Friday, February 25, 2022

Random Back Issues #81 - Runaways #36

Well, far enough in the future and we'll all be dead, Chase. Be more specific.

A new leader in the most recently released comic to get Random Back Issued, taking over from Coda #8. We're two issues from the conclusion of Rainbow Rowell's stint writing Runaways, not that I was entirely sure of that at the time. This issue is focused entirely on Chase, Gert (both of them), and Victor.

Chase, having accepted Gert's moved on with Victor, works up the nerve to ask out Van, the lavender-haired girl at Haul Mart who helped Chase when he had to buy various hygiene products for a house full of women. Old Lace is pretty judgmental towards the one who most often provides him with cheeseburgers, but all that's forgotten when they get home and they find Gert waiting.

Not the current-day Gert, back from the dead but now several years younger than Chase. A Gert probably the same age as Chase, who time-traveled from the future specifically for him. More specifically, to take him with her back to the future, which she tries to do on the sly while they're hugging. Chase, showing more intelligence than I'd normally credit him for, catches her and demands answers. Gert, naturally, won't give them, other than she loves him, and she can't tell Chase anything else about why she came back now.

Which is pretty suspicious, as Gert is just about the last person I'd expect to give a shit about something like preserving the timeline. Her solution to the Gibborim problem was to just send two of them 999 years into the future and let them eat the souls of whatever humans were still alive.

Back at high school, Present Day Gert and Victor walk home from school! Look, this is a very talky issue, you'll have to take your action where you can get it. Gert may have actually made a friend with her partner on a group project, and Victor might be a little jealous. This segues into a whole thing about the recent fiasco with Doc Justice and how the rest of them just left Gert - no powers, no special training or skills Gert - behind to go superhero.

Gert's trying to find what she's good at, since being a superhero doesn't seem like it's in the cards. And she expects her friends to all ditch her for other superhero friends. Victor's attempts at reassurance are of limited use in the face of her sarcasm and cynicism. See, she does have a superpower. The same one as me.

Victor is frustrated he fell for Doc Justice's spiel so easily, because Ultron programmed him to be a big superhero fanboy. So he's back to angsting about if he's destined to go evil because of his parental figure. Didn't he just talk Doombot out of this same line of thinking ten issues ago? Gert figures either Chase or Molly are far more likely to go evil, which is just stupid. Nico is obviously the one most likely to abuse her power for evil ends.

All the talking about emotions leads to kissing, which leads to finding a secluded spot, which leads to Victor and Gert finding Chase and Future Gert making out. Which is just awkward for everyone. "The future version of present-day girlfriend has her tongue down the throat of my present-day girlfriend's ex-boyfriend." I thought that only happened to the X-Men.

{9th longbox, 45th comic. Runaways (vol. 4) #36, by Rainbow Rowell (writer), Andres Genolet (artist), Dee Cunniffe (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)}

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