Avengers Arena #1
Summary: Okay, this review isn't gonna be that hard to punch out because it was simplistic and we all pretty much knew what was gonna happen going in. Arcade(yes, the super-lame, disco-dressing, 1970's villain), has managed to kidnap 16 teenage super-heroes, including several who were with the Avengers Academy because, apparently, the Avengers have NO security to speak of. Arcade tells the kids he'd give them food/water/medicine, but that they had to kill each other to get it. The kids attack him, but Arcade shows off god-like powers and defeats all of them with ease. Which naturally points to that being one of Arcade's robots, but goddamn, that's one strong-ass robot! After Arcade proves that nobody can beat him, he tells them to choose the weakest link to serve as the first death. Hazmat has enough of Arcade's talking(You and me both, Hazmat... You and me both...) and attacks him, so Arcade decides to make her the first victim. Mettle, Hazmat's boyfriend, steps forward and tells Arcade he was the weakest link, so Arcade makes him explode, ending this issue.
Thoughts: Okay, first off, JT is gonna HATE this comic!!! Mettle was his favorite character in Avengers Academy. I texted him after I read this issue and warned him not to read it and his reply was, "Mettle died, didn't he..." So yeah. Sucks for him and the rest of us Avengers Academy fans. Luckily for me, my two favorite Avengers Academy kids(Striker and Finesse) aren't in this title, so I can breathe easier. As for Mettle, I'm going to cross my fingers and hold out hope that he's still alive. It's Arcade. It HAD to be an illusion, right? I mean he can't have the power to snap his fingers and make Mettle explode, or he'd have done that to Colossus years ago! That's what I'm going with right now though. That a lot of this is smoke and mirrors. Illusions. Special effects. But then again, Arcade DID teleport people THROUGH a defense system that Jocasta, and probably Hank Pym and Tony Stark had a hand in building, so who knows. At the end of the day(and the end of this post!), this series was basically what I expected it to be. A dumb premise and a "shocking" death. It's still Arcade doing stuff he shouldn't be able to do. I mean was the Collector not available as a villain or something?! On top of that, what the HELL was with X-23!? She just STANDS there and does NOTHING while Arcade is murdering her teammate?! I'll tell you this, if Wolverine was there, there's NO WAY he'd stand there and let somebody else sacrifice themselves. And there is reason #5,614 why I can't stand X-23. I'll keep reading this series, mainly out of loyalty to some of the characters. But as the deaths mount, my interest will wane and I can easily see this as a book that gets dropped down the road(if it lasts that long). I'm extremely curious to see what other fans of Avengers Academy think because we were a VERY loyal bunch of fans. I can't imagine THIS issue went down very well with most of them...
Score: 6 out of 10.
So in a Universe with Dr. Doom, Magneto, Green Goblin, Apocalypse, Kang, Ultron, Sinister, and a ton of other great villains, this book picks... Arcade... Fail.
My only....and I mean only thing to say about this issue is it HAS to be a simulation. The end of this series has to be one, because there's no way... they are gonna kill off this many characters. That means, for the sake of the argument, unless they ONE wins, Hazmat, Reptil, Nico, X-23, they're all dying. And I find that a big hard to believe. as for Mettle, I saw it coming so i was prepared, he HAD to die, because he's damn near invulnerable... so I knew he's die, for that reason. But first? And the way, like you said, NO ONE ELSE stood up for Hazmat?! Not Reptil, the so called leader of the Avengers Academy...not X-23...no one but Mettle? That still makes no sense to me. And Mettle was written horribly here... he said "Girl" more times than a Boyz II Men CD in this issue...
ReplyDeleteNegatives aside... and killing Mettle was a HUGE one... Arcade did come off pretty bad ass here, which was cool, if this is a revamp for him it could go in a nice direction, and I liked the "Health" bars, that was a nice touch.
I just don't see this comic being considered good at the end of its run. Either the writer sticks to his premise and they end up killing most of the teenage superheroes (with X23 the only one they will be unwilling to kill) or there will be a twist like it is a VR setup and the entire comic ends in a cop-out. At least with the latter some of my favorite characters won't die for a Battle Royale gimmick.
ReplyDeleteI am definitely not a fan of Arcade so this issue didn't sound that great. As for Arcade seemingly being unstoppable...I hope that it's a robot or a simulation. Last thing we need is another guy getting way overpowered.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I agree that Arcade shouldn't have been able to take them. I imagine that the security over there should be incredibly hard to breach. I could understand if Dr Doom or Ultron could bypass it, but Arcade? Yeah, I'm not seeing it. Hopefully issue 2 will get better
So...I just read it....I haven't been on the blog in ages...my apologizes...but I HAD to say this...but did the writers for this watch Hunger Games or something? I mean I haven't read the book nor seen the movie but Avengers Arena just sounds like a super-powered version of this book/movie.
ReplyDeleteMettle dying...although JT called it out Wednesday still made me a little upset. Like...why him? There are some others who could've went instead. And I'm praying, wishing and hoping at the end of this series...it wasn't all some "fucked" up dream or illusion because Marvel would have played with millions of fans emotions.
The cover is a complete homage to Battle Royale as well so the comparisons are referenced and intentional.
Deletehttp://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/71950550.html?thread=12682963414
Whose writing this series? It has to be Chris Yost, someone at Marvel HQ finally must have just said: look we can't have you running around killing 50 people per issue all willy-nilly in our big titles, so we're giving you a bunch of characters that are basically in limbo and you can go to town with them.
ReplyDeleteThis may be my favorite comment ever...lol, and Dennis Hopeless (haha) is writing this series.
DeleteAhh this guy is also the mastermind behind Cable and the X-Force (a.k.a. lets use the exact same team that worked so fabulously in the 90's) and Legion of Monsters because the marvel universe is just brimming with awesome monsters that have true character and everyone wants to read about! Seriously though, this guy literally just started writing for marvel this year so it may be to early to judge him (too harshly at least) but I was actually looking forward to AA and I wish they had put a more experienced writer with a better track record.
Delete...is it weird that I'd only buy this comic to help start a campfire to make s'mores?
ReplyDeleteOnly if you share them! lol.
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