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

[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.