Thank God It's Over
Avengers Arena reaches its conclusion, and now can fade into history (ya know, aside from the last few pages setting up the sequel series Avengers Undercover, robbing this series of a satisfactory ending). It's confused, muddled, and just a bit rushed, but there actually were things worth seeing in this final issue.
After getting yet another sycophantic proclamation about how great Arcade is and how his game is so perfect that he didn't need to interfere at all with all the "super cool" (tm) sounding death traps he built into the place, we are reminded just why Katy Bashir is the Annoying Character of the series: she does this in a long winded and egotistical manner.
And that's ignoring the facts of this series put lies to her aggrandizement, which really hammer home that all the agrandizement is really Dennis Hopeless' fanboying a favorite villain rather than anything substantial. I mean, really, Arcade intervened almost half a dozen times in this series to make his game work, basically ruining the first part of the aggrandizement. Then when we hear about all the cool "traps" he could have used, we're reminded that the traps he did use amounted to a collapsed bridge, a flood and TRIGGER SCENT TRIGGER SCENT TRIGGER SCENT.
It also did me the misfortune of reminding me of the Jaws-Rip-off and proto Tremors movie Blood Beach. Thanks a bunch, Dennis.
Hazmat going critical manages to snap everyone out of the plot induced stupidity of the prior issues, and then Katy goes to work actually using the things she mentioned. . . And they turn out to be rather bland, all things considered. But hey, there is a positive to it: Death Locket actually does something!
After basically 16 issues of her being little more than wallpaper, she finally acts and beats the crap out of Apex! Avengers Arena finally got me to cheer for it, because the annoyance was getting her comeuppance. But wait, wasn't Death Locket under Katy's control? Well, for a while now I've noted the sheer inconsistency of Katy's power viability and overall competence. Who knew it would actually be a plot point! Sure, you could say it was Tim fighting her off the whole time or something, but frankly, Dennis Hopeless has not earned that credit given all the other issues of wavering competence and power effectiveness in this series.
What follows is pretty much expected: we get the supposedly tearful speech from Tim to Death Locket to kill him to save everyone else and stop Katy Bashir: the only actual koolaid drinker in the entire game. It's something I've heard far to often and this one didn't do anything new or particularly interesting. Katy's killed by Death Locket off panel and tells the others it's over. Ho hum, really.
Then something weird happens: to save everyone from Hazmat exploding (due to the cuts and stuff---I dunno, just roll with it), Reptil scooped her up and threw her in the ocean. That is phenomenally stupid for a lot of reasons, especially in light of Fukushima Daiichi, but what's really odd is that after all that is done with, Hazmat walks out of the water, perfectly fine and healed up with no explanation.
What?
After all the external continuity gaffs and retcons to powers, I'm almost numbed to this sort of thing from Dennis Hopeless. I'm sure you could no prize it with "Nanomachines!" like the entire "Arcade Super Powers" was, but that's just making the whole cop-out explanation worse.
They then make a pact to not talk about what happened. Meh, I'm indifferent to it.
Following that, we get a bad misappropriated quote from Tsun Tzu. Here, Hopeless is trying to talk about the kids being used as soldiers, but the quote is of Tsun Tzu talking about how to treat your soldiers LIKE Children, the reverse of what he's intending. It's put over an otherwise silent montage which has some effectiveness, mostly due to Kev Walker's art.
We then close on Arcade, robbed of his spotlight by the kids for what happened, he uploads the results to Youtube as his big victory, and firmly killing all non-Hopeless use of the character for the future. Arcade under Hopeless pen has, through his sycophantic fanboyism, made Marvel's Doctor Light. He is robbed of his dynamism, his versatility and entertainment value in favor of shock, schlock, and bland predictability. He has now done something so heinous that the only stories that can be told with him now are basically "look how heinous he is!" and putting him down like a dog.
So, overall, this issue is a 7/10. Why so high? Well, for one, Katy Bashir being beaten up and turning her "Stupid Katy Moment" (the monologue aggrandizing Arcade) into a "Smacked the Hell Up" Award, for when the annoying character gets what's coming to them. For another, there are some effective parts to it in the art department that were lacking in prior issues. Also, it's over!
Though I do feel the urge to go back and complete the review set, if only to "complete the set".
