Avengers Arena: News and Speculation

[klinton]

Don't even get me started on that awful Stiker panel.

Huh? I don't remember. I just remember Emma being deliciously...rational.

[Majin Gojira]

I actually thought Arcade was pretty good. Different taste, eh?

Possibly, but I find his camp utterly gone to be a poor thing.

Isn't issue 4 done by another artist? OR was the fill-in later on? I'll check the solicitations later.

It is being done by a fill in artist.

Arcade has been hilarious and hamming it up this series. He's the best amusingly evil villain Marvel has now.

Yeah--everywhere but here. He hasn't uttered much in the way of his evil camp aside from the "Did I forget to mention the dome?" line, which ties into the whole "Why does this series feel the need to use the Red Shirt trope for a dramatic death" thing, and thus kills the gag.

I concur. His ham acting plays up the fact that he operates on a completely different moral level. Which, while amusing us, should also serve to quietly terrify.

Comedy is a very objective thing, but even deconstructing the lines, I find no actual joke or camp attempts in it. What am I missing? As far as I've seen, his camp is gone because he's gotten "Serious" now.

I miss his camp. Jokes in bad taste, pop culture references, being able to read his voice as Tim Curry!

I just don't hear Tim Curry anymore.

[Tiamatican]

Agreed. Arena as a book is instantly more compelling than the latter half of Academy, and as such doesn't need "saving". The Braddock Academy characters are some of the most interesting and intriguing teen characters to be introduced in the last decade, with Ryker as the cherry on top.

People were worried that these would be cardboard cut-out throwaway fodder, but after just a couple of issues we're invested in them and they're already the story favourites of many readers and posters.

Can't say I particularly care about any of them. The handful of panels with them near the end of #2 made them all seem like unsympathetic pricks. Except for the one who's probably a manipulative sociopath who wants to use Deathlocket to advance her own plans. I'm not sure how most of them can be new favourites when they've barely had any lines, and only in #2. Two of them talked about killing Deathlocket, one made snarky comments at them, and the fourth said basically nothing.

Not that most of the established characters have gotten many lines, either. Reptil's basically been a non-entity so far. Same with Juston and his Sentinel. And the Sentinel's now been destroyed. Possibly with Juston being crushed in the process.

[Lady_Alternate]

Can't say I particularly care about any of them. The handful of panels with them near the end of #2 made them all seem like unsympathetic pricks. Except for the one who's probably a manipulative sociopath who wants to use Deathlocket to advance her own plans. I'm not sure how most of them can be new favourites when they've barely had any lines, and only in #2. Two of them talked about killing Deathlocket, one made snarky comments at them, and the fourth said basically nothing.

Because they're very much like a real group of teens, who perhaps don't like each other but are bound together as an insular group due to circumstance.

You don't see how they can be favourites, but the Braddock Academy kids have been the focus of much of the positive and excited discussion about the book along with Ryker.

[Tiamatican]

Because they're very much like a real group of teens, who perhaps don't like each other but are bound together as an insular group due to circumstance.

You don't see how they can be favourites, but the Braddock Academy kids have been the focus of much of the positive and excited discussion about the book along with Ryker.

Which confuses me, because so far, none of them have done a frigging thing. Aiden's had, 7 words total. Cullen's had a single panel of sarcasm. Nara's threatened Deathlocket and snarked back at Cullen. Kid Briton's acted like an arrogant, callous prick. The only personality any of them have so far is "asshole."

And yet people are excited by them. I really don't get it.

Of course, I'm also put off by the fact that, even if any of them survive Arena, it'll only be so they can be killed off in another book next time a writer needs some teenage cannon fodder to show how terrible a villain is.

[Majin Gojira]

You don't see how they can be favourites, but the Braddock Academy kids have been the focus of much of the positive and excited discussion about the book along with Ryker.

Mostly because the other casts members have not been written well in comparison, and most of that positive buzz comes from Ryker's sympathy and Axbro's meme status. The rest is just Cullen Bloodstone being sullen.

It's nothing at all to crow about. At all.

Except Ryker. That one was well done. The others survive on good visual design and memetic mutation.

[Lady_Alternate]

It's nothing at all to crow about. At all.

In your opinion, whatever that counts for.

Hazmat is the best she's ever been. She has a purpose and desperation behind her anger and in her voice that she lacked before. Without Arena, she would have remained a Surge-like gratingly faux-surly teen.

[klinton]

Kid Briton's acted like an arrogant, callous prick. The only personality any of them have so far is "asshole."

You say this like it's a bad thing....

Different strokes and all that, but why can't an attractive asshole be appealing as a character?

Not everyone's rooting for the emo-tastic underdogs 24/7. Some of us like the assholes.

[.A²]

The delightfully manipulative Apex is the most nuanced adolescent bitch Marvel has seen since Kitty Pryde. It was love at first sight for me.

[West]

In your opinion, whatever that counts for.

Hazmat is the best she's ever been. She has a purpose and desperation behind her anger and in her voice that she lacked before. Without Arena, she would have remained a Surge-like gratingly faux-surly teen.

[Majin Gojira]

Hazmat is the best she's ever been. She has a purpose and desperation behind her anger and in her voice that she lacked before.

This is like saying that Rogue needed Gambit to die to gain purpose and desperation. Literally.

She had reasons before (losing a perfect life), but they weren't enough for you. That's okay. Your opinion. But to claim it wasn't there is just factually inaccurate.

Without Arena, she would have remained a Surge-like gratingly faux-surly teen.

Your opinion and I can't argue with it. Nor with what bad writing has done to Surge after Yost released her back to the X-teams.

[Lady_Alternate]

But to claim it wasn't there is just factually inaccurate.

Wrong. She was hollow. Arena has given her flesh.

[Majin Gojira]

Wrong. She was hollow. Arena has given her flesh.

Strike that, reverse and you've got it. What is deeper: Having a character driven by the loss of a perfect life? Or just being born sullen and bitchy?

Because the later is what Arena is literally doing. "I've always been a Hater" indeed.

You opinion is yours, but if you put it out there, it's subject to scrutiny just like everything else.

[Lady_Alternate]

Strike that, reverse and you've got it. What is deeper: Having a character driven by the loss of fa perfect life, or just being born sullen and bitchy?

Because the later is what Arena is literally doing. "I've always been a Hater" indeed.

You opinion is yours, but if you put it out there, it's subject to scrutiny just like everything else.

But your "scrutiny" is perversely distorted by bias, as shown over and over again, and is therefore utterly unreliable, so why should anyone pay it any heed?

Hazmat is being driven by the realization that she was that Surge-lite pissy drama queen, and when the cards are finally on the table she's desperate, driven and adrift. That's compelling, and it's what she originally promised as a character, rather than the watered-down after-school special drama we got in the latter half of Academy.

[vampiric_cannibal]

Sweet, thanks! Does it not feel like the last issue came out more than one month ago though? I can't even recall what happened in it at the moment. :/

Reread it. Tis worth it.

S/D is posting rather well, I don't feel enforcing the ban is necessary. For all his old bluster, he is coming around to tolerable levels of 'I hate this unreservedly' due to his growing quantity of '%^&* them up, Hazmat'.

Second half of Academy was pretty poor in parts. By parts, I mean about 3 quarters. The new characters were largely detrimental.

Mostly because the other casts members have not been written well in comparison, and most of that positive buzz comes from Ryker's sympathy and Axbro's meme status. The rest is just Cullen Bloodstone being sullen.

It's nothing at all to crow about. At all.

Except Ryker. That one was well done. The others survive on good visual design and memetic mutation.

Aquagirl has been done suboptimally, but Bloodstone, Apex and Ryker have been done well. Kid Britain looks to be a good antagonist but is going to die and painfully. Visual design is a big thing. Bloodstone hasn't had much space and is already quite clearly a hidden badass. I don't think he is terribly moral or benevolent but I think he will be the most interesting of the Hogwarts kids.

In your opinion, whatever that counts for.

Hazmat is the best she's ever been. She has a purpose and desperation behind her anger and in her voice that she lacked before. Without Arena, she would have remained a Surge-like gratingly faux-surly teen.

The ruining of Surge has been a crying shame. Ditto for Hellion. Hazmat is currently more interesting than my beloved NXM, even Pixie. Except Blindfold, but she was from Astonishing, I believe.

You say this like it's a bad thing....

Different strokes and all that, but why can't an attractive asshole be appealing as a character?

Not everyone's rooting for the emo-tastic underdogs 24/7. Some of us like the assholes.

It took a Cap fan, but this is true. A skillfully written arse is a joy to behold. Being nice and heroic and all that jazz are all character traits, not default settings.

The delightfully manipulative Apex is the most nuanced adolescent bitch Marvel has seen since Kitty Pryde. It was love at first sight for me.

Certainly delightful, thinking about her levels of genuine to facade is interesting. She could even turn out to be an anti-hero. She isn't my favourite, but Ryker was charming and Cammi was a given.

Wrong. She was hollow. Arena has given her flesh.

This. To build a character, you do not make them brilliant and add stuff. You make them perfect by subtracting and wounding them, making life harsh and unfair. The only person she could both be emotionally and physically intimate with is in pieces, and my avatar. She was really one note in Academy.