Runaways Appreciation 2021

[Personamanx]

Oh, right! I totally forgot about that. That's when Chase got hit by a truck or something and they more or less just hand waved that off in his next appearance, right?

Yeah, it wasn't addressed any more than the acknowledgement in Dark Wolverine that he got better. Then in their Avengers Academy appearances Old Lace was brought back to life, and they're basically pretending it never happened.

[Personamanx]

No solicited issue #39/101 for September. With Genolet being occupied by his new work on Ms. Marvel I have the feeling that #38/100 is going to be the finale of this iteration of the team.

[Digifiend]

Bleeding Cool thinks so too.
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/is-r...rvel-solicits/

[Personamanx]

Preview for next week's issue:

[Personamanx]

#37 Spoilers

spoilers:

Was certain that this was going to be an annoying dialogue free issue of the series, and for the most part it was. Gib comes home from Fooseball practice, Rufus (as well as other cats) feed him the souls of various mice, and Doombot is annoyed by the mice corpses being stuck in the vacuum. Nico, and Karolina snuggle by the fire. The awkward reunion between the Gerts, Victor, and Chase results in a Gert, and Chase running off. A light flies through the sky, and Doombot along with Gib greet the alien spaceship. This results in the only dialogue of the main story when two majesdanians exit the ship exclaiming "Where is Karolina Dean?!" Then there's two pages of Matthew, and that solar lady from the J-Team talking followed by a page with Alex Wilder requesting to join the team. Not something I thought was necessary to be honest. That was pretty damn clear during the ending of the J-Team arc.

end of spoilers

All in all it felt like another issue in which all of its interesting elements could have easily been worked into the previous issue without anything of substance being lost. I like the single line in the final page of the main story, but everything else was essentially just pointless re-iteration.

[Pav]

#37 Spoilers

spoilers:

Was certain that this was going to be an annoying dialogue free issue of the series, and for the most part it was. Gib comes home from Fooseball practice, Rufus (as well as other cats) feed him the souls of various mice, and Doombot is annoyed by the mice corpses being stuck in the vacuum. Nico, and Karolina snuggle by the fire. The awkward reunion between the Gerts, Victor, and Chase results in a Gert, and Chase running off. A light flies through the sky, and Doombot along with Gib greet the alien spaceship. This results in the only dialogue of the main story when two majesdanians exit the ship exclaiming "Where is Karolina Dean?!" Then there's two pages of Matthew, and that solar lady from the J-Team talking followed by a page with Alex Wilder requesting to join the team. Not something I thought was necessary to be honest. That was pretty damn clear during the ending of the J-Team arc.

end of spoilers

All in all it felt like another issue in which all of its interesting elements could have easily been worked into the previous issue without anything of substance being lost. I like the single line in the final page of the main story, but everything else was essentially just pointless re-iteration.

spoilers:

It was a quick read due to being mostly wordless, which I always lament; but overall, I did enjoy the issue and the way it provides a direct look at where each of the cast is in their trajectory before giving us the big 100th issue. I appreciate the small additions made to the cast in this series -- Rufus and Gib, but most especially Doombot. Seeing him vacuum and his general Mr. Belvedere attitude towards the kids is charming. I like that the character has some complexity but is also about to stay in the background comfortably while the main cast gets the focus. I feel similarly about Alex. The book never felt complete without Alex and Gert, and I think Alex works best now as the central foil to the team. He's the Doom to their FF. He's their enemy and yet he feels like part of the family. It'll be interesting to see what comes from his interactions with Matthew regarding the J-Team. Older Gert crying when she hugs Victor makes me think he's dead in her present. Interesting considering the Other Future Girl From Before was killed by Victorious. I know the next issue may be the last for a while, but I am hopeful that the return of the Majesdanians instead means the series will be restarting with a new #1 in a few months, focusing on RUNAWAYS IN SPACE!!!!!! Xavin still needs to reappear, right?

end of spoilers

Even if it is the end, I'm thankful for this series. It was absolutely charming and I think captured the magic of the original series in a way no other creative team was able to do.

-Pav, who thinks it only lacked one thing...

[Digifiend]

Yeah... spoilers:

If the Majesdanians are looking for Karrie, that means Xavin has finally been outed as an imposter.

end of spoilers

[Personamanx]

If spoilers:

Xavin

end of spoilers shows up, I'll call that a small win.

When all is said, and done I think this series will be seen as an unremarkable slog that coasted on nostalgia for eighteen issues before relying entirely on the artistic talent of Andres Genolet. Which isn't exactly that terrible of a thing I suppose, I would just rather have a compelling book both narratively and visually.

[Frontier]

If spoilers:

Xavin

end of spoilers shows up, I'll call that a small win.

When all is said, and done I think this series will be seen as an unremarkable slog that coasted on nostalgia for eighteen issues before relying entirely on the artistic talent of Andres Genolet. Which isn't exactly that terrible of a thing I suppose, I would just rather have a compelling book both narratively and visually.

Well, the first two arcs were fun and a nice reunion but after that it just kind of went nowhere.

[scouse mouse]

I've just picked up my physical copy of issue #37 and after the first 3 pages of story its then got Captain America #30! Then the last 3 pages of the Runaway's story!

[Personamanx]

Well, the first two arcs were fun and a nice reunion but after that it just kind of went nowhere.

That's fair. Wasn't until the third arc they were presented with a clear problem, and did virtually nothing to stop or prevent it for multiple issues before being resolved in an incredibly contrived manner.

[Personamanx]

I've just picked up my physical copy of issue #37 and after the first 3 pages of story its then got Captain America #30! Then the last 3 pages of the Runaway's story!

Ah, printing mishaps nice. Bought the digital version myself as I can't get my comics delivered until tomorrow. Interested to see how wide spread such a problem might be.

[scouse mouse]

Ah, printing mishaps nice. Bought the digital version myself as I can't get my comics delivered until tomorrow. Interested to see how wide spread such a problem might be.

I phoned my comic shop to let them know and they had one copy left on the shelf which they checked and it had Cap in it as well. I'm in the UK but I'm assuming this will be international?

[Dante Milton]

Well, that was ... something. If you're going to make a dialogue free issue the visuals have to be innovative and complex enough to carry the book, and while Genolet is a very good artist, his work isn't exactly groundbreaking. The issue took about two minutes to "read". I liked the Alex tease, and the possibility of Xavin showing up. The character work has been good on this series, but it feels like Rowell never really figured out anything for them to do.

[Personamanx]

I agree that Genolet is rad, but his work definitely isn't in/of itself interesting enough to carry a largely silent issue when the narrative is so milktoast.