This series was part of the short-lived “Marvel Next” group of titles, which were supposed to signal titles about teen heroes designed (I assume) to draw in new teen readers. Some of them were excellent (Young Avengers, Runaways), others were good or good enough (X-23, e.g.), and then there was Arana.

Many of the “Next” titles tried to recreate existing heroes as teens, including Machine Teen, X-23, and Young Avengers. Even when that’s done right, it feels like it’s just a cover version. What made Marvel’s first round of these heroes special was that they were designed for a new type of comic book reader–one tired of the war/horror/romance genres, and who felt Golden Age DC was a little too corny. Legacy heroes aren’t created for a new generation, they’re RE-created. That’s very, very hard to do well.

Arana felt like it could have been good but just couldn’t seem to get past being derivative–right down to the obligatory Spider-Man cameo.

These early issues pull from her first appearances in Amazing Fantasy, with the Webcorps still battling the Sisterhood of the Wasp, Anya being a teen and doing teen stuff at school and hiding from her parents, and her powers continuing to morph and develop.

The problems are that she looks kinda dumb…

…And we’ve seen this kind of thing before. Many times.

I skimmed these issues, waiting for something to happen that would make me want to slow down and read carefully.

It never did.

Her arc is learning to be a true force for justice and not a killer vigilante.

The series ends with a promise of another one coming soon.