OK, question one, and perhaps the most important one, does Runaways v.2 #1 make sense even if you haven't read the first series? Yes. If you've never heard of Runaways before, and you pick up this issue, you're probably going to think it's a fantastic group of new characters combined with a really strong plot with a helluva plot twist at the end and beautiful-looking art. If you're a Runaways fan from the first run (and too few of you are, but you people are the folks I keep writing these weekly reviews for), you're going to frikkin' love this first issue. Vaughan, Alphona, Yeung and Strain capture everything that made Runaways great in the first place, but they're not content to sit on their laurels, and they've given the team a new adversary, a new reason for existence, important tweaks to their dynamics and have not one, not two, but three cool ways of tying the team into the existing Marvel Universe without requiring readers to be continuity-freaks to get it.
If I had to pin down the thing I love most about Runaways, I'd have a hard time doing it, but I think I might settle on it's ability to be absolutely old school Marvel in some ways and yet wholly new in others. Vaughan has clearly thought not just about his new creations of supervillain conspiracy The Pride and their superheroic offspring, but how the existence of these groups might change the Marvel Universe. So we see things we don't usually see, like what happens to supervillains who have kids, or what happens when teen superheroes give up or even why L.A. isn't as crazy superhero/supervillain crowded as New York in the Marvel Universe. Vaughan "gets it" on a level that few other writers do, that a shared universe can be a benefit and not just a handcuff you have to deal with to tell your stories.
The beauty of the book, though, is that despite the history it has (both from it's first eighteen-issue run and it's ties to Marvel continuity), Runaways Vol. 2 is absolutely approachable. Vaughan is digging into the obscure for his continuity refs, from Power Pack to Darkhawk to Slingers, but while fans of those books will get a kick out of seeing their favorite characters again, new readers will get to approach these characters as new, as archetypes of the grown-up teen hero. You don't need to know who the hell the Wrecker and his Wrecking Crew are to get a kick out of the fight scene between them and the Runaways, but if you do, you'll get a real kick out of Wrecker's "witch" line and probably have more than a little fun seeing "Excavator" added to the team. There's a gentle poke at some of the goofiness of these characters, but there's also a sense of real love behind it, and that combination of recognizing that they can be silly and then writing them well anyway is one reason why I love the book.
Leaving aside that the creative team gets the shared universe so well, the writing here is just so sharp. The bickering between the Wrecking Crew during the job. The wisecracks at the heroes' expense. ("I don't know, but I'll take a box of Thin Mints" cracks me up every time... trust me, it's in the context.) Molly continues to delight with her innocent view of everything that the Runaways has done, as she refers to the ad hoc superteam as "our club" and gleefully tells one of the teammates how "pretty" the costumes of the bad guys they beat up were. Then there's the whole atmosphere of the book, which feels like a Whedon-esque modern take on the genre, as the characters are aware of genre staples and conventions and can talk about them in a hip, fun way without ridiculing them or making them seem stupid when they're used in the book.
Then there's the artwork. I've been impressed by Alphona from day one (and Yeung since day, oh, four or whenever it was he took over on inks), but they've stepped things up another level with this issue. I'm reminded to some extent of the expressive, believable artwork of Tony Harris and Tom Feister on Ex Machina, except that Runaways has a less realistic tone, and thus has a slightly cartoonier vibe to it. The look is stylized, with a lot of exaggeration in the characters' faces, and it allows for a subtlety of expression that is rarely seen. The art team is no slouch when it comes to action storytelling, either, and the same wit and perfect pacing that is found in the script can be found in the fight sequences as well.
Superhero books this good don't come along often enough, and I hope that everyone takes advantage of the opportunity this time out to give the book the support it deserves. If you're reading the Joss Whedon Astonishing X-Men, you would absolutely love Runaways. If you're reading Vaughan's other books like Ultimate X-Men, Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina, I think there's a better than even chance you'd love Runaways. I won't go so far as to say that the book is for everyone, but it's damn close, and there's no reason why a book this well-crafted and original shouldn't be in the top ten comics every month. 10/10
