Remake & Reboot: Marvel’s RUNAWAYS Series

The major comic houses of Marvel and DC might rely primarily on characters created over a half-century ago, but from time to time they are prone to try new things, and from time to time, those work. Marvel’s Runaways, created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona, is one of those. While the Runaways series was cancelled back in 2009, it’s remained a cult favorite among fans and one of the projects Marvel Studios has seen with the most mainstream appeal and movie potential. But the characters have had a hard road in comics as outlined in our article “Lost & Found: Marvel’s Runaways” earlier this year, but that doesn’t mean there’s no potential for a comic series once again. In fact, they’re in the near identical spot the X-men were in the early 70s before Len Wein and Dave Cockrum revived the flagging characters. Here’s how we’d propose the Runaways title found a comic series to call home in 2012.

The Concept:

The core of the Runaways concept is that it’s a team made of the children of super villains, rebelling against their families and creating a new family amongst each other. It’s teenage rebellion played out in superhero comics, ironically referencing the superhero genre while becoming part of it in their own way. In their previous incarnations they’ve played around the edges of Marvel’s larger continuity and sometime snot at all, but given the event-driven nature of superhero comics these days that’s become a death wish. For this to work, the Runaways need to play with the ongoing continuity events of the Marvel Universe, but play it smart.

In this new series, imagine if you push that original concept of teenage kids not trusting their parents into the entire adult population of the Marvel U. What if the Runaways learn they can’t trust any adults; their villainous parents with good reason, but what if by bad luck or misconception they run against that same thing even when working with big superhero teams like the Avengers, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four? There’s already three ongoing schools for kid superheroes inside Avengers Academy, Wolverine & The X-Men and the kids inside the FF’s Baxter Building, but what if the Runaways are played off as the rebellious dropouts fighting with each other but banding together against the adults who want to tell them what to do.

The Runaways: Don’t Trust Adults.

The Creators:

The Writer – Brian Wood: If there’s one writer who seems tailor made to bring this series back to life, it’s Brian Wood. He’s written the rebellious type in everything from Channel Zero to DEMO to New York Four/Five, and he’s currently doing X-Men and Ultimate Comics X-Men. But Wood’s never been able to rebuilt anything from the ground up at Marvel as of yet, and seeing him remaking the Runaways from the ashes of what’s come before into a new concept would be something spectacular to watch.

The Artist – Matteo Scalera: It was an easy choice to consider partnering Wood with some of his previous collaborators like Becky Cloonan or Ryan Kelly on this, but I think that isn’t always the best way to go and it limits the possibilities. Matteo Scalera is currently drawing Boom!’s Valent The Outcast, but is being pulled into Marvel helping out on Wolverine & The X-Men for a couple months now. Scalera possesses the core sensibilities to make superheroes work, but his style skews that into a more dynamic and diverse area that would be great to build up tone for a Runaways series.

Comments

  1. I would definitely buy this if it was a real thing. Excellent article.

  2. Runaways was my favorite series. Why did Marvel cancel it?

    • Poor sales. Despite the series being awesome, and consistently getting stellar reviews it literally never sold well.

    • Marvel did try to give it a jolt by bringing in Whedon and then Moore, but neither writer managed to successfully capture the magic that BKV did with Alphona…or so I heard.

  3. Brian Wood is a great choice. Then again, I’d be happy if he wrote every comic!

  4. I like the choice of Matteo Scalera, but when David LaFuente was drawing the covers it just felt right. I would want him back doing interiors if they rebooted the series.

  5. Pass.

  6. i wish they would bring back the runaways!! but dont start where it left off that last run was no good. maybe it’ll come back when the movie goes into pre.

  7. It was shocking where it left off. But Chase has to be fine because he just appeared in Avengers Academy along with Nico Victor Molly Koaralina Klara and Old Lace.

  8. As much as that sound like a cool idea I don’t see how that could work as the main thrust of the series. Would it be them going around to the different schools, hanging around and telling all the kids adults are crap ? That’s pretty flimsy frame work for a series. My idea for a Runaways relaunch would be them going around the globe in order to stop the resurrection of their parents and the Giborim by the underlings of the Pride.

  9. I would so buy this.

  10. When I saw the headline for this “reboot” I thought… Hmmm, Brian Wood would be great… and then I clicked on the article and saw I wasn’t alone thinking that.