Volume 1 of Runaways ended with the Pride dying to protect their children from the displeased Gibborim, and Alex dead after it was revealed he'd been the mole trying to manipulate events to protect his parents and Nico, who he had a crush on. Captain America shows up, the kids are briefly named wards of the state, but say screw that and reunite to live together.
Which is where volume 2, the first two years written by Brian K. Vaughn, with mostly Adrian Alphona on pencils, picks up. The cast live in an old Pride base under the La Brea tar pits and try to keep the city quiet now that their parents aren't around to do it. To the extent they have one, Nico is leader, at least out in the field, where they do a bit more superheroing than in the previous volume. They beat down the Wrecking Crew with, frankly, a lot less trouble than a group this disorganized should have. Then a group of former teen heroes - Darkhawk, Turbo, Ricochet, Chamber (except not really), Lightspeed, Phil Urich - trying to quit the hero biz seek them out to convince them they can also stop. It's kind of a mess, though Darkhawk does get to kill an Ultron. Points for that.
Later, they travel to New York to help Cloak when he's accused of putting Dagger in a coma, and run into the New Avengers, who mostly handle things terribly. I say "mostly," because Spider-Man finds Gert and a new team member and they have a calm chat over Chinese food, until Nico and Chase barge in and Nico hits Spidey with a knockout spell, eternally placing Nico Minoru on my shit list.
To be fair, if it wasn't that, it'd be one of 12,000 other incredibly stupid things she's done over the years. Still less irritating than Chase, who runs his yap a lot for a complete goober. Real "alligator mouth, jaybird head," energy from that guy.
There's a lot of interpersonal drama, much of it tied to new additions to the cast. A future Gert claiming to lead the Avengers shows up, dying, to warn them about a boy named Victor who will pose as a hero but turn out to be a huge threat. Victor Mancha eventually ends up on the "team", but it's presented as Nico's idea of a way to keep an eye on him, since Chase would rather just kill the guy before he can hurt present Gert.
In the meantime, Karolina comes out to Nico, by trying to kiss her. Because she interpreted Nico being, 'done with boys,' in a very specific way. Nico is not ready for that, which is when a Skrull named Xavin shows up, claiming his parents and Karolina's arranged a marriage to end a war between their two planets. Gender apparently doesn't mean much to a Skrull, so Xavin can be a girl, if that's what Karolina prefers, and off they go into space - for about 10 issues. Once Karolina's gone, Nico decides she's not done with boys, kisses Chase during the NYC adventure, then starts up with Victor.
That sort of rapidly shifting focus wasn't my teen experience - I basically for one person and that was that - but it does remind me of Alex in high school, where a different girl seemed to seize his attention every time we talked. Credit to Vaughn for capturing that aspect accurately.
Vaughn keeps a plotline running in the background about a mysterious quartet, calling themselves The Pride, plotting to destroy the Runaways. That finally comes to a head in issues 13-18, most of which the Runaways spend on the defensive, getting repeatedly outflanked. I'd be annoyed by that, given how easily the cast handle superheroes who have been fighting tougher foes than them for years, given the Pride is made of a bunch of ordinary dopes. Well, three ordinary dopes and one hardened, but strictly human, criminal. But the New Pride are trying to kill the teens, while the New Avengers are trying to talk. You'd think with all the practice they were getting courtesy of Bendis they'd be better at it, but alas.
The battle against the new Pride ends with the timeline unchanged, the Gibborim still trapped, and one member of the team dead. Which results in a brief "breaking bad" arc for Chase in the final Vaughn/Alphona story, but no resurrections. When Victor questions letting Chase stay, Nico frames it the same way she framed letting Victor stay to Chase. They're keeping an eye on him, and if he steps out of line, they'll 'rip his heart out.'
Which is kind of funny, because this group, the original six from Volume 1, never really does that. Truly cast out the ones who betray them, I mean. Alex betrayed them, but they didn't kill him, the Gibborim did, when he tried to make sure his parents didn't take the blame for his plan failing. Heck, Alex claimed it wasn't a betrayal because he was never on their side, only using them for his plan, and still, as we see in subsequent volumes, they let him show up repeatedly without even kicking his ass, let alone killing him.
Victor, on the other hand, gets very limited benefit of the doubt. When he questions Nico about attacking Spider-Man for no good reason, Chase essentially tells him to be quiet because he's still the 'new kid.' Gert, who was right there conversing pleasantly with Spidey, immediately falls in line with Chase and Nico. When Nico's magic points at Victor as the mole helping the new Pride, Gert immediately swings a giant wrench at him.
When they're trying to figure out who Victor's "evil" parent is, he compares them to a group of abused children, who now assume every child is being abused. Which isn't wrong; they fought the Wrecking Crew because they assumed Piledriver abducted his son against his will, only to learn the kid wants to be like his loser of a dad. But there is a sense the whole mess with their parents has forged a link between them that sticks, even through the bullshit they pull on each other, and that it's hard for anyone else to ever really break in or gain the same benefit of the doubt.
Of the 24 issues Vaughn wrote, the two involving Xavin's arrival and eventual departure with Karolina are drawn by Takeshi Miyazawa. Three issues after the Pride story concludes are drawn by Mike Norton. The remainder are Alphona, whose work continues to grow stronger. Like last week, I think the combination of Yeung's inks and Strain's stronger, more shaded colors, brings out the best in Alphona's pencils. It really shows off the variety of body language and emotions the cast display, though I can't tell if Victor's hair stands up like Vegeta's because of his electric abilities, or Alphona's going for something else and it just comes off a little too stiff. Can't say I love how he draws Darkhawk, which is probably a complaint rarely uttered outside this blog, but outside of Old Lace or the Gibborim, Alphona is mostly drawing regular humans. They may have costumes or powers, but they're still basic humans. I would have been curious to see how he drew the Swarm, a man-shaped mass of bees, but Miyazawa draws that issue.
Vaughn and Alphona leave after issue 24, with Civil War in full swing and Iron Man having found the base. There's a Young Avengers crossover mini-series in there somewhere that also involves Noh-Varr, but I don't care about that. Joss Whedon and Michael Ryan take over as creative team, but managed one six-issue story. There were major delays, to the extent the final 3 issues came out of the course of a year. I didn't read those, but they involved Molly punching out the Punisher, and the team time-traveling to 1907, where they eventually picked up another new member, a young mutant named Clara.
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