Time for the second “season” of Runaways and, thankfully, the same creative team is back. We start with a new runaway kid trying out to be part of the Wrecking Crew, who are in Los Angeles to rob banks and take advantage of The Pride’s absence…
The Runaways arrive to stop them.
The kid is named Ricky Calusky, code name Excavator, and he’s Piledriver’s son. After he gets done hitting Molly on the head with a shovel, Chase lands the Runaways’ vehicle on Piledriver and the story moves on.
I love the Wrecking Crew, so this is a good start.
Now we move into the main story, which involves a new group that goes by the name “Excelsior.” Their mission is to enable teen superheroes to go back to having a normal life, and the teachers are a solid cast of “what ever happened to” folks: Phil Urich (the short-lived heroic version of Green Goblin), Mickey Musashi (fomerly Turbo), Chamber, Darkhawk, Ricochet and ex-Power Pack member Julie Power. The Excelsior group has a secret benefactor (and they don’t know who he is) who instructs them to rehabilitate The Runaways.
Meanwhile, the Runaways get a visit from an alternate future version of Gertrude who tells them to find a kid named Victor Mancha and make sure he doesn’t turn into the villain Victorious because, if he does, he’ll kill everyone.
The Victor Mancha story is cool. Turns out, Victor’s mom was a criminal who found an Ultron head that taught her how to create a synthetic child, i.e., Victor, who is a cyborg that doesn’t know he’s a cyborg. Effectively, he’s a sleeper agent for Ultron. The Runaways find him and the stories converge: Excelsior and The Runaways have some conflicts (and they’re charming and cute)…
…while The Runaways try to guide Victor away from his evil future. Ultron finds out, and goes to L.A. to reclaim his control over Victor.
Big fight. Excelsior destroys Ultron and Victor joins The Runaways. I mean, naturally the son of Ultron would join the team made up of the kids of supervillains!
And then…
…we learn that the secret architect behind the Excelsior teen was no less than Marvel’s first teen sidekick, Rick Jones. We also learn that Excelsior member Chamber is not actually Chamber but instead is Geoffrey Wilder, Alex Wilder’s dad, who has been reincarnated to create a new Pride in Los Angeles.
Solid set-up for future Runaways issues, and I’m looking forward to what happens next with Excelsior (they become a team called The Loners).