“Try not to die!" Runaways Appreciation 2019

[Personamanx]

So if the Ultron Agenda is an actual event-ish thing rather than a heavily promoted Iron Man arc, does anyone want Victor to be involved?

[H-E-D]

Eh, I dunno, I'd have a hard time seeing how something like that would mesh well with the book right now.

[King_Thor13]

So if the Ultron Agenda is an actual event-ish thing rather than a heavily promoted Iron Man arc, does anyone want Victor to be involved?

It'd be a lot more interesting if it were a Pym-Ultron event with the entire family involved, rather than just a self-contained Tony Stark: Iron Man arc. I'd love to see Nadia, Viv & Victor in there. And adorable little Sparky.

[Beetle]

If Victor shows up in Tony Stark's book maybe he can try to get an internship at Stark Industries again. He's got a body, he should get a job and help with the household expenses.

Of course the last time he did a job for Tony Stark it didn't end well.

[Personamanx]

Eh, I dunno, I'd have a hard time seeing how something like that would mesh well with the book right now.

True enough, it would be a difficult fit in the main book. It would probably have to be a mini or one-shot. My only reasoning is that Rainbow Rowell has been radio silent on Runaways for the past few weeks when usually she boosts it as much as her novels. That either means she's doing something with them she can't speak of yet, or that she knows the book is ending.

It'd be a lot more interesting if it were a Pym-Ultron event with the entire family involved, rather than just a self-contained Tony Stark: Iron Man arc. I'd love to see Nadia, Viv & Victor in there. And adorable little Sparky.

Yeah, with Zub co-writing I could see Nadia/Viv/Sparky being relevant regardless. But there's a lot of Ultron family stuff that would be fun to unpack.

If Victor shows up in Tony Stark's book maybe he can try to get an internship at Stark Industries again. He's got a body, he should get a job and help with the household expenses.

Of course the last time he did a job for Tony Stark it didn't end well.

Hehe, yeah. Let's have Vic hang with his sister.

Tony absolutely owes him a favour though, hell he's screwed over all of the Runaways at least twice. But that's just Tuesday for Tony Stark.

[Inversed]

I know Jeremy Whitley (Unstoppable Wasp's writer) said that he didn't have Victor involved in the big family reunion party because he felt like Nadia and Viv wouldn't immediately forgive him over what happened before, and something like that would need more time/a full issue on its own to really deal with, so that's why I'm not sure exactly when would be the right time any writer would plan to tackle that and have Victor trying and re-connect with everyone.

I do think we're long overdue to have the Runaways interact with any of the other heroes ago, its been so long and especially with all they've gone through in this series, seeing how they react or interact with everyone else is something we really need to see. Technically I think the last time anything close to that occurred since the start of their series was in Thompson's Jessica Jones, where Karolina and Nico had a brief cameo whom Jessica called.

[Digifiend]

They do seem divorced from the wider continuity. Shouldn't what's happening in X-Men affect Molly?

[Personamanx]

I do agree with Whitley, that any reunion would take up more page space than an issue of Wasp would allow. I've said it before, and I'll say it again that I don't think anything positive would come from Victor meeting the Vision family again. Not initially anyway. A one-shot or single issue tie-in to a major Ultron event just seems like a good place to fit it. It'd even give Victor a chance to do some kind of heroic gesture to put him into better standing with his family.

With that being said, Runaways' isolation from other titles is generally a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Sure it's a series built on the universe's villain archetypes, and has had its fair share of guest stars. But I'm glad that the effect other titles/events have historically had on it have been minimal. Victor is just the only character who has any associated characters to him that exist regularly outside of the book.

They do seem divorced from the wider continuity. Shouldn't what's happening in X-Men affect Molly?

They've been downplaying her as a mutant recently. I don't think Rowell wants to get caught up in too much X-Men crap, and is choosing to have it not come into play. Her status as a mutant hasn't been explicitly retconned away, but the effect is largely the same.

[Sutekh]

They do seem divorced from the wider continuity. Shouldn't what's happening in X-Men affect Molly?

On the one hand, that's probably for the best. I like the current focus of Runaways, and it would be annoying to see it interrupted by War of the Realms or Age of X or whatever is going on outside of the hostel, even if, logically, Molly probably should have been zapped away to Nate's made up fantasy land, or the hostel should be buried under 10,000 feet of ice...

[Inversed]

I do agree with Whitley, that any reunion would take up more page space than an issue of Wasp would allow. I've said it before, and I'll say it again that I don't think anything positive would come from Victor meeting the Vision family again. Not initially anyway. A one-shot or single issue tie-in to a major Ultron event just seems like a good place to fit it. It'd even give Victor a chance to do some kind of heroic gesture to put him into better standing with his family.

With that being said, Runaways' isolation from other titles is generally a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Sure it's a series built on the universe's villain archetypes, and has had its fair share of guest stars. But I'm glad that the effect other titles/events have historically had on it have been minimal. Victor is just the only character who has any associated characters to him that exist regularly outside of the book.

Yeah, I do think its good that the Runaways haven't been effected by any of the events and so are able to tell their own story without interruption, I just think there is still some worth to move beyond the character's own personal isolation, to try and interact with others again. Like how #24's solicit referenced the West Coast Avengers and Superior Spider-Man, I would absolutely LOVE to see them interact with either of them, because that has so much fun potential.

They've been downplaying her as a mutant recently. I don't think Rowell wants to get caught up in too much X-Men crap, and is choosing to have it not come into play. Her status as a mutant hasn't been explicitly retconned away, but the effect is largely the same.

I remember even in Rowell's first arc they seemed to imply the possibility that Molly may not even be a mutant, and that her and her parents were just genetically altered, but it is very vague that you could easily ignore it if you chose.

[H-E-D]

I remember even in Rowell's first arc they seemed to imply the possibility that Molly may not even be a mutant, and that her and her parents were just genetically altered, but it is very vague that you could easily ignore it if you chose.

I took it more as that they weren't natural mutants, that Molly's grandma had specifically engineered her parents to express a certain power from the X-gene, and it got passed on.

Though, really, Molly not being a mutant wouldn't be the least textually supported retcon they could make. After all, Molly's parents did make a point of how she'd tested negative for the X-gene. Vol 2 and 3 just treated that as a fluke, but if they really had to, they could go back to that.

Now that Marvel owns Fox, though, I expect their days of going out of their way to retcon characters out of being mutants may be at an end.

[Drops Of Venus]

I remember even in Rowell's first arc they seemed to imply the possibility that Molly may not even be a mutant, and that her and her parents were just genetically altered, but it is very vague that you could easily ignore it if you chose.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was editorial mandate to retcon her mutant origins so she could be more like her MCU self. I know Rainbow herself wouldn't want to do that (she said they were deliberately not watching the show to avoid ''copying'' anything from there), but it's something I can see editorial asking her to do at the time. It's pretty much what happened to Squirrel Girl; Ryan North retconned her mutant status in the very first issue of the post-SW series and even made a joke about her not being allowed to legally be a mutant anymore (which is what makes me think it was an editorial mandate). Around a year after that, they announced that Doreen was going to be the female lead in a New Warriors TV show. We also got the Runaways show announcement around the same time, so it's possible they were already thinking of a retcon for Molly as well. Then in late 2017 came the revelation that Disney was trying to buy FOX, and maybe they decided to slow down a little, and that's possibly why the retcon never ended up being official in the book.

[Sutekh]

Secondary mutation - doesn't show up on any tests for mutation. 'Cloaked' X-gene.

Seems like a useful adaptation in a world full of Sentinels and mutant 'cures' and 'Friends of Humanity...'

[Digifiend]

I took it more as that they weren't natural mutants, that Molly's grandma had specifically engineered her parents to express a certain power from the X-gene, and it got passed on.

Molly's powers aren't the same as her parents' though. Aren't they telepaths, whereas Molly's power is super strength?

[Personamanx]

I took it more as that they weren't natural mutants, that Molly's grandma had specifically engineered her parents to express a certain power from the X-gene, and it got passed on.

Though, really, Molly not being a mutant wouldn't be the least textually supported retcon they could make. After all, Molly's parents did make a point of how she'd tested negative for the X-gene. Vol 2 and 3 just treated that as a fluke, but if they really had to, they could go back to that.

Now that Marvel owns Fox, though, I expect their days of going out of their way to retcon characters out of being mutants may be at an end.

Yes, I think that's a fair interpretation. Granny Hayes genetically altered her children to have specific powers. Perhaps not an X-Gene per se, but it's not like artificial X-Genes haven't been a thing before. Molly simply inherited a rather sneaky X-Gene, and developed separate abilities from her parents. That is assuming that her strength isn't just TK.

That is true as well, after making a point of having tested her for an X-Gene everyone just kind of accepted that she was a mutant without looking into it. She wound up in X-Corps care after the Pride was defeated, which kind of implies that she's a mutant. But Molly wouldn't be the first non-mutant the X-People accidentally cared about.

I would hope. Like I said, I don't mind playing down the mutant connection to keep the series standing more alone but it's something you can also derive stories from.