Upon realizing that their parents were Super Villains, Gertrude Yorkes, Chase Stein, Alex Wilder, Nico Minoru, Karolina Dean, and Molly Hayes left home and went out on their own. They became the Runaways.

Runaways Group Shot

After dealing with their folks, a traitor in the midst, and the godlike Gibborim, the kids decided to stick together through some amazing adventures that have led to new members joining, old members dying, and a few growing pains that come along as a result of getting older as a Super Hero in the Marvel Universe.

Running Start

While hanging out during one of their folks’ annual parties, Alex, Chase, Gert, and Nico witnessed their parents—who were all dressed and talking like villains—sacrifice a young girl during a ritual murder.

Nico Minrou and Alex Wilder

After convincing Karolina and Molly of what they saw, they ran off. Along the way, they tried figuring out how to stop their parents, collectively known as the Pride.

Ditching their folks and homes, the young people made a life for themselves, eventually facing off against their parents and the big bad Gibborim who backed them. Since then, they’ve done their best to stick together, though life—and death—have gotten in the way more than once.

Runaways Comic Issue Cover

Blood and Betrayal

The Runaways’ parents have proved to be the group’s most prominent and devastating foes. In addition to the obvious emotional attachment, the team has also been forced to deal with their powers, talents, and other abilities. Their combined powers are something to behold: the Yorkeses can travel time, the Minorus are major magic-users, the alien Deans wield their otherworldly Majesdanian abilities, the Steins are evil scientists, the mutant Hayeses can control minds, and the Wilders are master thieves and manipulators. 

Runaways Enemies

The kids also run afoul of the Gibborim, mythical deities who back their parents. These terrifying beings seek to wipe out humanity. Later, the Runaways a new group also calling itself the Pride. They cause trouble when they manage to bring a past version of Geoffrey Wilder to the present from the 1980s.

Though they face everything from alien invasions to monsters, the Runaways consider anyone who wants to tell them what to do to be perhaps the most dangerous enemy of all.


Teen Spirit

After making the break from their parents—but before finally facing them—the kids have a run-in with Cloak and Dagger. The team forms a bond with this Super Hero duo, thanks to their shared history of being runaways. At various points, the group also teams up with the likes of Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine, and Punisher.

Runaways and the Avengers

Throughout their journeys, the team welcomes new members to the Runaways, like Ultron’s son Victor Mancha, the Skrull Xavin, and Klara, a young girl they bring back from their time traveling trip to 1907.

As a team, they have joined forces with the Young Avengers, the Avengers Academy kids, and even a few mutant groups.


Run for Your Life

In their very first adventure, the kids found out the truth about their parents and ran off together to put a stop to the Pride’s machinations and, maybe, learn how to be heroes in the process.

Runaways and their parents

Along the way, the Runaways found a copy of what would become their playbook—called the Abstract—and each gained special abilities or technology. Nico found the magical Staff of One, Molly realized she was a super strong mutant, Chase stole high tech Fistigons from his folks, Karolina came to understand that she was a powerful alien, and Gertrude met a mind-linked futuristic dinosaur which she named Old Lace.

To hide out, they made their home in an old mansion that had sunk into the ground during an earthquake. Calling it the Hostel, they used it as their base of operations while struggling to find ways to support themselves and deal with drama between themselves.

The Runaways' Hostel

Before finally taking on their parents and the Gibborim, the Runaways ran afoul of a vampire posing as teenager and corrupt cops. They even faced fellow runaways Cloak and Dagger, who thought the older kids had actually kidnapped Molly, thanks to some bad information from those aforementioned dirty cops.

Eventually the gang learned more about The Pride itself, the extent of their parents’ abilities and the deal they made with the Gibborim. Selected by the gods, each couple received powers, status, and complete control of the L.A. crime scene in exchange for a human soul every year. After 25 years, the Gibborim would have enough power to wipe out life on Earth, but would take six of them to their new paradise, enhanced by eternal life. When the couples started having children, though, things got more complicated. Some wanted to give their spots to the kids and others wanted to betray fellow Pride members and crossover with their children.

The Pride

With this new knowledge in hand, they decided to take their parents out during their next meeting with the Gibborim. Though well planned and well executed, the Runaways could not have foreseen the revelation that Alex Wilder, their unofficial leader and master tactician, had actually been helping the Pride and betraying his supposed friends the entire time.

Alex Wilder and Nico Minoru

During the clash, the Gibborim killed Alex and then destroyed the Pride. The kids made another getaway, this time in the Stein-built Leapfrog.

Captain America and the Avengers finally made it to the West Coast to help the kids, and everything about the Pride was made public. However, the kids decided to ditch their respective foster families, boarding schools, and other arrangements to continue living together.

Not long after that, they welcomed their first new member into the group: Victor Mancha. Even though a future version of Gert said he’d become the world’s deadliest villain and he proved to be the son of Ultron, they decided to let him in and not let the sins of the parents condemn the child.

Victor Mancha and Gertrude Yorkes

They also had a few run-ins with a group called Excelsior, which consisted of former kid heroes who wanted to help the Runaways. Soon after, Karolina learned that her parents had set up an arranged marriage for her with a Skrull named Xavin. Curious about her alien Majesdanian heritage, she agreed to leave with the shape-shifter. That left Chase, Gert, Molly, Victor, and Niko to visit New York City for the first time in an effort to help Cloak prove that he didn’t want to kill Dagger.

The Runaways suffered yet another loss in their next confrontation. Alex’s old online video game friends formed a new version of the Pride. Thinking Alex died a hero, they attempted to resurrect him, but instead brought his dad back from the past. They kidnapped Molly and ran. Luckily for the Runaways, Karolina and Xavin returned from space to help in the ensuing battle. But the group’s luck ran out—Geoffrey Wilder killed Gert during the battle.

Chase Stein mourning Gertrude

In the wake of Gert’s death, her boyfriend Chase attempted to find and make a new deal with the Gibborim to bring her back. The gods proved too specific and tricky for a deal to be made. But, the kids spent enough time attacking the Gibborim that the deities ended up running out of time and were shunted off to another dimension.

With one problem out of the way, the remaining Runaways made another trip to the Big Apple, where they dined with the Kingpin and ran into Punisher. Then they headed back in time to 1907, where they met and semi-recruited their next member, Klara, a young girl who could make plants grow at will.

After returning to the present, the Runaways found themselves in the middle of a confrontation between the Kree and Skrulls because of Gavin’s presence on their team during the Skrull’s Secret Invasion. The Runaways’ pals, the Young Avengers—who they first met resisting registration during the Super Hero Civil War—happened to be nearby and jumped in to help.

The alien confrontations continued after the team took up residence in Chase’s parents’ Malibu beach house. The Majesdanians showed up to exact revenge for the hostilities that stemmed from Karolina and Xavin’s proposed union. To put a stop to all this, Xavin took on Karolina’s form and went off with her people.

Down another member, the team pulled themselves together to defeat an army of plastic surgery zombies, beckoned by a shock jock who also turned out to be Chase’s boss. Shortly thereafter, their house blew up and Chase got hit by a car, as he followed a girl he thought looked like the deceased Gert.

The Runaways popped up here and there, running into the likes of Daken, S.W.O.R.D., and the Avengers Academy kids, but that was about it for them as a team for a while.

That is, until Chase decided to go back in time to try to stop Gert from getting stabbed. Unfortunately, he got there late and so brought her back to the present, asking Nico to help him heal her.

Chase Stein holding Gertude's body

They were successful in saving Gert, so they traveled around to put the band back together. Things were rocky at first, as you’d expect with the Runaways, but they eventually fell back into place with one another on the run.

Runaways grown-up
Base of Operations, Current Members, Former Members
  • Base of Operations

  • Current Members

  • Former Members

Essential Reading
What would you do if you discovered your parents were super villains? For these seven Los Angeles teens, the answer was simple: band together, and do extraordinary good with extraordinary abilities. Meet the Runaways!