Stephanie Kay
Oct 11, 2007, 05:17 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/marvel/0906/RNAWYS2020_col.jpg"><img src=" http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/marvel/0906/RNAWYS2020_colt.jpg" hspace=10 align=left alt="Runaways #20"></a> Reviewer: Robert Cammarata, faultyrob@hotmail.com
Story Title: Dead Means Dead Part Two
“No. We’re different. We’re…whatever you call the thing that comes after pride.” “The Fall.”
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Penciller: Mike Norton
Inker: Craig Yeung
Letterer: Virtual Calligraphy’s Randy Gentile
Colorist: Christina Strain
Production: Rich Ginter
Cover Artist: Jo Chen
Special Thanks: C.B Cebulski & MacKenzie Cadenhead
Assistant Editors: Sean Ryan & Nathan Cosby
Editor: Nick Lowe
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (www.marvel.com)
Runaways Created by: Vaughan & Alphona
Following the death of a major character and amidst weeks of media attention, Dead Means Dead continues as Brian K. Vaughan’s run on his own pet project rockets closer to its finale.
Runaways is a book that’s been in the news as of late. Series writer and co-creator Brian K. Vaughan shocked many of his loyal readers by revealing earlier this month that he and regular Runaways artist and co-creator Adrian Alphona would soon be leaving the book they founded back in 2002 as part of Marvel’s largely unsuccessful “Tsunami” line of comics. The sordid history of this all ages cult hit began in early 2003 when nearly all of the “Tsunami” books were cancelled due to low sales. Runaways survived the mass cancellation for the time being and was shuffled around the company. However, the book could not avoid cancellation forever and ultimately ended at issue 18. The End?
Well, obviously not. The sales of the series’ reprinted collections, which were distributed in small, affordable digests alongside Marvel’s more youth friendly “Marvel Age” and later “Marvel Adventures” series of digests, gave Runaways a new life. The book was relaunched in 2005. While those involved with the title and/or in the industry like C.B Cebulski, Joe Quesada and Joss Whedon have actively promoted Runaways on the con circuit or on the Internet through message boards and interviews, Runaways’ sales in the direct market have remained pretty dismal. The characters’ inclusion in the lead story of an Astonishing X-men crossover standalone issue as part of Marvel’s Free Comic Book Day contribution this May proved the company was serious about selling Runaways to new readers and keeping this book alive. However, sales in the direct market remained low and the book continued to survive only because of its digest sales and its very steadfast and vocal fan base. And then not too long before this review was written, Brian K. Vaughan revealed he and co-creator Adrian Alphona would be leaving the book behind after their next arc. Fandom was shocked (or at least the minority who supported and promoted this book.) After cancellation and marketing repackaging was this now the final nail in the coffin for Nico Minoru and her friends?
If you are a fan of Vaughan’s writing, then you know he is a fine executor of the infamous comic book cliffhanger. Many of Vaughan’s best issues tend to have a final page that leaves the reader’s jaw hanging open until the next month when it turns out it was all a big swerve or a clever explanation is given for the previous cliffhanger. Then page 22 rolls around and guess where the reader’s jaw winds up again? Salivating on the linoleum. Well, the announcement that Vaughan would be leaving and the subsequent announcement of the succeeding creative team he helped to place on the book was Vaughan’s greatest cliffhanger and resolution of his non-fiction career. Vaughan and Alphona will be replaced by the team of JOSS WHEDON and MICHAEL RYAN come April 2007. Whedon, a huge Runaways fan boy, happens to have a fan base that loyally buys his swag. They also tend to be willing to flock to projects that are not in the TV world that Whedon is so well known in and buy his stuff (Astonishing X-men anyone?). So within a matter of weeks, Vaughan precipitated a crisis on the ability for his book to survive without him at its head and his loyal fans supporting him, and then was the puppet master behind bringing in a new team that logically and for all practical reasons should lure a large influx of new readers to a book that is currently on life-support in the direct market. Not too shabby.
So this history lesson was a tangent driven, roundabout way for me to begin my review of Runaways 20 . Vaughan only has 5 issues left to nurture his characters, let them grow and ship them off to the boarding school of Corporals Whedon and Ryan. So, this better be a good read in order to maintain the momentum that his behind the scenes shenanigans have caused as of late with the huge announcement of who his successors will be. Does it continue this momentum and provide a riveting read? Well, keep reading folks.
The second act of Dead Means Dead finds our heroes battling the crazy big monster of the previous act, while Chase works out in a sub-plot exactly how he plans to cope with the very recent death of his “best friend.” That’s the plot of the ish in a nutshell but fans of Vaughan in general and Runaways in specific know when it comes down to it, this is a book that is all about character. The kids that are in this book each month just leap off the page. They are so well defined at this point that reading the dialogue between each character is like watching a line of well-placed dominoes fall in unison one after the other. Everything just gels and falls into place so well. The opening page has several of the core characters react to the image of the gargantuan antagonist of the piece with each expressing one form of dialogue. From Victor swearing in Spanish to little Molly screaming in horror too scared and perhaps immature to be able to come up with the right words, Vaughan captures intrinsically the essence of each character he pens in very little time. Amongst the chaos of a classic Marvel superhero throwdown we discover a ton of detail about each and every character involved in the battle. Vaughan does all this great character work in a frugal fashion that packs a lot of punch with little words and lets the pictures do a lot of the character and plot building that they are intended for.
What aids Vaughan immensely in providing a really tense backdrop for all this great drama and character moments is the wonderful fill-in art by Mike Norton. The image he creates in the giant beast really drives the entire plot of the issue and makes a spectacular, yet creepy visual that really allows us to empathize with the sense of urgency felt by the heroes in the piece. The splash pages and wonderful action sequences are actually much more fluid and take up a larger portion of the page than is typical in this book when drawn by Alphona. The colors and inks compliment Norton’s pencils and interestingly enough, while the monster appears menacing it never looks so horrific as to dissuade younger viewers from reading. This never turns into a horror comic or a mature reader type of visual, which could turn off a large portion of the intended audience. The inks and colors help make this comic vibrant and visually appealing throughout.
My largest compliant with the art is sort of an unfair one but it needs to be said anyway and that is that it just is not Adrian Alphona’s work. The regular penciller has a style all of his own. Sometimes it seems mangaesque while mostly it seems to be just completely unique and unlike anything else out there in mainstream comics. Alphona makes each character look quirky and a bit flawed. Norton I feel draws more traditionally and as a result we wind up with some characters looking too ‘air brushed’ especially Norton’s rendition of Chase. I also dislike Norton’s work on the hellish images of the issue’s sub-plot. I had the honor of meeting Adrian Alphona in Toronto last year and he showed me some of his penciled pages for this location with tons of details that you barely got to see in the prior issues where this locale also popped up. In comparison, again Norton’s images of this scenery are satisfactory but lack that originality and quirkiness that Alphona always brings to the table.
With that we arrive at the sub-plot concerning Chase dealing with the aftermath of the previous story and specifically the death of a main character on the team’s roster. This sub-plot is really bringing Chase into a new direction and into dark territory and it is a joy to read and to watch. My only complaint with this story is that I feel it is beginning to become too predictable. Alarmingly, the essential components of the story are starting to look like a specific episode from, ironically enough, Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire the Slayer television series. In the episode in question, a regular character is dealing with her grief over a loved one’s death and goes to drastic lengths to find some relief from her mourning. Vaughan is known for being unpredictable so I have hopes he will not take Chase along the identical path and resolution that this Buffy character embarked on in TV land but only next issue will let us know.
Overall, I’d have to say that this was a solid effort on both the art and writing ends. I cannot give this book a perfect mark for a couple reasons however. I tend to read a book and then try to see how it holds up with what came before it. The previous arc “Parental Guidance” was in my humble opinion the best work that both Vaughan and Alphona ever provided on this book. With that kind of preceding chapter and with fill-in art it is tough for that kind of lightning to strike twice. Also, this is a middle chapter so we get a lot of fighting and some soul-searching but we must wait thirty days for any real catharsis and resolution. Middle chapters are necessary but do not tend to be “perfect” issues in general.
The quality of Runaways is as high as ever. These characters are so well developed that they feel “real” to any regular reader of the book. If this kind of quality characterizes the latter end of Vaughan and Alphona’s run and new readers can jump on board in April when Whedon and Ryan show up to take a stab at the book, then Runaways might be in good shape for the future. A lesser book would not have survived its previous cancellation and consistent low sales but the quality of the team that puts this book together and the loyal fans have kept Runaways alive time and time again. I get the feeling that the Runaways will still be running for a good long time to come.
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mnone.jpg
Pick up Runaways from X-World and save! (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=1680&cat=RUNAWAYS+VOL+2)
Story Title: Dead Means Dead Part Two
“No. We’re different. We’re…whatever you call the thing that comes after pride.” “The Fall.”
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Penciller: Mike Norton
Inker: Craig Yeung
Letterer: Virtual Calligraphy’s Randy Gentile
Colorist: Christina Strain
Production: Rich Ginter
Cover Artist: Jo Chen
Special Thanks: C.B Cebulski & MacKenzie Cadenhead
Assistant Editors: Sean Ryan & Nathan Cosby
Editor: Nick Lowe
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (www.marvel.com)
Runaways Created by: Vaughan & Alphona
Following the death of a major character and amidst weeks of media attention, Dead Means Dead continues as Brian K. Vaughan’s run on his own pet project rockets closer to its finale.
Runaways is a book that’s been in the news as of late. Series writer and co-creator Brian K. Vaughan shocked many of his loyal readers by revealing earlier this month that he and regular Runaways artist and co-creator Adrian Alphona would soon be leaving the book they founded back in 2002 as part of Marvel’s largely unsuccessful “Tsunami” line of comics. The sordid history of this all ages cult hit began in early 2003 when nearly all of the “Tsunami” books were cancelled due to low sales. Runaways survived the mass cancellation for the time being and was shuffled around the company. However, the book could not avoid cancellation forever and ultimately ended at issue 18. The End?
Well, obviously not. The sales of the series’ reprinted collections, which were distributed in small, affordable digests alongside Marvel’s more youth friendly “Marvel Age” and later “Marvel Adventures” series of digests, gave Runaways a new life. The book was relaunched in 2005. While those involved with the title and/or in the industry like C.B Cebulski, Joe Quesada and Joss Whedon have actively promoted Runaways on the con circuit or on the Internet through message boards and interviews, Runaways’ sales in the direct market have remained pretty dismal. The characters’ inclusion in the lead story of an Astonishing X-men crossover standalone issue as part of Marvel’s Free Comic Book Day contribution this May proved the company was serious about selling Runaways to new readers and keeping this book alive. However, sales in the direct market remained low and the book continued to survive only because of its digest sales and its very steadfast and vocal fan base. And then not too long before this review was written, Brian K. Vaughan revealed he and co-creator Adrian Alphona would be leaving the book behind after their next arc. Fandom was shocked (or at least the minority who supported and promoted this book.) After cancellation and marketing repackaging was this now the final nail in the coffin for Nico Minoru and her friends?
If you are a fan of Vaughan’s writing, then you know he is a fine executor of the infamous comic book cliffhanger. Many of Vaughan’s best issues tend to have a final page that leaves the reader’s jaw hanging open until the next month when it turns out it was all a big swerve or a clever explanation is given for the previous cliffhanger. Then page 22 rolls around and guess where the reader’s jaw winds up again? Salivating on the linoleum. Well, the announcement that Vaughan would be leaving and the subsequent announcement of the succeeding creative team he helped to place on the book was Vaughan’s greatest cliffhanger and resolution of his non-fiction career. Vaughan and Alphona will be replaced by the team of JOSS WHEDON and MICHAEL RYAN come April 2007. Whedon, a huge Runaways fan boy, happens to have a fan base that loyally buys his swag. They also tend to be willing to flock to projects that are not in the TV world that Whedon is so well known in and buy his stuff (Astonishing X-men anyone?). So within a matter of weeks, Vaughan precipitated a crisis on the ability for his book to survive without him at its head and his loyal fans supporting him, and then was the puppet master behind bringing in a new team that logically and for all practical reasons should lure a large influx of new readers to a book that is currently on life-support in the direct market. Not too shabby.
So this history lesson was a tangent driven, roundabout way for me to begin my review of Runaways 20 . Vaughan only has 5 issues left to nurture his characters, let them grow and ship them off to the boarding school of Corporals Whedon and Ryan. So, this better be a good read in order to maintain the momentum that his behind the scenes shenanigans have caused as of late with the huge announcement of who his successors will be. Does it continue this momentum and provide a riveting read? Well, keep reading folks.
The second act of Dead Means Dead finds our heroes battling the crazy big monster of the previous act, while Chase works out in a sub-plot exactly how he plans to cope with the very recent death of his “best friend.” That’s the plot of the ish in a nutshell but fans of Vaughan in general and Runaways in specific know when it comes down to it, this is a book that is all about character. The kids that are in this book each month just leap off the page. They are so well defined at this point that reading the dialogue between each character is like watching a line of well-placed dominoes fall in unison one after the other. Everything just gels and falls into place so well. The opening page has several of the core characters react to the image of the gargantuan antagonist of the piece with each expressing one form of dialogue. From Victor swearing in Spanish to little Molly screaming in horror too scared and perhaps immature to be able to come up with the right words, Vaughan captures intrinsically the essence of each character he pens in very little time. Amongst the chaos of a classic Marvel superhero throwdown we discover a ton of detail about each and every character involved in the battle. Vaughan does all this great character work in a frugal fashion that packs a lot of punch with little words and lets the pictures do a lot of the character and plot building that they are intended for.
What aids Vaughan immensely in providing a really tense backdrop for all this great drama and character moments is the wonderful fill-in art by Mike Norton. The image he creates in the giant beast really drives the entire plot of the issue and makes a spectacular, yet creepy visual that really allows us to empathize with the sense of urgency felt by the heroes in the piece. The splash pages and wonderful action sequences are actually much more fluid and take up a larger portion of the page than is typical in this book when drawn by Alphona. The colors and inks compliment Norton’s pencils and interestingly enough, while the monster appears menacing it never looks so horrific as to dissuade younger viewers from reading. This never turns into a horror comic or a mature reader type of visual, which could turn off a large portion of the intended audience. The inks and colors help make this comic vibrant and visually appealing throughout.
My largest compliant with the art is sort of an unfair one but it needs to be said anyway and that is that it just is not Adrian Alphona’s work. The regular penciller has a style all of his own. Sometimes it seems mangaesque while mostly it seems to be just completely unique and unlike anything else out there in mainstream comics. Alphona makes each character look quirky and a bit flawed. Norton I feel draws more traditionally and as a result we wind up with some characters looking too ‘air brushed’ especially Norton’s rendition of Chase. I also dislike Norton’s work on the hellish images of the issue’s sub-plot. I had the honor of meeting Adrian Alphona in Toronto last year and he showed me some of his penciled pages for this location with tons of details that you barely got to see in the prior issues where this locale also popped up. In comparison, again Norton’s images of this scenery are satisfactory but lack that originality and quirkiness that Alphona always brings to the table.
With that we arrive at the sub-plot concerning Chase dealing with the aftermath of the previous story and specifically the death of a main character on the team’s roster. This sub-plot is really bringing Chase into a new direction and into dark territory and it is a joy to read and to watch. My only complaint with this story is that I feel it is beginning to become too predictable. Alarmingly, the essential components of the story are starting to look like a specific episode from, ironically enough, Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire the Slayer television series. In the episode in question, a regular character is dealing with her grief over a loved one’s death and goes to drastic lengths to find some relief from her mourning. Vaughan is known for being unpredictable so I have hopes he will not take Chase along the identical path and resolution that this Buffy character embarked on in TV land but only next issue will let us know.
Overall, I’d have to say that this was a solid effort on both the art and writing ends. I cannot give this book a perfect mark for a couple reasons however. I tend to read a book and then try to see how it holds up with what came before it. The previous arc “Parental Guidance” was in my humble opinion the best work that both Vaughan and Alphona ever provided on this book. With that kind of preceding chapter and with fill-in art it is tough for that kind of lightning to strike twice. Also, this is a middle chapter so we get a lot of fighting and some soul-searching but we must wait thirty days for any real catharsis and resolution. Middle chapters are necessary but do not tend to be “perfect” issues in general.
The quality of Runaways is as high as ever. These characters are so well developed that they feel “real” to any regular reader of the book. If this kind of quality characterizes the latter end of Vaughan and Alphona’s run and new readers can jump on board in April when Whedon and Ryan show up to take a stab at the book, then Runaways might be in good shape for the future. A lesser book would not have survived its previous cancellation and consistent low sales but the quality of the team that puts this book together and the loyal fans have kept Runaways alive time and time again. I get the feeling that the Runaways will still be running for a good long time to come.
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/mnone.jpg
Pick up Runaways from X-World and save! (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=1680&cat=RUNAWAYS+VOL+2)