Customer Reviews

Runaways Vol. 1: Pride and Joy

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

God, what else is there to say?

Alex Wilder, Nico Minoru, Gertrude Yorkes, Karolina Dean, Chase Stein, and Molly Hayes are all children of privelege. Unbeknownst to them however, this privelege comes from the fact that their parents are all members of a secret criminal organization called the Pride that has its hands in everything dirty to be had in LA. When they discover this, the kids must go on the run, discover the truth about their parents, and decide what to do with the new knowledge and abilities the journey grants them.

The kicker of this book is the wonderful storytelling and characterization. Brian Vaughan, writer of the acclaimed Y: The Last Man, turns in taut and suspenseful scripts; reading this story in single issues, I couldn't wait for the next chapter to come out. The ideas come at a fast pace, but the story is kept manageable by the great cast. Each of the kids is a unique, believable individual, and cliched like so many teens written by adults these days. Very few can pull of writing young characters in a way that will appeal to young readers, but Vaughan is one of them. Kids and adults alike will fall in love with these characters. If nothing else, there's a dinosaur.

So, in closing, buy this trade, and then rush down to your local comic store to seek out the following issues. 14 have been published to date; the first six are reprinted in this volume.

Not so long ago, I was talking to a friend of mine about coming up with an original idea for a comic. He often said that all the good ideas were taken, and there was no originality in comics anymore. Well at the time, I thought he was right. Then the House of Ideas came up with Runaways, and that was it for the 'death of originality.' Here we have six teenagers who learn that their parents are secretly a clan of supervillains. Specifically, they're aliens, sorcerers, mutants, mad scientists, travelers from the future, and a couple of good old-fashioned gangsters, each of whom is a husband/wife couple who had their own child. Now that the (mostly) law-abiding children know, they run away from home with a few of their parents' weapons and gimmicks in the hopes of stopping them somehow. What's more, the parents have framed their kids for murder, and it is revealed at the end of this volume that... well, I'll just let you buy the thing and see it for yourself.

Now, this story takes place in the Marvel Universe, and all the other Marvel heroes are there, so why aren't they helping? Because most of the Marvel heroes live in New York City, or somewhere else on the east coast. These runaways and their parents live out in Beverly Hills, California. Living a continent away from Earth's mightiest heroes makes it easier for a gang of super-villains to set up shop. Wonder why the Green Goblin or Magneto never thought of that? Hmn!

Now, Runaways is a character book, and it hinges mostly on the kids themselves. The situations are actually very believable, and the dialogue rings true throughout. I would recommend this book to anyone I see, whether they like, comic books or not.

This great new series follows the story of six teenagers as they go from being normal kids to learning that their parents are more than they seem, and frankly, evil. One of the key elements that makes this story click is one word: fun. While maintaining a fairly serious tone, the story is full of humor and amusment. The whole books just has a freshness and sense of fun that really makes it not only work, but is good reading for people of all ages; similar to the appeal of "Ultimate Spider-Man" but even moreso because of the diversity of the cast.

Brian Vaughn continues to impress with his writing that also makes "Y: The Last Man" so good: great dialogue and characterization, humor, action, and an unpredictable plot full of twists and turns; his writing here is even better because it has more appeal than "Y's" mature, post apocalypse story.

Newcomer Adrian Alphona supplies very good artwork that really adds to the story and Brian Reber's colors are also great for conveying the vibrant characters as well as the dark settings.

With fantastic writing and good artwork, "Runaways" is one of the best new series of the year.
At such a good price, there is no reason why anyone should not miss this great new series.

I am a comic book geek and a Teen librarian and I'd heard ALOT about the Runaways series. Not just in the comic world but also from other librarians as well. I went into this book a bit hesitant, sure that it couldn't live up to the hype that had been built around it.

I was wrong. I sat down and read this digest in less than an hour and I was left wanting more.

Mainly the story is about a group of kids that are forced into a sort of 'family reunion' every so often when their parents get together. What they don't know is that their parents are a group of Super Villians and are doing evil deeds during these get togethers.

The kids find out what is going on with their parents and decide to fight back.

The book was fast paced and very funny. They balanced the action and the humor very well and neither weighed on the other. I would definatly reccomend this book to any comic book fan and even to people that might not have as much of a background in comics.

Brian K. Vaughan, Runaways, vol. 1: Pride and Joy (Marvel, 2004)

The more of Brian Vaughan's work I read, the more I think he is incapable of doing anything wrong. (Dear government: please hire Brian K. Vaughan to fix the messes in Iraq, Afghanistan, New Orleans, and Haiti, plzkthxbi.) Y: The Last Man did wonderful things for science fiction, and Ex Machina does better politics than 80% of the political novels I've read. Pride of Baghdad was awesome. Now I've delved into Runaways, and it is equally impressive.

Pride and Joy, the first book in the series, is setup. We meet our main characters (the runaways of the title, though that doesn't happen until late in the volume), six seemingly regular teenagers who are all getting ready for their parents' annual dinner party. This year is no different; the six, who have no contact with one another on any other day of the year (and are wildly disparate personalities), spend a couple of hours sitting around in the den, studiously avoiding interaction with one another. That does not a good graphic novel make, however, and it lasts for all of one panel before Vaughan creates a situation that allows some of the kids to find out that their parents are not going over tax documents while locked in that study, no, not at all. In fact, they're a group of supervillains known as the Pride, and the six kids sitting in the den are the heirs to the thrones. Now we've got a classic situation set up: what to do when you're basically a decent person, but you're being groomed to the position of supervillain? The older members of the newly-formed pack (eleven-year-old Molly, they decide, should probably be sheltered from the horrible truth about her parents) decide they should probably try to counteract as much of the damage their parents do as possible.

I've already gone as far as I'm comfortable into spoiler territory here, but there's much more to be had in this book, and there's far more to come after that. As in many of the best graphic novel series, the true pleasures here are the small discoveries; I'd give you examples, but that would defeat the purpose. Suffice to say Vaughan is as good as always, and Runaways is one to check out if you haven't already. *** ½

In this first compilation, we learn that the "Runaways" are a set of teens whose parents may be super-villains or they may be super-heroes. The dialogue is the sometimes witty, sometimes indulgent style favored by Brian Vaughan. I love his allusions to all manner of pop culture, including art, music, TV and movies. What I don't love is the way all the characters talk in the same way. This set-up has some potential, however, and after reading this first book there is just enough of interest to entice the reader to read on. But just barely enough.

I am not a fan of Adrian Alphona's artwork in this book. The faces of the characters are flat and I found myself breezing through the book, reading the story without any desire to dwell on the art. Good comics need good story and good art. Great comic artists challenge the reader to dwell on the page, despite the fast action. This is one of the reasons Alan Moore did not want to see Watchmen made into a movie. I also found the computerized lettering flat and lacking personality - it is surprising how much a good letterer can bring to a comic book. Finally, this book is a 7.6" x 5.1" format, which is too small to showcase great artwork. It feels like Marvel was rushing this project to print. Now that Disney has bought them, I expect this series to be one of the first to be made into a movie franchise.

Well drawn, well written, all the prerequisites for a good comic, but be warned, these volumes are digest sized (think the old TV guide or manga books). Not that this is a bad thing, it's compact and easily concealable, but if you want something full sized spring for the Hardcover Collections. I bought this volume and two days later ordered both available hardcovers. Besides last I checked Vol. 2 was sold out on Amazon.

This is not only one of the best books being published by Marvel, but one of the best reads in the comic industry, heck it's one of the best stories in the entire entertainment industry right now. Although it has great dialogue, characterization, and plotting, it is far from realistic--it's a SUPERHERO book; it's not supposed to be realistic. And it is about teenagers; it is not dark and serious like a lot of comics published today. But it is a ton of fun, from start to finish, if you want an entertaining read, you won't regret reading RUNAWAYS. So, realize what kind of an audience the book is trying to reach; if this does not sound like you, still buy it; it did not sound like a book for me, but I am now hooked. Help keep the series alive and buy it!

Once again, Brian K Vaughn shows that he is one of the most consistently good writers in the business. He obviously has another winner with Runaways, a book about six children who discover that their parents are super-villains. While this book is aimed at younger readers, is definitely has something for everybody.

From what I can tell, the events of Runaways occur within the traditional Marvel universe. However, BKV has written it in such a way that it completely stands on it's own. The six Runaways, along with their murderous parents, are based in Los Angeles. As there are so few heroes on the west coast (why haven't villains realized this?), the story in Runaways evolves without relying on the support of existing Marvel continuity.

Vaughn has created 6 unique characters for this book. What is most impressive is that they are instantly interesting and unique. He develops their personalities quite well through good use of dialog. In addition, he was fairly creative with the origin of their powers. In the world where mutants and genetic alteration are the norm for super hero origins, he could have easily used either of these clichés. Instead, he does a good job mixing it up; a couple of members are mutants, but here is also some use of alien origin, time travel, advanced technology, etc.

Adrian Alphona deserves equal credit for the quality of this book. While obviously influenced by Manga, his work here leaves out all of those aspects of Manga which I dislike. There is a general absence of oversized eyes, and the female characters don't look like thirteen year old prostitutes. Further, he does a fine job of making every one of the characters seem even more unique.

The book comes together rather nicely. It is well written, well drawn, the colors add a very nice finishing touch to the book. Some of that suffers in this digest format, as the art is shrunk down and the paper quality is slightly inferior. However, I think this is more than offset by the drastically lower cover price. If you want to see the book at it's best, definitely check out the over-sized hardcover. If you just want to read some good comics, you can't go wrong with this format.

This volume only collects the first six issues of the series, so it generally deals with the teams origin. Now that this necessity is covered, I expect the book to be much more fun in future volumes. While being aimed at a younger audience, it is written in a manner which should appeal to super hero fans of all ages. Definitely check it out.

I really enjoyed the storyline of the book. The dialogue was very witty, and the story was well-paced. I really like how the story tried to break stereotypes of young people in showing that they could make a difference in the world and weren't just apathetic bystanders.