Klara Prast

Klara Prast
Klara on the cover of the January 2009 cover of Runaways, v3 #6. Art by Humberto Ramos.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Runaways (Vol. 2) #27 (July, 2007)
Created by	Joss Whedon Michael Ryan
In-story information
Alter ego	Klara Prast
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	Runaways
Notable aliases	Rose Red, Tower of Flower
Abilities	Chlorokinesis

Klara Prast (also known as Tower of Flower or Rose Red) is a fictional character, a superheroine that appears in the Marvel Comics Runaways. When the time-displaced Runaways landed in 1907, they meet twelve-year-old Klara, who had to live to serve her abusive middle-aged husband. Klara's ability is to control, or "talk to" (as she puts it), plants. Her name is a play on the word chloroplast, relating to her plant powers. When her family discovered her powers, they married her off to someone moving to America (even though she was still a child), where she ran into the Runaways in 1907, who later brought her back to the present with them. Klara is roughly Molly's age, has jet-black hair twisted in a braid, and gray eyes.

Klara Prast first appeared in Runaways Vol. 2 #27 and was created by writer Joss Whedon and artist Michael Ryan. This was the character that Whedon had mentioned he would add when he began his tenure of the book.

Readers are first introduced to Klara after the Runaways helped to stop a fire in a factory full of children in New York City in the year 1907, where they had become displaced due to a time device created by Gert's parents. Had history proceeded as normal, Klara would have died that day, on June 27, 1907. After the fire is put out, Karolina flies through the factory looking for survivors and comes across a bridge of rose vines through a hole in the wall and catches a glimpse of Klara as she runs away.

Later that night, Karolina comes across some similar roses and spies into a window, where she sees young Klara about to be beaten by an older man for not selling the flowers for money, angering Karolina greatly. The next day, Karolina takes Molly with her to confront Klara about her powers, and tell her not to worry. When Molly asks if she'd like to join the team to get away from her abusive life, they are stunned to learn that it's not so easy for her, as the man Karolina saw was not her father, but her husband. She makes it clear to Karolina, though Molly does not appear to understand, that he both physically and sexually abuses her. Later, however, Molly refers to Klara's "duty" to her husband as "not just a sin, it's illegal", suggesting she understands more than she lets on.