Runaways (comics)/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


This is the list of characters from the Marvel comic book series Runaways.

The Original Team

Alex Wilder

"If [being an adult] means turning into the people who raised us...I hope I die before I get old."

The leader of the group, he possesses no super-human powers, but his keen intellect and his possession of his parents' Abstract make him a formidable strategist. His parents were mob bosses who ran the more traditional criminal ring of the Pride, with prostitution, drugs, murder, and whatnot. He is introduced while playing an Avengers MMORPG and has an affinity for classic television series, and begins to bond with Nico when he learns that she enjoyed the copy of The Prisoner that he had lent her. He is the most vocal of the group in their need to oppose their parents.

At the end of the first story-arc it is revealed that Alex has been working against the group the whole time. He had discovered the nature of their parents activities a year ago and, instead of being repulsed, decided to help his parents. He discovered that the Deans and Hayes, the two non-human couples of the Pride, were planning to betray the rest of the group so that they and their children would live in paradise, instead of all the adults surrendering their positions to their children. Alex manipulated the rest of the kids into discovering the nature of their parents as part of his plan to defeat the machinations of the Deans and Hayes, and betrayed the runaways in their final confrontation with the Pride. However, ultimately, Alex and the Pride as a whole were defeated by the runaways and he was killed in the battle. Later issues reveal that he is now trapped in The Nothing After Death, and is attempting to earn his way out by helping the runaways back on Earth by passing messages to Molly.

The casting call for the movie specifies: "Very smart, natural leader, in need of a father figure. Male, African-American, must play 16-18"

Gertrude Yorkes

(Codename: Arsenic)

"I've known our parents were evil since I was five. This perverted little gathering just confirms it."

Like Alex, she has no real powers, but her Time Travelling parents left her a very special inheritance: A genetically engineered, psychic dinosaur named Old Lace, who follows her every command. Unlike the rest of the group, Gertrude and Nico had been close friends for years and spent time together beyond the once-a-year Pride meetings, and she often serves as a voice of reason and (relative) maturity for the group. Forward-thinking even as a child, Nico recounts that when they were little kids Gert once took all of Nico's pony dolls and hid them in the woods, explaining that they deserved to be free. 

Near the conclusion of the first story-arc she begins to develop romantic feelings for Chase, who reciprocates, and they become a couple for the remainder of their time together. She is self-conscious about her appearance, being shorter than average and slightly over-weight, but how this is portrayed varies by the artist. It is revealed that, in the future, Gertrude will become a super-hero named "Heroine," and will become leader of The Avengers until she is killed by Victorious (see "Victor" below). However, due to the actions of her future self the timeline has been changed, and Gertrude instead died while still a young runaway. Dying in Chase's arms, she transferred telepathic control of Old Lace to him.

The casting call for the movie specifies: "Chubby oddball, smart and verbal. Female, must play 16-18"

Karolina Dean

(Codename: Lucy In The Sky)

"I wish we'd never learned about any of this! I was much happier being kept in the dark! I...I hope our parents do kill us now! I...I...I can fly? I CAN FLY!"

Karolina at first appears to be a clichéd Valley Girl child of celebrity parents (tall, blond, attractive, and always fighting for "a cause"), but she is actually the most confused and internally conflicted member of the group. After discovering the nature of the Pride, Karolina learns that she is an alien from the planet Majesdane, which had exiled her parents to Earth for criminal activites. Solar powered, she also gained the power to fire energy blasts from her hands and generate forcefields. The revelation that she is not even human, along with more personal crises of identity, lead to severe depression, although her newfound ability to fly does provide her with some joy.

The casting call for the movie specifies: "Conventionally beautiful, with an unchecked ego. Female, must play 15-18"

Chase Stein

(Codename: Talkback)

"Hey, I may not be book smart, but I am street smart."
"Which street? Sesame...?"

Chase is the third normal human in the group. His Mad Scientist parents had a number of inventions, which he puts to good use over time, but he mostly serves as the group's wheel-man (or, you know, giant robot frog-man). His relationship with his parents was much more hostile and confrontational than he rest of the group, and he takes their newfound homelessness in stride. He serves as the heart of the team, as well as much of the early comic relief, but he has a real mean streak which pops up from time to time.

The casting call for the movie specifies: "A rebel, ignores rules and authority, wounded inside. Male, must play 16-18"

  • Abusive Parents - The original group all had supervillains for parents, but his were the only ones who treated him this way.
  • Badass Normal
  • The Big Guy - Shares the role with Molly - arguably develops shades of The Lancer later on.
  • Book Dumb: Chase gets straight C's and has the lowest general knowledge of the group, but is quite street smart, and more than capable of cobbling together simple, yet effective plans, under pressure.
  • How Dare You Die on Me! - He goes kind of crazy after Gert's death. At his lowest, he considers sacrificing an innocent stranger to the Gibborim in order to bring her back. When he realizes that he doesn't have it in him, he tries to sacrifice himself instead.
  • Hidden Depths
  • Jerk Jock
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold
  • The Kid with the Remote Control (after Gert's death)
  • Knife Nut: Chase is very fond of his switchblade.
  • Multiple Choice Past - He made up stories to justify the way his parents treated him and ended up believing some of them. Even he's not quite sure which bits are real anymore.
  • The One Guy - Very briefly, in between Alex's death and Victor's introduction.
  • Opposites Attract: With Gert
  • Playing with Fire - The Fistigons, gauntlets stolen from his parents' lab. They're destroyed when Alex tries to use them against the team, but he finds some more of his parents' tech in Volume 3.
  • The Slacker

Nico Minoru

(Codename: Sister Grimm)

"I'm not a leader. I'm a den mother. And not a very good one."

Nico was a normal Goth teenager when everything kicked off. Imagine her surprise to find out that her parents were dark sorcerers, and she has inherited their powers. During their escape, she absorbs her parent's magic staff, "The Staff of One". It allows her to do anything, cast any spell she can think of, but each spell only works once. To summon the staff, her blood must be spilled - she carries a small knife to for just that purpose (which she detests, since she is not, and never has been, a cutter), but does not always need to use it. Her powers are only limited by her imagination. It is implied throughout the series that the staff is only the tip of the iceberg of her power, and she might be able to control magic without it one day; after being tortured by her great-grandmother, the Witchbreaker, this seems to be coming true. She becomes the leader of the group after Alex's death.

The casting call for the movie specifies: "Uniquely beautiful, nurturing but guarded. Female, Asian-American, must play 16-18"

Molly Hayes

(Codenames: Princess Powerful, Bruiser)

"I'm a mutant but not a bad one like Magneto a good one like Doop and the X-Statix and when I grow up I'm gonna join the X-Men and get married to Wolverine so you better not act prejudiced around me. 'Kay?"

The youngest member of the group, 11-year-old Molly's parents were mutants. They thought she did not inherit the X-Gene from them, but during their escape her eyes glow an eerie purple and she gains super strength. She has limited invulnerability and super strength, but using these abilities are extremely tiring and can only be sustained for a short time before she requires a nap (though this no longer seems to apply as of volume 3). Serving as the voice of innocence and child-like good-nature, numerous characters nonetheless explain that Molly is much more intelligent and mature than she appears, but she hides it well.

The casting call for the movie specifies: "An innocent, wide-eyed and overprotected. Female, must play 8-10"

Later Members

Victor Mancha

"You're a villain, and your ringtone is stupid."
"You don't know what you're talking about, little girl! That's a Rick Jones song!"

An Ordinary High School Student who the team basically kidnaps after a visitor from the future (Gert) tells them that he will grow up to become a Big Bad called Victorius, who will murder all of the superheroes in the world. It turns out that Victor is actually a cyborg created by the evil robot Ultron. He joins the team to learn about himself and (hopefully) prevent himself from becoming what everybody fears.

Xavin
"Only one word befits such an opponent: outstanding."
—Xavin reacts a little differently than the others to a Kaiju tearing up LA.

A Shapeshifting Super Skrull in training from the Planet Tarnax VII. Being a Skrull, for whom changing shape (and gender) is of no more importance or difficulty than changing the color of your hair, Xavin is sometimes male and sometimes female. He/She (Even the characters become confused over the proper pronouns to use) possesses all the powers of the Fantastic Four and joins the team as the result of a bargain made long ago between his and Karolina's parents.

  • Abusive Parents - X's parents are both dead, but what little we hear of them suggests this.

"My father killed a family of screaming Majesdanians in front of me when I was five. I cried so, I was left with the corpses for three days."

  • Action Girl - Half the time
  • Arranged Marriage - Karolina's parents sold out their own home planet to the Skrulls after being exiled from it, and offered them K's hand in marriage as a bargaining chip. While both Xavin's and Karolina's parents are dead, Xavin attempted to use this as a way to end the war. Despite both their efforts, it didn't take.
  • Child Soldier - Before coming to Earth.
  • Gayngst - sort of.
  • Love Martyr: To Karolina, despite their relationship being rather loving and healthy, this may be due to the fact that Karolina is one of the few good things in her life.
  • Gender Bender
  • Green-Skinned Space Babe - Starting in volume 3 - before then, Xavin defaulted to male when in Skrull form.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold - By far the hardest to get along with but always places everyone else's needs above his/her own.
  • Fantastic Racism - Xavin...doesn't exactly think of machines as equals. The way she treats Victor ranges from unthinkingly calling him the 'house android' to being an outright Jerkass (particularly in the Civil War crossover). However, in later issues they seem to be getting along decently enough. In Secret Invasion, Xavin even begs Victor to protect the others and run away before the other Skrulls can get them.
    • Xavin is also a target of this trope from Majesdaneans after Skrulls destroy their homeworld. One calls his relationship with Karolina "perverted."
  • In Love with Your Carnage - He admires the Kingpin of all people for keeping New York on a tight leash, despite being a Badass Normal in a city full of superheroes.
  • Proud Warrior Race..it depends. OTOH, s/he has no illusions about what full-scale war is like.
  • Shapeshifting
  • Sixth Ranger
  • Superpower Lottery - Xavin possesses the shapeshifting ability that all Skrulls have as well as the powers of the Fantastic Four, which the Skrulls obtained through genetic engineering. The only drawback is that s/he has trouble using multiple abilities at once due to hir lack of training.

Klara Prast

"I have always just...I thought that was how plants grew. Because you asked them to. On our farm in Bern, I would speak and the crops would listen. But the roses...the roses would speak back."

A young immigrant girl from 1907 with the ability to control plants whom the team encountered when they had been flung back in time. When Karolina and Molly learned about the abuse she suffered at the hands of the (adult) man her parents had married her to, they convinced her to come back to the present with them. She is close with Molly, being the two youngest runaways, but her unfamiliarity with the present and her own abusive history make their relationship vastly different from "normal" friendship.


The Pride

The Pride is made up of six married couples who are the parents of the six original "runaways." In The Eighties, they were chosen by a trio of giants called the Gibborim to form the Pride. The Pride would sacrifice young innocents and feed their souls to the Gibborim, who would use the power gained to purge Earth of all humanity. In return, the Gibborim gave them twenty-five years of wealth and power and promised six members of the group a place in the new "paradise" that Earth would become. The other six would perish along with the rest of humanity. When Janet Stein got pregnant, she and her husband decided to donate their seat in the Gibborim's new paradise to their child. Each of the other couples in the Pride then chose to have one child each and give them their spots in the Gibborim's paradise rather than worry about possibly living forever separated from their spouses. The group's past and future are contained in a coded book called "The Abstract."

Geoffrey and Katherine Wilder

("The Thieves")

"I know you think I'm a monster, Alex, but someday you'll understand that everything I did was done out of love."

The parents of Alex. They are two mob bosses whose organized crime syndicate controls all of Los Angeles and, apparently, California. Though they are killed during the Rite of Thunder, several of Alex's online friends accidentally transport the 1980's version of Geoffrey to the present in a failed attempt to save Alex. He convinces them that the Pride was made up of heroes and tries to sacrifice Molly to the Gibborim in exchange for resurrecting his wife and son and creating a new Pride. He is defeated and, with his memory wiped, returned to the eighties.

Dale and Stacey Yorkes

("The Travelers")

"The future is still ours."

The parents of Gert. They were recruited by the Gibborim when their time machine broke down in The Eighties, which they consider the worst decade of the millennium. At some point in their travels, they went to the 87th century and created a deinonychus who they would psychically link to their daughter Gert. They are killed during the Rite of Thunder with the rest of the Pride, but their past selves appear when the Runaways accidentally time travel back to 1907, where they lead a gang of superpowered criminals called the Sinners, who begin a war with a group of superheroes called the Upward Path. When they learn of Gert's future death, they desperately try to return to the 21st century. Nico, in retaliation for the war they caused, casts a spell on them that prevents them from acting on their new knowledge. They wield various weapons from different time periods including a samurai battle axe (from an "alternate past"), an ornate musket, and a glove that bursts into flames.

Frank and Leslie Dean

("The Colonists")

"We're heroes! We've dedicated our lives to making this world a better place for those kids!"

The parents of Karolina. They are extraterrestrials from the planet Majesdane, who were exiled to Earth for unspecified criminal activity. They took their new surname from actor James Dean and became Hollywood actors. When Karolina was born, they made her wear a med-alert bracelet at all times, which in actuality suppressed her Majesdanean form and made her appear human. At some point before the events of the series, the Deans fended off a Skrull invasion of Earth by giving them the coordinates to the planet Majesdane and arranging a marriage between their daughter and Skrull prince/princess Xavin, who they hoped would die before he/she could take their offer. They conspired with the Hayeses to murder the human members of the Pride, hoping to secure the six seats in the Gibborim's paradise for themselves and their children. They believed that the Gibborim, hating humans for their role in ruining the Earth, would favor aliens and mutants. However, later dialogue shows that the Gibborim detest aliens, who they consider invasive creatures.

"But what's in it for us? Beyond the usual entertainment value of wasting Earthlings of course?"

Victor and Janet Stein

("The Wise Men")

"My son and I have had our differences, but I love Chase more than life itself. Literally."

A pair of scientists who supposedly invented a tool to easily remove the plastic wrap from CDs. In fact, they are the Pride's main scientists and have created x-ray goggles, weaponized gauntlets called the Fistigons, rocket boots that Chase dubbed the "Footstigons," and several transport ships called Leapfrogs. Victor often beats his son for reasons such as bad grades. Despite this, he claims to truly love Chase and wants him to get a place in the Gibborim's post-apocalyptic paradise. He has also been shown hitting his wife. He has a brother named Hunter, with whom he has an antagonistic relationship over his criminal activity.

Gene and Alice Hayes

("The Outcasts")

"Yes, to the parents of the year."

A pair of telepathic mutants who are doctors by profession. They had originally thought that Molly was not a mutant. They both have a sadistic side, once telepathically forcing a rival gang leader to watch as they butchered his crew. They conspired with the Deans to murder the human members of the Pride, hoping to secure the six seats in the Gibborim's paradise for themselves and their kids.

Robert and Tina Minoru

("The Magicians")

"Faith is a complicated thing, sweetie."

A pair of dark magicians who are abducted by the Gibborim on their wedding day. Tina wields the Staff of One, which is taken by Nico. Robert is usually seen reading a spellbook when casting magic. According to the Witchbreaker, Robert fought something called his "Grimshape" by the time he was Nico's age. The Minorus were somehow acquainted with a Monk Theppie, a.k.a. "Mother," a male magician who worked for the California Witchcraft Community and coveted the Staff of One.

The "New Pride"

A group formed by the Geoffrey Wilder from The Eighties and several of Alex's friends from an online MMORPG. Geoffrey is brought to the present when Alex's friends attempt to transport him from the moment before he died into the present. Geoffrey convinces them that the original Pride was made up of heroes and that the runaways likely killed Alex. They are armed with gadgets and magic talismans left behind by the original Pride.

  • Stretch: An overweight boy who lives with his grandmother and role-plays as scantily clad superheroines. He wielded a sword made out of the same metal as Karolina's bracelet, allowing him to cut through her force-fields.
  • Hunter: A boy with overgrown hair. He is a technological expert who was able to briefly hack into both Victor and Leapfrog.
  • Lotus: A girl who often dresses in archaic-style dresses and loves Renaissance fairs. She quickly gets the hang of magic and is later forced by Chase to help him find the Gibborim in hopes of bringing Gert back to life.
  • Oscar: A temp worker who is often fired for playing online RPG's at work. He figures out the decoder ring and partially translates the Abstract. He is accidentally killed when they try to resurrect Alex.

Minor characters

The Gibborim

"We are the Gibborim, and we hunger."

The six-toed giants that create the Pride in order to gain sacrificed human souls, regain their power, and eventually purge the Earth of humanity. They are the Half-Human Hybrid descendants of fallen angels. When Molly Hayes frees a sacrificed soul and stops the Rite of Thunder, the Gibborim turn against the Pride, killing them and Alex. Both 1980's Geoffrey Wilder and Chase Stein later seek their help in resurrecting deceased loved ones for which the cost is one human sacrifice. Wilder tries and fails while Chase tries to sacrifice himself. Unable to gain sufficient human souls, the Gibborim fade from Earth to The Nothing After Death. They run into Alex, who speculates that they, like him, did evil things in the hope that their father would be proud of them.

Cloak and Dagger

A pair of superheroes who gained their powers after being forcibly given drugs. Like the main characters, they were once teenage runaways and avoid the Adults Are Useless theme that pervades the series. Cloak has a mystical cloak that allows him to draw others into a hellish dark dimension. He can also teleport himself and others through the dark dimension and become intangible. He has a hunger for light that he gets either from Dagger or from the people he absorbs. Dagger has the power to generate blades of light that can, according to Nico, show you your sins. Cloak and Dagger are enlisted by Lt. Flores, a Pride agent in the NYPD, to find his bosses' children. Realizing who the Runaways' parents are, Cloak and Dagger promise to bring the Avengers to LA, but are captured by the Pride and have their memories telepathically wiped.

Later on, Cloak is accused of trying to kill his partner Dagger. While being pursued by the Avengers, Cloak is hit on the head and regains his memory. He seeks out the Runaways and asks them to investigate the attack on Dagger, claiming that he was framed. Dagger's attacker turns out to have been a Stalker with a Crush who used Mutant Growth Hormone combined with the drug that gave Cloak his powers to impersonate him.

Topher

A teenager who is on a crime spree with a pair of adults. The Runaways meet him when they foil their attempt to rob a convenience store. Topher tells them that the two adults are his parents who were in a Freak Lab Accident, gaining superpowers and going insane. His parents then forced him to join in their crime spree. The truth is that Topher is a vampire and his "parents" are actually two vampires he transformed himself. He is killed when he tries to drink Karolina's blood, not realizing that her alien blood has properties similar to sunlight. The other two vampires are destroyed by the Pride after interrogating them for the location of their children.

Lt. Flores

A lieutenant in the LAPD. He is also a minion of the Pride, which does not seem to be a secret within the LAPD. He enlists the superheroes Cloak and Dagger to help find the Pride's children, which displeases them. He later tracks the Runaways to the first Hostel and is buried when Nico collapses the cave on top of them. He is pulled out of the rubble by his fellow officers but executed by Geoffrey Wilder.

Excelsior

Turbo: "The whole point of our organization is showing young people there are healthy alternatives to dressing up in costumes."
Chamber: "No offense, luv, but have you caught a glimpse of yourself [in costume] lately?"
Turbo: "It's like my mom always said, Jono. 'Do as I say, not as I do.'"

Darkhawk: "We're adults now, Mickey. We can handle the responsibility."

A team of now-adult superheroes who began their careers as teenagers. The group is formed with the mission of stopping other teenagers from going down the same path. While they originally resolved to carry out their mission without resorting to their superhero identities, they soon decided that using their powers was necessary. The Runaways have a disdainful attitude towards them, seeing their message as "Do as I say, not as I do." Excelsior soon got its own Spin-Off comic, though the name of the team and the comic was changed to "Loners" due to copyright issues.

  • Michiko "Mickey" Musashi/Turbo: A young woman who uses Powered Armor. Now works as a journalist.
  • Phil Urich/Green Goblin: A man who stole the Green Goblin Powered Armor to become a superhero. Like Mickey, he begins working as a journalist.
  • Johnny Gallo/Ricochet: A mutant with Super Speed and aiming ability.
  • Chris Powell/Darkhawk: Gained powers from an extraterrestrial amulet but retired from superheroics when the accompanying nightmares became too intense for him to stand.
  • Julie Power/Lightspeed: A former member of Power Pack whom Karolina is mistaken for earlier in the series. Capable of supersonic flight. Now hopes to become an actress.
  • Johnathan Starsmore/Chamber: A mutant able to fire energy blasts from a chamber in his chest. However, his powers have destroyed much of his body and he is constantly glowing. Actually the 1980's version of Geoffrey Wilder in disguise, gathering information on the Runaways.
  • Rick Jones: A former sidekick to Captain America. Recently wrote a successful book about his experiences, which allows him to sponsor Excelsior financially.

The Upward Path

Lillie: "They ain't the Sinners, but neither are they saints. Us as has to make a living have run afoul of them -- and not all come out alive."

A group of superheroes from 1907. Their methods cause some in-universe Values Dissonance with the main characters. They use torture as well as allow civilians to join them in combat, two things most superheroes in the 21st century do not do.

  • The Adjudicator: A religious, gun-wielding superhero whose appearance is likely inspired by The Punisher.

"I fight to end this injustice."

    • Expy: Of the Punisher.
  • Black Maria: A superheroine with a nun-inspired costume. The nature of her power is unknown but involves her touching the heads of her victims, causing a halo-like light to shine around them. A similar halo also appears around her own head.
  • The Difference Engine: A superhero who is either a robot or a man in Powered Armor. He can fire explosive shells from arm-mounted cannons and contains an advanced (for the time period) computer. His primary weakness is water.

"Magic is a thing of the past. I'm the Difference Engine. I'm the future."

  • Nightstick: A superhero with a police-inspired uniform. He is often relied upon to control his hot-tempered partner, Daystick.
  • Daystick: A superhero with a police-inspired uniform. He plays the Bad Cop to Nightstick's Good Cop (or Slightly-More-Levelheaded Cop).

(To Nico): "Don't ye be callin' us [Sinners], chink! We's the Upward Path, the city's protectors, and we'll kick you all the way back to Mott Street with the other burny blowers!"

  • The Witchbreaker: A magician with a miko-inspired costume. She tortures witches, aiming to bring out their true potential. She is Nico's great-grandmother. She also appears to have some knowledge of the future concerning her descendants.

"Every generation weakens. Until the world turns on them, as it will on yours."

The Sinners

"And their group is called the Sinners because they're solid citizens, right?"

A criminal gang of Wonders (people with superpowers) led by Gertrude's parents. They travel on a luxurious train called the Mineola. They are the main enemies of the Upward Path.

  • Maneater: A cannibalistic giant with a jaw so strong that it hurt Xavin's Thing-like fist when he punched it. Nico defeats him by magically turning him into a vegan.

"They don't call me Maneater for any reason other than the obvious."

"Kid Twist has never missed."

  • Forget-Me-Not: A beautiful, centuries-old woman who can use her scent to cause men to fall in love with her and fight over her. She is usually seen lounging on a couch or bed, almost never standing upright.

"Men have fought over me for centuries...it's very dull."

The Street Arabs

A group of superpowered "Wonders" who live on the streets. They remain neutral between the Sinners and the Upward Path but have done jobs for both sides.

  • Eddie Gunnam/The Swell: The leader of the Street Arabs. An otherwise ordinary man who obtains an enchanted walking stick that brings him good luck. He pried the stick from the hand of a dead man who had been struck by lightning five times. The stick was destroyed when it blocked a bullet from Kid Twist that otherwise would have killed Eddie.

"No more scroungers' work for Eddie Gunnam; not with a' power of this."

  • Lillie McGurty/Spieler: A young girl who is able to fly if she hears music, even if that music is in her own head. She falls in love with Victor, who begs her to come with them in the future. She refuses, afraid, and her regretful future self in the 21st century arranges to have the Runaways transported back in time, setting in motion the whole Dead End Kids arc.

"Regret? It is my meat and drink. My air, my everything. The faces fade, the names get jumbled, but regret...regret never ages."

  • Tristan: A man with incredible strength fitted with mechanical wings. He is in love with Lillie, but she puts him firmly in the friend zone. He is badly scarred while stopping a bomb planted by the Yorkes. He remains with the future Lillie in the 21st century, giving her message to Victor right before the runaways go back in time.

(To Victor): "I'll kill you before I let you take [Lillie] from me!"

  • Creeper: A tiny man with a close bond to Hoyden. He often rides on her shoulder. He is killed by Kid Twist.

"I say what Hoyden said, mainly because she said it."

    • Incredible Shrinking Man: Creeper's power is apparently being very, very small. He is probably like that permanently as he has never been shown at any other size.
  • Dead George Pelham: A brain-eating zombie. He is impervious to most kinds of physical harm.

(To Kid Twist):"I'm partial to brains myself. But you just emptied your gun into a dead man so I doubt this'll be much of a meal."

  • Megan the Hoyden: A tomboyish young girl whose power is super speed. She is killed by Kid Twist.

Creeper: "This coming from the girl that put six bulls in the hospital for callin' her a tom."

  • Yellow Kid: The "most notorious" member of the Street Arabs. He is seen generating blasts of yellow light during a fight, though it is unclear what they do. His profile in the Runaway's Secret Invasion tie-in says that his thoughts generate words on his shirt and that he was seen in a Manhattan bar nearly a century after "Dead End Kids." A Shout-Out to the very first comic strip character.

(On his shirt) "Eat dis ya bums!"

  • Jacob: A fiddler who lives with the Street Arabs. He plays to allow Lillie to fly. He has no known powers though the appendix of the Secret Invasion issue says his music has "unique qualities."
  • Professor Duck: A Chinese scientist who crafted Tristan's mechanical wings. He is not a Street Arab but is liked and respected by them. It is unclear if he has any powers but he was able to recognize a time travel device from the future.

Majesdanean soldiers

A group of four Majesdanean soldiers who travel to Earth to capture Karolina Dean, intending to punish her for her parents' role in the Skrulls' invasion and destruction of planet Majesdane. To avoid further bloodshed, Karolina decides to surrender to them but Xavin shapeshifts into her and goes in her place.

  • vaDanti: A former university student from Majesdane. VaDanti was off Majesdane visiting his sister deHalle when the planet was destroyed by the Skrulls. Though not a proper soldier, he joins the group searching for Karolina Dean. He is taken prisoner by the Runaways where he explains who they are and why they want to capture Karolina.
  • deHalle: vaDanti's sister and a sergeant in the Light Brigade, an elite Majesdanean military unit.
  • vaRikk: A lieutenant in the Light Brigade and the group's pilot and navigator. He is also deHalle's ex-boyfriend and it seems that their breakup was less than amicable.
  • vaDrann: The leader of the Majesdaneans hunting for Karolina. He is named only in the index of the Runaways / Young Avengers Secret Invasion crossover.
  • Expecting Someone Taller: vaDrann says this about Karolina ( actually Xavin) when they finally meet face-to-face to discuss her surrender.
  • Fantastic Racism: Towards Skrulls.
  • Human Aliens
  • Oh My Gods: Majesdaneans seem to worship the sun. They use expressions such as "What the sun?" and "I swear by the sun."
  • Sins of Our Fathers: Their motive for hunting Karolina is that her parents started the war. She had no control over any of it, and even agreed to give up her life on Earth to stop it, but they don't care. Their planet has been destroyed, their species is almost extinct, and they need someone to blame, however warped the logic.

The Wrecking Crew and Excavator

The Wrecking Crew is a group of four Marvel Universe supervillains that have fought many different Marvel heroes. The Wrecking Crew was started by Wrecker, who had gained Super Strength and an enchanted crowbar from the Norse god Loki, enemy of Thor. He later magically distributed that strength to three fellow criminals, who dubbed themselves Thunderball, Piledriver, and Bulldozer.

Ricky Calusky was an orphan who lived with his grandparents. However, when he found out his father was Piledriver, he ran away to join the Wrecking Crew. He took the name Excavator and carried an enchanted shovel, which he broke over Molly Hayes' head. Since the Wrecking Crew's strength is distributed evenly among its members, taking in Excavator meant less power for the original four members, which left them weaker and made them reluctant to accept Ricky into their crew.

After the Pride is defeated, the Wrecking Crew is one of many supervillain bands that tries to take over their territory in LA. They are defeated by the Runaways while trying to rob a bank.

Hunter Stein

Chase's uncle and Victor Stein's brother. Hunter runs Track Consolidated Construction and Containment, which designs facilities to contain superpowered people who are either criminals or unable to control their abilities. Hunter would frequently visit his brother and the two would argue. Chase suspects that Hunter wanted to be let in on the Pride's criminal activity. Chase also remembers running over Hunter with his van, though it is unclear how reliable his memory is.

After the defeat of the Pride, Hunter inherits the Malibu beach house that the Runaways are staying in. He offers to take care of the Runaways, but they refuse.

Flag-Smasher

Mainly a member of Captain America's rogues gallery. Flag-Smasher is an anarchist supervillain dedicated to the elimination of national governments, which he believes will bring world peace. He appears during the Civil War tie-in when he visits the Santa Monica Farmer's Market. When SHIELD agents attempt to search him because of his above-average physique, he attacks them. He is subdued by the Runaways, who are then captured by SHIELD themselves.

  1. ↑ "Can I touch your hair, Wolverine? My friend Karolina said that you use gel, but I think it just grows that way 'cause you're a mutant, oh, and I'm a mutant, too! I used to have a poster of you and Doop in my bedroom when I was little, but I think you're even cooler than Doop, and I liked that one time when you and the other X-Men met the Fantastic Four and..."
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