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.

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 (who revealed themselves to be aliens, time-travellers, magicians, scientists, mutants, and criminals) 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 ("a Pride") 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 (with the new Iron Man acquiring Japanese investors after defeating a monster), 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.