Avengers Arena #1

[sherkahn]

BleedingCool has an in the article as we see what is next for the cast members of Avengers Academy.

And it ain't pretty.






That's right, kids, step right up.

With the resurgence of kid-on-kid violence in the Hunger Games, and with nods to Battle Royale, the kids will turn on one another, thanks to Big Bad villain Arcade.

suggested tags: Dennis Hopeless

Comments

[rainspirit]

Huh. Has Arcade's machinations ever actually killed anyone before?

[sherkahn]

None of the heroes that we've seen.... but it's implied.

[blake_reitz]

I think it would be great if these were their new superheroing uniforms.

[darkknightjrk]

Kind of a Hunger Games rip-off, but I enjoyed Dennis Hopeless' writing in X-Men: Season One, so I'll give it a shot.

[theflames]

More of a Battle Royale rip off - go on, google 'Japanese Film Battle Royale'

Exact same poster.

I love the reference actually.

[dewinged]

Can Marvel get over their 'dead kids' thing anytime soon?

[whoha]

They're trying to beat DC's dead teen titans quota.

[salinea]

Urgh.

[crabby_lioness]

Motto.

[majingojira]

In Battle Royal, at least 2 always survive. Hopefully, more will survive here. Hopefully, only the characters create for this "What should be a mini-series but isn't" will bite it. Hopefully, everyone but arcade and the "Winner" won't be those two survivors before the next "Round" of competition.

Second edit: Ya know what, let's hope its more "Blue Lagoon" than "Battle Royal" since it was pitched partly as "Blue Lagoon Meets Battle Royal" in the first place. Though a slow burn to the reveal would have favored that rout over announcing right up it's a MurderWorld.

Or that there ends up being at least a partial undo button for them.

What's sick is, I've been toying with an idea to subvert this sort of plot for about a year know, so seeing it played straight is frustrating.

"Against their will?" When has that ever panned out? Sign up for X, get Y. Or just Sign up for Y.

"Life or Death?" Why not just have a few mistakes, slips and "oops! I killed someone!" instead. And then let the teenaged hormones/over-exaggeration of things take care of the rest. *Edit to add* We can even throw in some inhibition-releasing drugs into the air for real fun.

"Purpose?" This is the clincher. If they are doing it for shit reasons (Sadistic murder actually counts as a legit reason for this case), it becomes a shit story regardless of how well its done. Here's a thought: let the violence be an afterthought to a true purpose that isn't mind numbingly stupid (IE: Make an Army, etc).

[darkknightjrk]

"Here's a thought: let the violence be an afterthought to a true purpose that isn't mind numbingly stupid (IE: Make an Army, etc)."

I...I think you may have inadvertently mentioned The Culling. :O

[alexanderlucard]

Don't Kill Darkhawk!

[majingojira]

I'm more "Don't Kill Nico, Chase, Hazmat, Metel, Reptil, X-23!"

Or just "Don't kill anyone established!"

Damn, this is somewhat close to a fanfic I was contemplating . . .

[silverhammerman]

Isn't Darkhawk a grown ass man now? I mean, I think the character is neat, but still. Grown ass man.
I don't see any real reason to worry about the characters, after all, Arcade rarely actually succeeds in killing anyone. Then again this might be the new writer taking the opportunity to clean house and get rid of the characters he doesn't want. Still, unlikely.

[majingojira]

Apparently, the writer has confirmed via twitter that fans of the Runaways "are going to be pissed" or some such thing.

[filthysize]

Unless they are actually going to kill most of these characters and make it stick for a long while, evoking Battle Royale with that cover (and the premise) is really cheap.

[majingojira]

I'd rather cheap evocation. When death hits this type of character, it usually sticks.

[espanolbot]

Ha... hahaha.

You know, even without the emergency of Hunger Games (and the rediscovery of Battle Royale as a result) think of the number of comics in recent years that had teenagers either being rounded up to fight in deathmatches, or just trying to turn them into child soldiers, if not as the entire plot, then as a big plotpoint in the background?

- The Initiative
- Pretty much every Geoff Johns Teen Titans series, a theme picked up and used by the later writers and botched more often than not.
- The tie-ins to Final Crisis, the Ravager miniseries, for example.
- The Harvest storyline in Teen Titans recently in DC.
- Jonathan Ross' current series.

[majingojira]

Don't forget:
- America's Got Powers
- Idolized

I forget who writes them, so you could have mentioned 'em already, but still. Indies are doing it to.

[flint_marko]

Does anyone recognize the girl next to Mettle, or the one with the cyborg face in front of him?

[majingojira]

Looks new to me.

[espanolbot]

Wait, weren't Murder Worlds things used by the New Gods as training grounds, the most prominent one being the setting of the Countdown-tie-in Salvation Run?

[majingojira]

Murder World is also the name of Arcade's funhouse/deathtrap thingies.

[darkblade]

Is there a complete list as to who all is going to be in this? One of the quotes above says 17 people and that picture only has 14 and both numbers sound a little small for a Hunger Games/Battle Royale type thing (24 for HG and 42 for BR).

[majingojira]

According to: http://marvel.com/news/story/19377/marvel_now_qa_avengers_arena

The lineup is:
Hazmat, Mettle, Reptil, Juston/his Sentinel, X-23, Nico, Chase, Darkhawk, and Cammi (who palled around with Drax for a while). That's 9 Named characters.

The rest are new/unknowns from a place called the "Braddock Academy & other things.

And Arcade.

So 16 contestants, 9 known, 1 show runner, Potentially 7 Newbies.

Unless Juston's sentinel/Old Lace (if she shows up) count as their own entries.

[majingojira]

Survivability Betting Time:

Hazmat: Has high attack powers/can be extremely lethal. But is a squishy wizard defense wise. Mentally, might be able to do it. Decent Odds.
Mettle: Super Strength, super hard defenses. Slow, but steady. Mentally, might be able to do it. Decent Odds.
Reptil: Variable powers work best in Stealth and stabbing, but can be a tank as well. Heroic attitude not conditioned to killing, but might do so accidently. Decent Odds.
Juston/his Sentinel: Sentinel will do whatever it takes to protect Juston. Poor Odds himself, but Sentinel might balance it out.
X-23: Trained Assasin with healing factor. Favorable odds.
Nico: Squishy Wizard, people forget about her power upgrade from Whedon's run. Decently intelligent to boot. May be able to cross the line and kill. Decent Odds.
Chase: No Powers beyond dinosaur. Athletic normal human. Willing to kill in his mind, but not in his heart. Poor Odds.
Darkhawk: Powered armor, energy blasts, mild berserker tendancies last I checked. Favorable odds unless tactics come into play. Decent Odds.
Cammi: Normal Human, but a very adept survivor. Not much in terms of offense outside of found things. Decent Odds.

The more I dwell on it, the more I begin to hope. which is probably what they want.

[darkblade]

I wouldn't mind them doing this in an alternate continuity story ala Marvel Zombies (which was novel for the first few minis). As a regular titles, not so much.

[long_silence]

Braddock Academy? I wonder if it's related to Psylocke and Captain Britain's family.

Hopefully Nico and Chase survive. They didn't go through all the trouble of undoing everything that happened to Chase in Immonen's Runaways just to kill him and Old Lace (again) in a Battle Royale rip off.

[icon_uk]

It's too unusual a surname to not be linked, though I don't see Brian, Meggan or Betsy being the schoolteacher sort.

[angelophile]

You know, the best (worst?) way to ruin Arcade as a villain is to treat him in any way, shape or form seriously.

But I basically hate this anyway. There's a bunch of cool characters here and they're introducing a bunch more who'll most likely play cannon fodder while most of the named characters walk away from this. But it's just one of those concepts that's unrepentingly miserable - even if the likes of Chase, Nico and others survive, they'll most likely end up killing others, unwillingly, and it's just a depressing direction to go in with no real pay off beyond a gorefest.

Taking the concepts behind Battle Royale and Hunger Games etc and stripping out any and all social context and just plonking the kids-killing-kids concept into Marvel just robs it of any kind of message and makes it just about killing off characters for supposed "entertainment". Maybe that's all some people want from a comic, but it's certainly not for me.

[majingojira]

It's a little early to call it totally vacuous, but the threat of that is certainly there and looming closer.

[rdfox]

So first you cancel Avengers Academy, one of the few comics I really, really enjoyed, and then you decided to feed all the characters I like and care about into a meat grinder to be dark and edgy.

Right. Haven't broken this out in a while, but I think it's time.

[mrstatham]

Nevermind just the AA - what about the Runaways, who have basically suffered nothing but guest appearances for the past couple years and now there's only two of them appearing in this?

[arise]

I didn't like it when it was Battle Royale, I didn't like it when it was Hunger Games, and I don't like it now. Bleh. :/

God why is it so hard to find any kind of team title where people don't die much? D:

[lorriek]

Doesn't everybody love teen snuff comics?

...Why...Why....Why....WHYYYY?!!!!

[big_daddy_d]

If this was a mini series or hell, still an ongoing that's just about the young heroes competing, that would be fine. Might even be fun but a battle to the death? Jesus, Marvel's done it..they outdid DC's Teen Titans. They just said "Fuck it! Let's just have them fight to the death and save on yet more death every few issues. Let's have the whole series be about them dying!"

If they at least made this an out of continuity story, I'd be more accepting of it but they...god, what the FUCK happened to the comic industry?

Re: ...Why...Why....Why....WHYYYY?!!!!

[majingojira]

Competition that slowly grew into something more sinister would be much more organic and interesting from my perspective. And they may do that -- if they didn't blatantly advertise the death fetishization at the start.

[ap0cryphal]

Fuck this noise.

I don't get why Teenage Murdertimes = Good Comics. I get enough horrible depressing shit when I read the news.

Murdertimes to generate ANGST und DRAMA is a shitty, overused crutch of late - I mean specifically for teenage superheroes. I mean they'll have more than enough drama to juggle if you just show them juggling superhero duty and friends and relationships and school and mysterious conspiracies (because there are always mysterious conspiracies, come on, we're talking about ongoing series here).

In the last decade or so, my gold standard for teenage heroics have been Blue Beetle (the Giffen / Rogers / Hamner / Rafael A. run) - it was good solid storytelling. But of course, I guess no one liked the lack of dead family members and comrades so goodbye BB.

Gahh.

[md84]

Does the comics industry just hate teenagers? This is just senseless. At least Battle Royale and Hunger Games had a point beyond teenagers killing each other. The kids in those stories were casualties of a ruthless political machine. Here? It's all the work of one bad man trying to earn some villain cred.

Frankly, the premise behind Battle Royale and Hunger Games is a lot creepier since the system that forces kids to kill each other is their own government. Society is supposed to protect and nurture the younger generation, not kill them.

[thanekos]

I hope he gets over-the-top commentary; that'd be great.

[northstarfan]

Christ, is this really what Marvel thinks people want to read? This is the opinion they have of their audience? It's not even shock deaths, it's "hey, put down $4 to watch some kids not old enough to vote die horribly". The only people who'd have been chuffed to read more about these kids are the ones who liked them, and the ones who would buy the book just to watch of bunch of C-list kids bite it...yeah, I'm hoping there's not too many of those.

I'd really like to sit down everyone involved with this cynical pile of crap Clockwork Orange style and make them read Steve Bissette's "Teen Angels and New Mutants" cover to cover.

As it is, I'm going to have to settle for voting with my wallet and turning as many people off this book as I can.

[majingojira]

I think it may be in part a reaction to the fact that number-wise they don't last that long as series. Not counting featured cameos, we have:

Runaways, the most successful of these, in total, got 62 Issues, + 9 other showings of note (71 Total), minus the minor spin off.
New X-Men (Academy X) lasted 46 Issues + 5 Special Issues (Total: 51)
Avengers Academy is getting 39 + 1 Special issues. With an added 13 if you include the New Mutants v2 series. (Total: 40/53)
Avengers: The Initiative lasted 35 + 2 specials (37)
Young Avengers, as an oddball, has 26 regular issues with 9 Specials and crossover issues. Totaling in 35.
X-23's series lasted 21 issues with 14 special/miniseries issues. (Total: 35)
Generation Hope lasted 17 Issues. Untangling their tie ins with the current X-book status is not something I'd want to do, so lets just round up to 20.
Young X-Men lasted 12 Issues.
Young Allies lasted 6 with another 5 special issues (Giant Size crossover and Onslaught Unleashed)

And that's just in order of how long they've lasted and some of those are respectable runs, but it's also somewhat . . . indicative of a downward trend.

Let's call any that beat 30 issues a success and a failure if it doesn't pass 13.

2003: Runaways (Success, Critical Acclaim), New Mutants v2 (Success)
2004: New X-Men (Success)
2005: Young Avengers (Bust*, Critical Acclaim), X-23 Mini 1 (Bust)
2007: Avenges: The Initiative (Success), X-23 Mini 2.
2008: Young X-Men (Failure)
2010: Generation Hope (Bust), Avengers Academy (Success), X-23 Ongoing (Bust), Young Allies (Failure).

Diminishing returns. I can see why they'd do something like this.

Doesn't stop me from thinking it's a bad execution of a tricky idea.

[yvonmukluk]

The kids will trick arcade into thinking they killed each other. This is all a big misderection Calling it now.
...
Don't take my hope away from me!

[majingojira]

There's also the possibility that it's:
1) A VR simulation for continuous torment.
2) There's a mcguffin on the island that can ressurect the recently dead.
3) The entire thing takes place in Arcade's head after the heroes have already punched him out and he's hallucinatin'.