Saturday Splash Page #200

"Time Bandit," in Runaways (vol. 4) #1, by Rainbow Rowell (writer), Kris Anka (artist), Matthew Wilson (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

After the conclusion of the 3rd volume, things didn't go so great for the Runaways. They got folded into Avengers Academy about the time I dropped it. Then Chase and Nico were thrown into the meat grinder that was Avengers Arena and Avengers Undercover. Nico Minoru lost a hand, replaced by a magical gauntlet, while Chase mostly got his butt kicked (which was at least enjoyable for me.) There was a mini-series during Secret Wars, but I have no idea what it was about. Nico did end up on one of the million Avengers' teams for a hot second, as did Victor Mancha (a different one of the million Avengers' teams.)

Finally in 2017, they got another ongoing series, this time written by Rainbow Rowell, with Kris Anka and Matthew Wilson as the initial art team. The group, family, team, whatever you'd call them, has broken up. Nico is living alone in an apartment, but she got her hand back! Somehow. (It's addressed eventually. Very eventually, as Rowell doesn't advance any plots quickly.) Karolina's attending college and dating Julie Power (Lightspeed from Power Pack.) Molly's living with her grandmother. Victor is a disembodied, deactivated head in a box, courtesy of Tom King's Vision series. 

Chase? Chase apparently went back to the Hostel, which was much bigger than they thought, and got it livable. Then he somehow refueled Gert's parents' time machine, and traveled back two years to save Gert. Being Chase, he fucked up by not getting there prior to her being stabbed, but Nico's able to stumble through magically saving Gert's life by abducting a podiatrist.

Also, Old Lace is alive again. Somehow. 

So Gert's back, a lot's changed, everyone's split up and gotten older, and she doesn't like it. But like there's a magnetic pull between them, the group comes back together. Victor's only pretending to be deactivated, because he doesn't want to deal with what he did. No judgements, I wouldn't want to deal with having been in a Tom King-written book either. Molly's grandmother turns out to be a creepy scientist who created telepathic cats, among other things, so Molly can't stay there. Karolina begins neglecting school and Julie to hang out with her old friends. Everyone gradually moves into the Hostel. A Doombot Victor knew from his Avengers team shows up, and sticks around as the closest thing to parental supervision they've got, although it is interesting watching Chase and Nico try to be responsible adults when they and Gert are still so adamant all adults suck.

(It takes Rowell 11 issues to bother answering what happened to Klara, only getting to it after torching the Karolina/Julie relationship so she can eventually put Karolina and Nico back together. As for Klara, she was adopted by a gay couple and lives in a nice home in a suburb where she has her own garden. Demonstrating more brains than anyone else, she does not want to go back to a life on the run where shit constantly blows up and people die. So that was it for Klara. No one comes back to visit or stay in touch. Like she escaped their creepy cult and now she's dead to them.

At least she fared better than Xavin, who is, so far as I know, just dead.)

The book's pace is clearly written for the trade, only marginally compensated for by the number of subplots Rowell has going at any given time. A particular issue may spend a few pages on Victor's resistance to getting a new body, or Doombot's struggle with self-determination, a few on Molly and her BFF at school, a few on Karolina's failing grades or Nico's issues with her magic. None of the threads advance much, but they all advance a little, which makes a less irritating read than Rowell's She-Hulk was, where the pace was equally slow but there was only whatever was going on with Jack of Hearts.

Alex Wilder, sorta resurrected in Avengers Undercover, shows up with a warning the children of the Gibborrim are here, expecting a sacrifice from the Pride. And this is where those threats by Nico in volume 2 to tear out Chase or Victor's hearts if they turned traitor seem ludicrous. Alex has literally betrayed them, tried to kill them, made Nico waste dozens of spells while mansplaining the "one use" thing was a mental block on her part and not an actual condition of the magical instrument she wielded that he never understood, and at one point here, tries to sacrifice Victor against the wishes of the others. And they. . .just let him walk away. Don't do a damn thing, even later, when they think he abducted Molly (she went with him willingly thinking he could help get her parents back.)

At the end of the day, Alex was there at the beginning, so apparently nothing he's done since is ever going to earn him an ass-kicking. He's still one of them in a way Xavin or Klara never were, even though he seems to find the way they go about things as insane as Klara, albeit for different reasons.

Anka is the regular artist for most of the first 18 issues, then giving way primarily to Andres Genolet. It's a very pretty book. Wilson and later, Dee Cunniffe, tend to warm tones. Strong, but not overly bright or garish. It doesn't overpower any of the pencilers' linework, instead enhancing everything.

Anka and Genolet uphold the Runaways' tradition of giving the characters distinctive and unique looks, although Anka's work there is stronger. Fashion seems to be a real strength. Nico wears different stuff from how she dressed in the earlier volumes, but with enough similarity you can see a throughline of her preferred styles in her clothes, adjusted for growing older. With most of the cast having aged two years since Gert (nearly) died, the artists play up size differences a bit more, most of the cast now towering over Gert. Even Molly gets a growth spurt late in the series where she shoots up closer to Nico or Karolina in height. There aren't a lot of fight scenes, but those there are, while brief, are usually well-illustrated.

The book seemed to run out of momentum in the last 10 issues, though that may just have been COVID messing with the release schedule. Gert and Chase were awkward around each other, given the age difference, so Gert drifted to Victor. Chase briefly considered dating an employee at a superstore, but that got immediately dropped by the arrival of an older Gert from the future, who later abducted him. The X-Men show up to haul Molly off to their mutant prison, I mean, mutant utopia, and Nico seems about two seconds from making out with Pixie. (Nico Minoru may be hornier than Deadpool, which is a staggering notion, but the evidence is strong.) Nico and Karolina were arguing about Nico's magic and a particularly bad bargain Nico made to ditch the "one use" aspect, before Karolina went off into space, taking the Staff of One with her. 

(Writers always come back to Space Stuff with Karolina, but we never actually see any of it. Her friends never insist on coming along. How has Marvel resisted the siren call of Molly Hayes & Rocket Raccoon meet-up?)

The one member of the Gibborrim who decided they liked humanity and sided with the cast, starts going to high school with Victor and Gert, but that barely got off the ground. Alex was lurking in the shadows, making his plans and whatnot. A few of those things got picked up in the tie-in mini-series to One World Under Doom that just wrapped up, but I'm not sure how much actual resolution we're going to get.

Uninvited Holiday Guests are the Worst

Latverians take the Airing of Grievances very seriously. Pointless aside: Festivus is the only Seinfeld thing I ever gave a shit about. Because it was a show about the meaningless lives of four largely awful people. Which is why I was fine with them being thrown in jail in the series finale. Anyway!

The third volume of Rainbow Rowell and Kris Anka's Runaways revolves around the return of original cast member Alex Wilder, who, as usual, brings trouble. This time, it's the Gibborim, the gods the kids' parents had agreed to hand the world over to. Gib, Bor, and Im didn't get the world, or the sacrifice they were promised (nor the power that comes with it), because the kids stopped their parents.

The godlings are a little irked about that, and tell the "Pridelings" they have one week to decide whether they're going to fulfill the contract and offer a sacrifice, or become the first sacrifice a new Pride will offer. They leave one of the three, Gib, there to keep an eye on the kids, make sure they don't try to run off.

With that groundwork laid, Rowell and Anka spend the next few issues showing how the cast deals with the ultimatum. Or doesn't. Alex, of course, tries to take command, but is met with resistance because a) he's a condescending, pushy dick, and b) he did try to betray them the last time they dealt with Gibborim. He is definitely the guy who says hurtful stuff under the excuse of 'tellin' it like it is.' Except he's not nearly as smart as he thinks. The thing with Nico's staff about not being able to reuse words isn't some mental block or artificial limitation of hers, it's an actual thing cooked into how the fucking staff works. But Alex can't accept that, so it must be Nico's fault. He's like the worst aspects of Reed Richards and Tony Stark, with 1/20th the intelligence.

To be fair, he's just about the only one who seems to be taking any steps. Gert and Victor are poring over the Pride's journals for clues and discussing Gert traveling back in time to try and warn everyone to prepare. Everyone else is either ignoring it, or in Chase's case, content to just wing it. Or as he puts it, 'fight like crazy and hope we win.'

In the middle of all that, Nico gets some new information about the Staff of One, which also explains why she has a left hand again, and not the big magical gauntlet she got during Avengers Arena. I hadn't really even noticed, but I'm used to expecting writers to just ignore whatever they choose these days, so I figured that's what Rowell was doing. The team takes time out to celebrate Christmas, and Victor finally decides he'd like a body, please.

Which doesn't feel like much, in terms of plot. Granted, that's been my impression of this book throughout. It's not a dense reading experience, generally, but that works in its favor here. There's a ticking clock until Bor and Im return and we're watching most of the cast do. . . not a hell of a lot. We don't see Molly or Karolina training feverishly, or Chase wracking his brains for a way to discover a weakness like we might expect if this was the Fantastic Four. 

They are, as Alex says, seemingly putting their heads in the sand, which is why he can gain any traction at all, with them or the audience. At least he has a plan, as unpleasant and unfeasible as it seems. We know none of the others have come up with anything.

(As tough as the Gib, Bor, and Im seem, I really doubt Alex was going to be able to cut any of them with that dagger, assuming he could even get close enough to take a swing. As always, Alex' real gift is selling his bullshit plans.)

Kris Anka draws the last four issues, with Matthew Wilson on color duties. Most of the first two issues are by David Lafuente, who has simplified his style a bit since Patsy Walker: Hellcat. Maybe it was already like this when he took over as artist on Ultimate Spider-Man, I dunno, I'd long since dropped that book. it's still recognizably his work, but the lines are thicker, designs simpler. Fewer lines, but not necessarily less detailed in the important ways.

Although he gave Alex the same hair Egon had on the '80 Ghostbusters cartoon, which is hard to take seriously. He does make the Gibborim look more menacing than Anka does. Anka definitely pretties Gib up a lot. Although Anka makes everyone look pretty so maybe that's just unavoidable. While Lafuente doesn't make him unattractive necessarily, the nose is longer, the brow a bit thicker and scowlier, the horns a little more prominent.

Lafuente's also the only artist in this volume (Takeshi Miyazawa draws the second half of #14, which focuses on Old Lace) that draws Gib without pupils. Anka draws Bor and Im without pupils, so I thought maybe it was meant to be a significant thing, that Gib would gain them somewhere over the course of the holiday festivities or whatever. Gaining compassion as he spends time around mortals, that sort of thing. But no, as soon as it's not Lafuente on art chores, Gib has pupils, and that's that. Bit of a missed opportunity there, considering how the plot played out.

You Might Give It the Slip, but Time Catches Up Eventually

Chase Stein being unable to successfully fight anyone is a truly hilarious character trait and I love it.

While I've begun picking up the current volume of Runaways as it comes out, I've also been backtracking to buy the tpbs of the earlier issues I missed. I picked up Volume 1 late last fall, but we're on Volume 2 today, which is largely about growing up. Either being afraid of it, disillusioned by the realities, or just unsure about it. Kris Anka draws a lot of characters looking nervous or uncomfortable, trying to avoid eye contact like it'll save them from unpleasant emotional issues.

Having reunited most of the team in those first six issues, and determined Molly's grandmother was a genetic engineer who created Molly's parents artificially, they're mostly living in the underground base that used to belong to their parents. But Molly still has school, Victor has no body, and Gert is - via the magic of time travel - back after being dead three years. So there are things to address. For one, someone has to be Molly's parents now.

 

Oh. Guess that takes care of that. Now all Molly has to deal with is whether or not she would like to avoid ever having to grow up by eating an enchanted cupcake her best friend received from the Enchantress in the 1960s. And most of the others keep implying that growing older is, in fact terrible, but also that they don't entirely take her seriously as long as she's so much younger than they are.

Against that backdrop, Karolina's girlfriend Julie Power (aka Lightspeed from Power Pack) shows up, only to be repeatedly brushed off or ignored by Karolina. Either Rowell didn't like those two being a couple, because she almost immediately puts Karolina and Nico together, or she didn't feel like keeping Julie as a regular cast member. I guess having a significant other who's actually a successful superhero (as Julie notes, the Runaways kind of suck at saving the day. Their casualty rate probably rivals the Suicide Squad's, if not the Great Lakes Avengers) would probably complicate the stories she wants to tell. When Julie eats the magic cupcake, she immediately starts calling Dr. Strange or Tony Stark, and that is. . . pretty much the opposite of how Karolina's crew runs. 

 

When they're talking, Anka usually drawing them in separate panels, so there's a sense of isolation. When they are in the same panel, they don't seem to be making eye contact. Usually because Karolina's look elsewhere, and more than once that elsewhere is Nico. Triona Farrell colors the backgrounds for those conversations a lot of cool blues. Which isn't unfriendly, exactly, but kind of melancholy. And when it shifts, it's to something red when Julie's starting to get frustrated with how her girlfriend won't share or discuss anything with her.

And in the middle of all that, a Doombot shows up intent on rescuing Victor and giving him a snazzy new robot body. Which Victor very much does not want. We find out why in the last issue in this trade, unless you read that Tom King Vision series, in which case you probably already know. I didn't read it, because all Tom King's stuff seems horribly depressing and/or complete shit, but the magic of the Internet meant I didn't have to. Anyway, Doombot's arrogance and extreme theatricality are a nice contrast to the main cast's constant snark and sarcasm (except Molly, who is enthusiasm personified most of the time.) Plus, this Doombot wears a nice green suit and his hood is part of a big coat (which he sorts of wears like a cape). He generally looks very snazzy and definitely classes up any room he enters. Unless he destroys it when he enters.

Somewhat in the background through all this is Gert's situation. For her, it's as if no time passed, but for everyone else, she's been dead three years. She's closer to Molly's age than Nico, Chase, or Karolina's, all of whom are legally adults now. So she's trying to figure out where she fits. Like everyone else, she has to adjust to a new situation, but unlike Chase or Nico who can have a concrete goal of finding employment, Gert isn't sure what she should do.

Rowell and Anka also take the time to address the fate of Clara, who I think the team picked up during a time-traveling adventure that was part of the frequently delayed Joss Whedon run that torpedoed the momentum of the book for years to come. And things actually turned out well for Clara! She gets a happy fate, which is nice. Again, I don't know if Rowell didn't want to write, or simply didn't have anything planned for her, but either way, this is a perfectly good way to handle it. Somebody should get to have nice parents.

 

I'm sure someone who understood fashion cold go in-depth about what Anka is telling us about each character with the clothes they wear. I am not that person. All I can tell you is there's an interesting variety. Enough that I actually notice, which is more than I usually bother to do with what characters wear. But the characters are mostly standing around talking, except sometimes they sit, so I gotta have something to look at. There's a couple of brief fight scenes, which mostly involve the team getting pummeled, and Anka does fine with those.

One thing that kept tripping me up is that a lot of the pages are set up to be read across the two facing pages, rather than reading down the left page, then the right. I don't know if that's Anka or Rowell, but they seem to favor it more than a lot of creators I've seen, and I ended up confused more than once because I'd start down the page, then have to stop and catch myself. I think the wider horizontal gutters were supposed to guide me, but it didn't work very well.

What I Bought 3/6/2020

8 comics I want this month, and only 1 comes out the first two weeks. At least the 1 is something I really enjoy, rather than something I took a chance on and got disappointed by. Also, never discuss politics with people you like. Only discuss them with people you want to yell at anyway.

Black Cat #10, by Jed MacKay (writer), Kris Anka (artist), Brian Reber (color aritst), Ferran Delgado (writer) - I would laugh pretty hard if Logan's claws did make a different sound when he extended them for other, non-Canadian characters. It would make no sense, but what the hell. Gives Deadpool one more thing to make fun of him about.

So the brat they swiped the cool glasses from last issue puts a large bounty out on them, although we only seem them get attacked by a bunch of Frankensteins, the Brothers Grimm, and then Deadpool. Who, when you think about it, is kind of a Frankenstein monster himself. I mean, he's a creation of twisted science that was considered an abject failure by his creator, and has since gone on to wreak revenge against said creator.

Of course, by that logic, Logan is also a Frankenstein. Perhaps, we are all Frankensteins. No, that's stupid. I don't have any neck bolts, and I think fire is cool.

Anyway, while all this chasing is going on, Bruno and Doc are swiping all of Logan's stuff back from Kade under the guise of a moving company. So I pegged that right, I just didn't expect it to start so soon. Figured it would take longer for Kade to start moving his stuff. Logan gets most of his stuff back, and Felicia gets the painting she wants, and everyone goes home happy. Except Kade and Wade. And I guess if Kade figures out his drone didn't blow up Felicia and Logan the bounty will be back on. They probably won't be very happy then.

OK, Logan might. He'd probably enjoy the fight. Also, apparently Frankensteins are not covered by the "no killing" prohibition Krakoa has. Seems a little close minded. I guess we see who the real bigots are here. *instantly pummeled to death*

Anka and Reber make Felicia look like she's having so much fun it's infectious. Her making fun of Logan for not being willing to bring her back to Krakoa, and being excited to fight Frankensteins. Trying to get a "Black Cat" chant going at the Bloodsport arena. The dress variant of her costume she's wearing for the first few pages is really cool.

The only quibble I had with the art was in the flashback scene with the Fox, Felicia, and her girlfriend, I guess. The Fox steals Felicia's bracelet and Tamara's watch off their wrists with the aid of his misdirection, but the watch isn't on the hand that was holding Felicia's below the table. It's on the one that's Tamara's resting her cheek on. I guess the Fox could be that damn good, but it doesn't seem like that's how it's supposed to read. Although now I'm curious if Tamara is going to show up in an upcoming issue.

What I Bought 2/7/2020

All the books I want are waiting until the back half of the month to show up. Is it too much to ask that comic companies organize their releases so I get a steady stream of the titles I want each week? Come on now people.

Black Cat #9, by Jed MacKay (writer), Kris Anka (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - Felicia, I think you could slip through that gap in the middle. Or go around the claws entirely.

The next item they need for their plan to rob the Guild's coffers is yet another painting, by the same man as the one Felicia stole in issue 1. The last known location was Madripoor, where one owner lost it in a game. To a man called Patch. After a lot of questioning, Felicia finds Patch's old hideout, but someone else already stole his stuff. Some kid that was part of a rebooted Hellfire Club? I dunno. I didn't read Jason Aaron's X-Men stuff.

Logan, sorry, Patch, shows up, and agrees to team-up with Felicia to get all his stuff back. Felicia causes enough problem's in the kid's casino they get a face-to-face, which lets Felicia steal one thing from him as they escape, and send the kid into a panic. I assume Felicia's guys, Doc and Bruno, will pose as the helpful moving company next issue to get all the stuff. What? I've seen that maneuver at least four times on Burn Notice.

This month, it's Kris Anka on the art duties. So is the book just going to change artists every issue now? Felicia looks very classy, although I don't like how Anka draws her mask as two "C"s. The fact they don't form a couple ellipse or oval really bugs me for some reason. Also, Logan looks classy, like surprisingly so. Like he trimmed the sideburns and cleaned up a bit before he came to Madripoor. Does Krakoa have some sort of hygiene rule they're strictly enforcing now?

It's weird, because most of Logan's reactions seem muted, except for one panel where he asks the kid if he wants to go to war. Then he was yelling like the Logan I'm accustomed to. The rest of the time he just looks kind of. . . slightly miffed. Like some rich guy that just crashed one of his 37 sports cars. Is this a thing now, too? Logan doing eyebrow raises more appropriate for Namor? The art is very expressive, don't get me wrong, it's just a lot of expressions that seem wrong for the character. Very little teeth-clenching or snarling.