Post by spiderwasp on Dec 29, 2012 14:15:48 GMT -5
I haven't seen any discussion of this yet so here goes:
This is a tricky one. The writing is pretty good. The story is interesting. The art is okay. I doubt I'm going to continue to buy it. I can't really say why without spoilers though so...
Major spoiler alert-------
This book focuses on 16 heroes and one villain. It feels very much like a limited series rather than an ongoing one. Of the 16 heroes, I am very familiar with 4 (Mettle, Hazmat, Darkhawk, Reptil) a little familiar with one (X-23 was only in the Academy a very short time and I'd never heard of her before that) and have seen a couple more in Runaways crossovers but am not even sure which characters are the ones I saw there. One of the characters I cared about is already gone. The author says the book will be all about character building and getting to know each character, however, why do I want to get to know characters just in time to see them die? Sure, that worked in the Hunger Games, an excellent book series, because that was a trilogy of novels. You know when you begin a novel that your time with those characters will be over at the end whether they live or die. You also know from the start that Katniss seems likely to survive so you have someone to root for. You aren't as sure with Peeta but that just adds to the suspense. With comics, it works differently. Relationships with characters are long-term. Good character development takes place over a long period of time. I just don't want to get to know a bunch of new characters just so that I can possibly feel some forced emotional impact when they die, which we already know most of them will.
As I said earlier, I liked the writing in the book. Hazmat and Mettle were written very consistently with their previous appearances. Arcade sounded like Arcade. I can even see him watching or reading Hunger Games and becoming inspired to do something like this. However, despite these things, the book feels lazy (In part, because it is a Hunger Games rip off). It's easy to write an issue or two making a character's personality interesting. The hard part is sustaining that interest. Many characters have been written as interesting in their initial appearances or for a storyline or two but haven't lasted long because no writer seemed to know how to advance with them. Triathalon, the Prowler, Mantis, Butterball, Sleepwalker, and Black Goliath are characters that, IMOm were either built up or seemed to have great potential for a while but eventually faded away because no one seemed to know how to use them. Arena lends itself to the concept of just throwing characters out there, making them momentarily interesting, and then killing them. This combines the laziness of momentary storytelling with the current Marvel trend of "Shock people with killings" to boost sales. That shock trend is the ultimate in laziness.
Final evaluation - well written but not worth my 2.99 a month.
This is a tricky one. The writing is pretty good. The story is interesting. The art is okay. I doubt I'm going to continue to buy it. I can't really say why without spoilers though so...
Major spoiler alert-------
This book focuses on 16 heroes and one villain. It feels very much like a limited series rather than an ongoing one. Of the 16 heroes, I am very familiar with 4 (Mettle, Hazmat, Darkhawk, Reptil) a little familiar with one (X-23 was only in the Academy a very short time and I'd never heard of her before that) and have seen a couple more in Runaways crossovers but am not even sure which characters are the ones I saw there. One of the characters I cared about is already gone. The author says the book will be all about character building and getting to know each character, however, why do I want to get to know characters just in time to see them die? Sure, that worked in the Hunger Games, an excellent book series, because that was a trilogy of novels. You know when you begin a novel that your time with those characters will be over at the end whether they live or die. You also know from the start that Katniss seems likely to survive so you have someone to root for. You aren't as sure with Peeta but that just adds to the suspense. With comics, it works differently. Relationships with characters are long-term. Good character development takes place over a long period of time. I just don't want to get to know a bunch of new characters just so that I can possibly feel some forced emotional impact when they die, which we already know most of them will.
As I said earlier, I liked the writing in the book. Hazmat and Mettle were written very consistently with their previous appearances. Arcade sounded like Arcade. I can even see him watching or reading Hunger Games and becoming inspired to do something like this. However, despite these things, the book feels lazy (In part, because it is a Hunger Games rip off). It's easy to write an issue or two making a character's personality interesting. The hard part is sustaining that interest. Many characters have been written as interesting in their initial appearances or for a storyline or two but haven't lasted long because no writer seemed to know how to advance with them. Triathalon, the Prowler, Mantis, Butterball, Sleepwalker, and Black Goliath are characters that, IMOm were either built up or seemed to have great potential for a while but eventually faded away because no one seemed to know how to use them. Arena lends itself to the concept of just throwing characters out there, making them momentarily interesting, and then killing them. This combines the laziness of momentary storytelling with the current Marvel trend of "Shock people with killings" to boost sales. That shock trend is the ultimate in laziness.
Final evaluation - well written but not worth my 2.99 a month.