Runaways: Rock Zombies...

[fajrdrako]

Runaways: Rock Zombies by Terry Moore and Takeshi Miyazawa was fun. All the Terry Moore Runaway stories are. I was less charmed by the plot of the zombie story, but totally delighted by the characters.

What made the volume for me, though, was issue #10, in which Molly Hayes goes to visit the X-Men, who are hoping she will join them. "Can whoever is inside my head telling me to come to San Francisco please shut up now?" complains Moly, in her big-eared hat. "'Cuz it's giving me a really bad headache." Cyclops and Emma both have excuses for not showing Molly around, so Cyclops delegates the job to Wolverine. Wolverine and Molly don't get along. "Wolverine is a jerk!" screams Molly. "And he smells like beers. I want to go with the tall shiny metal guy. Or the cat monkey guy." But she's stuck with Wolverine.

Cyclops: What's he doing now?
Emma Frost: He's... he's actually visualizing disembowelling you. It's quite disturbing. And she's asking for ice cream.

The best moment is when Wolverine and Molly go to the Danger Room:

Molly: Well, that's the dumbest name ever. What's the dangerous part? Boredom?
Wolverine: It's not turned on, genius.
Molly: I knew that.

So then she gets the Danger Room programmed with pink butterflies and unicorns.

The climax of the story comes when a supervillain kidnaps Molly and Wolverine for revenge on Molly's parents, and, in a very well-written sequence, Wolverine and Molly end up as friends.

Terrific story.