Review by Frank Plowright

Almost from the beginning the Runaways have lived by the rule of never trusting an adult, and every time they let their guard down to betray that principle they discover a reason to apply it again. After the events of Canon Fodder it’s safe to move back into the Hostel, but there’s not a lot of trust left between assorted Runaways, with Gert especially feeling betrayed. Her solution is to head back to school, and a few others also decide that’s a good idea.

School drama isn’t where you thought Runaways was headed, was it? The tortured romance aspects might have been a little more predictable, but then Rainbow Rowell also throws in some time travel, some aliens and, of course, the Doombot. Amid all that there’s the fantastic attention to personality that’s persisted from day one. Rowell’s been so good at crafting the people that when they do something that seems out of character, a brief thought confirms it’s not wrong after all.

For some reason main artist Andrès Genolet has started drawing Molly as just another teenager, which isn’t very satisfactory, and it’s not as if he shouldn’t know better having drawn her for two volumes now. Otherwise it’s his usual confident art bringing the cast to sparkling life. There are brief returns for former series artists Kris Anka and Adrian Alphona, both very satisfactory, while the opening chapter is equally well drawn by Natacha Bustos, again with attention to character.

This is the final volume of the series, and Rowell provides endings that see the Runaways disintegrate while also setting up a selection of plots for individual characters should anyone wish to pick them up. It’s both satisfying and frustrating. The satisfaction is for bold steps in new beginnings, and the frustration is in not seeing how that plays out.

Runaways has tailed off a little from the flush of excitement generated by the first four volumes, but this improves on Canon Fodder and by the standards of superhero comics Rowell has produced a run to remember.