To review this comic, you need to talk about the elephant in the room– yes, it is like Battle Royale and Hunger Games. But you know what? I liked Battle Royale and I liked Hunger Games. I like Marvel Comics and I really really like Avengers Academy and Runaways. So once I settled in to enjoy the ride, I did in fact find the ride enjoyable.

A large part of my enjoyment, however, comes from the work of everyone that has come before. In other words, if I didn’t already have such an investment in the characters of the Academy already, then this would fall very flat. I am thankful the writer spent time to develop Hazmat and Mettle in this issue, but really it was the force of their development previously that really made their trials more poignant here. Mettle’s sacrifice was exponentially more meaningful because of it, and it did help to set the stakes so highly for this series.

That being said, in terms of Hopeless’ own storytelling, the story beats are a bit too formulaic. The setup feels rushed, Arcade has lots of deux ex machina powers, and a lot of characters seem to be thrown together so they can be collateral damage later (I admit however to looking forward to see their origin and developments.) We the readers have to be dragged just as suddenly into this status quo as the characters themselves, and it can be just as disorientating unless you hand wave it away. At least in the middle of all of this, there is a good balance between exposition and action, and the art is well suited for the action and emotion we are sure to get. I am ready for more, and that’s always the mark of good comic.