Alright this was the last issue I was gonna get and I have to say I sorta wished I had left last issue on a high point. I dropped this book not because of the book but because of money issues and it wasn’t in the top books I looked forward to. This month though, honestly it just reaffirmed that this is not the book for me.

I’m always weary of the “teen hero’s” books because I grew out of them around the time I grew into being a teenager. The X-men for me are the only ones that hold up but thats mostly cause its more about the adults dealing with the kids and it has all the undercurrent of bias and prejudice, yea this book isn’t the X-men for me. But I’m being unfair with it and I really should review it on its merits so lets dive into it.

First off the Cover is pretty damn good. I dunno why I like the “War with the Runaways” banner on the side but I do. At the same time the AvX add is distracting. and to continue on with the art its also a good point with certain action shots being especially interesting to look at but in the end its basic comic book art and theres really nothing special to talk about its solid but nothing amazing. The coloring i have to note because there is a glaring error, the Sentinel’s shoulder-pads change color from page to page at one point and its very noticeable.

Yet I always say that solid art is better than bad and the story can make up for the lack of a “wow-factor”. The problem is that in this case it really doesn’t. I don’t read the runaways, I don’t know any of the characters, I am who you are supposed to be selling these characters to; in the end though it just doesn’t work. Most of the characters on the A-A side are very mature kids that, while stryker is being a little annoying with his newfound gay pride, work in the context of the story. The runaways on the other hand are for lack of a better word “teenagers” While some of it is played for laughs I kept groaning at the utter immaturity. As always Hank Pym is probably the most interesting character and I still love seeing Hazmat and Mettle no matter what they are doing but it doesn’t save the annoying little brats known as the Runaways.

Maybe they are like that in their book but I can’t sympathize with anyone who spurts “[we are] the worst things adults can imagine: teenagers with power in control of their own lives”. Ya know what I take it back, I did laugh once, I laughed at how stupid Nico sounded saying that.

In short: the art is still solid, the characterization for the academy is still good, but the runaways were annoying brats in this book and I just couldn’t like them for it.