PRIDE & JOY

After completing the Link collection, I decided to jump to some comics as a transition to the next book. I turned to one of the trades I'd picked up in Columbus, Runaways Vol. 1: Pride & Joy. What drew me to it was its creator and writer, Brian K. Vaughan. I am a definite fan of his two current creator-owned ongoing series, Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina, and thought I'd finally get around to his book set within the Marvel Universe.

This trade is presented in a digest format, whereas the comic itself is published at the normal size. I'd read some complaints from fans about that choice but it doesn't bother me in the least. I like the digest format. That could stem from when I was a kid and DC Comics used to publish digests with new material and reprints. Plus, it's cute.

The story deals with six kids who discover something awful about their parents - they are super-villains. That's the whole of it really. We get the setup, the discovery, what the kids decide to do about it, more discoveries they make along the way, and a resolution to that setup. It's the origin of the group. Their personalities are varied and I like the various relationships that Vaughan sets up to explore. It's a fun book and I've always thought there's something to be said for that, especially in a super-hero comic.

The art by Adrian Alphona is solid stuff. I really like some of his poses and storytelling and some of it doesn't work quite as well but I think that's to be expected with a young artist. He is outdone by the covers included - a portait of each of the six kids (one per issue collected) by Joyce Chen. Knockout work.

I was definitely satisfied with this collection and I plan on picking up the rest of the trades; there are two more that collect the remainder of volume one of the series and one so far of the currently running second volume of the series (on the shelves of comics shops now!). Worth a look if you like an entertaining book about would-be super-heroes who also happen to be teenagers.