Runaways : Dead End Kids

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You’re also coming to the end of your time on Runaways. What should we expect?

I’ve put out a lot of threads. Actually, I created an entire 1907 Marvel Universe and they’re going to war so…it’s complicated. I keep having to go, “Okay, who’s in this? How many people are fighting?” But it’s just about paying off everything I’ve been heading up to and everybody coming out of the experience a little bit changed. At the same time, the whole 1907 [aspect] of it has just been an utter joy. I did a bunch of research and every character in it with, I think, two exceptions, is based on some historical fact or phrase or little tidbit.

One of the best lines was when they get a 1907 newspaper that talks about the original Typhoid Mary and Chase says, “Typhoid Mary. Didn’t she fight Daredevil?”

Well, that’s one of the joys. Anytime you have to delve into a piece of history, you’re going to have more fun. You’re going to have more texture. To put them into a place where, literally, the term “adolescent” had just been coined and teenagers did not exist has been just extremely fun. And now it’s the last issue and it’s time to f--- ’em all up!

You’ve been writing teenage characters so well for so many years. What are the challenges of having the dialogue ring true as you get older?

You know, reading Runaways [when Brian K. Vaughan was writing it] really brought this to light. The moment I realized, “Hey, check out my oldness!” was when Chase drowned [in #16] and Gert gave him mouth-to-mouth and Molly shouted, “Bonus life!” I was, like, “Okay, that’s a younger person writing young people.” And there will come a time when [my teen characters] are going to look like Archie and Jughead, not actual teenagers. My feeling about writing adolescents is, simply, it is a timeless experience. Even when I was writing the movie of “Buffy,” I didn’t try to ape the way kids talk because they were changing it based on whatever movie they saw last week. So my rule of writing for young people was just “Keep it fluid. Keep things fresh. Just find a new way to say something that feels natural.” Even if it’s not what people are saying, it’ll feel right. You gotta remember what’s timeless and not try to be the sitcom writer using the word “wack” because he wants to sound hip.

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