Current Events
Molly Hayes has not made any appearances in Marvel Now, outside of some flashbacks during Avengers Arena, but this will soon change. During the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, it was announced that during an upcoming event, Battle of the Atom, several future versions of the X-men would appear. One of them being an older version of Molly Hayes.
Origin
Molly Hayes is the daughter of Alice Hayes and Gene Hayes, two evil, human hating mutants who were chosen to be part of the Pride. She, like the other Runaways, did not know the true nature of their parents annual charity get-together. Molly, as well as the other Runaways had become friends because their parents being close and attending an annual get together to discuss their charities and business ventures but the truth is much more sinister. The Pride would commit an annual sacrifice to their “leaders” the Gibborim. After the other kids witness their parents annual sacrifice this time of an innocent young girl they realize they all must escape their parents. The other Runaways meet at an observatory late that night and plan on rescuing Molly since she is too young to sneak out. The Pride actually becomes aware of their children’s activities after several children (Chase, Karolina and Gertrude) look for evidence and/or steal something crucial from their own homes. The parents suspect the children will attempt to rescue Molly and prepare to interfere. At the Hayes home the parents are positioned in and around the home. The children have to fight and distract the Dean’s before they can get in. They crash in and eventually Molly is awoken by a scuffle between a few of the Runaways and her parents. Once Molly sees her mom under attack the shock causes her powers to manifest for the first time. Molly, being the youngest and most naive, was the hardest to convince that her and the others parents are evil and they need to runaway together.
Creation
Molly Hayes was created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona and first appeared in Runaways Vol.1 issue 1 (2003).
Major Story Arcs
On their Own
The team decides they must make up for their parents evil deeds so they commit to becoming crime fighters. Molly is very excited to fight crime because she thinks this will make her an official super hero. Molly even makes herself a costume, it was nothing spectacular it consisted of shorts a mask a shirt that said “SECURITY” and yellow kitchen gloves. She called herself “Princess Powerful” but the others dubbed her “Bruiser.” Their first attempt at crime fighting happens abruptly and does not go smoothly. While parked in front of a convenience store the group realizes its being robbed and they decide to do something about it. The older kids decide Molly is too young to come with them so they have Gertrude stay with her in the van. The others stop the thiefs only to discover one of their own. They meet Topher, who was forced by his evil parents to commit crimes and decide he too should become a Runaway. They do not realize it until its too late, but there is more to Topher than they knew. The “teen” Topher was actually a century old vampire who was trying to feed on the group. Topher causes turmoil and is only stopped when he dies after ingesting Karolina‘s alien solar irradiated blood. Molly witnesses his demise, this terrifies her so much she cries for her mom only to realize how much has changed and sees her new life is not a game.
Molly and the others discover what the Prides plans are and decide to stop their evil plans. They plan on disrupting the Prides ritual that would cause the world to be recreated with six Pride members as the overlords. During this battle Alex Wilder reveals himself to be a secret mole still loyal to his parents and the Pride, he planned on taking the six spots for himself, his parents and Nico and her family but Molly ruins the ritual by destroying the sacrifice for the Gibborim. The Gibborim become angered and destroy Alex and attack the Pride while the children escape. After the Pride is destroyed the children are separated and placed in foster homes, but Molly is sent to X-Corp. Of course they are not apart for very long, Molly escapes with the help of Gert then again runs away with her friends.
A New Start of the Runaways
Though the original Pride has been destroyed they continue their adventures and remain distrustful of adults. Their adventures take a dangerous turn when they receive a warning about a super villain from a dying Gert from the future. The villain is actually Victor Mancha, a teen like the others, Molly and the others recruit him in order to prevent him from becoming evil. A new Pride emerges led by a young Geoffery Wilder, the new members are led to believe the Runaways killed Alex and kidnapped Molly. She is saved but Gert is killed, Molly misses Gert dearly even asking their semi-sentient vehicle if Gert is in heaven, she even stays up late and “camps out” in front of a picture of Gert and talks to the picture. Their next adventure has them facing the Gibborim again, Chase had called upon them in an attempt to bring Gert back from the dead. They still require a sacrifice and Chase attempts to sacrifice himself but they try to take Nico but Molly and Victor stop them.
In an odd turn of event the young team ends up working for Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. They are tasked with stealing a device for an employer of Fisk’s but they are attacked by the Punisher, an unnamed winged assailant and ninjas. The Punisher only tries stopping them because they are connected to the Kingpin but after grabbing Molly she punches him in the gut to get away. The warring forces lead to the discovery that the device belongs to the Stein family and it integrates with their team transport, the Leapfrog. The device ends up transporting the Runaways to 1907. While in 1907 they encounter gangs of “wonders” (who are people with powers or abilities) that are at war and a young girl that is Molly’s age who needs help. Molly and the others are sucked into the conflict between the warring gangs but learn the Yorke’s are pulling the strings and hold the key to returning to their own time. Molly and Karolina attempt to help a girl Molly’s age named Klara Prast. Klara also has power but has a very different personality due to her life growing up in 1907. Molly convinces Klara to join them but after seeing Karolina interact with Xavin she runs away. Molly follows her trying to explain but she becomes upset and calls her a grown up and leaves her be. Shortly after the big battle between the rival gangs Klara returns beaten by her husband (yes, the girl was married to an abusive alcoholic grown man) and apologizes to Molly.
Molly’s New Friend
Klara joins the group and they all to the present. Molly takes Klara under her wing to teach her about modern New York, she is really happy to have Klara on the team because they are both around twelve years old and both are mutants. Within a day or two of returning to the present the Skrull Secret Invasion began and Molly and the Runaways were in the middle of it. They actually saw the first wave of the invasion attack New York. Xavins mentor from his super Skrull training is a high level commander in the invasion and has ordered the death of the Young Avenger, Hulkling because of his royal heritage. Along with staving off the invasion, Molly, her fellow Runaways as well as Wiccan and Speed protect a battered Teddy (Hulkling). Once Teddy is safe and recovered the group rush to the main battle in Central Park where they defeat the Skrulls with help from other heroes.
Utopia
Molly was once again paired up with the mutant Wolverine (last time they saw each other was when the team was helping Cloak but Molly stayed back at a church, there she was visited by Wolverine and several other X-Men, but after Logan annoyed her she punched him out of the church sending him several blocks away). He was her reluctant tour guide while she visited the X-Men’s new facility in San Francisco.
She was invited to live at the institute, given the rationale that she’s one of the few hundred remaining mutants left on the planet. As Wolverine is taking her back to her friends (who at this time were hanging out with the rest of the X-students), they are attacked and captured by a mutant hating extremist who wanted revenge for the cruelty of her parents.
Though Wolverine and Molly eventually escape and defeat the villain, Molly’s faith of her parents’ love for her is shaken by the stories told to her about her parents’ evil deeds and hatred of humanity. Wolverine, in a rare moment of compassion and tenderness, then reassures her that if her parents raised such a good kid, then they couldn’t have been all bad, and that they loved her as much as she thought they did.
Further Adventures and Avengers Academy
Molly and her fellow Runaways remained together and relocated to Malibu where they fought a few more battles, eventually resulting in the seeming death of pet-dinosaur Lace. As if this was not bad enough, the team faced another tragedy when team-member Chase was hit by a car and was seemingly left for dead. He luckily recovered and rejoined the team. Not soon after, Molly and her team sneaked into the Avengers Academy to find some help which resulted in a battle, but eventually they joined forces and spend some days with the Academy before returning to their old ways as runaways. Member Victor Mancha however left the team after the events of Age of Ultron.
Avengers Arena
Some months later, Molly’s friends Nico and Chase where kidnapped by the sadistic murderer known as Arcade. Although nobody knew this at the time, since Arcade had made it appear the two had just taken a vacation, even making fake updates on their Social Media accounts and having robot-voices talk to the team via telephone. Molly however felled something was wrong and knew that she was not dealing with her real friends. Feeling desperate because nobody on her team believed her, Molly turned to the Avengers Academy’s Hank Pym. There she told him that her friends where somehow kidnapped and that she knew she was not talking to her real friends on the phone. Although her behavior was mistaken for being unable to deal with her friends leaving, Molly did make an impression on Hank Pym, whom investigated the disappearance further.
Return to the Runaways
After Molly’s friends Nico and Chase went missing, the group fell apart. Molly came to live with her grandmother, whom was nice to her, but also experimented on her, to make her more powerful. Since Molly had no where else to go, she started making a life for herself, attending high school and making new friends. Everything however changed when Chase and Nico once again stood on Molly’s doorstep, right next to Gert, one of the group’s team members whom died during one of their missions. At first, Molly’s grandmother was very nice to them, but once the team noticed her taking their DNA, they convinced Molly that she should leave her grandmother and once more join them. When Molly’s grandmother tried to stop them, a fight broke out after which Molly choose to once again join the Runaways. Unlike Molly, Klara had found a loving pair of foster parents and did not join with the Runaways.
There would be another conflict with the X-Men when they are deceived into believing Molly does not wish to remain where she is.
Powers
Molly is a mutant with extreme strength and invulnerability. Her strength level is such that at peak performance, she was able to rip off Cloak‘s cloak from his corporeal form; something which Cloak stated even a god’s strength was incapable of doing. She was also able to prevent a skyscraper-sized monster from stepping on her and has tunneled through miles of rock. Molly’s invulnerability became evident when a member of the Wrecking Crew smashed his enchanted shovel over Molly’s head, causing the shovel to crack into pieces and leaving Molly unscathed.
Use of her powers is fatiguing. While the upper limits of her strength have yet to be measured, the more she exerts herself, the more quickly she becomes fatigued, often to the point of becoming very drowsy and falling asleep. Her power seems to be enhanced by adrenaline. She was once awakened from her fatigue-induced sleep by a nearby explosion, and was able to again use her strength (though not to the same extreme levels). She was also once given a power-boost by Nico through a mystical caffeine injection from the Staff of One.
Use of her powers is voluntary. Her eyes glow with a purple-colored light whenever she exerts herself, in the same way her parents’ eyes glowed whenever they used their powers. It has also been hinted that she is more intelligent than she lets on.
She is one of the few mutants to retain their powers after M-Day.
Characteristics
- Height: 4’11”
- Weight: 100 lbs
- Eyes: Green (Glow purple when using her powers)
- Hair: Brown
What has become a trademark of sorts for her are her choices in hats. Molly is rarely seen without some kind of head wear, she usually wears some sort of beanie or headband. The hats and headbands are usually are usually childish (but still adorable) and look like some sort of animal.
Molly was voted the 4th toughest female in the Marvel Universe, just behind Rogue, She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel.
Other Versions
Battle of the Atom Future
Molly appeared in a possible future time-line of the X-Men where she had joined that era’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. At first, Molly and her team pretended to be the X-Men, seeking to return the original X-Men from the past back to their own time. When they where revealed to be imposters, Molly and her team fought the present day X-Men. After the battle, Molly and her team disappeared from sight.
Other Media
Games
Marvel Avengers Alliance
Molly was released as a recruitable character via command points in the game. Her bio says: Molly Hayes is the youngest member of the Runaways, a group of young heroes who ran away from home because their parents were super-villains with apocalyptic plans. When Molly’s abilities of super strength and endurance began to manifest, she saw it as the perfect opportunity to wear a cool costume and become a vigilante super-hero with her friends. However, the constant threat of being broken up by powered villains and heroes alike have caused Molly and the Runaways to stay on the run.
X-men: Battle of the Atom
Molly is featured in the mobile card game “X-Men: Battle of the Atom” based on the comic book story with the same name. Her cards are:
- [Future] Brotherhood of Mutants
Marvel: War of Heroes
Molly appears in several cards in the mobile card game Marvel: War of Heroes. Her cards are:
[Princess Powerful] Molly Hayes