Runaways, Vol. 6: Parental Guidance

Summary: In a short one-off, Molly accidentally gets left behind on a mission, and falls in with another group of runaway kids - but this group is controlled by a sinister adult. In "Parental Guidance", the main arc, we learn more about the people who have set themselves up as the new Pride, but when they use magic to reach back into the past for help, the unexpected happens, setting off a chain of events that even the Runaways might be powerless to stop.

Review: Hooray, my whining worked! After volumes 4 & 5, I was bummed out that the series seemed to have abandoned its main storyline in favor of bringing in a bunch of more-famous Marvel characters. But, I'm glad I stuck with it, because Vol. 6 has gotten fully back to form. The story show more manages to invoke a lot of comics superheroes tropes, while feeling original, and full of familiar teenager-ism and snarky dialogue. The kids all of distinct personalities, and more than ever this volume started to show the realities of what happens when they clash. Plus, the ending's got a hell of a surprise that managed to hit me right where I live; I hadn't realize I'd gotten so emotionally involved with these characters until the storyline punched me in the stomach. Kudos to Vaughan & Co. for that one. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: If, like me, you were disappointed at the commercial turn this series had taken in previous volumes... stick it out! This one's back to form and oh so good. show less

I needed to pick this up after going through my TBR purge and remembering how excited I was for this instalment and how much I love this series.

I really liked that this one brought back an old villain the group had faced (and defeated) previously. In the way it was done, the character was brought back much younger than we had previously seen him, which allowed for him to act not as dignified and refined… he definitely seemed more intent on actually succeeding this time, once he learned how he failed previously and how much he lost because of it. Definitely one of my more favourite adventures that the Runaways have faced.

The villain wasn’t the only character who was brought back into this novel – Karolina and her fiancee, Xavin, show more (Super-Skrull-in-training!) reappeared after their wedding didn’t go as planned. (There’s nothing quite like a large interplanetary war to put a large interplanetary wedding on hold.)

Alphona always does such a wonderful job with the illustrations in this book. He, Yeung and Strain are able to convey so much emotion and information into each panel that you could get what is happening for most of the story without actually reading any of the dialogue. I will completely admit that seeing Nico and then Gertrude get a knife thrown at them definitely raised my heartbeat a little bit, and the end of the book, when the rest of the characters realized that one of them died… ah! Utterly heart wrenching.

Darn you, comic books! Who ever expected you to be emotional and deal with death and real things instead of just being happy fun awesomness?

Certainly not me – comics have a great way of dealing with some extremely serious issues. That said though, it never ends up surprising me how emotionally invested I get with comics.

So that was the main part of this collection… but the first issue in this collection was a completely different standalone focused solely on Molly. This one was very much Oliver-Twist-ish, with mentions of Artful Dodger and everything. (Yeah, I haven’t read the Dickens book, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t have a crush on this character in the musical when I was a little kid. No joke.) I absolutely loved this story! Loved loved loved! Molly is a kid, and she along with other non-mutant kids were able to take down an either man who was enslaving them.

The Bottom Line
I’ve recommended this previously, but honestly, if you haven’t picked up this series, this is a fabulous introduction to comic books. show less

Karina and Xavin return to Earth, and Alex Wilder’s former role-playing group re-form the Pride in this 6th volume of the Runaways series.

Alex Wilder, former leader of the Runaways, and a traitor, honed his tactical skills in online RPG’s. A few of his former friends from these games get together, along with post-mortem instructions from Alex, and resurrect him. Something goes wrong however, and the group actually brings Geoffry Wilder forward into the future. Meanwhile, following a diplomatic incident at their wedding, Karina and Xavin return to earth and rejoin the Runaways. By hacking into Victor, Geoffry manipulates both the New Pride and the Runaways into an attempt to restore his power.

I love the Runaways, I love Brian K. show more Vaughn, I’m very upset about what happens to Gert in this book. The return of Karina is a nice surprise, and hopefully, Xavin will get his arrogance knocked out of him shortly. This book continues the excellence of previous volumes, and sets up the next arc nicely. show less

With the Parental Guidance storyline, the Vaughan is back on top. We start off with a Molly one-off where she is knocked into the water and taken by a former professor turned wannabe Fagin who forces children to steal for him. We get to see Molly take charge for once and it's nice to see.

The rest of the issues in this run bring the behind-the-scenes antagonists from the start of this series into the light. We meet this secondary Pride, find out who they are, and what they plan to do. Unfortunately, not everything turns out for the best.

This is definitely the saddest storyline so far. I won't say why, you'll just have to find out for yourself.

I'm beginning to see the hints of the great stuff I will later see in Saga. Some bits are obvious, others are quite subtle. Both are pretty great.

The story in this volume is both cute, dangerous, and pretty fantastic as well as sad. I'm glad I stuck with the comic long enough to get here. :)

Merideth says: Karina and Xavin return to Earth, and Alex Wilder’s former role-playing group re-form the Pride in this 6th volume of the Runaways series.

Alex Wilder, former leader of the Runaways, and a traitor, honed his tactical skills in online RPG’s. A few of his former friends from these games get together, along with post-mortem instructions from Alex, and resurrect him. Something goes wrong however, and the group actually brings Geoffry Wilder forward into the future. Meanwhile, following a diplomatic incident at their wedding, Karina and Xavin return to earth and rejoin the Runaways. By hacking into Victor, Geoffry manipulates both the New Pride and the Runaways into an attempt to restore his power.

I love the Runaways, I show more love Brian K. Vaughn, I’m very upset about what happens to Gert in this book. The return of Karina is a nice surprise, and hopefully, Xavin will get his arrogance knocked out of him shortly. This book continues the excellence of previous volumes, and sets up the next arc nicely. (cross-posted from MeriJenBen) show less

Another fun Runaways story. Karolina returns, although we get less of her thoughts about what her life as become than I'd like. The main story provided a nice tie back to the original Runaways plot. While the ending was tragic, for whatever reason it didn't have the same emotional impact to me as I would have hoped. (Perhaps, because this being comics, dead people aren't always necessarily dead. Maybe this'll be an exception.)