For my Speculative Chic Resolution Project 2020, I decided to distract myself from work by catching up on random things I’d never seen before on the new streaming service, Disney+.
What I should be working on: Rewrites of my first novel for its second edition release later in 2020.
What I watched instead: Season 1 of Marvel’s Runaways, which originally aired on Hulu in 2017.
The premise:
After discovering their parents are super-villains in disguise, a group of teenagers band together to run away from their homes in order to atone for their parents’ actions and to discover the secrets of their origins.
Minor (super-obvious) spoilers.
As Speculative Chic’s resident Marvel Cinematic Universe Fangirl-in-Chic, I’ve done my best to keep up with all Marvel film and television offerings. But there are limits to my power (and wallet), so I missed out on Runaways when it first aired on Hulu. With season 1 available on Disney+, I figured that was a great place to start catching up.
To be completely honest, I spent the first half of the season wondering when they would run away.
I’ve said before that I have no background in Marvel comics. Therefore, the only context I have for this television series is what I see on the screen. And this is definitely a weird one. See also: pet velociraptor.
Overall, this is a young adult show with young adult protagonists. It’s easy to see the stereotypical burgeoning superheroes within the kids. One with super strength, even though she has to take a nap afterward. One with weird glowy light that allows her to fly. One who can use a science-disguised-as-magic staff keyed to her DNA. One who can communicate with/control said pet velociraptor. One tech guy who makes rip-off Iron Man gauntlets. And the regular kid who ties everyone together. Together, they investigate the evil murderous cult their parents are part of!
Did we really just see our parents kill someone? (Image via imdb.com)
I appreciated two significant things about this show. The diversity in terms of race and sexual orientation (if not in economic class). And that the parent/adult characters are as well-developed as the kids. Also, that the parents aren’t just black-and-white villains. They’ve all been manipulated into contributing to a larger complicated plot, and while the manipulations continue throughout the first season’s episodes, it’s clear that they all love and support their kids. The best characters exist in shades of gray, and the one parent who truly verges on evil gets a pass from me because he’s played by James Marsters.
This is a show where secrets and interpersonal drama create all the conflict. The cast of characters is large enough that I didn’t get bored with any one particular story line. The kids are sympathetic even when making dumb teenage mistakes. The parents are sympathetic even when doing some pretty ridiculous cult-style murder.
Spoiler alert: The kids finally do run away in the season finale. I find myself invested enough to watch season 2 when it’s also available. Even if it’s been about 2 weeks since I watched, and I literally don’t remember a single character’s name. Except, ironically, the velociraptor’s.
Emotional support dinosaur. (Image via theworkprint.com)
Unfortunately this show isn’t available where I live at the moment, but you’ve convinced me to give it a try. Usually if it’s an MCU story that’s technically not something I can see in cinemas, I tend to gloss over it. But the premise of the children of villains running away to redeem their parents (hooray, a different kind of teenage rebellion!) seems interesting, and your analysis of the characters and the concept of grayness making for good drama has me keeping an eye out for when this makes it to my side of the world.