Superhero Origins: The Runaways
origins, comic books, superheroes, dc, marvel, the runaways, children, immortality, alex, chase, gert, karolina, nico, molly, battleworld, marvel universe, watchmojo,Superhero Origins: The Runaways
You think you and your parents had conflicts? Tell it to these guys. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we will explore the comic book origin of the Runaways.
As with most comic book characters, there are often re-imaginations and different versions to a character’s past. We have chosen primarily to follow the storyline which unfolded in 2003's Runaways #1, and 6 and 2004's Runaways #13 and was expanded upon in 2015's Runaways Vol. 4 #1.
The runaways are a group of youths: Alex, Chase, Gert, Karolina, Nico and Molly. For their entire lives, they'd been thrown together once a year when their parents all converged for an annual meeting at Alex's rather luxurious house. While the adults were off discussing their charitable activities for the coming year, the kids all hang out.
One year, Alex decided they should spy on their parents' gathering. Using a secret passage hidden in the game room, the kids were able to watch and listen to what they assumed would be a boring meeting. Turned out it was anything but boring.
For starters, they saw their parents sitting around a table dressed like super villains. Then the meeting got even weirder when their loving parents mercilessly slaughtered a young woman as part of a ritual sacrifice. This was apparently something they had been doing at each of their annual get-togethers. It was all part of their involvement in something called The Pride.
Shocked, the children didn't know what to do at first. They met up later that night to figure out a course of action. At Alex's urging, they contacted the police, but the cops didn't take them seriously.
Looking to get their hands on some evidence, the kids discovered instead a dinosaur living in a secret room in Gert's house. Meanwhile, their parents, suspicious of their children’s strange behavior, learned that their secret was out and began to hunt the children down. They even framed the kids for the murder of the girl they slaughtered at the meeting.
Fleeing, the Runaways hid out in the ruins of a strange mansion buried in a cave. They had secured a book written in a code which Alex was able to decipher.
From this book, they learned that their parents were brought together by three giant mystical beings known as the Gibborim. These beings planned to restore Earth to the paradise it once was by destroying all human life – save for six individuals who would be granted immortality. The twelve people here had been chosen to lay the groundwork for this plan over a 25 year span. In return, six of them would be allowed to live forever in the new paradise.
When Chase's mother became pregnant, she announced that she would give her chance at immortality to her unborn child. Soon after, each of the couples made the decision to become parents, sacrificing their own chances at immortality to give eternal life to their kids.
While The Runaways understood their parent’s motives, they knew they had to stop them and the Gibborim. Fortunately, some recent developments made it a little more likely that they could succeed. This is a comic book after all and It turns out that each of the Runaways had special powers. Molly was a mutant with super strength, Nico's parents had magical powers that were passed to their daughter and Chase stole powerful gadgets from his parents. Meanwhile, Karolina's family was from another world and she has several powers, including flight and Gert adopted the dinosaur her time traveling parents had hidden in the house. Alex was smart and crafty enough to come up with battle strategies and became the team’s first leader. With no other choice, they put their talents to good use and sought to save the world.
In 2015, Marvel relaunched the Runaways with a mostly new line-up and set on the Battleworld planet. Molly was still on hand, but now she was a student at the Victor Von Doom Institute for Gifted Youths. Other members of the new Runaways included the icy Frostbite, combustible Jubilee, teleporters Pixie and Cloak, energy-master Dagger, snake-haired Gorgon, superstrong Skaar and brainiac Amadeus. Like the original Runaways, the new team was forced to work together unwillingly. Hey, teamwork can be hard.
The Runaways have had a checkered history of cancellations and revivals but continues to be a vibrant part of the Marvel Universe. Who knows what the future holds for this determined band of misfits?
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