Runaways as Social Chimera: Posthuman Connection in Lost Worlds

• In Event: 30461 - Section on Children and Youth Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 2. Expanding Theories of Childhood

Abstract

Understandings of the chimera typically fall within the confines of mythology or biology. Literary definitions also exist: “something made up of parts of things that are very different from each other” or “a hope or a dream that is very unlikely to ever come true.” Using this latter device, I expand into a new theoretical space—the social chimera. Runaways is a Marvel comic series that explores what happens to a group of teenagers when they discover their parents are villains working to end all human life on earth. Upon learning that their parents sacrifice children to ancient beings to achieve their goal, the youth become runaways, unable to ignore their parents’ treacherous lies and immoral behavior. Through examining how the runaways are situated between their parents, other adults, and their futures, the social chimera emerges within the posthuman surround. Themes of trust and morality come forth, wherein the runaways pledge to make up for their parents’ immoral acts by fighting evil and helping the helpless. The youth also do whatever they can to stay away from superhero and mutant adults, most of whom enact protectionism against them and work to truncate their abilities and freedoms. Adding to the social chimera theory, children are separated from their imagined futures—their mantra is strong: avoid adulthood at all costs because adult = liar. As a result, two of the runaways die by the end of Runaways Volume 2 (first series run), with one stating that she never believed she would live to see eighteen, a positionality I theorize reflects the “self-unbecoming child.” Considering posthumanism, hybridity, and the “bad seed” trope, I conclude the paper with a general discussion of children and if they are in fact the true chimera (as opposed to Donna Haraway’s well-known claim that “we are all chimeras”).

Author

• Ingrid E. Castro, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts