First thoughts on "Avengers Arena"
Reshared post from +Dave Hill
First thoughts on "Avengers Arena"
Usually I hold up on the comics reviews until my monthly podcast (cough https://hill-kleerup.org/blog/mypodcasts/dave-does-the-comics cough), but I didn't want to sit on these thoughts until then.
(No spoilers below, I don't think, beyond what's already been talked about in the comics press.)
I really want to hate this comic more than I did.
There are a ton of reasons to hate it. There's the "Hey, let's make Arcade more like the Joker, only with God-like abilities" (more on that anon). There's the "Hunger Games"/"Battle Royale" rip-off aspect ("throw a bunch of extraordinary young folk into an arena, from which only one person will come out!"). There's the fact that Marvel has gone to far too much trouble to invest in a lot of interesting young heroes in order to just throw so many of them away in a death match like this.
(Yes, it's an ongoing series — which means that, beyond their fates in this title, while it's going on all of these sixteen characters are out of circulation. Even if a number of them are custom-built for the story.)
My last point is perhaps too mildly put. I don't want to see sixteen young heroes — ones that I've enjoyed seeing introduced and grow, killed off. Even if it's dramatic and epic and moving. These characters are the future of Marvel. And, for teen readers, they may well be characters that are even more invested in.
Of which, two, possibly three, we see die in the first issue.
Is this what "Avengers Academy" was canceled for? Or why we haven't had a new "Runaways" series? Is the only thing that Marvel's writers can come up with for young heroes is a big fight to the death?
So, philosophically, I have a lot of problems with this book. I think it's a bad, ugly idea.
That said, two aspects are probably going to keep me glued to it, dammit:
1. The art by Kev Walker (Frank Martin on colors) is really very nice.
2. It's clear that Dennis Hopeless, the writer, wants this to be character-driven, character developing, and not simply big fight scenes. And we've already seen some very character-driven bits in this issue (much, much better drama than in all of Hunger Games, movie or books).
This last point, in some ways, makes it worse in some ways. Yes, the prospect, even likelihood of death can bump up the dramatic level of a story quite a bit, and force-grow character development a lot. But its near-certainty (as designed) takes things to a different, more grotesque level. Because we, as readers, are being asked to invest in a bunch of characters who we know are, to some number or other over time, going to die. Which makes it sadistic, even while good, and even while, in the "normal" MU, the usual cycle of near-death escapes and deaths-and-resurrections continues apace with far less deserving individuals.
From the the writer in letter column: "A lot of people question why AA is an ongoing series and not a mini. Here's why: For this book to succeed, we have to earn the concept. We have to make you love the characters even if you never read a page of their previous series. We need you to care how it all turns out and feel each and every death. […] I promise you this won't be an all-action fight book or worse, a meat grinder. It's a a character-driven story. Every fight and death will be in service of that story. That's what we're shooting for, anyway. You'll have to read the thing and write back to tell us whether or not we pulled it off."
But I keep coming back to the idea of, "What a waste." If these are good characters (and some/most of them we already know are), and characters that can be made better in development at Hopeless' hands (which seems quite possible), I'd rather see good stories of them ongoing, rather than watch them marching toward their doom.
But it's going to be difficult to not watch it. Because it really looks like it's going to be well done, if to a disagreeable end.
(I'm obliged to point out that there is nothing in what we've seen to indicate that this is not a virtual reality Murder World on Arcade's part. It would explain his control over both the protagonists and his apparent God-like powers, as well as his certainty that outsiders will never be able to find them. I will hope that this is the case, even though I have a sinking feeling it is not.)
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