If you suddenly found out your parents were super-villains and that they had framed you for a murder they committed, what would you do? Alex sees it as their group’s duty to try and balance the evil that their parents have committed. Carolina is having fun with her psychedelic alien powers. Gertrude is rejecting her past and calling herself Arsenic (she named the dinosaur her parents left her Old Lace). Chase is being laconic. Nico is hooking up with stray vampires. Molly is mostly confused about what’s going on, but loving the no-parents part of all of it. However, one of them isn’t what they seem, because one of them is a mole and is in contact with their parents. Also, what exactly is the Pride and whose side are they on? Nothing is quite what it seems, and life without adult supervision isn’t quite as easy as a teenager wants to think it is. This is an excellently written series. It is thoughtful, clever, and accessible. Adrian Alphona’s artwork in this series highlights the moments of surreality in the changing lives the Runaways in an interesting way. The colors in the world of Runaways are by and large subdued, except for Carolina’s alien powers and Nico’s magic. The brightness of those colors stands out in sharp contrast to the rest of the image, making those unreal powers hyper-real.
Runaways, vol. 2: Teenage Wastland
ISBN: 9780785114154
By Brian K. Vaughan
Art by Adrian Alphona
Marvel Comics 2004
