KATHRYN IMMONEN

Brian K. Vaughan, Adrian Alphona and Christina Strain's Runaways has been an obvious choice for live action adaptation since it first debuted in the early 2000s. The tale of a group of teens who discover their parents are supervillains and go on the run has the potential to be a huge hit, and this week it was announced that Hulu has ordered the Marvel property to series under the supervision of the creators of Gossip Girl. But who are The Runaways? They haven't been a team in comics for quite some time, and haven't had an ongoing series in even longer. We've put together a Crash Course to make you a Runaways expert in no-time.

If you don't have a chance to get to Bethesda, Maryland, this coming weekend, and you still want to keep the spirit of Small Press Expo in your heart, you're in luck! Comixology and SPX have teamed up to put 100 Comixology Submit titles on sale at 50% off, from now through to September 21, just by using the code 'SPX' at checkout. With so many great independent comics to choose from, we've selected some standouts that you might want to try.

The question most often asked of the ComicsAlliance staff is a variation of, "Which comic books should I be reading?" or, "I'm new to comics, what's a good place to start?" The Wednesday deluge of new comic books, graphic novels and collected editions can be daunting even for the longtime reader, much less for those totally unfamiliar with creators, characters and publishers, and the dark mysteries of comic book shopping like variants, pre-ordering, and formats.

Considering that she's soon to be the lead character in an ABC TV series, it only makes sense for Agent Peggy Carter to get a chance to shine in comics, too. She'll be front-and-center, along with TV co-star Howard Stark, fighting Hydra in Marvel's new Operation S.I.N. miniseries, which launches in January. Just like the Agent Carter TV show, the series is set in the 1950s and depict the Marvel Universe's version of the Cold War. Kathryn Immonen (Runaways) writes the series, and Rich Ellis (Memorial) takes on art duties.

Brought to the screen by Hayley Atwell in the 2011 Marvel Studios movie Captain America: The First Avenger, Peggy Carter has experienced a major leap in prominence among Marvel's vast world of characters. She'll soon be the first female character to lead a live action Marvel Studios adaptation with Agent Carter debuting on ABC in January -- and she'll simultaneously star in her own mini-series from Marvel Comics. As announced at New York Comic-Con on Saturday, Peggy will be joined by Howard Carter and the mysterious Woodrow McCord in the five issue Original Sin prequel series Operation S.I.N., set in the weird world of the Marvel Universe of the 1950s. ComicsAlliance spoke to writer Kathryn Immonen and artist Rich Ellis to find out more about the series and their vision of Peggy.

Marvel is planning its first big cosmic event since the end of the Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning-penned Annihilation/War of Kings cycle that ran from 2006 to 2010. (Or last year's Infinity, if you count that, but that was all about Earth, so we don't.) Black Vortex will cross over between Guardians of the Galaxy, the space-bound All-New X-Men, Cyclops, Legendary Star-Lord, Nova, Captain Marvel, and more. Marvel also announced Operation S.I.N., by Kathryn Immonen and Rich Ellis, which serves as both a prequel of sorts to the recent Original Sin event and a tie-in to Marvel's Agent Carter TV show; and Kanan: The Last Padawan, a five issue mini series also written by Greg Weisman and illustrated by Pepe Larraz, tying in to the Star Wars: Rebels animated series.

Most ComicsAlliance readers are familiar with the work writer Kathryn and artist Stuart Immonen have created together and separately at Marvel Comics, in such titles as Nextwave, Patsy Walker: Hellcat, Journey Into Mystery, All-New X-Men, and Wolverine and Jubilee...

Taking the reigns from Kieron Gillen after his departure was certainly going to be a challenge. Starting in April 2011 Gillen spent over a year on Journey into Mystery, until his highly regarded run on the series came to an end this fall...

A deliberately over-the-top, bombastic title designed to team up Spidey with other heroes from the Marvel Universe, the popular Avenging Spider-Man series has been written so far by Zeb Wells and drawn by artists Joe Madureira and Greg Land...

Kathryn and Stuart Immonen are the power couple of fun comics, with their separate work on Marvel books like "Nextwave" and the recent "Patsy Walker: Hellcat" miniseries exhaling breaths of anarchic and whimsical fresh air into the often overserious superhero world...