What I Bought 9/2/2025 - Part 2

My work computer is the only one I know of that hasn't "upgraded" to Windows 11. Supposedly the update has tried to take effect a couple of times, but has not gone through. But the laptop seems resistant to updates for some reason. There was an Adobe update - which I would say has not improved the product based on my coworkers' grumbling - earlier this year that somehow never took hold. Strange.

Runaways #3, by Rainbow Rowell (writer), Roberta Ingranata with Elena Casagrande (artists), Dee Cunniffe (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Even setting aside the way they're all hitching a ride on Doombot, the cast look younger - or maybe just smaller - than is typical.

So Alex offers to tell Karolina what happened to the others. Courtesy of the secret spy cameras he had set up around the Hostel. Then he offers to help her find them by tracking their phones. Which is a thing he does, under his definition of being a caring friend. Wilder looked at the overbearing paternalistic attitudes of Silver Age Reed Richards and Charles Xavier and said, "Hold my non-alcoholic beer."

(I actually don't know if Wilder drinks beer, or if he's even old enough, given the time he spent dead.)

At Gert's old house, the cast are. . .not doing a whole lot. Molly's tired and hungry, Victor's feeling "glitchy", which probably isn't good. Gert is trying to help Nico find innate magical ability that doesn't require the Staff of One, under the reasoning neither of her parents needed it to do magic. Fair enough. Chase goes out to get groceries, rather than let Doombot do it. That does lead to the most interesting conversation, where Doombot says that it's his primary responsibility to care for all these kids, because the youth are the most important thing in Latveria, and that he took on the responsibility when Chase ran off (or was abducted) to the future. It's a nice explanation beyond his friendship with Victor for why Doombot's stuck around.

But, if Alex can track them by their phones, so can the other Doombots. Things look bad, but Nico is able to cast some sort of teleportation spell while she's holding Gert's hand, and I hope Rowell isn't about to start another relationship between Nico and one of her teammates. That would leave Molly as the only one not checked off the list at this point (depending on whether you count Old Lace, Gib, or Doombot.)

I'm not really sure what it means that Ingranata was the artist "with" Casagrande. Ingranata only did breakdowns on some pages, with Casagrande finishing the art (ala Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema on Amazing Spider-Girl), but on others it was all Ingranata? I was thinking maybe you could tell based on which way Wilder's hair falls - left for Casagrande, right for Ingranata - but I don't think that holds up. But there are definitely some pages where the linework looks thinner and sharper, or faces look a little wonky in terms or proportions or perspective, which is maybe not great in a comic so focused on people just sitting around talking. In the example above, I feel like maybe there's more of Casagrande in the close-up than in the first two panels, but it's just the angle we're seeing Nico's face from.

The Thing #4, by Tony Fleecs (writer), Justin Mason (artist), Alex Sinclair (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Juggernaut ruined my paper mache float for the big holiday parade!

Let's start with this: The Juggernaut/Thing fight is a dud. Ben's trying to hold Marko back with one hand, Black Tom zaps him, talks a bunch of junk while getting too close, and Ben chucks him down the street, Juggernaut rushing after him. Huge letdown, hence my using italics, bold, and underline. I haven't been this disappointed since the Fraction/Aja Hawkeye run went off the rails.

Yeah, fine, it's a valuable point about Ben that he's not fighting to prove something about how tough he is, he's trying to protect this kid, so it's better to avoid the fight. Still disappointing.

Ben tries calling the FF for back-up - via a phone booth! - but they had to return to the Negative Zone. Then he has to punch out Moonstone. Then Rhino and Jigsaw. Then Grizzly and Hate-Monger show up. Then Red Ghost and his Super-Apes. Then 5/6ths of the Sinister Six. No Sandman, so maybe Fleecs is saving him as someone to help Ben out in the final issue? This seems set around the era when Sandman was shifting towards a sorta good guy. Through all this, Ben is trying to explain to Sara that while he does punch a lot of people, it's different. He's not punching them because he's angry, even if he is angry while he's punching them. It's because he's trying to stop them from hurting people.

It's unclear if Sara can follow the distinction - and who can blame her, it's been a bad day - because they get jumped in the subway by Viper/Madame Hydra and more goons hopped up on the super-strength drug. Really doesn't seem like Ben should be having that much trouble with these losers after trouncing the entire Wrecking Crew and all those guys I mentioned above, but maybe he's tired. Either way, Sara freaks out and erupts in flames, which explains that explosion at the docks.

The best part of this issue is the first page, when the Serpent Society hear about the bounty and Cobra raises the idea of going for it, only to be immediately shot down by half the roster. See, those are super-villains with sense! I mean, I know Grizzly's a sub-literate moron, no surprise he lacks common sense. What the heck did the Vulture or Kraven think they were gonna do against the Thing?