The Illuminati vs. The Pride

[compound]

This has been mentioned before, in other threads, but I don't think i've seen it being discussed for a while now...

Do you think Marvel will eventually need to address how the other heroes would regard a threat like The Pride, from Runaways -- especially a grouping as influential as The Illuminati?

I'm certain that they must be *aware* The Pride existed. But did they ever assess their potential risk? Or did they convene, and agree to "live and let live", since the Pride were doing such an effective job of keeping the West Coast (or is it just Los Angeles, really) under control?

Perhaps most crucially, did they realize that the Gibborim were the source of the Pride's influence?

As it is, most of the Pride members individually represent a "natural" adversary for each of the Illuminati.

The Steins --> corrupt technologists --> "the Wise Men" --> a perversion of the tech-oriented heroism of Iron Man

The Minorus --> dark wizards --> "the Magicians" --> a negative version of the mystical heroism of Dr. Strange

The Hayes --> mutant supremacists --> "the Outcasts" --> in oppsition to the inter-species harmony advocated by Professor X

The Deans --> alien invaders --> "the Colonists" --> an evil mirror image of the extraterrestrial monarchy of Black Bolt

The Yorkes --> time-travelling despots --> "the Travellers" --> a corruption of Reed Richards' innate sense of discovery and adventure?

So how, if ever, did the Illuminati deal with The Pride?

And will Marvel ever tell us, conclusively?

 

[Victor Von Doom]

This has been mentioned before, in other threads, but I don't think i've seen it being discussed for a while now...

Do you think Marvel will eventually need to address how the other heroes would regard a threat like The Pride, from Runaways -- especially a grouping as influential as The Illuminati?

I'm certain that they must be *aware* The Pride existed. But did they ever assess their potential risk? Or did they convene, and agree to "live and let live", since the Pride were doing such an effective job of keeping the West Coast (or is it just Los Angeles, really) under control?

Perhaps most crucially, did they realize that the Gibborim were the source of the Pride's influence?

As it is, most of the Pride members individually represent a "natural" adversary for each of the Illuminati.

The Steins --> corrupt technologists --> "the Wise Men" --> a perversion of the tech-oriented heroism of Iron Man

The Minorus --> dark wizards --> "the Magicians" --> a negative version of the mystical heroism of Dr. Strange

The Hayes --> mutant supremacists --> "the Outcasts" --> in oppsition to the inter-species harmony advocated by Professor X

The Deans --> alien invaders --> "the Colonists" --> an evil mirror image of the extraterrestrial monarchy of Black Bolt

The Yorkes --> time-travelling despots --> "the Travellers" --> a corruption of Reed Richards' innate sense of discovery and adventure?

So how, if ever, did the Illuminati deal with The Pride?

And will Marvel ever tell us, conclusively?

While an interesting battle it would be....I don't think they ever dealt with them nor would they ever deal with them (as of present time).

My reason being is the fact that The Pride was small-time compared to what The Illuminati were dealing with. The fact is....if The Pride was to ever face The Illuminati....the Pride would have their two-bit asses handed to them.

I mean come on---The Pride ran LA. LA. How does LA even rank as a hiccup compared to a being who can alter the universe? Or an alien race plotting to destroy the world (technically this classifies the Gibborim)? Or the Infinity Gems? They don't. It takes a group of them to do what Kingpin does on his own.

Now....in the off-chance the Gibborim escape the hell they're in and somehow come to the position to where they could wipe the Earth clean like planned----THEN the Illuminati would come into play. And then it wouldn't be The Pride Vs Illuminati....it'd be Illuminati Vs Gibborim. Xavier would easily knockout the Pride with some kinda mental "go to sleep" mind trick.

 

[Foolsfolly]

This has been mentioned before, in other threads, but I don't think i've seen it being discussed for a while now...

Do you think Marvel will eventually need to address how the other heroes would regard a threat like The Pride, from Runaways -- especially a grouping as influential as The Illuminati?

I'm certain that they must be *aware* The Pride existed. But did they ever assess their potential risk? Or did they convene, and agree to "live and let live", since the Pride were doing such an effective job of keeping the West Coast (or is it just Los Angeles, really) under control?

Perhaps most crucially, did they realize that the Gibborim were the source of the Pride's influence?

As it is, most of the Pride members individually represent a "natural" adversary for each of the Illuminati.

The Steins --> corrupt technologists --> "the Wise Men" --> a perversion of the tech-oriented heroism of Iron Man

The Minorus --> dark wizards --> "the Magicians" --> a negative version of the mystical heroism of Dr. Strange

The Hayes --> mutant supremacists --> "the Outcasts" --> in oppsition to the inter-species harmony advocated by Professor X

The Deans --> alien invaders --> "the Colonists" --> an evil mirror image of the extraterrestrial monarchy of Black Bolt

The Yorkes --> time-travelling despots --> "the Travellers" --> a corruption of Reed Richards' innate sense of discovery and adventure?

So how, if ever, did the Illuminati deal with The Pride?

And will Marvel ever tell us, conclusively?

Not a bad idea, but for this fight the Pride would have to go up a few levels in power. The most we saw the Pride do was fail to catch their children, kill a hooker, and then die.

Potentially they could be a strong force to fight because while they didn't do much in Runaways we know they were powerful and somewhat ruthlessly to due to everyone knowing them and respecting or fearing them.

Kingpin respected them, and that's not something Kingpin does often to other crimelords, across the country or not.

If they weren't holding back, they might have a chance in a battle with the Illuminati. But they'd need some Kirby Devices to limit Strange's effects of Magically enhanced Plot-devices of the Crimson Bands! And then some Magneto helmets to make Prof. X useless.

And something to shut Blackbolt up.

 

[compound]

I think people are kinda missing the point here...

I *know* the Illuminati could probably whip the Pride's *** in a fight. But my question is: why didn't they, if it would be so easy? The Illuminati have been active as a group longer than the Pride have been around. Why didn't they intervene sooner?

What I wanna know is this: why would an alliance of the earth's most powerful heroes knowingly, consciously allow a two-bit cabal of evil-doers to run one of the most influential cities in the United States? (And with the help of some horrifically dangerous extra-dimensional conquerors, at that.)

That kind of **** just does not slip below the radar of guys like Richards, Xavier, and Stark. The MUST have known about the Pride.

So even if they just had a discussion about it -- "Hey, these Johnny-come-lately super-villains are doing a more effective job of keeping Los Angeles safe than the Champions or the West Coast Avengers ever did! Should we let them carry on with their business?" -- it would still be a story worth telling.

Frankly, since the Illuminati seem to have ****ed up every other mission they've gone on, anyway, I'd like to see them attempt to rough up the Pride, circa the late 80s/early 90s, hoping to figure out the source of their powers. If only to have the satisfaction of watching the Pride members tell them to **** off and leave them alone to run their city, if they can't prove that they've done anything wrong. Maybe we'll even get a look at what the Runaways looked like, as children, in the process.

It doesn't have to be an actual fight. In fact, the idea of some kind of negotiation or confrontation alone has more storytelling possibilities.

 

[Victor Von Doom]

That's just it. You assume that they did know. Who's to say they did? I still maintain the stance that the Pride didn't even register on The Illuminati's radar.

 

[TwilightEL]

The Pride would win, or at least put up a better fight than some of you are saying they would.

Think about it. All the Pride needed to do was kill a hooker now and then to achieve their ultimate goal (giving their kids an eternity in paradise). Until then, they wanted to live it up as best they could. Taking over LA was easy and painless and didn't draw attention, so they could enjoy themselves there until the Gibborim destroyed all humans. They didn't want to take over the world or kill all the heroes--it was in their best interests to avoid conflict. We never saw what would happen if the Pride got into a fight. We never saw their true potential.

 

[ProjectX2]

When I was rewriting all of Marvel's crossovers, I had an idea for Secret War - it was The Avengers vs. The Pride. And then a modern day Secret War would be Young Avengers vs. Runaways. I forgot what it was about.

Anyway, I think the mistake Marvel and/or BKV has made is this - Volume 1 of Runaways wasn't as immersed in the 616 Universe as most other comics. The only times we saw Marvel characters was on Alex's videogames (which implies that he could be in our world) and at the end, when Captain America shows up (which ruins that theory). Volume 1 was pretty much self contained.

And then Volume 2 started off with a whole lot of Marvel characters coming into contact with the Runaways. And then the second arc had the New Avengers. I think it would have been better if Runaways had stayed self contained, off in it's own little universe. Then it makes sense that the Illuminati might not have known about The Pride. Which would be good.

But then they throw in the reference that the Staff of One made Doctor Strange (or was it Dormammu? I can't remember) shiver. Which does sort of imply that the Pride had a few run ins with super heroes (I believe Wonder Man was mentioned, but he doesn't count) or at least other super villains.

So why didn't The Illuminati know about The Pride? The obvious answer is because Bendis doesn't even know about the Runaways and doesn't care about them. The real answer is that they're too busy trying to fix their own mistakes so they'll leave The Pride and all the other small villains to people like Wonder Man, who don't count.

Wow, that was a fairly inconsistent post and I have no idea what that is about. Just some random thoughts.

 

[Iceshadow]

When I was rewriting all of Marvel's crossovers, I had an idea for Secret War - it was The Avengers vs. The Pride. And then a modern day Secret War would be Young Avengers vs. Runaways. I forgot what it was about.

Anyway, I think the mistake Marvel and/or BKV has made is this - Volume 1 of Runaways wasn't as immersed in the 616 Universe as most other comics. The only times we saw Marvel characters was on Alex's videogames (which implies that he could be in our world) and at the end, when Captain America shows up (which ruins that theory). Volume 1 was pretty much self contained.

And then Volume 2 started off with a whole lot of Marvel characters coming into contact with the Runaways. And then the second arc had the New Avengers. I think it would have been better if Runaways had stayed self contained, off in it's own little universe. Then it makes sense that the Illuminati might not have known about The Pride. Which would be good.

But then they throw in the reference that the Staff of One made Doctor Strange (or was it Dormammu? I can't remember) shiver. Which does sort of imply that the Pride had a few run ins with super heroes (I believe Wonder Man was mentioned, but he doesn't count) or at least other super villains.

You forgot that volume one also had Cloak and Dagger.

 

[ourchair]

Not a bad idea, but for this fight the Pride would have to go up a few levels in power. The most we saw the Pride do was fail to catch their children, kill a hooker, and then die.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

The Pride would win, or at least put up a better fight than some of you are saying they would.

Think about it. All the Pride needed to do was kill a hooker now and then to achieve their ultimate goal (giving their kids an eternity in paradise). Until then, they wanted to live it up as best they could. Taking over LA was easy and painless and didn't draw attention, so they could enjoy themselves there until the Gibborim destroyed all humans. They didn't want to take over the world or kill all the heroes--it was in their best interests to avoid conflict. We never saw what would happen if the Pride got into a fight. We never saw their true potential.

I agree.

Their goal was to live teh good life in LA, and the point at which we were introduced to the Pride was far past the point they needed to be bad-*** (and depending on your interpretation, at a point where they may have been complacent) We didn't see what it took for them to get to where they were before they were two steps away from reaching Six-Toed Space Monkey Rapture.

 

[Zombipanda]

I feel like the parents really weren't explored well enough either. Vaughan picked a juicy bunch of villain archetypes, but they never really did much.

 

[TwilightEL]

I feel like the parents really weren't explored well enough either. Vaughan picked a juicy bunch of villain archetypes, but they never really did much.

There's a Runaways preview up for the next issue where we see holograms of their parents for some reason.

 

[Zombipanda]

There's a Runaways preview up for the next issue where we see holograms of their parents for some reason.

If the kids now have the capacity for time travel, I'd love to see them end up encountering all of their parents at different points in their lives.