Alex Wilder, Nico Minoru, Chase Stein, Gertrude Yorkes, Karolina Dean, Molly Hayes. Six teenagers who only really know each other through their parents. Parents who are secretly the heads of The Pride, an organization that runs crime throughout Los Angeles and much of the West Coast, a fact the teens learn after they stumble on their parents sacrificing a young woman to a trio of gods who will soon arrive in the world and destroy it, except for six people. The teenagers go on the run, learning a few more surprises about their parents and themselves along the way.
I was a latecomer to Runaways. The third volume - which we'll get to in two weeks - had been done for 3 years before I went on a binge buying most of the first two volumes in those manga-sized digests Marvel used to do for books deemed to be aimed at younger readers. The first volume, which lasted 18 issues, is the cast trying to stay out of their parents' clutches long enough to figure out what to do.
It's as much a disorganized scramble as you might expect. They end up in an old hotel that's partially buried by an earthquake. They're low on money, low on food, and while collectively they have a fair number of skills, none of them are exactly survivalists. Plus, they're teenagers, so long-term planning and calm decision making are not always at their fingertips.
Molly's the youngest and ends up missing her parents, plus any time she uses her powers, she pretty much passes out. Karolina's distraught enough at learning she's an alien and her parents are murdering criminals she asks a vampire to take her life. (Turns out drinking blood of someone solar-powered is a bad idea.) Alex tries to play the capable leader, but is just as prone to getting swept up in jealousy as Nico, who seems less discerning in her choice of partners than Deadpool. Chase is smarter than the others or his father give him credit for, but that doesn't mean he's not more concerned with showing off and trying to act cool. Gert takes full advantage of the fact it's easier to criticize than lead or offer constructive solutions, which has got to wear on your nerves after a while.
To that, Vaughn adds the twist one of the teens is secretly leaving little notes for their parents, assuring their loyalty. Neither the Pride or the reader knows who it is, which means everything has to be evaluated. Does Karolina really want to go fight crime, or is it just about getting outside where she might be able to slip away? Is Molly really as much a child as she seems, forgetting her parents are supervillains, or is it an act to lower the others' guards? Meanwhile, the parents are playing their own games, forming alliances among themselves and against each other. Which six get to survive the Gibborim's ascension isn't set in stone. Could be 6 teenagers, could be two teenagers with their parents.
Minus a two issues guest appearance by Cloak and Dagger drawn by Takeshi Miyazawa, Adrian Alphona is the penciler for the entire series. His work is stiffer than it would be a decade later on Ms. Marvel, hewing more towards photorealistic. But he captures the awkwardness of teenagers at that point, the big emotions good and bad. Everyone has their own distinctive look, in clothing as well as body type.
Maybe it's Alphona growing more comfortable with the characters as the series progresses, but I think Christina Strain's color work later in the series helps as well. She uses darker, richer tones than Reber does. The characters and the action pop off the page, have more depth. In the early issues, Karolina's powers are like a diluted watercolor, or a glowstick that's wearing out. Later, her powers are stronger, more vivid and varied in color. Likewise, the flames from Chase's "Fistagons" are a lot more dramatic.
The volume concludes with a standoff against their parents, the traitor revealed, and not everyone makes it out alive.
No comments:
Post a Comment