Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not crucial to other segments of the Civil War universe but still fun, May 23, 2007
This pairing of the two youth-oriented teams of the Marvel Universe is primarily, to me at any rate, for providing additional Runaways stories. I don't actively dislike the Young Avengers, but the Marvel Universe is so enormous that one will inevitably find some parts more or less interesting than others. The Young Avengers have always struck me as one of the least original corners of the Marvel Empire. The Runaways, on the other hand, are among the most original creations. For one thing, they are young and most decidedly not sure about this whole hero thing. They do some policing of L.A. to keep down some of the baddies their defeat of their parents (who were the crime lords of L.A. and ran the city with a tight fist), but it isn't an obsession to them. And until this series they were pretty content to ignore the whole Civil War mess that was afflicting the East Coast super empowered. They bring a decidedly West Coast feel to the whole undertaking, not even bothering, much to the chagrin of their youngest member Molly Hayes, to have uniforms (though Molly sometimes manages to cook up a makeshift one that looks like a really bad Halloween costume). In other words, I got this almost exclusively because there just isn't enough Runaways stuff out there to my satisfaction.
While this is the weakest installment in the Runaways saga, it still isn't bad. The story takes place after the end of creator Brian Vaughan's run with the series and immediately before Joss Whedon took place. This is far less compelling stuff than the Vaughan stories and based on the first two issues by Whedon not nearly up to the level of that either (for one thing, given Whedon's gift with dialogue, the "talk" has gotten really, really good--e.g., when Kingpin tells our guys that he wasn't talking to them for a lesson in semantics, Chase replies that Mel Gibson didn't like semantics either, only one of many really clever jokes).
The story, which takes place over four issues, is pretty short and simple: the Runaways are spotted in L.A. taking down an out of control caped guy and the Cyborg Victor is hurt badly repelling the attack of those who would like to arrest them under the new act requiring all super heroes to register with the government. The Young Avengers sympathize with their situation and fly to the West Coast to help Victor and the others. After initial misunderstandings they realize they are not enemies, but are attacked by an super empowered soldier under the control of the warden of the secret prison where the unregistered super-empowered are jailed. After the warden takes the alien members of each team for his own sadistic experimentations (aliens having no rights in the eyes of the law,) both groups teams up to free their cohorts.
All in all it is a fairly successful pairing. As usual there are some friendly rivalry, especially between Xavin and Hulkling, as well as some natural pairing. The two who should spend some time with each other are Nico and Vision, for while she can cast any spell there is, she can only do so once, though different variants in language multiples the spells. And Vision being something of a supercomputer, can give her almost endless versions of spells.
So, while this isn't a classic, it is fun. And given the rather limited amount of Runaways material, it is worth the purchase price just for that. But while Brian Vaughan's efforts in the series are among the best comic work of recent years and Whedon's work has all the earmarks of at least matching that, this can only be considered as "minor" Runaways. But if like me you just don't think you've gotten enough, then get this. I will add in closing that it does provide a bit of a narrative bridge from the end of Vaughan's final contributions to the series to the start of Whedon's. It explains why they are in New York at the start of the latest run and Xavin's exceedingly difficult integration into the group is furthered in this book.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Runaways are momentarily caught up in the Civil War thanks to the Young Avengers, June 9, 2007
I am one of those who started reading "Runaways" because Joss Whedon was going to be writing it a while. Going back and seeing what I had missed was relatively easy because all of the issues prior to Whedon's debut are now available in three hardback collections. I also picked up "Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways" even though I had no idea who the Young Avengers might be and my investment in Marvel's "Civil War" event has been limited to the main story, the Spider-Man titles, and a subsidiary title. So my primary interest here is in the Runaways, although I can appreciate the irony that the New Avengers have sided with Captain American against Iron Man and most of the "Old" Avengers. Most of the action in the Civil War is obviously taking place in New York City, so out in Los Angeles where the Runaways are running around trying to fill the void left by the disappearance of the Pryde (a.k.a. their "'rents") and they have no reason to really care about what is going on.
The Runaways are taking down some costumed lunatic with a mace who is ranting about super-beings being the last truly independent power structure when S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up to take the kids (who have an adjusted public sympathy rating of mark 8 because they are minors) into custody. But Victor is synthetic (i.e., a mark 3) and things escalate. Victor is damaged and because the Vision was monitoring the situation the Young Avengers decide to head to L.A. to offer assistance. Now, one thing we know about the Marvel Universe is that when two groups of superheroes get together, they are going to fight (I think the first "Avengers" comic book I bought was because they were fighting the X-Men, complete with the requisite cover showing the two teams lined up to fight each other). Add to that one of the favorite recurring comic moments with the Runaways is when somebody assumes Molly is just a cute little girl and they quickly learn the error of their ways. But before the Runaways and Young Avengers can really go down that predictable road, the Vision starts having problems similar to Victor. Then S.H.I.E.L.D. strikes again and the two teams of young superheroes have to band together, which is also quite predictable. Fortunately writer Zeb Wells ("New Warriors") has a good enough feel for the Runaways and the New Avengers to have some fun playing the characters off of each other.
I am sort of surprised that they would devote a mini-series to this Runaways/New Avengers crossover, because it really is a sideshow to the whole "Civil War" event. After all, it is just S.H.I.E.L.D. that comes after them. The back of this trade paperback asks "Whose Side...Are You On?' Granted, this is key question for Marvel's superheroes in the "Civil War" event, but I found the response of the Runaways to the question to be patently obvious. Actually, the more I read of the back cover and the exaggerated claims about what was inside ("the gears of Civil War threaten to crush the Runaways" with "lasting repercussions for both popular teams!") the less I was impressed with this story. But Wells and illustrator Stefano Caselli ("Avengers: The Initiative") are not responsible for what is on the back cover, only what is in these four issues. The back of this trade paperback has a two-page spread showing how the four covers fit together into one giant strip of art and then a dozen character profiles that are well suited to helping fans of one series get a better idea of the characters from the other team. If the goal here was to get me to start reading the "Young Avengers" as well as the "Runaways," that is not going to happen. In fact, taking a look at one of the competing "young" superhero teams only reinforced while the Runaways are something special.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Kind Of Surprise, June 2, 2007
I read the young avengers before this but never the runaways. I was pleasantly pleased to read about both of them in this civil war book. Good art, good story, what's not to like? In fact, I liked this book so much I started collecting all the runaways volumes.
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