Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

Less bittersweet than Park and Eleanor, too, which I appreciate.   It brings back my favorite characters like Gert, Molly, Old Lace and Victor Mancha, who isn't talking about why he's disassembled.  I"m not absolutely sure about the timing, but I believe this is after Vision, which means that his recent history - and supposed death - were a really dirty family mess - and I understand why he doesn't want to talk about it at all.   (Victor is another of Ultron's "children" and so he was Vision's brother, as much as Vision can have a brother.   What went down between Victor and Viv Vision, Vision's son and Victor's nephew, was one of the nastier pieces of Vision's family history.)

That being said, this dealt with a lot of ugly issues, and yet managed to keep the heart and warmth of the original series, which was all about a broken family coming together.   When the family breaks again, they have to work harder to put it back together given the cracks that have been created.   When Gert died, Chase wasn't able to save her; now Gert is back and two years younger than everyone else.   Karolina is safe at college with a girlfriend.   Molly is living with her grandmother.   Chase and Nico are alone, and have gotten used to this fact; Gert is crushed to find out what has happened to her family and has to deal with the consequences immediately. 

Still, the Runaways seem fated to run into trouble, and they do.   It leaves Molly and Gert in trouble, and as much as they've splintered, they are a family.   They ran away from their supervillain parents and made a life for themselves with each other.   They can't abandon Molly or Gert because their lives are tied together for better or worse. 

And so they are the Runaways once again.   And this volume is a worthy follow up to the original series.   I kinda love it, in fact.