Broken Frontier

The Runaways complete their first crossover of the new season and even though they won, I don’t know if they’ll be asked back to NYC soon.

Having done the dirty work and found out who was responsible for Cloak’s being framed , the Runaways set out to take him out and go home. Meanwhile, Cloak and Molly have been confronted by Captain America, Iron Man, and Wolverine, as the New Avengers attempt to clean up the mess in their own way. So,not only have they done all the work to find out who the real villain is, they have to deal with the incompetence of the New Avengers, who have only served to get in the way. Good thing these guys have experience coming through even when there are distractions everywhere.

Brian Vaughan’s fun little group never stops smiling. He established and maintained a fantastic team dynamic, from Molly’s naïve and simplistic outlook to new teammate Victor’s complex history and apparent future. And now he’s even starting to tease his readers with some hints of possible love triangles. Subsequently, the dialogue in this book is up to its usual standards. The one-liners and snide comments will put a smile on anyone’s face. The only problem here is the pacing. For a book that includes an appearance by Marvel’s premier team, and marks the one year anniversary of the new season, it’s a little unfulfilling. Instead of standing up and making a statement about where the team is and how far they’ve come, it feels a lot more like “just another day in the life of.” Not bad by any means, but at some point it may be fair to start asking for more.

Adrian Alphona has been the perfect partner for Vaughan on his fun little trip. His clean line work and detailed designs have maintained a very solid look. The artwork is clear and never once will a reader have any confusion as to what they are seeing. His facial expressions work perfectly with Vaughan’s comedic aspects of the book. And he has maintained a nice widescreen storytelling style that has given the book a very standard yet distinct look. The only thing bad here is that the consistency in the artwork may lead to the lack of a real feeling of climax in the story.

Since their inception, the Runaways have been a very welcome addition to the Marvel family of heroes. This arc has shown them more than hold their own against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. But for some reason I’m still wondering if it could’ve been better.