"The End" Week: Avengers Arena #18!

We mentioned before in our strip with Arcade that his track record had been pretty bad, up to this series; and today might be his high point. From 2013 early 2014, Avengers Arena #18, "Boss Level, part 5 of 5" Credits per the GCD: written by Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum (credited as Dennis Hopeless), pencils by Kevin Walker (credited as Kev Walker), inks by Kevin Walker and Jason Gorder.

Murder World--that's a misnomer, it's really an island--had started with sixteen young heroes forced to fight to the death, and five were down as we enter the endgame. Apex, Death Locket, and Chris Powell (Darkhawk, without his amulet and powers) had nearly cornered Arcade, but he teleported out, then convinced Apex that she was this close to winning this thing, and if she did she could set the narrative. With Chris down and Death Locket under her control, Apex turns Murder World's weapons on the remaining heroes, many of whom were fighting each other on the beach. Hazmat lost control of her powers and was going to blow, but Reptil scoops her into the ocean, saving the others.

As Arcade's weapons prepare to swarm the remaining heroes, Apex tells Death Locket she will be sad to sacrifice her, her "favorite toy," which sparks DL to fight back. That gives Apex's other personality, Tim, the chance to take over, and he begs Death Locket to kill him before his sister Katy kills everyone, and as the weapons shut down on the beach, you can see she did. Now the survivors are left with one order of business: getting their stories straight. This probably isn't a great idea, but understandable: the kids didn't think they would be blamed for any of Arcade's evil crap, but didn't want to be turned into a story, either.

On day 30 of Murder World, the surviving heroes (including Hazmat and probably Reptil, and Chris gets his amulet back) are rescued by S.H.I.E.L.D. and some of the heroes whose schools they had been abducted from, like Wolverine and Captain Britain. But while the kids keep quiet, that leaves the door open for speculation, and manipulation; as Arcade posts "Murder World truther" style videos, to discredit the heroes that let the kids down. There may be a grain of truth in that, but still. 

"Murder World" is spelled with a space throughout this issue; I'm used to it being "Murderworld." Like Westworld! Hopeless finishes the issue with a text feature, how he wanted to do a superhero school title, with maybe a school vs. school tournament around the third story arc, but Tom Brevoort and Axel Alonso said no, go with that. There would be more though, as Avengers Undercover was next. This was a fun series, even if I feel like it did Darkhawk dirty: he's like the 23-year-old that has to sit at the little kids' table for holiday dinner, and the kids all think there must be something wrong with him, otherwise why would he be at the kids' table?