BKV is out, and Joss is in. He's long professed his love of the book, and now he's taking it over. Anyone else excited?

There's security camera footage of me jumping around like a maniac in my LCS when my guy told me. I'm absolutely fucking stoked.

So what is the concept of the Runaways? I've never read it before and might pick it up for Whedon.

I'm not familiar with Runaways either, though I'd probably buy it for Whedon also. Does this mean he's leaving Astonishing X-Men, or is he just adding another title to his "to do" list?

He is leaving Astonishing, but that's been on the cards for a while (Unstoppable kicks off in November). It was rumoured Mark Millar was offered the book (Astonishing, not Runaways), and declared an interest in John Byrne doing art, but Byrne refused to even consider it. It's possiblt there is an "A" List writer out there to do it though

From what I've seen, it's a group of teens who are all offspring of supervillains/mad scientists, etc. They all ran away and are now trying to make up for their parents' evil deeds. Thus, the "Runaways" name. I don't think any of the parents were established Marvel villains, though.

It's kind of quirky. They have a space ship. One gal has a big dinosaur for a pet.

The concept behind Runaways is good, perhaps I'll give it a try sometime.

It does sadden me that Whedon won't be writing the X-Men anymore though :(

SPOILER

































She's Dead. And Dead Means Dead. (That was the name of the arc and everything)

When is this starting? I haven't gotten a comic in quite a while (Had to choose between my comic habit and my music habit, and music won.) but this is definately something I want to check out. I read the first ark of Runaways in TPB form ages ago, but nothing since.

I should probably check out the story so far, huh?

Yes, yes he is. I assumed I had already started a thread ages ago about this, but he's on fr six issues (with an option for another six) starting in April, with Michael "New Excalibur" on art, in a bid to raise HIS profile.

Marvel hasn't really started the hype machine yet, assuming Whedon's name will sell alone, and they're probably right, but Whedon has said he's using the arc to have the Runaways (and you really should be reading the current stuff, because you might not recognise some of them) interact with the Marvel Universe proper.

In March, Marvel is putting out a book called "Runaways Saga" saying it's an interview (w.art) with Molly done by C.B. Cebulski, where she "explains" their history, drawn by a ton of artists, as an incentive for people to egt on board before the Whedon Train begins

I'm still sad that he's leaving Astonishing X-Men. Seriously, I don't want anyone else writing for Kitty/Colossus... ever again.

I read his first 12 issues of Astonishing then had to sacrifice it to the American Machine of "I don't make enough money". I actually need to pick up the hardcover of them, since my TPB's are so beat up. I'll pick up the rest of his run too.

And I'll check out the current Runaways stuff too. No good CD's coming out till Spring anyway.

Feh... I've read four of the early Runaway comics thanks to the flip magazines, and wasn't too impressed. Maybe it'll be better under new people, though.


As for the plot, from what I can tell, 6 kids, ranging from ages 11-16, figure out their parents are all members of some evil cult that does bad things after one of them witnesses a "sacrifice", and every adult in town either knows about it or doesn't believe them because they're kids, so no one can help them. As ES mentioned, the villains (the parents) are either very-rarely seen "villains" that I've never heard of, or created for this series.

I picked up the first three issues of "Young Avengers/Runaways" about a month ago. Wasn't terrible, but I had trouble keeping the Runaway kids straight. It's tough for me to remember someone without a flashy hero name.

I guess one of the kids is the "son of Ultron" (Is he new? The kid, not Ultron). So they have a connection to an established villain. Plus they had a Skrull kid (he got killed pretty good...but I got the sense he was a late arrival to the club).

That's my problem still: adapting to "unknown" characters. Especially when they're teenagers without flashy personas (or rip-off's of the established ones, like the Young Avengers).