Of all team members past and present, Molly is the only one who wants to use her powers—superhuman strength and invulnerability—for superheroics. In the second volume of Runaways she can been seen on at least one occasion sporting a homemade costume, and in the third volume she is constantly reminding the rest of the team that costumes and superhero names must be given more consideration. She even goes so far as to create her own designs for them, though only Klara shows any enthusiasm for the idea.

In spite of a few altercations with Wolverine, Molly has shown great admiration for the X-Men (a.k.a. “the greatest team ever” according to Hayes) in spite of rejecting their offers to enroll her in Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. The Runaways later travel to San Francisco after Molly receives Cyclops’s message declaring the area a safe haven for mutants. She is given a tour of the new base by Wolverine, who is less than pleased at the prospect of having her around. She succeeds in annoying everyone with her constant talking, and later declares the place “terrible”, though she presumably still admires the X-Men as a team.

Although her sense of pride regarding her mutant heritage and her unbelievable power level—she has to be at least as strong as the Hulk when fully energized; just ask Wolverine!—would make her a valuable addition to a future team of X-Men, it seems that this pre-adolescent powerhouse may never reach an appropriate age for such (thanks to Marvel’s sliding timeline). But wait! We’re talking about the X-Men, the kings of time-travel and confusing science that allows characters—Layla Miller, anybody?—to conveniently age to suit the story being told. It seems somewhat likely, in fact, that this will happen to Miss Molly in the near future (especially if the title gets handed off the Peter David which, now that I think of it, might help the series along considerably). A problem could arise from this hypothetical situation, however: would anyone want to read about an older Molly Hayes?

Part of the character’s charm is her perspective as a child. After six years and over 60* issues of publication, Molly is still the witty, sometimes stubborn, and always awesome eleven year-old kid she was when left home. She’s as strong as she claims, and smarter than she lets on. When her friends need strength above all else, Molly is there to throw down with the strongest of adversaries. She may be underestimated by her enemies, as well as readers, but I feel that given the proper character development (whatever that may be) Molly Hayes could one day stand among the great X-Men of recent history.

Much to Wolverine’s dismay.

*Exactly 62 issues of Runaways, plus crossover tie-in mini-series and other miscellaneous related releases.