Runaways #29: “I Could Replace You with a Fitbit”

The Runaways are in a good place. 

Doc Justice is making sure that they’re doing their part in taking down the last of the Pride remnants in Los Angele. Gib has been given a costume to come and help out from time to time, though his contribution is mostly in the form of lurching on and scaring bad guys away. Even Gert is starting to get used to the way things are now, reconciling with Chase after what’s been a rocky time coming back together. Though most of the shots are flat, Andres Genolet manages to give the two ample amounts of emotion in their expression and body language. This is made even better with Caramagna’s excellent word balloon placement.

After the events of the last issue we learn that the reason Old Lace protected Chase from being attacked instead of Gert is that Gert hasn’t been able to regain the psychic connection that she gave to Chase when she was supposed to have died in the original Runaways series. Unfortunately for her, this means that she has to sit back and watch as her friends take on the threats of LA without her. At this point in this Runaways series, I would call this the Acceptance Stage as Gert has been running the gamut of emotions in the Stages of Grief since her return.

After trying and failing to join the J-Team, she’s resigned herself to hanging out with Doc Justice’s butler, Matthew. Matthew then reveals that there have been quite a few more J-Teams than previously thought and this serves as the main crux of the story. Rainbow Rowell does an excellent job of weaving a narrative of a man who just wanted to be his hometown’s own Captain America and after years of tragedy, slowly devolves into something worse.

When the Runaways return from one of their missions, Genolet draws two excellent double page spreads; one of the team eating post-mission pizza as normal and the next with Gert hallucinating the ghost of past J-Team members and fearing the worst for her friends. Victor tries to reassure her by telling her that they all know about the past histories of the J-Team, but that because of their abilities, they are leagues beyond the old teams. 

What’s most terrifying about all of this is that one of the biggest themes of this story so far is misplaced trust and how it’s done nothing but hurt the Runaways. Given what we’ve seen in the final scenes of the issues so far, we know that Doc Justice’s intentions are absolutely not on the level, but when will the rest find out?