Spoilers Marvel's Runaways season 2

Season 2 set to premiere on the 21st.





First reviews for the second season are here...

 

Oh good, I was afraid it was last night and I missed it.

 

I completely forgot this was coming back that soon.

 

A tour of the Hostel set.

 

Season 2 is live!

( I don't have Hulu at the moment and will be watching *shudder* one episode at a time with some friends, so my thoughts will occasional and sporadic.)

 

Started the new season during lunch, up to the third episode now. So far, so good.

 

Damn, I just started season 3 of 12 Monkeys, if I had remember this I would have waited and done it instead.

 

Won't start for me in Canada until January.

 

Well, if this were a regularly distributed series, the seventh episode would have definitely been the mid-season finale.

Watching the eighth episode of the second season now.

 

While I haven't seen any episodes yet, I have read about some connections to the larger MCU, which were largely avoided in season 1.

Aside from the use of the MCU's go-to fictional news outlet WHiH, there was also...

Spoiler: MCU connections

...a Wakanda namedrop and a connection between one of the characters and the Dark Dimension.

Also, an Agents of SHIELD easter egg about a character so obscure and inconsequential that the MCU wiki doesn't even have an entry for him. In the AoS pilot, after Ward passes over the Chitauri neural link over to Maria Hill, she then passes it over to an agent wearing a badge with the name "Kirk Skadden". The character has no lines and is never seen or heard from again. Until now. In the S2 premiere of Runaways, there is a quick shot of a newspaper obituary page. Among the obits is an entry for a former SHIELD agent named Kirk Skadden. The obit can be seen at 5:17 of the video below, but beware of spoilers.

 

Wow...that video *really* stretching the definition of what constitutes an easter egg!
I'm about 8 episodes in and I haven't noticed any really significant references to the wider MCU. Indeed (without spoiling anything) there's one bit where a character's reaction to something seems to imply that proof of non-terrestrial life is revelatory, and not academic as it should be in a post 'The Incident'/Greenwich attack/Thor world.
Unless of course this is some commentary about how cluelessly insular Los Angelenos are that just flew over this Brit's head...

 

Yeah, he really stretched for some of those easter eggs, and continues to do so moving forward. I only clicked on his link for the alleged AoS easter egg, as questionable as it was. And guess what? He did it again. Apparently the nameless news reporter seen onscreen in the premiere was also seen as a nameless news reporer on AoS! (@1:07)



I do agree that of all of the Marvel TV shows, Runaways is the most reluctant to connect to the larger MCU.

 

In fairness though, 'Runaways' doesn't really need to. Even the comics barely had anything to do with thr wider marvel universe outside of one or two notable cameos (in the initial run at least.) IIRC Cap only showed up right at the end for like one page, though I think the Cloak & Dagger crossover at least had some substance.

Speaking of which, I don't recall the C&D show having a huge amount of connective tissue either, outside of the presence of Roxxon and the darkforce.

 

Cloak and Dagger had references to Tony Stark, Danny Rand and Misty Knight.

 

I could swear I saw some significant Roxxon signage in an episode or two of the new season of Runaways, maybe at a Pride site?

Anyways, my initial plan was to watch one episode a day. Spread it out and enjoy it. That failed miserably, when I realized I was only up to episode 3 last week. Not sure what happened, because I enjoyed the first few episodes, but I was obviously doing something wrong. So over the past few days, I've watched 3 or 4 eps a day, and finished season 2 today.

I don't think I enjoyed it quite as much as I liked the first season, but that said, I really really loved the first season, so that was a high bar to meet. Still lots of good stuff though.

There sure was a sea change between the first and second half of this season, though perhaps not quite as bad as the one in Luke Cage season 1. Fairly quickly though, we viewers were left with little to no mystery as to who the surviving aliens may have been. Well, I guess we still have one last alien to find after that finale, but there's really only one logical choice.

Speaking of the finale, wow, they sure must be confident of a season 3. Because that finale wrapped up a grand total of just about absolutely nothing. And set up at least a dozen different things for the future. Besides many of the obvious, there's surely a 3rd season story they have brewing around Karolina being stalked by her church/cult as their messiah.

Also, surely everyone agrees with me that Gert's parents are the best, right?

 

Ok, so after being bored and deciding to give Runaways another chance, I have to say...I'm liking it a good deal, for reasons I never expected. I was very critical of the parents changing so much from the comics before getting into the show, but honestly they're the best part of it. I have been binge watching the show more because I want to see what happens with the various parent related storylines more so then for the teens stuff.

To be fair I do like several of the teen characters, Nico being my favorite, but honestly the changes to the teens have made me like most of them a lot less then I did in the comics. Molly is the absolute worst, she's a whiny brat who is also fairly stupid and probably more immature then the younger comic version, all without the charm of the comic Molly. Alex was ok until the show wasted everyone's time with that asinine stuff involving him and the gang members. I like the gang stuff in relation to Alex's Dad, but I couldn't have cared less about Alex hanging out with the gang. Luckily that stuff is mostly done with. Chase lost me for awhile when he destroyed the footage of the sacrifices, but he's gotten better since he seemed to learn his lesson. Gert got ruined when she abandoned the team and went back to her parents, which happened in the episode I just saw and I can't imagine her making up for that. Karolina is just an asshole as the mole, she's been flaky and whiny for most of the show, and at this point she's outright evil (she knows Jonah will destroy most of California and she doesn't care).

So, basically, I like the stuff with the parents a lot, I like Nico as a character a lot, and that helps me through dealing with some of the more obnoxious teen stuff. Alex, post gang stuff, is back to being an interesting enough character, and Chase hasn't done something stupid in awhile. Really, if Molly would be less of a doofus and Gert didn't make a surprise heel turn, I wouldn't have much to be annoyed at. As it is I'm enjoying the show well enough.

In regards to the parents, I will say that Gert's are my favorite, followed by Chase's, then Nico's, Alex's, then finally Karolina's (who are the only parents I don't really care for).

 

It occurs to me that I never posted my thoughts about season 2. I had to watch the episodes sporadically because I didn't have Hulu and could only watch it while I was visiting a friend's house, so I was at their mercy. I love that it was sticking close enough to the comics to still be recognizable, while being different enough that it wasn't predictable.

The hostel was perfect.

Topher's story was recognizable despite him not being a vampire and Molly's connection to him made his fall all the more dramatic. Although, I do wish we could have seen a vampire Topher trying to drink Karolina's sunlight blood like he did in the comics. Whoops!

Xavin is being brought into play a a little earlier than she was in the comics, but then I wouldn't have wanted them to wait until after the Pride story was over to introduce her, because as the original comics run showed, there really wasn't much of a story left to tell after the Pride. (Although I've been reading good things about the most recent relaunch). In fact, I wager that the show will end at the same time as the Pride story.

I think the kids are interacting with the 'rents a little too much for believability and didn't quite buy Chase's defection. At any rate, I feel that Chase switching sides and all of The Runaways feelings towards him are moves by the writing staff to divert the audience's thoughts away from the team's real traitor.

I enjoyed the changes made to the Gibborim and felt that the episodes set at the indoctrination center were appropriately chilling. Karolina's mom switching sides to The Runaways was unexpected, but like I said up-post, I don't want the show to be predictable.

Anyway, the show has been renewed for a shortened 10-episode third season.

https://twitter.com/marvelsrunaways/status/1109961090241183744?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1109961090241183744&ref_url=https://www.cbr.com/runaways-season-3-renewal/

For as much as I've been enjoying the show, I hope they don't stretch the story out much longer than another season. The Pride story needs to be wrapped up at some point and there really isn't much of a story to tell afterwards.

 

Glad to hear it's coming back

 

Elizabeth Hurley has been cast as Jessica Drew and Stephen Strange (not to mention King Arthur) foe Morgana Le Fey for season 3.

https://tvline.com/2019/06/05/elizabeth-hurley-cast-marvels-runaways-season-3/

To my knowledge, Morgana and The Runaways have never faced off in the comics.