Avengers Arena #5, 6, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Kev Walker (artist), Frank Martin (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - What do you think is more relevant on the cover, that Hazmat's giving everyone cancer by not wearing her containment suit, or that Darkhawk hasn't quite mastered using starfish as part of a swimsuit?Arcade wants things to get hopping, so he cranks up the natural disasters. There are safe zones, one of which has a box full of food and medicine. During this announcement, Nico and Chase save Cammi from an avalanche. Walker has a nice bit where the middle panel is of Cammi about to get buried, then below it are two panels. On the left, Nico casting a protective spell, on the right Cammi inside the "snow globe" as the snow covers it. What I like is that not only does the staff cross over from one panel to the next, but some of the energy from it moves in a line between the two panels with Cammi. It's like she was trying to outrun the snow in the first panel, then passed through the energy on her way to the later panel, and that's how she was encased. Anyway, after that, she wants to work together with the Runaways, and they agree. Go, teamwork!
Elsewhere, Reptil's sort of up and moving, and tells Hazmat and X-23 it was Death Locket who fried him not Chase. Before they can really do much with this, Hazmat trips a trap loaded with a trigger scent, which sends X-23 into a killing fury, forcing the two Young Avengers to flee. I'm not really clear on the trigger scent. I get Weapon X used it to make her kill, but does it throw her into a complete fury, where anyone she meets is dead, or just anyone covered with that scent? I'm guessing the latter, since it effectively wrecks that trio, and probably leaves her scared to approach anyone else, either. Walker does a good job there, too. She looks so out of it, with the red eyes and the drooling, but also tortured, because Arcade's just forced her to stay away from her friends. Credit to Frank Martin for the red eyes, too. They're disturbing, in a way that makes them both scary, but also haunting when she looks devastated in the middle panel of page 8 of #6.
I thought this stuff was mostly incidental and I'd move through it quickly to the main show, the Braddock Academy bunch. So much for that. So Kid Briton is a complete jerk, who was dating Apex, but also fooling around with Nara on the side. Bloodstone and Anachronism were a couple of his punching bags. Anachronism is probably strong enough to take him, but unwilling to really use that power. Apex has some kind of hold over Death Locket, making her shoot Nara in the back and over a cliff. Nara wants revenge, and she also wants Anachronism (I'm going to stick with "Aiden" from this point forward) to stop holding back, stop pretending any urges to fight are the warlock which possesses him (allegedly). This argument is cut short by Arcade teleporting them to the box of goodies, just as their three compadres reach it. Cue Nara going after Apex, Cullen finding a bazooka amongst the tasty cakes to keep Death Locket out of it, and Briton getting his dander up and attacking Nara. At which point, Aiden jumps in a decapitates him. Well then.
There are certain things coming that I can see pretty easily. Chase is going to activate the Darkhawk armor at some point, which will lead Cammi (and maybe Nico) to suspect he's the one who took Darkhawk out. Actually, Cammi will suspect it was a dual effort. Either way, that's another alliance shattered. Apex is a little harder to figure out. I'm already pretty sure that bit about her only power being to fly (slowly), was a load of crap. She's some sort of technopath, like Machinesmith, which is why she can control Death Locket, take out a Sentinel, and Darkhawk (I'm sorry, I refuse to buy that a Deathlok has enough juice to do either of those things). The question is, what's she up to? I can't decide whether she's doing what she thinks she must to survive, and Arcade's taking advantage, if she has some larger plan in mind, or if she's working with Arcade. Assuming it is Arcade. In issue 5, there's some sort of wire or tubing running from off panel up inside his coat. Not sure what that is.
Then there's Aiden. Now that he's let loose and killed a guy, where does he go from here? Does he try to blame it on the warlock, absolving himself of blame, does he get so terrified of himself he refuses to use his power, or does he turn into a big, swaggering alpha male dimwit like the one he just killed? It'll be interesting, the bullied nerd has power now, what does he do with it?
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