Review: Shade the Changing Girl Vol. 2- Little Runaway

Quick Summary

Pros: The main storyline is great and highlights Shade as the compelling character that she is. The commentary on society is well written in most places. The artwork looks wonderful and perfectly complements the story. The entire book is refreshingly different.

Cons: The collection’s subplots are not that interesting.

Overall: This is fantastic book from both a storytelling and a visual standpoint. It follows Loma Shade on a serious of unique adventures in a unique looking world. These adventures are compelling on their own and each one shines an interesting focus on a different element of society. Anyone who enjoyed the first volume should definitely pick this one up.

Story

Shade the Changing Girl Vol. 2: Little Runaway, by Cecil Castellucci, returns to the bizarre and compelling journey of Shade and her mysterious M-Vest. This volume continues the same type of unique storytelling that was seen in the first volume. However, here, the conflicts and issues become more global, while staying just as relevant. This makes the volume more meaningful and easier to connect with, which makes for a deeper reading experience. The book’s subplots are not as interesting but even these do not significantly take away from the book’s positives. Overall, this is a great collection that stands out from mainstream comics.

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Little Runaway starts out by transitioning from a story about the petty nature of high school politics and into one with a much large scope. Shade’s journey through the world allows her, and the reader, to see things like the variety of life in a city, the sterile commercialism of tragic locations, and the false glamour of Hollywood. This turns the series into less of a story about individuals and more of a story about society.

This shift in focus allows the series to begin a more in depth look into modern day societal issues. Right off the bat, Castellucci digs in to what it means to be different and not fit the mold that others have constructed for you. This message is left vague enough that it can easily apply to any number of groups, including people with mental health issues, the LGBTQ community, children with controlling parents, or anyone who has felt excluded at any point in time. In this way, the message here is easy to relate to, making the story easier to connect with. It also helps that this is the book’s most developed and well-executed message.

However, this message of understanding exclusion is not the book’s only comment on society. Little Runaway goes on to talk about the danger of atomic warfare, the perils of unrequited love, and even the tragedy of growing old. Almost all of these topics are handled with nuance and addressed in a way that feels natural. Only a few, like the commentary on social media, end up feeling out of place and underdeveloped. As a whole though, these brief messages imbue the volume with meaning and make reading more emotional.

The downside to this collection is that the subplots are not nearly as interesting or compelling as Shade’s journey. Her friends’ struggle to find her and the alien activities on Meta often feel like a distraction from the main event. Her friends’ struggle also concludes in a lackluster fashion. This does not have a huge impact on the collection as a whole but does bring the quality level down slightly.

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Art

The artwork throughout Little Runaway is every bit as beautiful and entertaining as its predecessor. Marley Zarcone’s chaotically structured pages and incredibly creative designs defy mainstream comic art. Zarcone introduces madness to typically normal locations, providing a warped view of reality that suits the power of the M-Vest. All of this fits perfectly with the book’s central theme and allows the collection to further define itself as something unique and different.

Little Runaway also features a chapter with art from Marguerite Sauvage and a number of backup stories. Sauvage’s chapter looks great and gives a unique contrast to Zarcone’s work, as the characters are more realistic and the outfits are more outlandish. In addition, the backup stories feature art from a variety of artists, all of whom capture the retro themes that these stories focus on. Together, these additional styles help enhance the artistic quality of this collection by introducing a bit of visual diversity.

Continuity

Shade the Changing Girl Vol. 2: Little Runaway continues the story started in Shade the Changing Girl Vol. 1: Earth Girl Made Easy (Review).

Shade’s story continues in Milk Wars (Review) and then in Shade the Changing Woman (Review). 

This volume also references stories from other comic books, detailed below.

• The character Rac Shade is brought up a number of times. The version of the character mentioned here is the version from the Shade the Changing Man series from Vertigo, which is collected starting in Shade the Changing Man Vol. 1: The American Scream.
• The most recent appearance of Rac Shade began with Justice League Dark Vol. 1: In the Dark (Review). This version of the character disappeared in Justice League Dark Vol. 2: The Books of Magic (Review).