History YMMV / Runaways2017

* ArcFatigue: Jonah acted as an OverarchingVillain, with the Runaway's primary goal being to stop his EvilPlan and try to make their parents pay for their crimes. Having this be the plot for the first season is fine. Two seasons maybe. Two seasons and nearly half of the third and it's exhausting. By the time Morgan Le Fay takes over as the BigBad five episodes into Season 3, the sudden shift from ScienceFiction to DarkFantasy makes the show feel like a different show. The fact that the final battle between Jonah's evil family and Morgan's rise to power happens before and after a time skip certainly doesn't help.

* EvilIsSexy: Although the level of "evil" varies, the members of PRIDE are all quite pleasing to the eye.

** Julian [=McMahon=] being cast as Jonah means that he's the second member of Tim Story's [[Film/FantasticFour2005 Fantastic Four films]] to join the MCU, the first being Creator/ChrisEvans as Captain America[[note]][=McMahon=] and Evans had previously played Doctor Doom and The Human Torch[[/note]].

** An especially strong use of the Staff of One causes Nico to [[spoiler:develop the same cracks around her eyes as [[Film/DoctorStrange2016 Kaecilius]]]].

** Fans of the magical side of the MCU are now mad that the Staff of One is now yet another example of ClarkesThirdLaw. Especially since Doctor Strange had established magic as being a thing in the MCU, which Tina Minoru and the Staff had made a tiny cameo in. Though it does still have Nico point out that splitting this particular hair is a bit silly when you're dealing with something like the Staff.
*** This is no longer an issue come Season 3 which reveals the Staff is indeed magical as our its powers and that the Clarke's Third Law explanation was lie to cover up its true nature.

** It's not hard to feel sorry for Frank Dean a loving father and husband who is kept in the dark of his wife's crimes, is being cheated on, and had his memory wiped after witnessing that. [[spoiler: Especially now that the audience knows he is not Karolina's biological father]].

** Nico's bizarre quasi-Victorian gown in "Last Rites," especially with her thinking it's what she should wear to what seems to be their final battle.
*** Justified, it's a replica of [[https://terrigen-cdn-dev.marvel.com/content/prod/1x/068nmi_com_inl_01.jpg one of her outfits]] from the comics.

** Topher appears in Season 2. In the comics, he appeared in all of ''two issues'' before getting KilledOffForReal. It was known they would introduce a new Runaway, but it was widely thought to be ComicBook/VictorMancha (the most famous non-founding member) as opposed to him.

** After ''Series/{{Inhumans}}'' being very averse to having a scene where Lockjaw is touched due to SpecialEffectsFailure, it's ''very'' satisfying to see Gert and Molly touch Old Lace in several scenes, '''on-screen''', thanks to Old Lace actually being portrayed by animatronic for close-up scenes.

** Catherine crosses it when she [[spoiler: murders Darius and frames him for the murder of Destiny Gonzales]]. Worse than that is her absolutely unapologetic attitude afterwards. Even her husband is appalled. Later she even [[spoiler: orders a hit on Darius' kid cousin Livvie when she comes close to uncover everything.]]

** Essentially the ''entire first season'' is a ProlongedPrologue for the real story, though fortunately Hulu had the decency to announce it would be getting a second season the day before the finale's release.

* {{Squick}}: We get some agonizing close ups of [[spoiler:Dale sticking his fingers into Victor's bullet wound.]]

** Also in Season 2, the appearance of Xavin, a character many thought the show wouldn't even ''try'' to adapt due to their comic book self being a skrull and the character clashing with the tone of the show (not to mention having not appeared at all since being PutOnABusToHell in 2009). Albeit, Xavin's race was changed here but is still alien.

* Sugarwiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Reviewers praised both Old Lace, for creating a mostly convincing dinosaur (specially the animatronic that physically interacts with the actors) on a TV-sized budget, and Karolina's iridescent form.

** Morgan's {{Stripperific}} costume in Season 3 leaves ''very'' little to the imagination and looks incredibly impractical (not to mention uncomfortable). Perhaps made weirder by the fact that, in a show full of teenagers who take every opportunity to snark at people, [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight no-one ever comments on it]].

* Ship Mates: Karolina/Nico and Gert/Chase.

** The PRIDE members strip down to their underwear before putting on their robes, and the women get long, loving shots panning over their exposed bodies that seem to linger a tad longer than necessary. Meanwhile, all we see from the men is them loosening their ties then seemingly teleporting straight into the robes.
*** Robert holding several people at bay with one of the Fistagons while stripping down to his underpants. It happens during a dramatic scene, but it's not exactly imposing.

** When Leslie and [[spoiler:Jonah]] have sex the first time on-screen, to calm him after the sacrifice fails to revive him. The scene is ''meant'' to be disturbing and unnerving, but the effect fails when she gets into bed with him, as instead of getting on top of him, she just lays at his side. Given the light show produced indicating ''something'' is happening, it just makes it appear that his penis is on his hip instead of between his legs.

** The Staff of One's new origin. Instead of a magic wand conjured by spilling blood that can create any effect but only once, it is now composed of nanotechnology that responds to the wielder's thoughts to create a variety of effects, ranging from forcefields to ''snow''. Its description is so hilariously nonsensical, keeping it magical would have been ''less'' confusing. This is thankfully fixed in Season 2 as it's made explicitly magical, with Tina's explanation just being a desperate case of denial.

** Nico finding the courage to use the Staff of One again is supposed to be a rousing [[HesBack She's Back]] moment, which is rather blunted by the fact that it happens a grand total of ''one episode'' after she buried it in the wall.
** The number of times non-Marvel things get referenced before Marvel things, from Goosebumps, to ''Star Wars'', to Toy Story to Street Fighter 2, as if the show's writers are deliberately trying to troll the comic fans.

* WTHCostumingDepartment: Nico's bizarre quasi-Victorian gown in "Last Rites," especially with her thinking it's what she should wear to what seems to be their final battle.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Much like Lockjaw from ''Series/{{Inhumans}}'', everyone loves Old Lace the velociraptor. Especially popular is that the design manages to incorporate feathers like it's now believed dinosaurs had, while still not messing too much with the classic image of them.

** In Season 3, Morgan le Fay is revealed to somehow possess ''Darkhold'', the book that had caused lots of problems to [[Series/AgentsOfSHIELD Team Coulson]] for ''an entire season'' until Ghost Rider took the book and hide it somewhere in another dimension by the end of that season. How she could ever got it is never explained.

* {{HSQ}}: An especially strong use of the Staff of One causes Nico to [[spoiler:develop the same cracks around her eyes as [[Film/DoctorStrange2016 Kaecilius]]]].

* ShockingMoments: In Season 3, Morgan le Fay is revealed to somehow possess ''Darkhold'', the book that had caused lots of problems to [[Series/AgentsOfSHIELD Team Coulson]] for ''an entire season'' until Ghost Rider took the book and hide it somewhere in another dimension by the end of that season. How she could ever got it is never explained.

* HarsherInHindsight: [[spoiler: A week after TheBigDamnKiss between Nico and Karolina, their comic book counterparts have an AlmostKiss -- which Karolina defuses because she's currently dating Julie Power.]]

* LGBTFanbase: Loads of gay and bisexual women watching the show primarily for Karolina [[spoiler: and [[AdaptationalSexuality Nico]].]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The show didn't clarify [[spoiler:if Nico killed AWOL and his squad, or if a dozen naked men got dropped off someplace random]].

* BrokenBase: On whether Xavin should be genderfluid or not.
** The show's more [[AdaptationalHeroism sympathetic portrayal of the PRIDE]] is a source of arguments among fans. Some think it helps the show to make the parents more sympathetic while those against it feel they take too much attention and agency from the kids and think the more ruthless and evil versions of the comics were more interesting. Some fans also don't like how all of the PRIDE's crimes are excused by them being manipulated by Jonah.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Much like Lockjaw from ''Series/{{Inhumans}}'', everyone loves Old Lace the velociraptor. Especially popular is that the design manages to incorporate feathers like it's now believed dinosaurs had while still not messing too much with the classic image of them.

* SpecialEffectFailure: Zigzagged. In some shots the CGI model of Old Lace is not convincing in the slightest, especially since the show insists on intercutting it with the physical animatronic, although considering the shows budget it still manages to be surprisingly convincing in some other scenes.