Runaways [2008] Volume 11: Homeschooling

This was disappointing. The story was too disjointed. New characters were introduced without enough explanation, events happened, without any explanation of what/why, Old Lace got killed off for no good reason in an unexplained plane attack, characterization and artwork were a bit weak, and it ended in quite the cliffhanger. ( )

The last section of the book, which apparently takes place a few books back, totally confused me. It wasn't necessary and didn't fit into the timeline the writers have set up at all. It was a big let-down. ( )

What a strange place to end the series. Too much unresolved... ( )

The final collection in the franchise to date... AND THAT'S HOW THEY END IT!!? Seriously, one of the most heart-wrenching cliffhangers the book has written, and that's where the series ends. This is worse than the way Alf ended! (if any of you get that reference, congratulations, your Marvel No-Prize is in the mail as we speak).

This whole story arc felt weak. One, they killed off yet another original character, this one a perennial favorite who definitely didn't deserve it (not that any outside of Alex really did, mind, but at least the writing made previous deaths make sense). It felt jarring for the sake of "let's shake things up with this team who has already been through the whirlwind and never gets a chance to recuperate."

Also, we get another family member we've never heard anything about and somehow didn't get revealed when the kids were first sent off to foster care (because living relatives are step one on that list). And, okay, Chase thought the guy was dead, but the rest of the world clearly knows he's alive, so...

I did like where things were going with Chase's storyline, though. Sucks the book got cancelled (or put on indefinite hiatus) before we could see what happened. And now the Runaways have appeared in other books, so the gaps have been filled in (not well), and then the greatest travesty for these characters, getting sucked into the Avengers Arena storyline where Arcade watches Battle Royale and says "hey, why don't I do something like that!?"

The final story in this collection is the What If? storyline "What if the Runaways became the Young Avengers?" in which Iron Lad sees the future in which Victorious (evil Victor) kills the world's heroes. Instead of Gert coming back to warn the Runaways of this future, IL comes back and recruits them to be the Young Avengers, but things are not as they appear. ( )

I don't know why I keep reading these. The first story arc was good. It's been trending generally downhill since then.This volume ends without a conclusion, so I guess I'm stuck reading the next one. :PSo 'homeschooling' has nothing to do with anything except it was a theme for the titles, which had very little to do with anything either.We start with the older kids planning to do their own prom. (Gag me.) Fortunately it all goes to pot before we have to sit through very much of it. A missile blows up their house. Why? I have no idea.A favorite member of the team is killed. (That's the worst part of this series. They keep killing main characters off and replacing them with people who're less interesting.)What's her name the girl from the past freaks out and makes this giant vine thing or rosebush or something grow and envelope the demolished house.The blond kid's uncle shows up.And more stuff happens that maybe I could remember better if any of it was making any sense to me at this point, which it really wasn't. Some of the apparent bad guys said something that I just _knew_ was a reference to something that happened in another comic book series and I HATE THAT!Really, comic book people, stop making it so you have to read all the other billion comic books in your line to understand what's going on in any single one.Oh, yea, and the last maybe third of the book was some sort of fanfic!! 'What if the Runaways were the Avengers' or some crack like that. Which if I knew who the Avengers were, I probably _still_ wouldn't read. Because if I want to read whacked out cracktastic fanfic, I would at least search for ones that were popular or getting good reviews or intrigued me in some other way.Where was I before that rant?Yea, no, I don't know what was going on. I didn't even get all of the jokes. Because they were in-jokes.I will watch this if it comes out as a movie or tv series (maybe even if it's a cartoon), but really.. I really really should stop bother trying to read it. ( )