NOTE: Big spoilers are tagged, but other story details may not be. Not to mention there are several Walking Spoilers. Read at your own risk.
From Avengers Academy:
Reptil
The dinosaur-morphing class leader of Avengers Academy who always aspired to be an Avenger. He's trapped alongside four other members of his team on Murderworld, and he wants to lead his team off the island and get back to his girlfriend. He also wants to avoid doing something he'll regret in order to protect them.
Please see the Avengers Academy character sheet for that series' specific tropes about Reptil.
- Collateral Angst: In #11, his point-of-view issue, the plot revolves around him trying to shake Hazmat out of her grief-fueled depression and denial and his frustrations at failing at it (and eventually just letting her do whatever she wants).
- Good Thing You Can Heal: He's scarred up pretty bad after Deathlocket shoots him with her laser (under control by Apex). Hazmat made sure he healed fully by staying by his side.
- Heroic Sacrifice: After he sees Hazmat about to go nuclear, he scoops her up with no hesitation and rushes her to the ocean to contain the blast..
- If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: He felt very badly about even thinking about killing Chase and Nico, he doesn't want to play Arcade's game, and just wants to get back home to his maybe-girlfriend White Tiger.
- Love Triangle: As carry-over from Avengers Academy. It's still very complicated between Reptil, Finesse and White Tiger. Reptil was last dating White Tiger at Avengers Academy and possibly lamented being without her in issue #4, but in issue #10 it's revealed he may still have feelings for Finesse. On top of that, he doesn't know if his feelings are returned. Issue #13 reveals that Finesse still does love him.
- Uncertain Doom: His final fate is uncertain. His body was displayed on page with rescuers finding him in the water and giving the thumbs-up sign, making it unclear whether or not he survived saving Hazmat. Hopeless said that as far as he is concerned, Reptil is dead but his fate was Left Hanging in case the character is to be used in the future. He turned up alive five years later in Brian Michael Bendis's final issue of The Invincible Iron Man starring Ironheart and later gets his own solo series in 2021, 7 years after Arena..
Hazmat
A bitter, sarcastic girl who lamented being trapped in a suit to avoid poisoning everyone within range. As she attends Avengers Academy and becomes a hero, she comes to term with her powers, becomes more vulnerable and nicer (well, slightly) and even gains a boyfriend in Mettle. Murderworld is taxing her sanity and strength as she tries to survive while coping with tragedy.
Please see the Avengers Academy character sheet for that series' specific tropes about Hazmat.
- Break the Cutie: She's harsher than your typical cutie, but she's been through absolute hell while in Murderworld.
- Failure Knight: : With Mettle dead, she doesn't want to lose another Academy member. In #4, she's first seen begging the others to keep looking for the missing Juston after they spent a day hunting and looking for clues to where his Sentinel crashed. She still feels guilty about them both and blames herself for getting Mettle killed.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: She's always been quick to anger. And now, with Mettle dead, it's gotten worse with her ready to attack anyone outside the other Academy students. Including people she has met before like the Runaways.
- Heartbroken Badass: Having Mettle killed in front of her hasn't diminished her fighting and hero skills. It possibly strengthened them due to her anger and grief.
- Heroic BSoD: In issue #11, she loses it badly and just wants to enjoy the time she has left on the island in denial. In actuality, she is still grieving over Mettle, and wanted to just not think about him or Murderworld anymore.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: How Reptil identifies her Heroic BSoD.
- Parental Marriage Veto: A sad carryover from Avengers Academy. It's revealed that Hazmat's parents disapprove of her relationship with Mettle.
- Super-Power Meltdown: She survives X-23's attack, but loses complete control of her powers and nearly causes a huge meltdown. Reptil rushes her to water and contains the blast, and Hazmat survives and is cured of her Power Incontinence.
X-23
An Opposite-Sex Clone of Wolverine and trained assassin. She's served on the X-Men and even spent time on the X-Force, the X-Men's secret assassination squad. She joined Avengers Academy in order to rebuild her young life and do some soul-searching. Now she's thrown into Murderworld and trying to ignore her darker impulses.
Please see her character page for X-23's general character/series tropes.
- Super-Senses: X-23 is the most adept at surviving in extremes, and she's already using her senses to try to find out and look out for danger.
- Sherlock Scan: Arena reminds the audience that when entering a room, X-23's brain automatically begins to calculate the best method by which to kill everyone in it. Her thoughts in her focus issue reveal that she can't turn it off, so she even does this with her friends.
- Technical Pacifist: She tries not to resort to violence and only fights if someone attacks her or her friends. Sadly, this goes out the window if she smells the trigger scent.
- Traumatic Haircut: During their fight, Hazmat nukes X-23 and in the process, completely torches Laura's hair. After the events on Arcade's island, X-23 is found wandering homeless by the O5 X-Men and Laura's still totally bald.
- The Worf Effect: Apex makes very short work of her with the Sentinel, establishing Apex's Arc Villain status. She later gets beaten by Cullen in his huge, raging monster form.
- Unstoppable Rage: X-23 can fly into an Unstoppable Rage with a trigger scent, moving to seek and destroy anyone marked with it. The first few pages of Avengers Arena are a Flash Forward where she's in a rage attacking Hazmat.
Juston Seyfert
One of the few characters at Avengers Academy who doesn't have any powers. What he does have is a old model Sentinel, who is his protector and best friend. His sentinel, while making him a huge threat, also makes him a huge target in Murderworld.
Please see the Avengers Academy character sheet for that series' specific tropes about Juston.
- Break the Cutie: Juston was always a sweet kid, but Apex crippling him and being left in the desert for a week, has completely broken his spirit and made him angry enough to want to kill her.
- Determinator: Managed to survive in the desert without his Sentinel, while crippled.
- Despair Event Horizon: He knows he's one of the weakest on the island, due to him having no powers and Sentinel being destroyed by Apex. But he's motivated enough to take vengeance on Apex once he gets his buddy's body up and running again.
- Neck Snap: How he meets his demise, via Apex.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Goes on one against the ones who crippled him and his best friend: Apex and Deathlocket. Though he ends up being talked out of it, it ends up getting him killed by Apex.
- Super Wheelchair: He re-engineered his Sentinel as a pair of walking-legs to serve as a wheelchair.
- Trauma Conga Line: With a missing mom and a sickly brother Juston's always had a hard life, but always maintained a positive attitude. Watching his Sentinel destroyed, getting left in a desert to die, and being crippled finally crushed him, nothing mention after that happened, he was killed. Even worse, it's revealed that his father did not want him to go to Avengers Academy.
- The Worf Effect: His sentinel is the first 'victim' of Apex's technopathy.
- Walking Spoiler: Impressive, for someone who was Put on a Bus for several issues before he was killed.
Mettle
The Big Guy of Avengers Academy. Despite his red iridium skin, huge physique, and scary skull face, Mettle is a absolute sweetheart. When transported to Murderworld, Mettle's gentle soul is tested, especially to see if he would do anything protect his girlfriend, Hazmat.
Please see the Avengers Academy character sheet for that series' specific tropes about Mettle.
- Black Dude Dies First: You couldn't tell by looking at him, but Mettle is African-American and Jewish. And he's the first causality of Avengers Arena.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Via Take Me Instead. He gives up his life in order to save Hazmat.
- Love Makes You Crazy: He tells Hazmat that maybe they should actually take Arcade seriously. When Hazmat tells him she's not bowing down to a villain, Mettle says that he doesn't care if anyone else dies, just so long as she doesn't.
- Ludicrous Gibs: What Arcade reduces him to, just by pointing a finger at him.
- Of Corpse He's Alive: Arcade actually reassembles his skin after he explodes, and has him walking around as a husk in order to lure Hazmat and X-23 into a trap.
- Sacrificial Lion: The Understanding Boyfriend of Hazmat, and one of the more popular characters from Avengers Academy gets killed in the first issue.
- Walking Spoiler: He's the first one to eat it in the comic, in the very first issue. This sets up a lot of what happens from that point and it's to the point where it's a Late-Arrival Spoiler.
From Runaways
Chase Stein
Chase is a complicated boy: he's smart but lazy, friendly but prone to anger, very open but keeps secrets. He's transported to Murderworld along with Nico. He's survived battles against gods, killer robots, aliens and other things, but in Murderworld, he's afraid he'll survive again.
Please see the Runaways character sheet for that series' specific tropes about Chase.
- Amulet of Concentrated Awesome: Chase comes across Darkhawk's fallen amulet, and the amulet dives into his chest and now Chase has the Darkhawk armor.
- And I Must Scream: Apex used her technopathy to control Chase's Darkhawk armor, so he was completely helpless when she used him to kill Nico.
- Failure Knight: Since losing Gertrude, he has now transferred all of his energy into protecting Nico in Murderworld.
- Mind Manipulation: Was under Apex's control for a bit, while still in the Darkhawk armor.
- Pragmatic Hero: He didn't want to do it but he rationalized killing Tom to save the group and Nico if it meant finishing off Apex.
- Remember That You Trust Me: Between him and Nico, stemming from issues dating back all the way from the second volume of Runaways. Nico still finds it hard to trust Chase completely, and within Murderworld, this is exacerbated. It doesn't help that he hid the fact that he had the Darkhawk armor and thought killing Tim/Apex was a reasonable solution. He was right in hindsight, but it still disturbed her.
- Survivor Guilt: Being in Murderworld has brought his guilt over Gert back to the surface.
- Verbal Tic: Chase sometimes says "Yo" when he speaks, something Cammi makes fun of in #17.
Nico Minoru
Nico is the leader of the Runaways, who still has doubts about her leadership skills. She has a no-nonsense personality and an aptitude for magic, but with her powers on the fritz she may be less powerful than she previously was. Despite this, she's determined not to play into Arcade's hands.
Please see the Runways character sheet for that series' specific tropes about Nico.
- An Arm and a Leg: Not only does she get her leg broken by Apex controlling Sentinel (complete with a gruesome shots of her leg bone sticking out), she gets her arm completely blown off by a mind-controlled Darkhawk before getting kicked down a incline.
- Back from the Dead: After she was killed, she was resurrected by the Staff of One by a death rattle spell.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Being killed, and then resurrected affected her and she's done playing nice. She actually orders Chase to attack Reptil, and then later she attacks a bleeding Cullen.
- Break the Cutie: All she went through including getting brutally killed pushed her to the point at which she would willingly kill Apex.
- Came Back Strong: After her resurrection, she gets new hand that allows her to cast spells without Staff of One and would the staff be taken from her, she can now summon it back at instant.
- Heroic Sacrifice: She sets up a teleportation spell for the others, and closes it off after she gets injured to prevent Apex from following them.
- Power Incontinence: Her magic isn't working as strongly as it should, due to the effects of magic inhibiting nanites scattered in the air. All her escape spells failed and she had to cut herself several times in order to get one particular spell (creating a food tree) to work the way she wanted it. Combat and rescue spells work unhindered, however.
- Redemption Equals Death: She felt terrible about Apex killing Juston and getting away. She steadfastly defends the crew against Apex and the Sentinel to make it and makes sure the others escape quickly.
- These Hands Have Killed: Part of her jumping on the bandwagon to start killing the other teens was that she thought that she killed both Apex and Deathlocket, and it didn't matter what she did next.
- You Shall Not Pass!: She held off Apex and her small horde solo while everyone else dealt with the unconscious X-23, only running on her word to.
From the Braddock Academy
Kid Briton
A young Alternate Universe version of Captain Britain/Brian Braddock. At Braddock Academy, he was a cocky bully who threw his weight around and few dared challenge him. With his confidence being the source of his power, he's confident he has what it takes to survive Murderworld.
See->Captain Britain: Supporting Characters
Apex
She only has the ability to fly, but Katy Bashir makes up for it in her intellect, craftiness, and ruthlessness. She is all too eager to start playing Arcade's game in order to save her skin. Despite her supposedly weak powers, Apex may be the biggest player in Murderworld. She has a twin brother named Tim that she shares the same body with, that due to genetic manipulation by her parents. She and Tim are also technopaths, something else Apex kept secret.
See->Captain Britain: Supporting Characters
Cullen Bloodstone
Cullen Bloodstone hails from the monster hunting Bloodstone family. While he may be small, he's fairly smart and resourceful with a sharp tongue ready with a quip. He has his friend Anachronism watching his back, however, Cullen hides the fact that he has feelings for him. Cullen also hides the fact that he's possessed by a huge Eldritch Abomination-type monster.
Also see his general character page: Bloodstone
See->Captain Britain: Supporting Characters
Anachronism
Aiden Gillespie was a chubby gamer nerd who was constantly picked on at Braddock Academy. Somehow, he inherited the body of an immortal Celtic warlord complete with a huge axe, but he still has his pacifist nature with him. In Murderworld, he struggling with the bloodthirstiness and still trying to resist the urge to kill.
See->Captain Britain: Supporting Characters
Nara
A girl hailing from the Marvel Universe's version of Atlantis. She's mean, cruel, and not afraid to do anything to get what she wants. In addition to her violent streak, she's also very voluptuous, and a temptress to all the boys at Braddock Academy.
See->Captain Britain: Supporting Characters
Other Teen Heroes
Death Locket
Rebecca Ryker was a ordinary girl whose world turned upside down when a Deathlok (a re-animated Cyborg) showed up at her house one day and killed her mother, brother and tried to kill her as well. She survived, but her father (Harlan Ryker, cybernetic genius and a creator of Deathlok) had to transform her into a cyborg in order save her life. Rebecca is innocent young girl who doesn't mean to hurt anyone, but there's no room for nice people in Murderworld.
- Alliterative Name Rebecca Ryker. Everyone on the island just calls her Death Locket.
- Ambiguously Brown: She's browner-skinned than the white kids of Arena, and her name is not indicative of any ethnicity.
- An Arm and a Leg: She was missing one arm and one leg that we replaced with cybernetics. Then in Murderworld, Nico disassembles her cybernetic arm after she is resurrected. Tim fixes it, but then it's broken again by Arcade.
- Appropriated Appellation: Mishears Cammi calling her a "Deathlok-ette" as Deathlocket.
- Break the Cutie: Her backstory has her seeing her mother and little brother murdered by a Deathlok cyborg that time-traveled to killed her father Harlan Ryker, who created them. She gets caught in the explosion that killed her mother and brother. Her father transforms her into a Deathlok to save her life. And then her father is taken to jail, and just when she wakes from her coma and finds out she's a cyborg, she's transported to Murderworld. You can also add being controlled by Apex into shooting at the heroes, not to mention killing her first love to the list.
- The Cutie: Deathlocket is very sweet and friendly, which is remarkable considering the circumstances.
- Inconsistent Spelling: Apparently, the correct way to spell her name is "Death Locket" or "Deathlocket." Others have spelled it "Deathlockett," "Deathlokette," "Deathlokett," etc.
- The Ingenue: Deathlocket is completely new to the superhero world and very naive, which leads her to be taken advantage of in Murderworld by Apex.
- Mind Manipulation: Apex is controlling Death Locket with her techopathy powers.
- Kill the Ones You Love: She reluctantly kills Tim after he begs her to do it so Apex could be finished once and for all.
- Love at First Sight: After Tim introduces himself, Deathlocket takes up for him instantly and defends him against the kids, and later it turns out to be an attraction.
- Power Incontinence: Death Locket can not control her cybernetics correctly. Apex has no problem doing that, but Tim is willing to help her.
- Unwilling Roboticisation: Becoming a cyborg was something forced on Rebecca by her father to save her life.
Cammi
Cammi Benally was just an average girl living in Coot's Bluff, Alaska until a prison ship crashed in her town, carrying Drax the Destoryer. From there, she becomes fast friends with Drax, escapes Earth into space with him, and gets involved in an interstellar war. She and Drax are separated, and from there she's spent months in space, surviving on her own. Her survival skills are top-notch, but she may have to play nice with others to survive Arcade's game.
- Action Girl: She's formidable in and outside space.
- Action Survivor: She has no special powers outside of her weapons but she's the most adept at surviving in extreme conditions and a formidable opponent.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: In addition to her survival skills, she can accurately read people's emotions, due having use those skills in outer space. She correctly guessed that Cullen likes Anachronism.
- Badass Normal: She has no superpowers, but managed to live in deep space alone (a fact that shocked S.W.O.R.D. leader Agent Brand), and handles herself well on the island. Temporarily became the new Darkhawk, but gave it up after an issue.
- The exception might be her eyes. She has the best long-distance vision on the island, and the artwork suggests she's got some sort of Stat-O-Vision going on. A minor cybernetic upgrade would be entirely in line with her "hardass space pirate" background.
- Crazy Survivalist: Not just in space but in Murderworld, she's already set up traps and routinely scouts the area.
- I Just Want to Be Special: She hates just being a non-powered human, to the point of rejecting going back to Earth to avoid punishment.
- I Owe You My Life: Because Nico saved her and the whole group from Apex controlling the Sentinel and Deathlocket, she feels that she needs to repay her and tries to convince her not to kill anyone else later in the game.
- The Nicknamer: She comes up with cutesy nicknames for just about everyone. She even dubbed Anachronism "Axbro", the Ascended Meme from around the fandom.
- Old Soldier: Compared to most of the kids stuck on Murderworld, she has the most hero experience and can survive on her own. She also takes a bit of a mentor/leader role amongst the other players.
- Only Sane Man: She is the only teen thinking long-term strategy and survival and she took up for Nico, even after she let Apex get away and Juston got killed. She tries desperately not to fall into Arcade's trap, but the other kids around her are willing to play the game.
- Precocious Crush: She reveals in #14 that she did fall in love with Drax, even though she was 10 at the time. Now that she's a teenager, she may have had the time to reflect on it and figured out that she did love him.
- Taken A Level In Badass: After having to survive by herself in deep space. She went from Drax's Morality Pet hanger-on to Rambo: Teen Girl Edition.
Darkhawk
Chris Powell was an ordinary high school student before he found an amulet that transformed him into a superhero with cosmic armor. Through the years, he's been fighting crime on his own and even team up with a few superhero teams such as the New Warriors and the Loners. Now in his 20s, he's still considered to be a teen superhero and is trapped on Murderworld but he's determined not to play Arcade's game and look out for the other teens.
Please see his character page for Darkhawk's general character/series tropes.
- Adults Are Useless: He is the only adult player in Murderworld, and he's taken out fairly early and plays no role in the book until the final issues, in which he's incapacitated again.
- Deus Exit Machina: Since he's the most powerful person in the Arena, Darkhawk's amulet gets stolen in the third issue and he gets knocked out. While he isn't dead yet, he's depowered and alone in a jungle while someone runs around in his armor. Later when he revives, Deathlocket (controlled by Apex) takes him out.
- Not Quite Dead: Issue #16 confirms he's alive. He was just captured, but freed by Deathlocket. He gets shot by her an issue later though.
Red Raven
Dania is a young girl who is part of the Bird-People (descended from The Inhumans), and the daughter of the original Golden Age Red Raven. She's trapped in Murderworld with 15 other kids and she's hoping to live and make an impact, just like her father.
- Back for the Dead: It had been years since the last time this hero was used only to be killed off.
- Legacy Character: The third character to be called Red Raven, and daughter of the first one.
- Red Shirt: Red Raven, as she shows that trying to fly out of Murderworld probably wasn't the best idea. Bonus points for her also wearing red.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: The 2nd to die, with no lines at all.
Arcade
A very wealthy psychopath, who enjoyed building Deadly Games (called "Murderworlds") for the X-Men. He was something of a joke villain, as he never managed to kill any super hero in his games once he started targeting them. But now, he has somehow gained omnipotent power and has created his deadliest game ever, and trapped 16 young Marvel superheroes in his own personal hellhole.
see here
Ms. Coriander
Arcade's primary architect and builder of the new Murderworld.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: To Arcade. Arcade becomes unnerved by this and tries to kill her. She knew he'd try that so it didn't work.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For Ms. Locke, who is dead. Explicitly acknowledged by Arcade.
Locke
The Robot A.I. that controls much of Murderworld for Arcade and acts as his servant.
- Armor-Piercing Question: This gets the first A.I. shell destroyed.Locke: "I've been meaning to ask, sir ... What is the preferred end result here?''Locke: "Of course, but to [restore your reputation] you must reveal what's happened. And when you do, you' will instantly make mortal enemies of the world's most powerful beings. The Avengers ... the X-Men ... coming after you all at once. I see only two possibilities. That you are committing suicide by cape or you are actually delusional enough to believe you can get away with it.Arcade: You've overlooked a third option. A little theory I like to call ... SHUT YOUR FILTHY ROBOT MOUTH!
- Robot Buddy: One of many robot drones Arcade uses.
- We Have Reserves: Arcade destroys the Locke bot questioning his plan, before it gets replaced with another one.
