Been wondering who will be plotting the course of RUNAWAYS come this summer? Well your wait has come to an end.
This June, RUNAWAYS #11 kicks off a new climactic new direction for Marvel's wayward teen heroes as writer Kathryn Immonen (PATSY WALKER: HELLCAT) and artist Sara Pichelli (NYX) take the wheel.
We'll have more with Immonen and Pichelli this Friday here on Marvel.com, but for now, the new creative team has two promises: one Runaway will die and one Runaway will live again.
But enough from us; here's editor Nick Lowe with some insight into how the new RUNAWAYS crew came together:
"I have been dying to get this news out to people for months! When [writer] Terry Moore was planning out his last arc on the book, I was faced with a really really really tough task. First, how do you replace Terry Moore? Second, who on Earth can stand in the company of the giants who've been on RUNAWAYS? Think about it: Brian K. Vaughan. Joss freaking Whedon. Terry Moore. These people don't slouch—at least their writing doesn't, I'm in cahoots with Vaughan's chiropractor, so his back problems pad my wallet).
"Any time you're putting together a new creative team, you can go a few ways. One: go to an established writer who's a known quantity and you generally know what you're going to get. Two: go outside the industry to TV or movies, etc. and get a big name to both boost sales and bring an outside perspective. Three: take an up-and-comer with a unique voice and perspective. The last choice is the riskiest and it's what I wanted to do.
"To be honest, it's a back-to-basics approach for the book. BKV wasn't BKV when he and [original series artist] Adrian [Alphona[ launched this book. He'd had a few things under his belt, but Y: The Last Man had just started coming out. He had done a few [X-Men limited series]. And then came RUNAWAYS. He was relatively untested and unknown and there was an energy that came with that. That's what I wanted when I brought Kathryn onto the book. She really
proved herself to me with PATSY WALKER: HELLCAT. There were scenes in the last two issues that had me in tears. There were scenes that had me cracking up. And I wanted that for RUNAWAYS.
"One of Kathryn's first points in her pitch was that, in the last 15 issues of RUNAWAYS, there were two kisses. Two! This is RUNAWAYS! We need more smooches! But it wasn't only that, she really gets the characters. And she's pushing them to places that really showed new aspects of their personalities. And I know everyone's used to marketing-speak and how words like 'climactic' get thrown around all the time. But when you pick up issue #11 which starts with a prom and ends with a death, and it feels so right and so wrong at the same time? To be honest, and no offense to Joss or Terry, I hadn't felt this way since Gert died.
"And don't get me started on Sara Pichelli! As soon as I saw her work on NYX, I knew that she must be mine! Her characterization, her storytelling and her design are just fantastic."
You'll have to wait until June to pick up RUNAWAYS #11, but you can follow the story from the beginning right now on Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited!
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