Avengers Arena #10 & 11, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Riccardo Burchelli (artist), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Nico, I don't think the giant robot wanted to play patty cake.Let's see, X-23 tries to avenge Juston's death and gets pummeled by what's left of his Sentinel. Wolverine kills like 50 Sentinels a week. Some clone. At that point, it comes down to Nico, as no one else is apparently of any use against Katy and her toys. Personally, I think a super-strong guy with an axe could do some good, properly placed, and I'd lay good odds on Cammi if she could get her hands on Katy, but the general point's accurate. Nico holds her own for a bit, gets everyone else to somewhere else in Murderworld, and then her leg gets broken, so she can't reach the portal. Then Chase shows up. . . under Katy's control. Darkhawk armor not such a great thing now, huh Chase? So he pretty much lands the killing blow on Nico, though she is able to reach her staff and possibly cast one more spell. We'll see how that goes.
Those she saved wind up on the same beach where Reptil and Hazmat wound up. Reptil's recovered from his burns, but Hazmat may be in shock. She's pretty much decided to hell with Arcade's game, she'll hang out on a beach, party and eat until this thing ends, however that is. But she will not fight and kill for Arcade's amusement. Which doesn't sound like the least sensible idea I've ever heard. It's not a heroic sentiment, but I can appreciate the desire to go out on your terms, as opposed to someone else's. The others are less impressed, and guilt trip Reptil into guilt tripping Hazmat into getting back in the game. I suppose they are the two remaining heroes with the best chance of handling a Sentinel and a Deathlok. You got Tyrannosaurus Boy and the girl who can go off like a nuke.
There's something about the timeline that doesn't jibe. When Cammi's going off on Hazmat and Reptil about lounging on a beach for two weeks, she says the rest of them have survived for two weeks trying to keep each other alive. If she means the whole group of them, there's no way that makes sense. Hazmat and Reptil wound up on the beach after Arcade started up the natural disasters to herd them together. That's when Aiden killed Briton, which triggered Katy losing control. For one night, and by the next morning she had Deathlocket and the Sentinel, and killed Juston. I don't know if Hopeless screwed up, or if it means something. Maybe night and day don't actually mean anything there. I haven't seen that explicitly described, but it could be.
I know Nico's death cheesed some people off. I'm not really one of them. Not happy she's dead, but I'm still of the mind that if a writer really wants to use her, she'll come back. That's assuming Hopeless doesn't put the toys back in the box when he's done. But she went out fighting, never gave up, might have managed something big there at the last. As far as it goes, not a bad death at all. She and Mettle both made the big sacrifices, though it remains to be seen whether they accomplished anything in the long run. I am curious as to what Chase will do at this point, having just killed Nico. When I was reading Runaways last year, he struck me as a frequently useless chucklehead, but he might surprise me.
I had this idea after reading issue 9 that Katy let Tim out as part of a plan. Originally she counted on Briton to do most of the dirty work, with Deathlocket as her ace. Then Aiden killed Briton, and she knew everyone was gonna come gunning for her, so she lets her brother out to regale the bleedin' hearts with his tale of woe. Giving her time to regroup and get access to a Sentinel. Based on what she told Deathlocket and herself, I guess she really did just lose control. At least it suggests she's not unbeatable, if you can shake her enough.
I don't have much of anything to say about Burchelli's artwork. Little muddied for my tastes, characters' faces seem to change shape a lot and some of the expressions are just odd. It took me awhile to figure out X-23's face in the middle of page 5 was her sniffing the air. I'd very much like Kev Walker back. I'd also like them to stop with the three issues every two months nonsense so the need for fill-in artists would be alleviated, but fat chance of that.
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