My first exposure to Brian Vaughan was the "Saga" series, after which I moved on to his work on "Y: The Last Man" and then to this series. I can recommend all three of them unreservedly.
I love the concept of Runaways: what would you do if you found that your parents were super-villains and you found out because you watched them (through a one-way mirror from a secret passage that you just discovered) murder an innocent young woman? Well, in Vaughan's Runaways series, six youngsters discover exactly that, as they find that their parents are members of "The Pride," a group of villains bent on domination and in almost complete control of the city of Los Angeles, with powers from magic, science, time travel, mutation, and another world.
As it happens, the kids have a few surprises up their sleeves as well, as they go exploring to find out everything they can about their parents and their activities. And in the course of a single night, they find themselves fighting for their very lives against their own parents. In the world that Vaughan has dreamed up, the only thing the kids can depend on is each other, as their parents use their complete control of the city to frame their own children for a crime they didn't commit, making it clear to the children that there will be no help from any other quarter. But even their allegiance to one another is called into question, as the parents find a note from one of their children...
Once you get past the unbelievability of the main premise (but, after all, is being bitten by a radioactive spider or becoming a God of Thunder really any more believable?), the story rings true, with dialog and situations that follow naturally, as events quickly explode well beyond what the kids would have thought possible just 24 hours earlier, and the kids search for some sort of sanity, some clue that would allow them to make sense of their whole world turning upside down literally overnight.
Vaughan takes his time with this one, not providing too much exposition or too many explanations (i.e., we don't find out how the Pride formed in this volume, nor just what the source or extent of their powers are). The story starts off quite slowly, as the kids meet up when their parents come together for their annual ritual. But once it explodes into action, it really explodes, and doesn't stop until the last page of the book.
The artwork by Adrian Alphona complements the story well. It's a bit cartoony or, as another reviewer put it, "manga-influenced," with very fluid facial expressions, in particular, and with somewhat muted colors throughout, but it really shows the full range of emotions that the youths experience throughout this first set of events.
It's an intriguing concept and Vaughan makes the most of it, creating characters and situations that I really want to know more about. I can't wait to see where he's going with this and I can heartily recommend this series.
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Top reviews from other countries
Soobie Mennym
Bad art but the story seems interesting
Reviewed in Italy on September 12, 2015
