Runaways issue #1

[dahlia_moon]

per weber_dubois22's request, who wanted to see Alex Wilder's introduction. These are the first six pages of issue #1.



















(Egads, how very much I want this comic to be continued. Or a movie would be nice. But that'd be asking for too much.)

Comments

[weber_dubois22]

Alex Wilder is King. Thanks for posting this ♥

[rainspirit]

I thought Alex Wilder was--

Oh, but that'd be a spoiler. >_>;

[drmcninja]

That's okay, I really wanted to say it too.

[akodo_rokku]

I can only assume that they didn't just use Sue's 90s costume and in fact came up with a costume that's signifigantly more modest because her 90s costume is THAT unbelievable.

[mrstatham]

The guy who plays Sue in the MMORPG is later revealed to be a guy who basically plays ANY female superhero who has a revealing costume - We later see the group having an argument over him using the Morrison-Era Emma Frost costume, I think?

So.. Yeah. I think the basic notion is that the guy just picks dozens of scantily-clad superheroes, much to the chagrin of his fellow players; So this could be, like, an outfit Sue wore for a day, and we never saw it.

[akodo_rokku]

Also, Donald Glover should play Alex in the movie, am I right?

[omgwtflolbbqbye]

I really hope they cast as close to age appropriate for all the characters, myself.

[akodo_rokku]

That's part of why I picked him -- aside from being a talented black geek -- he's pretty young. I guess 27 may be a little too old, but he's got a babyface so...

[rainspirit]

Glover tends to go for the really wild, whacky comedic roles, though. He was almost always the crazy guy in his comedy channel-thing - would he be able to do justice to Alex's more subdued, calculating qualities?

[lorriek]

I love Donald Glover, but I would prefer the teens to be played by actual young people, very early 20s at the oldest (also, I really don't see him as Alex). The 30-year-olds-playing-teens thing is a pet peeve of mine. I'm sure there are enough talented younger actors around that there is no real need to cast adults who are approaching 30 to play teenagers. It's one thing if it's a guilty pleasure like Pretty Little Liars (where it's fun to laugh at the fact that some of the "teens" are older than the teachers), but I'd want to take a Runaways movie a little more seriously.

[auggie18]

One of my favorite things in Glee was a teacher telling a 'teenager' with crow's feet that it would be illegal for him to be in a sex tape, since it would count as kiddie porn.

Alex Wilder!

[jazzypom]

So much love for this series. I liked the fact that he had an afro, and it's free flowing and easy, the fact that he was a geek, and his character was so complex that I wasn't even mad when **SPOILER**.




Normally, I'd suck the spit from my teeth with rancour and go, "Had to be the brother, huh?" but Vaughan wrote him so well.

But still, I wish they'd put black girls in comics like this - not that I begrudge Alex and Nico (I don't, because they were GOOD characters who just happened to be poc- and I mean 'good' as in well rounded, et al) but you don't see teenage black girls much, and that's a shame.

But still, I only have love for the original Runaways. I'd only hope the movie (if it were to be made) was half as complex and rounded like the original volume of the comic is.

Re: Alex Wilder!

[mrstatham]

Vaughan's two volumes (given he did 1-18 and then 1-24) are the best stuff Marvel's produced in a long time, really. It's just a shame that Marvel couldn't understand the formula for the life of them and saddled them with Whedon (who made it into a basic teen-team book with a bullshit helping of drama) and then Moore, who.. Well. It just wasn't the same. The only writer I was really into was the guy who wrote the Molly and the X-Men one-parter, and Immonen. If Immonen had been given more time to get running with her plot, I think it would've been good. Obviously a different flavour to Vaughan, but interesting.

But.. Yeah. Nico's one of my favourite character is all of comics, but the entire gang in general was good; I never quite got behind the 'arranged marriage' stuff with K and Xavin - that mysteriously worked out? But I thought the stuff Vaughan did - the whole way he wrote them, the circle of backstabbing and the promised threats if they turned on each other ('rip his heart out', I think, must be the most repeated line in Volume 2), felt very authentic in terms of them being teens, and very authentic in terms of them unknowingly following in their parents' footsteps.

Re: Alex Wilder!

[drmcninja]

It speaks to the magnitude of his work here when people compare him to Whedon and Joss comes up lacking.

Re: Alex Wilder!

[mrstatham]

It's not that Whedon's a bad writer as such, but I don't think he was suited for Runaways. I don't think the Ascended Fanboy aspect of his appointment as writer helped either, but to me, he just.. Changed up the formula a little too quickly and a little too severely. I know that a big ol' shake-up's what a series needs sometimes, but we went from a relatively grounded team of kids with powers dealing with usually low-level threats in LA to having them flung into New York, dealing with the Kingpin, and having some ridiculous high-concept time travel adventures where Whedon deliberately fucked with the dynamic of the team and tortured one of the characters for a purpose he was never going to explain himself.

Re: Alex Wilder!

[auggie18]

Yeah. Generally speaking, I love me some Whedon, but his run on Runaways was sorta lack luster. He sorta missed the point. Though not as badly as the "YOU ARE THE NEXT GENERATION OF SUPERHEROES MOLLY AND OLD TIMEY GIRL."


It says something that my favorite thing about Joss Whedon's run was his making Chase into pot. Because that sorta worked.

Re: Alex Wilder!

[nefrekeptah]

Agreed about Moore and Immonen, but not Whedon. Weadon's run wasn't as good as Vaghun's run was, but he still got the characters much better then most other writers that tried to tackle the kids, he developed them, and introduced a new one with a great deal of potential. The main problem I had with his run is it tried to do too much at one time, and therefore a lot of the character development was either badly rushed (Victor falling for another girl would have been a fine story line, if only it had room to breath) or happened off screen (I would have liked to see Chase go to the past to see Gert, you know?).

No, as far as I'm concerned, it was Moore that made them into a generic Teen superhero book - except he forgot the drama part and it became a bland generic Teen superhero book.

The Molly one shot, by the way, was written by Chris Yost, who also did the Secret Invasion special guest-starring two of the Young Avengers. And yes, I thought he would have been great on the books as well.

Re: Alex Wilder!

[dahlia_moon]

I did start to fall in love with Alex at the very beginning, but then THAT happened...and then I was heartbroken. I mean, his character was complex and though I understand his motivations, I wanted him to not end up like that, if you know what I mean.

But still, I only have love for the original Runaways. I'd only hope the movie (if it were to be made) was half as complex and rounded like the original volume of the comic is.

I don't think - if the movie were to be ever made - that it'd replace my love for the original source. It could try but it would not succeed.

Re: Alex Wilder!

[weber_dubois22]

Funny thing, as shocked as I was with what happened with Alex's arc, I was more cross with how they ended it. They could've done so much with him (on the high hopes that he didn't become cliche #1, among other things), but instead they kick him off survivor island :/. The title was decidedly less interesting without him around imho.

[biod]

I bought the first volume on a whim and have to say I was a little dissapointed.
I've seen a lot of great scans from later appearances, so I'm still interested, but the interest is soured somewhat.

[mrstatham]

When you say 'first volume', do you mean the first six issues? Because the art and the writing improve so drastically as the series moves on, to the point where Vaughan and Alphona became one of my favourite creative teams by the end of their first run.

[biod]

That was the impression I got too. Still, it's priority in the trade pull list is low at the moment.

[dahlia_moon]

Yeah, it definitely does get better. I think the first six issues or so set up the premise so it can seem like it's moving a bit slow, and you can lose interest, but it does get rather exciting later on.

[mrstatham]

The first six issues do have to dick around getting the kids set up with their powers and establishing the status quo. By the time we get to the two-parter featuring Cloak and Dagger, I think Vaughan had hit a pretty solid style of writing, and when Alphone rejoined him after said two-parter, it got even better. The Good Die Young is a classic story arc, frankly. Amazingly fast-paced and yet slow enough to give us all the details we need.

[eyz]

Haha :P
This was fun!

Also, I totally love the art! Fun and colorful^^

[lorriek]

Last year I found most of the Runaways digests super-cheap at Borders' going out of business sale (and bought the rest at Amazon), and read them all during the Christmas holidays. I highly recommend the first two volumes (which technically end with Whedon's run, which I didn't think it was horrible, even if I'm not sure what the point of his arc was). IMO, don't bother with volume 3 unless you are a completist.

[mrstatham]

Volume 3 only gets good with Immonen, IMO - and yet her run was cut short unfairly, despite her having way more of a focus than Terry Moore, who pulled an almost-JMS move after being announced for Runaways and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, and disappeared back to the independents pretty quickly.

[majingojira]

Ah, this was the book that marked my real entry into comics. I heard the concept and BAM, I had to know more.

Thanks to Blair Buttler's review on Attack of the Show of all things.

I'm looking forward to their appearance in Avengers Academy. Anyone else looking forward to that?

(AND I hope that they return and help the AA kids against Briggs when he's exposed to be the villain that he is).

[dahlia_moon]

This - along with Young Avengers - was my gateway into comics too! Of course it also helps that I have immense love for teen comics and books.