Runaways (comics)
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Runaways is a Marvel Comics comic book series created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona. The series features a group of teenagers who try to make up for the evil done by their supervillain parents by becoming superheroes. They are commonly referred to as "the Pride's kids" or "those kids in L.A." by other characters in the Marvel Universe, due to the team's lack of an official name and the majority of Marvel's characters being based in New York.
In 2006, the series won the Harvey Award for best continuing/limited series.
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[edit] Publication history
Runaways launched in 2002 as part of Marvel Comics' "Tsunami" imprint. After Marvel cancelled the Tsunami imprint in January 2003, the series moved to the "Marvel Age" imprint. In September 2004, the series ended at issue #18. Marvel revived the series in February 2005. Joss Whedon, a vocal fan of the book, will replace Vaughan for six issues [1], beginning with issue #25. Whedon had a letter printed in the letters column of Runaways, vol. 1 #18. Michael Ryan will provide the penciled artwork.[2]
Vaughan named the characters Geoffrey and Catherine Wilder after his parents[1] and Molly after his younger sister. Of the original team members, only Molly, Gert and Alex retained the names Vaughan used when pitching the series to Marvel. In the pitch, Gert was "Gertie"; Karolina was "Leslie", which Vaughan used instead as her mother's name; and Nico was "Rachel."[2] Despite being used infrequently during the first volume and not at all during the second, Marvel's handbooks and Web site refer to the characters by their superhero names.
[edit] Characters
[edit] The runaways
[edit] Original members
- Alex Wilder - The son of crime bosses, Alex leads the group at its inception but is later revealed to have betrayed them to their parents. Alex is killed by the Gibborim in the event.
- Gertrude Yorkes - The daughter of time-traveling criminals, Gert owns a genetically engineered deinonychus named "Old Lace", with whom she had an empathic bond. Gertrude is killed by Alex's father, Geoffrey Wilder.
- Karolina Dean - The daughter of alien invaders, Karolina can fly and manipulate solar energy. She is engaged to a Skrull named Xavin.
- Chase Stein - The son of mad scientists, Chase uses high-tech gadgets stolen from his parents and pilots the group's ship, the "Leapfrog". After the team's final encounter with the Pride in vol. 1, Chase loses the Fistigons (fire-manipulation gauntlets) and x-ray goggles. When Gert dies, Chase gains control of Old Lace, a copy of the Abstract, and a decoder ring.
- Molly Hayes - The daughter of evil mutants, Molly possesses super-strength. She often becomes extremely fatigued after exerting herself or using her invulnerability.
- Nico Minoru - The daughter of dark wizards, Nico carries the mystical "Staff of One," which allows her to cast spells, although she apparently can never use the same one twice. In the second series, she leads the group.
[edit] Later members
- Victor Mancha - The cyborg son of the robotic Avengers foe Ultron, Victor has electromagnetic powers. In a possible future, he destroys the Earth's superheroes, under the alias "Victorious."
- Xavin - The son of alien warlords, Xavin is a young Super-Skrull-in-training bethrothed to Karolina by their parents. Because of Karolina's sexuality, he changes into a female form for her.
[edit] Related groups
- The Pride - The Pride is a group of archetypical supervillains who keep their crimes secret from their children, the runaways. They are killed by their benefactors the Gibborim at the end of the first series. Later in the series, a new Pride is formed, led by a younger version of Alex's father, Geoffrey Wilder, and made up of Alex's Internet friends. This Pride is also disbanded when Alex's friends find out about the ultimate fate of mankind planned by the Gibborim.
- Excelsior - Founded by former teenaged superheroes Mickey Musashi and Phil Urich, Excelsior is a support group whose goal is to help former teenage superheroes to adjust to mundane lives and to dissuade other super-powered teenagers from becoming vigilantes.
- Cloak and Dagger - Cloak and Dagger are former runaway teenagers with superpowers who try to help runaways and abducted children.
[edit] Plot summary
Nico Minoru, Gertrude Yorkes, Chase Stein, Karolina Dean, Molly Hayes, and Alex Wilder meet at their families' annual gathering, where they see their parents performing the ritual sacrifice of a girl.[3] The teenagers run away, but before they go, each learns of their true heritage and takes weapons or discovers powers they didn't know they had. The runaways retreat to an underground hideout they call "the Hostel", a mansion buried during an earthquake. The teenagers learn that an ancient race called the Gibborim formed the Pride to help them destroy humanity, and they disrupt the ceremony that will give the Gibborim the power they need.
After engineering his friends' defeat, Alex reveals himself as a mole for the Pride. Molly successfully frees the sacrificed girl's soul, and the Gibborim destroy Alex for his failure. The Pride die when their undersea lair collapses, but the runaways escape in a vehicle called the "Leapfrog". They find the Avengers have arrived too late to save the day. With the runaways' parents dead, Social Services separates them. Months after the destruction of the Pride, the team reunites and retrieves Gert's dinosaur Old Lace. They fight the villains that move to Los Angeles in the wake of the Pride's death.
A future version of Gert warns the group about a man named Victor Mancha who betrayed the Avengers in her time. Before she dies, she tells them to kill Victor before he becomes too powerful. Gert's death, as well as the memory of Alex's betrayal, drive them to subdue Victor, a confused teenager whose superpowers activate for the first time. Victor's father Ultron kills Victor's mother and reveals that he created Victor to destroy the Avengers from within. With the help of the teenage superhero support group Excelsior, the runaways defeat Ultron, and Victor joins them.
A Skrull named Xavin appears and tells Karolina that, due to a pact between their parents, he is her fiancé. Xavin asks Karolina to marry him to stop the war between their races. She resists, revealing that she is a lesbian, but she is convinced after Xavin shapeshifts into a female form, and the two travel into space to be married. They later return after the wedding erupts into fighting.
Alex Wilder's online friends, thinking the members of the Pride were heroes, attempt a spell to bring Alex back, but a younger version of Geoffrey Wilder appears instead. Geoffrey unsuccessfully attempts to sacrifice Nico and then Chase, but he mortally wounds Gert when she tries to save Chase. Gert transfers control of Old Lace to Chase before she dies, and Chase leaves his friends, who bury Gert behind the Hollywood sign. Nico erases Geoffrey's memory and sends him back in time. Chase steals Geoffrey's decoder ring and his copy of the Abstract.
The runaways cope with the loss of Gert, and Nico begins a physical relationship with Victor.[4] On his 18th birthday, Chase attempts to sacrifice the soul of Lotus, one of Alex Wilder's online friends, to the Gibborim in exchange for Gert's resurrection, but they reject Lotus because she is not innocent. Chase tells Lotus to burn the Abstract but keeps some pages for himself.[5]
In the 2006 limited series Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways, part of Marvel Comics' "Civil War" event, Victor is damaged when S.H.I.E.L.D. agents try to apprehend the runaways, and the Young Avengers fly to Los Angeles to talk to them. S.H.I.E.L.D captures Wiccan, Hulkling, Karolina and Xavin and takes them to a high-security metahuman prison. The two teams join together and rescue their friends.
Xavin expresses confusion about his identity to Karolina,[6] and Chase learns from the Gibborim that the time during which he can resurrect Gert is short.[7] Chase tells Nico that he intends to sacrifice himself on Gert's behalf and shuts down Victor when he tries to intervene. He takes the Staff of One and leaves. Molly hears a voice that tells her to alert the others, and they follow Chase, using a urine trail that Old Lace leaves for them.[6]
The team finds the end of the trail behind a doughnut shop and leaves Molly behind with Victor. Using Chase's portal, they enter the realm of the Gibborim, only to find that the giants will not accept Chase as a self-sacrifice, since the choice to take his own life would taint his innocence. Without a suitable sacrifice, the giants instead move to consume Nico. As Victor regains consciousness, he and Molly enter the realm of the Gibborim to save Nico (thanks to a "Fastball Special"). Without their sacrifice, the Gibborim fade from reality. As the team returns to the Hostel, they notice one of their security robots has been destroyed. Xavin realizes that he did not make the group invisible when they floated out of the tar pits. Iron Man, the victor of the Marvel Civil War, greets the children with a squad of S.H.I.E.L.D. Cape-Killers. Meanwhile, in another plane of reality, the Gibborim come face to face with the person who alerted Molly to Chase's plans in the first place: Alex Wilder.
After an off-panel escape from Iron Man, Chase and the others are seen flying across the country in the Leapfrog, vandalizing five "Welcome to (state)" signs along the way. Reading Molly's journal, the team regains their emotional bond and resolves to continue their running.
[edit] Alternate Versions
[edit] Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness
Zombified versions of Chase Stein, Gertrude Yorkes, Karolina Dean and Nico Minoru are shown feasting upon the carcass of Old Lace in a four panel cameo within the pages of Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness #2.
[edit] Bibliography
- Runaways vol. 1 #1-18 (April 2003 - September 2004)
- Runaways vol. 2 #1- (February 2005 -)
- X-Men/Runaways (Free Comic Book Day 2006 offering)
- Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways (July 2006 - October 2006)
- Daily Bugle: Civil War Edition
- Runaways Saga (March 2007)
Runaways has been collected in the following digest-sized comic book collections trade paperbacks:
| Title | Material collected | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| Runaways Vol. 1: Pride & Joy | Runaways vol. 1 #1-6 | ISBN 0-7851-1379-7 |
| Runaways vol. 2: Teenage Wasteland | Runaways vol. 1 #7-12 | ISBN 0-7851-1415-7 |
| Runaways vol. 3: The Good Die Young | Runaways vol. 1 #13-18 | ISBN 0-7851-1684-2 |
| Runaways vol. 4: True Believers | Runaways vol. 2 #1-6 | ISBN 0-7851-1705-9 |
| Runaways vol. 5: Escape to New York | Runaways vol. 2 #7-12 | ISBN 0-7851-1901-9 |
| Runaways vol. 6: Parental Guidance | Runaways vol. 2 #13-18 | ISBN 0-7851-1952-3 |
| Runaways vol. 7: Live Fast (April 11, 2007) | Runaways vol. 2 #19-24 | ISBN 0-7851-2267-2 |
Runaways has also been collected in the following hardcovers:
| Title | Material collected | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| Runaways, Vol. 1 | Runaways vol. 1 #1-18 | ISBN 0-7851-1876-4 |
| Runaways, Vol. 2 | Runaways vol. 2 #1-12, X-Men/Runaways: Free | ISBN 0-7851-2358-X |
| Runaways, Vol. 3 (April 18, 2007) | Runaways vol. 2 #13-24 | ISBN 0-7851-2539-6 |
[edit] References
- ^ Runaways, vol. 2 #23 letters page
- ^ Runaways Vol. 1 Hardcover
- ^ Brian K. Vaughan (w), Adrian Alphona (p), David Newbold and Craig Yeung (i). "Pride and Joy" Runaways v1 #1 February 2003 Marvel Comics.
- ^ Brian K. Vaughan (w), Mike Norton (p), Craig Yeung (i). "Dead Means Dead" Runaways v2 #20 November 2006 Marvel Comics.
- ^ Brian K. Vaughan (w), Mike Norton (p), Craig Yeung (i). "Dead Means Dead" Runaways v2 #21 December 2006 Marvel Comics.
- ^ a b Brian K. Vaughan (w), Adrian Alphona (p), Craig Yeung (i). "Live Fast" Runaways v2 #23 February 2007 Marvel Comics.
- ^ Brian K. Vaughan (w), Adrian Alphona (p), Craig Yeung (i). "Live Fast" Runaways v2 #22 January 2007 Marvel Comics.
[edit] External links
- Brian K. Vaughan's official site
- Marvel Page on the Runaways
- Runaways cover artist Jo Chen's official site
- Comic Book DB Vol.1 page
- Comic Book DB Vol.2 page
- Comic Book DB X-Men/Runaways page
- Comic Book DB Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways page
| Marvel Comics Runaways | |
|---|---|
| Main characters | Karolina Dean • Molly Hayes • Victor Mancha • Nico Minoru Chase Stein • Alex Wilder • Xavin • Gertrude Yorkes • Old Lace |
| Villains | The Pride • Geoffrey Wilder • The Gibborim |
