What I'd Do With #15: Runaways
Sep. 8th, 2006 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6Okay, my last post on Runaways was my joking impression of how other famous comic creators might handle them. Now it's my turn to tell how I'd do it. Normally I'd never do a WIDW with Runaways as I was enjoying it so much as it is... I'd have some ideas of what might be cool storylines, but they were always in isolationg rather than as part of a big 'plan'. Felt it was sort of a little disrespectful to the series. (And I don't generally do WIDWs for things I'm enjoying, only things I'm not enjoying or things that are long gone).
Now that BKV and Alphona are announced at leaving though, I feel I can do one for Runaways. In particular this was sparked by a thread on the BKV forums "What's your pitch for Runaways?". It got me thinking, and sometimes when I get thinking I can't stop until I've got something all set together in a 'plan'.
These were the initial rules, the ones I followed (at least as a starting point, I went beyond the 18 issues), as laid out in that thread:
The mission statement is as follows:
Plot an 18-issue arc (with three to four sub-arcs) for Runaways with the following status quo:
I'm also going with the plot as I know it from Civil War Runaways #2 and Runaways #19, making my own guesses based on that. At least some of those guesses will probably be violated by the end of those arcs.
So, here we go. Spoilers for issues through #19 and Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways.
I should start by saying that I don't actually believe I could write Runaways, at least not by myself. Maybe I could, but I have my doubts. However, I think I could _plot_ it fairly well, and if I was teamed up with a good dialog writer it could work out extremely well. So, here's how I'd plot Runaways anyway...
Arc 1: "A Little Help From My Friends"
Solicit (for the TPB at least): "Sometimes the Runaways need to run away from each other. When Nico orders everyone out of the Hostel for a day, the group splits up. Some catch up with old friends, some make new ones, but when they get into trouble, do they call on each other or try to handle it alone?"
6 issue arc.
More detailed description: As happens occasionally when people live together, the Runaways start getting on each other's nerves. In particular, Nico is getting annoyed by everybody. She forces them out as described above, but sealing the deal by casting a spell: 'Keep Out!', which makes it impossible for anyone else to enter the Hostel... or, as it turns out, for Nico to leave (although since she was the one who wanted time alone, nobody is particularly worried). The group mostly decides to go their separate ways and get out of each other's hair for a day:
After getting whatever it is she wanted to do done, Nico finds herself bored and turning to the Internet to see if she could connect with some old friends. Chase goes for a booty call with his secret, F-ed up relationship with Lotus (hey, I still like the idea). Victor goes to look up his friend Jorge (who has gotten into some trouble in the past few months). Karolina and Xavin decide to go out on an official 'date', Earth style. And Molly, well, she goes to the mall and winds up making friends with a girl roughly her own age, Katie Power, who's in town visiting her sister. Instead of the team-up pattern of fighting and then teaming up, the girls take to each other right away, and go to fight some supervillains.
The separate plots go on through the six issue arc and intertwine (I imagine Karolina runs into Katie's sister, Lightspeed, who's trying to track the kids down after seeing them on a news report, and sort of crashes the date as they go off to find them together. Xavin gets jealous (but has actually heard of Lightspeed, on account of her family ending the Snark Wars). Victor, in addition to his own plot, is actually secretly online chatting with Nico anonymously, using his special robot powers to be a roving wireless link). I'd imagine at the end of this plot the others learn about Chase and Lotus.
Arc 2: "Kids Today"
Solicit: "The city deals with a rise in super-powered crime... only the perpetrators are kids, even younger than most of the Runaways. What force is behind their powers, and how will the Runaways react to having to be the grownups for once?"
5 issue arc. Possible that one of them winds up joining the team at the end.
More detailed: I'm thinking the kids have been artificially 'upgraded' with a new form of MGH that lasts a lot longer and is more stable. They can become recurring foes of the Runaways, but for now it's not really important to go into all of them. We just need to focus on the one who might be joining the team.
Let's just brainstorm a little. Not settling on anything. The Runaways were generally divided into grouping, based on their parents. Son of Criminals, Daughter of Mutants, Daughter of Sorcerors, Daughter of Time Travelers, Son of Mad Scientists, and Daughter of Aliens. Then we had Son of a killer robot. Xavin breaks the pattern being another alien son (although one could suggest his parents were, technically, shapeshifters, and shapeshifters are a classic villain type). So to be a 'true' Runaway, a prospective member should be the son or daughter of some type of classic villain. Vampires we already did with Topher (even though he technically wasn't a son of other vampires, he was still sired).
Martial Arts Foe is a type that hasn't been used yet, but I'm not sure it fits into the story.
Ah, I have it. The Son of Henchmen. His parents were actually henchmen of the people who are powering up the kids, and they volunteered their own son for the plan. Works out great, especially if we want to do an 'infiltration' plot (that the whole super powered criminal kids was just to attract the Runaways attention so they'd maybe adopt the most 'sympathetic' kid).
Now let's focus on powers. We've got Electrical, Magic, Alien lasers, Variant Powerhouse, Savageness (Old Lace), and Super Strength. What's missing? Normally I'd say stealth, but Xavin has invisibility. So let's go with some kind of mental powers. Telepathy, perhaps, among others. I'm growing a little more attached to the "he's a plant" plot, and that would help him out. Plus, now that I think of it, almost all telepaths nowadays are female. Yeah, I think we'll go with that. Maybe Firestarter level mind control too - he can implant suggestions, but it causes him great pain, nosebleeds, etc, so he can't do it often (since his powers aren't natural, extended use could even lead to a tumor or something).
"A Very Special Episode"
Single issue story. To be honest, I don't have a plot for it, but the title just begs to be done, even if somewhat mockingly. Probably Molly-centric. Maybe a crush or something. On the new guy, or even on Vic (I wouldn't want it to be reciprocated, of course, she's far too young, but I do like the idea of her having a crush). Or, hell, on both. The new guy (who's about her age) realizes she's got a crush on Vic and uses his mental powers to try to swing her affection over to him.
Arc 3: "Hostel Takeover" (tentative title)
Solicit: "For almost twenty years, The Pride has controlled all the crime in LA... and then they were taken down by their own children. Finally, a mysteriously new group is ready to seize control, but this Cabal needs something belonging to the Runaways in order to make their power play."
More Detailed:Fairly straightforward, with The Cabal (or whatever they wind up being called, but I like the name for the sake of this article - lets me have the Cabal trying to take revenge on BKV's creations! ;)) being a new ongoing enemy for the future storylines. They're not connected to the Gibborum, they are just in it for the power.
Although the plot technically isn't resolved in this arc. Although through most of the plot we believe they're after the Staff of One, it's revealed they're actually after the Time Machine from Gert's parents. So the Runaways destroy one of them, and when they're seriously outclassed during the race for the other, Nico uses her Staff of One to 'Recharge!' it to make their escape.
I don't want an extended Time Travel plot, just one arc, maybe divided into three two part stories -
Story one would be in the distant past. I always have an instinct to send people to Woodstock, because it's just so traditional. But this presents an ideal chance to send the Runaways into the Dinosaur age and have Old Lace find love. (I suppose you could also do it in the Savage Land).
Story two would be entitled 'Sellouts' and deal with the Runaways encountering versions of their future selves. Sure, it's a stock plot, but it's a stock plot I like.
Story three would be a trip to the 90s to steal the missing part from the Yorkes' time machine from Pride of the 90s. You see, the reason the Yorkes stopped time time travelling so much was because a part of their machine was stolen. The part helps regulate the ramstazzle confounduit and lets them target their time travelling more finely. After that, they have the power enough for one last jump (since the charge Nico provided is running out), and head back.
In the time travel plot we can tease a couple things - perhaps Chase becomes obsessed with the idea that he saw Gert in the future (or, with trying to target their last trip earlier than they left and saving Gert). Vic could see himself in the future, still evil. Old Lace could get pregnant. Hell, Chase himself could have a kid in the 90s. I might leave Xavin behind on this trip (they'll rejoin him later when they return to the present).
Another way we could go is because of some mishap when using the time machine in the escape, the Runaways are all sent to different time periods, with one person with the time machine tracking them down one by one. There are benefits to this as well (we could solicit the Old Lace one just as a 'solo Old Lace story', preserving some of the surprise that it's actually set in the distant past).
Then the final story (where they have to steal from their parents) is to steal a power cell in order to get them home (and we can pick up Xavin last to keep him out of the arc).
Once they return to the present, they still have to deal with the Cabal, who were left in control of the Hostel. The next series of adventures has the Runaways truly on the run again, although this time it's from the Cabal. In order to get away, they'll leave LA and go on a road trip in the Leapfrog. Takes them out of their comfort zone, no longer having a safe 'home base' to return to.
After that, well, we'd have to see where we go, and hopefully by that time I'd have come up with a few ideas, since I came up with these under a day.
.
Now that we've got plot out of the way, let's discuss character arcs.
Again, all of this is only What I'd Do...
Chase: He's lost some of his innocence in the wake of Gert's death. He gradually starts trying to push himself more in the role of the comic relief, but he doesn't feel it as much anymore. As mentioned, he's in a messed up relationship with Lotus, even though he's still obsessed with Gert. He's also taken on the codename Arsenic (when code-names are used, anyway, which would be almost never).
Old Lace: She's a dinosaur. She doesn't really lend herself to a long term arc. Unless of course, she lays some eggs.
Lotus: Not a Runaway, and never becomes one, but because she's Chase's dirty little secret at first I'll discuss her here. Her side of the relationship's messed up because not only does she like Chase, she feels responsible for Gert's death and becoming a Gert-substitute is a F&@#ed up kind of penance.
Nico: She's turned off of believing in real relationships, sure they can't last, ending in betrayal or death. She doesn't verbalize this, of course, but it shows in the way she acts. She'll still throw herself at people randomly, craving affection like anybody else, but can't stand letting them get too close - she goes only for short term fixes or fixate on people who are unavailable to her. Which leads us to Karolina. She's not in her heart really romantically attracted to Karolina, but she has idle feelings now and then and the unattainability appeals to her, making her occasionally think she wants more than the friendship. She still struggles with being the leader, but will eventually decide to give it up.
Victor: Carries feelings for Nico, but she doesn't return them. I'd like to delve a little deeper into his religion and especially his feelings about the fact that basically his whole life was a lie.
Karolina: Still trying to make her relationship with Xavin work, especially as she finds herself getting mixed signals from Nico. Slowly starts to find that other than both being aliens and it being convenient, she really doesn't have a lot in common with him/her.
Xavin: He has to adjust to Earth and cement himself more on the team. I hope he keeps his robot-racist attitudes, just because they're interesting, although he learns to keep them to himself - it begins to show more in his actions than his words (always saving one of the other Runaways over Victor). But in order to cement his spot on the team, he needs to have a viable non-romantic relationship with someone else on the team other than Karolina... and unfortunately, I can't see it working out too well for any of them. Victor's actually probably the best bet for that if Xavie can get over the Robophobia. Sadly though, I think Xavin's time on the team is limited.
Molly: I'd like to showcase the fact that she plays down her intelligence and acts childish to get attention (and perhaps to keep her role in the team as the 'baby'). Maybe deal with the fact that she misses a normal childhood (which is probably also part of the reason she acts younger than she is). She might even find she _wants_ to go to school, even though that would be horrendously complicated to set up (but it might not be too hard for her to hang out near a school and pretend to be a student). I also think Princess Powerful and Katie Power are the makings of a classic 'occasional teamup', like Spidey and Human Torch.
Leapfrog: Starts displaying more intelligence and personality. I like the idea that its personality matrix is based at least in part on Chase's own parents. It's _not_ them, and it's coded in that it obeys Chase's orders, but it actually _feels_ more like a parent or big brother.
New Guy: I kinda like the idea that even though he betrays the Runaways to the Cabal, he actually sticks around because he regrets it. We've already had the mole that leaves when his betrayal is revealed, it might be nice to have one who regrets his action and turns against his parents. Sure that kinda is what happened to Victor, but Victor didn't knowingly do anything evil. New Kid would have - just before he came to know the Runners.
-
So, there we go. The product of, oh, let's call it 12 hours thought on What I'd Do With Runaways. If it actually happened nothing would have The big negative is all these stories and plotlines in my head? I crave to see them illustrated by Alphona. :(. And, for that matter, written by Vaughan.
You can get to all my WIDWs here.
Now that BKV and Alphona are announced at leaving though, I feel I can do one for Runaways. In particular this was sparked by a thread on the BKV forums "What's your pitch for Runaways?". It got me thinking, and sometimes when I get thinking I can't stop until I've got something all set together in a 'plan'.
These were the initial rules, the ones I followed (at least as a starting point, I went beyond the 18 issues), as laid out in that thread:
The mission statement is as follows:
Plot an 18-issue arc (with three to four sub-arcs) for Runaways with the following status quo:
- Nico is the leader. She still hasn't mastered the Staff of One, meaning she can cast each spell only once.
- Chase pilots the Leapfrog, controls Old Lace and has a copy of the Abstract. Let's assume that his plan involving the members of the NuPride is over, none of them join the Runaways, none of them is dead.
- Karolina embraces her sexuality. She has a better grip on her powers and doesn't need the inhibitor bracelet anymore to disguise herself as a human teenager.
- Xavin has officially joined the team. The male form is still his default appearance. He still can only use one of his super-skrull powers at once.
- Molly still plays the overexcited kid. Her teammates still underestimate her.
I'm also going with the plot as I know it from Civil War Runaways #2 and Runaways #19, making my own guesses based on that. At least some of those guesses will probably be violated by the end of those arcs.
So, here we go. Spoilers for issues through #19 and Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways.
I should start by saying that I don't actually believe I could write Runaways, at least not by myself. Maybe I could, but I have my doubts. However, I think I could _plot_ it fairly well, and if I was teamed up with a good dialog writer it could work out extremely well. So, here's how I'd plot Runaways anyway...
Arc 1: "A Little Help From My Friends"
Solicit (for the TPB at least): "Sometimes the Runaways need to run away from each other. When Nico orders everyone out of the Hostel for a day, the group splits up. Some catch up with old friends, some make new ones, but when they get into trouble, do they call on each other or try to handle it alone?"
6 issue arc.
More detailed description: As happens occasionally when people live together, the Runaways start getting on each other's nerves. In particular, Nico is getting annoyed by everybody. She forces them out as described above, but sealing the deal by casting a spell: 'Keep Out!', which makes it impossible for anyone else to enter the Hostel... or, as it turns out, for Nico to leave (although since she was the one who wanted time alone, nobody is particularly worried). The group mostly decides to go their separate ways and get out of each other's hair for a day:
After getting whatever it is she wanted to do done, Nico finds herself bored and turning to the Internet to see if she could connect with some old friends. Chase goes for a booty call with his secret, F-ed up relationship with Lotus (hey, I still like the idea). Victor goes to look up his friend Jorge (who has gotten into some trouble in the past few months). Karolina and Xavin decide to go out on an official 'date', Earth style. And Molly, well, she goes to the mall and winds up making friends with a girl roughly her own age, Katie Power, who's in town visiting her sister. Instead of the team-up pattern of fighting and then teaming up, the girls take to each other right away, and go to fight some supervillains.
The separate plots go on through the six issue arc and intertwine (I imagine Karolina runs into Katie's sister, Lightspeed, who's trying to track the kids down after seeing them on a news report, and sort of crashes the date as they go off to find them together. Xavin gets jealous (but has actually heard of Lightspeed, on account of her family ending the Snark Wars). Victor, in addition to his own plot, is actually secretly online chatting with Nico anonymously, using his special robot powers to be a roving wireless link). I'd imagine at the end of this plot the others learn about Chase and Lotus.
Arc 2: "Kids Today"
Solicit: "The city deals with a rise in super-powered crime... only the perpetrators are kids, even younger than most of the Runaways. What force is behind their powers, and how will the Runaways react to having to be the grownups for once?"
5 issue arc. Possible that one of them winds up joining the team at the end.
More detailed: I'm thinking the kids have been artificially 'upgraded' with a new form of MGH that lasts a lot longer and is more stable. They can become recurring foes of the Runaways, but for now it's not really important to go into all of them. We just need to focus on the one who might be joining the team.
Let's just brainstorm a little. Not settling on anything. The Runaways were generally divided into grouping, based on their parents. Son of Criminals, Daughter of Mutants, Daughter of Sorcerors, Daughter of Time Travelers, Son of Mad Scientists, and Daughter of Aliens. Then we had Son of a killer robot. Xavin breaks the pattern being another alien son (although one could suggest his parents were, technically, shapeshifters, and shapeshifters are a classic villain type). So to be a 'true' Runaway, a prospective member should be the son or daughter of some type of classic villain. Vampires we already did with Topher (even though he technically wasn't a son of other vampires, he was still sired).
Martial Arts Foe is a type that hasn't been used yet, but I'm not sure it fits into the story.
Ah, I have it. The Son of Henchmen. His parents were actually henchmen of the people who are powering up the kids, and they volunteered their own son for the plan. Works out great, especially if we want to do an 'infiltration' plot (that the whole super powered criminal kids was just to attract the Runaways attention so they'd maybe adopt the most 'sympathetic' kid).
Now let's focus on powers. We've got Electrical, Magic, Alien lasers, Variant Powerhouse, Savageness (Old Lace), and Super Strength. What's missing? Normally I'd say stealth, but Xavin has invisibility. So let's go with some kind of mental powers. Telepathy, perhaps, among others. I'm growing a little more attached to the "he's a plant" plot, and that would help him out. Plus, now that I think of it, almost all telepaths nowadays are female. Yeah, I think we'll go with that. Maybe Firestarter level mind control too - he can implant suggestions, but it causes him great pain, nosebleeds, etc, so he can't do it often (since his powers aren't natural, extended use could even lead to a tumor or something).
"A Very Special Episode"
Single issue story. To be honest, I don't have a plot for it, but the title just begs to be done, even if somewhat mockingly. Probably Molly-centric. Maybe a crush or something. On the new guy, or even on Vic (I wouldn't want it to be reciprocated, of course, she's far too young, but I do like the idea of her having a crush). Or, hell, on both. The new guy (who's about her age) realizes she's got a crush on Vic and uses his mental powers to try to swing her affection over to him.
Arc 3: "Hostel Takeover" (tentative title)
Solicit: "For almost twenty years, The Pride has controlled all the crime in LA... and then they were taken down by their own children. Finally, a mysteriously new group is ready to seize control, but this Cabal needs something belonging to the Runaways in order to make their power play."
More Detailed:Fairly straightforward, with The Cabal (or whatever they wind up being called, but I like the name for the sake of this article - lets me have the Cabal trying to take revenge on BKV's creations! ;)) being a new ongoing enemy for the future storylines. They're not connected to the Gibborum, they are just in it for the power.
Although the plot technically isn't resolved in this arc. Although through most of the plot we believe they're after the Staff of One, it's revealed they're actually after the Time Machine from Gert's parents. So the Runaways destroy one of them, and when they're seriously outclassed during the race for the other, Nico uses her Staff of One to 'Recharge!' it to make their escape.
I don't want an extended Time Travel plot, just one arc, maybe divided into three two part stories -
Story one would be in the distant past. I always have an instinct to send people to Woodstock, because it's just so traditional. But this presents an ideal chance to send the Runaways into the Dinosaur age and have Old Lace find love. (I suppose you could also do it in the Savage Land).
Story two would be entitled 'Sellouts' and deal with the Runaways encountering versions of their future selves. Sure, it's a stock plot, but it's a stock plot I like.
Story three would be a trip to the 90s to steal the missing part from the Yorkes' time machine from Pride of the 90s. You see, the reason the Yorkes stopped time time travelling so much was because a part of their machine was stolen. The part helps regulate the ramstazzle confounduit and lets them target their time travelling more finely. After that, they have the power enough for one last jump (since the charge Nico provided is running out), and head back.
In the time travel plot we can tease a couple things - perhaps Chase becomes obsessed with the idea that he saw Gert in the future (or, with trying to target their last trip earlier than they left and saving Gert). Vic could see himself in the future, still evil. Old Lace could get pregnant. Hell, Chase himself could have a kid in the 90s. I might leave Xavin behind on this trip (they'll rejoin him later when they return to the present).
Another way we could go is because of some mishap when using the time machine in the escape, the Runaways are all sent to different time periods, with one person with the time machine tracking them down one by one. There are benefits to this as well (we could solicit the Old Lace one just as a 'solo Old Lace story', preserving some of the surprise that it's actually set in the distant past).
Then the final story (where they have to steal from their parents) is to steal a power cell in order to get them home (and we can pick up Xavin last to keep him out of the arc).
Once they return to the present, they still have to deal with the Cabal, who were left in control of the Hostel. The next series of adventures has the Runaways truly on the run again, although this time it's from the Cabal. In order to get away, they'll leave LA and go on a road trip in the Leapfrog. Takes them out of their comfort zone, no longer having a safe 'home base' to return to.
After that, well, we'd have to see where we go, and hopefully by that time I'd have come up with a few ideas, since I came up with these under a day.
.
Now that we've got plot out of the way, let's discuss character arcs.
Again, all of this is only What I'd Do...
Chase: He's lost some of his innocence in the wake of Gert's death. He gradually starts trying to push himself more in the role of the comic relief, but he doesn't feel it as much anymore. As mentioned, he's in a messed up relationship with Lotus, even though he's still obsessed with Gert. He's also taken on the codename Arsenic (when code-names are used, anyway, which would be almost never).
Old Lace: She's a dinosaur. She doesn't really lend herself to a long term arc. Unless of course, she lays some eggs.
Lotus: Not a Runaway, and never becomes one, but because she's Chase's dirty little secret at first I'll discuss her here. Her side of the relationship's messed up because not only does she like Chase, she feels responsible for Gert's death and becoming a Gert-substitute is a F&@#ed up kind of penance.
Nico: She's turned off of believing in real relationships, sure they can't last, ending in betrayal or death. She doesn't verbalize this, of course, but it shows in the way she acts. She'll still throw herself at people randomly, craving affection like anybody else, but can't stand letting them get too close - she goes only for short term fixes or fixate on people who are unavailable to her. Which leads us to Karolina. She's not in her heart really romantically attracted to Karolina, but she has idle feelings now and then and the unattainability appeals to her, making her occasionally think she wants more than the friendship. She still struggles with being the leader, but will eventually decide to give it up.
Victor: Carries feelings for Nico, but she doesn't return them. I'd like to delve a little deeper into his religion and especially his feelings about the fact that basically his whole life was a lie.
Karolina: Still trying to make her relationship with Xavin work, especially as she finds herself getting mixed signals from Nico. Slowly starts to find that other than both being aliens and it being convenient, she really doesn't have a lot in common with him/her.
Xavin: He has to adjust to Earth and cement himself more on the team. I hope he keeps his robot-racist attitudes, just because they're interesting, although he learns to keep them to himself - it begins to show more in his actions than his words (always saving one of the other Runaways over Victor). But in order to cement his spot on the team, he needs to have a viable non-romantic relationship with someone else on the team other than Karolina... and unfortunately, I can't see it working out too well for any of them. Victor's actually probably the best bet for that if Xavie can get over the Robophobia. Sadly though, I think Xavin's time on the team is limited.
Molly: I'd like to showcase the fact that she plays down her intelligence and acts childish to get attention (and perhaps to keep her role in the team as the 'baby'). Maybe deal with the fact that she misses a normal childhood (which is probably also part of the reason she acts younger than she is). She might even find she _wants_ to go to school, even though that would be horrendously complicated to set up (but it might not be too hard for her to hang out near a school and pretend to be a student). I also think Princess Powerful and Katie Power are the makings of a classic 'occasional teamup', like Spidey and Human Torch.
Leapfrog: Starts displaying more intelligence and personality. I like the idea that its personality matrix is based at least in part on Chase's own parents. It's _not_ them, and it's coded in that it obeys Chase's orders, but it actually _feels_ more like a parent or big brother.
New Guy: I kinda like the idea that even though he betrays the Runaways to the Cabal, he actually sticks around because he regrets it. We've already had the mole that leaves when his betrayal is revealed, it might be nice to have one who regrets his action and turns against his parents. Sure that kinda is what happened to Victor, but Victor didn't knowingly do anything evil. New Kid would have - just before he came to know the Runners.
-
So, there we go. The product of, oh, let's call it 12 hours thought on What I'd Do With Runaways. If it actually happened nothing would have The big negative is all these stories and plotlines in my head? I crave to see them illustrated by Alphona. :(. And, for that matter, written by Vaughan.
You can get to all my WIDWs here.
