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Who Will Survive the AVENGERS ARENA?

Marvel is showing that becoming an Avenger won't be as easy as it used to be.

Marvel has always had numerous titles featuring the younger characters in the Marvel Universe. We've had titles such as NEW MUTANTS, NEW X-MEN and recently AVENGERS ACADEMY. While it wasn't always a walk in the park for the younger characters, it was safe for the most part. Some have seen their share of violence but that will be nothing compared to what's coming up.

Last week we saw the mysterious teaser with blood splattered letters but no clue what it was about. Today, Marvel has revealed what that means.

No Caption Provided

Dennis Hopeless and Kev Walker will be giving us AVENGERS ARENA. What the heck is that about? It's going to be about death.

Arcade, the funny guy with a bowtie that previously was responsible for kidnapping people and putting them in his Murderworld will be targeting 16 young heroes. Murderworld is moving to its own island. According to Marvel:

There’s only one item on the itinerary for this nightmarish getaway: Kill or be killed.
== TEASER ==
No Caption Provided

Sounds a little like...The Hunger Games but I'm actually okay with that.

In an interview with Hopeless, he points out that in the past, there weren't really a lot of murders happening in Arcade's Murderworld.

I don't want to give too much away, but I can promise a lot of murder in this new Murder World.

Who will the contestants be? You can see from the image above that we will finally see the return of Darkhawk! Hopefully he'll be able to survive. We'll also be seeing X-23, Hazmat, Mettle, Reptil from AVENGERS ACADEMY and Nico and Chase from RUNAWAYS among others.

Maybe it's not such a good thing that these characters are returning in this series. This will definitely be an interesting read. Let's hope we don't see too many senseless killings of our favorite characters.

Read more over at Marvel.

211 Comments

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LordTerminal

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Edited By LordTerminal

@Ravager4 said:

Marvel clearly does not care about these characters or their fans... If they did, they wouldn't be lining these characters up to murder each other in mass quantities.

Agreed. They don't wanna write for these characters so they say "let's just kill them off in our answer to Deadman Wonderland." This is the same mentality I got from Secret Invasion. Fuck you Marvel. You just lost a customer. I'm going back to indie comics now.

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xgirl

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Edited By xgirl

hey look its another story where hero fight hero.

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Cafeterialoca

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Edited By Cafeterialoca

@Outside_85 said:

@Cafeterialoca: What premise? :D (seriously, I cant remember if there is one other than to kill some kids and make a villain no one cares about look cool...urg, beginning to remind me of Deathstrokes Titans killing the Atom)

I know, and it's Arcade of all villains. UGH!

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rav4

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Edited By rav4

Marvel clearly does not care about these characters or their fans... If they did, they wouldn't be lining these characters up to murder each other in mass quantities.

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Outside_85

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Edited By Outside_85

@Cafeterialoca: What premise? :D (seriously, I cant remember if there is one other than to kill some kids and make a villain no one cares about look cool...urg, beginning to remind me of Deathstrokes Titans killing the Atom)

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Cafeterialoca

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Edited By Cafeterialoca

@Outside_85: I already tweeted him before. He was respectful and understanding. I just don't like the premise or what this series is seeking to accomplish.

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Outside_85

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Edited By Outside_85

@Cafeterialoca: well if you want to try you can mail Hopeless at hopelessarena@gmail.com (is for the Q&A/comments section of the book) or tweet him at @hopelessdent on twitter

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Cafeterialoca

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Edited By Cafeterialoca

@Outside_85 said:

@Cafeterialoca: I guess so...and wth those two were teammates?! Seems like this is book only meant to upset people. :S

Exactly! Those two are teammates in Avengers Academy, and now Hazmat could be dead by the second issue!

It's really a book I want no part of.

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Outside_85

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Edited By Outside_85

@Cafeterialoca: I guess so...and wth those two were teammates?! Seems like this is book only meant to upset people. :S

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Cafeterialoca

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Edited By Cafeterialoca

@Outside_85 said:

@Cafeterialoca: Actually if you want to know, someone one twitter or in an interview said they had seen some of the first pages and apparently X-23 is going to provide evidence that 'shite's gotten real', which is what I got from the line "Her healing factor will be severely tested." (Which happens to be what I dreaded was the reason for her presence)

You mean these pages?

No Caption Provided

Honestly? I'm really scared for Hazmat. REALLY scared for her.

This is just graphic and sad, and I really don't like it. If they kill Hazmat, I'll rage, and then completely ignore this book from now on, cause it is bullcrap.

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Teerack

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Edited By Teerack

I really hope this book gets canceled before it has a chance to ruin all of the great characters from avengers academy.

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Outside_85

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Edited By Outside_85

@Cafeterialoca: Actually if you want to know, someone one twitter or in an interview said they had seen some of the first pages and apparently X-23 is going to provide evidence that 'shite's gotten real', which is what I got from the line "Her healing factor will be severely tested." (Which happens to be what I dreaded was the reason for her presence)

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tomlikesfries

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Edited By tomlikesfries

Looking forward to this title!

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Target_X

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Edited By Target_X

Why are they doing this? I just have this sick feeling they're going to kill off Laura, not to mention Niko and Chase. The hint is in "The Braddock Academy kids are going to break some peoples hearts." Wtf? Why would say that, do that to your fans?

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punkpuppy3

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Edited By punkpuppy3

I can see this being like an arc but not an ongoing series :P

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rav4

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Edited By rav4

Well, after reading another recent interview on this, I have to say I in no way feel better about it... if anything, I feel worse. The creators were pretty much stating that the book was to give Arcade his rep back, since no one ever really died in Murder World... so yeah, most (if not all, which they could have been implying...) of these characters are going to die, regardless of their fanbase. Guys, if your'e a fan of any of these characters, might as well write your dirges now. As for me, I can effectively say I will never pick up a Marvel book, least of all this one. I don't want to know anything about this book, what happens in it, nothing. I'm just going to pretend it doesn't exist.

And, on a side note, I just cannot get over the whole "their deaths all serve the story and have meaning" garbage they keep trying to feed us... it doesn't matter how well written, how heartbreaking, how much meaning their deaths have to the story, because, in the end, their deaths are the whole purpose. It doesn't matter what kind of development you give these characters, what kinds of changes they go through, or anything they learn through the course of the story, because that all becomes pointless once they die, thus eliminating the possibility of telling anymore stories about them and the development they went through.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, ignoring all things Marvel.

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Cafeterialoca

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Edited By Cafeterialoca

@Aero_gt: No, it's 616. The writer wants it to be painful.

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Yung ANcient One

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Edited By Yung ANcient One

Who's the guy with the Axe he looks interesting.

( + )

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VioletPhoenix

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Edited By VioletPhoenix

And may the odds be ever in your favor..

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Bitchgurl

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Edited By Bitchgurl

Other than the funny Battle Royale cover, not much here  draws  my interest 

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deactivated-5c1d15b8899b0

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Avengers Academy Arena = Teen Titans-The Culling.. so Original.........

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Aero_gt

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Edited By Aero_gt

I wouldn't fret too much though the character that "die" may not even be part of the 616 realm or something with science and magic.

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Cafeterialoca

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Edited By Cafeterialoca

@Loki9876: I think it'll be, Mettle takes the death blow intended for Hazmat. Hazmat starts losing it. Hazmat blows up Murderworld, and kills herself in the process, but SURPRISE, Arcade is still alive with a Troll face. Ugh.

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Loki9876

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Edited By Loki9876

@Cafeterialoca: Yes, this is also what I thought I think they might die together as a couple.

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Cafeterialoca

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Edited By Cafeterialoca

@Ravager4: I read all of Academy thus far, and seeing that 5 of the kids are in this book is just disheartening.

@Loki9876: Hazmat and Mettle are the only couple on this whole group. They are going to either both die or one die and destroy the other. There is no middle ground and Marvel makes relationships end horribly all the time.

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Loki9876

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@Cafeterialoca: I don't want them dead if that was said to me I just think that might happen.

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rav4

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Edited By rav4

@Cafeterialoca: I know very little about Hazmat, admittedly. The only thing I've ever read of her was in the Academy issues where the Runaways guest starred (which I read solely for that purpose), and I remember Nico's interactions with Hazmat being pretty funny.

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Cafeterialoca

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Edited By Cafeterialoca

@Ravager4: I know. Hazmat on that lineup is also Asian. But if this is a kill book, this might be her time to go Kaboom. That will really crush me.

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rav4

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Edited By rav4

@Cafeterialoca: huh, and I thought I was just really not that versed in Marvel's characters. They're really the two most popular Asian characters? xD I really can't think of any others.

And I suppose that is a good point, and what with the talks of there possibly being a Runaways movie eventually... I guess that makes me feel a little bit better, but I'm still not getting my hopes up just to have them crushed later on.

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Cafeterialoca

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Edited By Cafeterialoca

@Ravager4: Psylocke is number 1.

But yeah, I could see X-23 dying as a shock death. But they can't kill Nico unless they want to permanently put down Runaways. There is no team without her.

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Edited By rav4

@Cafeterialoca: As much as I'd like to believe that, it wouldn't surprise me at all for them to a pull "oh, bet you didn't see that one coming!" in having people like Nico or X-23 die out of nowhere.

Though I'm curious as to how you figure she's the second most popular Asian character in Marvel xD And who's the first, in that case?

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Cafeterialoca

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Edited By Cafeterialoca

@Ravager4: I've been a Marvel fan, and this is the title that's making me squirm. I really love Mettle and Hazmat, and seeing them in this book just tells me that they will have a sad ending. After everything they endured.

Though, Nico is safe. The 2nd most popular Asian in Marvel will not die. Chase on the other hand probably will meet Gert again soon...

I think Marvel NOW Is just to gritty feeling for me. The only title that I'm looking forward to is FF, and people already want that to fail because it's light hearted.

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rav4

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Edited By rav4

@Cafeterialoca: I've never really been into Marvel that much, but when I read the Runaways and grew attached to those characters, I really felt like giving Marvel a chance, and I've been on the fence about jumping on board with them for a while now. I figured Marvel NOW might be a great place to start, but then I saw this, with my favorite Runaways character, Nico, (making her, by default, my favorite overall Marvel character period) being thrust into this mess, and It utterly killed any interest I had with Marvel. The Runaways have been in limbo for a while, and I have this terrible feeling that Nico and Chase were brought in here to die, and I want no part of it. As far as I'm concerned, the real story of the Runaways ended after volume 2, and everything after that is just bad fan fic.

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Cafeterialoca

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Edited By Cafeterialoca

@Ravager4: I agree with you. There's nothing more I hate than potential characters thrown away. I really don't like the direction of Marvel Now because it's sort of "Put all the popular characters around and keep turning out what we've been turning out!"

Where's the new ideas and new themes? I mean, I thought Hazmat, Mettle, and others were bound to go far, and now those two are certainly going to be killed here. And as much as I see praise for X-23, she's more an spin-off Wolverine than new idea.

I'm avoiding this book. I don't want to know who lives or who dies. I'm sure it'll be written very well, but I'm really easy to stress out about the who lives and who dies question.

I'm not sure if I'm more bothered by this book or Thunderbolts completely erasing everything that the Thunderbolts were for a kill squad of popular characters. That latter is a big slap in the face to T-bolts fans for 15 years.

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rav4

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Edited By rav4

@Cafeterialoca: Again, it could be the best written story in the world, but if it ends in the murder of a dozen popular teen heroes, what has really been accomplished? You wrote one good story, but eliminated the possibility of telling any more stories with any of those characters in the future (unless the deaths are retconned, which hopefully they will be).

I really feel like this would be served much better as a "What if...?" story. It would be perfectly fine to explore this outside of canon, because it would have no direct effect on the real universe, but that isn't the case. These are the real characters, and they'll be dying real deaths, and that is just too much for me to stomach.

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Cafeterialoca

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Edited By Cafeterialoca

@Ravager4: I chatted with Hopeless, and he does seem like a cool guy and he does want to write a good story. But again, I just don't like dealing with mass character deaths. I'm still bitter about Cassie Lang's death.

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rav4

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Edited By rav4

On a side note, Gail Simone (via tumblr) does not approve:

Gail Simone said:

anonymous said:

Sorry to bother you, but I'm wondering, have you at all heard about Marvel's upcoming "Avenger's Arena", in which the sole theme of the story is taking some well known and loved teen heroes and forcing them to kill each other? And what are your thoughts, as a writer and one who grows attached to certain characters on something like this? I feel this could only end in angering a lot of fans, no matter how well it's written, as we've already been told that there will be a lot of deaths.

I have not heard of this.

I don’t want to pre-judge something without knowing a thing about it, but I’m pretty sick of death as a selling point for comics. It’s just cheap. I’m not dissing Marvel, DC does it as well.

I can remember reading stories where characters died when I was a kid and being genuinely moved. It’s harder to do that when it’s part of the marketing.

That said, I don’t know who is doing this or if it’s a red herring or what. It could be the best comic on Earth. And a lot of times, creators have nothing to do with how a book is marketed.

But I think saying, “a bunch of characters DIE!” is a pretty sad synopsis for a book, at least it has been every time I experienced it so far.

Well said, Gail. Well said.

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rav4

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Edited By rav4

I'm honestly trying to let this go, but my thoughts keep coming back to it, and I cannot get over how terrible a concept this is. Even though I only have attachment to a couple of characters in the book (one of whom happens to be my favorite Marvel character... sigh), it still turns my gut. No matter what Hopeless says about "Every character having a purpose in the story" even if they die, and not just being thrown in as fodder, it doesn't change the fact that every character in this book who dies was in there for the sole purpose to die, because the entire point of the story is for these characters (teen characters, no less. Yeah, kid snuff books are awesome, right?) to kill each other. So yes, no matter what purpose you give them to the story, they're still nothing but fodder.

Things like Battle Royale or The Hunger Games work for one reason: we don't know the characters. We might learn a bit about them and come to care about them over the course of the story, but we know what we're getting into when we started reading, that most of them were going to die anyway. However, this does not work when you use characters that people have known for the better part of a decade, characters that we have learned about and grown attached to ahead of time. You start taking characters that people already love and already care about, and throw them in a book just to be killed off, and the only thing it is going to accomplish is angering the fans of those characters. It is absolutely sickening to think that Marvel couldn't come up with anything better for these popular teen heroes than to have them kill each other, and I only hope that all of these deaths are retconned as quickly as possible.

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Cafeterialoca

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Edited By Cafeterialoca

@Aero_gt said:

Female Wolverine will either win or be one of the final three. Who has the powers and will to take her?

I wouldn't be surprised if X-23 was killed early so everyone is thrown off guard.

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Cafeterialoca

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Edited By Cafeterialoca

To all the people shouting for the death of characters or how they want certain characters to die, just please keep in mind, every character is someone's favorite.

Personally, I'm going to avoid this book. I'm love Mettle, Hazmat, and a few others, but I just don't want to go through the motions of seeing them killed. That would be too much for me.

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Aero_gt

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Edited By Aero_gt

Female Wolverine will either win or be one of the final three. Who has the powers and will to take her?

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Loki9876

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Edited By Loki9876

I predict Hazmat, Mettle and a bunch of new characters will die.

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SupremeHyperion

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Edited By SupremeHyperion

I do love the battle royal themed look though, great flicks and I'd watch young heroes trying to kill each other. :)

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Namor1987

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Edited By Namor1987

I like this concept.

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Outside_85

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Edited By Outside_85

@sora_thekey: True, but there's probably some marketing type thats said no.

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sora_thekey

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Edited By sora_thekey

@Outside_85 said:

@sora_thekey said:

Why does the title of the book have to have "Avengers" in it?? Couldn't it have been named Murderworld?

There's too many Avengers titles titled Avengers (that sentence is right, as ironic as it may sound)! Come up with better titles!

Putting 'Avengers' in the title just makes it an easier sell...and parents are probably more inclined to get it for their kids.

That said, still a pretty lousy premise thats been done several times already and only two of them that comes to mind seemed to be any good. (And neither of those were comics)

I know that.. Either way it would be a nice change of pace if the title wasn't just Avengers this or Avengers that. It could be titled Avengers: Murderworld...

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Cavemold

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Edited By Cavemold

My question will someone die each issue? I guess that's a good way to get rid of characters

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GillaDro

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Edited By GillaDro

@Cavemold said:

I only care about x-23

this

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Fiona_Hewie

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Edited By Fiona_Hewie

Can't wait to see Darkhawk again.

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Outside_85

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Edited By Outside_85

@sora_thekey said:

Why does the title of the book have to have "Avengers" in it?? Couldn't it have been named Murderworld?

There's too many Avengers titles titled Avengers (that sentence is right, as ironic as it may sound)! Come up with better titles!

Putting 'Avengers' in the title just makes it an easier sell...and parents are probably more inclined to get it for their kids.

That said, still a pretty lousy premise thats been done several times already and only two of them that comes to mind seemed to be any good. (And neither of those were comics)