This one is my pick for the likely best of the Tsunami line, based on the advanced previews and the creative team, and the first issue does nothing to dissuade me from that opinion. Vaughan brings the strong characterization and neat ideas that he has brought to his other well-regarded work like Y The Last Man, and the art team, while new names to me, serve up some interesting and effective artwork to bring the story to life. This first issue is mostly setup, establishing the lead characters and the reason for their titular flight from home, but the character development is outstanding, and the last few pages come with a pretty big shocker that has me asking a lot of questions about what happens next.
While I get the sense that Runaways is going to have more than a little bit of darkness in its tone, Vaughan and company color the first issue with plenty of humor as well. The opening sequence is both an imaginative touch to the Marvel Universe, extrapolating from the popularity of games like Everquest in the real world, and a goofy little bit of fun and shaking reader perceptions. The vignettes for each character are leavened with plenty of humor as well, and I was especially fond of Hollywood family the Deans.
Each of these vignettes provides humor, but it also provides something more important and that's characterization. Vaughan packs an impressive amount of information into five pages covering five characters; we learn their basic temperament, their socioeconomic status, their age, how they relate to their parents and a lot of other important things that help Vaughan hit the ground running with six well-established characters in a first issue. As much as I enjoyed the vignettes, however, the story is even better when the whole group gets together, as Vaughan has created a dynamic that is sort of like a family but which incorporates a degree of unfamiliarity as well, giving way to strong relationships but plenty of room for discovery too.
I'm not familiar with the art of Alphona and Newbold, but their work here is reminiscent of some of the work that Udon Studios did, notably on Agent X. Some of the expressions of their characters when they're angry go a little too over-the-top for me (the wide mouths just kill me), but overall I thought they did a great job of handling what is basically a story of a bunch of normal kids in a wealthy but normal environment. The variety of fashion that the characters wear is an especially nice touch, and Brian Reber's colors keep things bright and lively as well.
This first issue is all about building up our cast and making us want to know what happens to them next, and the creators definitely succeed on that score. The book takes a drastic turn in the last few pages, however, as Vaughan reveals the secret behind the book in a dramatic fashion, and the reputation he has earned for great cliffhangers in Y The Last Man gets a bit of reinforcement in the first issue of Runaways, as I'm left anxiously anticipating the next issue and the repercussions of the sudden shift in the story to incorporate some more fantastic elements.
