Since I was a kid raised on Perez/Wolfman era Teen Titans and Claremont/Byrne X-Men, I’m a sucker for the teen soap opera genre of superhero comics. Which is why I love Runaways so damn much.

Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina would be enough to cement Brian K. Vaughn’s place in the pantheon of comics geniuses, but I think Runaways is the real deal.

At issue #22, I’m a little late to the party, but the deep characterization, unique viewpoint on the marvel universe, and Vaughn’s heartbreaking, but satisfying tendency to kill off a beloved character every dozen issues has me hooked. It also doesn’t hurt that Joss Whedon is about to take over the book starting with issue #25.