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I am wrath, I am hate, I am righteous vengeance
Or, the worst thing Marvel has done recently is way worse than any of the terrible things DC has done recently. Vague spoilers, mostly for the general premise of Avengers Arena.
[insert perfect red lantern-themed macro here that I swear I saw once but can't remember where, I legit just spent an hour looking for that, whatever]
So. Avengers Arena.
Is terrible.
And yet strangely compelling, I can't stop hate-reading it.
Help.
(I just need to know what happens to Laura SHE IS MY FAVOURITE and like literally Wolverine-indestructible so it's not like I should be super worried except this comic is THE WORST and I'm pretty sure holds stuff like character integrity and comics history in zero regard, so.)
Firstly, because this is somehow bothering me even more than the comic itself, Brett White @ CBR wrote:
Okay, ignoring that last part because seriously, no, can we talk about the part in bold for a minute? Because a) IT IS NOT A CRIME TO CARE ABOUT CHARACTERS IN FICTION. IN FACT, IT'S KIND OF THE FUCKING POINT. YOU ARE NOT SUPERIOR FOR CARING MORE ABOUT PLOT/EXECUTION/~CRAFTSMANSHIP THAN ABOUT CHARACTERS, AND VICE VERSA. And b) THE REASON I HATE AVENGERS ARENA IS BECAUSE OF ITS EXECUTION. It is a terrible book. It is a terrible book whose premise is pastede on yay in what honestly comes off as a shallow attempt to cash in on any popular YA trend and sell comics based entirely on shock value. It embodies the very worst that people mean when they talk about ~dark and edgy.
But also, okay, let's talk about that premise. I ... didn't go into this series expecting to love it (SHOCKINGLY I READ IT BECAUSE I CARE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS, OH NO I'M DOING COMICS FANDOM WRONG HELP), but I did go into it with an open mind. I mean, I liked Hunger Games? And Lord of the Flies? And ... I never actually read Battle Royale, but I'm sure it's nifty? But apart from pretty much lifting the premise of those works wholesale, I'm not sure Avengers Arena actually understood any of them. Because, okay, here's the thing - the place where AA falls down, apart from being generally terrible and ruining everything: They're not actually fighting for their lives.
I mean, the book tells us they are? But apart from Arcade, in the first issue, going hey kill each other because I said so, in 30 days only one of you is walking out of here also because I said so I guess, ps. I'm never going to elaborate on that so just take it at face value, there is no good reason for, like, five or six people to be dead already. Like, obviously ~Murder World (not even kidding this is what it's called in canon) is trying to kill them and they're all distrustful of one another or w/e, but they seriously start trying to kill each other in, like, the second fucking issue. Let me just repeat that: WITHIN ALL OF AN HOUR OF BEING KIDNAPPED BY ARCADE AND BEING TOLD TO KILL EACH OTHER (BUT NEVER EVEN REMOTELY FORCED TO, I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW LITTLE ACTUAL COERCION THERE IS ON THE WHOLE 'KILL EACH OTHER BECAUSE REASONS' FRONT) THESE CHARACTERS - THESE HERO CHARACTERS, CHARACTERS WE LOVE AND KNOW AS GOOD PEOPLE WHO REGULARLY SAVE THE WORLD - ARE ALL LIKE WHELP OKAY GUESS I BETTER KILL SOME FOLKS THEN.
ALSO WHO THE FUCK IS ARCADE (I mean I know who Arcade is, w/e) HE IS A FUCKING JOKE, EVEN AVENGERS ARENA ACKNOWLEDGES THAT HE'S A D-LIST VILLAIN WHO HAS NEVER ONCE SMOOTHLY EXECUTED AN ACTUAL PLAN, BUT APPARENTLY NOW HE'S A CRIMINAL FUCKING MASTERMIND CAPABLE NOT ONLY OF TAKING OUT SOME OF THE HEAVY HITTERS IN THE NEXT GEN OF SUPERHEROES, BUT OF SOMEHOW MANIPULATING THEM INTO TAKING OUT EACH OTHER? SORRY, BUT NO.
And I could go into how I hate Hopeless' attitude to basically everything and how his whole thing about how ~death is meaningful is bullshit because the premise is cheap and the deaths are cheap and how it's the opposite of meaningful to kill an established and beloved character in what is essentially a gimmick title instead of in their own titles where it might actually have an impact, and how also P.S. it's possible to have meaningful and horrible and even permanent consequences for characters beyond just killing them, which I'm not sure he gets, but. Suffice it to say that Hopeless first ruined a bunch of characters I loved and is now in the process of killing them.
And I can't stop reading it.
Fuck you, comics.
[insert perfect red lantern-themed macro here that I swear I saw once but can't remember where, I legit just spent an hour looking for that, whatever]
So. Avengers Arena.
Is terrible.
And yet strangely compelling, I can't stop hate-reading it.
Help.
(I just need to know what happens to Laura SHE IS MY FAVOURITE and like literally Wolverine-indestructible so it's not like I should be super worried except this comic is THE WORST and I'm pretty sure holds stuff like character integrity and comics history in zero regard, so.)
Firstly, because this is somehow bothering me even more than the comic itself, Brett White @ CBR wrote:
A big death occurred in "Avengers Arena" #10, causing shockwaves which are surely still being felt throughout the relevant hashtags on Tumblr and Twitter. This happens every single time a character dies, so it's nothing new. And a book like "Avengers Arena" is built on the promise of death, so it's not particularly shocking that this happened. The only thing that would actually be shocking is if comic book fans focused on the actual craft being executed and not the characters.
I say all of this because "Avengers Arena" is one of the best comics on the stands today.
Okay, ignoring that last part because seriously, no, can we talk about the part in bold for a minute? Because a) IT IS NOT A CRIME TO CARE ABOUT CHARACTERS IN FICTION. IN FACT, IT'S KIND OF THE FUCKING POINT. YOU ARE NOT SUPERIOR FOR CARING MORE ABOUT PLOT/EXECUTION/~CRAFTSMANSHIP THAN ABOUT CHARACTERS, AND VICE VERSA. And b) THE REASON I HATE AVENGERS ARENA IS BECAUSE OF ITS EXECUTION. It is a terrible book. It is a terrible book whose premise is pastede on yay in what honestly comes off as a shallow attempt to cash in on any popular YA trend and sell comics based entirely on shock value. It embodies the very worst that people mean when they talk about ~dark and edgy.
But also, okay, let's talk about that premise. I ... didn't go into this series expecting to love it (SHOCKINGLY I READ IT BECAUSE I CARE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS, OH NO I'M DOING COMICS FANDOM WRONG HELP), but I did go into it with an open mind. I mean, I liked Hunger Games? And Lord of the Flies? And ... I never actually read Battle Royale, but I'm sure it's nifty? But apart from pretty much lifting the premise of those works wholesale, I'm not sure Avengers Arena actually understood any of them. Because, okay, here's the thing - the place where AA falls down, apart from being generally terrible and ruining everything: They're not actually fighting for their lives.
I mean, the book tells us they are? But apart from Arcade, in the first issue, going hey kill each other because I said so, in 30 days only one of you is walking out of here also because I said so I guess, ps. I'm never going to elaborate on that so just take it at face value, there is no good reason for, like, five or six people to be dead already. Like, obviously ~Murder World (not even kidding this is what it's called in canon) is trying to kill them and they're all distrustful of one another or w/e, but they seriously start trying to kill each other in, like, the second fucking issue. Let me just repeat that: WITHIN ALL OF AN HOUR OF BEING KIDNAPPED BY ARCADE AND BEING TOLD TO KILL EACH OTHER (BUT NEVER EVEN REMOTELY FORCED TO, I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW LITTLE ACTUAL COERCION THERE IS ON THE WHOLE 'KILL EACH OTHER BECAUSE REASONS' FRONT) THESE CHARACTERS - THESE HERO CHARACTERS, CHARACTERS WE LOVE AND KNOW AS GOOD PEOPLE WHO REGULARLY SAVE THE WORLD - ARE ALL LIKE WHELP OKAY GUESS I BETTER KILL SOME FOLKS THEN.
ALSO WHO THE FUCK IS ARCADE (I mean I know who Arcade is, w/e) HE IS A FUCKING JOKE, EVEN AVENGERS ARENA ACKNOWLEDGES THAT HE'S A D-LIST VILLAIN WHO HAS NEVER ONCE SMOOTHLY EXECUTED AN ACTUAL PLAN, BUT APPARENTLY NOW HE'S A CRIMINAL FUCKING MASTERMIND CAPABLE NOT ONLY OF TAKING OUT SOME OF THE HEAVY HITTERS IN THE NEXT GEN OF SUPERHEROES, BUT OF SOMEHOW MANIPULATING THEM INTO TAKING OUT EACH OTHER? SORRY, BUT NO.
And I could go into how I hate Hopeless' attitude to basically everything and how his whole thing about how ~death is meaningful is bullshit because the premise is cheap and the deaths are cheap and how it's the opposite of meaningful to kill an established and beloved character in what is essentially a gimmick title instead of in their own titles where it might actually have an impact, and how also P.S. it's possible to have meaningful and horrible and even permanent consequences for characters beyond just killing them, which I'm not sure he gets, but. Suffice it to say that Hopeless first ruined a bunch of characters I loved and is now in the process of killing them.
And I can't stop reading it.
Fuck you, comics.
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yeah, Marvel and I are going through a thing right now, sometimes I just want to break up with them forever. Sigh.
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Comics :(