Previously in Avengers Arena:

• The Runaways formed an alliance with the Avengers Academy, but that kind of fell apart when Reptil was kinda…burned alive, by what seem to be Chase’s flames. Don’t worry Reptil fans (if any are out there) he’s still kicking…sort of.
• Chase finds the Darkhawk amulet and becomes the NEW Darkhawk…wonder how well that is going to go over.

With all this “fun” stuff happening on the island, what will our plucky, angsty, & aggressive heroes get into next?

Here is the summary from Marvel:

The Braddock Academy vs…themselves? • Plus: What is up with Chase and Darkhawk?

This issue focuses more on the illusive Braddock Academy kids. Kid Briton (whose kind of a GIANT douche by the way) is a younger version of Captain Britain from an alternate dimension. As their powers are derived from confidence young Brian saw this truth to mean “become a cocky DICK who has no regard for the well being of others, disrespect authority & cheat on your girlfriend.” (aw kids these days). All the groups begin to traverse the island when Arcade (yea remember him? the guy who brought them there. nice to see him show up after 3 issues) introduces a new element to his “game” he has established “safe zones” in each of the 4 quadrants where the kids can recuperate, but they only appear once; so it becomes a race to see who will claim their supplies, and some of the kids have already begun to turn on each other. Cammi teams up with the Runaways after being saved by them and the Avengers Academy kids rest for a bit when Reptil (still looking like a rare steak) comes to and reveals his attacker…Death Locket.

After a couple issues of character development (albeit dragging down the story), Hopeless has started to amp things back up in the book. The back stories of some of the Braddock kids were nice, seeing as how we know the least about them, and it is interesting to note that basically NONE of them like each other (but with Kid Briton as leader who would?). Having Cammi join Chase and Nico is interesting since she was with Darkhawk and he disappeared, and now Chase has the amulet. Will this affect the new found alliance? I’m thinking yes.

Kev Walker is back doing pencils (last issue was Alessandro Vitti) and while still pretty good, the art is never really an issue in the comic as much as the story. Walker does compliment Hopeless’ script well, as he is good and helping the characters show a wide range of emotions.

Avengers Arena is gearing back up and it will be interesting to see how some of the new alliances and revelations will pay off.

3.5/5