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rickjones 's review for:
Runaways, Vol. 4: True Believers
by Adrian Alphona, Mike Norton, Craig Yeung, Jo Chen, Brian K. Vaughan, Michael Ryan, Joss Whedon, Takeshi Miyazawa
So as no surprise to anyone, I read this because I found out Rick Jones is in it and that's always the push to force me to read something I may have not been interested in otherwise or that's part of a series I'm not caught up with.
Other than Rick, I really love many of the characters included in this volume. The story cleverly switches between the Runaways and Excelsior, who are going up against each other while still having the same goal of protecting innocent lives and trying to create better ones for themselves. The members of Excelsior may not be familiar faces to many, yet are easily sympathetic and I didn't feel strong dislike for them even when they did fit more antagonistic roles.
The Runaways themselves are truly are a family by now and behave like one with their interactions flowing naturally. While they aren't the most trusting people due to their past they still are able to recognize that children are not defined by their parents and need to be given chances as their own people who can choose to do good, and they willingly accept another orphan into their group while still holding some understandable suspicions.
Unfortunately I don't typically enjoy the 'defeated villain secretly returning' trope in media and would rather have seen fresh faces in the plot set up next, but I've always been interested in this series for the individual characters anyway and not so much the story, which I hardly remember these days.
Runaways is different from a lot of other superhero comics created for a younger audience because the characters aren't focused on being the most moral heroes around, and in fact don't even seem to truly think of themselves as superheroes. Their goal is protecting their own, and when push comes to shove they fight back hard and don't accept shit from anyone. For that reason they were most meaningful to me as an angry adolescent and provide welcome solace to other young adults who are tired of their less-than-great parents and wish their friends were their real family to go against the world with.
Other than Rick, I really love many of the characters included in this volume. The story cleverly switches between the Runaways and Excelsior, who are going up against each other while still having the same goal of protecting innocent lives and trying to create better ones for themselves. The members of Excelsior may not be familiar faces to many, yet are easily sympathetic and I didn't feel strong dislike for them even when they did fit more antagonistic roles.
The Runaways themselves are truly are a family by now and behave like one with their interactions flowing naturally. While they aren't the most trusting people due to their past they still are able to recognize that children are not defined by their parents and need to be given chances as their own people who can choose to do good, and they willingly accept another orphan into their group while still holding some understandable suspicions.
Unfortunately I don't typically enjoy the 'defeated villain secretly returning' trope in media and would rather have seen fresh faces in the plot set up next, but I've always been interested in this series for the individual characters anyway and not so much the story, which I hardly remember these days.
Runaways is different from a lot of other superhero comics created for a younger audience because the characters aren't focused on being the most moral heroes around, and in fact don't even seem to truly think of themselves as superheroes. Their goal is protecting their own, and when push comes to shove they fight back hard and don't accept shit from anyone. For that reason they were most meaningful to me as an angry adolescent and provide welcome solace to other young adults who are tired of their less-than-great parents and wish their friends were their real family to go against the world with.