Good to know that the characters that survive get some focus. I imagine Mettle and Red Raven didn't get much time to develop.
It won't be. Unless a new character has appeared in some alternate media, they're expendable fodder. It's been true of the GENERATION X cast and no end of "newer" characters since. Most of the NEW MUTANTS cast are expendable and they were "new" about 30 years ago. And that cast is about the peak when it comes to "newer" characters.
So, X-23 and Reptil are safe. They've appeared in animation, sold some toys, etc. Everyone else is expendable. AVENGERS ARENA literally killed the black guy first, with no sense of irony. That alone should say it all.
Newer characters never come back. The one exception was Gravity, and that was because the writer who axed him (Dwayne McDuffie) also decided to bring him back because editorial whims had changed and the death had been wasted. The plan had been to kill him off in BEYOND! and reintroduce him as a new Captain Marvel. But then editorial switched gears and decided to launch a new CAPTAIN MARVEL mini during the lead up to SECRET INVASION and make him a Skrull. So, thus, the death was wasted and McDuffie could have just shrugged, but since he was doing a run on FF anyway, he chose to undo it there. Most writers, though, aren't Dwayne McDuffie.
I always felt the younger characters in Marvel should be self aware enough to form a subculture. In which they all collectively know that certain big figures are immortal and unkillable, who always return given enough time no matter how absurd or definitive a death they have. They should be aware that Wolverine could be thrown into the sun and all trace of him across existence itself could be erased, but he'd be back in a month, tops. But Hornet? Dead forever, unmissed, unloved and unavenged. And that every time some big event happens and some adult hero who told them to quit a month earlier is now begging them to be foot soldiers (hello, Captain America), they should either tell him to stick it or ask what's in it for them.
That's always been the dilemma. New heroes are in theory good for new blood, but after a while they can't be novices anymore. And once they reach that stage where they should reasonably move up the chain, they hit limbo, barely appear, or die. Because Wolverine, Spider-Man, Hulk, etc. are immortal. Again, the NEW MUTANTS cast are about the only characters who debuted after the Carter administration besides Deadpool who have done anything of relevance in any story. Aside for Deadpool, who debuted in the late 80's, no other "new" character has been allowed to penetrate the universe in a major way. I could buy it if the younger characters themselves were aware of that, and AVENGERS ACADEMY played with that many times. Unfortunately, AVENGERS ARENA fulfilled that dead straight.
I see it as a vicious cycle. Readers avoid new characters because they know Marvel are gutless cowards who abandon them at the first sign of adversity. And Marvel abandon them at the first sign of adversity because readers avoid them. Considering Disney now owns Marvel and there is likely even less tolerance for losses in a comics division, I don't expect that to change. It has been argued that comics make up such a small side of Disney's empire that that should see Marvel as a new IP farm and encourage them to try out some new ideas for newer audiences, but they see no reason to do that when the same cows can be milked forever.
