Is it just us? Are we the only ones who think the new Runaways sounds off-the-wall bonkers? And even worse, totally unnecessary?
Quick recap: Marvel is relaunching the modern classic Runaways by reimagining it completely with Secret Wars, bringing in an entirely new roster of runaways (with one exception), a new concept, a new setting... new pretty much everything.
The story is set at a prestigious school called the Doom Institute, located in Battleworld's capital city. Doom himself hand-picked every student, no doubt grooming them using his own twisted ideals. A group of students realize what's up, ditch the school and go on the run across Battleworld.
It's not a terrible concept. What we still don't understand is why they had to replace (almost) all of the characters. Why reinvent a wheel that wasn't broken? Molly Hayes is back as the only original Runaway in the cast, but she's joined by a crew of unlikely recruits, some of whom don't even make sense. Several adults from the Marvel universe are here, but their ages have been inexplicably rewound. (The alternate dimensions thing will probably be employed to explain this.)
Among the newly "young again" characters are Jubilee of the X-Men, Cloak & Dagger and Bucky Barnes. It's the last one that has us the most confused, because he's shown in the preview artwork as already possessing his mechanical arm. When Ed Brubaker first resurrected Bucky as the Winter Soldier, the story explained that the new arm was given to him as an adult. What's more, he was never the Winter Soldier as a teenager. He was still Captain America's sidekick. That doesn't appear to be the case here. In the interior art (below), we're getting a strong Damian Wayne vibe from Bucky.
Yeah, we know the whole Battleworld thing is one whopping big "What if?" excuse to do anything the writers can dream up. But this pushes the concept to its outermost limits.
There's also Amadeus Cho on the team, who's the one noob who actually makes perfect sense. He's already a runaway kind of character, his incredible mind making it impossible for him to fit in with kids his own age. He could've easily hung out with Chase, Nico and the others back in the day. Hulk's son Skaar rounds out the roster. Because every super-team has to have a Hulk, apparently.
The solicitation reveals that the Doom Institute's headmaster is a "diabolical supervillain." The artwork depicts a headmaster character who resembles Taskmaster, but he doesn't really fit that description. There will be some "new faces" among the cast as well, and the preview artwork Marvel's provided shows plenty of mutants and other unusual characters within the halls of Doom High. Might one of those new faces be Valeria Richards? She's featured on issue #1's variant cover, and Secret Wars readers already know she's set to play an important role in the main story.
Runaways is being written by Lumberjanes' Noelle Stevenson, with art by Uncanny Avengers' Sanford Greene. Their first issue goes on sale on June 17, and we wish them the best and hope they prove us wrong. But losing the old Runaways cast just makes our hearts sink.
The only way we're down with this Runaways is if it concludes — coinciding with the ending of Secret Wars — with the return of the original team. And while we're at it, we want Gert back too. The universe is being reborn, isn't it? So rewrite history and resurrect Gert.
We mean it, Marvel. Bring her back, or the genetically engineered velociraptor gets it.
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