Review by Frank Plowright

Want an example of how good Runaways is under Rainbow Rowell? Well, when Alex took the hint that he wasn’t wanted after the emotional roller-coaster of That Was Yesterday, he left. A dialogue balloon has someone unseen asking to accompany him. However, the opening pages of But You Can’t Hide show it’s not who Rowell led you to believe it was. It also restores the theme of the series title if only for the single chapter.

That Was Yesterday pulled a great victory from the hat, yet But You Can’t Hide shows a group of individuals falling to pieces. However, it’s also a transformational arc. More than half the cast see out this volume very different from the way they previously were. Growth is all.

There’s also a change of artist. That wasn’t so welcome in the previous volume where Kris Anka returned to save the day, but it was almost his series swansong. Andrès Genolet is handed the poison chalice, but although he’s more traditional with his layouts, he’s also attuned to visual personality and so the cast still live and breathe rather than reverting to stock figures. He’s also handed one of the funniest scenes in the series to date when Nico has to come up with new way of stopping armed villains, and supplies one hell of a treat.

The impression given is that scene symbolises what Rowell feels about superheroes: she doesn’t care about them. People with super powers interest her provided those super powers are a means of exploring who the people are, and the volume title could refer to several of the cast. The ending is somewhat lame in setting up Canon Fodder, but everything else hits the spot. As usual.