A new look for Gertrude Yorke! Plus, the Runaways find another member of their family, Klara Prast. But will this be happy reunion or another messy situation?
Runaways vol. 5 #11
Writer: Rainbow Rowell
Artist: Kristafer Anka
Color Artists: Matthew Wilson
Publisher: Marvel Comics
?WARNING: This Review Contains Major Spoilers!!?
Previously:
The Runaways arrived home surprised by a crying Lightspeed who transformed back into thirteen years old after eating a cupcake she found. Molly confessed that it was a magical cupcake given to her by her BFF, Abigail who was also transformed into a 13 years old immortal thanks to Enchantress. They stormed at Abigail’s home trying to find a cure that could revert Lightspeed back to her original age. Abigail lied that there was no cure but Victor was able to find a suspicious vial which Lightspeed drank. This magically transformed her back to her right age. This broke Abigail’s heart feeling betrayed by her best friend, Molly. That’s not the only heartbreak that happened during that day, after coming back home from their confrontation with Abigail, Julie Powers broke up with Karolina.
What You’ll Find Out:
Being an anachronism, Gert felt a bit more lost after being brought to the present. She found herself feeling a bit unfamiliar to her peers which were causing her to feel frustrated. She decides to take a walk alone to give her some time to think and absorb everything that is going through her life right now. Once she was around town, at the farmer’s market, she had noticed that she was no longer the only one walking around with purple hair. She looked at a reflection of herself and decided to do a makeover for a shift of perspective.
Meanwhile, Doombot paid a visit bringing along the new body he built for Victor. Chase and Molly assisted Victor to try on his new body but this did not go the way Victor had wanted. Despite the cool upgrades Victor felt afraid and wanted to be separated from this new body. Doombot confused discussed with Chase why Victor had reacted that way.
Molly, on the other hand, brought Victor to her room and comforted him. Victor expressed how he did not recognize himself after trying on the new body made for him and the fear of what he could become with it. Molly, with the touch of her innocence, still managed to comfort the bodiless android.
Molly then brought Victor to talk with Doombot who asked forgiveness for the body it created. Doombot said that it will no longer act impulsively without consulting his friend first. Victor accepted the robot’s apology. Chase then invited Doomboot to have pizza with them despite that the robot does not need to consume food. Molly who was excited called our Gert, who came down revealing her new look to the gang. Everyone was amazed and happy to see their friend feeling a bit more confident with her new look.
We then get a flashback of the team visiting the new of their fellow member, Klara Prast. The team prepared for the worst and got ready for battle just in case everything went wrong. After getting greeted by Klara’s foster dads, the Runaways went up to Klara’s room to invite her back.
Klara declined their invitation stating that she doesn’t want to live in that dangerous life anymore, that she was already happy with her new family. She did not believe that all adults are evil like she used too. The gang understood and respected Klara’s decision and left with a broken-hearted Molly.
What Just Happened:
This issue gives us a bit if a cook down to get to know more of the characters better and what they are currently struggling when they’re not fighting any supervillain adults (or an immortal teenager.) Despite balancing the focus on each of the characters it was focused more on Gertrude, Victor Mancha and another missing in action runaway, Klara.
First, the focus on Gert who is going through a hard time adjusting to being in a time different from hers and getting along with her fellow Runaways now that she is younger. Her boyfriend Chase acts more like a father to her know that sometimes she feels likes she doesn’t even know him anymore. She gets easily irritated with Nico and Karolina who tends to be more mature and careful compared to her time when both were a bit careless. Gert is usually known as the black sheep in the group. The type of teen that wants to be the unique one. That’s how she wanted to be seen back then but now she had noticed that more people are like her, her streak of rebelliousness is now being accepted by the general public. Having a purple haired color is no longer unique or different. This made her feel more (in my opinion) insecure. This then made her realize that she needs to do something to realign her self and adjust to her current situation. Personally, I think having a makeover does something to a person’s self-esteem and giving Gert that opportunity was a nice touch and also made it relatable to most of the readers as well (of course not the same as what Gert is going through being time displaced but you know what I mean.)
Next was Victor who was also having some kind of identity crisis. Clearly, we are now seeing his fears of becoming the villain he was created to be. After trying on the body Doombot created him, Victor sort of realizes he was one step closer to becoming the evil Victorious. I like that Rowell is now exploring this side of Victor and would definitely make an interesting development for the character if handled well.
Lastly was giving us some answers to what had happened to Klara. It’s good to see that the creative team has not forgotten her. Although I was kind of sad she decided not to join the team again, I have a strange feeling it will not be the last time we will be seeing her. I think this is just Rowell trying to add some foreshadowing and hopefully, we’ll get to see Klara get developed more in the future. But still, seeing her was pure joy, especially for a long time Runaways fan like me.
My only concern now is Molly getting a lot of heartbreaks. After Klara declining to join the team again, it made me wonder how Molly is handling all of this emotional traumas. From defeating her Grandmother, breaking her best friend’s heart and now separating away from Klara. This experiences kind of builds up to how she could potentially become a villain like her alternate future version of Bruiser in one of the X-Men’s future. I hope Rowell would explore this more, it’s kind of interesting to see how much of these kids might also grow up becoming what they were against/afraid off, which is becoming villains like their parents. I think she is already focusing that one with Victor’s crisis.
Pros:
- The focus of the story was now shifted to the other characters (not Molly, Nico, and Karolina this time.)
- A lot of foreshadowing which is building up a lot of potential stories for the future of the series
- Answers to Klara Prast’s whereabouts
Cons:
- When is Old Lace getting a featured story? LOL
Rating: 9/10
Final Thought:
A strong issue coming from one of the industries top creative team. The story might not have a lot of action compared to the previous arcs, but at least the strong foreshadowing and character exploration gave a strong potential to look forward to the upcoming stories/arcs.
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