New Redemption Grab Bag now includes an assortment of 500 cards from five (5) different expansion sets. Available at Cactus website.
No. You cannot control any unique character you already have in play via banding. Furthermore, if I have a good King Saul in battle, you could not block with the evil King Saul (this also works for any converted characters).
The "same character in battle" rule doesn't apply to generic characters though, am I wrong?