Marvel’s Runaways review, episodes 1-3: Marvel’s best show yet?

Episode 2: Rewind

Now this is where the TV series completely diverges from the comics. The original comics focused purely on the kids, with the parents as antagonists. The TV series, however, is deliberately taking a different approach. Marvel has assembled a top-quality adult cast, and they’re determined to use them to their best ability. In this case, the plot skips back to show what some of the parents were doing on this fateful day.

It’s a bold, experimental approach, and it could easily have sapped the show’s momentum. Thankfully, a brisk and thrilling introductory sequence gives the episode strong momentum of its own, enough to last until we finally catch up to events. The glimpse we get of the parents’ lives is fascinating, teasing that this series will be a lot more complicated than anything we saw in the comics. This time round, the Pride may be the bad guys, and they may have their fingers in a lot of pies, but they’re not quite the mobsters who run Los Angeles that we saw in the comics. In fact, their emotions are divided over what they’re doing. They’re hopeful that this will be the last sacrifice.

Annie Wersching is being positioned as the main villain, Leslie Dean. The episode gives a very dark insight into her world, as she persuaded a seventeen-year-old to stay another day, knowing that she’s been marked for sacrifice. She’s cold, she’s calculating, and she’s lethal. Fascinatingly, it turns out that her husband, Kip Pardue’s Frank Dean, is unaware of the Pride’s activities – or of a mysterious patient (her father?) kept in Leslie’s private meditation chamber. The tension is palpable, as a selfish Frank tries to muscle in on his wife’s cash after being dropped by his agent.

Ryan Sands’ Geoffrey Wilder is a real stand-out in this episode, presenting a multi-faceted character who’s truly intriguing. Sands shows the different aspects of Geoffrey Wilder with skill; his intensity and ruthlessness on the one hand, and his love for his son on the other. There are real laugh-out-loud moments (“Did I see sparks?”), that somehow blend perfectly with the tense narrative of the episode.

We catch up to the present about two-thirds of the way through the episode, and Alex’s ingenuity gives the kids a chance to breathe. Unfortunately, as in the comics, the group left evidence of their presence behind. This series may be taking some liberties, but the overall structure of the story is the same. Episode 2 may have been a bit of a gamble, but it’s paid off.