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RUNAWAYS #18
(Best of the Week!)
"Eighteen"
Highly Recommended (10/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Pencils: Adrian Alphona
Inks: Craig Yeung
Colors: Christina Strain
Letters: Randy Gentile
Editor: C.B. Cebulski
Price: $2.99 US/$4.25 CAN |
I've rarely been this happy to be wrong. By which I mean, the rumors about this book, combined with a level of healthy skepticism about Marvel's general editorial direction of late, led me to believe that if Runaways did in fact relaunch, it probably would lose a lot of what I loved about the book. Now that I see how Vaughan and company have closed out the first series of Runaways, however, it's clear that I have nothing to worry about, and that while the status quo of the characters has changed in major ways, the strengths of the series remain. This is a fantastic closer for one of Marvel's best new series in recent memory, and an even better teaser for what is yet to come. If you're one of the (too few) Runaways fans who has been following faithfully, this issue is going to be great for you, and if you're a potential new fan intrigued by the buzz, this one also serves as a pretty good taste of what might be coming up in the new series in 2005. Either way, my advice on Runaways remains the same it has been since issue one: Get it. It's great.
One of the things I love about Vaughan's writing is that he always manages to surprise me. A lot of my favorite writers can keep me invested even when I know that there's a certain untouchable status quo they're working with, but Vaughan always manages to maintain the sense that anything could happen. Part of the reason he maintains this sense is because on a lot of the books he's working on, his characters aren't so tightly controlled that he can't off them or otherwise mess with their lives in major ways. This book opens with a huge change in the status quo of these characters, one that would seem like a natural end-point for the book... and then uses that natural end-point to open up a whole new realm of storytelling possibility.
Probably the strongest element of Runaways, however, is that it was (and is) new. A brand new bunch of characters, whose ties to the Marvel Universe are tangential at best, making them at home in the shared continuity but clearly new at the same time. However, not only are the Runaways an injection of five or six great characters into the Marvel lexicon, they're just fun characters overall. My favorite moments in this issue came from watching these characters interact after the changes their lives have gone through. I love seeing where they wound up, and even more seeing the bonds that have formed after all that they've been through. Two of the characters who I never thought of as close wind up with a much stronger bond than I ever expected, two of the "outsider" characters of the group come together to form the new core, and then there's Molly, who remains one of the cutest and most fun characters in superhero comics. Seriously, the way Vaughan writes them, I would happily read these characters hanging out and watching television for 22 pages.
However, that's really not what Vaughan does here. He has always married these strong characters to equally strong stories, and the plot of this issue is as good an example of super-powered teenage rebellion as you get. It also serves to introduce a touch of action into the book, and to set up the new status quo of the characters, which tweaks the whole notion of them as runaways and yet feels completely in touch with the characters and the journey they've been on. Those last two pages, which serve as both fond farewell and promise of new adventures, make me all the more anxious to see what comes next for the characters.
As much as I talk about Vaughan's contribution to the book, though, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the artists. Alphona and Yeung are the true "young guns" of Marvel, guys who really haven't been around the industry before but who are some of the up-and-coming talents. Their designs for these teens are terrific, relying not on costumes but on other distinctive features to give them their look, and I love the subtle changes they've made that reflect the maturing of Gert and Chase or the change Karolina has gone through as she's been forced a bit more into the real world. Also, though there is action in this issue, and well-choreographed action at that, Alphona and Yeung are perfectly matched to the book because of their strength with the dialogue-based action as much as with the fighting between the capes and tights set.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
