Runaways Appreciation 2018

[Personamanx]

A very nice article on the new series by Oliver Sava. Spoilers aplenty, but I very much agree with most of it.

Also, it appears that the television series will be making it's American broadcast debut this coming Thursday after the Cloak and Dagger finale.

[Drops Of Venus]

Also, it appears that the television series will be making it's American broadcast debut this coming Thursday after the Cloak and Dagger finale.

That's interesting. I guess it makes sense, as it kills several birds with one stone:

1. They get to expand the audience for the TV show.
2. They give Freeform a new Marvel show that could be a hit, considering how well received C&D was.
3. They create their very own corner of teen Marvel shows, maybe even making it easier for a crossover to happen.

[Sutekh]

I love the snark when Chase says he brought his Fistagons and Victor says, "They have to be useful sometime. Law of averages."

Heh.

[Wiccan]

A very nice article on the new series by Oliver Sava. Spoilers aplenty, but I very much agree with most of it.[/URL]

Yeah, I think I agree with everything pretty much. Rowell really deserves those props for being able to translate her writing from books to comics so well.

That's interesting. I guess it makes sense, as it kills several birds with one stone:

1. They get to expand the audience for the TV show.
2. They give Freeform a new Marvel show that could be a hit, considering how well received C&D was.
3. They create their very own corner of teen Marvel shows, maybe even making it easier for a crossover to happen.

I wonder what it means for/about Hulu though? Like, Netflix would never air their shows on some channel. Maybe the show had good ratings for Hulu standards but still didn't really bring enough new subscribers... And the idea is that people watch the show on Freeform now and decide to subscribe on Hulu for the second season when that starts.

[Personamanx]

That's interesting. I guess it makes sense, as it kills several birds with one stone:

1. They get to expand the audience for the TV show.
2. They give Freeform a new Marvel show that could be a hit, considering how well received C&D was.
3. They create their very own corner of teen Marvel shows, maybe even making it easier for a crossover to happen.

Yeah, it seems like a decent strategy. ABC's involvement with the show must have made it simple enough to work out. As you said, they're going to possibly reach a non-Hulu audience and give Freeform a thematically similar show to keep up their Summer ratings. Hopefully it's second premiere does well.

With this news, I could really see the crossover actually happening. Runaways first season existed in isolation of every other MCU show/Film, and I didn't expect that to change. But now, it could very much happen. A mini series during the off season perhaps.

Yeah, I think I agree with everything pretty much. Rowell really deserves those props for being able to translate her writing from books to comics so well.

So many prose to comics writers struggle at the beginning, but I could swear she's been at it for years with how well everything reads.

[Drops Of Venus]

I wonder what it means for/about Hulu though? Like, Netflix would never air their shows on some channel. Maybe the show had good ratings for Hulu standards but still didn't really bring enough new subscribers... And the idea is that people watch the show on Freeform now and decide to subscribe on Hulu for the second season when that starts.

Hulu is not really the same as Netflix, though. It only streams in two countries and it doesn't look like it's as popular as Netflix in the USA (I mean, back when the show was announced as a Hulu original, I remember a loooot of complaining about how it should've been on Netflix instead), so advertising their product through other platforms is probably a smart way to disseminate their content. For instance, they aired the show on Showcase in Canada, and on SyFy in the UK, and it's likely this trend will continue with other channels in other countries. And maybe seeing the reception of the show on those broadcast channels made them realize there is a potential audience to explore in the USA too, and if it pays off with good ratings, that would be an extra incentive to keep the show going. I think it's just a case of ''let's use all of the help we can get, even if we're doing fine''.

[Digifiend]

We already know they're keeping the show going, season 2 was announced already.

I wonder if this move was planned months ago, and is why they didn't pick up New Warriors?

[Johnrevenge]

So many prose to comics writers struggle at the beginning, but I could swear she's been at it for years with how well everything reads.

I remember in one of the earlier interviews she gave that she was a fan of the original run, so I think that is one of the factors of why she is doing really great with Runaways. If she worked in other series she doesn't know a lot, she could have struggled a little more.

[Personamanx]

I remember in one of the earlier interviews she gave that she was a fan of the original run, so I think that is one of the factors of why she is doing really great with Runaways. If she worked in other series she doesn't know a lot, she could have struggled a little more.

Yeah it may have been different if she was hopping on Champions or X-23, but even still it's amazing how well she's doing. She's not the first writer of the kids to try and incorporate a narrator, but she's made it feel so natural and not overly wordy.

I've also found it interesting that despite largely claiming to only enjoy the original run she's been incorporating so much from their hiatus appearances into the current series. Never thought Doombot would be showing up in this book, and she's already stated she'd be addressing elements from Arena/Undercover/A-Force later. Heck, the only thing she hasn't referenced yet was their Dark Wolverine appearances.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, so far Vision (Mancha's vibranium addiction), and Avengers AI (Doombot) have been covered, plus the loose ends from the last series (Klara) and Karolina's relationship with Lightspeed (which had been established in Avengers Academy). But we still need to know about Nico's arm (she had a magical replacement from midway through Arena until A-Force, so why is it back to normal?), and Singularity (who hasn't been mentioned in any of the books the rest of A-Force have appeared in). Basically, Nico needs a focus arc soon. The last few focused on Chase, Molly, Gert, and Karolina, with Victor's story running in the background throughout. It's Nico's turn.

[Captain M]

I miss the show so much.

The kids, the relationships, Stacy&Dale, Tina, Janet, Leslie..

[Personamanx]

Yeah, so far Vision (Mancha's vibranium addiction), and Avengers AI (Doombot) have been covered, plus the loose ends from the last series (Klara) and Karolina's relationship with Lightspeed (which had been established in Avengers Academy). But we still need to know about Nico's arm (she had a magical replacement from midway through Arena until A-Force, so why is it back to normal?), and Singularity (who hasn't been mentioned in any of the books the rest of A-Force have appeared in). Basically, Nico needs a focus arc soon. The last few focused on Chase, Molly, Gert, and Karolina, with Victor's story running in the background throughout. It's Nico's turn.

Yeah, Nico definitely has a lot of potential plots to unload. Rowell mentioned on twitter that she was going to directly address the arm, but what else I'm not sure of. I would love to see Singularity show up or for A-Force's disbandment to be addressed, but we'll have to wait and see. I think it will be a while before everything feels like it's been addressed, she's doing her best to do so while still moving forward.

I kind of like how the new series is largely just about the crew getting back together, and dealing with the baggage that comes from that. During the hiatus we all pondered what could be the plot hook to get the team back together, I don't think it occurred to anyone that the characters WANTING to be together is all it would take. It's made for plenty of drama so far.

I miss the show so much.

The kids, the relationships, Stacy&Dale, Tina, Janet, Leslie..

The show definitely had a far better time developing the parents than the comics ever did. Half of the Pride never really rose above their villainous archetypes. Focusing equally on the Pride and the Runaways has definitely made for a different story, but I think the additional characterization to the parents significantly widens the show's appeal. As I've said before, it is my Sixty year old mother's favourite show that doesn't involve gardening.

[Personamanx]

Was going through Marvel Comics Unlimited this morning, and stumbled upon one "Runaways" related storyline I had not read. The final Six issues of "Iron Man: Legacy" from 2010, the "Industrial Revolution" arc. In which a homeless Tony Stark ends up unknowingly becoming a thorn in Geoffrey Wilder's side while trying to turn his life around on the streets of LA. Ultimately it comes down to a battle between the Pride, and the Illuminati which basically resolves with Tony Stark giving them free reign of the City as long as they don't bother a small community that helped Tony.

Kind of a weird ending that doesn't look good on Tony or the Illuminati, but during the arc we actually got to see the Pride being credible villains for once. I wouldn't half mind seeing more of that one day.

[Sutekh]

The show definitely had a far better time developing the parents than the comics ever did. Half of the Pride never really rose above their villainous archetypes. Focusing equally on the Pride and the Runaways has definitely made for a different story, but I think the additional characterization to the parents significantly widens the show's appeal. As I've said before, it is my Sixty year old mother's favourite show that doesn't involve gardening.

I like how the parents are very different people from each other, in the show. In the comics, they kind of were opposite-sex clones of each other, in some ways, with both of Nico's parents, for example, being kind of interchangeable magicians, and both of Molly's parents being mutants who seemed to have the same mutant power, etc. If there were one thing that I'd change in hindsight, it would be to have that in the original series, instead of, say, both of Karolina's parents being kind of identical (except for gender).

That said, it wasn't an ongoing series with years to flesh out the parents, unlike the show, which looks to indeed have years to dig deeper, it was a story about the kids, not the evil parents they were running away from in the first place.

I really like how Alex's parents, in particular worked out, with him being the gangster, and her being originally his lawyer, and now advanced in her career.

[Beetle]

Was going through Marvel Comics Unlimited this morning, and stumbled upon one "Runaways" related storyline I had not read. The final Six issues of "Iron Man: Legacy" from 2010, the "Industrial Revolution" arc. In which a homeless Tony Stark ends up unknowingly becoming a thorn in Geoffrey Wilder's side while trying to turn his life around on the streets of LA. Ultimately it comes down to a battle between the Pride, and the Illuminati which basically resolves with Tony Stark giving them free reign of the City as long as they don't bother a small community that helped Tony.

Kind of a weird ending that doesn't look good on Tony or the Illuminati, but during the arc we actually got to see the Pride being credible villains for once. I wouldn't half mind seeing more of that one day.

I remember that arc. On the one hand it was kinda cool seeing the Minorus and the Hayes match up against Dr. Strange and Xavier, on the other hand it kinda completely misses the point of the Pride.

Costumes aside, they weren't standard supervillains. They didn't fight heroes because their greatest weapon was their anonymity, they controlled the city behind the scenes through proxies. As soon as they get on the radar of the leaders of the Fantastic Four, Avengers, Atlantis, Inhumans, and the X-men then its game over and they've lost. Especially once the Sorcerer Supreme knows they exist and serve the Gibborim. He'll come knocking and ruin the sacrifices and then 20 years of preparation goes down the drain.