Welcome back to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week.  Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines of the week will be, and you’re invited to join in!

Runaways: Parental Guidance (volume 6) by Brian K. Vaughan
Marvel, 2006

The teens in this series of comics/graphic novels have definitely earned their cynicism:

I know it seems weird, considering we were routinely fighting vampires and mythical giants, but back when we thought Alex was one of us, things were just… simpler. I mean, I always knew you should never trust your parents, but I was naive enough to think you could always trust your friends.

They’ve certainly been through more than their share of trauma:

“Whatever. I suppose the only time we ever really get to be happy in life — like, one hundred percent blissful — is when we’re little kids.”

“Because there’s less to worry about?”

“Because we’re too stupid to know how worried we should be.”

Runaways synopsis (Amazon):

This unusually clever, fun teen comic is based on the novel premise that parents don’t just seem evil, they actually are evil supervillains. Or so some kids find out one night while eavesdropping on a dastardly meeting they take to be a cocktail party. Although the children are each a “type” right out of sitcom land—the goth girl, the brain, the jock, the dreamboat, the shy one—they’re also fairly empathetic characters. Vaughan’s closely observed dialogue lends them authenticity and pathos as they go through the disturbing realization that their parents aren’t just jerks but actually mass-murderers. The plot builds from this initial discovery, as the kids band together, discover they, too, have superhuman powers and engage their parents in good, old-fashioned superhuman fisticuffs. The group goes on the run and discovers their parents have all of Los Angeles in their pockets—it’s enough to make a teenager feel more alienated than ever.

I just finished a marathon reading of the 11 volumes of books in this series, and despite being a bit uneven in places, overall I’d say this was a great reading binge for kicking off the New Year!

What lines made you laugh, cry, or gasp this week? Do tell!

If you’d like to participate in Thursday Quotables, it’s really simple:

• Write a Thursday Quotables post on your blog. Try to pick something from whatever you’re reading now. And please be sure to include a link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your post (http://www.bookshelffantasies.com), if you’d be so kind!
• Click below (next to the cute froggy face) to link up your post! And be sure to visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables too.
• Have a quote to share but not a blog post? Leave your quote in the comments.
• Have fun!