Writer: Rainbow Rowell
Artist: Kris Anka
Colors: Matt Wilson
Cover Art: Kris Anka
Published: October 11, 2017
It’s only issue #2, so it is perhaps massively presumptuous to say, but this series might be a slow burn. Logically or emotionally, it would take quite a while for readjustment after Chase went years into the past to save Gert’s life in the last issue, but this issue had a lot of talking. Gert, essentially coming back from the dead, needs to be caught up on a lot/everything that has happened to The Runaways since the last time we saw them. It’s mainly Chase and Nico trying to explain to her how everyone split up (Chase and Nico went to Murderworld?). They head back to their underground ‘hostel’ which has now been significantly upgraded to some sort of underground mansion where the best moment of the issue happens. At the mansion Chase and Nico are trying to convince Gert that what happened to the group isn’t their fault and she’s not really buying it. They decide to distract her instead and reunite her with her pet dinosaur Old Lace. It’s a touching scene that is sold more by the artwork (getting to that in a second) than it is by the writing. That probably hold true for much of this issue which is (to be really honest) a lot of exposition to reorient new/old readers with where The Runaways are right now. That isn’t to dismiss the rest of the issue as there is some good stuff in here. The villainous cats which appear to be monitoring them are lurking in a few pages, there is another check in on Molly who appears to be suffering no ill effects from her time with The Runaways, and Tony Stark knows where their hideout is but is okay to let them cook, and even returns Victor’s robot head to them. These are fun quirky moments that conjure the fun that was present when Brian K Vaughan was writing the series. This book sets up some interesting possibilities (albeit the same possibilities as last issue except now they have Victor’s head), and hopefully they start to develop in the next issue.
The art was rock solid in this issue. The faces of Chase and Gert really sell some important moments. When Chase describes his concern about Gert’s death or Gert reunites with Old Lace, it’s way the faces are drawn that make these moment impactful. A really nice artistic detail through the whole book was Nico, in the underground mansion, sitting on a couch with her legs constantly drawn up into herself. Without needing dialogue to explain it, this constant detail represents how uncomfortable Nico is with the past being dredged up which becomes important in the context of the book. Another thing, more related to the plot, is that The Staff of One is always outside of Nico whereas she used to summon it from within herself. Don’t known if this will be important, but its another small detail or plot point that could be really interesting when the story starts rolling.
(Subjective) Score out of 10: 6
Comicsly 