With a premise like “sixteen super powered teenagers go to Murder Worlds, and only one can survive!”, you have to anticipate death. Especially in the first issue, where you really need to seal the serious business nature of things. So it really wasn’t a surprise that someone died to finish the issue off, but the who, on the other hand…
With five members of Avengers Academy, two Runaways, seven new characters, an easily forgotten character from the Annihilation era, and for some reason Darkhawk, you’ve got a list of sixteen to choose from, and with those seven brand new ones in the mix….well, what are the odds that one of the few established characters goes down?
Apparently pretty sizable, as when Arcade demands a first death, Mettle offers himself up in order to protect his girlfriend Hazmat.
Now, this is pretty in character for Ken. He’s a good guy that really will do anything to protect the people he cares about. He deserves better than this.
I mean, it’s an awesome death, it’s just so….explodey and clear that he won’t get a rez later. It’s the right call to make if Hazmat is going to be one of the main characters, as it gives her some added drama with her boyfriend being the first victim. It gives her more reason to fight for survival, to ‘win’ so she can get to, and kill Arcade.
Welcome to Murderworld, indeed.
