Avengers Arena 15, Infinity the Hunt 1

Avengers Arena 15
Hopeless (w) and K. Walker and Gorder (a) and Beaulieu (c)

Cullen's monster, released when Cullen took off his Bloodstone ring to protect Aiden, is putting up a solid fight against the thought-unkillable X-23. She seems to snap out of her bloodlust and admits she doesn't know how to stop the monster. She's saved as Reptil, Darkhawk, and Nico come out of the woods to protect her and to engage the new and unknown monster. Cammi, Nara, and Aiden start looking desperately around for the Bloodstone ring, which is eventually found by Cammi but inevitably knocked away and into the ocean by a flung Reptil. Nara dives after it while Cammi and Aiden talk about whether or not Aiden will have to kill Cullen to stop the monster. Both are morally against it but Cullen had told Aiden how to do it if he needed to and had made him promise to do it if he lost himself. As Aiden is about to strike, Nara bursts out of the water with the ring, managing to get the monsters attention and eventually touching the ring to its skin, pulling Cullen out and making the monster disappear, but not before the struggle with the monster kills Nara.

There's a ton happening in this issue and even more on the horizon because of this issue. It's easy to forget, given how many contenders are still alive and the depth of personality each of these characters has demonstrated, that issue 18 is the final issue, putting us officially at three remaining issues following this one. There's so much to resolve and so much fear that it won't be resolved. That's been the best thing about this book, in truth. I'm not following it to see who survives or who "wins," though I'm certainly interested in that. There's so much more here and it's more that I want to know about. Where does/do the survivor/s go after this? What of the relationships formed here or that were brought in from various other books here? What of the mental scarring? I think every character in this book has been, at one point or another, a risk for turning evil. Avengers Academy was built so that kids Norman Osborn "created" didn't follow in his footsteps. Apex kind of is evil, very conniving and mastermind-y. Kid Briton was an arrogant bully. Anachronism has rage issues. Cullen was left in a horrible monster dimension for years and years. X-23 was created to be an assassin. The Runaways are the children of supervillains. Death Locket is a female Deathlok. Cammi was abandoned by the her favorite person and father figure, the assassin Drax the Destroyer. In this issue (narrated by Nara), we learn that Nara was the daughter of two Atlantean traitors, who followed Attuma and rebelled against Namor, leading to their death at his hands. Red Raven believed Namor killed her father. Darkhawk was the son of a dirty cop. Juston's only friend was a mutant-hating Sentinel (reprogrammed somewhat successfully). Have I made a point? Plenty of superheroes have these tragic backstories but these ones are all young enough to still potentially be turned with the right scarring. In fact, I'd even hazard that the least damaged ones, the ones most likely to err on the hero's side, are the ones who died first (Mettle, Red Raven, Darkhawk, Juston), just as Arcade predicted in issue one (telling them that, in essence, being the villain would be the only thing to save them here). It's all really fascinating, and all of that doesn't even get into Nara's complex emotions and backstory or the change we'll see in Aiden with his new girlfriend dead saving him and his best friend. Really stellar book, as ever.

Infinity the Hunt 1
Kindt (w) and Sanders (a) and Campbell (c)

A new mini-series spawned out of Infinity and also a multitude of other books. This book focuses on the heads of various superhero schools across the globe deciding to band together to create an intramural competition between all of their students. The games themselves, called the Contest of Champions, haven't been established yet as this issue chooses instead to focus more on introducing the schools and the key students we'll likely see. The schools represent places all over Marvel, with the Jean Grey School, Avengers Academy (where this takes place), the Future Foundation, the Braddock Academy, a Pan-Asian school, a Wakandan school, a Latverian school, and an Atlantean school (not participating, given the tensions between Wakanda and Atlantis right now). We get a brief overview of each school and an introduction to a couple characters from each as well as a thought bubble from each character giving a small window into their personalities and motivations. It's perhaps a bit heavy-handed but it gets the point across. The opening ceremonies are interrupted, though, when an emergency broadcast from the Atlantean school shows the destruction in Atlantis and an attack starts on LA from Thanos' army.

As I said, the introductions are a little ham-fisted as they prefer text over subtext ("you know how I'm your brother?") but it gets the job done. The real story here, presumably, will be the way these adults running the school and these kid heroes band together to push back Thanos. It's all hands on deck right now on Earth as the Avengers are off-planet so it makes sense that we'd see the young heroes and their guardians getting in on the fight, I guess I just didn't expect them to all be banded together while they do it. There are an impressive amount of new heroes introduced with new powers pretty laid out for us though, again, I think it's a little heavy-handed. Not to keep coming back to Avengers Arena, but Avengers Arena created all-new characters without me even realizing they were all-new. The first few issues, I just nodded and assumed they were already established and that the Braddock Academy was already a thing, not all stuff that Hopeless created for the series. Granted, Kindt has far less time here to establish the sort of things Hopeless (who just won a Harvey Award, I believe) has been able to do over in Arena. Fairly ambitious book, we'll see if it leads to anything.

Young Avengers 2, Avengers Arena 5

Young Avengers 2
Gillen (w) and McKelvie w/ Norton (a) and Wilson (c)

BOY, this book has a different feel than Uncanny Avengers. I tried to tell myself I wouldn't compare the two (that's why I didn't include this review with UA) but I guess that's where I had to go. It's still not a bad thing for me to say (yes, well done, me). This is still a pretty excellent book. The tone is incredibly different and it one hundred percent should be. This is the kind of stark contrast that should overwrite every non-comic fan's feelings about comics. Just because they fall in the same medium doesn't mean they're all the same thing. They're like, you know, books. Or any other sort of media. One book is designed to be dark and ask questions about prejudices and hate and people, another is meant to examine teen people and alternate dimensions and is therefore considerably lighter. Neither book was bad. In fact, both were pretty spectacular in their own way. I feel most non-comic fans scoff at the idea of comics because they're all viewed the way they once felt; like every book is essentially the same with different characters. Of course, that's not how all old books were to the people reading them, but I know I can at least see their point in the assumption. These books couldn't be more different while also leading us to similar places.

This issue focuses mostly on Wiccan and Hulkling, then brings in Loki to aid the two. Wiccan and Hulkling, fresh off Wiccan bringing Hulkling's alternate dimension "mom" to their dimension, are startled to find that she is not at all what Hulkling remembers and has made Wiccan's parents similarly gooey (physically gooey) and dissimilar. It's a shock to the two of them, compounded by her impossible to solve physiology and the fact that, when the two Young Avengers turn to the Uncanny Avengers for help (surprise appearance that justifies my earlier comparison!), this impostor seems to have corrupted more than just their household. The UA don't assist in any way and Billy and Teddy are sent to their new "room," which resembles a blank comic panel. As Wiccan tries to figure out what to do next while trying to piece together what's just happened, Loki turns up and rescues the two, bringing them to his favorite diner to illustrate their various problems. The two well-learned young superheroes know better than to outright trust Loki and suspect he might, in fact, have something to do with this impostor so they bring him to Asgardia to make sure he has no tricks up his little sleeves. There, they're confronted by Loki's father (geez, more parents confronting their kids in unlikely manners, I think we have ourselves a THEME), the previously dead frost giant Laufey.

There are many things happening in this series. As Gillen is a master at making and tying together a story, there's absolutely no way we have all the facts to piece together what's happening just yet. There is some weird thing happening with all the adults of this world (and, for all we know, everyone in general outside of our heroes) that is reverting them to some sort of weird 1950s sensibility. It ties in very nicely with the fact that these are the YOUNG (18 year old or so) Avengers and that they are so in touch with the youth of today. So far, the way Gillen's creating the contrast between the families and kids of today and those of the idealized 1950s world is coming along really nicely. I'm excited to see where he wants to go with it and where this is leaving our three unseen members (Hawkeye, Miss America, and Noh-Varr). Very interesting book.

Avengers Arena 5
Hopeless (w) and Walker (a) and Martin (c)

Boy, this series just keeps getting better and better too. Just REALLY happy with all the Avengers-related offerings right now, from Assemble to Avengers to U and Y A to New Avengers to this. Across the board happiness from that corner, which, pretty recently, wasn't true. Like in the last few issues of this book, I didn't know much about the focus characters, this time Kid Briton and the Braddock Academy. By now, we've gotten a look into just about every group so Hopeless feels more comfortable shifting within the issue between groups. Kid Briton, apparently, is the Captain Britain of another Universe, one even more unstable than ours, where he was raised from birth to be a fighter. As a result, he has far more skills at his young age than Captain Britain had and he has the arrogance of a highly-powered teenager. For those who know a bit about Captain Britain, you already know that his powers come from his self-confidence.

This issue starts off with Kid Briton wondering how fair it is that he's nearly invincible with his powers, as opposed to everyone else and, in particular, certain members of his own group. We also see some flashbacks from the Braddock Academy where our Brian confronts young Brian to try to make him understand why his arrogance is misplaced and unhelpful. He could (and really should) be so much more but he often comes off as a bully with crazy powers. It's a great idea and we get a huge sense of his arrogance in this quick flashback. We also learn that he's cheating on his nice and compassionate and probably too kind for him girlfriend Apex (also of the Academy) with other Academy member Nara, an Atlantean. Back in Murderworld, Kid Briton bullies group members Anachronism and Bloodstone and delights in their falling from a cliff into a river (the two seem relatively safe after the fall). Nara joins in laughing and Death Locket, the little girl Deathlok the group took in during issue two (I believe), blasts Nara off the cliff herself. Apex protects Death Locket from Kid Briton's anger and reveals that she knows Brian had been cheating on her all along but that's over now. Kid Briton's "health bar" drops as his confidence wavers.

This book is both really interesting and really fun. I wonder how non-gamers view the layout of some of these things. Arcade has clearly taken a turn from pinball machines and death-bumper cars (that probably happened) towards new gaming equipment. Each participant in Murderworld has their own health bar and there are med-packs and food items hidden around Murderworld in ways that very much resemble video games. It's another great idea in a book full of them. The health bar is also a very straightforward way to keep the audience up to date and to show subtle changes that might not have the same impact otherwise (i.e. Kid Briton's confidence falling hurts his health, even though nothing physical has happened to him, because his powers are now downgraded). It's unique to Marvel, for sure, and I might say it's unique to most comics in general. I have to say again, though, that this has been a really fun series so far with a lot of punch to it. In total, between this, Young Avengers and, earlier, Uncanny Avengers, I'm not sure I've had a day of reviews that were this firmly in the "buy this book" category. Nothing makes me more pleased than that.