Lucy in the SkyKarolina Dean

Teenager Karolina Dean couldn't believe that her parents never told her that they weren't just Super Villains, they were aliens too.

After facing the truth, she decided to run off with her friends as they started a new life for themselves as the Runaways. Along the way, she's figured out how to use her Majesdanian powers, fell in love a few times, and tried to bring peace to a pair of warring planets.

Hurray for Hollywood

The daughter of actors Leslie and Frank Dean, Karolina, once lived a happy life as a well-off Los Angeles teenager. However, everything changed when her friends told her that her parents—along with their own—killed a young woman right in front of them. Soon after, Karolina found out another incredible truth: she and her parents were aliens, and she had amazing, extraterrestrial abilities that had been purposely held back her entire life.

Going on the run with her friends, Karolina joined the fight to stop her parents and their villainous actions as members of the criminal group known as the Pride. With that initial conflict over, she continued to use her Majesdanian abilities to help her friends and combat evil, while also traveling into space to further explore her true heritage.

Let Her Glow

For most of her life, Karolina believes she is a normal human.

However, when she first takes off the medical bracelet her parents made her wear, she finds herself glowing with incredible colors. She discovers that she is a Majesdanian, and as one, she possesses a solar-powered aura that she can use to project energy, create forcefields, and fly.

Fly Away

Karolina comes to understand that her parents are elitist Majesdanians, who despise nearly everyone. So, Karolina stands against them and the other members of the Pride. When one of her friends and fellow member of the Runaways, Alex Wilder, betrays them and backs his parents in the Pride, he earns the enmity of the whole group, including Karolina.

After discovering the truth about herself, Karolina fights the likes of Swarm and the Wrecking Crew. She makes dangerous enemies of both the Skrulls and the Majesdanians, who both blame her for the war between the two alien races and the destruction of the planet Majesdane.

Dean's List

Karolina bonds intensely with Nico Minoru, Gert Yorkes, Chase Stein, Alex Wilder, and Molly Hayes when they discovers that their parents belong to a villainous group called the Pride. In particular, Karolina develops a crush on her fellow member Nico, as she discovers her true identity. While Nico initially rebuffs her, they maintain a close friendship.

She also grows close to later members Victor Mancha and Klara Prast. She falls in love with Xavin, a Skrull, although she gets to know him as part of discovering that they have an arranged union. After that relationship ends, Karolina begins dating fellow teenage Super Hero Julie Power.

Karolina, at various times, allies herself and fights alongside the Avengers, Young Avengers, the Avengers Academy students, the X-Men, and Cloak and Dagger.

Kaleidoscope

Of all the Pride families, the Deans perhaps seemed the happiest, before their children learned the truth. While Karolina accompanied her friends Alex, Nico, Chase, Gert, and Molly to spy on their parents during one of their meetings, she and Molly did not see what the others did when the assembled parents killed a teenage girl during their ritual.

Karolina initially had trouble believing what the other kids told her about her parents, and was concerned about ruining Frank and Leslie's careers in Hollywood if she came out against them with no actual proof.

Attempting to find the truth, the Runaways discovered that much had been hidden from them by their parents, including the dinosaur soon named Old Lace, and the Pride's guidebook, the Abstract. Searching through the Deans' things, Alex found an image that indicated Karolina should remove her MedAlert bracelet. When she did, Karolina practically exploded with color. As the group deduced Karolina was in fact an alien, she was understandably distraught, but soon became elated when she realized she could fly.

When Molly's life was threatened by members of the Pride, including the Deans, the kids banded together to save her. During the operation, Karolina confronted her mother, who confirmed that they were aliens—and that Karolina had been purposely kept from the truth her whole life.

Attempting to hide their own criminal activities and get their children back by any means necessary, the Pride framed the teenagers, turning them into wanted fugitives. Needing to hide out, they moved into the Hostel, a sunken mansion tracked down by Chase. While living there, Karolina and the others helped a teenager named Topher and, believing him to be kindred spirit, brought him back to the Hostel. Unfortunately, Topher turned out to be a vampire, with very bad intentions for the Runaways. He nearly killed Old Lace, but ultimately died after Karolina goaded him to bite her and her solar energy destroyed him.

After learning more about the Pride and their devotion to the Gibborim, the Runaways were nearly killed when the Hostel began to collapse during a confrontation with the police, but Karolina managed to put up a forcefield that kept them from being crushed.

The Runaways decided to take the fight to the Pride and the Gibborim during the Rite of Thunder, where they would transfer the sacrifice's soul to their overlords. When they finally struck, Karolina took out Gert's parents, but was herself knocked out by Alex, when he revealed himself as secretly acting on behalf of his own parents. However, the Runaways were able to defeat the Pride, with Alex, and all of the parents met their demise.

The group briefly split up in the aftermath. Karolina wound up in a foster home before reuniting with her friends and going on the run with them once more.

Not long after, a Gert from the future appeared and warned them of a potential threat known as Victor Mancha. Investigating this, the Runaways ran into a super powered group calling itself Excelsior, leading to Karolina's first encounter with Julie Power. After saving the cyborg Victor from his father, Ultron, the gang brought him in as one of their own, deciding to not judge him based on the sins of his parent.

Beginning to come to terms with her attraction to women, Karolina had an awkward moment when she tried to kiss Nico, just before a spaceship came rushing towards them. The ship held a Skrull by the name of Xavin who claimed to be Karolina's fiancé. Hailing from Tarnax VII, the future Super-Skrull explained that fifteen years prior, the Deans offered an invading army of Skrulls—led by Xavin's father—the secret location of Majesdane in order to leave Earth alone. To ensure their honesty, the Deans pledged their daughter to the Skrull leader's child, Xavin.

Xavin's parents died in the ensuing war between Tarnax VII and Majesdane. Xavin knew that if they surrendered, the Skrull army would be wiped out by their opponents, but perhaps not if he and Karolina married. Xavin proposed that Karolina accompany them to space where they might be able to unite their people instead of continuing down the road to war. Xavin took on a female form, and Karolina agreed to travel into space to at the least see her home world.

The duo grew closer during their journey through the stars, working to bring peace to their planets, which would be made official when they wed. However, everything they'd worked for fell apart when a Skrull insulted one of the Majesdanians and chaos erupted once more. With peace no longer an option, Xavin and Karolina returned to Earth as the Skrulls destroyed Majesdane.

Back on Earth, the duo found their friends facing a new group calling themselves the Pride, and helped save a kidnapped Molly from this threat. However, the Runaways suffered a terrible loss when Gert was killed during the conflict.

Xavin and Karolina hit a rough patch, as the Skrull struggled to care about Gert's death. Still, Xavin pledged to try and make peace with the idea of living on Earth with Karolina's friends, especially after they realized their escape pod could not be made spaceworthy again.

After defeating the Gibborim in a final battle, becoming involved in the Super Hero Civil War, taking a time travel trip back to 1907, and dealing with the Skrulls' Secret Invasion—and it briefly looking like Xavin had betrayed them—Karolina and the others found a new home in Chase's parents' abandoned Malibu beach house.

They soon had unexpected visitors, though, when a group of Majesdanians showed up, wanting Karolina to pay for the death of their home world. Following multiple battles with her people, Karolina agreed to go back with them and face the consequences. Instead, Xavin knocked Karolina out, took her form and went away with them to save her life.

Dealing with Xavin's sacrifice, Karolina faced several other threats with the Runaways, until S.W.O.R.D. co-director Henry Peter Gyrich decided to deport all aliens, including Karolina. Once freed, she fought alongside the other aliens, Beast and Agent Brand, to regain control of the ship and earn a return trip back to Earth.

During an adventure with the Avengers Academy students, Karolina and Julie Power hit it off again, beginning a romantic relationship. When the Runaways decided to split up, Karolina enrolled in college, while continuing to date Julie.

Karolina was happy with her life at school and her girlfriend, but was soon shocked by the resurrection of Gert, who found Karolina at her dorm and wanted the Runaways to come back together. Karolina resisted, insisting she'd moved on. But, when the threat posed by Molly's grandmother, Dr. Hayes, was revealed, she took part in the fight to save her friends. Karolina used her powers to stop both the Doctor and a clone of Gert's mother, Alice.

Still wanting to stay in school, Karolina didn't move into the new Hostel with the others. However, she found herself spending so much time with her friends that she was missing classes and causing concern for Julie.