By: Chella Ramanan

NCsoft Europe has released the latest expansion to City of Heroes, Issue 10: Invasion, so dust off your spandex and get the cape back from the cleaners. In true comic book style, villains and heroes must come together to protect planet Earth from attack by alien scum; in this case the evil Rikti.

The expansion is free to current subscribers of City of Heroes and City of Villains and includes a Rikti co-op task force where heroes and villains team up to defeat a host of kick ass alien bosses. The Rikti War Zone has been designed for player levels 35 to 50, bringing something new to high level heroes and villains.

To combat the Rikti's new arsenal of weapons, players also gain access to a spiffy new workbench, allowing them to create special costume pieces. Phew, as my costume is so last year dahling.

"This expansion unleashes total war where aliens and earthlings get great new weapons to bludgeon each other with. We think this will be great fun," says Matt Miller, Cryptic Studio's lead designer for City of Heroes and City of Villains.

"The fact that both heroes and villains need to join together to defeat a common enemy is a comic book convention that helps to add greater depth and excitement to City of Heroes and City of Villains."

If you haven't joined the super MMORPG yet, then now's the time to sign up. Otherwise, sit back and wait for the GiN review.