Fictional Character Biography
The Runner is a traveler and explorer who has lived for billions of years. He seeks complete freedom and to see all there is to see. As such, he has spent his long life traveling across and experiencing the universe. He is regarded as one of the more pacifistic Elders. He once encountered Moondragon when she first left Titan, years ago.
The Runner was one of the eleven Elders who conspired against Galactus and battled the Silver Surfer in an attempt to gain power in a new, re-created universe. He battled Galactus and the Silver Surfer, and was converted to energy for consumption by Galactus. However, along with the other four Elders that had been consumed by Galactus, the Runner caused Galactus "cosmic indigestion" from within until they were forced out of him by Master Order and Lord Chaos. The Runner was one of the four Elders who aided the Silver Surfer and Nova in helping Galactus to defeat the In-Betweener. Once that was done the five Elders used the five Infinity Gems they had retained to instantaneously travel very far away from Galactus and his vengeance. Afterwards, the Runner kept the Space Gem, one of the Infinity Gems.
Later, the Runner visited Earth as part of a galaxy-wide project to find the fastest being in the galaxy. Over a long-running story arc in that series the Eternal Makkari sought a means to achieve a speed to surpass the Runner. Eventually, the Runner sponsored a race between Earth-dwelling possessors of superhuman speed, including Makkari, Quicksilver, Whizzer, Speed Demon, Captain Marvel, Super-Sabre, and Black Racer. Ultimately, the Runner declared the extra-dimensional "Buried Alien" the winner, and took him to a "galactic marathon." (The issue ended by paying homage to the DC Universe's most famous Flash, Barry Allen, who started the race later than all the other speedsters, but still won against all the other contestants with ease).
Later, the Runner battled Thanos, who sought to collect all of the Infinity Gems. Through the Infinity Gems, Thanos bypassed the Elder's immunity to aging. Thanos changed the Runner to an old man and then reverted him to infancy and took the Space Gem from him. Thanos used the infant Runner as a pawn in his conflict with the Collector; Thanos gave the Runner to the Collector in exchange for the Reality Gem. When Thanos left, he restored the Runner back to adulthood; the Collector and the Runner then fought each other.
Sometime later, the Runner, as one of the seven fastest runners in the Milky Way Galaxy, took part in the Galactic Marathon. He came in second after Makkari (who had used a super-speed technique that left him stuck permanently in super-speed so he could only communicate with other super-fast beings such as the Runner himself). However, the judges discovered that one of the racers had cheated so they nullified the results and decided to stage a new race. The Runner was sure that he would be able to beat Makkari in the new race but his hopes were frustrated when Makkari decided that he didn't have to race anymore to prove himself.
Read more about this topic: Runner (comics)
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