Avengers Arena #17

It took 29 days, and now they have been broken. All it took was the fear of one day left and Arcade won the game. You do wish that you didn’t know the outcome of what’s to come out of the final issue, but nonetheless it looks like Hopeless wants them to go out with a bang.

Here Hopeless has challenges where you stand with your sympathies. Chase, Niko, Cammi, they don’t enjoy the positions they are forced into, but they can’t help what sense of heroism they lost while replacing it with fear. Nobody is completely innocent by this point and if they were, that won’t be the case by the end of the book. Not everyone there is pure of heart and Arcade has exploited this to the point where they are looking only out for themselves and those closest to them.

Where I have said that Hopeless doesn’t pull punches before, that really meant nothing in terms of what is happening now. Every gut wrenching moment captured well by Kev Walker. Someone had to play the bad guy, someone had to break, someone had to be the one who finds them self on the wrong end of a beating.

Here we have seen the most substance this book can offer. We’ve seen them all at their best, but now we see them at their worst. It has always been about survival, and when it comes down to the final days that doesn’t change. The story progression has felt so natural up to this point and you just love how much of a role Apex plays into this. Though her fate is known, we still know that as that one character who actually played the game, she played it well. There’s so much in store for this final issue and it seems that it won’t be ending on a happy note.

Score: 8.8/10