Marvel’s Runaways comes to an end this week, as the teen super-team finally takes on their parents and the Pride after nine episodes of slow and careful build up. Runaways is definitely one of the best new Marvel TV shows of the year: introducing a new, diverse team, tackling some big issues and, most importantly, providing a superhero series aimed at a slightly younger audience. A team of teenagers is a welcome addition to the world of superhero TV, giving younger viewers some more relatable heroes to look up to (as much as any superpowered being can really be called ‘relatable’), and a forum to explore some more realistic issues, like first loves, dates, popularity, and family tensions.Despite this, Runaways hasn’t been perfect; the first season was a little slow at times, which really allows them to build the characters fully but occasionally feels a little too plodding, especially compared to the comics. The Runaways also haven’t actually run away yet, which is frustrating for many fans who want to see them live up to their comic book name. Still, Runaways has been well-received overall, and a second season has reportedly been ordered by Hulu, where the Runaways call home.Related: Runaways Season Two Ordered By Hulu This has us wondering, though, how could Runaways step up their game for a second season? This has the potential to become a major superhero series, but it may need a little boost to really generate the kind of hype that it deserves… and there’s one way to guarantee that happens, and expand the cast just a little: have Wolverine (the X-23 version) join the Runaways in season 2.This Page: What We Know About Runaways Season 2 So Far
What’s Coming In Runaways Season 2?
After the Runaways took on the Pride openly in ‘Hostile’, things are going to change for the second season. For one thing, they are actually going to run away. It’s unlikely that they will be able to entirely take down Pride, of course, and their villainous parents are likely to remain the Runaways’ big bad for another season, but we can assume that the current plan will be thwarted, for now. It’s also likely that we will see a little more of the storylines in the comic, including their attempts to dodge police who believe that they are just trouble-making teenagers, not heroes dealing with an evil organization.
The other major change for season 2 will presumably be seeing the entire team really grow into their powers. The freshman season of Runaways has seen most of the team discover their powers, but most of them are still essentially total beginners when it comes to using them. Season 2 is sure to include some great scenes of the team training (and maybe we’ll even be treated to a good old fashioned training-montage!), as well as of these young heroes learning to work together. However, there is plenty of room for a second season to go even further, and start to change things up and create all-new scenarios for the Runaways to deal with.
Room For Runaways To Grow
Although the first season of Runaways was praised for being very comic-accurate, a second season may work best if it starts to go a little off-book. Now that the characters have been thoroughly introduced, we want to see them out there in the world, becoming real heroes… and discovering how the series connects to the larger MCU. As of now, it’s not quite clear how Runaways fits in with the sprawling cinematic universe, and fans would love to see this explained, or at least hinted at, as the Runaways hit the road. If this is part of the same universe, introducing a character from the wider world of comics would be a perfect way to start to connect this new team with some of the larger events in this universe.
In the comics, of course, the Runaways remain quite distanced from most of the other Marvel heroes, because they are in LA, while the rest of the Marvel heroes tend to hang out in New York. There are a few crossovers, though – new members connected to Ultron, the Fantastic Four, and more, or Cloak and Dagger and the Young Avengers, who have interacted with the team in the past. Still, we’d love to see a very different character joining the Runaways in season two: Wolverine.
Wolvie And Nico, Sitting In A Tree
By Wolverine, we don’t mean Logan, though. Instead, we’re talking about the current Wolverine in the comics: X-23, aka Laura Kinney. X-23 has appeared in live-action already, as a very young girl in Logan, but we want to see a different version of this character – a teenager, who would fit perfectly with the Runaways team dynamic. In the comics, Laura had an… interesting time as a teen. After breaking free from the project that created her, she became something of a goth icon for comic readers, temporarily living with some relatives before deciding that they wouldn’t be safe with her around, and ending up on the streets. She did not have an easy life, and although she got past some of her darkest day to become a real hero, this is a chapter of her story that would be an incredible addition to Runaways.
For one thing, it would be amazing to see her and Nico (Lyrica Okano) together – either romantically or simply as friends. Both goth girls are struggling to deal with the loss of a loved one, and both have a similarly hard exterior. In addition, seeing more goth heroes on screen is a major step forward for goth teens, who deserve to have characters like them to look up to. Too often, the goth kids are the butt of jokes, even in teen shows and movies, and while Nico wonderfully bucks this trend, well-written goth characters are in short supply. The introduction of X-23 would also be a chance to challenge these characters on their (extremely) privileged lives. A group of teens who have grown up rich are going to have some struggles now that they are trying to make it on their own, and Laura would be a great character to really put this into perspective, and to help them learn how to survive.
Can Marvel’s Runaways Include An X-Men Character?
Introducing a character as well-known as Wolverine/X-23 would obviously generate a lot of interest in Runaways season 2, but could they actually manage it? The biggest issue with this kind of crossover is, of course, one of rights. Up until now, Marvel has not owned the rights to the X-Men characters, or to mutants in general; which is why Molly’s (Allegra Acosta) powers were changed in Runaways. In the comics, Molly is a mutant, but in the series, she gained her powers through the rocks that the Pride hope to mine. She’s not the only mutant character who has been altered in order to appear in the MCU, either. On the big screen, comic-mutants Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor Johnson) were re-written as humans who had been experimented on. And if Marvel can’t include mutants in Runaways, how could X-23 appear?
The answer lies in the recent acquisition of Fox by Disney – a deal that includes rights to both the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Finalized in December of 2017, the deal has opened up the possibilities for the MCU to start to include any number of characters from the comics, so mutants could potentially crop up in future seasons of Runaways (not to mention elsewhere, as well!)
In addition, while the MCU is very carefully planned, consistent, and takes place in a single continuity, Fox’s X-Men universe plays by no such rules. The sprawling mutant universe exists in multiple timelines and realities, which means that there are no issues including a character like X-23, who has been seen on screen before, in a different time and at a different age. There’s just no need to make everything line up, and every opportunity to add X-23 to the Runaways team as one of the first, experimental, mutant additions to the MCU. Runaways‘ current position as a very distinct corner of the MCU makes it the perfect place to start exploring the latest possibilities, and seeing X-23 join them would be an ideal start.
Next: Should X-23 Become The New On-Screen Wolverine?
Runaways season 1 concludes Tuesday, Jan 9th on Hulu.
