Still Going Strong: A Review of Runaways (2017 series) Vol. 4: "But You Can't Hide"

written by Rainbow Rowell
illustrated by Andres Genolet (with Niko Henrichon)
colored by Matt Wilson

As much as I had enjoyed this resurrection of the Runaways ongoing so far, with the departure of series "co-resuscitator" Kris Anka, I was quite saddened and not really looking forward to the next volume without him. I was pleasantly surprised, then to find that his replacement Andres Genolet (who gets an ever-so-slight helping hand from Niko Henrichon) did a more than adequate job filling in his shoes.

Following their nearly lethal encounter with the children of the Gibborim, the Runaways manage to return to a semblance of their normal lives. Molly chases after Alex, who leaves the group dejected after having briefly rejoined them to fight the Gibborim, Chase tries to figure out how to repair the Doombot that one of the Gibborim destroyed, unaware that Gert, his nominal girlfriend whom he rescued from dying in the past, has started a relationship with Victor. Victor still has nightmares about his past and potential future, and Karolina, whose misadventures have resulted in her dropping out of college, experiences an existential crisis and decides on a new path, one she hopes Nico will join her on. Meanwhile, the remaining child of the Gibborim remains with the team, unable to eat anything they try to feed him and yet suffering from hunger pangs that, apparently, only millions of sacrificed souls will satisfy.

The book is packed to the gills with story and character development, and Rowell keeps things both engaging and brisk. As in the previous volume, what really keeps things engrossing is how she plumbs the depths of the characters. In particular, Rowell takes us inside the heads of Chase, Victor, and to a lesser extent, Alex. This story arc marks the first time, since Chase rescued Gert from her death back in the very first incarnation of the series when Brian K. Vaughan was still writing it, that Rowell has finally given Chase a away out of the extremely awkward situation he's been in for the last two years, as a 20-year-old with a minor for a girlfriend. It's a nice little sequence involving a supermarket attendant that played out innocently enough, but when Chase dismissed the girl's advances with "I have a girlfriend" as a reader who knew what Chase didn't, I found myself wincing, almost out loud. There's always been something distinctly tragic about Chase not being able to act on his feelings for Gert despite having saved her from the dead and despite the fact that she still loves him, and Rowell finally has this come to its awkward head.

Speaking of which, Victor, having survived the Gibborim attack, nonetheless still has nightmares about it, and vague visions (or fears) of the future. As a character, he used to be defined by his fear of what he could be, and in a sense, he still is, but now he carries the guilt over what he's done, in particular to Vision's deceased son Vin. Fortunately, he rises above both fear and guilt to save the relationships he values, in this case his friendship with the Doombot. But the specter of what he's done, and what he may yet do, still loom over him.

Speaking of people who've done some pretty terrible things, Alex Wilder's appearance may be brief, especially when compared to the last story arc, but Rowell manages to leave an impression with it nonetheless.

As strange as this may sound, even though he is clearly the same kid who betrayed his friends back in the BKV days, Alex is as engaging a character as he has ever been. Having kept him around for the entirety of the last volume, Rowell only keeps him around for a single issue as a sort of epilogue to the last arc, but manages to drop a nice tease for the first time: apparently Alex, being sort of undead, now has a kind of super power. It's not quite as spectacular as the demonic powers he put on display in his brief, ill-advised (in my opinion) turn as a supervillain over in Heroes for Hire (which, it turned out, weren't even really his), but it could have interesting implications in the future. Also, because of what has happened to him, Alex doesn't have a grand plan, whether it's to be a superhero or restart the Pride (again) or anything like that. He basically just finds his parents' old home and kind of just settles in. He still has basic human decency, as he shows when he gets a sexual predator to leave Molly alone (not that she needed the help) with his macabre powers, but Alex is clearly neither hero nor villain at this point, but just someone living with the aftermath of some really bad decisions, a trait he actually shares with some of Marvel's most celebrated characters (and with much of humanity, for that matter). I honestly can't wait to see what Rowell has in store for him.

It helps quite considerably that, contrary to my expectations, the artist who succeeded Kris Anka on this title, Andres Genolet, is not only hugely talented, but by and large he also captures the youthful vibe that has made the runs of not only Anka but the likes of Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa and even Humberto Ramos memorable. Genolet had some fairly big shoes to fill, and with the exception of one of the later issues in which the quality drops ever so slightly, he does it in fine style.

I had thought my collecting this series would wind down with Anka's departure, even though I've enjoyed Rowell's writing, but it looks like with another talented artist on board, I'm staying around for quite a bit longer.

8.5/10

Making Amends: A Review of Ms. Marvel, Vol. 11, "Destined"

written by Saladin Ahmed
penciled by Minkyu Jung
inked by Juan Vlasco
colored by Ian Herring

It seems somehow wrong that I regularly review comic books as a hobby, and yet have neglected to review so much as single collected edition of the adventures of Kamala Khan, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel, the publisher's very popular Pakistani-American superhero, whose adventures I have been following quite diligently since 2015. However belatedly, I intend to right that particular wrong with this review. It's just a pity, though, that the volume I am finally reviewing happens to be the first one not written by Kamala Khan's co-creator G. Willow Wilson.

In essence, Kamala Khan, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel and her family are kidnapped by aliens, who believe her to be a great being destined to free them from her oppressors. Of course, things are not quite what they seem and Kamala has to take a stand when she learns the truth. Also, one of her family members has a terrible secret which, when revealed, will shake Ms. Marvel to her very core.

I'll be honest; of the eleven volumes of Ms. Marvel that I've read over the years, I have to say this is among the weaker ones. Ahmed gets a lot of the core aspects of Kamala Khan right, like her kindness and brashness, but he does her no favors by dropping her into a story that can only be described as hackneyed, including the "twist" which is telegraphed from the word "go." I've seen very little of Ahmed's work, such as his Amazing Spider-Man annual from last year (which I quite liked) and his first volume of "Miles Morales" which I found to be just O.K. This ranks well below both of them in terms of creativity and storytelling craft, though I do think he has a gift for snappy dialogue. The art by Minkyu Jung is decent but a far cry from the renderings of the series' best, like co-creator Adrian Alphona and Takeshi Miyazawa.

Still, Ahmed does pick up the various threads that Wilson left hanging and opens up one heck of a thread of his own, so it'll be interesting to see where he takes the character and her cast from here. Still, I had kind of hoped for a better first effort from this writer, whose work I genuinely liked.

6.5/10