The Runaways have been dealing with a lot lately: the X-Men came for Molly, Nico fessed up to Karolina, and Gert found out Chase was seeing another version of herself. So how does Runaways #37 deal with the culmination of these revelations? With a mostly silent issue.
Silent issues can be a powerful tool in a comic book’s arsenal — Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s silent X-Men issue is one of the greatest examples, using visuals to tell a unique story. The problem with Runaways #37 is, there’s no point in this comic where you think this had to be a mostly silent issue.
The pages with Gib and Doombot just feel like filler entirely, cute as they are (and as good as Andres Genolet’s art is). Nico’s pages are probably the best use of the “silent” tactic, depicting her pain and frustration in a really hard-hitting way, eventually culminating in her needing to lean on her girlfriend’s shoulder. Here, a picture is worth a thousand words and Genolet is really able to get the point across of Nico’s frustrations.
Image: Marvel Comics
The Gert/Chase/Gert/Victor scenes, on the other hand, are really lacking without words. This is a huge revelation, one that leaves us wanting to know just what these characters are saying to each other. We didn’t need words to know what Nico was feeling, to know that Karolina loves her and wants to take care of her. We do need something more in this case, especially when time traveler Gert is a character we barely know.
The end of the issue isn’t silent anymore, introducing some Majesdanians coming for Karolina and the return of Alex Wilder — two plots that are quite intriguing for the future of the series.
Andres Genolet is the real star of this issue, with his artwork giving life to each of the characters’ emotions. The silent issue premise here works beautifully in some regards but really lacks in others.
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