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Marvel’s take on the teenagers-hunt-and-kill-one-another genre, AVENGERS ARENA, winds up at the end of the month and here’s a peek. Story by Dennis Hopeless, Art by Kev Walker and Cover by Dave Johnson. On sale 11/27.

Sixteen young, troubled superheroes trapped on an island, forced to fight to the death for the amusement of a mad man! Now, as the surviving teens stand battered, bruised, and bleeding – who will remain when the dust clears?! As Arcade’s master plan reaches its climax – it’s still anyone’s game! Who lives? Who dies? What will be left of the survivors when it’s over? And how will the seeds planted here bear bitter fruit in the upcoming Avengers Undercover #1?


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13 COMMENTS

  1. “How has this series been?”

    Well, this is the last issue, so you can probably do the math.

    Thanks to the Beat, tho, for offering up this preview of a cancelled book! Axel loves you!

  2. “Well, this is the last issue, so you can probably do the math.”

    That doesn’t mean anything. Look at Daredevil, a great comic w steady sales and they’re cancelling it…

  3. The story is continuing in Avengers Undercover using the same cast. Avengers Arena has been GREAT! A strong, involving story with brilliant characterisation. Really looking forward to ‘season 2’

  4. The premise of this book meant it was always going to have pretty short run. It mostly launched on controversy and the sales numbers were never great by typical Big Two standards, but for a title that offered up a bunch of C-List and below characters with Arcade as the big bad, it didn’t make a bad showing of itself on the charts (hence the spoilerific sequel announcement).

    I have no interest in supporting this book and I currently have no plans to buy Avengers Undercover either, but I can see why Marvel would be pleased with its performance and greenlight a spinoff.

  5. From the solicitation: Sixteen young, troubled superheroes trapped on an island, forced to fight to the death for the amusement of a mad man!

    That’s a major reason I had no interest in reading the series: deaths without any point. If AVENGERS ACADEMY had kept going, AVENGERS ARENA wouldn’t have run, probably, and ARENA did run because there were disposable characters that could be killed off without upsetting many people. Death for death’s sake is the realm of trashy horror movies.

    SRS

  6. This book has been nothing but exploitative schlock which is a real shame as the cast is filled with characters I love. Coupled with the fact that Hopeless has actually been doing great work on Cable and X-Force, it really saddens me that Marvel would decide to launch a book whose sole purpose is to trade off the deaths of its superfluous teenage characters. Granted, I expect some Deus Ex Machina to occur which fixes everything, but in a way that would even further nullify any point to the book. Marvel really wants to have its cake and eat it too.

  7. I think most people who hate this book have yet to read an issue, or did so without paying any real attention, purely so they could counter the point I just made.

  8. I dislike Arena conceptually. Quite strongly so. But at the same time, I have been keeping an eye on it because of some of the characters, and have found it undeniable that it’s well-made, with strong character writing.

    That’s not enough to get me over the concept of this series, but it’s made me extremely excited about Undercover, which will hopefully carry on with the same, but built around a concept that I actually find very intriguing.

  9. I think most people who hate this book have yet to read an issue, or did so without paying any real attention, purely so they could counter the point I just made.

    If the publisher’s own description of its publication is offensive, that’s all the potential buyer needs to know. A madman forcing teenagers to fight to the death–that description doesn’t even hint at any redeeming aspects. There’s no more obligation to read an issue to see if it’s as bad as the description implies than there is to watch a slasher film to see if people actually die in it.

    SRS

  10. I’ve read the first two TPBs, and they were great. Really engaging. I look forward to the third, and I expect I’ll pick up Avengers Undercover on a monthly basis.

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