Basement X

So, quick recap up to the end of issue 5.
Arcade has somehow assembled several young superhero's or hero's in training on to an island of presumably his creation. He has been shown to be god-like on this island and his demand to which he is ransoming his captives is a Battle Royal payment. Only one will go free and it will be the person left standing.

We got a nice back story to two of the Avengers Academy kids, which made for an emotional reason for why we should care in the closing panels of issue 1.
We've been introduced to every character now, with back stories for those that aren't familiar to us (Braddock Academy kids and Death Locket) and reminders of characters like X-23 and the Runnaways kids. I'm guessing that maybe the Braddock Academy kids were featured in Avengers Academy as a sister academy in England?

It seems that all the kids intend to beat the game together, but at the same time they have split up into sub-groups.

Oh and yes, there have a been a few deaths so far!

Anyway...

Avengers Arena #6

I loved this issue. Great character moments and set-up for the ending of this issue. A bit of nasty strategy from one particular member of a group and some character growth that has led to a decisive moment in the book.

Who else is reading this? Chris I'm guessing you're still reading this. I know you won't a fan of what happened in #1, but the book is gooooood.

I'm still reading it. I definitely wasn't happy with issue 1 or 2, but 3-6 have been pretty top notch. The final page of 6 actually had me yell out "holy fuck!" I was definitely not expecting that to happen.

The other growing problem is that most of these characters are still pretty unknown to us yet they act as if we should know who they are. I can understand with Boom!'s Deathmatch how it works there, none of the characters have appeared before so they know you won't have emotional connection with the characters. Yet here it gets annoying not knowing these characters and you get just a single issue with info on them but that's really it. I would love for them to do a spinoff prequel of the Braddock Academy most of the characters came from, that'd be awesome.

So, you've never heard of the Braddock Academy either?

Do you reckon once they get through the Arcade arc, the book will change back to Avengers Academy?

I think the Braddock Academy was introduced in Uncanny X-Force.

Not according to the Marvel Wikia (http://marvel.wikia.com/Braddock_Academ ... rth-616%29). It may have been mentioned but it's first appearance wasn't until Avengers Arena, just like all the characters from there weren't introduced until here.

Are you reading this as well Arn?

Cam might be reading it too, but since he picks his books up every two months, it's unlikely we'll hear a peep from him.

Chris, how are you enjoying it now that we've reached issue #9?

AVENGERS ARENA #9
Writer: Dennis Hopeless
Artist: Kev Walker

This is part 2 or 3 of a new storyline.
In issue 7, I think it was the one-shot issue explaining how Arcade got really powerful and set everything up. It was a bit of a stretch, but it serves it's purpose since the real story isn't about Arcade it's about how these kids will deal with the situation they are in.
Issue 8, all I can remember for the moment was the cliffhanger revelation at the end, which takes us too...

... the revelation of who really has been behind recent mysterious and tragic events and how. Plus, further tragedy and for-looming events for next issue.
One of the big mysteries here is who all the characters are, which comes back to what Chris mentioned earlier about not knowing much about the Braddock Academy lot.
I think Hopeless gave us a good issue here, but I think it would have been alright to have been introduced to a bit of Apex's powers in earlier issues. I don't think the entirety of this issues revelation needed to quite have Apex's power completely masked.
It was a nice revelation issue all the same.

I'm still mostly enjoying it. It doesn't hold a candle to Deathmatch but Hopeless has gotten the swing of the characters. Not happy with who dies in the newest issue, that pissed me off. The backstory/origin in the issue was very well done, though!

Yeah I thought you wouldn't like the death. From what you've said, I gather every other character has come from another book, except the Braddock Academy lot.
Just to check, other than the Braddock lot, the rest of the cast come from:
- Avengers Academy (Reptil, X-23)
- Runaways (Chase and Nico)
- girl from Annihilation space stories

I know there's more still alive and the dead ones, but I can't think of their names.

I'm enjoying this book a lot. It's one of the ones I look forward to the most each month. I'm curious where this book is ultimately heading. Inevitably, there are going to be a few more deaths and Arcade will have to be confronted... then what.
Plus, I assume we are assume that the whole AA story takes place over a month maximum, because there's been bugger all awareness from characters in other stories as to where the missing people have gone! I'm assuming that after this current story, or at the end of it, we'll start to get a glimpse of the outside world doing some investigations.

For story purposes, it just occured to me that they may use the health meter to mislead you later on. I think fully empty bars does mean death. It's a nice visual aid to display certain death. As such, I can imagine that one of the future deaths, maybe Nico since she's magic, will make use of the meter to show us her death, but then in a later scene put question marks in her meter or something visually different than the empty white cells or the red cells.

I've read the whole series recently, after having read the whole Avengers Academy. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Now I'm waiting for a comixology sale to get Avengers Undercover.

I at first hated Avengers Arena but it turned into a good series. Avengers Undercover was pretty unique premise that didn't give away too much too early, it was a nice follow-up that was killed too early.