Rainbow Rowell Writing New 'Runaways' Comic Series

In addition to their jump to TV in a new Hulu series, Marvel’s Runaways are also back with a new comic series written by Rainbow Rowell.

The Eleanor & Park author discussed her new gig with Entertainment Weekly.

“This is my favorite Marvel book. When editor Nick Lowe first reached out to me a few years ago about maybe working for Marvel, it was the first thing I asked him about,” said Rowell. “The characters and original story by Brian K. Vaughan (Paper Girls) are just so great and so beautifully built. I was really excited because I always felt like there were more Runaway stories and that book should just have kept going.”

For the uninitiated the story follows a group of teenagers who runaway from home when they discover their parents are actually evil.

runaways001_cover — Kris Anka’s cover for the first issue of *Marvel’s Runaways*. Source: Entertainment Weekly

The first arc of the new series will be about getting the team back together and bringing Gert back from the dead.

“It’s kind of funny calling them the Runaways because it’s not like they’re the Avengers or the X-Men. They were not formed with a mission and a purpose. They’re just kids who ended up in the same boat,” said Rowell. “At the beginning of this series they are scattered to the four winds and half of them are dead. One of the challenges now is who are they when they’re apart? They got thrown together, but now they’ve been pulled apart. They’re trying to figure out who they really are without each other…This arc is very much about them choosing to be together.”

Kris Anka is the series’ artist and the team is very excited about the choice.

“Because of the huge shadow that Adrian Alphona cast on the series, and what he brought to those characters, the artist has to know fashion and has to be able to draw kids, and all that stuff,” said Lowe. “That’s why Kris is so perfect.”