Source: lovingthealien.net

8. Parental Guidance

Runaways #14-18 (2005) 

This one’s initial premise is one of my favorites in the series, even if it doesn't carry it off as well as I'd hoped.

In the first pages of the first issue of the original Runaways series, we meet Alex as he plays online video games with a group of his fellow nerds. Those same nerds are now wondering where their friend went, and after some hacking, they figure out that Alex was a member of The Pride"¦and that The Pride were secretly the good guys all along. Oops.

They opt to take revenge against the Runaways by resurrecting Alex and taking them on. However, and this is where the arc falters a bit for me, they accidentally resurrect a young Geoffrey Wilder, who then takes charge and leads them. Honestly, I feel like the Dorks are an interesting enough band of villains on their own, but they just wind up taking on henchman roles in the service of Geoffrey.

On the other hand, this arc also features Gert's death, which is successfully meaningful and hard to read, but for the right reasons.