• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

  • Reading Orders
    • Marvel
    • My Marvelous Year
    • DC Comics
    • All Comic Book Publishers
    • Most Recent
  • Beginner Guides
    • Beginner’s Guide To Comics In 2025
    • Marvel 2025: Where to Start?
    • DC 2025: Where to Start?
    • Best of Lists
    • Tablets for Comics
    • Guides for Digital Readers
  • Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
    • DC Comics
    • Comic Book Movies
    • Comic Book TV
    • Video Games
  • Podcasts & Video
    • My Marvelous Year
    • Best Comics Ever (CBH)
    • CBH on Youtube!
  • About Me
    • My Favorite Comics of All Time
    • Columns
    • CBH Email Newsletter
  • Support Comic Book Herald
    • Ways to support
You are here: Home / Reviews / Comic Book TV / Marvel’s Runaways Season One Review: So This Is Prestige Comic Book TV

Marvel’s Runaways Season One Review: So This Is Prestige Comic Book TV

February 6, 2018 by Dave 2 Comments

When it debuted in 2003, the hook for Brian K. Vaughn and Adrian Alphona’s “Runaways” was the beautifully simple line, “Everyone thinks their parents are evil. What if yours really were?”

In the comic book’s glorious first issue, a gang of wealthy misfits banded together by their parent’s annual “fundraising” galas witness their parents enact a cultish murder. Enter the series title: Immediately, the children flee their homes to escape the nightmare. As they learn more it becomes clearer that their parents aren’t just cult-killers, they’re Los Angeles supervillain collective, The Pride. Each Runaway stems from a different sort of villain, with Kingpins, sorcerers, time travelers, mad scientists, aliens, and evil mutants.

Hulu's Runaways Marvel TV Show

All in all, Runaways is a thrilling must-read for any Marvel Comics fan. Unfortunately, the television version released exclusively on Hulu is a husk of that potential, too afraid of looking “silly” with that good, good Marvel comics nonsense to do much of anything interesting.

Related: Comic Book Herald’s Runaways reading order

These two things are true: 1) Marvel’s Runaways is clearly well-made television, with a great crew and cast and 2) It becomes an increasing chore to watch as the series progresses. As a comic, I find Runaways funny, charming, and an exciting addition to the Marvel Universe. As a show, it’s a well-designed bore, and fails to deliver on the source material’s promise.

 

Support For Comic Book Herald:

Comic Book Herald is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a qualifying affiliate commission.

Comic Book Herald’s reading orders and guides are also made possible by My Marvelous Year club support on Patreon, and generous reader donations.

Any size contribution will help keep CBH alive and full of new comics guides and content. Support CBH’s My Marvelous Year on Patreon for exclusive rewards, or Donate here! Thank you for reading!

Despite vast differences in content, Runaways most resembles AMC’s Preacher season one, another adaptation of a beloved comic. Both shows spend nearly all their energy capturing the essence of the beloved characters, and I’d argue both do so rather successfully. Disappointingly, that energy does not translate to forward momentum for the series, as Runaways and Preacher instead craft a “Season Zero.” That means ten hours of viewing just to get you to the meat (ok, given Preacher’s plot arc, that’s a bad choice of words).

After the first three episodes were released, I wrote a piece for CBR about all the ways the TV show changed for the worse from the comic. I felt a little guilty about this – generally speaking I want media to change from the comics in interesting and strategic ways – but nearly everything I called out in that piece continued to be a problem as the series progressed. Most notably, Runaways runs scared from that silly, silly Marvel Universe nonsense that made the comic so appealing in the first place. And it’s a problem we see over and over again in Marvel TV.

Comics Vs. Comic Book TV

Runaways Complete Collection 2

Comics can just do so much more than TV. If you read really any comic book criticism, or listen to discussions of comics, you’ll frequently hear the refrain that creators are “Telling a story only comics could tell.” It’s a platitude, and I’ve often found it strange. After all, can’t TV replicate almost every artist’s design or creative team’s storytelling choice? Aside from structural components inherent to the comic book page (think: The impact of Watchmen’s 9 panel grid), TV is extremely well suited to take stories “only comics could tell” and tell them with audio and production. Shouldn’t this actually be an improvement?

Yet, so often I’m finding comic book TV can’t hold a candle to comics. I don’t know why it took me so long to identify this clear gap, as it’s essentially a version of the all too common “The book’s better than the movie.”

I’ve made it no secret that I think Marvel TV is in dire straits. Defenders was supposed to be the big “Avengers” moment for Netflix Marvel, yet the series petered out in attention and quality. Marvel’s TV enterprises have gone from the shocking thrill of Daredevil and Jessica Jones’ season one to “fine, if you’re into that sort of thing.”

The additions Runaways makes to the narrative are antithetical to the source material. A near equal amount of time is given to the children’s “super villain” parents, yet they’re watered down “realistic” versions of their comic book counterparts. I don’t think any viewer would argue against more well-rounded parents – they are absolutely deeper – but reducing the fantasy elements make them inherently less interesting.

More importantly, without the big, ridiculous Gibborim-monsters (some of Alphona’s most enjoyable art reveals on the page), the parent’s motivations are actually more muddled and harder to defend. It’s simple really: Marvel fans like Marvel Universe stuff. The more of that you take OUT of the equation, the less interesting the story becomes.

At the end of the day, there’s too much culture and media pulling at audiences today to play it safe. In a lot of ways, Runaways is a victim of chronology. If this perfect soundtrack and teen drama was released in 2003, it would have been my favorite show on television. As it stands, it’s a distraction from 1,000 other sources of entertainment taking greater chances.

Marvel Cinematic Universe Power Rankings

Old Lace the Dinosaur in Runaways

Every time a new Marvel movie or TV series is released I like to update my Marvel Cinematic Universe power rankings. As we hit 20+ entries, I’ve broken the power rankings into tiers that started with my Dr. Strange review.

Tier 1: The Best

1) Avengers
2) Alias aka Jessica Jones
3) Guardians of the Galaxy
4) Captain America 3: Civil War
5) Thor: Ragnarok

Tier 2: Great

6) Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier
7) Spider-Man: Homecoming
8) Daredevil (Seasons 1 & 2)
9) Iron Man

Tier 3: Good

10) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
11) Iron Man 3
12) Avengers 2: Age of Ultron
13) Captain America: The First Avenger
14) Doctor Strange
15) Ant-Man

Tier 4: Mixed Feelings

15) Runaways
16) Luke Cage
18) Thor 2: The Dark World
19) Defenders

Tier 5: I’ll Watch With a Comic In Hand

20) Thor
21) Agents of SHIELD
22) Agent Carter (Season One, pretending Season Two didn’t happen)
23) Incredible Hulk

Tier 6: Nope

24) Iron Man 2
25) Everyone in your house has the flu and you’re trying super hard not to get sick but good luck
26) Iron Fist

+

 

 

Filed Under: Comic Book TV, Featured Tagged With: runaways

Heroically Support Comic Book Herald!

If you like Comic Book Herald, and are able to donate, any small contribution will help keep CBH alive and full of new comics guides and content. Donate here! Or, support CBH on Patreon for exclusive rewards! Thank you for reading!

Become a Patron!

CBH Newsletter!

About Dave

Dave is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Comic Book Herald, and also the Boss of assigning himself fancy titles. He's a long-time comic book fan, and can be seen most evenings in Batman pajama pants. Contact Dave @comicbookherald on Twitter or via email at dave@comicbookherald.com.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Joe Harman says

    February 6, 2018 at 12:02 pm

    Have you gotten to the Punisher yet? I honestly think it is the best show Marvel has done so far.

    Reply
    • Dave says

      February 6, 2018 at 1:28 pm

      Slowly getting through. Finished episode nine this week, which was quite good.

      It’s a smart, quality Punisher. Not what I expected in a very good way. I’m interested to see how it finishes. It’s not my favorite, but I do think it’s an improvement on Defenders.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

The My Marvelous Year Podcast!

Apple PodcastsRSS

CBH Newsletter!

My Marvelous Year Podcast and Reading Club 1

Recent Posts

  • 2010 Variant Cover E: Thunderbolts Review w/ Tiffany Babb May 12, 2025
  • Extra Issues – Lucifer Pt. 2 (2000) May 8, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 9: Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Bucky on Trial, & Invincible Iron Man May 5, 2025
  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of April 2025 May 1, 2025
  • 2010 Variant Cover D: Dave Interviewed Donny Cates & Chris Claremont! And Daredevil: Born Again Review! April 27, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 8: Daredevil: Shadowland April 21, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 7: Wolverine, Second Coming, & Uncanny X-Force April 14, 2025
  • Extra Issues – Lucifer Pt. 1 (2000) April 7, 2025
  • 2010 Variant Cover C: Marvel Rivals Resurrects the X-Men’s Krakoa, Trivia & Jiggle Physics! April 7, 2025
  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of March 2025 April 7, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 6: Hickman’s Fantastic Four: Three March 31, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 5: Realm of Kings & Thanos Imperative March 24, 2025
  • 2010 Variant Cover B: Daredevil Born Again (Again) TV Series Review! March 17, 2025
  • 2010 Pt. 4: Amazing Spider-Man: Big Time & Dave’s Favorite Black Widow Story March 10, 2025
  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of February 2025 March 4, 2025

Popular Articles

DC Rebirth Guide

Batman Reading Order

DC New 52 Reading Order

Marvel Ultimate Universe Guide

Civil War Reading Order

Marvel Cosmic Reading Order

The Best Comics of All Time!

Deadpool Reading Order

Justice League Reading Order

Complete Thanos Reading Order

X-Men Reading Guide (Modern Era)

Age of Apocalypse Reading Order

Modern Marvel Universe in 25 Trades

Best Tablet For Digital Comics

Is Marvel Unlimited Worth It?

Footer

New to Comic Book Herald?

Hey there - my name's Dave and this is my comic book blog. It's my way of sharing my borderline obsessive addiction to the comic book medium, and I hope you like some of what's going on here.

Most people that come here are looking for my (WIP) Marvel reading order guide. You can probably also get a sense if CBH is for you by taking a look at some of my columns.

If you like what you see, let's connect on Facebook or Twitter. Or, leave a comment on the blog here, I'm always looking for new awesome people in the comic book community.

More on Comic Book Herald

  • Home
  • About
  • Support CBH
  • My Marvelous Year
  • Join!
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service

Recent Posts

  • 2010 Variant Cover E: Thunderbolts Review w/ Tiffany Babb
  • Extra Issues – Lucifer Pt. 2 (2000)
  • 2010 Pt. 9: Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Bucky on Trial, & Invincible Iron Man
  • My Favorite Graphic Novels of April 2025
  • 2010 Variant Cover D: Dave Interviewed Donny Cates & Chris Claremont! And Daredevil: Born Again Review!

Copyright © 2025 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in