Since it first hit the shelves of your local comic book shop, ‘Avengers Arena’ has been quite the polarizing book. With talks of killing off it’s cast members which consisted of many old and new young heroes of the Marvel Universe, fans were very vocal about their distaste for the Marvel NOW book from Dennis Hopeless and Kev Walker. There were even petitions to cancel the book before it even got started. Now, it appears that those angry fans have gotten their wish because all signs point to the end being near.

According to Bleeding Cool, Marvel’s own ‘Battle Royale’ will crown a winner in November. The site stumbled upon the solicitations for the final two issues of the next arc titled ‘Boss Level’ and the language used seems to strongly indicate that the title is coming to an end:

Issue #17 – “BOSS LEVEL” PART 4: THE FINAL FIGHTS RAGE ON!

• Up on Murder World Island, it’s the surviving contestants in an all-out battle royale!

• Down in Arcade’s lair, it’s two other contestants vs. Arcade!

 

Issue #18 – “BOSS LEVEL” PART 5: THE SEARING SERIES FINALE!

• Arcade’s mad plan comes to pass! Who lives? Who dies?

• Shock follows shock as the game reaches its last desperate seconds!

• AVENGERS ARENA ends here…but it’s also the launch pad for what comes next!

Yeah, usually the words “series finale” point towards a cancellation. But it’s possible that it was all part of the plan. The last line of the solicits hint at a continuation of the story for some of these characters in some way. Is it possible that ‘Avengers Arena’ could be relaunched as part of the next wave of Marvel NOW? Maybe Arcade will collect a new set of kids and go over the whole game again. I’m not sure how he would be able to pull that one off though. Regardless of what comes next, the various possibilities of how this story could end are interesting to think about, especially after that swerve with Nico’s fate and the awesome update on the outside world from former ‘Avengers Academy’ writer Christos Gage in issue thirteen.

Are you disappointed to see ‘Avengers Arena’ coming to an end? Do you think that only one young hero will remain standing or will the remaining kids find some way to thwart Arcade? If one hero were to win, who would you want it to be? Speculate away about the next and final arc of this Harvey Award nominated series in the comments below.