Runaways : Dead End Kids

Joss Whedon and Brian K. Vaughan discuss the future of ‘Runaways,’ being fanboys and whether or not BKV will write ‘Astonishing X-Men’

Brian K. Vaughan can see the end. After four years and two volumes, it’s time to walk away from the kids in Runaways.

The critically acclaimed but low-selling Marvel title revolves around the runaway children of supervillains, and features plenty of teen angst, teen sexuality and just about every other topic that might make the Midwest blush. It’s already escaped cancellation once, and the title’s growth has hit a wall.

If there’s ever been a time to leave the book behind, it’s now. Hollywood has already been calling Vaughan. They like his comics. They like his style. They like his voice and they’re willing to pay for it.

And he’s told his tales; he’s impressed everyone who’s given the book a chance. Even without superfluous guest appearances and sales-spurring crossovers, he’s helped keep the title alive longer than most imagined a book of all-new, teen characters could. In the current market, BKV’s done the near-impossible by creating an entirely new cast of characters and keeping the book afloat for nearly 40 issues.

He’d even turned down writer Joss Whedon’s offer to work the Runaways into an issue of the mega-selling Astonishing X-Men.

“I thought that he was just being nice and I didn’t want to ruin his Astonishing X-Men run with a gratuitous guest appearance,” chuckles Vaughan. “I was like, ‘No, don’t do that.’ If I had known that he really wanted to write the book, I would’ve left a long time ago.”

Even though Whedon’s calendar is full for the next few years with writing and directing a “Wonder Woman” feature film, finishing his 24-issue commitment to Astonishing and continuing the Buffy and Serenity comics at Dark Horse, when the writer heard Vaughan was exiting one of his favorite titles, Whedon quickly took inventory to assure himself he was far too busy to pick up another monthly title.

The he called Marvel and told them he wanted to write the book anyway.

With Vaughan and co-creator/artist Adrian Alphona leaving with February’s issue #24, Marvel gladly handed the reins to Whedon and new artist Michael Ryan [New Excalibur] to take over for at least six issues. For a glimpse at what’s in store, why you should be reading Runaways and how the writers first hooked up, read on!

WIZARD: Joss, are you excited to jump on the book?

WHEDON: I was pissed, and then my second thought was it would be fun, and then my sensible self said to stop that, and for God’s sake get dressed. First of all, you don’t want to follow a great act. You don’t want to be the lead-in band for the Stones and then play after them because no one is staying. It’s scary, but just so tempting. I was like, “I don’t think that I can...but I think that I have to do this now.” Then I started talking to Brian and we started riffing on it, and then I was lost. I was just lost. I knew I was doing it.

VAUGHAN: It’s really depressing because publicly you want the best for the book, but secretly you hope that someone terrible will take over because then everyone will miss you when you’re gone. That’s why we got Joss, because after two issues everyone is going to be praying for my return.

Why leave now, Brian?

VAUGHAN: Well, Adrian Alphona and I, we’ve been talking about the fact that we’ve been doing the book for almost four years straight now. There was a little break between the two seasons and I don’t know...I guess that we thought that this upcoming arc was so good and we just didn’t want to stay on the book until it started to stink and then leave, because we thought that would be a death sentence for the book. We thought that we would try and leave while we were on top and maybe there was a little bit of momentum, and pass the baton to someone new, but we didn’t think that we’d be able to find someone. It’s not like it’s Marvel’s bestselling book or anything. I never thought in a million years that [Joss] would be interested in writing the book, even though Joss has always said that he’s a Runaways fan.

WHEDON: Brian said something about leaving, and my first thought was, “I curse you and your grandchildren and your ancestors.” That’s what I do. It’s like someone saying, “Oh, I’m not going to grow any more heroin.” I’m addicted and I need my fix. But I think that I can finally give the run some cool stuff and make up for Brian’s mistakes-first of all he’s not killing them fast enough. 18 issues between deaths? I think that I can up that ante a little bit.

VAUGHAN: Yes.

You’re both avid fans of each other’s work, but how did you two first hook up? Were you guys talking often before this? What was your relationship like before Joss signed on to take over?

VAUGHAN: Romantic, I guess. [Laughs] We have the relationship, or had the relationship, that a lot of us do, which is that we’re [convention] friends.

WHEDON: Brian’s actually in L.A. [now], and so we can see each other out of con environments, but I’m a huge admirer and so we get together and eat some Thai food, blow some smoke and have some fun.

VAUGHAN: Like three or four cons ago, Joss was being mobbed at a Dark Horse booth and I couldn’t even get close to him, but I was a huge fan, so I floated a Y: The Last Man graphic novel through one of his cronies to get to him. I described inside how much his writing meant to me and that he was a huge influence. I think that [you] had already read Runaways of [your] own accord, right, just because that’s how big a geek you are...

WHEDON: I’m not a geek. I mean, I picked [Runaways] up not making the connection necessarily, but I think that I read Y first. But it was a long time. It was a few months. Sometimes people give you stuff and it’s really nice, but you know, you might have a pile of stuff and it might be someone’s screenplay and I had never heard of Y and I was like, “What’s this? This Y guy likes my work. He didn’t meet me. Some friend of his gave it to me, but I’ll check it out.” And then it was insane, and he had his e-mail in there. So that’s how I jumped on the wagon and then I was reading everything else-Ex Machina and Ultimate [X-Men] and all of that good stuff. So I pretty much turned into a junkie. It was the one-two punch of Y and Runaways that completely got me. Runaways is the book that you go, “How did I not think of this?”

VAUGHAN: How did you not?

How are you guys working together on the transition? Will it be seamless in the story, like we saw when Brian Michael Bendis handed over Daredevil to Ed Brubaker?

VAUGHAN: If people like what Joss does, it’s because I told him everything. And if they hate it, then I just let him go his own way. No, I told him exactly where we’re taking the book and I said that after that I didn’t care, that I trust him completely. I just want it to be a Joss Whedon story. I told him where we end and then he’s free to do anything and he’s certainly doing something that I never would’ve thought of in a billion years, but it is perfect for Runaways. So it’s all him after this.

WHEDON: Probably the coolest part was actually Brian’s idea, because once I decided to take over the book, we had dinner so that I could quiz him on all the characters, and it’s amazing how little trivia about Runaways he actually knows.

VAUGHAN: I don’t know anything. I was telling Joss that I literally have to put a Post-It note with the five or six Runaways kids’ names on my computer when I’m writing because I cannot remember them. I’m the worst Runaways fan of all time. I write the book and Joss knows way more than I do. He was asking me questions about stuff from the first season and I was like, “I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about.” His knowledge of continuity is much better than mine.

Brian, what can you say about your last issue, and Joss, what can you say about your first issues?

VAUGHAN: We’re doing two three-issue arcs. One is called “Dead Means Dead” and then the one after that is called “Live Fast,” neither of which bodes very well for the Runaways. They’re both going to deal with the fallout of Gert dying, because when one of your friends dies, you can’t just take one issue and be like, “Well, that was really sad. Let’s get back to punching things.” It’s going to be bad stuff happening and it’s really Chase’s story and what he does. I don’t know if Joss wants to spoil any of his plans.

WHEDON: Only that I’m going to be grotesquely vague about it all. The first thing that I’m going to do is bring back Gert.

VAUGHAN: Son of a bitch!

WHEDON: Wait, that wasn’t vague enough. But no, one of the things that Brian said that really stuck with me was that they have had their hideout and the idea of Runaways being on the run and that’s kind of what I took. I want to take them somewhere that they’ve never been before and really have them stuck in an environment where they don’t fit in or they really have to shuffle. I am fascinated by the whole concept of not just the Runaways, but the teenagers and their place in this particular...not this Marvel Universe, but in our actual world. So they’re road-tripping in a very new way and that’s all I’m going to say.

VAUGHAN: Yeah. I was telling Joss that my Runaways are the most stationary of runaways in the history of mankind. Like, these next couple of issues, they’re just sitting in beanbag chairs. So he’s not reinventing the wheel. He’s just really taking them back to what they were supposed to be-runners.

Now Brian, Joss is scheduled to leave Astonishing X-Men with issue #24-any chance you’ll pick that book up?

VAUGHAN: I am smarter than Joss in that I don’t want to follow the good guy. I have no interest in that. I’ve already done my time on Swamp Thing and having to do a book that Alan Moore worked on is just miserable because if you try and do what he did you will copy and fail and if you try and do something completely new everyone just misses the old guy all the more. So, no. I mean, ironically, I wanted to cut back on my comics work. I’m in Los Angeles, and I’m doing a lot of sellout movie and TV stuff and I was like, “Wow, I’m going to move out here because I want to have a career like Joss’ and I want to do exactly what Joss is doing.” And as soon as I move out here I find out that Joss wants to be doing what I just quit. I told him it was like a dumber version of “Gift of the Magi.” So that’s a long-winded way of saying no. No Astonishing X-Men for me. I love that book too much to ruin it.