May
17 X-Men-Runaways #1

Creators: Brian K. Vaughan, writer; Skottie Young, artist
Marvel, 32 pages, color, free
So? It’s good to see more original material in the Free Comic Book Day batch, especially from the larger publishers that have been content to offer reprints for the event. This isn’t a particularly original tale, as it follows the classic Marvel team-up plot of superhero teams meet, there’s a misunderstanding, they fight and then realize they should all be friends. All that’s missing is Chrissy and the Regal Beagle. It’s nice to see Marvel stand behind Runaways like this – it’s one of the best books Marvel publishes and deserves to do better. The other smart thing about this is the content of the book (including the Franklin Richards backup, the Avengers Adventures preview and the Ultimate Spider-Man Saga recap) is kid-friendly and spotlights books young readers are most likely to be able to jump in and enjoy. This definitely beats another reprint of Ultimate Spider-Man #1. Grade: B+