Runaways (amazon)

I’d heard that Runaways was great, but it took me a bit of time to get around to reading it. I’ve read the first, third, and forth graphic novel collections and I think it is one of the most entertaining series being published by Marvel now.

Runaways builds on a feeling that I’m sure most teenagers have at some point, the idea that parents are evil. In this series a group of teenagers finds out that their parents are EVIL in a alarmingly literal sense! Alex is feeling put-upon because his parents are hosting an annual gathering of 5 couples who get together to fund-raise for charity. He is not happy when his parents drag him away from his computer and force him to entertain their friends’ children. Alex is the most cerebral of the group and he’s joined by California girl Karolina, Chase the jock, budding goth Nico, cranky Gert, and the obnoxious 12 year old Molly. While the kids are sitting around bored out of their minds, they decide to entertain themselves by spying on their parents. They end up discovering that instead of writing checks for charity, their parents are sitting around in freaky costumes having a super villian conference.

If your parents are members of a shadowy organization of super villians, you have a very good justification for teenage rebellion. The teens run away and struggle with how they might bring their parents to justice. In addition to the usual stress of being a teenager, some of the runaways discover super powers of their own. Runaways was named as one of the ALA 2006 Best Books for Young Adults. I hope that most public libraries have already added Runaways to their collection, but maybe ending up on the list will encourage people to purchase it if they haven’t already.