Runaways #20: But You Can’t Hide (Part II: Electric Boogaloo)

If you think of comic books as being a lot like an episode of a TV show, then you’ll know that usually, each episode has a theme to it. And the overall, arching theme of this month’s book is: Nobody wants to go to school. In which case I’d say that even I, as a fully graduated, fully grown adult, can’t blame them.

The title of this particular issue ‘But You Can’t Hide’ (Part Deux). Even though I think ‘I don’t wanna go to school!’ would be a better title, I suppose this works too (given you know, everyone wants to avoid their responsibilities. But they can’t hide from them!) Anyways, we find out the main reason why Molly doesn’t wanna go to school is because Gert’s words about schools being nothing more than government mandated brainwashing, seem to have resonated with her. (Or maybe that’s just a convenient excuse and she’s just you know, being lazy.) Either way, Gert, being the responsible adult she is, denies this. Instead, she tries to convince Molly to go to school in spite of her words, and reveals that she is no Don Draper in the process.

But hey, maybe Gert can be forgiven for being rusty on her selling skills, given how she narrowly avoided being eaten by the Gibborim earlier in the issue. Well actually, it was a bad dream, but it felt real enough to shake her to the core. No worries though, as Victor is there to comfort her and to bring her back to cold, harsh reality. Speaking of nightmarish scenarios, Nico Minoru (also known as Goth Girl Extraordinaire™), is apparently, a Carly Rae Jepsen fan. Gert catches her in the act, and catches her walking out of the room wearing a Hawaiian shirt as well.

No worries, though as Nico has a reason to be seemingly less gloomy and to be more happy. And that’s Karolina. Speaking of which, Karolina is heading back to school, or at least, she’s trying to. She’s finding the whole endeavor rather difficult though, and the only highlight of this excursion, is that her former roommate reminds her that she has a really hot, goth girlfriend. So hey, I guess it’s not all that bad, now is it?

Elsewhere in the book, Gib is trying to eat everything in sight. Whether it’s Old Lace, or even a donut, Gib is trying to eat everything, but is being held back by his inability to eat anything properly. Gib is the anti-Homer Simpson, and The Runaways must be thanking their lucky stars for that (with Gert being chief among them).

The book ends with Victor losing his head in every sense of the word, and we’re once again, left wondering just what the heck is happening. I guess we’ll just have to wait till the next issue to find out.