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96 reviews for:
Runaways, Vol. 4: True Believers
Adrian Alphona, Mike Norton, Craig Yeung, Jo Chen, Brian K. Vaughan, Michael Ryan, Joss Whedon, Takeshi Miyazawa
3.93 AVERAGE
96 reviews for:
Runaways, Vol. 4: True Believers
Adrian Alphona, Mike Norton, Craig Yeung, Jo Chen, Brian K. Vaughan, Michael Ryan, Joss Whedon, Takeshi Miyazawa
3.93 AVERAGE
I totally love the Runaways series just because it looks at superheroes from a slightly different angle - growing up with superpowers and the problems that being an adolescent hero can pose. The teen angst may not be for everyone, but it speaks very honestly to the universal experience of adolescence, where everyone is struggling over identity. The faults of their parents now appear in such sharp relief, and they fear repeating their mistakes. All the nods to the Avengers and other heroes are fun and cheeky. Can't wait to nab the next volume.
After a brief gap of time, the Runaways are back for volume four. Because of the events in three (you know, stopping their villain parents from taking over/destroying the world) there’s a massive power vacuum in Los Angeles, and the Runaways are determined to make a difference!
Runaways roll call (because it’s always changing – this may be considered a spoiler, so you’ve been warned): Nico Minoru, Karolina Dean, Chase Stein, Gertrude Yorkes (with Old Lace), Molly Hayes, and Victor Mancha.
As mentioned above, a ton of villains and villain-wanna-be’s have started to invade and create havoc in Los Angeles. Being stubborn and optimistic, the Runaways decide to take on these new villains. Luckily for them, the mostly come across B lister villains or lower (which is good because I’m not sure they would have survived fighting anybody tougher at the moment, as evidenced by a fight later on in the volume).
Along with fighting lower level villains the Runaways come up against a team of…well…I guess you’d call them recovering side-kicks? They want to stop the Runaways before they get hurt (they’ve been there, and they don’t want to see a bunch of kids go through it again). Unfortunately it just causes more mayhem and destruction.
The Runaways get clued in to a future villain that will eventually kill Gert (looooong story) and decide to go after him before he hits that point. The trouble is? He’s just a kid like them. You can see the morale dilemma this caused (for everybody minus Chase that is – not only does he have an emotional reason for protecting Gert, it’s unlikely he thought out the consequences of what he wants to do).
In true Runaways style it’s revealed that the future-villian, Victor, is the child of a villain himself. Since he sincerely doesn’t want to hurt anybody, the team couldn’t really just leave him like that, or worse, kill him. And thus a new team member is added!
I will say I was really happy with Victor’s plot for one main reason: we got to see Darkhawk kick Ultron’s butt. I can’t think of many things more satisfying than watching Ultron get one-shot-ed by an ex-retired superhero.
Can’t wait to see what volume five (Escape to New York) brings us. What are the odds that the team will stay the same for a whole volume? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks
Runaways roll call (because it’s always changing – this may be considered a spoiler, so you’ve been warned): Nico Minoru, Karolina Dean, Chase Stein, Gertrude Yorkes (with Old Lace), Molly Hayes, and Victor Mancha.
As mentioned above, a ton of villains and villain-wanna-be’s have started to invade and create havoc in Los Angeles. Being stubborn and optimistic, the Runaways decide to take on these new villains. Luckily for them, the mostly come across B lister villains or lower (which is good because I’m not sure they would have survived fighting anybody tougher at the moment, as evidenced by a fight later on in the volume).
Along with fighting lower level villains the Runaways come up against a team of…well…I guess you’d call them recovering side-kicks? They want to stop the Runaways before they get hurt (they’ve been there, and they don’t want to see a bunch of kids go through it again). Unfortunately it just causes more mayhem and destruction.
The Runaways get clued in to a future villain that will eventually kill Gert (looooong story) and decide to go after him before he hits that point. The trouble is? He’s just a kid like them. You can see the morale dilemma this caused (for everybody minus Chase that is – not only does he have an emotional reason for protecting Gert, it’s unlikely he thought out the consequences of what he wants to do).
In true Runaways style it’s revealed that the future-villian, Victor, is the child of a villain himself. Since he sincerely doesn’t want to hurt anybody, the team couldn’t really just leave him like that, or worse, kill him. And thus a new team member is added!
I will say I was really happy with Victor’s plot for one main reason: we got to see Darkhawk kick Ultron’s butt. I can’t think of many things more satisfying than watching Ultron get one-shot-ed by an ex-retired superhero.
Can’t wait to see what volume five (Escape to New York) brings us. What are the odds that the team will stay the same for a whole volume? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks
So, this one was by far my favorite of the Runaways books. Full of plot twists, brilliant character development, and some excellent artwork, it certainly deserves my five star rating.
THE ART
Not my favorite, but still excellent. The darker, rather subtle colors fit the mood of the book very well. Molly looks quite a bit older than usual, and it seems as if they slimmed down Gertude a bit, but aside from that I liked it.
THE WRITING
One doesn't usually expect excellent writing in a comic. But True Believers was quite good. Perhaps not right up there with Harry Potter, but it still beats some novels I've read. Not many, but some.
The characters, as usual, were quite well developed. I like the budding romance between Gert and Chase; as Nico says, they're "made for each other." I also like the Karolina/Nico/Alex love triangle. I don't usually enjoy love triangles, but I do like this one. Molly at times seems very immature for her age, but I felt like in True Believers, she grew up a little.
Now on the plot twists. I don't believe I've encountered this many plot twists before in a single book. Victor's past, for example. And the ending... What was with that? Has Alex returned from the dead?
OVERALL
So, that being said, I LOVED True Believers. It's one of my favorite comics so far, and certainly worth a read.
THE ART
Not my favorite, but still excellent. The darker, rather subtle colors fit the mood of the book very well. Molly looks quite a bit older than usual, and it seems as if they slimmed down Gertude a bit, but aside from that I liked it.
THE WRITING
One doesn't usually expect excellent writing in a comic. But True Believers was quite good. Perhaps not right up there with Harry Potter, but it still beats some novels I've read. Not many, but some.
The characters, as usual, were quite well developed. I like the budding romance between Gert and Chase; as Nico says, they're "made for each other." I also like the Karolina/Nico/Alex love triangle. I don't usually enjoy love triangles, but I do like this one. Molly at times seems very immature for her age, but I felt like in True Believers, she grew up a little.
Now on the plot twists. I don't believe I've encountered this many plot twists before in a single book. Victor's past, for example. And the ending... What was with that? Has Alex returned from the dead?
OVERALL
So, that being said, I LOVED True Believers. It's one of my favorite comics so far, and certainly worth a read.
After the disappointment of Vol. 3, I was a little worried about whether to continue. I loved the first two volumes so much, so I am glad to see that this volume returns it to its original glory! Can't wait to dig into Vol. 5!
I think that, if Runaways existed when I was a teenager, I would have become a complete comic book nerd as opposed to logging onto MUDs and spending hours on IRC. While Watchmen and Transmetropolitan helped me gain an appreciation for comic books that I didn't have before, Runaways has essentially turned me into a comic book fan, something I never would have imagined previously. High quality stuff here.
So the first long arc of the Runaways (volumes 1-3) was perfect comics. They never really needed to be touched again and it would've been lightning in a bottle.
That being said, I'm glad that they kept it going. This was a really fun volume. I love the addition of Victor to the gang. I'm excited to see what misadventures await the Runaways.
That being said, I'm glad that they kept it going. This was a really fun volume. I love the addition of Victor to the gang. I'm excited to see what misadventures await the Runaways.
You can tell the team is picking up speed after being canceled.
I enjoy the series quite a lot and am looking forward to watching the tv show.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced