4.5 stars This post contains spoilers from the original Runaways graphic novels.
When I found out that one of my favorite authors and favorite people to follow on Twitter, Rainbow Rowell was writing a continuation of the Runaways, a group of Marvel teens that find out their parents and super evil and murdering kids, I was very excited. I had only read the first 3 collected volumes, but Gert and Chase are one of my favorite couples of all time. I knew that Rainbow Rowell would follow the plot lines from the original Runaways series, but also put her new twist on things which I wanted to read.
I read the first two collected volumes of this series very quickly. The events that I didn’t know about are recapped in the beginning but they also assume you know the major plot points. The first one is about getting the band back together (even Gert), and the second volume continues their adventures. Except Gert is coming back from dying, so she’s the age she was when she died, and Chase has grown up. That really broke my heart, but Rainbow handles it in a lovely way. She’s also trying to come to grips with the fact that the person she was isn’t unique anymore. She colors her hair from her purple shade to a brown with soft curls, moving on from who she once was. She’s my favorite, and I’m pretty sure she’s Rainbow’s favorite too. (Unless it’s Victor, because Victor is awesome too.)
In other plots, Victor is just a head, and doesn’t want his new body. There’s several scenes where he’s on a Roomba and floating tied to balloons that are fun. Karolina breaks up with her girlfriend Julie Power and starts romancing Nico, who is still not thrilled with and exploring her powers from the Staff of One. There’s time travel, people getting rescued who don’t want to be rescued, and more humor with Old Lace, a giant dinosaur from the future. The first two of these seemed to have lower stakes from the originals, but that was fine. And then at the end of the second volume, a major character who was SUPER DEAD shows up all, “hey what’s up Nico.” End scene.