purplewolf91212

Runaways vol 1 #1-6

Art: Realistic “recess” is the only way to really describe the inside artwork(not counting the comic/chapter covers) this artwork will be a big turn off to 95% of manga readers out there for the other 5% they most likely also read comics and manga in a nice balance if you are in the 5% category then the art isn't awful but it's not fluid like Saea pichelli's artwork is it's more gritty and hard edged making it forgettable and intolerable for the 95% that might want to give something not manga style a shot it's not horribly and it is an OK starting place for manga lovers wanting to break into comics but it's not the best place to start. For the 5% its so-so it's not super realistic but it's not supper cartoony either C-

Characters: Finally! We finally see what their personality's are like (this will teach people to read the series backwards you really don't get a feel for the characters that way) Gertrude, nico, chase, molly, Karolina, Alex. Gertrude is a geek girl, nico is a goth girl who seems to like like alex, chase is a womanizer and a slacker who doesn't get along with his folks much, molly is a kid going though some changes, Karolina is a closet lesbian by the way she acts with nico and doesn't eat meat, and Alex is a RPGer. These are six kids thrown together every year by their parents by force and end up becoming each others family....despite how they feel about it. You get a real good grasp on these kids and their problems they like each other and maybe even more so but at the same time they wouldn't call each other “friends” per-say they reacted the way you expect them to react like the kids they are. Nothing is exaggerated their personality's seem more played out by their stereotypes at the moment but you at least get a feel of what those personality's are at least. These characters are in no way 100% unique open up any shonen manga with a 5 or six team and you'll see these characters and their tropes fit to a T however though they may be cliche for a manga reader this being Marvel these kids really are out of the box compared to marvel's other characters the closet these kids would come to cliche in the marvel world is Xmen but that is a long long stretch. A

Story: Later on most readers will come to this again as well if you can look past the art work there is a gem of a story underneath even if you hate the art work you have to give credit where credit is do on the story. This isn't your basic super hero story this is kids fighting their parents literally and while they might have skills to save themselves they are vastly unaware of that at this time making the fear more real. Six kids with super villain parents on the run it's pretty unique especially when it was first published back in 2003. This is like the digimon adventure of America but with out the digital monsters or other world this story is fast past and keeps you hooked even when the art work does not. It's funny scary, sad and altogether awesome. The only nitpick is that some of the information dumping done by the parents is a little to much to soon or sometimes the kids take to long deciding what to do and you just want to scream at the book “DO SOMETHING” but once they do get moving the story is fast past and intriguing children/teen characters are fun to read about in well anything because they wouldn't chose the safe route of things they will fight head on with something even if it's scary or could mean death they are unpredictable to all but the writers who know them. Another great thing about this story is that it is character driven first and foremost plot second the plot is thin purposely so the characters can make the story what it is the plot is “Parents are evil have to get away and save the world” and while some spots in the story felt familiar some how the way it was worked with wasn't that plot is thin so how will nico deal with it? And Gertrude? And chase? And molly? Alex? The way each character reacts to whats going on around them make what the story is not the other way around A

Cover: All 6 children Gertrude, nico, chase, molly, Karolina, Alex, the art work here is very well done and in fact if exaggerated a big more could pull off for a manga cover this does seem like the stero typical manga cover not comic book cover however this is the digest format the covers of each comic are in here but they are more like chapter art in manga then the covers anymore the only nitpick is gertrude looks like a boy here other then that this isn't a bad cover C

Rating: T for teen (although on the back it says ages 12+)

Company: Marvel

My rating : 4 of 5 This is going to sound bad but I'm saying it if this was a manga with the same story, characters, everything that happens but in manga style artwork it would be a 5 of 5 hands down no contest the story is AMAZING I can see why so many fans and people would be T.Oed that Brain K Vaughan's time writing this series stopped with issue 24 and even though the other writers were great this is the story that really gives you an idea who these kids are. Sadly the artwork is highly lacking like with vol 9 the artwork is intolerable and not nice to look at but the story makes you want to read more thats why this is a 4 out of 5 is the artwork