Customer Reviews

Runaways, Vol. 2

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The very existence of this collection is amazing. During the initial 18-issue run of Brian K. Vaughan's Runaways, which told the story of 6 Los Angeles teenagers who ran away from home after learning that their parents were supervillains, the book was cancelled before Vaughan could finish the story. However, due to intense fan outcry, Marvel decided to bring the book back. When the 18th issue came out, the folks at Marvel realized that they had a great new property on their hands that was well-written, funny, and had many loyal fans, including none other than Joss Whedon of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly/Serenity. A few months later, the series started again with a new issue number 1, starting the story up a few months after the climactic battle between the Runaways and their parents.
In the months between the Runaways battling their parents, being broken up by the Avengers, reforming, and the present, the group has found a new base under the La Brea Tar Pits and have made it their mission to keep LA free of crime. They quickly learned that while their parents were evil and were trying to destroy the world, they did have a positive effect on LA; they were powerful enough to keep supervillains out of the city. With them gone, a power vaccuum has been created with numerous villains trying to get a foothold in LA.
Nico Minoru is the new leader after Alex proved to be a traitor. The daughter of two dark wizards, she controls the mystical Staff of One which can cast powerful spells... but only once. The other Runaways include Karolina Dean, an alien who can manipulate solar energy, Gertrude Yorkes, whose time traveling parents supplied her with a genetically created dinosaur, Molly Hayes, the youngest member of the team whose mutant ability makes her the strongest person on the West Coast, and Chase Stein, the team's only remaining male and the pilot of their new ship. Early on, they learn of Victor Mancha, a young man living in Los Angeles who is destined to not only join the Avengers, but kill every hero in New York one day. And how do they find this out? As it turns out, one of the Runaways is destined to lead the Avengers someday, and she travels through time to warn the Runaways that they must stop Victor, who is the son of one of the Marvel Universe's greatest villains.
The first story arc, True Believers, is about Victor and the Runaways' first encounter with him. The story is a great reintroduction to the team as well as to Victor, who proves that he is more than meets the eye. As for the identity of his father, let's just say that Vaughan's choice was very well-selected. Other great things about this arc include the introduction of Excelsior, a group of ex-teen heroes trying to help the Runaways by getting them out of harm's way (note: Excelsior is getting their own book soon, which will be called Loners; who would have thought that Runaways would ever get their own spin-off series?!), as well as references to Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men (look for it in the future sequence) and to Allen Heinberg's Young Avengers. Star Crossed is a great 2-issue story that causes another big change for the team when a Super-Skrull-in-training appears to make life difficult for one of the Runaways. And East Coast/West Coast is a great excuse to take the Runaways to New York City, home of most of the characters in the Marvel Universe. While Runaways works isolated from most of the action in the Marvel U, every now and then, it's fun to see some big name guest stars. Picking up from a loose end from the original run, the Runaways come to NY to help clear Cloak (of Cloak and Dagger) of charges that he beat Dagger. Along the way, they encounter the New Avengers, allowing Victor and Molly to meet some of their heroes (Spider-Man and Wolverine, respectively), with some interesting results.
Also included is the 11-page one-shot released on Free Comic Book Day, which is about how the Runaways meet the X-Men. After Wolverine's encounter with Molly in New York, the rest of the X-Men decide that Molly should come to Xavier's School, but the Runaways aren't ready to lose another teammate so quickly. Featuring a unique style of art by Scottie Young, the one-shot is a brief but entertaining story.
It's sad how many people write off Runaways as a silly teen book, as it is so much more than that. Though it may appear that the characters are mere stereotypes, Vaughan has breathed life into each and every one of them, giving them each their own distinct voice and character. Nico is much more than just "the goth" while Chase, who initially comes off as a dumb frat-boy type person, shows that he can offer the team certain things that very few others could. As for Molly, she is sweet and innocent, yet can throw down like no other in a fight. Furthermore, the art by Adrian Alphona is superb. Star Crossed is drawn by Takeshi Miyazawa, whose art I enjoy, but isn't as good as Alphona.
Runaways is without a doubt one of the best comics being published despite the lack of sales numbers to back that claim up. It is witty, exciting, subversive, and all-together fun. Do yourself a favor and read this series.

My attention was drawn to "Runaways" when I learned the Joss Whedon would be scripting the title this summer. With three volumes of reprints providing all of the pre-Whedon issues of "Runaway" I decided to keep the current issues on the shelf while I went back and started from the beginning. This was not only because I am inclined to read everything that Whedon writes, but also because in checking out "Runaways" I learned the title won the 2006 Harvey Award for Best Continuing or Limited Series (meanwhile, over at the Eisner Awards, it as Whedon and artist John Cassady whose "Astonishing X-Men" was named Best Continuing Series for that same year). "Runaways, Volume 2" collects "Runaways" #1-12 plus "Free Comic Book Day 2006," and much more so that the original run of the title in Volume 1, I understand why many fans see this title, written by Brian K. Vaughan and penciled by Adrian Alphona, as something different.

The first six issues make up the "True Believers" story-arc, which begins with the kids trying to kids trying to do something about the supervillains who are starting to show up in L.A. to take advantage of the power vacuum created by the defeat of the Pryde. Meanwhile, a teenage superhero support group named Excelsior gets an offer of $1 million to track down the Runaways. That is before the kids get a new mission when a future version of Gert pops up and warns that in the future a man named Victorius is going to betray and kill not only the Avengers, but the Fantastic Fourteen and every other superhero. Before she dies, future-Gert tells them to find Victor Mancha, the boy who will grow up to become Victorius, and kill him now, before he becomes too powerful. So basically this is the old quandary about killing Hitler when he was a baby, with the added question of exactly who is Victor's daddy. Of course when the Runaways find Victor, the Excelsiors find them and the fun begins.

"Star-Crossed" is a two-part story (issues #7-8, drawn by Takeshi Miyazawa) where Karolina learns that another important thing her parents neglected to tell her, besides the fact she is an alien, is that they arranged a marriage for her. But when a space ship lands and her fiance shows up, which is the first of several interesting twists. My only complaint is that these interesting things end up on the back burner by the end of the story (good thing I have everything that follows, so I do not have to wait months to see where this is going).

Finally, there is what Molly calls the "Field trip" that is "East Coast/West Coast" (issues #9-12). If the superheroes will not come from New York City, then the Runaways will cross the continent courtesy of Cloak. It seems Dagger is at death's door and the Avengers think that Cloak was her assailant, so Cloak turns to the Runaways for help. I think there are some economic considerations in having the kids go to the right coast because that means the kids run into not only Captain America but also Spider-Man and Wolverine (a.k.a. "a hairy little Canadian guy"). I wanted the kids to stay in L.A., but the scenes between Molly and Wolverine tip the scale the other way. The "Free Comic Book" issue also teams up the X-Men and Runaways, featuring art by Skottie Young, as the mutants show up to try and persuade Molly to be one of them. Also included are the full script for (new) issue #1 and an Adrian Alphona Sketchbook.

On the one hand the Runaways exist on the superhero continuum between Power Pack and the New Mutants, but on the other hand the series reminds me a lot of Marvel's "New Universe" titles (1986-89), which took place in a more realistic world, totally divorced from the Marvel Universe and operated more or less in real time. Not that "Runaways" takes place in a world devoid of aliens, magic, supertechnology, etc., but rather that it is off the beaten path. New York City has always been the center of the superhero world in the Marvel Universe, but with the Pryde there is an explanation for why Los Angeles has been relatively devoid of supertypes. Of course, in the aftermath of the Civil War each state gets its own roster of superheroes, which will probably have an effect on a series that is dealing with, as Iron Man calls, them "more super-kids," which will be Whedon's headache.

I said it before and I'll say it again. This is THE way to read Runaways. Under the attractive dust jacket, the cover is made up of a soft black vinyl material that is extremely durable. The book itself is huge, letting you appreciate the art in a way that it may not have been able to be appreciated in the original comics and the infinitely smaller digest trade paperbacks. Plus, the book is loaded with extras.

This time around, we get twelve issues. One six issue arc, one two issue mini-arc, and one four issue arc. The cherry that tops off this Comic Sundae is a twelve page Runaways/X-Men crossover story that was given out on Free Comic Book Day. Other than the original comic, you can't find this story anywhere else. But, that being said, there's no reason why you'd want to. The story is inconsequential and the art is horrific. It's cool as an extra, but don't look forward to it as an epic super-team crossover issue.

Now, about the actual story: I reviewed the individual arcs here Runaways Vol. 4: True Believers and here Runaways Vol. 5: Escape to New York, but I'll reiterate. The stories are great and the dialogue is snappy as always. This is Brian K. Vaughan here. Its elementary knowledge that he'll always deliver a story that'll make you laugh and nod appreciatively at the talent of his writing. The art ranges from okay to great; Alphona isn't great at drawing the major marvel superheroes, but he excels at drawing the major "Runaways" characters. Speaking of those good ol' kids, I'm sure you returning readers are wondering how they've been. Their lives are no less tumultuous than they were in Runaways, Vol. 1, but the situation(s) they're in are nowhere near as epic as that of the first eighteen issues. In fact, this entire volume feels like set-up for a big story to come. That's both exciting and disheartening. This book could've been bigger and included more plot development than hinting at what is going to come, but even so; the more-or-less standalone arcs of this series are always entertaining, funny, and often poignant and, as an aspiring writer, I can safely say that Vaughan's writing is inspiring.

8/10

...for these Runaways books. If you want Runaways Vol 2 in hardback, the ISBN # is 078512358x. The cover for this is the multicolored DNA-like swirl with all the characters against a light blue sky, despite what Amazon has posted as the image! This book collects Runaways Vol 2 #1-12 and the X-Men/Runaways one-shot.

Though not quite as outstanding as the first hardback volume in the series (I would give this 4.5 stars if we could do halves), this is nonetheless a thoroughly satisfying following up to the initial volume. The reason it is not quite as compelling as the first is the lack of a unified narrative arc and too many guest appearances (intrusions?) by heroes from other Marvel product lines.

The story picks up a few months following the end of the previous volume. After having been betrayed by their former leader Alex, the leadership of the Runaways has been taken over by Nico. The current volume is roughly split between two smaller arcs. The first concerns a group of former teen superheroes who have formed a group to rescue current teen superheroes from their plight. This has overtones of those organizations dedicated to rescuing gays from their sexual orientation in that it involves forcing our heroes to deny who they truly are. Interestingly, one of our heroes, Karolina, is revealed to be a lesbian, just before she leaves the story (at least for now) as she returns to the part of the galaxy from which she came. The power vacuum created by her departure is filled by Victor, whose presence is complicated by the fact that Gert, using her parents time travel machine, comes from the future to warn that Victor in her world is the most dangerous super villain of all time, who has killed all of the heroes of her time. Our kids respond by befriending him, hoping to lead him in a different direction. Time will tell what happens with that.

The second major arc involves our heroes going to New York to help Cloak prove that he was not responsible for Dagger being in a coma. Here they run into various Marvel universe superheroes, including Spiderman, Captain America, Ironman, and Wolverine. If I have a complaint with Marvel, it is their tendency to endlessly mix the various strains of superheroes. Some of this is a good thing, but it happens so often sometimes that I wonder if this is an attempt at product-promotion. Nonetheless, despite all this, it was fun seeing Molly and Wolverine enjoying a brief encounter in which she tosses him, much to his shock and consternation, a hundred feet or so through a church door. Molly, by the way, no longer seems prone to instant exhaustion upon using her super strength.

All in all, this is a marvelous sequel to the opening volume in the series. I wonder what the future of the franchise will be like. Vaughan stuck around for one more volume of stories. Interestingly, Joss Whedon has taken over for the next round. If one could point to a single major influence on THE RUNAWAYS, it would unquestionably be BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. So Whedon taking over the come he has most influence will be interesting indeed. Whedon has done wonderful work with the X-Men and is currently producing Season 8 of BUFFY in comic form. I love his comics, but I would really like to see him get back into TV. Let's be honest: a lot of talent people are doing comics, but not many of them could produce a great TV series. Whedon's considerable abilities would be better expended on a new TV series.

The original runaways was great. It followed the story of 7 teens who discovered that their parents were part of an evil organization who dominated LA. It was well written, charecter driven, and full of action and drama. It particularly stood out because of the fact that it was a Marvel comic where there were no tights, no political drama, no overexplained technical jargon and no world endangering catastrophes. Not that theres anything wrong with that, but it can get old and less belivable. It was a great read with consistency throughout each issue. One of my favorite American comic books. Could the 2nd run actually out do it? The awnser is yes.

Runaways Vol 2 pretty much continues where Vol 1 left off. The Runaways continue to fight crime in order to right the wrongs that their parents had previously cast upon the city. Along the way they do meet a new charecter Victor Mancha, and while I don't want to spoil anything, I can tell you that his story is just as tragic if not more so than the rest of the cast which makes him a perfect fit. He is certainly the strangest one and the focal points of these 12 issues. He's "part" Mexican too. So that to me is definetily a plus.

There are also other cameos from famous Marvel legends and not so famous C-listers. Speaking of which, in this book a group of obscure C-listers is formed in order to help the Runawys stop their vigallante like ways. But like a lot of C-listers in Marvel, they just end up looking bad. The latter part of the book does feature some more prominent Marvel figures and while I don't want to reveal anything let me just say that you won't be dissapointed, bub.

But where Runaways really shines is what made it great in the first place, the concept, charecters and writing. Brian K Vaughan once again gives us a will crafted book with great writing. Each charecter has an individual voice. In most cases, American comic books base the dialouge on moving the story forward. In runawys the charecters feel more realistic. From Gert's cynical responses to Chases jock-like comments to Molly's cute and innocent questions. There is definetly much to like about the charecters. I will say that this time around it is a bit more story driven, but that doesn't stunt the rich charecter development.

Another thing to be mentioned is the artwork by Adrian Alphona. He has definetly develped far more since that last run. His technical skill is very good and he can convey expression to fit the writing. His renditions of Marvel Heros are a bit different and more simplistic compared to the typical Marvel fare, but appropriate for this book. Overall very good work. The guest artist Takeshi Miyazawa is also good but not as good as Alphona. Miyazawa has a far more anime driven look and while it does fit the book, his expressions and technical work don't seem to be on par with Alphona's.

So what else can I say? If you're a comic book fan you need this. American comic book fans will get a kick out of all the Marvel references and apperaences. Japanese comic book fans will love the manga influenced charecters and how they react to situations in the American sence. Good book, good read, get it now.

The second collected volume of Runaways takes a darker turn, in both a literal and figurative sense. The Runaways now boast a slicker, more angular art style (that's also far more consistent in quality), a moodier palette than the original muted pastels, and an exponential increase in depth and complexity. Though some of the storylines still seem awkwardly executed and occasionally far-fetched, the series is clearly maturing along with its characters, a group of young, super-powered runaways on the lam after the defeat of their supervillain parents.

(warning for slight spoilers) The "True Believers" story arc sees the Runaways struggling to fill the power vacuum left in Los Angeles by their parents' deaths, while an unexpected message from the future leads, after much conflict, to their adoption of a new teammate. In "Escape to New York," after some dramatic revelations involving Karolina's extraterrestrial origins, the Runaways are brought to New York to aid their one-time opponent Cloak in discovering the impostor who framed him for the brutal beating of Dagger. Numerous East-Coast superhero cameos and Marvel in-jokes ensue. Finally, in "Parental Guidance," the darkest and most shocking storyline, the Runaways attempt to face down the rise of a new Pride, while wrestling with their increasing emotional and personal difficulties. For the Molly fans, it also features a side-story starring the youngest Runaway.

The trademark Runaways humor is still present, and, if anything, greatly improved as well. The jokes are consistently funny now, veering from absurd, goofball humor to a now more biting wit, both of which yield some excellent laugh-out-loud moments. Overall, the series strikes the perfect balance between levity and darkness, particularly in the last two storylines.

In terms of plot, many of the questions and issues that nagged me after the first volume have begun to come out of the woodwork, as well as previously unseen conflicts: possible consequences of Nico's use of the Staff of One, the possibility that not all of the Runaways are as innocent as they seem, the beginning romantic tension between Karolina and Nico (one of my favorite plot points), and the everlasting question - why Molly always acts like a five-year-old. (or, alternatively, where does she get all the cute animal hats?)

Though new readers would probably still be best off starting from the first volume, there's no way I can recommend Runaways volume 2 enough. If you had doubts about whether the continuation could live up to the first part of the series - do NOT hesitate to continue reading. It's more than worth it. I look forward to the next issues of the series with great anticipation.

NOTE: The amazon description says this collects issues 1-18. IT DOES NOT, IT COLLECTS ISSUES 1-12, PRESUMABLY issues 13-24 will be released as volume 3 at later date.

Anyway, the other reviewers touched on the ingenuity of this comic book so there's no need to be repetitive. It's one of the most novel ideas to come out of the genre in years. Don't dismiss it as kids stuff, although it would appear to those readres as well! Like the Harry Potter series, it is addictive, timeless, ageless, and wonderful. A must buy. Don't buy the readers digests (the cheap 7.99 versions) Buy this, the definitive addition where the cool art is not wasted on recycled paper. You'll be glad you did.

I enjoyed the first volume a great deal, but this volume lacks the strong story arc of the first book with its focus on the protaganists' parents, and a satisfying conclusion. this volume just seems to lack direction.... what is driving the characters? What are they rebelling against?
In addition the writing seems weaker. For example I found the entire Victor storyline dull, and could not get involved. Another problem I had was that unlike the first volume, which did not require much background knowledge beyond knowing who the major Marvel characters are, this expected one to know and care about some decidedly 3rd or 4th string heroes.

The other thing is the art is kind of bland at times... I had to keep checking which of the male runaways I was reading about... they looked so similar.

There is some good stuff in this but, not up to the first volume at all. Will see how the 3rd volume shapes up.

Just so everyone is away aware, this collects trades 4-6 not 5-7. The story winds in new and wonderful ways that make it a joy to read. Brian K. Vaughn continues his amazing writing with true dialog and moments when you just realize how great the series is.