Open Thread: Opinion on The Runaways from Marvel Comics

I’m going to do a video review of the Runaways (much like Linkara and Kazel5). Since I read some much good things about The Runaways. I asked my friends if they heard of the comic, but they never heard of it. But I want to see what people think of the comic book. i mean do you like it or hate it? What was it that drew you into this comic? Mind you before i do the Review i want to have some other opinions before I go online and make a fool out of myself. Thanks you taking time out to help me. (Note: I could of add a pic but my terminal is acting up)

 

looking to hear from ya.

49 thoughts on “Open Thread: Opinion on The Runaways from Marvel Comics”

  2. I do remember one blog entry I’d read discussing how they’d gotten rid of everyone who didn’t look good after volume 1, which meant that the fat, latino character, whom Spider-Man commented on saying that she’d grow up to be leader of the Avengers one day, was cut, because well, person of colour plus fat = wrong.

    • I thought she was Jewish.

      To add to that, there was a part where she is shown her future self as leader of the Avengers and surprise surprise, she became conventionally beautiful because fat people can never lead superteams.

  3. I can’t say much on Runaways currently. I liked it up until they killed Alex. It was a good story, but what it represented pissed me off so much that I quit reading it.

  4. I liked the crossovers they did with the Young Avengers and thought they complimented each other nicely. Runaways was like sister teen team to YA. Whereas YA is male dominated, Runaways was female dominated and you had POCs as the leaders of both teams.

    Xavin was the highlight of the team as she was a genderqueer (possibly trans?) alien who broke a lot of ground, and I was beyond pissed when they wrote her out.

    Overall Runaways is one of those series I can take or leave. I won’t be breaking my neck to grab issues, but if a plotline seems interesting, I’ll certainly check them out.

    • “I liked the crossovers they did with the Young Avengers and thought they complimented each other nicely. Runaways was like sister teen team to YA. Whereas YA is male dominated, Runaways was female dominated and you had POCs as the leaders of both teams.”

      Well as a personal note, quality(Motoko Kusanagi from Section 9) is better than quantity (Pick and Harem). I say that coming from an anime perspective (See Love Hina)

      Xavin was the highlight of the team as she was a genderqueer (possibly trans?) alien who broke a lot of ground, and I was beyond pissed when they wrote her out.

      (Cassandra Cain anyone?)

      “Overall Runaways is one of those series I can take or leave. I won’t be breaking my neck to grab issues, but if a plotline seems interesting, I’ll certainly check them out.”

      So It’s average.

      Wow not a good sign

  5. It’s a title with a track record of writing interesting non-straightwhite characters and then promptly killing them off or writing them out. No accident that Joss Whedon wrote an arc. Alex, Gert, Xavin — twice is coincidence but three is a nasty pattern.

    Spoilers below.

    Alex: Black dude who was secretly evil the whole time and turns on his friends to please Mommy and Daddy.
    Gert: Ethnically Jewish, agnostic fat girl. Regularly the most coherently intelligent of the bunch. Gets fridged so her white surfer-dude boyfriend can have angst and depth.
    Xavin: Shapeshifting alien who appeared as a forceful person of color, initially in dude form but psychologically ‘transitioned’ to womanhood (strongly linked to her falling in love with a lesbian; implying that her transition was easily done, by choice, and dependent upon another person. Ick.) Regularly the most coherently intelligent of the bunch. Willingly sacrifices all her freedom to go suffer in place of her white girlfriend.

    PATTERNS.

    Bonus:
    Nico: Japanese-American young woman, leader of the group. Story arcs usually center around her unrequited love for this or that team member. Gets her powers from cutting herself.

    • @:

      Xavin was the highlight of the team as she was a genderqueer (possibly trans?) alien who broke a lot of ground, and I was beyond pissed when they wrote her out.

      • Sorry about that I presse something else

        “Alex: Black dude who was secretly evil the whole time and turns on his friends to please Mommy and Daddy.”
        (A weak black characters, i noticed that too)

        “Gert: Ethnically Jewish, agnostic fat girl. Regularly the most coherently intelligent of the bunch. Gets fridged so her white surfer-dude boyfriend can have angst and depth”.
        (So they pulled a Green Latern thing)

        “Xavin: Shapeshifting alien who appeared as a forceful person of color, initially in dude form but psychologically ‘transitioned’ to womanhood (strongly linked to her falling in love with a lesbian; implying that her transition was easily done, by choice, and dependent upon another person. Ick.) Regularly the most coherently intelligent of the bunch. Willingly sacrifices all her freedom to go suffer in place of her white girlfriend.”

        (So a Queer POC is at the feet of her White girlfriend and she pulls a Vampire Diaries thing….Some might argue a The Power Of Love angle. Then they wrote her out…yeah.)

        PATTERNS.

        Bonus:
        Nico: Japanese-American young woman, leader of the group. Story arcs usually center around her unrequited love for this or that team member. Gets her powers from cutting herself.

        A goth cutting herself…Yeah as someone who use to belong in that culture that’s a stereotype.

        So according to what you and Neo have put out are some questionable things in regards to race, dang it’s not looking good for this comic.

        “I liked the crossovers they did with the Young Avengers and thought they complimented each other nicely. Runaways was like sister teen team to YA. Whereas YA is male dominated, Runaways was female dominated and you had POCs as the leaders of both teams.”

        Well as a personal note, quality(Motoko Kusanagi from Section 9) is better than quantity (Pick and Harem). I say that coming from an anime perspective (See Love Hina)

        Xavin was the highlight of the team as she was a genderqueer (possibly trans?) alien who broke a lot of ground, and I was beyond pissed when they wrote her out.

        (Cassandra Cain anyone?)

        “Overall Runaways is one of those series I can take or leave. I won’t be breaking my neck to grab issues, but if a plotline seems interesting, I’ll certainly check them out.”

        So It’s average.

        Wow not a good sign

    • People of Colour have a tendency to get written off, although I think Nico will be immune to it. Other than her, the only person of colour left is Victor who is an android with a latino appearance.

      I remember someone once mentioned that Nico being goth is basically a westernised version of a Japanese harajuku or visual kei girl. I never thought of it from that angle myself, since she’s the only East Asian goth character I know of. However, her outfits in the later books get sexier and sexier so maybe there is a bit of fetishization going on? I have however noted that her parents’ supervillian costumes were sterotypical ninja outfits. I know that shinobi have a reputation for practising magic but come on! She also is known for having kissed every boy to join the team and I’m not sure what to make of that.

      I still like her very much though. I like that she gets to be the leader and is more than competent in the role, which is not something you often see women of colour occupying.

      • “People of Colour have a tendency to get written off, although I think Nico will be immune to it. Other than her, the only person of colour left is Victor who is an android with a latino appearance.”

        Didn’t he stayed back in time or something?

        “I remember someone once mentioned that Nico being goth is basically a westernised version of a Japanese harajuku or visual kei girl. I never thought of it from that angle myself, since she’s the only East Asian goth character I know of. However, her outfits in the later books get sexier and sexier so maybe there is a bit of fetishization going on? I have however noted that her parents’ supervillian costumes were sterotypical ninja outfits. I know that shinobi have a reputation for practising magic but come on! She also is known for having kissed every boy to join the team and I’m not sure what to make of that.”

        Since you mentioned that i remember during the Runaways run that the Kei fashion was in boom in the United States…As far as the character it reminds me of some Full Metal jacket….that she needs a boy to function.. I think that it’s the writers projection of what a dark girl should be like. I mean like it’s like a fetish…but I’ll save that for in my video.

        “I still like her very much though. I like that she gets to be the leader and is more than competent in the role, which is not something you often see women of colour occupying.”

        True, But I like it without the writers fetishizing women. Good example is Major Motoko Kusangi. Although she did wear a one piece bathing suit in the first season of Stand Alone Complex. As he character developed that she has become less and less eye candy. Also he didn’t need a romance (Although hinted at the end of 2nd gig) to complete her character. Plus she wasn’t a Major for nothing, she was respected. Not much I can say for some of the Female heroes.

        • Damn! How did I miss the “dark girls need cock to function” trope? Also, maybe I’m reading too much into it, but maybe she is also meant to be a Magical Girl? The Staff of One look kind of Magic Girl-y and put that together with her outfits…

          I probably should give Ghost in the Shell another chance. I liked everything about it, except Major Kusangi’s outfit. It’s just… Well, I’m not buying it if someone tells me it’s a sex positivity thing.

          • Damn! How did I miss the “dark girls need cock to function” trope? Also, maybe I’m reading too much into it, but maybe she is also meant to be a Magical Girl? The Staff of One look kind of Magic Girl-y and put that together with her outfits…

            Yeah, that why I struggled when I knew it was white writers doing this comic. .

            “I probably should give Ghost in the Shell another chance. I liked everything about it, except Major Kusangi’s outfit. It’s just… Well, I’m not buying it if someone tells me it’s a sex positivity thing.”

            The movie wasn’t suppose to be eye candy, in fact you suppose to look at the Major as a person. (in terms of the puppet master, it was voice by a woman in the Japanese version. So you know wherer Osshii was going with that)

    • Sexuality wise, there are only two queers if I remember correctly. They were Xavin and… I forgot her name. I’ll just call her Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. She’s a lesbian and had a relationship with Xavin. They were supposed to get married, or maybe they already did but I can’t remember. Then Xavin got written off to protect LSD, who by the way takes the human form of a blond white girl. Before Xavin joined, LSD spent some time pining after Nico. Yeah, everybody loves Nico.

      Storywise, I personally found it quite charming if I ignore the problems but that’s just me. I cannot not love the fact that it’s a girl-dominant team and it’s just so funny to see Molly giving Wolverine lots of trouble. I could do with less Nico pining after guys though. It’s getting rather repetitive.

      • “Sexuality wise, there are only two queers if I remember correctly. They were Xavin and… I forgot her name. I’ll just call her Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. She’s a lesbian and had a relationship with Xavin. They were supposed to get married, or maybe they already did but I can’t remember. Then Xavin got written off to protect LSD, who by the way takes the human form of a blond white girl. Before Xavin joined, LSD spent some time pining after Nico. Yeah, everybody loves Nico.”

        Her name Karolina. It seems that they are painting Nico in a certain light similar to Full Metal jacket. (If you seen the movie you’ll know what i mean

        “Storywise, I personally found it quite charming if I ignore the problems but that’s just me. I cannot not love the fact that it’s a girl-dominant team and it’s just so funny to see Molly giving Wolverine lots of trouble. I could do with less Nico pining after guys though. It’s getting rather repetitive.”

        Interms of Story i did find it very cheesy teen drama. I mean that in the first volume that the kids came off as spoiled brats. The parents Esspecially The Wilders came off as stereotypes, I mean in the Pride backstory I did find it problematic…Like all of the couples were doing something special, but the Wilders were just thugs. Even when the children grew up. It sounded like something from New Jack City. (Yes sucessful black people are dealing in drugs and stealing. Even if they are villians I find it problematic). Ok lets say they were thieves, I’ll make them like Cat burglers much like Ocean’s Eleven. But I find it as a gulity pleasure.

        As for the role of the characters, I think that they should have been revised:’
        Like Alex although it didn’t have powers, he should of been more like in vain of selfmade and not relying on the approval of his Parents. Also I don’t think that he should of been the mole and stayed on the team. Even if he did backstabbed them..it should of been a Batman Gambit and was trying to save them. Mind you the reason why I find it problematic because outside of Nick Fury, Blade, Bishop, and Black Pather. there is not alot of positive black male role models. Even DC took out Static Shock. With the media demonizing black people especially black males (God help them if they are Homosexual), it would of been good to see Alex as a young black male in a more positive light, instead of being a villain and backstabbing his friends for the sake of his evil parents.

        Nico: I do find it problematic that they made her not pinning after dudes and just stayed with Alex. Like it’s nice to see an interracial relationship that don;t involve with a white person. (Trust me it is very uncommon that you have a non-white interracial relationship in any medium). Similar to Peter Parker and Mary Jane without OMD. Even if that angle didn’t work out instead of pulling a Fullmetal Jacket on her..They should of did without it.

        Koralina and Xavin: I don’t find it problematic..except that they writen Xavin off (maybe cause she was black). Also I do find it funny that some Male writer can write a Homosexual Female not write male one and vice versa.

        Well that’s all I have to say before I do the review.

        Now feel free to talk more about it…I’ll love to hear more about The Runaways.

        • I actually don’t have much to add to it. I agree with you.

          I didn’t read the books in order so I kept hoping that Alex betrayed them to save them but when I finally got hold of that volume, I was disappointed. I also remember being confused about what the Wilders had to offer to the Pride. They got scientists, sorcerors, aliens, mutants, and time travellers but the black ones just had to be thugs? Couldn’t they be… I don’t know, cyborgs? Or if they are supposed to be the badass normal part of the supervillain puzzle, why not be secret agents or assassins? What use could thugs provide to the group? Why, it’s almost like someone said “Oh shit, we need a black person! Hurry, write in some gangsters! No wait, that’s too racist. Let’s take it down half a notch and have them be bank robbers. That’s like gangsters but not really.”

          Also, only Nick Fury is the only one in that list anywhere near prominent right now. Even so, I don’t think he’s getting a lot of screentime in the upcoming Avengers movie. I was hoping very much for a Black Panther movie before the Avengers, ever since the word “vibranium” was uttered in Captain America. Is the Black Panther cartoon getting a second season?

          Back to Runaways, you’re right that it’s basically just a teen drama with superpowers. I read it mainly because I like Nico a lot, despite the problems we’ve mentioned. I’ve always wanted an East Asian goth girl superhero and the Runaways is the only one I know which offered. Then I started liking Molly and Gert.

          Ableist language is used quite frequently. Also, there may or may not have been an instance or several where “gay” was used in the depressingly common fashion of attributing badness. Don’t take my word for it. I haven’t read the books for a long time.

          As for Karolina and Xavin, I thought they had a perfectly loving relationship. Too bad it resorted to the same old “POC dies/suffers for white person”. I remember Neo-Prodigy having made a post or comment somewhere about male writers being able to write homosexual women generally better than homosexual men, and that it was because male writers think “Well, they like ladies and kick arse. That’s just like our straight guy heroes.” Even so, the general isn’t that general.

          The more I think about the Runaways, the more I’m convinced that the writers didn’t really give much thought besides “It’s got girl power.” Some may say it’s Whedon-esque, but I have only seen four or five episodes of Firefly so I don’t know how apt the term is.

  9. I do belive that the Runaways was a good book. Like it did had two black people in it and a asian girl as the leader. Shouldn’t that be enough

    • Oh sure, we should all be thankful for having not one but two black people in it although they were never in the team at the same time so you only get one black person in the team at any one time because it would otherwise lead to too much blackness and we can’t have that. Actually, there’s too much blackness even if there’s only one black person in the team so it is to be expected they get killed/written off.

      I’m also very grateful that I finally get to see an Asian girl being a leader and I will gleefully ignore that she is given certain characteristics which recalls the fetishising of Japanese women by white men.

    • I totally agree as a black man. I think they did well. And I loved the character of Alex.

  10. Zie is genderqueer, and Runaways #22 makes this pretty dang clear*. Karolina’s treatment of Xavin’s gender identity borders on the abusive. She makes her distaste clear constantly whenever Xavin assumes zir male form, even if zie’s just chilling in the lounge, chatting with Molly. She basically demands that zie acts exactly the way she wants, presents zir gender exactly the way she wants, etc.

    Combined with Joss Whedon’s binarist retcon later on and… yeah.

    * I suppose that conversation *could* be read as Xavin being a cisman who presents as a woman in order to be with his chosen partner, but that just makes everything else even worse. It should be clear, however, that there is no way to read Xavin as a transwoman based on #22.

    • Fuck I rearranged/deleted some stuff before posting and wound up using the pronoun before the noun. All uses of “zie” is for Xavin, naturally.

      • In #22, it’s made more-or-less explicit that Xavin is not a woman. Molly asks “wouldn’t it be nicer if you were a woman all the time?” and Xavin basically goes “wouldn’t it be nicer if you weren’t a mutant, or Karolina was straight? Please accept me for who I am.”

        Then, just a little bit later, in #29, Xavin and Karolina fight a bit and Xavin winds up assuming zir black woman form, whereupon Molly asks “that makes this the real you, right?” and Xavin says “I didn’t realize that was in doubt.” The rest of the dialogue and situation makes it very clear that everyone (well, Molly and Karolina) is interpreting this as Xavin being a woman, and Xavin doesn’t correct them or anything.

          • That’s my more-or-less preferred obtuse misinterpretation to maintain my precious canon, but it’s almost certainly not the one the author intended (especially with the “I didn’t realize that was in doubt” line… yes you fucking did). Even if it was, it’s the purposeful abandonment of zir gender identity to please zir partner (and a gender identity which is already established as being fairly important to the character), which is absolutely toxic.

            Xavin changed to please Karolina way back in the second issue zie appeared in. And the way zie responded to Molly talking about zir gender identity the first time was a frank dialogue (also she didn’t say much of anything in #29). It’s a retcon.

    • What happened in #22? I need a memory refresher. Either that or I’ve missed it.

      Also, point there for Karolina’s disdain for Xavin taking male forms. Between that and Xavin suffering for white girl Karolina’s sake, their relationship is starting to look more problematic.

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