The Runaways are back

[cyberghostface]

I'm a bit skeptical about this given how since Vaughan left Marvel has treated Runaways with mediocre follow-up runs and using the characters at the last minute as canon fodder to discard (*coughs*Vision*coughs*) in other titles but we'll see.

 











More info here.

Comments

[lordultimus]

Victor still dead? Pass.

Also, suspicious of writers with no comic experience since America.

[informationgeek]

Agreed, but I would add since Mighty Captain Marvel for me.

I really really really hope Marvel has its editors help this writer out so they can structure and write in a comic format.

[katefan]

Oh, so you've seen some of America? Yeah, that garbage is truly cringeworthy.

[shadowpsykie]

except, Heinberg was the same when he created the team. and Rowell is a GREAT writer, well aware of fandom and pop culture.

[aperturedreams]

You're thinking of Young Avengers, BKV created the Runaways. I don't disagree about Rowell or with the argument you're making though.

[thanekos]

Having previously shown that he can draw abs, Kris Anka would now like to display that he can draw legs.

[long_silence]

They're bringing back Gert? Really?
And ignoring Victor, Xavin and Klara apparently.

I mean it's great that Marvel has been actively trying to recruit new talent and reaching outside of the industry, but I haven't really been impressed with the output from many of these new writers yet.

So far I am skeptical

[flint_marko]

It's probably because Gert's going to be in the Hulu series, and those other characters currently aren't.

[long_silence]

Synergy really is the enemy of continuity and good storytelling

[flint_marko]

Well Victor's currently dead and Xavin is currently in a space prison, so it's not like they're just being ignored for no reason.

[long_silence]

This series is literally starting with the resurrection of a dead character

[flint_marko]

So what are you suggesting, that they bring back all three characters at the same time?

[long_silence]

Why not? They're already cheapening Gert's death.

Or have Victor get better off screen like how Chase got better from his coma. This wasn't even the first time he's died.

[flint_marko]

When else has he died? And while bringing him back should be easy enough, they'd also have to deal with the baggage of him having killed the Vision's son.

And they've already cheapened the deaths from the Runaways series when they brought back Alex in Avengers Undercover.

[long_silence]

Avengers AI. His body got torn up in an explosion and his mind automatically shunted itself into a virtual reality filled with artificial intelligences. He fought a revolution in this Tron knock off world and came back to his fixed body.
There's literally no reason he couldn't do that again.

Nico tried to kill several people in Avengers Arena and finally killed a girl in A-Force. Chase killed a hobo/his own uncle, or at least he thought he did. Karolina is indirectly responsible for the deaths of two planets.
They've all got baggage

[flint_marko]

I'm not saying Victor can't come back, I just think it would be better to have a story that shows how he returned and that addresses what happened in the Vision series, as opposed to having him show up and act like everything's normal again, with just a passing explanation.

[mastermahan]

If Doctor Who and The Flash have taught me anything, it's that killing a time traveler is basically pointless. Hell, Gert died twice (kinda) in BKV's run, and the first thing Whedon did was make the Runaways fight Gert's pre-death parents.

I'm not saying I want her to come back - she was a great character, but she also had a great death, and the look of this preview art makes me suspicious.

[aperturedreams]

Can't speak for Xavin and Klara but it would be pretty weird to bring back Victor so soon after what happened in the Vision series.

[reveen]

After the years of Runaways characters being swept up by other writers to be abused or killed off in EDGY AS FUCK publicity stunt comics, this peppy presentation is unconvincing.

It would be pretty cool if they brought back the Runaways in the context of the shitty hand they'd been dealt both in universe and in a meta sense, to make some sort of statement in how teenagers tend to be treated in superhero comics. That would actually make for an immediately compelling story instead of "hey, remember this comic that was really good under that ONE WRITER who isn't with us anymore? We're bringing it back!"

Also, aside from Molly looking like Molly these character designs are horrible. Why is Nico dressed like a sexy sorceress out of Conan? What's with the Jersey Shore look on Karolina there? Jersey Shore isn't even relevant anymore.

[informationgeek]

How old is Nico anyways? Due to the art style and shadows, she looks like she's in her thirties.

[chalicother]

I am wondering how old these characters aside from Molly are. Aren't the Runaway's suppose to be teenages or teenages mentally and biological?

I mean this looks more like the MTV version of the Runaways and this is coming from a guy who enjoyed the Spiderman MTV series.

[q99]

They've definitely aged a few years since their comics. Teens but older teens now, I think

[silverhammerman]

If you're referring to Victor's death in Vision, I think that's a decidedly inaccurate way to slag off the series. If you're going to hate on it, I think it would be far more accurate to call it boring and pretentious, though I found it to be neither.

Nico and Karolina both have looks which wouldn't be out of place on a fashionable Instagrammer, that kind of trendiness is one of Kris Anka's signatures as an artist. I'm actually not a fan of those outfits though, they look kind of obnoxiously fashionable to the point that they don't look like normal people, let alone people who go by the rather scrappy moniker of Runaways.

[reveen]

No, I was more thinking about Avengers Arena and Undercover. Though Vision constitutes another problem where Big Deal limited series comics done for the art of it will of course need to be in continuity because god forbid it be a self-contained story. And because this comic was so well regarded and has such clout, and when editorial decides that the dead characters team is worth revisiting after all they're basically fucked. It's the same deal with what happened to Barbara Gordon in the Killing Joke.

I would really like comic writers to either accept discontinuity, or stop letting perfectly good characters get killed off just because reviving the character's original title hasn't occurred to the editors yet.

[mrstatham]

Funny, because I think these are the strongest designs the team has had since Alphona was on pencils. Anka actually knows how people dress. They all look like people in their late teens/very early twenties. Nico and Chase especially.

[lieut_kettch]

I see Molly's affected by Franklin Richards syndrome. Power Pack is older, the Young Avengers are older, most of the other Runaways are older. But for some reason Molly's stuck at 12. Maybe it's part of her mutation?

Speaking of which, she can't be a mutant in the TV series, right? Unless Fox has decided to play nice and share the toys.

[cyberghostface]

I think the Fox/Marvel divide is beginning to break given how the X-Men are finally showing up in the Future Fight game, Marvel is relenting in releasing new X-Men merchandise and Legion was a Fox/Marvel co-production. But I doubt mutants will ever be in the MCU.

[stubbleupdate]

Wasn't Molly 8?

[cyberghostface]

Lol she acts eight but she's actually twelve when the series starts.

[mastermahan]

Geoffrey Wilder even called her on it!

[mrstatham]

This. One of those things that Vaughan actually lampshaded pretty hard and had Molly dissing Alex to Geoffrey's face... And then every other writer proceeded to make like she was six or something.

[dustbunny105]

Nico's, Karolina's and Chase's designs are very much not working for me. They all look about thirty, for one thing. Molly, Gert and Old Lace are pretty cute.

Art aside, pretty much all I know about the writer is that she's fetishized Asians in her work, sooo I'm not exactly confident.

[zachbeacon]

This looks pretty terrible. ... and I'm not just talking about Chase's man bun.

[mastermahan]

Forget the man bun - why is Chase is making the Dreamworks face?

[q99]

I'm giving this a chance because, well, Runaways!

[thatnickguy]

Am I the only one who stopped paying attention to Runaways after Brian K Vaughan's original run? Everything else after it felt like it paled in comparison.

[cyberghostface]

Tried giving Whedon a chance but aside from Molly punching the Punisher I found it to be bleh. Actually read the first couple of issues of vol 3 but ended up forgetting to continue.

[mastermahan]

I *wanted* to like Whedon's run, but it was just so bizarre and uneven. Look, here's a girl Molly's age with a punny name straight out of the Silver Age! She's a victim of child sexual abuse! Fun!

[mrstatham]

Whedon was trash, Moore was awful. The little interlude with Molly visiting the San Francisco-era X-Men was neat, and Immonen never got a chance to really go anywhere.

So.. I'm vaguely hopeful about this.

[laceblade]

I've loved Runaways since forever, my first superhero comic <333333

That said, I feel torn on this, due to Asian American readers' experience with Rainbow Rowell's exoticism/weirdness in Eleanor & Park, and do not blame them for not wanting to bother to see how Rowell writes Nico.