Tags: Avengers
This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2013 at 1:53 pm by Brandon Hanvey and is filed under Comic.
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February 10th, 2013 at 7:42 pm
Sage. Fucking. Wisdom.
February 11th, 2013 at 4:30 am
“hmm, hunger games is in right now, take all the teenage superheroes and have them fight each other to the death”
“but what kinda plot will it…”
“do it”
“i just don’t get WHY they will fight one an…”
“DO IT”
February 11th, 2013 at 2:00 pm
I’ve flipped through the first issue of Avengers Arena. It is such a blatant rip off of Hunger Games that I was embarrassed just looking at it. It actually made me miss Avengers Academy.
February 11th, 2013 at 5:18 pm
In the interest of fairness, I gave it a shot even though the premise sounded horrible. Only took one issue to verify that it really is that bad.
Unfortunately, since I get my comics online, I’d already pre-ordered as far as #5. Each has sucked thus far.
February 11th, 2013 at 10:33 pm
I just read again battle royale and it was better, I thought it was going to be año homenage to that manga but I was wrong
February 12th, 2013 at 12:29 am
@Frodo – Look at it this way: you’ll be that much more up-to-date on the senselessly dead characters than the rest of us!
February 12th, 2013 at 8:15 am
Avengers Arena is actually pretty good. Hopeless is doing great character work. I know it’s hard to think outside of the box when the entire internet likes to hate on concept alone. But it’s a good book. Not great, but good.
February 12th, 2013 at 8:32 am
Glad to see this comic back. Though, honestly Avengers Arena has been my guilty pleasure book alongside The Phantom Stranger. =P
February 12th, 2013 at 8:38 am
I have no problem with the Hunger Games riff. The problem I have is that according to the first issue, several members of the Avengers Academy were kidnapped right out of the Avengers West compound, and none of the Avengers teams are worried or even looking for them? And Arcade suddenly has God-like powers?
Prediction: The whole series is taking place in a Virtual Reality Murderworld, and only really takes a few hours to simulate all 30 days. No one actually dies. There are no consequences. It’s all a dream.
This would be fine for a 4 or 6 issue mini, but as an ongoing it’s terrible.
February 12th, 2013 at 12:08 pm
@brian actually, as bad as it is, the virtual reality\dream scenario is the preferable ending to this mess, otherwise they are just killing long established characters for cheap thrills (the stories this comic is ripping o.. i mean “paying homage” to at least had some social commentary in them)
February 12th, 2013 at 9:22 pm
There are enough hints dropped that things are not-as-they-seem that it’s hard for me to care about any of the deaths until they pull the curtain. VR, dream sequence, something else, whatever. Maybe the characters are even actually dying, but it won’t really hit emotionally until the secrets behind all the impossibilities are addressed. Until then it’s all “uh huh, Arcade can make Mettle explode with a thought. I bet he can pull a rabbit out of his hat too.”
In the meantime, I’m buying in based on the character development/interaction that Hopeless claims in interviews is the real point of the book. Since the plot and setting are blatantly smoke and mirrors, it would have to be. It’s been pretty good with that so far too.
February 13th, 2013 at 4:49 am
Yeah, I agree, there is more going on in the Avengers Arena than just the senseless deaths of established teen/young adult characters.
My theory is, this is just a large scale version of a MMORPG. Now either the characters were kidnapped and are being piloted by gamers, or they are all just LMD’s/or virtual reality dopplegangers. I am thinking it is the first, and before too long, there will be a fault in the game, and the dead characters which have been removed from the game will begin to move around behind the scenes, causing trouble for the real Arcade.
February 17th, 2013 at 10:01 am
…and lo, a review is born! From the mind of vitriol comes comic gold!
March 3rd, 2013 at 11:16 pm
At least the series straight up points out that Arcade stole the idea from a book. Not that it stops it from being a gimmick, but it’s better than behaving as though it’s original.
That said, the series is dumb. Everyone it is psychotic for dumb reasons. One of the things about Katniss, at least in the movie, is that she actually DIDN’T let the games turn her into a murderous psychopath. So you rooted for her. That’s not a thing that happens in this book as far as I can tell.