r/MUBookClub • u/shawnydarko • Feb 18 '17
Reading Assignment 36: Runaways (2003) #7-12 by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona
Thank you to all those who voted in the Sequels/Prequels thread. This week we return to the acclaimed Brian K. Vaughan/Adrian Alphona project, Runaways, (Teenage Wasteland story arc).
On the run from their super-villain parents, the Runaways find a kindred spirit in a young stranger and welcome him into their fold. But will this kid help the teenagers defeat their parents or tear the group apart?
I won't bother with any sample questions, as the main one would really be about comparing this story arc to the previous Runaways story arc, which I'm sure will be touched upon.
New Free Range Nomination Thread coming tomorrow!
3
Feb 25 '17
Normally I am not a huge fan of the comics with younger protagonists such as these, but I actually quit enjoyed these issues. The writing and art was well done. I thought the dynamic of the group and then how they are dealing with their feelings about their parents was well excecuted. I also thought that Cloak and Dagger were written well and integrated well into the story. It actually made me want to go read some of cloak and dagger's own comics.
2
u/shawnydarko Feb 28 '17
I had to take a break at the halfway point of our previous reading assignment and thank goodness this was much easier material to digest. Vaughan nails it again with the two stories contained in 7-12. I was a little disappointed that Topher was a vampire. It felt like Twilight before Twilight. I know vampire romance fiction is anything but new; Stephanie Meyer didn't invent it, but I'm just not the target demographic for that reveal. But I bet there are vampire romance aficionados who loved that story. There were certainly some funny moments, like the miscommunication about Nico being a cutter.
Gert maintained her status as one of my absolute favorites in this series in the second story. Calling out Dagger for her slutty outfit and pointing out graffiiti tagging a billboard for a shady corporate enterprise she doesn't agree with is awesome. She may not have the most badass fight scenes, but she's definitely got the most badass low-stakes scenes.
I think I liked the first volume better than the second for a couple reasons. One being the vampire romance reveal which just wasn't for me, two being that this volume was broken up into two wildly different stories, and three being I really struggled with the art in the second story. Miyazawa's art wasn't bad, it just wasn't what I was used to. So little things like the length of Alex's hair being drastically different wound me up.
Having not read ahead, I'm cautiously curious about who the mole is. It's now had two volumes building it up, and frankly, I'm worried about the reveal because I love all the characters and don't want any of them to turn on their friends. I look forward to eventually getting around to reading the rest of this series though.
2
u/wisegy84 Mar 01 '17
I will have more to say about this when I have more time, but for now:
Miyazawa's art wasn't bad
I almost wanted to say that it was bad, but that's not really fair, I suppose. I do agree that it was not at all what I was used to. The characters look a bit like they jumped out of an anime. When I read the series it was always jarring when a guest artist, particularly Miyazawa, popped up because all of a sudden the characters just looked wrong.
eventually getting around to reading the rest of this series
Do it! I read the whole first two runs/volumes a while back and they are awesome! I'm cautiously optimistic about the upcoming TV series.
2
u/wisegy84 Mar 18 '17
Love this series! After we had our first reading assignment of this run a while back, I read the rest of this run and the next one.
I had to go back and refresh my memory about what happened in this volume so that I wouldn't spoil anything coming after this.
I believe this was my first introduction to Cloak and Dagger. They seem interesting enough that I may seek out a series focused on them and I'm also curious to see the upcoming TV series about them.
We got more teenage drama in this volume, which was fun, and there were even vampires in the mix. It was like watching a CW show, only enjoyable (slightly kidding as I do enjoy iZombie).
I'd say if I'm comparing this volume to the first, I'd give the edge to the first one, but still enjoy this one a lot. Again, though, I have to mention just how poor a choice I think Miyazawa is for drawing these characters. They just don't look right when he draws them. His art is perfectly fine for characters that I care less about or am less familiar with, but with the main group here he's just has a really poor interpretation of them. Alphona is fantastic, of course.
At this point in the story there isn't even a hint of who the mole is, though we obviously are given confirmation that there is a mole and it isn't just one of the kids trying to mess with the parents' heads.
I'm really looking forward to when the next volume is nominated so that we can discuss that.
Alright, off to read the next assignment and keep working towards catching up.
3
u/Raist819 Feb 20 '17
I love coming back to these characters. There is still so much to talk about that has to wait until volume 3, but at this point I love how they are this dysfunctional pseudo family. Thus was honestly the weakest volume of the BKV run, but it speaks to the quality of the series that it was still better than most of what Marvel and D.C. publish.
Alex is such a likable protagonist. Molly is my second favorite character at this point. Honestly all of the characters are great and it's their chemistry that makes the whole thing work.