‘Avengers’ Meets ‘Battle Royale’ In ‘Avengers Arena’
This December, Marvel plays on America’s love for teen-on-teen murder with Avengers Arena from writer Dennis Hopeless (X-Men: Season One) and artist Kev Walker (Thunderbolts).
From MTV Geek:
Trapped on an isolated island, 16 superhuman young adults (including members of the Runaways, The Avengers Academy and Darkhawk) are given a chilling ultimatum by their demented captor: Fight or die…only one will walk out alive! Thus begins a primal battle that will test the skills, stamina and morals of each combatant. Welcome to Murder World, where the secrets are plenty, alliances are fleeting, and the key to victory might be rewriting the rules of the game. Who will survive?
“These kids were chosen carefully and with specific story beats in mind. We definitely plan on taking advantage of the broad personality spectrum we have in play,” explained Dennis Hopeless in an interview with Marvel.com. “Even the characters who die off early make their mark on the story. I didn’t throw anyone into the book as cannon fodder.”
Mutant teens sent onto an island to kill each other with their superpowers? I’m down. I just hope this doesn’t signal the beginning of a “Battle Royal EVERYTHING” trend where senseless teen violence gets constantly shoved down our throats while countless properties ride the hype train. Part of what made Battle Royale so great was the initial shock and horror of what the kids went through, but also the intimate human moments dealing with their relationships with each other before coming the island and the moral dilemmas that come along with being forced to murder your friends.
It’s the sort of concept that’s pretty easy to get desensitized to, so hopefully Marvel takes it in some sort of new direction other than the whole superpower thing.
Buy: Battle Royale: The Complete Collection on Blu-ray
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