i must say it is hard to explain, but here goes. you have the figures on like a chess board. each figure has a speed, attack, defense, damage, and range value. the speed is how far you can move that character during his turn. when another character is in your range value you can attack them. you roll dice and if the dice roll and your attack value is more than the targets defense value you hit them and they take damage equal to your characters damage value.
The figures keep score for you too. they are all on what they call a combat dial for each damage point you take you click your dial to the left and your values for everything change according to whether your character is getting beat up and tired, or he is getting mad and energized.
and to top all this off there are super powers for each value based on your characters powers in the comic books.
the values and the powers make it a very strategic and fun game and it is everyones favorite superheros. its just cool to see how cetrain heros would do against each other even if they are both good guys.
check out the website
Marvel-
http://www.wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/marvel/
DC-
http://www.wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/dc/