'Runaways' Season 2 Review: The Highest Stakes of Any Marvel TV Show

Now, more than ever, Marvel’s Runaways is starting to feel like the junior league Avengers, doing for Marvel what Young Justice or, to a lesser extent, Titans, has done for DC Comics shows. Season 2 delivers compelling interpersonal teen drama that caters to fans of The OC and Gossip Girl, but it also delivers truly intense stakes that threaten the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it.

Yeah, this doesn’t even begin to compare to Avengers: Infinity War, but it definitely has everything from Legion to Marvel’s now defunct Netflix shows beat.

The entire 13-episode Runaways Season 2 hits Hulu on December 21, and even though it technically takes place inside the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see a crossover happen. Thankfully, that doesn’t stop the series from ramping up to its own apocalyptic climax.

Season 1 was a slow burn that developed the many relationships on the show and established the core mystery about Jonah. Season 2 unites the kids as their own superhero squad trying to stop him. Is he the forefront of some alien invasion? If he wins, could it destroy the world?

Much like the Avengers, the Runaways team blends innovative technological advancement with magical artifacts and somebody with generalized superstrength — there’s even a genetically modified dinosaur just for fun. But where Runaways truly thrives as a show is in the tapestry of interpersonal drama. Not only are several of the teens coupling up both within the group and with new characters, but there’s also the obvious hard feelings they have towards their parents in the Pride.

Expect to see the Runaways work together to harness their various powers in Season 2 — and to pick up a few new team members.

Whereas in the source comics, their parents in the Pride were painted as little more than menacing villains, the show complicates their portrayal by making them all sympathetic characters. They’re all being used by Jonah, helping him towards his mysterious ends, but most of them just want their children safe.

“There’s something down there that’s incredibly valuable to Jonah,” executive producer Josh Schwartz told Entertainment Weekly in January. “And if the cost of getting it is California breaks off into the ocean, so be it. He’s playing on a bigger field.”

Without spoiling much of anything, we do learn more about Jonah’s grand plan throughout Season 2, and it’s one of the most dire threats to ever face the MCU. Watching the Runaways attempt to stop him is one of the most exciting storylines Marvel has done in TV form.

All of Runaways Season 2 hits Hulu on December 21, 2018.