Runaways, Vol. 4: True Believers

Volume 4 of Runaways sees the book move into a more traditional superhero sort of setting. The fall of the Pride in vol. 3 has created a power vacuum in LA, with various supervillains attempting to fill it. Add into the mix: a visitor from the future warning Sister Grimm and her team of an apocalypse-to-come, and a group of 'reformed' teen heroes called Excelsior, and we find the Runaways team thrust closer to the centre of the Marvel Universe.
Personally, I'm not a fan of the move. I liked the fact that, in the first few books, the "mainstream" heroes appeared to be these creatures of ethereal celebrity: having the team connected to former X-Men and Avengers seems to take away from that uniqueness.

Turns out I kinda like these better without so much Pride involvement. Or authority figures.

Getting the team back together as a way to just GET OUT OF THE SYSTEM is enough justification for me. What's worse? Learning that your parents are super villains? Or being wards of the state?

This is a VERY DIFFICULT QUESTION.

Of course, putting our folks up against some former B-lister heroes just trying to do the right thing while recovering in self-help groups designed to work through the issues of being child superheroes is just too funny to miss. Runaways versus self-help junkies. :)

And then there's the time-travel, super-dark future knocking on their door.

All in all, enjoyable. :)

Warning: there is fangirling beyond this point.

I picked this volume of Runaways at Free Comic Book Day and tore through it in a couple of hours. With good reason – I already have the two next volumes, but hadn’t realized that there was one missing between what I had already read and those ones when I bought them. So I’ve been holding off for quite a while. Finally, I can keep reading more!

I still seriously love this series. It’s so much fun! Not just because it’s all yay comic books about super heroes. And not just because it’s all pretty illustrations. There’s something that really grabs me about Marvel’s stories – more so than other comic book publishers, really. I love their cast of characters, and how they can all show more crossover into other series, and how much fun I have when reading them… and really, that’s what matters right? How much fun they are to read?

This book takes place shortly after the last one, where they discovered who the person in their group that’s betraying them is, and after that character’s death… so we get a few mentions of it, but it doesn’t really seem to deal with the aftermath too much. Still, we get to see how the characters relate more to each other, and how they know each other so much better now than at the beginning of the series. It definitely looks like the betrayal from one of their group members has definitely strengthened the trust between the remaining characters.

The best thing about this series is that you can jump right into it, and the pacing is always pushing the reader forward. There isn’t often a dull moment – and if you haven’t gotten something out of the dialogue, there’s usually something to spark your interest in the illustrations. What the books in this series, and all comic books and graphic novels really, do really well is using it’s illustrations to imply what is happening in the story instead of just straight out telling you. It leaves you thinking on what is going on, and seems a lot less of a passive read than novels can sometimes be.

I don’t normally talk spoilers in my reviews, but I have to gush. So! Spoilers are starting here until the end… (Click on the fuzzy text to make it readable.)

What this instalment REALLY succeeded in unintentionally doing, however, was embiggening my excitement for the next Avengers movies. The big bad in this one? Ultron. Yes, ULTRON. This was my first introduction to Ultron and my goodness! I want to know everything I can about him now. He came across like such a GREAT bad guy, someone I could really get behind hating! Anyone have any recommendations about which series and stories I should read that would give me a lot of exposure to Ultron? Ultron actually appeared in this book because the Runaways gang come across his son – only this kid doesn’t realize that he is Ultron’s son. I really wish we had explored more about this kid, because his story seems really cool too – he was created as a robot, but the nanos in his body are eventually (as he grows up) going to become indistinguishable from human cells. And Ultron’s plan the whole time is from this kid to become an Avenger so that Ultron can eventually turn him against the Avengers and take down all super heroes! Yeah. That went spoilery. But oh my goodness! So much to fangirl about!

The Bottom Line
I think this may have been my favourite volume in the series so far! So great! Highly recommend superhero fans pick up Runaways! show less

Picking up a little while after the end of the first Runaways series, the gang is back in action! Their modus operandi? Help other runaway kids who might be getting mixed up with the wrong element (meaning super villains). We find the group squaring off against the Wrecking Crew, which really seems to be a test for any new do-gooder out there. This time, one of Wrecker's goons has his kid tagging along on their first heist since moving to LA.

While the Runaways test their mettle against some enchanted metal, we are introduced (or re-introduced, really) to some former child and teen heroes who are now in a support group to deal with their issues. Right off the bat, they are contacted by a mysterious benefactor who offers them a large sum show more to track down the Runaways and return them to foster care. Included in this group are some familiar, if not regularly seen faces. There's Darkhawk, Julie from Power Pack, the female Turbo, Ricochet of the Slingers, Chamber of Generation X, and Phil Ulrich (the former good-guy Green Goblin).

Things start to turn weird (weirder?) when an adult Gert appears from the future in her parents' time portico to warn the group of a serious threat to their future, a hero turned villain and currently a kid named Victor Mancha. Future Gert tells the team that they must stop Victor before he becomes a danger to the world. This becomes the major storyline for the rest of this collection.

Good run of issues in this set. I really enjoy the Victor storyline, especially the secret of what big bad is the boy's father. There are some interesting theories from the group as to who it could be.

One thing I really like about this book is that the group is rather girl-heavy. In fact, for all Chase's male posturing, he seems more than willing to just be the team getaway driver (and Gert's boyfriend). It's nice to see each member start to come into their own here. Also, Chase has one of my favorite lines in this set:

Victor: "What's your power?"
Chase: "A poor upbringing." show less

Summary: The gang of Runaways get an oddly familiar visitor who claims she's from the future, and that they have to find and stop a kid named Victor Mancha, who is destined to grow up to be a terrible hero-destroying supervillain... but when they track him down, he seems like just a regular kid. Meanwhile, a group of former teen superheroes is working to get our Runaways off the streets and out of the crime-fighting game - for their own good, of course.

Review: Up to this point, one of the things that I really liked about the Runaways series was that while it took place inside the Marvel Universe, it was very much its own story, and established Marvel characters existed only on the very periphery of things. However, in this volume, show more Marvel characters play a much more vital role in the plot. Unfortunately, for someone like me who doesn't know the background of these characters, it made the plot less compelling, and while it was still understandable, knowing that there were things that were going over my head caused my interest in the series as a whole to suffer. It was still a fun read, with some interesting character choices, excellent one-liners and sight gags, and gorgeous artwork, like always... I just wish they'd kept more of the focus on the kids. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: There's enough going on that non-Marvel fans will find something of interest, but it's definitely veering in a direction that's geared more towards existing superhero junkies. show less

I don't even know what to say about the adult support group for child superheroes. Uh, yeah. Ok. Overall, interesting twist in the story. Not surprised by the reveal.

Better than the last one, though the beginning was still a bit flat. Victor seems like an interesting addition to the group.
And I still can't buy the Gert/Chase relationship, Gert calling Chase stuff like "Honey" or "Darling" just feel so out of character from her, and I don't understand why they like each other.
Nico is doing a good enough job as the team leader, but she does not seem as fit for the job as Alex was.