Monthly comics are dead. (Long live monthly comics.) That is, the market has shifted away from serial fiction and toward the graphic novel. Of course, comics aren't any less serial-- the trade paperback is made up of monthlies after all -- but the way one thinks about comics as a whole has changed. It's not the issues anymore; it's the entire package.
At Panel by Panel, we discuss story arcs that are slated to be put in TB form and review them as a whole. What's the point of doing it otherwise? Would you want chapter by chapter review of "Bleak House" or "Tales of the City"? A review of each 20 minutes of Pulp Fiction? Forget it. Comics are about storytelling, and stories are meant to be judged on their whole, not the sum of their parts.
Each Tuesday, you can look forward to a conversation about a new, whole story. Mostly we'll stick to recently or soon-to-be published TBs -- but we may dip into the occasional classic. We'll also announce what we're going to review for the upcoming week in case you want to play along at home.
Hope you have as much fun as we do,
The Management
10/10/2003
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
Conversation Logged on Oct. 5th, 2003
This Week's Discussion: Runaways 1-6
Runaways Overview
Prune: So, momentarily dodging the question of why do this at all, let's talk about why we're discussing this.
Nectarine: I was wondering.
Prune: The short answer is that it's very good. I discovered it more or less at random -- picking up the Sentinel/Runaways promotional book entirely on a whim. But from there I was hooked. I chose 1-6 to discuss because they're all going to be bound together for the upcoming TB. Did you like it?
Nectarine: It's excellent. To me, it was one of those series that really demanded to be read. It reminded me of being in middle school and wanting to stay up all night reading some book I had uncovered in the library.
Prune: It has a "you-have-got-to-read-this" quality to it.
Nectarine: Yes. The six issues together seem like one of those middle school discoveries -- and in some ways reminiscent of the better teen sci-fi/fantasy fiction in general.
Prune: A sort of discovering a secret world.
Nectarine: Right. Something that an author has already thought through and created. The discovery really makes me, as a reader, excited. It's the concept that sticks, too. While the art is excellent and memorable, it comes down to the writing. The act of world creation. Runaways takes place in a very realized place.
Prune: Marvel has a really great commodity here-- this could be the next Harry Potter, except that no one knows about it yet. But I could see where people could have the same kind of enthusiasm for it.
Problems & Specifics
Prune: What do you think about the initial hook, Nectarine? Kids discover that their parents are evil super villains-- too over the top for you?
Nectarine: Not at all. The series convinces me, thanks to the writing. The first issue in many ways is the finest. You can extrapolate the rest of the books from it. Not that you would want to, but it's possible. The sheer audacity of the premise is laid out.
Prune: The first two together are certainly quite strong. Funny how the six issues just roll together, too, isn't it? It's as if it’s intended to be read in one sitting.
Nectarine: It's very much a piece, seemingly written for the trade. However, I found that the pace slowed as we moved into learning about the kids and their powers. The narrative becomes more of an excuse to move them around so we can learn about them.
Prune: I don't know how I felt about the kids getting superpowers. In some ways, the book doesn't really need it, although that's obviously the intent from the get go. Isn't it enough that their parents are evil super villains? That's plenty high concept for me.
Nectarine: While we might want the series to play a bit more straightforwardly, this is still a Marvel book, and one seemingly intended for young readers. Thus a certain amount of obviousness may be expected.
Prune: Is it for young readers, though? Let's return to that topic later. For now, superpowers.
Nectarine: However you feel about them, the discovery of the superpowers was well handled, I think. The reactions all seem realistic. Whatever "realistic" means in this context.
Prune: I don't know. I feel like it plays out a lot better for some characters than others. Karolina being rainbow-colored and from another planet, I'm still not so sure about. But I very much liked Gertrude's dinosaur. It seemed kind of sweet, and presented her character pretty adeptly. She presents herself as this jaded observer, but she has a very child-like connection with her pet. It was sweet, and indicative of the kind of contrasts that adolescence can produce.
Nectarine: I thought Karolina's powers were so out there they worked. In both the cases of Karolina and Molly we saw a parallel drawn with the maturing that's going on at this time in their lives and the acquisition of superpowers. Because these things are coming from deep within them, and they're not something the girls can control.
Prune: That's a very interesting idea.
Nectarine: For Chase and Gertrude, we have powers that come from the outside, and therefore more deux ex machina.
Prune: It reminds me of a comment I made months ago about New Mutants. We always think about comic book readers as being either older or the same age as the characters they read about. But for kids who are pre-teens, teen-agers with magic powers are, in some weird way, not that odd. In that teen-agers seem so much larger than life anyway to kids. And that the first time you kiss a girl or get your period, well, that's about as far away to you as flying. Karolina and Molly are kind of a representation of that, you're right.
Nectarine: So many things change that the addition of superpowers becomes just another thing. It's like -- well, hair is growing in bizarre places and I can fly. Ho-hum. Another shitty day.
Prune: Yes, I really liked the matter-of-factness everyone has to discovering their superpowers. It’s kind of the antithesis to the usual superhero discovery shot. Instead of solving their problems or empowering them, it's just yet another shitty complicated thing to add to their lives.
Nectarine: Superpowers are like that because the main discovery of the series is the true identity of the parents. Everything after that is gravy. Tasty and otherwise.
Prune: The one exception to that is Karolina's flight scene-- but even it is handled with a sly eye to adolescence. After Karolina flies, Gertrude asks, "What was it like?"-- much in the same way one might ask about that other notable adolescent first experience. I thought it was very sharp.
Nectarine: It all comes down to sex, of course. That's the tension between all people of this age. It permeates the comic, too. Although, you're right, it's all dealt with in a sly and subtle way. Similar to Harry Potter in that respect, really.
Prune: Moving down the list of superpowers, Chase's was practically dashed off -- utterly unimportant, which I was fine with. But Nico and Alex are really interesting to me. Alex is the real revelation so let's save him for last.
Nectarine: Nico's powers aren't particularly explained. I think Vaughan has some plans to deal with that further. She seems to be dealing with something ancient and mystic. (In Chase's case, the dashed off-ness makes sense. He's a very brusque and crude kinda guy. It would make sense his power is a set of powerful gloves.)
Prune: But of everyone, somehow, Nico picking up a magic staff and casting spells seems curiously the most natural. Why is that? Is it some strange racism on my part? Or perhaps that she's a goth. At any rate, I found her to be the least jarring character, regarding her sudden super-poweredness.
Nectarine: I think it's the goth aspect. She seems like someone who would absorb a staff to the chest.
Prune: Yes, it's very easy to imagine a goth casting spells. She's the uber-Wiccan. A wonderful character, wonderful archetype to have in a book like this.
Nectarine: She's definitely set as the female equivalent to Alex. Who is fascinating in this regard.
Prune: Well, let's talk about Alex, shall we? I know that you're a stranger to comic books, relatively, where I read them a great deal in my childhood. And let me tell you, Marvel does not have a great history with African-American characters.
Nectarine: What comics house does?
Prune: But Alex is the main character of this book. He's the leader. He's not some brother with superpowers defending the ghetto (like so many of his predecessors.)
Nectarine: And remember, Alex's father is the leader of the Pride, too.
Prune: Two black leaders in one Marvel book?
Nectarine: Alex is unquestionably the leader and is black. And it's not a big deal. Just as it wouldn't be a big deal for any group of kids that age. The simple realization of that fact is refreshing. It also makes the book seem much less mainstream, in a bizarre way.
Prune: Something that really raised my eyebrows at the beginning (and let me know we were reading a different kind of book) was when Alex complains to his parents that Chase (a white character) is always calling him, for some reason, brother. In an earlier book it would be Alex talking that way, and not a single (white) reader would notice or complain. Here, that old white reader is actually being made fun of.
Nectarine: Chase does fit the role of oblivious white guy pretty well.
Prune: Indeed. And constrast that to Alex who (unlike Luke Cage, and Black Lightning, and The Black Panther) has no superpowers! He's just smart. That's his power. Worldviews are being shattered!
Nectarine: He doesn't take a superhero name, either. Just being himself is enough.
Prune: It's funny, this book has so many well-drawn realized characters-- it really says something that Alex is still the one you identify with. I wondered for quite a bit if Brian K. Vaughan, the writer, was African American (I know, a racist assumption, on my part. And fueled by a picture of him on the internet in B&W that makes it impossible to guess his race.) I eventually learned that he's yet another white guy. But what was remarkable to me, though, was how much in question his race could be. I mean, no one, and I mean NO ONE could possibly think that Chris Claremont was black. :-)
Nectarine: To me, the most impressive aspect is that race doesn't matter. That's what it comes down to. The problem with Black Panther, et. al, is that their race defines them as characters and heroes. This comic as a whole deals with issues of race and gender quite impressively. The girls in the comic, for instance, are just as well-drawn of characters as the boys.
Prune: Yes, very true. All black heroes up to this point have been set up in opposition to a white world. Not so here. It's fuckin' unbelievable, at least for a comic book.
Nectarine: The way it feels to be a teenager, at least in my recollection, is that the whole world is against you anyway. Doesn't matter what your race is or anything.
Prune: So says the white guy. But yeah, the isolation of adolescence overriding any other concerns is obviously a premise the series was built on -- taking the idea of the X-men and the New Mutants and pushing it a little further.
Nectarine: Technically, I'm browned peach in color.
Prune: Whatever. Clearly we both love the writing, then.
Nectarine: I hate it. I've just been playing along.
Prune: Actually, the more I think about it, the more impressed with it I am. Often it works the other way around, doesn't it?
Nectarine: It makes me wonder how developed this concept was before work proper on the book started. It seems as though it's very thoroughly conceptualized
Prune: I'm guessing very developed, again in an interview I read with Vaughan, he talks about his dream being more creator-owned projects. This feels like a creator-owned piece, though it's obviously Marvel's.
Nectarine: I agree.
Prune: But what do you like least about it? Obviously, we are still both a bit shaky with the superpowers, although I have confidence in Vaughan to pull it off.
Nectarine: As I said, I think the story loses a bit of momentum in the last few issues. I suspect it won't be noticeable in the trade.
Prune: Anything you wanted to say about the art? We've gone on endlessly about the writing.
Nectarine: The art makes it come alive. Characters actually look different. It moves the book to a different level. It all rests on the foundation of the writing though, which is why we've gone on about it. I like the near-anime but not-actually-anime look. The coloring is vivid, and it all looks as though people have taken time to put together a worthwhile project.
Prune: True. I find it very interesting that this is in the (manga inspired) Tsunami line. Because it’s not that manga-y. (Mangy?) Compare it to something like Sentinel, for example.
Nectarine: It's not your everyday superhero book. It looks distinct. And I think that emphasizes its uniqueness. Unlike say, Sentinel, where you actively have to distance the writing from the art.
Prune: I appreciate the stylization of it. It really makes this feel like a thought-through and unique world.
Nectarine: I've mentioned this to you before, but it seems like a world that's separate from the marvel universe. Even though they take pains to place it within that.
Prune: They reference the Marvel world here and there, but at this point it feels very far away. If Spider-Man were to actually show up, I would choke on my coffee. Very strange that so many books in the Tsunami line (well, at least this and Sentinel) which are ostensibly for young readers, feature writing that is a hell of a lot better than most "adult" comics.
Nectarine: Right. Well, the “young readers” part ends up being more about the characters featured than the actual writing quality. Few mainstream comics have particularly challenging writing. The tendency is to spell everything out. Thus, a "teen" book and an "adult" one can't really have that much difference between them. Should the "teen" book be written in crayon?
Prune: Yes, this is a teen book much in the way Harry Potter or Spirited Away is a "kids" product. Which is to say, they are for the children in adults, maybe even more than for the children themselves.
Conclusion
Prune: We should wrap this up. This is my exit question, though you too, should pose a last question if you like. What should Marvel do to keep this book alive? Right now, it's languishing in sales, largely, I think, because it doesn't use pre-existing characters. (Although, curiously, there has been absolutely no suggestion on Marvel's part that the book is in danger. This could end up being the St. Elsewhere of comics.)
Nectarine: Push the trade paperback. Push it hard. Then promote as hard as they can for the next six issues. I think the trade is where the tide has to turn. It would be a one-time investment and really open up the world.
Prune: I agree. Get this book out of the Graphic Novel Ghetto, too, if you can, and put it in Young Adults. And in Coffee Shops-- complimentary copies for Starbucks! Let's put evil corporations to use!
Nectarine: My question for you. What happens next in the series? Broadly.
Prune: We'll obviously there's the question of the mole, which would seem to be the next storyline. One of the kids isn't ready to sell out their parents just yet, which is rather interesting. And, you know, while they did kill somebody, who's to say they’re that evil? I don't know I would sell out my parents like that. I would at least want more evil. It's not exactly clear just how evil the parents are. Maybe they are just pragmatic, you know?
Nectarine: Right. Maybe the "worthless husk" really was that. An interesting unanswered question. Alien-girl is my guess for the mole.
Prune: Karolina? I don't think so. She punched her mom in the face! I think that it's going to be Chase. While he has abusive parents, he also calls them saints.
Nectarine: Everyone says that. I disagree. He's dumb, but not stupid.
Prune: I don't know, it seems like a very good story. Nico is possibility as well, as is Gertrude. Gertrude actually seems to have nice parents! They gave her a present. They call her squirt. They seem like the least evil, or at the very least, the most affectionate.
Nectarine: Who knows. And the Pride itself seems far from stable. Super-Vs are notorious for turning on one another, after all
Prune: Multiple moles? In the world of the Runaways, the night is young. (Parental moles, I mean.)
Nectarine: Indeed. And this night is young, so I must be off. Delightful, as usual.
Prune: I as well. So next week I thought we would continue mucking about Tsunami and review issues 1-6 of Sentinel, also slated for a trade paperback soon. What do you think?
