(upbeat rock music)
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is getting bigger
all the time but between the Iron Mans
and the Jessica Joneses and the Captain Americas,
there's a glaring hole, chill-ass teens.
Where are our TV shows about teenagers
in the Marvel Universe, you might be asking.
Well, the answer is coming to Hulu in 2017.
Marvel has tapped Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz,
the creators of Gossip Girl, The O.C. and Chuck
to bring its fan favorite comic Runaways to Hulu.
While many comic book fans were stoked,
many other people were like, wait,
Joan Jett is in the Marvel Universe?
No, she isn't, but don't worry.
Today on The Dan Cave, I'm gonna tell you
everything you need to know about Marvel's Runaways.
Now, quick warning, the following will contain spoilers
for the Runaways, so now's your chance to run off
into the forest and create a new life for yourself
if you don't wanna know what's gonna happen.
Are you still here?
Good, let's do this.
Created in 2003 by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona,
The Runaways is based on a question that every teen
has asked him or herself at one point or another.
What if my parents were secretly supervillains?
Well, that's exactly what happens to the six teenagers
at the center of The Runaways, who discover that
their parents were members of The Pride,
a secret organization of supervillains
who ruled over Los Angeles.
Now the members of The Pride held a charity gala every year
at the Wilder family's mansion in Malibu.
Except it wasn't actually a charity gala.
It was actually an occult ceremony
known as the Ritual of Blood, in which
they would sacrifice a human being.
Now, usually the parents were able to get away with this
under the guise of the gala, but this time around,
their guys witnessed them murdering a young woman
during the ceremony and did what any one of us would do.
Ran the hell away.
The six kids in question, Nico Minoru, Chase Stein,
Gertrude Yorkes, Karolina Dean, Molly Hayes and Alex Wilder
decide to team up to find evidence
that would implicate their parents in the murder.
But these aren't just six average teenagers
with the powers of unfathomable sarcasm and eye rolling.
These teens inherited incredible abilities
and/or stole equipment and gear from their folks,
and then they gave themselves some cool code names
which they used very briefly.
Nico Minoru, AKA Sister Grimm,
is a powerful witch with magic powers.
Alex Wilder doesn't need a code name, cause
he's a baby genius with a knack for strategy and leadership.
Chase Stein calls himself Talkback and wields
his father's flame manipulating gauntlets, the Fistigons.
Cool name.
Molly Hayes goes by Bruiser and is a mutant
with super strength and nigh invulnerability.
Karolina Dean dubs herself Lucy in the Sky
and is actually an alien with solar powers.
And Gertrude Yorkes, AKA Arsenic, has a telepathic link
with a genetically engineered velociraptor named Old Lace
because comics.
Unfortunately, the police prove to be
no help to our titular Runaways.
In fact, their parents manipulated the evidence
to frame their own kids for murdering the girl
that they themselves had ritually sacrificed.
Dick move, parents.
After taking refuge in the ruins of an old mansion,
they use a special decoder ring
to decipher the mysterious book known as The Abstract.
Upon reading The Abstract, they learn the story
all about how their parents got twist turned upside down.
The Pride first came together in 1985,
assembled by the Gibborim,
a trio of six-fingered giants
who just so happened to be Elder Gods.
You know, H.P. Lovecraft style?
And like any good Elder Gods worth their salt,
they wanted to cleanse the Earth of the human race.
To do so, they brought together six couples,
which included time travelers, crime bosses,
alien invaders, mad scientists, telepathic mutants
and dark wizards, and gave them untold riches
and enhanced their powers so they could control
the City of Angels, AKA Los Angeles.
The Pride would then have 25 years to lay the groundwork
required to exterminate all of mankind.
Oh, and I should say it bears mentioning
that only six of the members who best served The Pride
would be allowed to rule over paradise on Earth.
The other six would be obliterated
with the rest of humanity.
You know, that old chestnut.
That old, you made a deal with an Elder God
but there were untold consequences
so you better you were a good evil intern chestnut.
(laughs) Yikes.
Things eventually came to a head though,
when the kids interrupted the Pride's ceremony
to give the Gibborim the power to destroy all mankind.
Man, kids, always ruining their parents' night out.
Just when it seemed like the Runaways
were about to finally get one over on their parents though,
things took a left side onto Oh (bleep) Boulevard
because it was revealed that one of their number
was a mole, who was secretly sympathetic to their parents.
Whom, you ask?
Well, you should really read the comic if you wanna know.
I don't really wanna spoil things for you.
But I'm also happy to tell you
that it was Alex Wilder all along.
Alex did it, he was the mole.
He had actually discovered his parents' secret
long before the others did,
and remained secretly loyal to The Pride.
But in spite of this betrayal,
The Runaways were actually able to stop their parents
and prevent them from giving the soul of the girl
that they murdered to those hungry, hungry hippos
we know as the Gibborim.
Unfortunately, this also had the side effect
of making the Gibborim attack
and apparently slaughter both their parents and Alex,
which just sounds like a horrible way to go.
Murdered by an Elder God who was hungry for souls so
he doesn't find anything else, so he has to feast on yours.
(sighs) Yikes.
In the wake of their parents' defeat,
The Runaways met up with Captain America,
who had them placed in various foster homes
and special facilities across this great nation.
But true to their name, our heroes
just missed each other too darn much and ran away,
getting the gang back together to protect Los Angeles
from the power vacuum created by their parents' absence.
And thus, the original saga of The Runaways came to an end,
mainly because Marvel cancelled the book after 18 issues.
But over time, they realized they had a cult classic
on their hands and they revived it
several times over the next several years.
This time, they had altered lineups
and they would bring them back
to take part in massive events
like House of M and Secret Wars.
In Secret Wars, they actually found themselves
in Victor Von Doom's Institute for Gifted Youths
in Doomstadt, where they discovered that the final
in final exams was more literal than
they could have possibly imagined.
And you thought you had it bad.
I know you're going back to school right now,
but just remember, you could be in a weird murder world,
and I'm not talking about Arcade's version,
where The Runaways also went at one point, crazy stuff.
So what can you expect from the show?
Well, personally, I think they'd be fools
not to follow that original 18 issue storyline
because there is so much rich narrative to mine there.
But people are wondering, is it gonna
be connected to the larger MCU?
I think it could be, because The Runaways encountered
many of their Marvel characters on their journeys,
namely Cloak and Dagger, who are getting their own TV series
on Freeform, formerly ABC family.
And if you look at who owns Hulu and who owns ABC Family,
it's all stemming back to Disney and ABC Television.
The Runaways also encountered other high profile figures
like Spider-Man, Captain America and Iron Man, to name a few
but I do think it's unlikely we're gonna see Tony Stark
popping up on Hulu any time soon.
However, smart money says there's gonna be
references aplenty to the large events going on in the MCU,
so you'll still feel like you're a part of it.
But what do you guys think?
What do you want from a Runaways series?
Who should star in it?
Let me know in the comments below
and while you're there, give me a runaway thumbs up.
Now, be sure to like and subscribe,
or else you might miss next week's thrilling episode,
in which we discuss the story of a fixer
for a corporate law firm who tries to save a guilt-ridden
attorney torpedoing a class action lawsuit by day,
and takes off his clothes by night to do the McNasty
as a male stripper in Magic Michael Clayton.
Until next time, keep on digging.
(electronic music)