AVENGERS ARENA #1
by Dennis Hopeless and Kev Walker
It's the Avengers Royale! No, it's the Hunger Arena! No, it's... AVENGERS ARENA!
Avengers Arena is a surprisingly well done book. It embraces its influences like "The Hunger Games" and "Battle Royale" (Arcade even reveals he got the idea for the game from some books). It was a welcome surprise, despite the Battle Royale-esque cover (You'd think I could judge a book by it's cover). The story of the book is simple. Superpowered teens fight to the death. Now, I was expecting a brawl fest without any story, and found a layered and emotional (sometimes heartbreaking) tale. Hopeless focuses on the character of Hazmat who (I assume) is our Katniss or Shuya. Hazmat is an unexpectedly great lead, who gets all up in your feels (emotions). However, the book's biggest strength is the fact that Hopeless (ironic, huh?) hits the ground running and kills off one fan-favorite character at the end of the book. I kind of wished that Hopeless established the other characters a bit more, but I guess he's switching his character focus with each issue.
My only exposure to Kev Walker's art was in "Invincible" by Robert Kirkman, and I gotta say: BLARGHABLARGH THAT WAS AWESOME. Walker's art really helps sell the emotion of the characters and works splendidly alongside Hopeless's well... Hopeless story.
Avengers Arena #1 is an awesome book that successfully sells the HOPELESSness of the character's situation, and with great art like this, it's a definite buy.
STORY: 4.5/5
ART: 5/5
VERDICT: 4.5/5
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