Tacos and Comics Day: Runaways

So, what DO you do when you discover your parents are the supervillans known as The Pride who control pretty much the entire West Coast?

See comic title.





Let's go over my checklist of Things I Enjoy In My Entertainment:
Good, solid, writing? Check.
Character-driven, with realistic characters? Check.
Things blowing up? Check and mate.


They're teenagers, so they tend to do teenager things, like buy burritos and sugar cereal for breakfast. But they're also gifted with a wide variety of super-powers, from magic to unpowered flight to a telepathic velociraptor from the 82nd century to a poor upbringing. They try to use their powers for good, but most of the time they simply are trying to use them to survive.

While the group is diverse in an after-school special kind of way, Brian K. Vaughn does an excellent job of keeping them from being stereotypical. I think you grow to love these kids not because of their excellent use of pop culture references (when the cops show up in an early issue, they yell, "West Wing!"-- which of course means 'walk fast, talk fast') and not just because we've all felt like we were let down and lied to by our parents, but because they are real, fragile human beings trying to make it in the world.

And they don't always make it.


So far, two of the main Runaways team members have died. Both were, at the time, my favorite character. And, considering the current story arc is called "Dead Means Dead", I don't think we're going to have unstable molecules bringing them back again.

Now, the main reason why I'm dusting off the Tacos and Comics Day format after a looooong hiatus is because the original creators, the aforementioned Mr. Brian K. "I Kill Everyone You Love, Dance, Monkeys, DANCE!" Vaughn and Adrian Alphona are leaving the series after issue #24. When this was announced last week, it was the first thing my Comics Guy said when I walked in the door of the shop. "Did you hear!" "I heard!"

Well, earlier this week, it was announced who was going to take over for Messres Vaughn and Alphona. Art will be handled by Michael Ryan. Writing will be handled by some guy named Joss Whedon.

Who, if you may remember, I've mentioned before.

My first reaction (well, after the jumping up and down and squealing like a fangirl) was, "Oh, crap! EVERYONE'S gonna die!"