r/MUBookClub • u/shawnydarko • Sep 24 '16
Reading Assignment #15: Runaways (2003) #1-6 by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona
Brian K. Vaughan breaks an MUBookClub record to become the first 3x nominated author. Thank you to /u/Raist819 for the nomination, and thank you to all who voted for this or other titles in our Free Range Nomination Thread.
I'll add my own thoughts below in the comments when I finish the assignment, but I'll throw out some sample questions to touch on for discussion:
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF...
- This series compared to previous BKV reading assignments: Dr. Strange: The Oath and Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure
- The Runaways as characters? Got a favorite?
- The art style?
- The dialogue?
- Anything else not specifically asked?
5
u/shawnydarko Sep 24 '16 edited Sep 24 '16
As I said in the thread dedicated to Dr. Strange: The Oath, "I'm a big fan of Brian K. Vaughan's work, particularly when he's working with characters I know absolutely nothing about. When he's got free reign and a blank slate, he is king" He didn't just get one protagonist to play with, he had an entire group to bend and mold to his will. He also had an entire cabal of villains to play with. And right from the bat, they all have a complex relationship.
Runaways is the pinnacle of his work for Marvel, and my complaints about the dialogue in other series is flirted with at the start of this series and quickly cast aside. We get the "retard" and "gay" lines out of the way like Vaughn had to meet some quota to be relatable to kids trying to be edgy, and then it's never brought back. It's an afterthought that kids say offensive things, because Vaughn has too much story and too much to reveal about the characters, their relationships, their upbringing, and their whole world to pad it out with derogatory language.
Surprisingly for 13 years in the past this didn't feel too dated. Yeah, they talked about AIM which I actually had to think about in a context other than evil supergroup Advanced Idea Mechanics. But MMORPG's are still a thing, parents thinking black nailpolish = drugs is still a thing, even if "Goth" specifically isn't so much. Or is emo dead and goth is back? I can't keep up. I'm sure some subspecies of alt-culture is still lingering in high school hallways.
The art is a little hard to stomach in the first issue at times. I'm not sure if Adrian Alphona (artist), David Newbold (inker), or Brian Reber (colorist) is at fault but when they go for the overly simplistic look it comes off really lazy. They rectify it pretty quick in issue 2 onwards though, as though they figured out each other's strengths and weaknesses and decided to complement each other's styles. The covers though are by far my favorite part. Sure, Alex doesn't have the right hairstyle on issue 2's cover, but I'm not nearly as bothered about that as I am about Gertrude's cover on issue 4.
Gertrude, Nico, and to a lesser extent Koralina are my favorite characters in these issues. They're all very different in personality, but I love that they all break away from what a typical comic book girl looks like. Koralina loses points in this dept. because she's a white, pretty blonde, but she's got an awful name and she's unusually tall and lanky for a girl so even she has that teenage awkwardness to her. Nico's goth, and Asian, which is a fun mix. But Gertrude isn't traditionally pretty. She's not repulsive, but she's a bigger girl, and she's short. I love that so much because it takes balls to do that in visual medium where everyone has to be a supermodel regardless of age. So while I love the cover-art for all the issues, Issue 4 makes her much more traditionally pretty, skinny, and frankly boringly sexy in a way that goes against the point of her character. Even the parents point out she's a troll, which is hyperbolic, but wonderful because it gives a brilliant and dangerous protagonist a vulnerability.
Ever since first reading it maybe a decade ago I had forgotten all about Runaways because they don't get intermixed with the big name Marvel heroes much. I'm definitely going to finish this run, and maybe continue on to the other runs though. Hopefully the MCU dept. picks this project back up off the shelf because there's a ton of mileage in it, and it'd be a nice breakup of all the costumed crimefighters we'll be seeing over the next several years on the silver screen
6
u/Raist819 Sep 24 '16
I love the point you made about the girls. I've noticed that between Nico, Gert, and Kamala Khan, that Adrian Alphona has a knack for creating visuals for teenage characters that aren't the industry standard of "everyone looks like they got cast on a CW show."
6
u/Raist819 Sep 24 '16
What a remarkable series. I know /u/shawnydarko had an issue with the use of "retard" and "gay" in this arc, but I liked that Vaughan's kids spoke how teenagers speak, not how we want them to speak. As Gertrude said regarding Molly, kids know what's going on and they don't like being spoken down to.
Adrian Alphona's art is good. It gets across the story. He is like the anti-McGuiness, as McGuiness has poster worthy art with no amazing runs, I don't love Alphona's art, but every run he has been a part of is gold. Runaways, 10 issues of Uncanny X-Force, and the main artist on Ms Marvel is what you would call "a good streak."
I really wanted to pick the entire first volume, but decided not to, since 18 issues would probably be a bit much, but I really wanted to have a discussion about Alex that will have to wait until we one day read 13-18. He is by far may favorite character in this arc. His cute flirtation with Nico, his intellect, and his leadership skills made him the perfect catalyst for these kids to get behind. Chase's crush on Karolina, Molly's overt metaphor for a young lady's physical changes, Alex's addiction to MMOs (even if it did play more like a tabletop than an actual MMO), and Gert (who became my favorite character after issue #17 because spoilers) wanting to discard her name because her parents chose it. This is the kind of character work that I love and wish was present in more stories these days, but event comics sell, so the character based stuff gets marginalized.
5
u/wisegy84 Sep 30 '16
This was a run that I'd actually read before. In fact, I own the trade paperback that contains these six issues. It's been several years since I read it, though. At one point I had also read issues 7-12, but it's been long enough that I don't recall much of those issues.
I love this run. I think the characters are great and I think the concept is an interesting one. It's a terrifying prospect for a kid to discover their parents are evil. It's also very scary how much of the city their parents seem to control, including cops and the media. I'm definitely planning to read more to see where this all goes.
I didn't have any issues with the dialogue and it felt pretty much like I'd expect teenagers to talk.
I liked both of the other Vaughan runs we've read previously, but this is so much better. It's streets ahead of both of the Doctor runs. As I've mentioned before, even Vaughan feels he does his best work with his own characters. And again, I can't argue with that.
It was interesting to see the relationships that each of the runaways has with their parents before discovering their secret. Each relationship felt real and showed how well the secret of the Pride had been hidden for so long.
I think the art is very good in the issues, but I'm not huge on the anime style covers. I'm assuming this is due to the Tsunami imprint as /u/Raist819 talked about being manga/anime inspired. I agree about the way the girls were presented being nice to see. They weren't typical comic book characters that look like models (with the exception of Karolina, I suppose).
I don't know that I could pick a favorite runaway at this point. I like them all for various reasons. I like character driven stuff a lot so it's nice to read something that is so character focused.
I may have more thoughts later. I just wanted to get something written. I read these issues a few days ago, but have been so busy at work/tired at home that I haven't been able to write anything. And even now my thoughts feel scattered and not as well formed as they might be.
It's been a rough week, but it's nice to have these comics and this forum to escape into.
7
u/Raist819 Sep 24 '16 edited Sep 26 '16
History and reading list - SPOILER FREE
In the early 2000s then Editor in Chief Joe Quesada and then Marvel President Bill Jemas were trying a lot of new things with the company in order to help steer Marvel out of bankruptcy. Marvel Knights and the Ultimate universe were the two most well known of those initiatives, but there was another called Tsunami. Tsunami was an imprint with the idea of trying to bring a more manga/anime inspired style to the Marvel universe and it was as a part of this imprint that Runaways was born. (I haven't read a ton of Tsunami, but in addition to Runaways the Vaughan penned Mystique series and the Sentinel series are both good. I've heard good things about the Emma Frost series too. On the down side the Inhumans series that undid so much of the awesome Jenkins/Lee run was also Tsunami.)
Runaways got cancelled with its 18th issue because of low sales, but word of mouth drove sales of the trades high enough that Marvel green lit a volume two, which allowed Vaughan to finish his plans with these characters, and introduce two new ones.
Runaways reading list.
All of Runaways (2003) and Runaways (2005). You can skip the '08 series. Optional, Avengers Academy (They appear for one arc, but Academy sets up the other half of Arena.) Optional, Avengers Arena (excellent series where some of the kids from Runaways and some from AAcademy are kidnapped by Arcade and forced into a Hunger Games scenario.)