Review:

I'd like to start off by saying that I am swimming outside of my element by reviewing, not to mention reading, this comic book in the first place; the extent of my experience reading Marvel Comics has been the first two issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, which I was quick to love thanks to Toby Maguire. Many years later, after much growth in insightfulness and a genuine lack of bias towards the storyline, I find myself curled up on my bed holding Marvel's Runaways and finding myself incapable of not comparing it to the Japanese comics style--or rather contrasting it.

In all fairness, this comic is a good one in its own right, mostly for its very concept: youth culture versus adult culture. It deals with the whole idea of a new generation trying to atone for the sins of the fathers (and mothers) through a very appropriate allegory. The colors were a tad too bright and lively for my taste, especially since they seemed to clash with the plot, but a full-color comic was a very nice change from the constant bombardments of black and white. I would suggest to Brian Reber (the colorist) to use colors as atmospheric devices rather than simply coloring by the book. This comic could definitely do well to learn or thing or too from our buddies over in Japan to be honest.

Action scenes--action scenes...must be...impactful. The ones in this comic were pretty static. Japanese Remedy: Add in some motion lines, some rythm, maybe even some more exageration--otherwise a punch to the face just looks like a playful smoosh.

The majority of the perspectives were variations of the black-box view--very 1910s silent film. Japanese Remedy: mix it up a little--experiment with different angles.

Every. Panel. Was. Rectangular. No overlaps. Japanese Remedy: Again, mix it up. Add a sense of motion and flow to your plot and scenarios.

I won't go into the lack of pragmatism in the characters' attitudes and their black-and-white conceptions of good versus evil because I have already written that off as both a Marvel standard and an American standard. I will point out that their immediacy in turning against their parents was borderline McArthy-esque. Japanese Remedy: None. Culture will be culture.

This critiquing format was not only used to contrast American techniques with Japanese techniques, but also to help anyone else who might have been going about their comics in the Marvel way and was looking for a change of pace. Either way, I found Runaways to be quite enjoyable. Sources tell me that volume one is supposedly the worst of them all--I certainly hope so since I get to borrow volume two on Tuesday (and it's way longer than volume one).