Marvel's Runaways are less a team of superpowered adolescents -- now young adults -- than they are a chosen family forged together by young heroes whose blood relatives betrayed them. After several years together, they drifted apart and went their separate ways, but in the inaugural arc of the new Runaways ongoing series, writer Rainbow Rowell, artist Kris Anka and colorist Matthew Wilson brought the titular West Coast-based characters back together. And reuniting was just the first in a long line of challenges for them.
In Runaways #7 Rowell, Anka, and Wilson kick off the series next arc, “Best Friends Forever,” which finds the team wrestling with a number of challenges, including adapting their family dynamic in light of the individual changes each of them has undergone, dealing with one of their family's significant others and coping with the emotional traumas they endured while reuniting.
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CBR spoke with Rowell about how the Runaways cast will handle these difficulties, and the roles the city of Los Angeles -- and the Marvel Universe's most infamous Doctor -- will play in this next story.
CBR: Rainbow, your first arc wrapped with the Runaways reuniting. So approximately how much story time passes off panel between the end of issue #6 and when you pick up with the group in issue #7? And what's the overall group dynamic like at the start of this new arc?
Rainbow Rowell: Not much time at all. About a week. We pick up with the gang all reunited in the Hostel and getting reacquainted. There’s sort of a class reunion feeing. They feel nostalgic about the old days, and now it seems like they have another chance to be together again.
But of course it won’t be like it was before. Their roles have changed. Kris Anka’s cover for issue #7 is a dysfunctional family portrait -- Chase is the excited dad, Nico is the reluctant Mom -- and I think that really captures the dynamic going into the next arc. There’s a chasm between the Runaways who have been allowed to grow up -- and those who traumatically have not. Plus Molly isn’t just a kid they can drag around behind them like before… she’s a teenager now.
So, we’re going to see the Runaways try to find new ways to be there for each other.
Most of your cast endured some emotional gut punches in this first arc, but it seems to me Molly had to deal with a lot. She regained her chosen family, but at the expense of the life she had forged with her Grandma, who was revealed to be doing some ethically shady deeds and even appeared to resurrect Molly's mom. So, how's she holding up in this new arc?
I think when you experience trauma – as a child, especially – you sort of shove it down, so that you can keep your head up and keep moving. Molly projects utter resilience. But she’s just made a choice you should never have to make as a 13-year-old. And she’s experienced so much loss already.
This next arc digs into the sort of teenager Molly has become, and how she’s already building a life for herself outside of the Runaways. The other kids expect her to hide in the Hostel and play video games – and Molly is like, “I have stuff to do!”
What I admire about Molly is the way she keeps her heart open. She’s lost so much, but she’s still open to love and support. She sees the other Runaways as real family.
I imagine this is a bit of an adjustment period for Karolina as well, but it looks like in issue #8, her girlfriend Julie Power comes by. What's your sense of Julie? What's it like bouncing her off of Karolina's family?
Julie has been really lovely with Karolina in all of their appearances together. We definitely wanted to honor this relationship and make it an important part of Karolina’s story.
I love that Julie’s sort of an OG teen hero. She literally grew up in the game.
I personally related to her as an older sister. Looking back at old Power Pack stories, it really struck me how responsible she was. How she was looking out for her very young siblings through extremely dangerous situations.
So -- the fun of writing Julie with the Runaways is that she has been a very traditional superhero. Julie has been wearing a spandex costume since she was 10. She has a superhero nickname. (She has three!) Meanwhile, the Runaways are literal dropouts. They’re wearing jeans and eating tacos, and Julie is like, “Let me share these inspirational teamwork quotes I learned at the Avengers Academy!”
Last time we talked, you mentioned you were working on an arc that brings in two Marvel characters that have been important to your cast in the past. Is Julie one of those characters? And if so will we see that second character in this arc? What can you tell us about them?
Yeah, yeah -- Julie is one. And we’ll see the second one really soon. What I can tell you is that, for me, the fun of writing the Runaways is writing them in continuity. Kris and I both want to dig into how their past experiences have shaped these characters. We’re moving forward -- introducing another new character right away in this arc – but these kids will never escape their pasts.
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What else can you tell us about the action of the arc that starts in issue #7? Will this story see the Runaways make their return to West Coast-based crime-fighting?
Ha! Were they ever really involved in crime-fighting?
I think that in fine Runaways fashion, the problems will keep coming to them. And that the legacy of the Pride is something they’ll never truly escape.
This arc will also be about the ways that each of them are relating to their own powers and abilities – and to each other, obviously.
I mean, what I loved most about the original series was the relationships. The way the kids connect to each other, vibe off each other, fall for each other, break each other’s hearts… That’s the soul of this book, and what we put the most thought into every month.
What can you tell us about the antagonist(s) of this new arc? What kind of threat do they pose to the new life your cast is building for themselves?
What can I tell you? Almost nothing!
Wait. No. Have you seen the cover of issue #9? If you so, you know that Doom is on the horizon.
Interesting! Any other supporting cast members in this arc you want to hint, tease, or talk about?
I’m so happy to have the team back together on the page. We get a lot of questions about bringing in other Marvel characters or bringing back old Runaways characters. And like I’ve said, we’ll do some of that. But this is a book with six main characters -- plus Old Lace and a telepathic cat. We want to give each of them big juicy scenes every month, and that doesn't leave room for too many special guests.
Beyond that, I don’t want the book to lean too hard on anything gimmicky. I want the team to be strong and compelling on its own.
It looks like you'll continue your collaboration with Matt Wilson and Kris Anka on this arc, correct? What are some elements of this story and your previous one that they've contributed, which readers might not necessarily be aware of?
Yes! #blessed
I wrote the first arc before the book had artists, so I was sort of writing in a vacuum. (“Writing in a vacuum,” aka, “working with wonderful Marvel editor Nick Lowe.”) But then Kris Anka signed on, and with every issue, he and I were talking more and more, until we reached this really wonderful fluid state of always being in the middle of a Runaways conversation.
So I text him when I’m writing. He texts me when he’s drawing. We both get really excited about things like wardrobe, and especially how clothes express character. And we both love angst -- Kris and I like to try to break each other’s hearts, and then laugh maniacally when we imagine how heartbreaking the scenario will be for readers.
Matt Wilson hasn't given me his telephone number. So that’s a little more distant relationship [Laughs]
One funny thing Matt added to issue #7 -- I’d written that Molly’s school mascot was “the Wolverines” -- so Matt made the school colors blue and gold.
What I find happening on my end is that I start writing toward the artists. Especially Kris. I know which characters he likes to draw. I know which storylines he’s most invested in. We got an extra page in issue #7, and I decompressed his favorite scene into three pages -- so he’d have even more room to do all the expression and animation he’s so good at.
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Another interesting element of Runaways is that it's one of the few books Marvel is publishing right now that's set in Los Angeles, which means you can play with how the real world and fantastic world of the Marvel Universe collide. What's that like? Will the city start to play a larger role in upcoming issues?
Yeah, definitely. We had a few good LA moments in the first arc, and there are a few more coming up. Kris is an LA native, so the city and sun are baked into his Runaways work. Like -- even the characters have a very LA look about them.
Kris’s cover for issue #8 is especially beautiful -- Julie and Karolina flying over Santa Monica Pier.
This last year of working on Runaways has been a blast -- and we’re really grateful to the fans of the original series who decided to give our book a chance. I hope people will keep reading and spreading the word, so that we can keep telling stories about these kids. We have so many twists -- and so many outfits -- we still want to get to.
Runaways #7, the start of the "Best Friends Forever" arc, is available now from Marvel.
