written by Rainbow Rowell
drawn by Kris Anka
colored by Matt Wilson
What people who read this blog may not know is that I am actually a big fan of one of Marvel Comics' more recently created titles, Brian K. Vaughn's Runaways, which unlike such titles as Spider-Man or Hulk, which have over 50 years of publishing history behind them, only came into existence this millennium, specifically, in 2003. Unlike those other titles, and despite a lot of love from its publisher, Runaways has had a troubled publishing history, having been canceled and relaunched several times, with the last attempt at a regular series ending something like nine years ago. I missed out on the original run but have been hunting down collected editions ever since, and I have gathered most of them by now. Because the comics are as old as they are I have never reviewed them.
But now, with Marvel about to launch a television series starring these very characters, they are taking one more shot at giving these characters the glory they deserve, and while I'm not quite as blown away as I would have wanted to be by a brand-spanking-new Runaways series, I'm just glad these guys are seeing the light of day again rather than staying in character limbo.
Essentially the story in issue #1 starts with Nico Minoru by herself, looking back briefly on her time together with her fellow Runaways, and on her brief stint with the ever shorter-lived "A-Force." Both teams are basically defunct, and Nico is pining for them both. Suddenly, fellow former Runaway Chase Stein barges in, having traveled forward from the past, where he went to rescue his dead girlfriend Gert Yorkes who died waaay back when. Through Nico's haphazard spell casting, the impossible happens.
In issue #2, fans of the series who haven't really been following what's going on since it ended get brought up to speed on what has happened to the various characters since they went their separate ways. It's not exactly pleasant.
I suppose it's inevitable, given how long the characters have been away from this title, that anyone bringing the team back together would have to catch up on years of backstory. Rowell faces an unenviable task of getting new fans into this book and bringing old fans who may have walked away from comics altogether after the last Runaways story ended back into the fold. Exposition is a necessary evil, and it's to Rowell's credit that she gets a big chunk of it out of the way for the first two issues. I hope there's less of it to come in future issues.
More disappointing for me, though was the normally reliable Kris Anka, whose work on the first issue looked pretty good and up to his usual standards, but whose work on the second issue gave the impression of having been rushed. I got into this guy's work on the strength of his covers, and I have to say he's not quite as strong when working on interiors. I found myself missing the steady pen of Adrian Alphona and Takeshi Miyazawa, who, I understand it, alternate over on Ms. Marvel nowadays.
For all its disappointments, this is a reasonably good effort to revive this series and I will be watching its progress with hope in my heart.
7/10 issue #1
6.5/10 issue #2
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