Let’s Talk About The Runaways

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Our Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. drought will soon come to an end…but not this week.

Last week, I talked a bit about what the upcoming The Inhumans show might look like. There is another show, however, that I am looking forward to much more.

The Runaways (no, not the band) was a comic created by comic legend Brian K. Vaughan and even had an arc written by Joss Whedon himself. It is beloved by many, and I am not the exception to this rule – these characters are more near and dear to my heart than any other Marvel characters.

The series has been a favorite at Marvel Studios and has been strongly considered for a TV series or movie pretty much as long as it has existed, even going as far as opening casting on a 2012 movie before dropping it in favor of The Avengers. Recently, it has been picked up by Hulu for a pilot episode and a first season of written scripts, and has started hiring writers. Fingers crossed!

The Runaways is about a group of teenagers who find out that their parents are secretly a cabal of supervillains running Los Angeles called The Pride, who are working in servitude of giant god-like creatures called the Gibborim bent on destroying the world. The kids inherit their super-abilities and make a run for it, determined to take their parents down – except one, who is secretly working with The Pride.

Let’s take a look at the heroes themselves so we can have an idea of who might appear.

Alex Wilder

Sixteen year old Alex is the first Runaway we meet, and is the voice of reason – he refuses to take a “codename” and has no superpower, aside from using his superior logic and intellect and a decoder ring to translate the Pride’s manifesto, The Abstract. Alex leads the Runaways, much like his parents and crime bosses Geoffrey and Catherine Wilder lead The Pride.

Nico Minoru

Nico is a sixteen year old geek-girl-turned-goth, and the object of Alex’s affection. After finding out her parents Tina and Robert are dark sorcerers, Nico steals her mother’s soul-bound weapon The Staff of One, a magical artifact capable of casting any spell – but can never cast the same spell twice. She takes on the codename “Sister Grimm”, from her old online screen name. For a little crossover action, look out for her mom Tina Minoru and her Staff of One guarding the sanctums in Doctor Strange!

Karolina Dean

Karolina makes being the seventeen year old vegan sweetheart daughter of Hollywood superstars Frank and Leslie Dean look easy, and for her it was; at least, until she had to come to terms with her feelings for other girls, and the fact that she is the daughter of evil aliens trying to destroy the world. Taking off her MedAlert bracelet, Karolina assumes her colorful true Majesdane form, a bright being of rainbow light flying through the air. It’s no wonder she calls herself “Lucy in the Sky”.

Gertrude Yorkes

Rebellious and cynical fifteen year old Gert always suspected her parents Dale and Stacey were evil, she just didn’t think they were time-travelling cat burglars from the future. Breaking into her own house for clues against the Pride, she discovers her birthright – a genetically engineered deinonychus that is psychically linked to her, commissioned by her parents in the future. Gert decides on the codename “Arsenic” to match her pet dinosaur’s name, “Old Lace”.

Chase Stein

The oldest of the group, eighteen year old Chase is seen as a disappointment by his parents Janet and Victor for choosing athletics over grades. This is understandable, as he discovers his parents are actually mad scientists, and he steals a pair of X-Ray goggles designed to see through clothes and flame-controlling gauntlets called “Fistigons”. Dubbed “Talkback” for his big mouth, Chase is also the primary pilot of the kids’ robotic frog-like vehicle they stole from their parents, The Leapfrog.

Molly Hayes

The youngest of the original group, energetic eleven year old Molly has an affinity for goofy animal hats and cutesy-talk – though she is actually much smarter than she lets on. She doesn’t fully believe her parents Gene and Alice are evil telepathic mutants like the other Runaways claim. A mutant herself, Molly has super-strength, calling herself “Princess Powerful” (though the rest of the team insists on “Bruiser”). Molly gets mad when superheroes try to separate her from her friends, beating up the likes of Wolverine, Darkhawk, Punisher and Cloak. After exerting her abilities, Molly immediately falls asleep.

Victor Mancha

A later addition to the team after one of the Runaways dies, Victor thinks he is a regular geeky sixteen year old – until he discovers that those were false memories implanted in his two year old android brain by his creator, Ultron. Victor is originally taken hostage by the Runaways after discovering from a time-travelling Gertrude from the future named “Heroine” that he will become a supervillain named “Victorious”, and soon after learns that he is an android capable of manipulating anything with a electromagnetic field.

Xavin

Seventeen year old Prince/Princess Xavin is an alien Super-Skrull in training.  Having no fixed gender, Xavin freely shapeshifts between human, skrull, male and female forms at will. First introduced as Karolina’s betrothed in an intergalactic arranged marriage, the stuck-up and militaristic Xavin becomes an indispensable member of the team, possessing all the abilities of the Fantastic Four and more: shape-shifting, pyrokinesis, invisibility, rock-like skin, psionic force fields, super-strength and elasticity.

Klara Prast

Being a fellow mutant and close to Molly’s age, twelve year old Klara immediately bonds with “Princess Powerful”. Born on a farm in Switzerland, Klara emigrated to America after her mother discovered her ability to control and communicate with plants and deemed her a witch, marrying her off to a abusive middle-aged man – hey, it was the 1900’s, after all. Klara was rescued from the past and brought to present day by Karolina Dean. Still very conservative in her thinking, the shy and quiet Klara struggles to adapt to modern life, escaping in a new-found love for video games and her friends. Molly calls her “Tower of Flower”, but she much prefers “Rose Red”.