Runaways, Volume 5: Escape to New York (2005)

Very different artwork. It was mostly distracting. Since I'm not a Marvel fangirl, I'm not aware of the Young Avengers/Avengers undercurrents. I'm just interested in a good story. This was ok. ( )

Fusion! ( )

I love everything Marvel. The storylines are incredible! They have everything you could want: action, adventure, comedy, romance, political intrigue, allegories, metaphors, etc. Some stories drag, some end too soon. ( )

Summary: The team is busy dealing with the wannabe supervillains that keep cropping up now that the Pride no longer rules Los Angeles, until they run into a seeming bad guy with a particular interest in Carolina. Meanwhile, they're also paid a visit by their old friend Cloak, who wants them to come to New York City to help him track down an imposter who's stolen his identity.

Review: Everything I complained about in Vol. 4, about the series basing itself more and more on established Marvel characters? Yeah, it gets even worse in this one. Ironman, Spiderman, and Wolverine all show up as guest stars, and while that's all well and good for them, it left me antsy to get back to plotlines that actually involve the kids... y'know, the main characters, the reason why we're reading? Yeah. Also, the pencils for the first two issues in this volume were done by a new artist, and while they're totally fine on their own merits, they're visually very different from the established tradition of how the characters should look, enough so to be jarring. Still, plenty of funny bits, and things move along as snappily as ever, so I can only hope that in the next volume they'll knock it off with the "famous superheroes" diversion and get back to their main storyline. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: The series as a whole is still interesting enough to keep me reading, even if the shift towards being more Marvel-y has dampened my enthusiasm somewhat. ( )

http://youresometa.blogspot.com/2008/04/i-heart-bkv.html ( )