Hmm, seems I have a few people agreeing with me here. It is a shame about RUNAWAYS, truly. I guess part of it's appeal, at least for me, was that it really felt like an indie book mixed into the 616 Marvel Universe. It acknowledged it, but not all the time, and only in a few guest shots. At least until CIVIL WAR. BKV had some more guest shots, but he would always kid and call them what they were (he once said that "East Coast/West Coast", which had the New Avengers appear, could have also been named "Selling Out"). The book struggled to surpass 25k per month during his run and did steep up in his final arc. The book's premise is both simple and complicated at the same time, and apparently not easy to duplicate.
Joss Whedon was a fan, and he wrote like one. The idea of the Runaways time traveling 100 years into the past isn't a bad one; yeah, a generic story, but they hadn't done it yet in the title. What didn't work was Joss' sometimes ropey depictions of the characters, mucking up the Nico/Victor relationship for little good reason, making Molly more annoying, and introducing a crap-ton of characters. While I liked that the pace was faster than AXM, he seemed to try to do too much in a way, and the characters become lost in a story about another time and dozens of new faces, including an obligatory new member with a single punchline. She's from the 19th century, and this is appalled at 21st century lingo and custom. That's funny for a while, but after another 6-10 issues worth, will get very old. Two-Gun Kid she ain't.
Much like AXM, it had some very good moments. In every issue I could easily find 1-3 scenes that were funny, or thrilling, or whatever. But a story is more than a series of moments strung together by obligation, and RUNAWAYS couldn't escape that.
And this isn't even getting into the horrible lateness (which, lest I get more ire, wasn't Whedon's fault). 14 months to get 6 issues sucks any momentum out of the story and sales dwindled because of it after a strong debut for Whedon.
But, as some people may have said, part of the issue is the series may have lasted long enough that the appeal of inexperienced, super-powered kids truly taking on the world loses some luster when they've been "running" for over 3 years in real time and have battled everything from super-villains to vampires to aliens to time-travelers, demons, criminals, mutants, and so on. The characters still have appeal and dynamics, but it just isn't the same. Not every franchise, I guess, can remain the same as it started in the Western "stories never end until they can't sell" manner of publishing.
Plus, when the RUNAWAYS emerged, "teen teams" had run a course and needed a fresh new update. As time went on, more of them emerged and they became lost in the shuffle.
Still, I am excited about a potential movie with Vaughan involved in the writing or production. It would be awesome to see a franchise from one of the Big Two actually make it to the bigger media in less than a decade. The only ones that have were usually Dark Horse properties.
I've made some rants about Heinberg & YA, and I don't feel like repeating them. The YA's sales for their mini are a shadow of what they were even 3 years ago. Stalling for Heinberg has extinguished the momentum of the franchise and now a relaunch of an ongoing might not last beyond a year. Still, I'd love to see it.
That's just so...tragic.
