Avengers Arena #3

[flint_marko]

Someone is attacking the kids in their camps, and Darkhawk and Cammi are trying to find out who it is.



Later...

Comments

[violetclm.livejournal.com]

I can't at all tell what's _happening_ on the penultimate page.

[darkknightjrk]

The best explanation in my head is that his armor had recently seen some hentai and...well...

[shadowpsykie]

did... did his armor turn against him....?

also yeah, the more of this i see more fake it hink it is...

[akodo_rokku]

both Darkhawk's armor and Juston's Sentinel went apeshit all over themselves/their owners in this issue, so the attacker is clearly some sort of technopath.

My random guess is that it's Deathlocket, but not the human part of her, instead some AI survival program going after the other kids as part of it's mandate to keep her alive.

That is probably a better idea than whatever it will actually end up being.

[thehood]

I don't think it's her. It think it's Apex! She was there when Ryker lost control of her arm and Apex seems to keep Deatlocket with her at all times.

But i don't think it's Ryker.

[auggie18]

Whelp, this death was more confusing than anger-inducing, so...yay?

Also, it seems a bit weird to me that everyone who has died so far has been an established character. Or have people just not been posting the newbie deaths?

[cyberghostface]

I don't think any newbies have died yet. The only major new character IIRC is the cyborg girl.

[flint_marko]

They haven't done much yet, but the kids from the Braddock Academy are also new.

[thehood]

Yeah, Deathlocket/Rebecca Ryker seems to be the most popular out of the new characters. The Braddock kids too for that matter.

I like Cullen Bloodstone anyway.

[thehood]

Darkhawk isn't dead, he's fighting X-23 in the next issue. Depowered maybe, but not dead.

[flint_marko]

Or someone else in the armor.

[thehood]

Also possible and likely. He was trying to avoid fighting anyone after all.

[bj_l]

At least I don't think he's dead. There's no energy bar anywhere.

[lencannon]

Well, the next issue promises Darkhawk vs. X-23, soooo

[auggie18]

That could just mean that the armor will find somebody else, though.


(Like Juston, maybe.)

[flint_marko]

Juston was attacked in the beginning of the issue, though there was no energy bar there either.

[bj_l]

I mentioned the energy bars because apparently we'd be seeing a lot of them, and they're only dead if they're empty.

At least that's what the most recent interview with Hopeless said.

[bj_l]

Oh, had no idea about that. Disregard then.

[stolisomancer]

I'll admit that I thought the scene between Brand and Cammi was interesting, but not enough to make me buy the book.

[biod]

SCHLOOP

[silverhammerman]

Man, I don't really know what the mechanics are with Darkhawk's transformation right now, whether or not he actually changes places with an alien robot or if they're the same being now, but if I were him I would absolutely not be changing back to my human form under any circumstances, even to talk to people.
That "All in" shot really reminds me of Blue Beetle, and I can't be the only one.
I hope Darkhawk isn't dead though, from what I've seen of this series I get the impression that most of the character deaths so far have been this sort of "dishonorable" kind of thing. The characters don't seem to be going down swinging very much.

Also, I'm totally going with the "this is all happening inside of Arcade's version of the Matrix" theory, because I feel like these deaths aren't really feeling earned.

[northstarfan]

If anything, they're starting to feel almost perfunctory. "Oh, yeah. The hook says kids die, so there's that one out of the way, now moving on..."

[akodo_rokku]

Darkhawk's entire backstory (beyond "kid finds amulet") was retconned away as Chris' hallucinations a few years back. In an attempt to pull a Nova with him during War of Kings, it was revealed that the amulet and armor actually come from an ancient organization of super-secret assassins who guide and protect the Shi'ar Empire.

Unsurprisingly the attempt to do for Darkhawk what Annihilation did for Nova didn't work, because this showed no respect for the history of the character and didn't add anything worthwhile to him.

[thehood]

People died permanently in the Matrix, so what is your point? Even if it was Arcade's version of the Matrix, the would still be dead. The people who died in the matrix weren't alive in the end.

And the island is a giant deathtrap, so obviously some of them would be kill with those. None of the kids want to kill each other yet anyway. That said, the solicits for issue 6 mention someone will draw first blood in that issue.

[flint_marko]

people want it to be a vr because they think killing off all these characters is a waste.

[thehood]

I get that, but it doesn't make it true and wouldn't necessarily mean they are still alive, so it wouldn't be better.

[silverhammerman]

A virtual reality simulation that is similar to, but completely unrelated to, the Matrix doesn't necessarily have work by the same rules regarding death. Borrowing a basic concept doesn't mean a writer is has to copy all the various rules of concept in its original form.
The point is that revealing that characters who are dead in the simulation are actually alive outside would please the fans who disliked them dying, as well as leave the characters available for future use by other writers. It would also explain why the hell Arcadehas superpowers and looks like Shaun White all of a sudden if he were in control of the simulation.
As for the deathtraps, getting killed by a deathtrap is just a bush league way for a character who isn't a generic background character to go out. Not to mention that the series was hyped up with the idea that these characters would be killing each other, not that they'd be wandering into deathtraps like a bunch of redshirts.

[thehood]

That's nothing like the Matrix then and not a good comparison. Either way, it's not a virtual reality and Arcade's new abilities will be explained in Issue #7. Even if it was a virtual world, most virtual world, many examples of VR are like the Matrix, die there and you die in the real world.

And the book was hyped up as survival, where our heroes have to survive the island and each other. But of course they wouldn't fight each other right away. But they are clearly getting near that point.

Part of the reason Arcade is doing this is to finally kill people with his Murderworld, the traps accomplish nicely.

[silverhammerman]

When I think of the Matrix I think VR, to me the VR is it's defining characteristic, not just the possibility of death. I think most people would feel the same way and I as such I think it's an accurate comparison. Clearly though, we both think of different things when we think of the Matrix, so the comparison obviously doesn't work as well for you as it does for me.
The book was promoted as involving death and the covers/promotions placed a greater emphasis on the fighting than survival (two covers referencing Battle Royale and The Hunger Games, stories with an emphasis on fighting, to one referencing Lord of the Flies, which was about survival, and still involved a fair bit of violence and killing) which gave me the impression that this series was going to have greater emphasis on the fighting, since stories about people forced to kill each other in contests are a popular concept right now. I expected fights based on the promotional material.
And I'm not arguing that the traps don't make sense in universe or that Arcade wouldn't use them, they make perfect sense from a story standpoint. I'm just saying that traps don't feel like a worthy death for a character who isn't supposed to be a total redshirt. Generally it's more satisfying to see a character you like go down in a blaze of glory than accidentally treading on a landmine and getting blown sky high.

[maxisanacorn]

I really hope this is all actually a computer simulation. Between the videogame and movie homage and the villain name Arcade, I dunno I feel like this might be and the entire maddening pretense of killing off all these kids was just hype. Any attention is good attention sort of marketing? Or are they really that low to pull this.

DC tried to do this with Terror Titans. That was a terrible mini.

How long do they really think this series will last as an ongoing? A lot of books coming out feel like they'd be more suited to a miniseries than an ongoing book.

[urkonn]

I can't find a source for this but I remember reading that Hopeless said this book was basically a 16 part selfcontained series, devided into arcs. So something like a big mini.

I really like this story but I can only do that thanks to believing it's a virtual world.

[thehood]

Except it's not a virtual world, it's an island.

[thehood]

Arcade's name doesn't have anything to do with VR's and his MO is to have heroes finally die in his Murderworld, so he wouldn't fake it.

[majingojira]

Still, not as objectively terrible as the first issue, but worse than the second. In a bland way.

I don't think there's a worse epithet I can lob at it now.

[urkonn]

I almost hate to say this but I really love like this stoy.
Having just read Vengeance (to find out who Miss America Chavez is for YA) I know how badly written a book can be. I felt no conection to any character on that book of 6 issues. Here I fell in love with both Deathlocket and Cammi (never read Annihilation, but now I want to just for her) that only touched on each.
At this point I will continue reading even if My favorites (Nico, Chase, Juston, Reptil) die.

I really hope they mention the fact that Darkhawk once fought Nico, lost his temper, and seemed close to killing her.

BTW I found a black and white preview of issue 4 and read in an interview with Hopeless who the narrating character will be, is it okay to mention that here, or are there should this thread be spoiler free?

[theflames]

I agree with all of this. It's fairly well done. Which makes it hard to hate. And its probably a spoiler, but i don't know how the rules are with that.

[flint_marko]

if it's something that was officially released, and not something that was leaked, it should be fair game

[urkonn]

Well it's not something that big. the narrator for issue 4 will be Chase. So I'm really looking forward to that. This is the guy who said his power was a poor upbringing.
Besides we'l probably see some more Runaways in his flashbacks.