I used to have time to read my comics in a coffee shop. Now I have to read them in the bathroom. Then I write reviews of them. I wash my hands in between.
AVENGERS UNDERCOVER #1
I expressed my disenchantment with the comic book representations of today's youth and their 'problems' during my review of the last Teen Titans issue. It basically came down to: they all make horrible choices that I don't understand because I'm too old and distanced from anything even remotely resembling 'youth' even though I review funny books on this blog. Life is full of circles.
Anywho, this book is a sequel to 'Avengers Arena' which featured scant few actual Avengers and only the most metaphorical of arenas. Nutshell: X-men villain Arcade kidnaps 16 assorted teenage super heroes and whisks them away to 'MurderWorld' his crazy death arena which is more like 'The Truman Show' crossed with 'Survivor'. There he coerces them to fight each other to the death for his amusement. Much angst and questionable decisions ensue. Ultimately they sacrifice and sacrifice, Arcade escapes and so do they. Some of them at least.
So this book picks up about 6 months after those events. Arcade, who filmed everything that happened in MurderWorld, has leaked the videos to the internet and EVERYBODY has seen them. Like 4 million plus views. The youth of the world, crass and unfazed by anything, publicly discuss and dissect the videos like they are some sort of reality game show. Even six months later they are still having the survivors on talk shows. That's where we find Chase of the Runaways, the most vocal of the survivors (even though they made a pact to keep it all secret). We also see The Runaways' Nico who hasn't been able to get past the events, Avengers Academy's Hazmat, now wandering rural America but in control of her powers, Deathlocket, Colin Bloodstone and Anachronism are seen as well (though I didn't follow their regular books so was never able to connect to them).
And, aside from the disconnect with the youth, that's what keeps me from liking this book (and, really, Arena too). I had no point of reference for half the characters. I read regularly Avengers Academy and (thanks to Don Alsafi) the whole of Runaways. But the rest, the Captain Britain Corps stuff? No clue. I hadn't even heard of any of those kids. And now it looks like half of this cast is people I still have no connection with.
So all the survivors assemble because Colin has gone off the grid trying to track down Arcade and was last seen singlehandedly assaulting the lair of the Masters of Evil. Not smart. And they decide to go after him. Little do they know he is under the control of Hellstorm, who has joined the Masters of Evil.
I can't quite put my finger on why I won't be continuing this book. It's a sound enough story I guess. The art isn't terribly annoying. It's just not for me. But if you're the kind of person that enjoys the adventures of angry, disenfranchised teenagers with superpowers and the soulless reactions of all the non-superpowered kids in the world to the suffering they went through, then this is the book for you.
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