banks to add a Spider-man (Peter Parker) from my roster to the squad, can I also still use Fearful Symmetry to have Kraven transform in to a Spider-man (Peter Parker)? Fearful Symmetry doesn't have the same stipulation about Peter being part of the squad and I haven't seen a rule saying you can't have two of the same model in a squad.

[The High Council triggering conditions]

The new High Council card outlines 4 different requirements that must be met before it can be played, but unlike the similar Difficult to Please card, it does not specify that the requirements must be met by an allied character. Does this mean that, for example, if I meet the other 3 conditions that an enemy Arnim Zola contesting an objective would still count for this card and allow me to play it? 

[Alter Egos and High Council/Cloning Banks]

Can a Mr. Sinister team that has a Black Widow, Agent of Shield deployed use Cloning Banks to add a 2-threat Black Widow midgame? Does the answer change if Widow, Agent of Shield is KO'd and no longer in the squad? The only rules I could find in the book around Alter Egos is from the squad building section so I wasn't sure how those interact with cards that add characters midgame. 

[Do Hydra Troopers deploy as normal before the game begins?]

The Hydra Troopers model have a bit of extra rules text on their card that isn't shown on the other grunts:

"This character cannot be included in Rosters and otherwise can only be put into play as a result of the Cut Off One Head... superpower"
 

Is this just a sort of reminder for the normal Grunt rules or does it mean these grunts behave differently from SHIELD Agents and Hand Ninjas?

Is deployment considered to be putting a model into play? If so, does this rule mean Hydra Troopers don't get deployed at the start of the game?

[Do You Know Who I Am? Throw]

When playing the card "Do You Know Who I Am?", is Juggernaut considered to be making the throw? The card doesn't explicitly say who is doing the throw (compared to Pym Particles that states the chosen character makes the throw) and I wanted to know if Juggernaut could throw through his own base as with the typical throw process or if it's different when the throw comes from this card. 

[The Initiative and affiliation]

When does the effect of The Initiative begin? Will putting this card on an unaffiliated model help my squad reach SHIELD affiliation or is that 51% determined before the card comes into effect?

[Blade's Supernatural Senses Timing]

I saw in this post that Beast would be getting errata to the timing of his re-roll power so that it moves to the Modify Dice step. 

Will anything similar happen to Blade as well? I believe he's the only character left with this 'early' timing window for paying for rerolls. 

[Hand Ninja Vanish when not holding an extract]

Can the new Hand Ninja grunt use the Ninja Vanish super power even if they're not currently holding an Asset or Civilian to still remove themselves from the table?

[Web Barrier LOS Blocking]

Follow up: If Hood was base to base with Venom, could he then draw LOS to Venom?

[Web Barrier LOS Blocking]

Venom (#2 in the diagram) and Gwen (#1) play the card Web Barrier and move such that a 35mm base (say Hood, the red circle) is in between them, nearer to Venom. 

1. Can Hood draw LOS to Miles (#3)?

2. Can Hood draw LOS to Gwen (#1) or Venom (#2)?

[Symbiote Creepy Crawly Goo]

If a symbiote attaches to a character through creepy crawly goo and they don't already have a symbiote, do they draw a symbiote card? Or do they just get the token and no card/bonus?

[Rules that refer to character names]

This thread:

States that either Iron Man or Iron Man (Hulkbuster) can play the card Ricochet Blast which requires an Iron Man character. However, I've been told (couldn't find a thread on it specifically) that Wong's Servant of the Sorcerer Supreme only works when he's near the original Doctor Strange and would not work with Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme.

So first question, is it true that Wong's ability only works with the current Doctor Strange and not supreme?
Does this mean that parentheticals in a character name are ignored when looking at rules that refer to a character by name?
Would Wong's ability work if there was a Doctor Strange (Sorcerer Supreme) model created later?

[Brace for Impact timing questions]

Couple questions on Brace:

1. When Brace is played, are dodge dice still rolled? It doesn't mention anything about skipping steps in the throw resolution and this might matter for characters like Mysterio who gain power for rolling blanks

2. When do I have to play Brace in the resolution of the throw? Can I roll dodge dice before deciding if I want to use the card?

[Research Station scoring timing]

Is the second clause triggering reliant on the first happening or is the Then just sequential. Like, if no one is securing the researcher for the first check, does the second check still happen?

[Rounding numbers and Cloning Banks]

Does this also apply to the card Cloning Vats? Ex: If I have 5 samples on the card, can I remove all 5 to bring in a 3 threat character? Or would I be limited to 2 threat?