Marvel’s Runaways Head to Hulu

One of the greatest modern comics is coming to a streaming service near you; Marvel Television has announced that Runaways will be coming to Hulu.

The comic, created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona, deals with 6 kids that find out their parents are supe rvillains. After learning the truth, they discover that they have ties to their parents they can’t shake – powers, gadgets, and a telepathic raptor. The initial series, which ran for 18 issues, is one of the best new Marvel Comics runs in recent history.

After Vaughan left the series, the quality dropped off with Joss Wheadon, Terry Moore, and Kathryn Immonen (and a guest issue by Christopher Yost). Since 2009, the characters have been sparingly used and the team as we knew it hasn’t been used. Niko has been the last one seen in A-Force (after she and Chase survived Murderworld and the Masters of Evil).

This series would work better in the TV format than as a movie, since the story of the first series would be too much for a 2 hour movie; doing it as a show will flesh out the characters and give the story a chance to naturally progress. After the BKV run, I’d be curious to see where they go with the team, as the other arcs were subpar.

The biggest question mark is Hulu. We know that shows on ABC don’t get a ton of support (Agent Carter cancelled, Most Wanted killed before it started, and Agents of SHIELD kind of treading water) and the ones on Netflix are killing it; I would think Hulu would be more Netflix than ABC.

The other question is character backgrounds. Molly is a mutant, so would they change her to an Inhuman? What kind of alien will Karolina be, as they’ve only started to engage aliens in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? If they want to introduce Xavin at some point, can they use a Skrull?

Just the prospect of this has me excited, as this is probably one of the most marketable teams they have from a TV standpoint.