Chase Stein is a player and a homemaker in Runaways No. 21
By Alex Widen
Is the First Love Always the Best Love?
Speaking of circumstances, Chase finds himself at a romantic crossroads. He’d wanted to resurrect Gert, his first teenage love, so badly that he had no idea how he, or she, would react. As a result, Chase is an 18-19 year old guy with a 16 year old girlfriend whose relationship is more about the fumes of nostalgia and comfort than passion. Gert has essentially come out of a 2 year coma and is adjusting to the world that’s changed, and Chase himself is a huge party of that.
Image by Marvel Comics
If Gert represents the past for Chase, than Van represents the future. She’s about Chase’s age, for one, and she isn’t tied to the past of his evil parents for another. Despite his own awkwardness and sporadically dumb moves, Chase is a strapping young blond in California, and therefore a hot commodity. His attempts to explain his weird shopping habits and cell phone conversations have only made Van more curious — Chase looks like a jock but is way more interesting!
Image by Marvel Comics
However, Chase isn’t ready to move on or seize what is right in front of him. He puts Van off, at least for now, since in his mind he already has a girlfriend. It certainly would be messy, or at least traumatizing, to yearn to resurrect someone for years only to move on from them afterward. Could Chase also be allowing whatever is left of his “thing” with Gert to linger out of guilt? If anything, this relationship proves that people can and should move on sometimes.
Image by Marvel Comics