Why ‘Marvel’s Runaways’ Is Exactly What TV Needs: Teenage Girl Rebellion

The Punisher injected a dose of violent, gritty antihero into Netflix queues last weekend, but Marvel has a very different kind of show premiering on Hulu: Runaways (or, as the streaming platform prefers we call it, “Hulu presents Marvel’s Runaways”) has no interest in tortured masculinity—except as a topic for Gert Yorkes, self-proclaimed social justice high school warrior, to rail against.

Based on the 2003 comic series of the same name and adapted by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, creators of The OC, the series follows six wealthy teenagers who discover they’ve inherited special abilities from their parents. Unfortunately, they also learn their parents form an evil, murderous cult (you win some, you lose some), and they are the only ones who can stop them.

The first three episodes premiered on Tuesday. The plot gets off to a slow start, but stick with it: The racially diverse main characters are complex and inspiring. Also, in an appreciated switch for the superhero universe, four of the six are female: Nico Minoru (Lyrica Okano) an alternative Wiccan who is grieving for her dead sister; Karolina Dean (Virginia Gardner), an optimistic good girl; Gert Yorkes (Ariela Barer), the purple-haired, outspoken activist; and the youngest, Molly Hernandez (Allegra Acosta), adopted by Gert’s family when her parents died.

“This is the first time I’ve felt represented on TV,” Okano, 23, told Newsweek. “Nico isn’t just the edgy Asian kid with a chip on her shoulder. Growing up, I’ve always wished that I had a female superhero that I could look up to. There were some, but not in the way that I could relate to personally.”

In the first episode, Nico floats through high school, seemingly content to speak to no one. Far from true. “There’s a lot of kids that can relate to that outsider feeling,” said Okano, who describes herself as one such former teen. “Nico does a beautiful job pulling through that and learnin

For Acosta, who plays Molly, the pluses of the show are diversity in race and age. Like her character, the actress is 14, but unlike Molly she’s bubbling with things to say, and at breakneck speed. “It’s so important to be playing a young Latina character,” Acosta said. “Fourteen is this critical stage in my life—I’m pressured to fit into a certain category. Suddenly my body is getting labeled. Molly looks like me, and other Latina girls can relate to our struggle. Like, when I was younger I used to think I had to straighten my curly hair for boys to like me. But that’s total BS!”g that she needs to work with others.”