Ryan Donovan's Blog

Candid Kandor: Thoughts on "New Krypton"

Sorry I haven’t been blogging very much lately. The library has been busy, and there hasn’t been much time with the whole “writing for fun thing.” But that’s just an excuse. And I promised long ago that I would stop making excuses. The truth is I’ve been playing way too much Star Trek Online and working on Pretty Little Recaps in my off-work time.

One thing I have been doing is reading up on The Man of Steel for a major annotated library blog I’d like to do at one point, so I have been reading comics on a regular basis again (or as regular as I get).

Over the past few weeks, I finished the New Krypton series. I didn’t realize Superman stories could engage me so much, or that this one would in particular, but I actually really liked it. The premise is this- Brainiac, who has appeared in the Superman cannon many times and in many forms (many of his non-Lex Luthor villains have this problem: they don’t just stick to the one thing) returns to Earth and starts some trouble. Superman stands up to him, but finds a much more physically opposing Brainiac than he’s used to. This happens in Superman: Brainiac. You find out Brainiac essentially never leaves his ship (or the information he’s obsessed with collecting), he sends out “probes” to collect it and bring it back to him - hence the many different Brainiacs that Superman has fought over the years.

But the real deal comes to Earth to f#$@ up humanity. And Superman has a tough time defeating him. But defeat him he does, and in the process, he reclaims the bottle city of Kandor. The shrunken capital city of his dead world.
This is something of a hot button issue in Superman comics. In the 1986 John Byrne reboot (which I still have yet to read- dear DC Comics - why is this not ALWAYS in print? Why do you hate me?), an effort was made to make Superman the true last Kryptonian in existence. It’s one of the main reasons Supergirl died on Crisis on Infinite Earths and the Phantom Zone villains weren’t dealt with for many years after. Superman is less special if there are many Supermen flying around... right? Well, Supergirl is back, and too many people love seeing “Kneel before Zod!” in print to get rid of those Phantom Zone baddies, so that reboot has pretty much been retconned.

The idea behind the bottle city is: Brainiac managed to capture the advanced capital city of Krypton, shrink it down, and then had it as part of a crazy collection of other cities- preserving specimens and knowledge for him for all time. It’s a little creepy, and I prefer the animated Superman Corey Burton - type character that was Kryptonian in design and simply annihilated cultures after he took what he needed. No bottles. Bottle free, really. But this comic Superman we are dealing with here loved his bottle cities. Following his defeat, Superman gets Kandor back.

The story takes a weird twist when he manages to get it back to normal size.

In the arctic, there are suddenly thousands of active Kryptonians living on our planet. Predictably, our government isn’t happy with this. Weirder still, the new leaders of Kandor (or ‘New Krypton’ as the eventually call it) are Supergirl’s parents, which make them related to Superman- they are his aunt and uncle. And let me just tell you guys, Superman’s aunt is a real bitch in this story. She does not like human beings and definitely does not like sharing the planet with us.

The 4-part series does have holes; when Superman returns to Earth to go get an escaped Kryptonian villain, we never actually see it. It must have happened in a monthly Superman title that wasn’t part of the limited series. Zod is written as an interesting character, mainly because he’s basically policing all these people with powers and even Superman can agree- he’s kind of the best person for this job. It does get kind of nuts- they ‘reverse engineer’ Brainiac tech to make their own planet, which then has an opposite orbit to Earth- what? But the shades of grey that Superman has to deal with, as well as his unabashed joy at having a life with ‘his people’ he thought lost forever- are interesting.

Favorite Spider-Man Story - "Lifetheft"

With the release of the new Amazing Spider-Man movie, I’ve been thinking about one of my favorite storylines that ran through Amazing Spider-Man when I was in middle school. You might even call this my first monthly book since, in one of those door-to-door subscription offers, I had it shipped monthly to my house for over a year (my corner store also carried Classic X-Men which I bought on a regular basis and I read and bought any current issue of Uncanny X-Men I could get my hands on, but these were never super consistent as Amazing Spider-Man).

The first storyline I think I ever received ran just before the Clone Saga, so I think people might not remember it as fondly as I do. The issue featured the classic Spider-Man villain The Vulture. Adrian Toomes sounds much more like a villain from The X-Files than a credible threat for the wallcrawler. The fun of this story is: it kind of addresses that. Sure, Toomes is smart and built himself a flying harness to do major acts of crime, but he’s old and his original harness gave him cancer. He starts the story in jail, using a makeshift harness of mostly spare radio parts to escape (kind of an awesome jailbreak scene, actually). His master plan? Pilfer the research of a scientist working out of ESU (Empire State University, where Peter Parker attends natch) who is working on a way to reverse the aging process. Toomes gets to be young again, but more importantly cure his fatal cancer as well.
This sets the scene. Spider-Man intervenes when The Vulture attempts to steal the tech, but as you may have guessed... Adrian is able to sap Spider-Man’s youth and feels even more powerful because he just chowed down on a superhuman. There’s even a cute scene where elderly Peter Parker (who deals with some real “what the hell will I do if I’m stuck this way?”esque dilemmas in just a few short panels) meets his already-supposed-to-be old Aunt May. It’s cute. But the effects turn out to be temporary, so Vulture needs to try to track down Spider-Man again for seconds.

While all this nonsense is happening, Aunt May has been having Peter’s resurfaced parents investigated. This is what brings The Amazing Spider-Man movie to mind since the film also deals with Peter’s estranged parents who you surprisingly hear very little about. In the comics, they were presumed dead, but they popped back up in Amazing Spider-Man during the nineties, where their efforts to establish a relationship with a now-adult son they never knew becomes a fairly cute emotional backstory for our hero. But when they mess up an anniversary date and get a few other things wrong in conversations with May, she suspects they might be imposters. She shares this with Peter who dismisses her as a crazy old lady who is going senile.

Then he abruptly tells his parents he’s Spider-Man.
This is a comic book story, so of course May is right. His parents are indeed not his actual parents, who did in fact die like the original story says. But Peter’s in kind of a fragile place after spending the better part of an afternoon as one of the elderly, and with May possibly losing his marbles, his parents were one of the few support systems he had left. So, it’s legitimately tragic when we discover the parents are actually sophisticated synthetic automations created by The Chameleon to infiltrate Parker’s life. Think T-1000 from Terminator 2. I think it might have made more sense to have had them as criminals who had been altered to look like his parents, but we want a big Spider-Man fight in the end so we have to make them superpowered baddies, right?

But there were two of them. Peter’s fake mom, although a machine, has bonded with her “son.” Revealing his secret identity to her legitimately touched her, and despite her partner’s insistence that they report to The Chameleon with what they have learned, keeps stalling. Peter, swayed by May not dropping the fact the ‘rents are lying, finally follows them... right when they are reporting to one of his deadliest foes. Oh, and The Chameleon followed the whole Vulture debacle that was going on, so he decides to team up with him and try to find a perma-solution to that whole “live cancer free and be young forever” thing.
Peter dispatches The Chameleon’s hired goons, fights The Vulture again, then faces off with his dad who becomes a goopy kill machine. Maintaining half his dad’s face, Peter predictably has trouble fighting him. “Dad” gains the upper hand, but just as he is about to deliver the killing blow, “Mom” steps in and electrocutes the f@# out of him. As she moves in to apologize to Peter, Vulture grabs her and sucks out her artificial “youth.” As she dies, she tells Peter she loves him, and he basically goes batshit crazy with grief. The Vuture is nabbed by the cops in the end, and Peter remarks how he now seems artificial himself, unable to respond or react in a human way to the world around him. His blank, black eyes are awesome.

Chameleon gets away. Spider-Man follows him in the 4-issue “Pursuit” storyline, that ran in each of the four Spider-Man titles at the time (self-titled, Amazing, Spectacular, and Web of, respectively). As a fun ending, you learn Harry Osborn, the second Green Goblin who had been dead for a number of years, set the whole thing up before he died just to mess with Peter’s head. He leaves a video for his old friend to find, basically saying “Now you know what it was like when you killed my dad.” The video then repeats “Gotcha” a bunch of times while showing the Goblin’s face on a bunch of monitors. Super creepy, but effective, and probably my favorite Spider-Man story (arc?) of all time.

"Lifetheft" ran through Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) # 386 through # 388.

Teen Titans @ the Beach

From Teen Titans #10

"Teen Wolf" Season 1 Recap

I wanted to like Teen Wolf . On paper, the idea sounded good: take the campy '80s
But, jokes aside, the main problem with Wolf is its star, the admittedly adorable It’s not all horrible, though, so let’s take a bit of time to focus on the good. We’ll get back to the much, much bad later. One saving grace of the show is the adorkable
And since I’m on a roll with things I like, let’s talk about my two other favorite characters, who HAFTA be Jackson and Lydia.
Lydia, though... well she might be my favorite. She’s a plucky little thing, and the show is kind of smart to relegate her in the background most of the time. She’s Jackson’s popular girlfriend, but she’s also opportunistic, and at one point sort of sluts out and starts making out with Scott in one of the show’s most fun and unrealistic moments. She keeps up with Jackson, who as the show’s resident dick, is often not very nice to her. Their pairing, the two popular kids in a relationship of convenience, is one of the show’s more surprisingly realistic elements for me. I knew kids like that in high school, and I suspect you did, too. They’re dating, but when you spend 5 minutes in their company, you wonder if they even like each other. Lydia also has A Secret, and it turns out to be maybe lame for you but I got into it: She’s really smart, but hides it to be popular. And anyone smart and pretty will know (just caught myself looking in the mirror), you sometimes have to dumb yourself down to fit in. Lydia’s intelligence is brought up intermittadly throughout the show, never in a super overt way, and it’s an element that kind of works for me. I can believe Lydia is smart and weirdly ashamed of that a lot more than I can believe Scott is a werewolf. The show never switches focus to Lydia as it does to Jackson, and Jackson is much more magnetic maybe, but I like their scenes of snark together. Lydia also kind of has something crazy and ill-defined supernatural style happen to her at the end, and that crazy Carrie like scene of her in the hospital gave me the appropriate Stephen King chills it was supposed to. I’m excited for Lydia in Season 2.

Am I making this show sound good? Let’s get back to some of its more shitty elements then. First up, Derek Hale. Where do Abercrombie models go after they outlived their usefulness? One shows up on Teen Wolf, with No Acting Skills Whatsoever. At least that half smile thing Posey does gets you on his side as he stumbles through an episode, but Derek is one of the worst characters I’ve ever seen on a genre show (and there are A LOT of just bad examples). His presence just often makes no sense. He shows up to “help” Scott in his transition (which, you know, he’s already a werewolf, so... these Mr. Miyagi moments tend to make little sense to me), but then provides little to no information that would be useful. Scott even often outright asks him why he’s being vague, and Derek predictably doesn’t give him an answer. But there’s No. Reason. When we learn more about the Hale family, there’s also no real reason for this. We kind of know Derek didn’t kill his family, but he’s not interesting us enough for us to care about him or his dead loved ones. He shows up, takes his shirt off, and proves to everyone he works out the most. He’s the creepy uncle, and there’s an odd rapist-like vibe in his scenes with Scott that often make me uncomfortable. Posey looks good acting off him, because who wouldn’t? The real tragedy of the first season is that it didn’t end with Derek’s death. It should of, to release him and THE REST OF US from his curse.


Notes

Scott's girlfriend is named "Allison Argent" and played by actress . Yup, I still don't care.For fans of The Vampire Diaries, it was both weird and wonderful seeing Tyler Lockwood's parents as one of Jackson's and Lydia's parents, respectively. I feel like that was some sort of inside joke, since Tyler (played by ) is TVD's resident werewolf.On second thought, I wish this was just a Tyler Lockwood spinoff. I probably qualitatively compare Teen Wolf to The Vampire Diaries without realizing it, and that's not fair. Teen Wolf is so baaaaaaaaaad.Dylan O'Brien was apparently discovered via YouTube, a fact I read then promptly forgot. I never tracked down any of his videos. They're probably all down now, but damn. I would like to watch those.

Watch "Young Justice"

Have you been watching it? It's Teen Titans 2.0. But I still like Teen Titans (don't get me wrong).



In this clip, wait for Batman to show up at 1:02. Even Starro controlled, he's totally awesome.

What's Your Issue? Spotlight on Teen Titans #7

I’m starting to have problems remembering what actually happens after I read issue of Teen Titans. There’s very little forward motion. I’m not sure that’s a problem, since the artwork and characterization are two things I enjoy more than the actual plot. But I can see why this might not be everybody’s favorite comic book.

That said, this issue did have a real clear point. If you also read issues of Superboy (and you know I do!), he was captured at the end of his last issue by N.O.W.H.E.R.E. Which, despite being a “nefarious organization” is also … super not fun to type. I hope the Titans stomp them out soon! But I’m getting ahead of myself. So Superboy is captured, and we see Wonder Girl at the end of that issue breaking in to rescue him. This issue fleshes out that revelation, with Tim (ahem) I mean, Red Robin convincing the rest of the team to go in after him. Only everyone remembers two issues back when he tried to kill all of them. Even Skitter who doesn’t have a normal brain isn’t in a big rush to leap to action. So Tim is all, well... I’m going anyway. See you jerks later. Then everybody feels bad and follows him. Putting aside the ridiculousness of that situation, it does give it a distinct teen feel to this book. Tim is obviously the one in charge who’s got his crap together. Why wouldn’t the rest of them go wherever he goes?
So they break into the base. In an odd timing issue, Wonder Girl (don’t call her that!) has already fought Ravager which... how? How can the end of a Superboy issue point to a Titans issue which points to the next Superboy issue having happened already? Oh damn. Just give myself a massive headache. Moving on. Rose Wilson is defeated. Now Cassie is fighting some dude with parasitic tendrils coming out the back of him. It’s super gross.

Bunker, with Skitter his new BFF in tow, back up Kid Flash with the actual rescuing of Superboy. He’s initially pretty confused about why the team he tried to kill is attempting to free him, but after awhile he just decides to go with it. And who wouldn’t? When a nefarious organization is hellbent on killing you, and then a team of teen heroes you tried to kill saves you, it’s time to saddle up and get the hell out of dodge.

The real interesting part comes when Red Robin, who has sequestered himself from the others, breaks into the mainframe and begins downloading information on other teen superheroes. Solstice appears and immediately recognizes that Tim knew a lot more about what was going on in the facility- including that kids were being tortured and experimented on- then the rest of the team realized. Tim takes a very “Batman” approach to it, explaining that in order to get to this point sacrifices had to be made, yadda yadda yadda. Solstice calls him on his crap; saving lives should have been his primary focus. The fact that it wasn’t, and that she has been left in this weird crackly floating form is a testament to his intense Not Caring. It’s a short number of panels, but both characters kind of make their point. You also realize that while a lot of the other characters act like kids, Red Robin and Solstice are the arguably most mature members of the team. It’s also nice to see some conflict on a philosophical level. More of this, please.

I'm pretty happy with Teen Titans. I'm a little miffed that the penciler might be changing soon, but I'll reserve judgement until it happens. Definitely pick this issue up if you get the chance.

What's Your Issue? Spotlight on X-Factor #233

We're back to Peter David's X-Factor this week. Honestly!? This issue kind of exemplifies why I always champion X-Factor as one of my favorite comics. They can change things up in an organic, interesting way and somehow make me not only like it, but like it even more.

After Jamie Madrox is resurrected after his night of 1,000 deaths, him and Layla Miller embrace in a way that might make you blush. That was last issue. In this issue? It becomes apparent that Layla has become Jamie's new slam piece. And no, there's no nicer way I could have put that. As Madrox often does, he's having a whole internal debate about how wrong the whole thing was and blah, blah, blah. Jamie has been attracted to Layla ever since he went to the future and she was older babe. He needs to get over himself about this, and finally deal with his gross emotional problems. To her credit, Layla is having kind of the same thoughts re: regret. But she's a little bit more honest here, admits the whole Guido-no soul thing, and ... yeah, I'll admit it. I kind of want them to get together. And let's give it up to Peter David who somehow made me feel not icky about that. It's weird how Layla is becoming my favorite.

Where's the team? Madrox asks. This is when Layla alludes to a change in leadership.
Then, suddenly! It's like an X-Factor book from 1995. Except, for some reason, Shatterstar is now on the team. Which? ... Awesome. Thanks for answering those fan letters with editorial decisions, Marvel. I didn't actually write any fan letters but, man, now I wish I did. I would have been vindicated here. What makes this book a fun throwback? Val Cooper is directing the team to a terrorist situation (I'm guessing somewhere in the Bible belt? I could look it up, but lazzzzzy!). Havok is now team leader, directing everybody to be their best. Creepy Dollhouse voice, "I try to be my best!" The initial plan is a good one; use Theresa's modulating voice to soothe the terrorists into dropping their weapons. The one catch? She's never really tried it on groups of people before, especially groups as large as this one. I like exploring the dynamic of their powers. It's fun.

But their plan works. People start dropping their weapons. But, one of the terrorists is deaf. In order for Theresa's voice to control you, you need to be able to hear it. I also liked that terrorists in comics too can be handicapable. He gets some people to snap out of it (it's not real mind control, so it is intensely easy to shrug off her voice I guess), and the team launches into action. Rictor gets to use his powers in a fun moment. Rahne is wolfing out and going after stragglers. The real fun comes when someone sets off a bomb, then Havok has Monet launch it into the air, and then he detonates it with a plasma burst. When the terrorists try to shoot the team up in protest, Lorna appears and stops all the bullets. Cool.

There's a brief discussion between Val and Havok with some of the other team members chiming in about Madrox. Havok seems much less of a jerkface than he used to be and kind of misses his old multiple buddy. But I think Alex needs to remember than Jamie didn't talk for a long time then seemingly died from the Legacy Virus. The Multiple Man of the 2000's is much more chatty, and I feel like they might butt heads. All of this is speculation; this issue is just to present not only a fun action sequence, but that the team can function without Jamie's leadership at the helm of someone else. I mean, readers could have guessed that before now (Jamie has been absent before), but it's quite another thing to see it actually happening. Can't wait for the next issue though.

What's Your Issue? Spotlight on Superboy #7

I have something kind of dirty to admit this week... I actually kind of enjoyed reading “Superboy.” When I read the initial solicitations, I had a feeling like it might play out this way. I also think since this might be the only time such an event happens, I should probably review this issue.

When last we left The Superboy, he was barreling his way to a secret N.O.W.H.E.R.E. facility. He beat the snot out of the new combined forces of the Teen Titans, then confronted Rose Wilson and a bunch of the agents on his way to deliver a smackdown to his current handlers slash creators. Why it has suddenly occurred to him to attack the evil organization, I can’t tell you. I think it would have been a better idea to trash the place when you first woke up or when you’re red headed doctor hottie became super strong and went berserk. But I guess The Superboy isn’t very bright. Or we can blame it on his newly cloned brain still learning how things work. I don’t really know (or care?) but Superboy’s motivations should be clearly established so we as readers can get behind him. It’s pretty hard to relate to a character who seems very resistant to establishing emotional connections and has no clearly established purpose. I feel a little bit like I’m reading about a teenage version of The Hulk who hasn’t turned green yet.

I’m getting off topic. Let’s talk about The Superboy’s progress. He’s finally inside the facility now. The director of security guy - he reminds me a lot of The Guardian from Project Cadmus from the “Death of Superman” era - tries to stop him with a crapload of security dudes. They have guns that can down a tank (really!? Because even in comic book terms, I kind of don’t believe them) and they have the element of surprise. They blast him, but Superboy tosses them around like ragdolls anyway. It’s interesting to note that he gets hurt here. He also doesn’t immediately recover; it seems to really have a negative impact on him. There’s also this really strange moment where reality shifts, I guess because another character is in N.O.W.H.E.R.E. either manipulating the enviornment or altering The Superboy’s perceptions. Still, it’s a weird few panels that don’t really go with the rest of the issues. Dear editors at DC Comics: If you’re not going to show this character who is doing this thing or explain why he’s doing, I don’t really care.

Superboy gets to a mainframe or power reactor or something that will cause mass amounts of damage. He makes a comment that he wants to get their attention. Um, done? Isn’t he where they direct a large amount of their resources to? I would guess making him cost the organization lots of money. They are probably following his activities pretty damn closely. Anyway, this is where Rose Wilson reemerges. You get the general sense that despite her not having flashy powers, she’s going to kick the snot out of Superboy. And she does. And it is righteous. She manages to distract him long enough for him to lower his automatic defenses; he basically keeps up a telekinetic shield most of them to deflect most attacks slash make him mostly invulnerable. During the fight, he drops that, Rose guesses he does, then throws a FRIGGING SWORD RIGHT THROUGH HIM! Superboy doesn’t even have time to quip. She killed you, dude.

But being a title that hasn’t been cancelled yet, he doesn’t die. N.O.W.H.E.R.E. scientists manage to revive him. They trap him in this wacky contraption that limits his telekinetic powers. He becomes conscious and they don’t realize it yet. I think they talk about killing or dissecting him? I got distracted at the end, because the Titans fight... it’s not over? There’s a certain girl with a golden lasso who just broke into the complex for a rematch. EXCITING!

The art flows much better in this issue. It looks a little less cartoonish, and I’m not a fan of the sort of Anime-like portrayal Superboy and some of the other characters have been getting in certain moments. The edges are just a little too soft sometimes, especially on all the characters faces. But action sequences are the thing I complain about the least in Superboy since it started, and this issue is just zip boom pop with action sequences. I’ve been like the title a lot more since Superboy went up against the Titans, so I’m glad the books are being tied into each other more.

In other news, I didn’t buy Wolverine and the X-Men this week. I am going to be cheap and not spend the extra dollar for nothing. I’m going to officially wait for trades now. I might start picking up Batwoman again. If you’re a fan, please talk me into it in the comments below.

March Comics Roundup

I have a few odds and ends that are worth highlighting this month. Here goes.

Fans of my Goodreads page will note that the Salem Press Graphic Novel encyclopedia I contributed to is out next month. If you are a library and have money or are independently wealthy, feel free to purchase the book here. I'm excited it's finally out. It's also worth noting that DC Comics just tweeted about a Flashpoint giveaway that you can view here. Enter to Win. You know I just did.

This month I read both Wolverine & Jubilee and vol. 2 of Gotham City Sirens (the latter which I bought at Bergen Street Comics - I finally visited!). I recommend both books, and will probably be providing extended reviews of both of them for my new gig on Graphic Novel Reporter reviewing things that I read. You can read my first review on the special edition of Oni Press' Courtney Crumrin here.

If you don't think I update my blog enough, be sure to check me out on Yelp. I've been catching up on my back log lately. While I still don't review a place every day, I've been updating my reviews a lot more there. I hope to eventually get down to the Midtown Comics in NYC's financial district soon since I still have yet to go. I have a cool list of NYC comic shops you can read about there.

Wednesday also means 'new comic day.' Here's the issues I bought for this week:

What's Your Issue? Avengers Academy #27

Full disclosure: Actually. Let's take a minute after that statement. Every time I blog lately I feel like I'm revealing some sort of seedy insight into my comic buying habits. You guys might soon know me better than I know myself...

The only thing I was going to admit, re: above "full disclosure" is that I'm not a regular reader of Avengers Academy. I've heard good things about it, but with Young Avengers and every other attempt to modernize the Avengers team and turn it into a franchise? No thanks. I know Marvel has a big movie planned, and yes... Joss Whedon is writing it so I'm super excited. But the idea of creating a bunch of kiddie Avengers has been done several times in the past few years with generally disasterous results. And by that I mean boring! I'd rather have a comic that takes place in an alternate reality where all the Avengers are kids again ala that one rad Star Trek: TNG episode. Oh wait noIwouldn't because honestly I hatestorieslikethatsomuch!

Anyhoo, it's gotten a few good reviews on Comic Book Resources (I recommend their reviews section if you are mulling over buying a title, as I often do. Again with the buying habits!). I know that it's gotten a little bit of press for having gay characters in it, but again... if they're characters I don't really know or care about, there's not much sense in reading the stories. I picked up this issue as probably most people did, because a lil' old team called The Runaways happen to be guest starring. Recently, they popped up in the Daken comic. I think that they are now reduced to being guest stars in books that need them to boost sales. Despite this being a very clear sales gimmick, I'm game. I love them, and I'll read whatever they are in. Well played, Marvel.
So let's not even really talk about the kids from Avengers. Except maybe Julie Power, who is Lightspeed, who is also noticeable for being in an early arc of The Runaways when pretty much every editor in Marvel forgot about her. There's also an updated Power Pack comic I think, so I'm not sure why Julie is old if the Power Pack is still around. Anyway, she's clearly my favorite out of that group, and is pretty well featured in this particular issue. So there's that. Julie wants to help this kid who just came out as gay, but he holds a press conference to announce it to the world for publicity. Julie tries to tell him that this is a bad idea, that he can't discover who he really is in the spotlight, but the kid is kind of a jerk and shrugs her off as being lame. I'm more on Julie's side for this argument, but only just barely.

Nico is casting a spell among the press conference attendees to cloak her team. We discover that this is because Chase's mental link with Old Lace has returned, despite the dinosaur dying at the end of the last (and horrible!) Runaways arc. Also, the fact that Chase is alive and not in a coma or anything is weird, but in the Daken issues they make a reference to him getting hit by a car and then he "got better." I guess it's as good a reason as any to undo a crappy plot move. The Runaways being the Runaways, they of course somehow end up in a fight that they pretty much start winning. Bonus points to Victor who manages to control a Sentinel that's after him, 'cause yeah! he can do that! Sentinels on campus must have already been explained.

Henry Pym and Tigra are there, I guess as like den mothers? And they are together? Whatever. As the teams sort of socialize and get to know each other (with generally cute results. Who doesn't want Karolina to start dating again!?), the adults note that Molly and Klara are like, really young. They decide they are going to take them away. Which, um... didn't the Avengers also already try that? For one of the smartest guys in the universe, Pym is pretty dense here. The kids will probably run away, and Molly has kind of proven to be better off with the other kids than without them. And Klara? Is from like 100 years ago. They should focus more on getting back to her proper time, not to new foster parents. Her last parental situation turned out to be an indentured marriage, which... ew. I'm sure she's not in a rush to repeat that.

Despite the convoluted nature of the storyline, I like that this story gets Old Lace back on the team. It keeps the story of her death, but Nico sends her to a place where she's restored miraculously. Yeah, I guess that could happen. Magic and all. As the Daken story undid Chase's apparent demise, it's nice that the editors are undoing everything that was just a horrible decision by the writers-who-didn't-know-what-they-were-doing in the final arc. It hardly feels like The Runaways without Old Lace, and using the Avengers member with a connection to prehistoric things was a nice way to tie them into the book. I'll obviously pick up the book next month to see how this mini-arc plays out, but it's hardly worth shelling out money every month for a title with characters who don't seem too interesting.