Comic Books
AVENGERS ARENA #1
• Trapped on an isolated island, 16 superhuman young adults (including cult faves like members of the Runaways, The Avengers Academy and Darkhawk) are given a chilling ultimatum by their demented captor: Fight or die…only one will walk out alive! Thus begins a primal battle that will test the skills, stamina and morals of each combatant.
• Welcome to Murder World, where the secrets are plenty, alliances are fleeting, and the key to victory might be rewriting the rules of the game. Who will survive?
• The rising star team of Dennis Hopeless (X-MEN: SEASON ONE) and Kev Walker (THUNDERBOLTS) dare you to tune in to your new favorite comic NOW!
Story by Dennis HopelessArt by Kev Walker
Colors by Frank Martin
Cover by Dave Johnson, Mike Perkins, & Skottie Young
Price: $2.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 5.7%
Reviews
| User | Added | Spoilers | |
| celtix | 12/16/12 | No | Read Review |
| nastysnow | 12/14/12 | No | Read Review |
| k5blazer | 12/14/12 | Yes | Read Review |
| monkeyking | 12/13/12 | No | Read Review |
| dfpunch | 12/12/12 | No | Read Review |
| Quinn | 12/12/12 | Yes | Read Review |
| NodNolan | 12/12/12 | Yes | Read Review |
577
Pulls
Pulls
Users who pulled this comic:
All users who pulled this comic
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
I would tell you that this gets an issue to impress me but since it ships twice this month, it gets two issues to impress me.
Hope it is good.
4chan just spoiled this for me, I’m out. Enjoy the bloodbath people! No respect is being given to these characters here. Prepare to be heartbroken…
What part of “Only one will walk out alive” didn’t you understand?
I’m looking forward to this, everyone knows dead doesn’t mean anything in comic books!
I’ve seen the last page online too, but I really think you need to give the series a legitimate shot before accusing the writer of having no respect for the characters.
It was quite good.
I don’t understand this comment. You haven’t read the issue… you had a panel spoiled for you out of context… and from that you can infer that “no respect is being given to these characters”? I read the comic, and know the moment you’re speaking of. I’ve read every issue of the comic that character is from and would say that LOTS of respect is given to that character. Just because something bad happened to them doesn’t mean no respect was paid.
X23 all the way. I’m excited, but not sure how long they can drag this premise out. I’ll probably be in for the short haul.
I’m wondering this to. Have they ever announced this as an ongoing? or a maxi series? or is this like season one? and they get a new team each year?
I googled this title a bit and man, are a lot of people pissed off about this book or what? I’m just expecting a lot of awesome fights. I don’t much care who lives or dies. I just want an entertaining action-packed book. No Uncanny Avengers please.
I don’t want to read a Hunger Games ripoff (which is a rip off of a Japanese movie). I’m very angry that this comic will needlessly kill off so many good C-list characters.
If X-23 dies (for good) I am going to be very unhappy.
Its comic books, no one dies for good. I think the premise is a great one for comic books, throw a bunch of super human teenagers in a pit and tell them to fight to the death…hell yeah. And yes this is a take on “Hunger Games”, which was a take on “Battle Royal” but it was a book and I believe a manga as well before it was a movie.
I know Darkhawk was a last minute decision to be put into this book but I am really hoping this book and Hopeless do Darkhawk justice and not turn out to be like the writer’s last name, Hopeless. This is to hoping for the best, DARKHAWK FTW!
I’m always annoyed when they frequently resort to maiming and killing the young characters (X-books did this for years) so I don’t much like this book in concept. But, it’s a very slow week for me and Kev Walker is so damn good. Might try it.
Also getting this for Kev Walker’s art. Marvel should give him a more high profile assignment.
Someone needs to save the children…
Apparently Captain America is too busy being in 4 books to think of the children!
That cover’s a nice homage to Battle Royale. Let’s hope Beat Takeshi makes an appearance.
http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTc2NjI1NTYzMF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjEwNjYxMQ@@._V1._SX332_SY475_.jpg
Sounds good, a bit like the hunger games in a way. As this title will eventually come to an end i really hope they don’t drag this out with the storyline….
I read an article on USAtoday that said that Hopeless has many story arcs planned and each comic will shift focus from character to character, Lost style. So I’m betting this will not be a 12 issue bloodbath comic.
I’m a little surprised how many people seem to believe that this series is just going to run it’s course according to Arcade’s plan and it will be nothing but teen hero against teen hero.
These are super-heroes, people! Some of them will die for sure, but I really don’t think we’re going to have a constant bloodbath for a bunch of issues that ultimately wraps up with a single survivor. That’s just too easy.
Bought all of the Avengers Academy digitally for .99/ish. Really excited to see my Runaways characters and the others!
Just read it. I can see why people are mad about it, but the plot groundwork is not even done being laid. I think there’s some major twists to come. I really fell in love with the characters in Avengers Academy. Gonna stick around for a while.
Avengers The Initiative had a teen death in its very first issue.
This series was born out of Initiative/Academy Avengers line.
All though I’ve only read a few issues of Avengers Academy and hardly know the characters, I really enjoyed this and am interested to see where this goes. Plus the art was great.
Controversy aside, this was good art with mediocre writing that really seemed to miss Arcade’s entire motivation for being a villain. As for the kids, didn’t that stop being edgy about five years ago, when Kyle and Yost ran it into the ground so hard that it turned into an internet meme?
Lots of fuss to draw attention to a rip-off of better material. I’ll pass on issue #2.
You’ve hit on the key problem I have with Avengers Arena both when I first read the concept and now that I’ve finished the first issue. It’s not that the teen deathmatch concept has been done in other mediums. It’s that beating up on teen characters has become so tired in the context of the Marvel Universe. Kyle and Yost really did run this kind of thing into the ground. I would probably enjoy AA more if I hadn’t been following X-Men comics over the last few years.
SPOILERS: (filler text filler text filler text) I really hope it is thoroughly explained how Arcade is this powerful now. Maybe I missed something and need to give it a re-read but I won’t be satisfied with a “this is his world so it is his rules” explanation. I mean he was ridiculously strong. I LOVE how he was drawn, though.
And there’s the other big problem I have with this issue. What the hell happened to Arcade? Maybe they’ll explain it but as you say, his power level is completely ridiculous here. But I also love the way Kev Walker draws him.
My guess? The kids are all plugged into a virtual reality video game; not all of them that died are in fact dead.
I can’t think of another way Arcade would be so powerful, and that they would all be transported somewhere that nobody would find them.
I had that thought as well, but it would raise some questions about a serious change in Arcade’s M.O. He’s always been all about murder (have we ever seen him kill anyone? I’m nowhere near an expert on Arcade). What does he gain by merely making the other teen heroes believe they’re killing each other?
You know, when I first had the VR thought, I really didn’t care for it — seemed too easy. But if it’s in service to some larger story that makes Arcade a more three dimensional villain, it could be an interesting thing.
Yeah this was my first thought too.
I would actually rather see this as a way of developing characters. Even Arcade went on about which of them is a coward, a traitor, a killer, etc. at heart.
If it is a VR simulation then each of them will eventually have to deal with the choices that they made.
I did love the line about Wolverine’s school having a better security system .
I haven’t read this yet, but I’m hearing rumors if superior Spider-Man being spoiled in this. Any truth to that? I’m going to put off reading this if its legit
I didn’t catch a single reference to anything that even reminded me of Spider-man, let alone a spoiler of such large proportions.
Thanks ken!! Just rumors ive heard. Wanted to make sure it wasn’t true before I cracked this open!
I have strong mixed opinions on AA #1 so I can’t shut up quite yet. The art is great. The emotional context of the plot is well delivered. The villain was well drawn but not well explained. It has potential. Unfortunately it’s not exactly something I feel like reading. There is a very small chance I will try #2. Maybe if it runs its course I can just read the trades.
Loved the story set-up and the artwork. I know it’s not an original concept, but the first issue hooked me. Made it my pick of the week without reading my other books.
Great first issue. In just a few pages, the writer made me care about characters I’d never even heard of. It looks like this book will be more about character exploration and development than fighting, which I dig. Definitely not a lighthearted superhero romp. The ending was pretty brutal.
Yes, it was a pretty well constructed first issue.
So help me….I actually enjoyed it. It was simple, direct, and the art lovely. It also kept its promise. Dead chiluns.
Surprisingly I really liked this. Setting aside any comparisons, this stood on it’s own, the characters were treated with respect, art was GREAT, and Arcade reboot was fantastic.
As gimmicky as the high concept sounds, it’s really all in the execution, and I think they executed very well.
You wrote it better than I wrote it.
I’m definitely going to give this book a number of issues.
So far this seems like an odd characterization of Arcade to me, but I think that’s because we haven’t seen enough of him yet. He’s my favorite Marvel villain behind Bullseye, so I’m excited to see where this goes. I hope he gets to play a significant part in each issue.
That being said – I’m not digging his design. He looks like Fujimoto from Ponyo. He’s a little classier than usual, but the hair and narrow face are throwing me off a bit.
Finally got around to reading this and was really surprised. This is a pretty fun book, I know the whole “Hunger Games/ Battle Royal” thing is really popular right now but I really enjoyed this book. I could just stare at the panel of hazmat burning the hell out of X-23 all day….awesome panel. Anyway art was good and the story is a little weak but they needed the set up to put these characters in a situation like this. Overall it was a fun read and I’ll keep up with it for a little bit anyway.
This is probably the most surprising book that I’ve in a long while. This was pretty great and it feels like this story will actually have some consequences, unlike 99% of Marvel or DC books.
This isn’t really happening, it will all be explained away that the kids were psychically doing all this. This only has any resonance because of the characters and the great art. I say boo…at least until it’s on sale for $.99 on comixology.