What a striking cover. James Jean takes over as the cover artist here. The graphic elements really set it apart, it’s a very 21st Century image. This month, we begin with an orderly bringing Dagger flowers, and still in a coma, she begins to glow. At the church, Molly is using her comically super strength to carry some big boxes around, as Cloak apologizes for not helping, because he hasn’t slept since Dagger was attacked, and he’s exhausted. The priest suggests he get some rest.
Well, that seems ominous. But we have a particular interest here.
Oh, he does know he’s Ultron’s, got it.
Wacky banter! Meanwhile, Chase and Nico are in pretty dire straits until Chase plays the ultimate bluff and says they’re there on behalf of the Pride, their parents’ evil organization. He says they faked their deaths, and are now using their kids as soldiers, because they can’t go to jail if they’re minors. Thinking on his feet, he manages to manipulate the Pusher Man into giving them the name of the person he sold the drug to who impersonated Cloak, and they get out without a scratch. After some teenage hormone stuff, we get back to our guy.
That sushi humor line is so stupid. I love it.
Well, well. Jobbing out to kids. How low the mighty have fallen. They say the real answer to any cliche “Who would win in a fight?” superhero debate is “Depends on whose book it happens in,” and that’s really the best answer. And that’s Spider-Man’s out from this story, so let’s speed this up. The orderly who brought Dagger flowers is the bad guy, and he’s telling her blinding form that he’s loved her since he first saw her in the Daily Bugle, and, turning into Great Value Cloak, says he’s done all he could to become the kind of man she needs. Back at the church, the priest gives Molly a cell phone, and tries to talk her into foster care and out of running around playing superhero, a reversal on the ominous scene from earlier, all of which is in rather bad taste. Then Cap, Iron Man and Wolverine show up.
Molly is the best, seriously.
Well, that’s a pretty wild cliffhanger. So, then…
A less crazy but still very nice cover from Jean. All the Runaways except Molly are flying on a magic carpet surrounded by pigeons, summoned by Nico’s unpredictable magic, and recapping that they’re going to the hospital to save Dagger. Chase says they should go get Molly, but Gert says she’s been through a lot and deserves the night off.
Cap and Iron Man, who have been dealing with the Young Avengers I’ve mentioned before, are not thrilled to run into still more super kids. Cloak comes out to stop the confrontation, but before anyone can really do anything, Iron Man gets a police bulletin that Cloak has been spotted in Dagger’s hospital room. So now everyone can believe Cloak has been framed, and Molly says they should all go kick the fake him’s butt.
Hijinks. Not-Cloak is trying to keep Dagger from waking up as Luke Cage and Spider-Woman arrive at the room first, and start fightin’. Not-Cloak throws Luke into Jessica and they both go smashing out the window, and then he takes Dagger and phases up onto the roof, where the Runaways are waiting for him.
Vic mounts a daring rescue for Gert, saving her with his electromagnetism and impressing her, but then Old Lace turns back into a dinosaur, and Gert worries that means Nico is dead. She’s just unconscious, and Chase is threatening Not-Cloak for possibly hurting Gert. He picks up Nico’s Staff of One and tries to come up with a spell word. Not-Cloak says as long as he’s full of MGH, Chase can’t touch him.
Chase is a lot more homophobic than I remember.
Molly is the best.
“… you can’t expect them all to stick around forever,” she finishes on the next page. And that’s that. The rest of the issue is a spooky teaser for future troubles to plague the Runaways, but that’s not our concern. A pretty wild romp. Runaways was a great concept, but they could only be runaways so long. As the book ran on, it became more and more just another superhero comic. Vaughan and Alphona eventually left the book, and Joss Whedon and Matthew Clark really did not add anything good when they did a turn on it. A few other teams tried their hand at the book in the years since, but it just didn’t work anymore. These days, you sometimes see one or two of the kids pop up somewhere, but they’re largely gone and forgotten. A meteoric rise and fall. Nico has seen the most action outside of the team, having gotten wrapped up in a bunch of random things. But the team is basically caput. Ah, well. It was fun while it lasted.