Brian K. Vaughan leaving Runaways at issue #24.

[Darthphere]

Sorry if theres a thread already, but its on Marvel.com

http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.613

 

[Doc Destruction]

I hope someone competent takes the reigns. Big shoes to fill.

 

[KingOfDreams]

Noooooooooooooooooo!

 

[Darthphere]

Alphona is leaving too.

 

[Doc Destruction]

Whoa. Be a whole new book, then.

 

[KingOfDreams]

Alphona is leaving too.

I repeat...

Noooooooooooooooooo!

 

[Darthphere]

New Runaways Creative Team to Be Revealed at Baltimore Summit!

Brian K. Vaughan to Leave Runaways With Issue #24

The Runaways recently lost one of their own when a teammate died in Runaways #18 and now they're about to lose two more members of the family as writer and co-creator Brian K. Vaughan is leaving the title with issue #24 along with co-creator and penciler Adrian Alphona. Vaughan's run on the Runaways will span 42 issues, in that time accumulating a rapid fan base as well as a wealth of critical praise, winning several awards.

Starting in 2002, Vaughan and Alphona took the concept of teenagers learning that their parents are actually super villains and ran with it. Entertainment Weekly named Runways Vol.1 HC to its Must List and the America Library Association named it to the Top Ten list for Best Books for Young Adults for 2006. Wizard Magazine even named Runaways "the best original concept from Marvel in thirty years." Now Vaughan and Alphona are leaving the kids they created to others as Runaways will continue on with a new creative team with issue #25.

Vaughan and Alphona's run on the Runaways with help from artists Takeshi Miyazawa, and Mike Norton will be remembered as one of the best in recent Marvel history. Everyone at Marvel and all of the devoted Runaways fans wish Vaughan and Alphona the best with the same sendoff given at the end of each issue's letters page - keep running.

But this is NOT the end of the Runaways…let the speculation begin now…who will be the new creative team on Runaways! The answer will be revealed to retailers at the Baltimore Summit in one week.

.

 

[Dread]

I repeat...

Noooooooooooooooooo!

I second that notion.

I mean, man, talk about a kick in the teeth. True, every great character franchise has had their creators leave eventually. And Zeb Wells' YA/RUNAWAYS shows that there ARE Marvel writers who can write the team competantly.

That said, Vaughan was not only their co-creator (alongside Alphona), but if #24 is his last issue, that means his run would span 42 (43 if you count that FREE COMIC BOOK DAY thingie) issues, notable in this day and age and leaving some very hefty shoes to fill. Not only that, but he was able to build these characters from the ground up with great plots that knew how to twist and turn, even for us jaded fans.

I wonder why he's leaving? Too many books at once (he already writes EX MACHINA and Y THE LAST MAN for DC, and used to juggle in ULTIMATE X-MEN too). He's set up for DR. STRANGE this year, but it's really a shame to lose him and Alphona here. RUNAWAYS was a title I could always rely upon month in and month out regardless of how good, bad, or mediocre a lot of other Marvel comics are. The next writer will have some heavy shoes to fill, and without being the creator, won't have as much "legitimacy" with the audience (that is, if BKV kills off Gert, you can respect it as he created her, but if a new writer had done it, the MB's would be aflames!).

I hope Vaughan's not leaving because of the low sales of the book, as with MTU and THE THING gone, RUNAWAYS is officially Marvel's poorest selling ongoing title (SPIDER-GIRL is being relaunched as AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL, so you can't count that either). I guess if he felt his creative well for the title was dry, then that's his own decision to make.

Man, talk about bad news. Guess I'll have to enjoy his last issues even more now.

I'll miss Alphona's art, too, but if Norton returned, that'd be sweet. It's the writing chops that are the main draw.

Unfortunately, without BKV and Alphona, this could end up being the final straw for the title if it's mishandled in new hands. It already sells in the Low 80's-90's of the Top 100 and losing any readers because of the move could be dire.

 

[Darthphere]

I was thinking, if you start thinking about it, Y:The Last Man is coming to an end in the next year, Ex Machina has a set ending as well, now hes leaving Runaways, his only real obligation is to finish off Ex machina and do the 6 issue Doc Starnge mini and theres really nothing else if they dont put him on another title. It leads me to believe it might be a case of losing a writer to Hollywood. Hes writing scripts for Ex Machina and Y The Last Man and you know Hollywood is starving for new fresh ideas, which Vaughan is able to provide on a constant basis. I just hope its not the case.

 

[Darthphere]

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=83023

BRIAN K. VAUGHAN, ADRIAN ALPHONA LEAVE RUNAWAYS WITH #24
At his forum creator Brian K Vaughan has posted newsa that has caught fans of Runaways off guard:

There will be a more in-depth article about this soon, but it sounds like Marvel.com is posting an announcement today, and I wanted you guys to hear it first. Anyway, I'm not one for burying the lead, so...

After working together on the series for more than four years, Adrian Alphona and I will be leaving Runaways with Issue #24.

And no, this is absolutely not because of creative differences. I love editor Nick Lowe like a kid brother, and Joe Quesada and everone at Marvel have obviously been nothing short of insanely supportive of our little book since the first page of the first issue.

This was entirely my idea. While Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina have planned endings, I've always said that I hoped Runaways would last forever, long after I left the series. I never wanted Runaways to become a vanity book that was dependent on its original creators' involvement; I wanted our kids to be able to eventually run away from us, and find new life apart from their "parents."

I can say with a great deal of confidence that these next five issues are the pinnacle of the series, and Adrian and I decided that the best thing for the Runaways would be to hand them off to new creators on this high note, rather than risk overstaying our welcome until we ran ourselves--and the book--into the ground.

I love these characters more than you can possibly imagine, and I swear I wouldn't abandon them unless I knew for a fact that they were going to end up with the very best creative team possible. Marvel will be announcing that new team in about a week, and to say that you guys will be thrilled is probably an understatement.

As for Adrian and me, we've already started talking about possible new projects to work on together. I'd really like to take time to give birth to a few more creator-owned books, and I hope you Runners will follow us wherever we end up next.

No one thought Runaways would last six months, but after nearly forty issues and a few Eisner nominations, our sales are still going up (especially with the digest collections in bookstores), making our series one of the most successful comics starring all-new characters to be launched by any major company in recent memory. I'm extremely proud of the entire Runaways team, some of whom will definitely be sticking with our kids, and I'm so grateful to all the undyingly loyal readers out there, the best group of friends a comic book could hope for.

Keep running,
BKV

Look for an interview with Vaughan about his departure shortly here on Newsarama.

 

[Dread]

I was thinking, if you start thinking about it, Y:The Last Man is coming to an end in the next year, Ex Machina has a set ending as well, now hes leaving Runaways, his only real obligation is to finish off Ex machina and do the 6 issue Doc Starnge mini and theres really nothing else if they dont put him on another title. It leads me to believe it might be a case of losing a writer to Hollywood. Hes writing scripts for Ex Machina and Y The Last Man and you know Hollywood is starving for new fresh ideas, which Vaughan is able to provide on a constant basis. I just hope its not the case.

That's also possible.

I mean BVK will finish out the year on the title, but my biggest fear is that without the creators on the title, that means the Big, Bad, Anything for a Cheap Dollar Editorial Board will come in and the book's direct and creative team is at it's mercy. And from experience, what Marvel does when a creator leaves a title is that they don't look for a writer whose pitch matches the style, heart, and soul of the piece and whose vision won't be a total abomination.

They do one of two things:

1). Attach any slack-jawed yokel as a "try out book", which is a sure sign the book will be canned in 6 issues or less.

2). Write down all of their top draw, A-List, "people would pay $3.99 to buy a sheet of paper with their name on it" writers on a dart board, let one fly, and there you go. Whether this A-Lister has any competant idea how to do the characters and franchise properly is all the luck of the draw as they're only there to insert dollars from their fanbase, like when Wolverine suddenly joins your team.

Sorry if I sound bitter, but Marvel has a track record of attaching the wrong people with the wrong visions to too many of their projects, especially projects with titles that ain't exactly sellin' in the Top 50, or aren't part of some X-Men/Spidey/Avenger stuff.

Objectively, a no-brainer solution would be to see YA/RUNAWAYS as Zeb Well's pitch to take over for the ongoing title, or at least as his shot to show that he can write the characters okay. But that makes too much sense. Won't happen. I'll call it now. If I'm wrong I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Nice to know that BKV chose to leave the book and he wasn't forced. Glad he's so upbeat about it. I'm not. Marvel doesn't handle D-List selling titles well. They butcher them, ruin them, and then scrap them for years to limbo until they need a quick, cheap death in a big event book. I mean we have people thanking Bendis for killing off Alpha Flight because for some reason, no one in Marvel can find a way to create hype or a proper motive for a comic without bloodshed. And then they turn around and wonder why fanboys have gotten more "miserable" and aggressive. You reap what you sow.

 

[Darthphere]

Millar and Hitch will be doing Runaways.



I kid, I kid.

 

[Dread]

Millar and Hitch will be doing Runaways.



I kid, I kid.

I could so see that, and I could so see Joe Q on some internet article breathlessly telling us about how it would be the Second Coming, denying that it'd be late with arrogant one-liners, and then 7 months down the line when we've only gotten two issues, he'll throw in some ghetto Yiddish slang and go, "Quitcher whining, quality takes time and it reads better in trade, look at WATCHMAN or DKR, no one remembers how late they were, blah blah blah". But you have 22,000+ readers on a book monthly, or more, and completely dismissing their frustration by bringing up the "waiting for trade" arguement just makes them feel like idiots. And the irony is if the entire direct audience played that game, if we all waited for the trade, than the entire industry would collapse and the arrogant fart would only have himself to blame.

I mean, I could be wrong. Maybe they end up attaching a hot writer to the book that fits. Maybe they attach a writer who proves himself worthy and takes the book in bold new directions and makes it flow. I mean, Vaughan himself hopped onto Ultimate X-Men after 30+ issues of Millar and a year of Bendis and he just turned that book on it's ear and left it a far stronger book than it had been, so much so that Kirkman can coast and keep it afloat.

I hope to be wrong. I hope Marvel's grand solution won't be, "hand it to JMS (or insert any A-list writer in his place) and tell 'im to go hog wild" or something. Because that'd just show a complete lack of effort, and RUNAWAYS deserves better.

I'm sure someone could go, "but putting on a 'generic A-list writer' shows confidence and effort", but that misses the point. When a writer goes A-list, their worst drivel will sell in the Top 10 or Top 35. Look at all the sub-par issues of something written by JMS, Bendis, Millar or even Brubaker (DEADLY GENESIS was no prize to me) that through namepower or hype alone will sell like gangbusters, even if the issue itself doesn't deserve to. Much like the Superbowl is always the most hyped football match with the most money and viewer draw, but the quality of the game itself varies from year to year. A bad game or a great game, it still does it's job, it rakes in the dough. That is the strength and dilemma of the "Dream Team" writers.

 

[yenaled]

I wouldn't mind Zeb Wells taking over.

Except, that would hardly improve sales and I'm sure that would be one step towards Marvel cancelling the title.

BKV's name is a big enough name to keep the title running even with not amazing sales without him i can see the book being in trouble.

 

[Darthphere]

Im just thinking of any Marvel exclusive writers and artists that dont have a title yet.

 

[deathshead2]

Well to me this book is official canncelled. I give it 7 issues with the new team before it is.

 

[hippy fascist]

Noooooooooooooooooo!

I have nothing more to say...

 

[KingOfDreams]

Im just thinking of any Marvel exclusive writers and artists that dont have a title yet.

Slott? Well, he does have She-Hulk.

 

[Anubis]

Man, this sucks

 

[OtepApe]

Oh S**T!

I wasn't expecting this. Man, this really sucks. I suppose another team could do really well on the title. But still, it's Vaughan, the guy writes gold. I don't think I have ever been so pissed at a team leaving a title more then this.

S**T!

 

[hippy fascist]

If they give it to bendis I'll execute every mother ****ing last one of them

 

[deathshead2]

BKV say screw you hollywood don't join them stay with us the comics are where there at STAY!

 

[Dread]

I wouldn't mind Zeb Wells taking over.

Except, that would hardly improve sales and I'm sure that would be one step towards Marvel cancelling the title.

BKV's name is a big enough name to keep the title running even with not amazing sales without him i can see the book being in trouble.

Exactly. Zeb Wells at this point, barring any last minute climax disasters in YA/RUNAWAYS (and trust me, that's possible) has proved he could at least write the characters competantly enough, and would be the no-brainer choice. But as you said, he wouldn't bring readers (although YA/RUNAWAYS is selling within the Top 35 or so, about what the YA ongoing sold under Heinberg) and BKV's draw is likely keeping the book within the Top 100 to begin with. I can easily forsee Marvel's editorial psuedo "geniuses" going, "Now's our chance to REALLY jazz up the book" and end up bringing in some A-List, "relies on hype and shock value" writer to insert another 10, 20,000 readers or more, and the heck with what he does to the book. I mean, that's basically what happened to birth NEW AVENGERS.

I could be wrong. I just fear I'm not. Pessimism is often more realistic than optimism, and leaves you with fewer disappointments.

Least we have another 5 issues. I'll enjoy them well. And regardless of who gets the book's writing reigns, I'll give them a fair shot.

 

[The Dude]

This is sad news. I can only hope that a good team comes on board. BKV says that the team is good but I'll have to wait a week and see.

 

[Dread]

This is sad news. I can only hope that a good team comes on board. BKV says that the team is good but I'll have to wait a week and see.

With no offense to BKV (his letter was a great read, and as I've said, #24 will finish out 2006 at least), whenever writers leave a book that they're beloved for, they never badmouth the folks stepping in. No matter who they are and what they do to their beloved characters. It's professional courtesy. Like how no actor, no producer, no director, will make a commercial or appear on a nighttime talk show and say, "Oh, the movie is drivel but I made millions for it". No, every movie, from TITANIC to ISTAR is hailed as "the best movie of the year", and only after a few weeks when the box office draws are in does anyone get around to going, "oh, that blows".

Very few writers/creators in the industry badmouth one another, and when it is done it usually is in a playful manner, done more to amuse some of the readers methinks (like a charity fight between Rocky Balboa and Thunderlips from ROCKY 3). I've never read BKV badmouthing or engaging in the sort of aggressive "fan baiting" that Bendis, Millar and Joe Q make into a fine art (Marvel's Jedi Masters of Obnoxiousness when they get full on).

So, yeah, with all due respect to Vaughan, the fact that he endorses the next captain really is meaningless. They all do that, it's the rule of the game. You don't want to badmouth a newcomer to an established title, anyway. It's bad form. Even if warrented. It'd be industry suicide. People who are often too blunt for their own good in a profession usually pay the price economically. It's life.

Of course, for all I know, the next team could be good. So good that I eat some humble crow. It'd be the sweetest crow I've ever eaten. I just have a bad feeling here. A bottom 80 book like RUNAWAYS only needs the tiniest of misfires to slip into oblivion, unfortunately.