HOYDEN

Real Name: Megan (surname unrevealed - see comments)

Identity/Class: Unrevealed (1900s) 

Occupation: Petty thief 

Group Membership: Street Arabs (Creeper, Dead George Pelham, Jacob, Spieler/Lille McGurty, the Swell/Eddie Gunnam, Tristan, Yellow Kid, others) 

Affiliations: The Runaways (Molly Hayes, Victor Mancha, Nico Minoru, Karolina Dean, Chase Stein, Xavin), Professor Duck;
    formerly the Sinners  (Forget-Me-Not, Kid Twist, Maneater, Morphine, others)

Enemies: Goldbrick, Ratdog, the Sinners; the Upward Path (Adjudicator, Black Mariah, Daystick, Difference Engine, Nightstick, the Witchbreaker); Dale Yorkes, Stacey Yorkes

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Megan the Hoyden

Base of Operations: Camelot (a backyard between NYC tenements in 1907)

First Appearance: Runaways II#27 (August 2007)

Powers/Abilities: Hoyden apparently possessed some degree of enhanced strength and perhaps agility and fighting prowess (see comments).

Height: 5'2" (by estimation - see comments)
Weight: 120 lbs. (by estimation)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black

History: (Runaways II#27) - Early in the 20th century, Hoyden was one of a number of Wonders (that era's term for people with abilities - "Wonders of the Modern Age") who had come together in New York City as the Street Arabs. They based themselves out of some derelict tenements which shared a backlot, an area the Arabs dubbed "Camelot." 

(Runaways II#28 (fb) - BTS) - The Street Arabs occasionally did minor criminal jobs for the Sinners, a more violently criminal group of Wonders secretly controlled by the time-traveling Dale and Stacey Yorkes, future foes of the Runaways.

(Runaways II#29 (fb) - BTS) - Hoyden was close friends with fellow Street Arab Creeper, sometimes letting her diminutive pal ride around on her shoulders; he appeared to be one of the few people who called her by her first name.

    Once six police officers insulted Hoyden by calling her a prostitute (see comments). Undaunted by their numbers, Hoyden retaliated violently and hospitalized them.

(Runaways II#27) - The Runaways, time traveling from around 100 years in the future, arrived in 1907 and encountered the Swell, who brought them to meet the rest of the Street Arabs, including Hoyden.

(Runaways II#29) - In Camelot Creeper, Hoyden and Dead George Pelham listened as the Swell explained that the Runaways had put them all in the Sinners' bad books, as they apparently had a feud with the Sinners' "Higher-ups" (the Yorkes). The Swell felt the Arabs needed to keep the Runaways close until he could catch the Sinners' leader Maneater in a favorable mood and calm the situation, but Hoyden felt the Arabs should distance themselves from the Runaways and throw them out of Camelot before the situation worsened. Creeper agreed, quite open that he was doing so mainly because the suggestion had come from Hoyden, but the Swell successfully argued that they should hold off doing so, as he still hoped the Arabs might be able to gain something from the situation by working out a deal with the Sinners.

   Some time later, Creeper was riding atop Hoyden's shoulder as she walked in the alleys near Camelot. He informed her that he thought the Swell was unnecessarily worried over the new arrivals, but Hoyden disagreed, stating that she felt they were trouble, and she was worried they were going to drag the Arabs into the middle of a conflict that was already brewing between the Sinners and the law-enforcing Wonders of the Upward Path. Creeper responded that if this happened then they would slip right through that trouble, just as they always did, when Hoyden's concerns were abruptly proved correct, as the pair were confronted by Sinners' members Kid Twist, Forget-Me-Not and Morphine, on their way to Camelot to wipe out the Runaways and Arabs.

    Making clear his hostile intention, Kid Twist let the pair try to flee, waiting until after Hoyden had dodged down a side alley and smashed through a fence before firing a bullet which twisted and turned through the air, changing direction to unerringly shoot her through the heart. As a tearful Creeper prayed for his apparently lifeless friend to live and begged her to survive, Twist fired a second time, apparently ending Creeper's life too.

Comments: Created by Joss Whedon, Michael Ryan, Rick Ketcham and Jay Leisten.

    Hoyden is not her surname; it's now-outdated slang that wasn't outdated in 1907, and means a boisterous girl, which fits how she was depicted. Sticking to discussions of slang, Creeper's comment that she "put six bulls in the hospital for calling her a tom" is not, as some online seem to think, evidence that she once battled a sextuplet of male bovines. Bulls is slang for police officers. Calling her a "tom" might have been short for tomboy, but since hoyden means much the same as tomboy, I doubt that would have raised such ire from her; as such, it was probably being used in its other slang context - they were calling her a whore.

    Hoyden presumably had some sort of powers or she wouldn't have been considered a Wonder, but we see so little of her it's hard to say for sure what those were. She smashes through a wooden fence with ease, which suggests some level of enhanced strength, though not necessarily to a truly superhuman level. Creeper mentions she put six policemen in the hospital, which could be more evidence of enhanced strength or just of being a capable fighter. She's always barefoot, and since she presumably could easily procure shoes the lack appears to be by choice, so she may feel shoes are unnecessary or an impediment; perhaps she possessed enhanced agility or running speed (though if so, not fast enough to outrun a bullet), or could climb using hands and prehensile feet like the pre-furry Beast. She might also have had some degree of enhanced durability if she fought a lot, but if so it wasn't enough to stop a bullet.

    It's not impossible that Hoyden and/or Creeper could have survived Twist's bullets. While Kid Twist couldn't miss, his bullets were otherwise no more lethal than regular ones, as evidenced when they failed to slow down the zombie Dead George Pelham. As such, if either Hoyden or Creeper had regenerative powers, or if Creeper was durable enough to suffer only minor injury from a bullet (even when it was so large in comparison to him), then they might have survived. However, given Hoyden collapsed unresponsive with her eyes open, she definitely seemed to have been slain. 

    Creeper clearly loved Hoyden, given his tears of grief at her apparent passing. It's possible he was in love with her, but that's unconfirmed given how little we got to see of him (no pun intended). She obviously liked him in turn, as she hung out with him and let him sit on her shoulder, but whether to her mind there was more to their relationship than friendship is likewise unrevealed. It's feasible that their closeness originated somewhere other than attraction - they might have been siblings for example.

    Estimating Hoyden's height is tricky - when she's around characters with officially established heights she is always sitting down. However, I estimated the height of Creeper to be around 6" tall, and he's a little shorter than the height of her head. Assuming that her head is thus about 8" tall, and human bodies are generally around 7.5 heads high, we get a height of 5'2", which seems reasonable. Assuming her body density is normal, which isn't a certainty, and that's she relatively heavy for her height to account for her slightly stocky physique and muscles, provides an estimated weight of 120 lbs.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Hoyden has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
Runaways II#27, p15, pan 4 (main)
 Runaways II#29, p2, pan2 (headshot)
Runaways II#29, p13, pan5 (smashing through fence)
Runaways II#29, p14, pan1 (shot by Kid Twist)

Appearances:
Runaways II#27 (August 2007) - Joss Whedon (writer), Michael Ryan (pencils), Rick Ketcham (inks), Jay Leisten (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Runaways II#29 (April 2008) - Joss Whedon (writer), Michael Ryan (pencils), Rick Ketcham and Andrew Hennessey (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)

First Posted: 12/30/2020
Last updated: 12/30/2020

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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