Runaways to become “Doc Justice and the J-Team” this month

Marvel Comics is giving the Runaways a serious makeover this month.

Launched in 2002 as part of Marvel’s Tsunami imprint, Runaways always thrived by being the opposite of most books about teams of teenage characters. While they do have superpowers, skills, or gadgets from a variety of places, they’ve never become costumed superheroes. On the rare occasions when the Runaways have battled menaces or villains, it was usually due to circumstance or personal grudges. Now, that’s all about to change.

As announced on Marvel.com featuring a video by editor Nick Lowe, the Runaways are about to form “Doc Justice and the J-Team”. This new era for Runaways begins later this month with their 25th issue. It is a natural progression of their current storyline, which has seen Karolina Dean (the daughter of aliens) become idle with her lot in life and dabble in the realm of costumed super-heroics.

In last month’s 24th issue, Karolina had convinced Nico to dress up and head out with her for a night of patrolling. They happened to stumble onto some criminals, two of which were dressed as Madame Masque’s minions. Completely outmatched, the duo were nearly at the criminals’ mercy until a mysterious costumed vigilante emerged out of the shadows. He’s apparently named “Doc Justice” and will apparently recruit them, as well as the rest of the team, into his own squad.

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To date, there is no official Marvel character named “Dr. Justice” or “Doc Justice.” However, it is possible that this character could be someone else under another identity, akin to when Baron Zemo became Citizen V at the start of Thunderbolts. The odds of Doc Justice secretly being a villain in this arc are incredibly high — superheroes rarely wear orange, olive, and crimson as their color schemes.

But the name is similar to at least two other Marvel characters. Justice, or Vance Astrovik (formerly Marvel Boy), is the longtime member and leader of the New Warriors, who last had a series in 2014. There was also Mr. Justice, a character from Marvel: The Lost Generation circa 2000-2001, but he didn’t survive that series. Unofficially, there was a “Dr. Justice” as part of Marvel’s alternate reality Secret Warps, who is an alternate version of Dr. Spectrum — a member of the Squadron Supreme (itself a spoof of the Justice League, with Spectrum being Green Lantern). For all readers know, Doc Justice could be Alex Wilder in body armor.

While Runaways does suffer from low sales, it recently won an Eisner Award for coloring, and this extra promotion is a hopeful attempt to drum up interest. It will remain to be seen if seeing the Runaways cosplay as homages to X-Force will do the trick.