Runaways Appreciation 2021

[Digifiend]

Maybe Guardians of the Galaxy for Karolina (since it looks like she might be off to space), New Mutants for Molly (she is a mutant, after all), Amazing Spider-Man for Nico (considering that apparently, Doctor Strange is giving his responsibilities to Ben Reilly, and I'd hardly call him and Black Cat magic experts!)? It'd be interesting to see Victor Mancha show up in Champions due to his antagonistic relationship to Viv Vision (Victor killed her brother Vin in Tom King's The Vision!)

[Sutekh]

I would love to see Nico get into some real magical training, and not have to be dependent on that damn staff. She doesn't need to be throwing zaps and teleporting around willy-nilly or anything, but even some low-level witchy stuff like warding rituals and locator spells and lighting candles by snapping her fingers would go a long way to developing her past being tool-dependent.

Granted, I feel the same way about a lot of the younger crop of 'magical' characters at Marvel, such as Wiccan or Sebastian Druid, whose magical studies seem to be utterly neglected. Honestly, I have no idea if that sort of thing is the Sorcerer Supreme's 'job,' technically, but *he* had a mentor who didn't just let him sink or swim, so he should borrow from the Ancient One's example and step up. (Or delegate the task to others, like those out of work / no longer villain witches of the Salem's Seven or something.)

Maybe Guardians of the Galaxy for Karolina (since it looks like she might be off to space), New Mutants for Molly (she is a mutant, after all), Amazing Spider-Man for Nico (considering that apparently, Doctor Strange is giving his responsibilities to Ben Reilly, and I'd hardly call him and Black Cat magic experts!)? It'd be interesting to see Victor Mancha show up in Champions due to his antagonistic relationship to Viv Vision (Victor killed her brother Vin in Tom King's The Vision!)

The Guardians team is delightfully big at the moment. (I'm a Legion of Superheroes fan, so I have ZERO problem with a team of 20+ folk, but Marvel seems less fond of teams bigger than seven...) That said, I'd love to see Karolina among them!

Molly on Krakoa could be great. New Mutants, I'm not so sure, since the kids in that book are being written as screwups, and I wouldn't want to see her regressed as terribly as folks like Anole and Martha Johanssen have been.

[Personamanx]

Alex Wilder in a Thunderbolts relaunch. Or alternatively a multi-dimensional crossover called "Into the ********Verse."


EDIT: Wow, it does not like the name "Wilder" with a hyphen at the end.

[Digifiend]

Into the what verse? I think you got swear filtered.

[Personamanx]

Into the Wilder Verse.

[Darkspellmaster]

Victor on Champion's would be interesting. Though I have to wonder what's going to happen with Chase and Gert and her future self?
Honestly I would rather Molly be with the Future Foundation over the X-men right now given all the stuff going on.

[Digifiend]

Future Foundation disbanded between Empyre and Outlawed, to make way for a Power Pack reunion.

[Personamanx]

Wow, I really disliked this issue. My expectations were low, and I was still disappointed. Didn't even get much Adrian Alphona art. For as slow of a death as this book has gone through, they really wanted to twist the knife at the end. spoilers:

Klara being strongly confirmed to be a mutant was somewhat interesting, and I truly hope Molly goes to Krakoa. The worst X-Men book currently is streets ahead of this tripe.

end of spoilers

[Pav]

Well...

I don't think today's issue was BAD, but I can't say the issue was an incredibly strong finale.

But maybe... that's because it's not really a finale.

spoilers:

While some of the resolutions in today's issue may not please everyone, I do find them incredibly intriguing. Future Gert convinces Gert and Molly to help her kidnap Chase and take him into the future. Old Lace does seem to suffer some pain -- although maybe just emotional -- by having her ties to Chase cut, but this does seem to put her completely back to status quo with Gert. The Light Brigade have come to help Karolina regain her powers and her health by taking her closer to the sun. They don't hate her because of whatever Xavin was able to do, but Nico of course flips out and believes Karrie is leaving her for Xavin. Luckily, Karolina convinces her this isn't the case; they promise to wait for each other -- and Nico gives Karolina the STAFF OF ONE AND TELLS HER TO GET RID OF IT OUT IN SPACE. Molly expresses interest in going to Krakoa, but Klara Prast is completely happy at home with her adopted family. Victor, along with Gib and Doombot, don't really receive any story beats of their own, but they do get to stand around looking cool and ready for a fight. MEANWHILE Alex is spying on them somehow from the base of the J-Team. He's got on a super suit. He's the new Doc Justice. And he says, "Soon..." AND Fully-Grown Xavin is shown, asking if Karolina is on her way. How Xavin feels about this is left incredibly ambiguous, I think.

end of spoilers

Here's what I find interesting: for what purpose and for WHOM are these plotlines being left in these places?

Is Rainbow Rowell simply providing future writers, whoever they might be, with some options in regards to what might happen to these characters? Is the ambiguity in so many cases a product of being open and helpful to future writer of the book?

Or... is there a specific plan for the immediate future of this book? Should we trust that "soon" we'll see what happens next?

I'm very curious to know what others think about this issue, as well as whether you see any hints that indicate this might not be the last issue of Runaways for a long while.

-Pav, who hopes he blocked his spoilers correctly...

[Dthirds3]

I'm guessing its relaunching next year. Really want to see all these plot points adressed

[mreddie]

This really didn't feel like a finale at all, reminds me how the show ended but at least the show ended better,

[Personamanx]

I highly doubt there's any plan to relaunch the book at any point in the foreseeable future. Both Volumes One, and Two were transparent and clear in the fact that a relaunch was coming up. I would expect Volume Five to do so as well. There's no reason not to. Rowell left plots hanging in the hopes that enough interest in a resolution will manifest a relaunch. More realistically the hanging plot threads will discourage editorial from attempting a new book, and creators from being interested. Modern creators don't want to have to clean up after the person who came before them, and would much rather come onto a book in a more comfortable state to play with. I can't blame them.

[Pav]

More realistically the hanging plot threads will discourage editorial from attempting a new book, and creators from being interested. Modern creators don't want to have to clean up after the person who came before them, and would much rather come onto a book in a more comfortable state to play with. I can't blame them.

While I don't necessarily disagree with the notion that SOME writers, modern or not, probably don't enjoy picking up plotlines from past writers, I suspect that plenty do -- I certainly find it an interesting exercise in writing, myself.

Similarly, I find it unrealistic that a writer would leave plotlines open for the express purpose of dissuading a new volume from being relaunched. It's an incredibly pessimistic view, especially considering how... NON-pessimistic Rainbow Rowell's volume of Runaways has been compared to others, especially BKV's original run.

I will reinforce my belief -- based on almost nothing, I will admit -- that the story beats we got indicate that there's a plan in place, and that we will see the Runaways again soon in some fashion. Perhaps Rowell left certain aspects open-ended in case those potential plans don't end up happening, in an effort to be pragmatic in an industry where projects change. But I have to imagine that, overall, Rowell left things how they are because each choice felt like the right choice for the story at this point in time.

It's just a matter of when the story will continue.

-Pav, who wouldn't mind another Runaways/Young Avengers thing...

EDIT: THOUGHTS ON THE DESIGN FOR ADULT XAVIN?!

[Personamanx]

I don't think Rowell intentionally left threads hanging as a means to dissuade a future relaunch. But intentions aren't results. I think she very much does want these plots to be picked back upon by someone in the future. She'd love to do it herself, but that's unrealistic. Without any announcement of a relaunch in the immediate future these plots will likely be left hanging, and handwaved at best in future cameo appearances. In 2030 (2025 if we're lucky) they'll be able to relaunch the book with enough distance gained that they can just throw them comfortably into the same familiar hole in the ground.

[Personamanx]

I will say, that a lot happened. More than I have come to expect from Rowell. I didn't particularly care for most of it, but things occurred and the book is not in the exact same place it was in issue thirty-seven.