Volume 4 of Runaways, "But You Can't Hide", is an opportunity for the characters to sort of take stock after the mess with Alex and the Gibborim in the previous arc. And so there's not necessarily one big plot that dominates. There's no external threat, it's more that most of the cast are trying to cope with loss. The first issue is entirely about Molly chasing after Alex and traveling with him, in the hopes he'll help her recover the clone of her mother her grandmother made from, as Alex puts it, "Avengers jail." But that clone isn't Molly's mom, so that's another person she's lost that isn't coming back.
Victor starts to feel the loss of his weaponry and advanced abilities, his inability to protect those he cares about, while still being afraid that he might repeat his murder of the Vision's son in Tom King's Vision series. He does end up growing himself a new body out of bathtub water(?), but then he and Gert start making out. Which sends Chase into a tailspin, but he focuses on work and gets Doombot running again. A success! Except Doombot reverts to shouting about Richards and attacking everyone. He's lost whatever progress he'd made on becoming his own being, but it offers Victor the chance to confront his fear of losing someone in a way where he doesn't risk electrocuting anyone. Nico Henrichon draws the conversations inside Doombot's consciousness, where all the panel borders are mechanical junk and cables.
Also, this reminded me Nico and Victor dated at one point and jeezus, did Nico date everyone in the cast? Chase, Alex, Victor, Karolina, didn't she date Xavin, too, or was that just Karolina that did that?
Gib is still there, minus his two siblings, in a world that is not what he was promised. Join the club. The crew are trying to figure out how to feed him, but even once he grasps how to eat like them, it doesn't help. Their attempts at "sacrifice" don't cut it, either. Karolina has fallen hopelessly behind at college, and maybe it's not even worth continuing, but she does realize she likes using her powers to actually help people. I mean, on purpose, rather than just falling into it like they normally do.
Nico seems to be the only one doing OK throughout, but she spent half of the previous arc struggling with the knowledge there's a wizard trapped inside her staff. She's got a better deal, or so she figures, so she can afford to be in a better mood. Still odd that, knowing the wizard's soul will bleed into hers when she uses the Staff of One, she agrees to go patrolling with Karolina.
(It goes horribly, fyi. Hard to believe Nico was on an Avengers team, although at this point, who hasn't been an Avenger? Dr. Druid is ecstatic because it means there must be someone who was a worse Avenger than him. I'm not saying it's Nico Minoru, just the odds are good the title belongs to someone new.)
This arc marks the point where Andres Genolet takes over as regular artist from Kris Anka, a role Genolet maintained until the book's cancellation. I'm still trying to figure out when Molly makes the major jump in height I noticed in the last few issues, but it hadn't happened as of this story. She's still a lot smaller than everyone else. Genolet continues to give each character their own style in terms of clothes, though I couldn't describe it to you for anything. Just Nico doesn't dress like Gert, who doesn't dress like Victor, etc.
Genolet's also got the ability to draw expressions and body language in a way to sell the beats Rowell likes to use. Those two-to-four panel silent bits between a couple of characters. In the first issue, there's one where Alex leans towards a guy making creepy comments towards Molly, then in the next panel he touches him, and the panel after that is the guy getting the hell away. There are a lot of those, but Genolet illustrates them the best they can.
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