Run to your local comic book shop and pick up Runaways

September 1st, 2008

I’m not sure what’s going on, I’m starting to settle in nicely into my thirties, early thirties, very early thirties… Why is it then that I’m getting hooked by all of these teen comic book series!?!

Teen Titans, Robin, Young Avengers, Kick Ass and now the best of them all: Marvel’s Runaways.

Well, after giving it a little thought I’m happy to say I’m not going through some third life crisis or anything and desperately want to relive my youth.   They just seem to be written really well.

So I finally picked up Runaways. Yes I’m late to the party and all of you who were reading it when it first started, you can be jealous of me, I crammed all thirty issues of volume one and two into a couple of days (days without internet of course).

What a trip, fortunately for me I knew nothing whatsoever about Runaways despite all the positive things I heard about it.   So every twist and turn was a complete surprise to me, every betrayal, death, romance etc all a complete surprise and I will not be giving any of it away here.

I just completely fell in love with the characters who are all such vivid and real kids.   I’ve since then read that they are working on the script for a movie, I have mixed emotions about this because I don’t know if anyone could step into those roles.

The first issue of Volume 3 went on sale the other day but I highly urge you to read Volumes One and Two.   The first one being my favourite.   Even though I’m a huge Joss Whedon fan I can’t say his turn at writing it in Vol 2 outshines the first series (apparently the hard covers are broken into three volumes..?).

Finally yes there is a dinosaur, it’s fine, it works.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Categories: Comics | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

What I’m reading: Young Avengers - Family Matters

June 18th, 2008

Cover of Young AvengersI completely missed this series when it first started, I only knew vaguely about the character Iron Lad, mainly because he appeared to be an alternative version of Iron Man.   Little did I know that there was a very enjoyable series featuring the next generation of heroes.   The Marvel equivalent of the Teen Titans I guess, I don’t like to compare the two companies off like that though.

I was only slightly intrigued when I saw this graphic novel at the library but the artwork looked crisp and I had encountered some of the characters throughout Civil War and now the Skrull invasion series currently happening.   The library is free (yay) so I took a very tiny chance on it.

Pretty happy I did.

Very well written scripts that invited me in despite not having read any of the earlier books, Iron Lad by this stage was already dead and being replaced with a new version of the Vision.   There is something wonderful about reading a book set before Civil War and Captain America is still seen as the leader of the Avengers.   Watching him show up on the doorstep of a teenager who is moonlighting as a super hero to speak with his parents is one of those subtle moments that make these books a joy to read.

Most of this falls down to excellent writing and it doesn’t surprise me that the writer is Allan Heinberg who has been a writer and producer on shows such as Party of Five, Sex and the City, Gilmore Girls, The O.C., and Grey’s Anatomy.

The Young AvengersThere is an interesting mix of characters in the Young Avengers and it goes a long way embracing diversity in the comic book world.   We have an openly gay couple who refreshingly are not over done, an African-American leader, a Wiccan, an alien, a robot/synthetic, twins, super powered characters, a non super powered character and a mixture of male and females.   It’s a wonderful melting pot.

The adult Avengers make an appearance or two and as I mentioned it is nice seeing Iron Man and Captain America as allies before Marvel did their best to make Stark a tool.

Head on down to your local library and try and get them to order this one in!   Or better still pop into the comic book shop and drop some cash on them - they might give you a copy in exchange for your shiny dollars.

I’m also finally reading the last instalment of the Tomorrow Series (I’m still dodging the saga of the seven suns - although I picked up a comic book prequel to it).

Popularity: 8% [?]

Categories: Comics | Tags: , , , , , | 8 Comments