So I just read Avengers Academy and Avengers Arena...

[Trickstvr]

And wow, what an interesting ride. While I thought that Avengers Academy was good, I also felt like it was just being tugged along by Marvel Events and repeating the same angst over and over, but the characters were great and I really loved certain arcs.


Avengers Arena was similarly mixed for me like I appreciate how insane it was, you didn't have a surefire way of knowing who was going to make it out other than maybe X-23 because who the ******** could actually finish her in a normal situation, but at the same time they really went wild there killing off characters like Mettle. I mean damn son. Glad Hazmat is coming back this March in Avengers Undercover though... I don't want the Academy team to fade off into the sunset!

So to those of you who read these two books or maybe just one of them, what did you think? What made you groan or jump for joy, respectively?

I'm interested to hear from some fellow comic geeks.

[Vartox]

I liked Academy for the most part. I agree about it being tugged along by events, I don't read Marvel's events and so having so many crossovers was pretty annoying. I also wasn't thrilled with the move to the West Coast, some of the teacher plots got thrown out when they left and the expanded cast didn't really do the book any favors. Still pretty enjoyable as a whole, but it sure did have flaws.

I thought Arena was pretty terrible, the concept right off the bat sounded stupid and even a little mean spirited, most of the plot and character work was pretty poor, and the focus of the writer's new characters over the established character had me raising an eyebrow. I do like Kev Walker's art but he wasn't at his best with Arena.

I don't think I'm going to bother with Undercover, I might skim the first couple issues or something

[Trickstvr]

Vartox

I will say there seemed to be some serious favoritism going on with his damN Runaways characters (hes a huge Runaways fan boy).... I found it a tad bit suspicious that every other team had some casualties but Chase and Nico make it out unscratched essentially. And yeah I also agree with the poor character development and the plot was sort of weak.

I actually just read Young Avengers as well, and despite the fun of seeing teenage Loki antics I was also just sort of boggled by how convoluted the plot was and how goofy it seemed.. Not sure how I liked it. How about you?

[Vartox]

Trickstvr

Vartox

I will say there seemed to be some serious favoritism going on with his damN Runaways characters (hes a huge Runaways fan boy).... I found it a tad bit suspicious that every other team had some casualties but Chase and Nico make it out unscratched essentially. And yeah I also agree with the poor character development and the plot was sort of weak.

I actually just read Young Avengers as well, and despite the fun of seeing teenage Loki antics I was also just sort of boggled by how convoluted the plot was and how goofy it seemed.. Not sure how I liked it. How about you?

Yeah, nothing bad at all happening due to Nico ******** DYING and resurrecting seemed like a missed opportunity.

I had really been looking forward to Gillen's Young Avengers but it was probably my biggest (comics-related) disappointment of the year. I read the first four or five issues and hated it. I did read a synopsis of the issues I'd missed once it was over but man it just sounded like the whole thing was ultimately pointless. I guess I shouldn't have expected otherwise since the "Style > Substance" spelled that out in the very first issue, though. McKelvie's art was alright but every character has the exact same face, it's a little stiff for a superhero book, and I didn't care one bit for a couple of his redesigns.

It was a shame too since I had really liked the original YA run, and now if they show up anywhere again I assume they'll be based off of the newer versions. Blech

[Trickstvr]

Vartox

Yeah I think YA seemed super self-indulgent to a fault like okay theyre teens but they don't have to act like little pricks the whole time..

[Jin_of_the_thunder]

big fan of Avengers Academy but I absolutely hated Avengers Arena. everything about it was awful from its concept, to the reason why they decided to create the comic. so many cool characters killed off just because marvel didn't want them around for there dumb marvel now relaunch.