Runaways [2008] Volume 10: Rock Zombies

Summary: The main story arc in this volume involves the Runaways stopping a renegade DJ who has found the perfect mind-control device: a song that turns everyone who has had plastic surgery into zombies... and in L.A., that equals quite a pretty sizable zombie army. There are also two short stories, one involving Molly being invited to visit the San Francisco X-men compound, and how her recruitment goes; the other involving a game of truth-or-dare among the runaways that gets out of hand.

Review: While this installment was entertaining enough, and certainly had its share of funny/charming moments, I definitely got a bit of a sense that it was floundering for a story. When the big arc wrapped up, and Brian K. Vaughan handed off the reins show more to others, the series has lost its sense of direction, leaving the recent volumes feeling a little episodic and disjointed. The artwork has also become less to my taste; the characters are mostly identifiable by their accessories, rather than because any of them look like themselves. So: not a bad way to spend half an hour, but not as good as it used to be. 3 out of 5 stars. show less

Picking up from the last story, crazed DJ Val Rhymin finally figures out how to make the entirety of LA (or, the vast majority at least) into his own personal minions. With the help of a former connection of Nico's parents, Val works some major mojo on anyone in the city who has had plastic surgery. After returning from a team-building retreat in the desert, our Runaways have to figure out a way to stop Val.

Following this short arc, the last issue in this collection involves Molly Hayes getting a tour of the San Francisco X-Facility as part of an attempted recruitment of any remaining mutants in the world (with only 200 left, the X-Men want to provide a safe haven). Her tour guide? Her least favorite (but former idol) X-Man, Wolverine. show more Of course, things go wrong when an old enemy of the Hayes returns seeking revenge by taking the life of their daughter. After that, the rest of the team relaxes with an interesting game of truth or dare.

The Molly/Wolverine story is definitely the best of this book. Moore's arc with Val Rhymin was too short and resolved way too easily. It could have been much more involved than it was. I miss Vaughan's involvement with the book. show less

This was a decent volume, although certainly not as good as Vaughan's or Whedon's ones. The Rock Zombie story idea was good, although it didn't go anywhere particularly interesting. The reappearance of the X-Men was fun. Unfortunately there's no overarching plot, and there's less character development than I'd like (and less Old Lace!).
The artwork, while better than the previous volume, still isn't as good as Alphona's.

Better than I remembered, and I liked the art a lot more than vol. 9’s. As much as I complain that characters crossing back and forth in each others’ series makes things confusing, it was fun to have the X-men in this one, especially with Wolverine as Molly’s babysitter.
I’m still missing some info, but I’m having fun revisiting this series.

I really dug the zombie story, but the last issue was strange and very disjointed.

Containing some of the more lackluster Runaways adventures, this volume wasn't very coherent and went through about 4 different filler plots after the Xavin saga. Really could have done better with this volume.

There's three stories in here. I think. And I had the hardest time figuring out what the credits page meant, but I think it meant there was one, long, untitled story, and two shorter, fun-type stories. Like in a Japanese tankoubon. Only the writers and artists were different for all three.I liked the art in the first one, except that I thought Chase was a girl at first. I was not so keen on the art in the latter two, but even those were better than some of the cover art. Still, a vast improvement over the art in the last collection.It's something I can't get used to. I'm using to reading manga, where the writer and artist is the same person and the art is therefore consistent. Oh, not always extremely consistent, but at least the change show more is gradual, rather than a radically different style every story arc.As for the actual story, it was okay. There's no actual foreward progression of any of the character's plotlines, really. Though it does continue a bit on Chase's job that he got previously.Mostly, it's all filler and fluff. Reasonably enjoyable filler and fluff. show less