Avengers Arena #6 Review
Avengers Arena goes for the jugular…
Avengers Arena #6
Now with the kids from Braddock Academy separated, breaks in that camp seem to be getting clearer. Bloodstone, Anachronism, and Nara carry on toward the prize waiting at the center of all the zones of Murder World. As pieces start falling into place that it’s not Death Locket’s doing that had Nara separated from Kid Briton and Apex, but Apex herself putting Nara into a more dangerous situation in a smaller group for having sex with her boyfriend, Kid Briton. Meanwhile, as Reptil, X-23, and Hazmat work their way to the prize, Hazmat steps on a landmine that excretes X-23′s trigger scent causing her to fly into a murderous rage with her comrades barely able to escape. When Kid Briton’s team and Nara’s team both reach the prize, things escalate between Nara and Apex forcing Kid Briton to intervene and cut Nara with his blade. In her defense, Anachronism acts by decapitating Kid Briton to Arcade’s delight.
I’m still not sure how much I really enjoy this series, but I gotta say, the last page showing that dickwad Kid Briton getting his comeuppance was awesome. What I also can say is that from a character standpoint, this series has done well. Hazmat seems to be more confident and worthy of leadership. Nico and Chase being left pretty much on the outside of every other alliance has them in a pretty bad situation. Death Locket’s real programming remaining a mystery that makes you wonder if she is being manipulated or if she’s acting out against what she’d really want to do. Then there’s this issue’s main trio of Anachronism, Bloodstone, and Nara that really comes to the forefront. The differences in their characters and the way they carry themselves or use what is available to them in terms of abilities is the real driving force here. These are characters that I really have no prior knowledge of before this series started but this particular issue went a long way in me liking these characters. Even Nara came off as somewhat endearing. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a bitch and a manipulator in her own right, but she came to the aid of two characters that would best be described as having weakness in either mentality or in physical strength. She very well may be just taking whatever company she has because even Bloodstone and Anachronism provide some safety in numbers, but nonetheless if she really wanted to, she could have let them drown when a tidal wave hit them. So whatever chords I feel this series has yet to really strike with me has been made up by having characters that I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed reading.
I’ve also really liked Kev Walker’s art in this series. He’s done a great job balancing lighter moments with much more serious and dangerous ones. The first part of the book is mostly a happier feel. Characters seem, for the most part, more relaxed or hopeful (except for Nara who is just pissed off). By the time the story shifts to Hazmat, Reptil, and X-23, things seem not so happy. In fact, things are really tough for them and it gets downright scary when X-23 is triggered into becoming a maniac. Overall he’s brought a real nice shine to the book that I’ve at least enjoyed looking at even if reading it has me on the fence.
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Solid character work. Great last page. Walker’s art is definitely what I’ve enjoyed most in the series so far. | Still something nagging at me that can’t help me decide if I truly like this series or not. |
| Rating |
4 Comments
Just want to let you know, the characters from Braddock (Kid Briton, Nara, Anachronism, Apex, Bloodstone) didn’t exist before this series, so nobody really knew anything about them.
Ha! Well, that probably shows just how much I didn’t know about anything going on overseas. Honestly, outside of some stories here and there, I really don’t have much experience with Captain Britain so I didn’t know if these characters spun out of MI-13 or what.
there is one rather enormous problem with the developments of this chapter.
X-23′s reaction to the scent is only temporary. And no, a new formula won’t work because its not the scent itself that she reacts to. She was psychologically programmed in youth to react to a certain scent by going total when she smells it. So technically if this formula was any amount different then she shouldn’t react period becuase the smell is too different.
and no this is not fan speculation but a fact about the character. so she should at best freak out for a bit as the other two mask the scent on themselves through whatever manner is best, and then return. But it is obvious that moron Hopeless intends to have this turn of events last to the part where she attacks Hazmat in the first issue, which can’t happen.
basically the main reason why it is psychological is because if they doped her up on something she would rapidly become immune to it. her healing factor is more than just her tissue repairing itself at an accelerated rate, it has to do with her immune system and resistance to toxins.
also this programming is made so that she would onyl go rampant for a small amount of time, becuase if she went nuts for days on end the organization that made, programmed, and trained her would be unable to remove her from a missions if she was fucking up every living thing around her.
i have abosultely no confidence in hopeless or thsi series. the onyl death that makes sense so far is kid britan’s, but of course we don’t give a flying fuck up the ass cause they did nto exist before now.
to be more specific. mettle is made of living mettle, so if arcade somehow managed to blow him up it would have to be far more powerful than shown, and the rea would be showered in metal bits of his body, not blood.
secondly, Red RAven only died from colliding with that forcefield because Hopeless that her hollow bone factor is her bones being brittle. In reality her bones were no weaker or stronger than a human’s bones because she had hollow bones like that of a bird, not someone with brittle bones disease.
so basically one death was chok full fo sterotype, and the second one doesn’t even fucking make any sense at all cause because the writer’s factors of how the death happen do not qualify.
in the end i think these factors overhwlme whatever good they have here. admitably the art is beautiful and some of the moments seem genuine, but ultimately the writer’s lack of knowing on ANY of these characters so far will be the comic’s utter and compelte downfall. right now we have a plot point, being x23 gone mad, that shouldn’t last more than a few hours in the comic’s time at all, thus making the whole set of circumstances i see Hopeless cosntructing Make No Damn Sense. a character DIED because of his ignorance about her, and now his ignorance of how X-23′s berserk mode works is gonna make big old plot holes. Like arcade being galactus or something doesn’t make enough already.
and if arcade adding something to the scent to try to make her more aggressive, she would just become immune to it in a few hours too. kidna how an accelerated healing factor works. be it a drug like toxin, a disease, or shaking her, she recovered and adapts.