Marvel’s Runaways: Six Questions/Theories From the First Three Episodes

At midnight this morning/last night, Hulu dropped the first three episodes of Marvel’s Runaways. The TV adaptation, based off the comic book series of the same name, does a brilliant job of holding true to the spirit of the characters, and their stories, while introducing enough new material to keep die-hard fans of the comic on their feet.

After watching the first three episode here is a list of questions/theories I have (there will be no major spoilers from the comic book here)

****Spoilers through Episode 1.3 “Destiny”****

1) What is up with Amy’s death?

Amy is Nico Minoru’s sister and a new character in the Runaways universe. This is a pretty big departure from the comic books where all the kids were only children. The pilot takes place on the second anniversary of Amy’s death, which also happens to be the anniversary of the Pride’s annual teen sacrifice party. Here is where questions regarding Amy’s death arise. I don’t think that the Minoru’s sacrificed their own daughter. While all members of The Pride are decidedly evil, the TV show paints a more personal and human side of the parents that comics did not. Even Tina Minoru showed some remorse before sacrificing Destiny, so I doubt she would sacrifice her own daughter, Amy. I think that Amy committed suicide due to the way that everyone has reacted or talked about her death. This brings me to my second question: if Amy was already dead, did they decide to offer her dead body to that light machine instead of a random runaway? I hope not, but really, who knows?

2) How did Amy fit into the group?

This is a smaller question, but I found Amy’s role in the Runaways clique a bit confusing. At first, it seemed as though Alex was in love with Amy, but that doesn’t pan out because he is really in love with Nico. Also, Amy wasn’t in that happy gang picture Alex sent out to everyone. So was Amy a part of this friend group, or just Nico’s older sister that came to the annual Pride parties?

3)What does Victor Stein’s machine do?

In the comics, The Pride sacrifices young girls to the Gibborim gods. The high tech light pod that Victor Stein uses is new. In the episode “Rewind” it was implied that this was the first year that The Pride used the machine at their ceremony, so what were the sacrifices before that like? Why did they assume that THIS would be their last sacrifice?

4) What is that creepy body in The Church of Gibborim?

So the old decrepit dude with the high tech face mask is also novel to the TV adaptation of Runaways? This guy is in a private locked room that only Leslie Dean can get into and he seems to be intertwined with the sacrifice. Does sacrificing the girls give him life? In the past has it been temporary and the Stein Machine was supposed to make it permanent? Also, that dude is totally Leslie Dean’s father, right?

5) What’s the deal with Frank Dean?

While we are on the subject of the Dean family, let’s talk about Leslie’s husband, Dean. Unlike in the comics, Frank is not a part of The Pride and does not know it’s evil nature. He also has no role in the Church of Gibborim. He is basically just Leslie’s arm candy it seems. As the episodes progressed, Frank started to become more and more suspicious of his wife and the activities of the church. Also, when Catherine Wilder (Alex’s mom) was planning on using a memory wiping serum on Molly, it was revealed that same serum was once used on Frank and he had “Never been the same.” So did Frank discover what The Pride was doing in the past and they wiped his memories? What other traits of Frank changed after the injection?

6) How do these kids have so much free time before school?

Maybe not the most important question on this list, but one that I felt needed to be addressed. Alex had time to get dressed and play video games before going into the kitchen to eat the pancakes his mother made, and then driving off to school. That is nothing compared to Karolina who got dressed to attend Church of Gibborim services before asking her mom to sign a permission slip to travel to San Francisco THAT NIGHT, and driving off to school. It’s like the world of Rosewood where the Liars would run 500 errands before attending their one class for 10 minutes.

So those are my six pressing questions I had after the first three episodes of Runaways. I also wanted to point out how much I appreciated the extra depth that the show put into the character of Chase Stein. While his introduction to the comic was a panel where Victor Stein punched him in his face, the subject of his abuse was rarely discussed. He was the stupid jock that made inappropriate jokes and was really good at figuring out how machines worked. I didn’t feel any connection with his character until the end of the first volume. That is different on this show, though. Before we even see Chase, the camera scans his room and there is a shot of a lacrosse trophy on top of AP Calc textbook, a shot of his calculus notes, and then a shot of a baseball trophy.

Chase hasn’t even been introduced yet, and we can see the duality of his character. He is struggling to please his father by being this academic while pursuing his dreams of being an athlete.

Let me know what questions you guys have, or if you have any more theories about what is going on in Marvel’s Runaways!