Review: Runaways, Vol 1.: Find Your Way Home by Rainbow Rowell

Runaways, Vol. 1: Find Your Way Home
by Rainbow Rowell (writer) and Kris Anka (artist) [YA PB (Graphic Novel) Rowell] 

The Runaways has had an unusual comic-book history. The first version came out in 2003-2004. A follow-up version was released from 2005 to 2009. The title was dormant after 2009 until Omaha author Rainbow Rowell was announced as the writer of an all-new version starting in 2017. This graphic novel is the compilation of the first self-contained storyline of the Rowell era (with art by Kris Anka).

Originally, the Runaways were mere children, the kids of parents who were ultimately revealed to bea group supervillains known as The Pride. When the kids found out their parents were villains, they ran away and formed a loosely-knit family made of each other. Ultimately, they discovered they had inherited special abilities from their parents, and were forced to fight against The Pride and destroy it. The current storyline, starting with Rainbow Rowell’s issues, is set a few years after the storyline that ended in 2009 — some of the Runaways have died or disappeared, and one of their members uses his evil father’s time machine to go back and try to prevent the death of another Runaway. He’s successful, but with a cost. The current group members include Nico Minoru (a powerful witch, who can never repeat the same spell twice), Karolina Dean (a powerful alien), Gertrude “Gert” Yorkes, a young woman with a telepathic connection to a futuristic dinosaur, Molly Hayes (a super-powered mutant), and Chase Stein (who seems to have his villainous father’s knack for creating high-tech devices.

This first Rowell graphic novel reunites the team, who had all gone their separate ways since their earlier break-up. By the end of this first new storyline, they’ve had to take on a seemingly friendly mad scientist and go on the run again.

The characters are fun, the dialog is snappy, and the art is beautiful. I look forward to seeing where Rowell and Anka take these characters in future adventures!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try other volumes in the graphic novel series — either the earlier graphic novels that compiled the 2003-2009 version of this comic book, or the volumes that follow this one, by Rowell and Anka. Also, a live-action television series was developed by Marvel Comics for the Hulu streaming service in 2017 (part of Marvel’s extended Marvel Cinematic Universe), which features the versions of these characters that appeared in the earlier pre-Rowell comic books.]

Check out our Rainbow Rowell page on BookGuide.

[ official Runaways page on the official Rainbow Rowell web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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