posted
I've just finished Joss Whedon's run on Runaways, and I'm here and there on it.
Whedon brought a lot to the characters, and he definitely wasn't a step down from Vaughan. I don't think there can be question of that. And I really did like the turn-of-the-last-century New York storyline. It was cool to put the Runaways in that setting, 'cause as they point out, there they're not kids, they're just younger adults.
But then again, I expected something . . . different with Whedon on board. He's got a reputation for radically changing things in his own storylines at little notice, and getting rid of favorite characters without a backward glance. With him working Runaways, I expected some wild things happening, not something that hit a lot like filler. I expected the old woman in the present was Karolina, not Lillie (she's got Karolina's eyes and nose, check it out). Heck, they set it up for her to dash--as they're about to skip town, she looked ready to tear up some vengeance on the little girl's husband (all kinds of ew on the child marriage, by the by). And for future implications, niftastic. They'd have to accept Xavin as a member rather than just an adjunct to Karolina, which gets funky now that we're hitting Secret Invasion storylines. They'd lose a character, but for once it wouldn't be to death. And they'd gain two new ones.
Nope.
Oh well, fans always think they know better.
The biggest change, I think, is in Nico and Chase gettting seriously pimped. Nico's reaping the benefits of Whedon's girl power kick. She's more powerful. But she's also . . . harder. At the beginning of this run, she was feeling awful weak up against the Kingpin. Now not only did she snag a whole batch of power, her new spells are a bit harsher. She made Man-eater a vegan, har har, but I was pretty surprised at what she did to the Yorkes. There was genuine, if somewhat deserved, cruelty going on there.
And Chase . . . well, let's see how Terry Moore plays him out when he picks it up (lovin' the art previews for that). I wonder how long he spent tooling around with the Yorkes' time machine, and if he picked up anything more than a few gadgets. He looks very different very suddenly.
I guess I'm all right with it. It was a good filler. Just wasn't very Joss.
Here's holding hope for all the awesome Terry Moore's gonna do!
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Just finished it as well. Almost forgot the newest issue was out.
The more I think about it, the happier I am with Joss's development of Nico. She has been driving me insane since the end of the first big story arc. She was whiny and promiscuous and just didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the cast. Everyone else has a color or a flair to their personalities. They had flaws and issues, but I love them all the same. But I just don't get Nico. And I don't particularly like her. Nothing would make me happier than to drop her and bring Gert back. Heck, I'd even lose Nico before I'd get rid of Xavin.
And on that note, I don't like how quickly Joss decided to resolve the gender-issue with Xavin and his/her relationship with Karolina. And it didn't fit with past issues which show Xavin seeming to prefer his male form. There was so much potential for a development of his character by way of a slow resolution of this problem, so much potential for insight into Karolina and her relationship with Xavin...and Joss just had to fix it all in a few quick panels. His girl-power thing might have brought some new strength to Nico, but his lesbian fixation shoved two other back into the shadows of being two-dimensional sidekicks.
But maybe Nico will stop being so self-absorbed and start acting like a leader, so the filler wasn't a complete waste.
And yay for Molly having a friend! I adore her and she deserves to have someone her own age around.
In other news....
Robot-Boy is still annoying and sometimes resembles Chase too much in physical appearance. Still wish he had been given a more distinctive character design. Also, didn't buy into the whole Lillie-love affair thingy.
And Chase is still as lovable as ever. He's funny. He's tortured. I miss when he was the only guy around.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Heh, he needs the company of many many ladies . . .
I think you hit on my biggest issue: the whole thing felt rushed. Didn't buy into Xavin and Karolina's reconciliation, didn't buy Victor and Lillie . . . didn't buy a lot. Dang it, Joss, you're so much better when you killed people.
Secret Invasion with the Runaways/Young Avengers crossover is out this week--have you read that yet?
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
I liked the Whedon run and it didn't seem rushed, which was nice. In fact, I liked that he took the time to tie up some stuff and show us the Punisher still on the roof grabbing his 'nads (I think Molly needs to punch all bad-ass characters she meets...Wolvie and Punisher makes it 2-0 in favor of the little girl). I also thought it was cool to see Joss bring back the first comic book here, The Yellow Kid. I kind of would dig a little mini-series of this time period pre- or post-Runaway visit.
This ranks just below his Buffy run and above his X-Men run (which would have been great if it ended years ago on time).
Posts: 896 | Registered: Apr 2003
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