Pride (comics)
Pride is a supervillain team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The characters are depicted as a criminal organization that controlled the Los Angeles area of the Marvel Universe. They are the parents and the initial and most prominent foes the Runaways have faced and are the team's greatest enemy to date. The Pride consists of six married couples who are secretly supervillains. They possess a wide range of abilities, skills, and resources. Each member of The Pride has their own unique powers or expertise, often related to their criminal or mystical backgrounds. The mafia-controlling Wilders, the time-traveling Yorkeses, the telepathic mutant Hayeses, the alien invader Deans, the mad scientist Steins, and the dark wizard Minorus.
Pride was often considered to be an efficient super-villain team that barred other villains from controlling Los Angeles. Although the real world did not know of Pride's existence, Mafia mob bosses who did, such as Kingpin, admitted the group ran Los Angeles with efficiency and vision. The Pride first appeared in Runaways #1, published by Marvel Comics in 2003, and was created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona.
The Pride also appeared in Hulu's television series Runaways set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where most of them are presented as caring parents who act out of a desire to protect their children from a greater threat.
Origin
Original Pride
Although the Pride was the center of focus throughout the first volume of the series, their actual origin was only covered in the 13th issue. The six couples were called together in 1985 by the Gibborim, three mythical giants who had ruled the world when it had "originally been one, serene utopia". The Gibborim informed the couples that they desired to turn the world into the same peaceful utopia it had been millions of years before, but did not have the strength. The Gibborim required the six couples' help to wipe out the entire planet, and when they achieved their goal, six of the twelve who served them the best would be able to rule the world with them, while the other six would perish with the rest of the human race. The couples agreed, and formed The Pride.The Gibborim required a sacrifice every year for twenty-five years in order to get their strength. During this time, the Gibborim rewarded The Pride with wealth and with enhancements to their natural abilities and powers so they could rule over Los Angeles, to a point where Quasimodo's research on them for Norman Osborn during the "Dark Reign" storyline calls them "the dominant and most feared criminal organization of the West Coast". Every year, The Pride gathered at the Wilder residence, using the excuse of an "annual charity fundraiser", while in reality, they would perform the "Rite of Blood", the ritual sacrifice of an innocent young female victim; the spirit of the victim would then be fed to the Gibborim in the "Rite of Thunder".
After Janet Stein became pregnant during their third year as a group, the Pride agreed to end its struggle against one another. Instead of half the couples surviving, they would instead have one child, with those children receiving the six places in the coming paradise, allowing the Pride's legacy to go on. Unbeknownst to the rest of the Pride, the Deans and the Hayes had made a deal: to murder the rest of the Pride and take the six tickets to paradise for themselves and their daughters, Karolina Dean and Molly Hayes, considering themselves superior to the other four families due to their natural abilities compared to the others' reliance on technology and tools.
When Obadiah Stane took his company, Tony Stark relocated to Los Angeles after saving a homeless man with psychological problems, but unintentionally attracted the attention of the Pride who believed that he had come to Los Angeles specifically to confront them. Despite their attempts to eliminate Stark by hiring the Serpent Society to kill him, Tony was able to assemble a new company called Imperio Techworks, convincing the locals to invest, which prompts Wilder to send Tony a message about his presence in the city. Unfortunately for Wilder, his actions resulted in Stark learning about the existence of the Pride; prior to this, all Stark knew was that the Serpent Society had been sent after him by a bald man, leading to the logical assumption that their attacks against him were organized by Stane. Although he was able to defeat and imprison the Pride with the aid of the Illuminati when they tried to confront him directly, Stark knew that he couldn't hold his "territory" once the Pride were out of prison as they were too well-connected. With that in mind, Tony handed Imperio Techworks over to one of his employees and departed after leaving Geoffrey Wilder a message; if the Pride left Imperio alone, Tony would not bring in virtually every superhuman contact he possessed to attack them.
Seventeen years after the Steins announced their pregnancy, the Pride's children inadvertently see the Rite of Blood and run away. With assistance of LAPD Lieutenant Flores, their parents frame their children for the murder of the innocent girl who served as their most recent sacrifice. A note left at the Deans' house reveals that one of the Runaways is secretly loyal to the Pride. The mole within the Runaways tips off the Pride about their involvement with Cloak and Dagger and alerts the Pride of their new hideout, forcing the Runaways to escape.
During a ceremony at the Rite of Thunder, Alex obtains Nico's Staff of One, Chase's Fistigons and Gertrude's dinosaur, manipulating his teammates into defeat and revealing himself as the mole. In reality, he also discovered the Deans' and Hayeses' betrayal.
Alex manipulated the Runaways as a way of taking the six tickets in paradise for himself, his parents, Nico and her parents. Nico brutally refuses his offer, beating up Alex in the process. Within seconds, the other Runaways retrieve their stolen items from Alex. Molly crushes the container carrying the soul of the latest girl sacrificed, the Gibborim destroy Alex, and the undersea lair in which they offer the soul collapses, trapping The Pride inside. Right before the lair collapses, the rest of the Pride finally learns of the Deans and Hayeses betrayal.
The Runaways assume the Pride is dead even though no bodies were found.
With their defeat, the activities and the true extent of the Pride's influence in L.A. is reported to the public, leading to a slew of indictments, most notably within law enforcement ranging from theft to homicide. A news report three months later announces that the government is refusing to reveal any detail about the Pride or the Runaways.
"New Pride"
At the end of issue #6 in the second series, a figure who had impersonated Chamber from the X-Men, is implied to be a resurrected Alex Wilder, and has formed a new Pride using some of the original team's tools, including the Minorus' Chameleon Glamour, a small talisman to disguise the user into any form. They had later used the Minorus' Eye-Spy Cauldron to spy on the Runaways, who had left from New York City and were returning to Los Angeles. They had also obtained the Steins' copy of the Abstract. It was later revealed that they were a group of Alex's former online friends on a role-playing game consisting of Stretch, Hunter, Lotus, and Oscar.After they were revealed to be the "new Pride", Hunter hacked into Alex's game account, and through that eventually found his computer's journal and learned about Pride. After Alex's death, the friends find certain items from Pride in an attempt to bring back Alex, but end up killing Oscar, and bringing back a younger version of Alex's father Geoffrey from a time period of one year after joining Pride. Geoffrey then lied to the new Pride acting as the "good guy" and saying that the Runaways killed Alex. Ironically, the new Pride formed because Alex's friends claimed that they wanted to become more "responsible members of society", and begin acting like adults, the Runaways' philosophy states that no adults are to be trusted.
Geoffrey Wilder murders Gertrude Yorkes as part of a sacrificial ritual, but he is captured and returned to his own time the new Pride disbands after the Runaways reveal Geoffrey Wilder's true goal. Following Gert's death, Stretch checks himself into a mental health facility, and Hunter joins the Peace Corps to atone for the "blood" on his hands. Lotus is kidnapped by Chase Stein to help him resurrect Gert. When the attempt fails, Chase releases Lotus, telling her to burn her copy of the Abstract.
Alex Wilder's New Pride
Alex Wilder later founds a new incarnation of the Pride, consisting of Black Mariah, Cottonmouth, Cockroach Hamilton, and Gamecock.Members
Original members
Despite Pride's allegiance to one another, rifts and alliances had been common amongst the group. The most notable of the alliances was the Hayeses and the Deans, who had plotted to betray the other remaining Pride members because they were human. All members of the Pride are given nicknames by the Gibborim.The Wilder family
Geoffrey and Catherine Wilder are Alex Wilder's parents. They are crime bosses who posed as businesspeople. They handled illegal drug trade, gambling and robbery in Los Angeles. For this, these two established strong and powerful connections throughout Los Angeles, a reason the Pride is able to frame their kids for kidnap and murder. Geoffrey had led the entire Pride. Geoffrey originally appeared as a stern and demeaning man, who had forbidden his son from playing online roleplaying games. His cool persona is often distinguished, meaning other characters can detect his attitude, as evidenced when Nico is able to identify a 1985 version of Geoffrey. When the Gibborim had called them to the first meeting, Geoffrey and Catherine had been on the run from the cops, after a fresh robbery, where it was revealed that Geoffrey and Catherine had eloped, defying Catherine's mother's wishes. Originally appearing as average parents, it is shown the two can also have short tempers; when one of the Pride's agents informed Geoffrey that their children had run away, Geoffrey carried a dagger to Alex's room; Catherine later shot the same agent in the knee.Geoffrey Wilder returns, after a group unintentionally brings a 1985 version of him back from his time. He was later defeated and returned to his time with his memory wiped by Nico.