Life in the Games: A Look at Avengers Arena

WARNING: This article contains some spoilers for Avengers Arena

Few books have garnered as much hate and disdain in recent memory as Avengers Arena. Billed as “The Hunger Games with Superheroes”, the series directed by Dennis Hopeless focused on a group of sixteen young heroes who were forced to fight to the death by the maniacal Arcade. The series was based off of a single story arc Hopeless had planned for a group of young heroes and was expanded to 18 deadly issues. Simultaneously focusing on characterization and spectacle, the title is one of the most noteworthy books from the publisher in years and reflects a great amount of care for their properties. While many may look at Avengers Arena with horror, I look back on the series with a child’s eye, engaged and curious more so than I have been in years.

Avengers Arena started out simple enough. Heck, I even thought the entire book might be a hoax. Arcade, one of the less imposing and yet more famous X-Men villains, was going to try to make it big and take down some heroes. However, unlike the forgetable Avengers Academy: Arcade Death Game arc, he would have a plan. He would elevate himself to a God-like status and prey on the weakest and most vulnerable at the most opportune moment. Gathered together from remote schools around the world, these young heroes would have to fight one another to ensure their own survival. And as the first issue showed, Arcade was playing for keeps.

It took six issues for Dennis Hopeless to guarantee I’d stick the whole series out. The first issue was tremendous, the second issue continued the trend, and so on. But issue six. That was the one. Hopeless created new characters that had me caring, had me feeling for them in a matter of issues. By creating the Braddock Academy, Hopeless did more for British superheroes than had been done in years. He made the world real and showed that just like in America, the rest of the world is training for tomorrow. Kid Briton above all stole the show early for me. A sharp design, mean characterization, and interesting origin made me care. And Hopeless would do the same with the rest, from Apex to Cullen Bloodstone. So when I got to the end of issue six, I was hooked. Kid Briton was dead. What was next?

But it wasn’t just creating new characters that Dennis Hopeless excelled at. He managed to take a multitude of established Marvel characters and treat them with dignity and respect. In the first issue, he focuses attention on Hazmat and Mettle of the Avengers Academy. Their relationship is given time to flourish. As a longtime fan of Avengers Academy, I was happy to see that they continued to develop naturally. They felt like the people I had grown to love. Because of that, it was all the more heart-wrenching when at the end of the first issue, Mettle is killed by Arcade. I couldn’t believe it. This character whose story I had grown to love ended right in front of me.

And that is where I applaud Dennis Hopeless and Marvel. Mettle deserved to die. He was a worthy character and had some good stories behind him, but he had his time. Sales had proven that he was not their most marketable player in the field. By using him as a message at the end of issue one, readers had a reason to care. I have supported the books Marvel publishes about their younger characters for years. But few others do. Sales are consistently low and yet they keep trying. So yes, I think it was smart and innovative of them to use the characters in this way. They could tell a much better story in death than by lingering in limbo. And you know what? Hopeless made sure he told that story to the best of his abilities. I never felt robbed of a character or cheated. I instead felt that these characters last moments were handled with love and care. They were some of the best of their careers.

By the end of the story, Dennis Hopeless exposed the roots of these characters. They had gone from heroes to scared children to adults. Everybody except for Red Raven had been given a character defining moment (And let’s be honest, nobody cared). Emerging from the ashes came new stories and new ideas that we have not seen explored. Heroes as victims in the media. Youth corrupted by society. The downfall of those we held dearest to us. It’s an exciting new world for these heroes, and as Dennis Hopeless and Kev Walker lead us into their next project, Avengers Undercover, I have nothing but the highest expectations. Please give this book a chance. It is daring and remarkably original in the world of comics, and well worth the investment.