1. Runaways
What Is It? What if you discovered your parents were supervillains? That was the basic premise behind Runaways, wherein a group of kids witness their parents sacrifice a young girl in an occult ceremony and run off. The kids discover their parents are known as The Pride, a criminal organization of mob bosses, time travelers, mad scientists, alien invaders and mutants. Stealing weapons and resources from their parents, the kids fight back and try to atone for them by preventing others from filling the void left by The Pride. They also learn that theyve inherited their parents powersAlex Wilder is a child prodigy, Nico Minoru possesses powerful magic abilities, Karolina Dean discovers shes a solar-powered alien, Molly Hayes is a mutant with superhuman strength, Chase Stein steals his fathers technological gauntlets, and Gertrude Yorkes, the daughter of time travelers, discovers she has a telepathic link with a genetically-engineered dinosaur called Old Lace.
How To Do It Right? Runaways was (forgive the pun) a runaway hit when it debuted in 2003. In todays insular comic market, its difficult for a series with completely new characters to make a big impact, but Runaways did, and a film adaptation was in development, but has been shelved for the time being. So why not do it as a TV show? The comic already avoids having to make any choices about whether or not to keep the costumes, because the kids dont wear any and, although they first chose code-names, they abandoned them soon after. Teen angst with superpowers is what made Smallville The WBs top series for a decade, and theres no reason it couldnt be done again (and far better) with Runaways. The team is also diverse, with more female members than male, girls with realistic proportions, and features characters of different races, religions, and sexual orientation. This is the kind of series that could appeal to people from all walks of life and really open up the Marvel Universe.