#i think I just want a supervillain Peter Parker

[stackthedeck]

Your irondad idea re: biodad Peter would become a super villain is so good but you and i both know no one in fandom would write it because the fandom characterization of Tony is supremely soft Good dad and Peter is supremely sweet woobified boy.

That being said, I WOULD be seated for this.

Hey hey hey I'm kissing you so tenderly on the forehead for this because listen I'm going to write this fic! Well, not bio iron dad fic because I want to put my adoption trauma on Peter. But like adopted young enough that he would be a fundamentally different character. I have the last chapter done already but can I give you my outline of the fic because I’m going to give you the outline

Peter loses his parents just like tasm2, he’s taken to Aunt May and Uncle Ben’s house except they’re just a little bit older, a little bit poorer. There’s some kind of PR fumble in Stark Industries and Tony finds Peter, the local science whizz, who’s related to Richard and Mary Parker, they were promising scientists that had an investment interview set up with Stark industries, such a shame about the plane crash. He’s told that Peter’s aunt and uncle already gave up custody, but Obadiah Stane threatens May and Ben to take Peter

Peter has heard of Stark Industries because he’s a science kid and he’s excited. It hasn’t clicked in his brain that he’s never going to see Aunt May and Uncle Ben again. Tony takes Peter to a restaurant and gets him dessert, and it’s the most delicious food he’s ever tasted. Tony takes him to a toy store and buys him a fancy chemistry set. Tony should be present, these scenes should be sweet. Beneath all the hurt that’s going to come, there needs to be the possibility of them being a father and a son

Montage of Tony getting too involved in his work. Peter is given nannies, sent to boarding school, his grades and smiling face served to the press on a silver platter. Peter only truly connects with Tony when they’re working in the lab together. Peter helped build many of Tony’s weapons, but because of child labor laws, Peter can’t take credit. Peter resents this, his father—his real father—was a brilliant scientist that got screwed over by the higher-ups. Peter wants to be the higher-ups. He tells Tony to give him whatever he wants or he’ll go to the press and reveal that he’s had a kid working on bombs. Tony thinks Peter is joking but gives him his card anyway

The plot of Iron Man 1 happens. When Tony is given the award by the government, it’s Peter that picks it up for him, giving a very similar speech to Obadiah. The “he’s always working” has a much sadder twinge to it. Peter and Pepper run into the hot reporter on her way out. Peter plays wide-eyed and innocent and makes a stepmom joke and Pepper does her usual passive-aggressive thing. They high-five when she leaves, but Peter does make a rude comment about Pepper being the help. Peter comes with Tony to the airport and begs to come to the demonstration because he basically built the Jericho missile. Tony says no, says he needs to keep an eye on the company while he’s gone

Conversation with the guy in the cave. “What about you Stark? Got a family?” “Yeah, a brat that’s a little bit too much like me.”

Tony gets back from the cave and finds Peter and Obadiah locked in an argument. They both have a claim to the company. Tony doesn’t settle the argument, just says well I’m not dead so it’s mine. Peter demands that he be made the heir to the company, but Tony just brushes him off and announces that Stark Industries is no longer making weapons. Peter flips out, half those patents are his and now they’re useless. Tony tells him this is for the greater good. He offers to show him how he escaped the cave, but Peter storms off

Tony calls Peter to replace his chest arc reactor. Peter jokingly asks about Tony’s will just in case he fumbles the surgery, Tony says it’s on his to-do list. Peter puts the arc in his chest and asks about the tech. He says he’s come to Tony’s side and he wants to help people with this new tech. Tony falls for it hook line and sinker because he does not know his own kid

Peter works with Tony on the iron man suit for a while until Obadiah starts talking about the board of directors. Peter wants to save the company, put the suit on the market. Tony firmly says no. Peter says he’ll go public with the fact that Tony had a kid working on weapons. Pepper and Obadiah are shocked by this information. Tony says he should, it’ll only give people more of a reason for wanting him to stop. Peter flies off in a huff and Tony returns to the basement. Peter is locked out of Iron Man design from then on (he hacks into the test recordings anyway)

Shenanigans relating to Obadiah’s scheming ensue. Pepper goes to Tony’s office to get the files but finds Obadiah dead, strung up by a spider-web shortly after he comes back from the middle east. The old iron man suit is discovered, Tony pieces together that Obadiah was trying to get rid of him and was going to use the suit for himself but he was missing the arc reactor. Cut to Peter in front of the big arc reactor in Stark Industries, tinkering with a smaller one. Tony puts the pieces together that the only person that would want Obadiah dead is the only other person that’d want to take over the company. Tony asks Jarvis to call someone but the mansion goes dark.

Peter approaches illuminated only by the tiny arc reactor in his hand. He chuckles, firing off a joke about stealing the first one or ever ripping the new one out of his chest, but he’s always done better work than him. Tony tries to talk him down, begs for his life a little. Peter says he doesn’t want him dead. Not anymore anyway, he checked the will, and what with Tony being locked out of the company. No, he wants Tony to start making weapons again with Peter’s improved reactor and his webs, they’ll make millions. Peter will even let Tony put his name on the patents, but as soon as Peter is 18 he wants a controlling share of the company, think of it like an early extremely comfortable retirement. Tony laughs in Peter’s face, they’re not doing weapons, he won’t kill any more people.

Peter presses the reactor to his chest and a suit forms around him, it’s the iron spider suit. An arm shoots out, piercing the reactor in Tony’s chest and pinning him to the floor. Peter gives a grand speech about his father, Richard Parker and all the work he was doing with genetic engineering. They were on their way to beg for investment from Stark Industries, hoping that by having such close ties to a company in the pocket of the military, the government wouldn’t touch them. But they were shot down, their work too risky. It’s all in the company files, how long has Tony been hiding this from him? Tony says he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Peter laughs sadly, of course, he didn’t even think to google Peter before tearing him away from his family. But Peter carries his father’s DNA, his legacy and his work lives on in him. Except Stark plucked him out of that legacy, forced him to slave under the Stark name when he could have been doing so much more. And for what? Peter’s not even getting the company that he helped build! He’s going to have a legacy one way or the other, Tony is not just going to throw him away at least not before Peter can throw him away.

They fight, Tony manages to get to the iron man suit and he pulls the same thing he did with Stane, ice problem. Peter’s suit is much smaller so Tony catches him and places him on the roof so he doesn’t die on impact. Tony grabs the arc reactor off Peter’s chest and the suit comes with it, revealing his kid, barely 15 underneath it in a stupid graphic t-shirt. Tony tries to hug Peter, but Peter rips the faceplate off Tony’s suit, crumpling it in his hand. Tony is like wait how the fuck did you do that? Peter explains that he got bitten by a spider on a field trip last year, it’s how he found his father’s research. He’d sneak out of boarding school late at night, the school called him to explain his poor attendance, but Tony never returned their calls. He didn’t even know Peter got expelled until now. Peter starts ripping Tony’s suit apart doing a full villain monologue about how Tony didn’t pay attention to him, how he ripped Peter away from his family and expected him to be cool with it, how being a PR stunt meant that Peter was always in the limelight and the press was terrible to him—calling him Tony’s bastard and so much worse—and all it did was erase the Parker life work and legacy. Tony didn’t want a son, he didn’t even want an heir, he wanted a scapegoat. If Tony really cared about that poor kid from Queens, he would have paid for his school, would have paid for Aunt May and Uncle Ben to get better, and would have told Peter when they died! But no, he wanted another shiny toy, that’s all Peter ever was to him.

Peter is about to rip the arc reactor out of Tony’s chest when Tony fires a repulsor beam from it. The beam hits Peter point blank in the chest and he goes flying over the edge of the roof. Tony gets to his feet and tries to look for Peter but he stumbles, the arc reactor is damaged. Pepper and the SHIELD agents find him just as Tony loses consciousness.

Tony is going into the press conference at the end of the movie, but he’s still thinking about Peter. Tony does the whole “I am Iron Man” thing but just as the reporters stand to ask questions, all their phones buzz. Tony looks to his own phone to see a stream of headlines reporting on a new hero, Spider-Man, who just stopped a Stark brand missile from blowing up the United Nations. Tony grabs Pepper and asks her if Stark Industries has a building in New York.

[moonstruckme]

Hey Mae!! Congrats on 7k!! I couldn’t possibly think of anyone more deserving than you<3

Can I request a little apple pie with tasm!Peter and the prompt dark lipstick smeared on a cheek?

Congratulations again and I also hope you had a wonderful birthday yesterday!!

Thank you angel <3

tasm!Peter Parker x fem!reader ♡ 350 words

You hear a whistle on the wind. It’s faint, almost impossible to pick out over the constant thrum and chatter the city, but you have practice. You turn down the next empty alley you find. 

There’s the soft thump of something hitting the ground soon after. 

“Hi Peter,” you say, turning around with a smile. 

Your boyfriend’s in his suit. He lets his head loll to the side as he walks towards you, some mix of exasperation and fondness. “Why are you walking home down dark alleys?” 

“Because I knew you’d come talk to me.” 

“Wha—” Peter lifts up his hands, helpless. “Are you always just walking down alleys on the off chance I’ll come talk to you?” 

“No,” you laugh, stepping toward him so you can put your hands on his shoulders. The material of his suit is slippery under your fingers. “Peter, I knew you were there. You’re not as subtle as you think.” 

“Really?” He sounds a bit disappointed. “Stealth is sort of part of the thing…” 

“You’re very stealthy. I’m just more wily than most of the supervillains you fight.” 

“I don’t generally fight supervillains.” 

“Don’t you?” 

“No.” He brings his arms around your waist, and tingles dance up your spine as his hand flattens over your lower back. You sense his smile underneath the mask. “Definitely not tonight. Tonight I fight creeps who come after my girl on her way home.”

You raise your eyebrows. “Were you planning on someone coming after me?” 

“No.” He laughs. You feel the puff of hair on your face as he drops his forehead to yours. “No. I just wanted to make sure no one did.” 

“Awe.” You tilt your head up, smearing a kiss over his cheek. “My hero.” 

Peter squeezes your waist. “Did you just get lipstick on my mask?” he asks you.

“Yup.” You grin. “It looks great.” 

“You’re really not doing a lot for my street cred tonight, sweetheart.” 

“Oh, I think you’ll be alright.” You press your lips to the same spot again, darkening the mark. “This way all your supervillains know you’re taken.”

[theshadowrealmitself]

It’s sad but the best version of Peter Parker to me (probably because it’s the most relatable one) is when he’s broke as hell, but at a certain point it doesn’t make sense for him to be such a genius without running a tech company, so here’s the bs reasons he’s still broke in the au’s I imagine:

He can’t partner up with anyone because everyone knows what happened with Dr. Connors, Dr. Octavius, and, depending on the au, Norman Osborn, which no one thinks Norman was working with Peter, but he is another person who knew Peter and became a supervillain

Essentially, everyone thinks he’s cursed™️

And he can’t sell any of his inventions on his own to start funding his own company because S.H.I.E.L.D. keeps getting involved and stopping it, both because whatever he creates works way too well and they don’t want it to fall into the wrong hands, and also because they’re all pretty sure that Peter’s gonna turn into a supervillain and they’re trying to stop him from gaining any power to do so

Also, because of all the above reasons, and because the best Peter Parker in my opinion is one that’s tired, snarky, and has a bit of an anger problem, that along with his genius, accidentally has everyone convinced he’s a supervillain in the making, the very specific dynamic that I picture Reed Richards having with him before he finds out he’s Spiderman is:



Peter Parker reminds him of Dr. Doom, he’s got the smarts, the anger, he’s a loner, and the way he commiserates on everything stopping him from achieving his goals (that famous way he blames his Parker luck on everything), just all reminds him of Victor, back when they attended college together

So he doesn’t get Peter to work with him, although he’d make such a promising mentee, cause he doesn’t need to accidentally get another supervillain to declare war on him, but also because he reminds him of Victor he can’t stay away, wanting some version of him to “see the light”

So occasionally he’ll begrudgingly team up with Peter Parker and the entire time he’ll awkwardly preach the merits of using science for Good™️ and how following villainy will only leave a person feeling empty inside, as his way of having a second chance at reaching Victor before he becomes Dr. Doom

Peter, meanwhile, has no idea this is how Reed sees their interactions, he’s just so happy whenever he gets a chance to work with one of his science heroes (then his identity eventually gets revealed and Reed has no idea how to view Peter)

[stem-sister-scuffle]

STEM SISTER SCUFFLE: ROUND 1 MASHUP 5

Dr. Olivia Octavius (Spider-Man Into The Spiderverse) vs Ms. Frizzle (The Magic School Bus)

Dr. Olivia Octavius is a Quantum Physicist and Roboticist!

Ms. Frizzle is a Science Teacher!

Why you should vote for each contestant:

Dr. Olivia Octavius:

""If you stay in this dimension too long, your body’s going to disintegrate. Do you know how painful that would be, Peter Parker? You can’t imagine. And I, for one, can’t wait to watch." I love deranged evil women she is the character of all time to me"

"Dr. Olivia Octavius, also known as Doctor Octopus, is the secondary antagonist of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. She's also known as 'Liz' by her friends, one of them being Peter Parker's aunt May. She is an evil scientist, CEO of the science research & development company known as Alchemax. She's the scientific advisor for The Kingpin's inventions to open up portals to other dimensions. She's an evil woman in STEM girlboss."

"feral :)"

"Oh I heard you like mad scientist girlies???"

"I know she’s evil but I love her shes so cool. Have you seen her. I support womens wrongs <3"

"MILF. Evil. What more does she need? wowza"

"shes not the best shes the worst and she owns it. milf i mean. who said that"

"I mean. just look at her. she has the robo arms, the awesome hair. also if I recall, she's also been in science educational videos for kids"

"Proves herself as a competent fighter able to take on multiple spider-men at once, plus rocks the mad scientist look"

"Successfully works as a kids' science show presenter while also being a supervillain and working on sketchy projects. Is an absolute dork about her work and about cool phenomena in a way that's really endearing right up until she threatens to lock someone up to slowly die so she can study the phenomenon that's killing them. Probably put bugs in the microwave as a kid to see what happens.

Yes she did get hit by a truck in the fight and disappear but I fully believe she lived and ended up in some other universe.

1. She's a supervillain, she's definitely been hit by a truck before. 2. Out of everyone fighting in there she's had the most experience with this sorr of thing. While missteps are possible she would be going into it with some idea of what the risks are and how to deal with them. 3. Isekai truck trope 4. If she did end up in another universe she would totally find a way to keep herself stable there. She's got science knowledge and robotic limbs built for crime. 5. I like her and I think it would be really funny.

Why did I make this part mostly ""no she isn't dead"". It'd still be funny even if she was dead tbh.

I cosplayed her once and that is irrelevant to the poll but idk. She's fun."

"it's so rare to have female mad scientists in media like her, she's a role model to girls who want to commit crimes against the spacetime continuum everywhere. she's very important"

"She's really cute, too bad about all the murder and stuff :/ Women's wrongs, amirite?👍"

"She has a "For Science!" attitude that makes most male mad scientist look sane and safety minded. I would gladly be her intern/minion. <3"

"is only here to do science for Nefarious Purposes. science without any regard for moral cost. idk i love that this character type gets to be a milf for once. we love to see an evilgirl winning"

"mad scientist lady. cool as hell hair. evil girlboss."

"She's evil. She's evil and I love her"

"Evil milf with giant robot arms that loves chaos."

"Mastered multiple disciplines, managed to break barriers between dimensions, which even in superhero realms is a bit impressive. STEM girlies should be allowed to go a little evil/feral/unhinged. as a treat."

"She is evil! She is sexy! She employs usage of soft robotics into her prosthetic tentacles, is the head scientist at Alchemax, and quite literally built a machine that creates a portal to alternate dimensions! Get you a girl that can both make educational science videos and also rip open a portal to alternate dimensions under dubious moral conditions."

"she's sooooooo cool"

"She is a girlboss she tried to make a portal and while she’s a villain she isn’t the Evillest out there… babygirl head scientist Her glasses are shaped like octagons :3"

Ms. Frizzle:

"*gestures at entire magic school bus series*"

"Embodies the true spirit of scientific discovery: barely-contained chaos."

"She is very knowledgeable about a wide variety of sciences, and uses that knowledge to further the educations of many people. Teachers deserve the world; they do so much for so little in return. (shout out to Mrs. Goates)"

"She loves science and loves teaching kids about science. I love her. Idk I saw she only had one submission and that made me sad so now im here submitting her"

"She is an icon and has cool earrings"

"SHE'S SO COOL!!! She's so smart and so fun and genuinely just an icon. ALSO she has a little lizard on her shoulder. I saw an ask abt the submissions for Ms. Frizzle and the sender was the only person who submitted her.. I couldn't let this go. ALSO one of my professors irl called herself the irl Frizzle and she's a doctor of biology so make of that what you will"

[hobiebrownismygod]

The Ghost of You Hobie Brown x Fem!Reader

That if I can't be close to you, I'll settle for the ghost of you. I miss you more than life, I miss you more than life.

Synopsis: If he was the reason for your death, not just in his universe, but every other one, weren't you better off without him? A world where you were the Gwen Stacy to Hobie Brown's Spider-man, dead in every universe except for one.

WC: 1.8k

TW: Angst, mentions of loss/death

A/N: Since Hobie doesn't have a specified love interest in the movies, I think it's interesting to think that his Gwen or Mary-Jane might have died. That's why I decided to kind of delve into how he'd react to that, while also stringing along the whole Gwen Stacy is dead in every universe except one concept. Also happy new years!

Taglist: @therealloopylupin2099 @spiderrinn @l0starl @daydreaming-en-pointe @itsparis-07 @vileviale @puff-hugs @lauryn2558 @sunasslut69

Taglist link & Masterlist

It had been exactly two years, seven months, one week and six days since Hobie Brown lost you. Only a couple months ago, had he been accepted into the Spider Society, with hope that he'd be able to see you, or at least a variant of you. Except he never did.

In every other universe, you were dead. It was like he'd lost you in every single way possible, by falling, disease, murder, old age, every single goddamn way.

He must've spent hours and hours poring over the dimensional maps in Miguel's office, searching through his computer for any sign of you, any version of you from any universe. He couldn't find any.

Except for one.

One universe where it said you were alive.

One chance to see you again. And maybe...even go a little further than that.

One reason to gain Miguel's trust and get his own dimensional watch.

You.

And that was the reason that fueled his motivation for months, forcing himself to comply to the Society's standards, forcing himself to conform and smile and be the perfect little superhero the rest wanted. And eventually, he did it.

He got his own watch.

"This is for missions and anomalies only." Miguel had repeatedly told him, obviously still a little suspicious of Hobie's true intentions behind his sudden change of personality.

He'd only nodded in response, a fake smile plastered across his face. He'd snatched the watch without a word, inspecting it and turning it over in his hands as the possibilities flooded his mind.

That night, when Miguel had retreated to his office and the rest of the Spider-people had either gone home or gone to sleep, he'd stayed awake. He'd inputted the location into his watch, coded it to take him to you, and he'd opened up that orange portal that he could only hope would give him back what he'd lost.

He'd quickly been thrown into a dimension that looked like most others, the same old New York most Peter Parkers lived in, with the abundance of traffic and the thousands of people walking and biking through the streets.

The watch had taken him to Central Park, specifically a place where there were tens of little kids playing around, throwing sand at each other and laughing at childish jokes.

Hobie swung his head around furiously, eyes scanning over the entirety of his surroundings to see if he could catch a trace of you, anything that let him know that you were here.

But he didn't see anything. Not a single glimpse.

What?

He'd programmed the watch to take him to you, Y/N L/N, you had to be here. But then of course...just because you were alive, didn't mean you were you. It didn't mean you were the same teenager he'd loved and lost those months ago. You could've been five years old, or fifty, you could've been a superhero or a supervillain, he had no idea who you were.

All he had was hope.

But even that was slowly slipping out of his grasp as he continued to look around wildly, feeling his stomach drop and his throat start to hurt as he swallowed lumps of loss and pain. Maybe...he was wrong.

You weren't there.

And then, someone caught his eye. Hobie watched as a little boy, no more than two or three years old, ran past him, looking strikingly familiar for some reason. When he took a closer look, he noticed the boy's eyes. They looked just like yours. He noticed the boy's smile as he nearly tripped on a rock and continued to toddle along. The smile that belonged to the girl he'd fallen in love with.

Hobie's gaze followed the child as he ran towards the figure of a young woman, sitting on a bench, her face buried in a thick book. When the boy pulled on the hem of her jeans, trying to grab her attention, she looked up. Hobie's breath was knocked away.

Those gentle eyes. That lovely smile. The sparkling laugh that left your lips as you picked the boy up, kissing him on the forehead. Hobie never again saw someone quite like you. To him, you were an angel on earth. An angel's who's wings had been clipped, an angel who'd been sent back to heaven far too early for him to handle.

He couldn't help but stare, mouth slightly agape as the boy squirmed out of your grasp before running back to the playground. Hobie watched as you smiled to yourself, shaking your head slightly before picking the book back up. And then, he looked away when your gaze met his.

He could feel your eyes scanning over the back of his head for a moment, his spider sense tingling his spine, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up as he waited for you to turn back to your book. When you did, he slowly looked back at you, trying to catch his breath.

You weren't the same. You looked older, no longer a teenager, but maybe in your mid-20s. Your hair was longer, your gaze was sharper and your smile had left light lines tracing your mouth. But even then, you looked so similar, Hobie just had to get a closer look.

It'd been so long since he'd seen that face he loved so much.

He quietly walked towards the bench you were sitting at, avoiding your eyes as he sat down a little away from you, keeping his distance. He felt you look at him for a moment before you set your book down. "Are one of them yours?"

He froze as your voice broke the silence, his chest rising up and down rapidly as he slowly turned to look at you, glancing at your hands that were gesturing towards the playground, his eyes wide open. "N-no." He cleared his throat, his voice turning slightly deeper. "No. I just came to...enjoy the weather." He kept his voice quiet, knowing he'd risk ruining the moment if he let the thoughts in his mind leave.

"It's a nice day, isn't it?" You said with a sigh, smiling at him before looking back towards the playground. Hobie continued to watch you, his hands clasped in his lap as he leaned forward slightly, his back no longer touching the bench. He took in your skin, your hair, your hands, every single feature, feeling the knot in his stomach grow and grow with every stolen glance.

"Are one of them yours?" He asked softly, trying to keep a slight smile on his face for your benefit. "Yeah, actually. The little boy in the blue." You pointed towards the swingset, pride flickering through your expression as the child, the one that'd ran past Hobie before, noticed you, waving before continuing to play with his other friends.

"He looks just like you." Hobie murmured, glancing back towards the little boy, who had started running back towards the bench, arms open. "Mommy!" He exclaimed.

You laughed as you picked up the child and pulled him into your lap, the sight sending a warm feeling through Hobie's body. You'd always been so good with kids. The two of you had been young, but he'd always imagined what a life with you would've been like. Having a child together, having a home together, a world Hobie never experienced growing up.

You were his world. He never quite forgave himself for losing you, and that was probably why he was getting so worked up over seeing you with a child right now.

If he'd been just a little faster that day, just a little stronger, would you still be alive? Could there have been a little boy running around with his hair and your smile instead of this one right here? Could he have spent his days kissing, hugging and talking about a life with you instead of simply being left holding his pillow at night, dreaming about it?

Hobie felt you look back towards him and he was snapped out of his trance as he looked back up at you, a half-smile on his face. "You know, you look so familiar but I just can't put my finger on it. Have I met you before?" You asked curiously, pulling the squirming child on your lap a little closer.

"I don't think so." He said, shaking his head. "Maybe in some other universe." He smiled, gaze softening slightly as he swallowed back the lump in his throat again, trying his best to stop himself from letting the tears fall just yet.

"Maybe." You chuckled back, looking down at your son and stroking his hair gently. Hobie squeezed his eyes shut and looked away, unable to take the sight of you anymore. If he stayed any longer, he just might break down.

It was hard seeing you again.

And...you hadn't met him in this universe before. At least if you did, you didn't seem to remember it.

It was ironic, wasn't it? The only world where you were alive, where you were truly happy, was a world where you weren't with him. A universe where he'd never been there to get you hurt, to get you killed, to lose you.

You were happy here.

And he had to accept that. He had to accept that you were better off without him.

He heard someone call your name and he turned his head to look in the direction of where it'd come from, while you did the same. "Oh, my husband's here. I guess it's time for us to go." You said with a smile, waving at the tall man who'd gotten out of his car to wave back at you.

"Yeah, of course." he said quickly, standing up when you did, smiling slightly at your son who was babbling at him, incoherent sentences leaving his mouth in the way most toddlers spoke.

"It was nice meeting you, uh...?" You extended your hand towards him, balancing your son on your hip with the other. He looked down at your hand for a moment, hesitating before he accepted the handshake. "Hobie. Hobie Brown."

You gave him a smile, and his heart broke a little. "It was nice to meet you, Hobie Brown. I'll see you around, maybe?" You suggested. Although you were just being polite, Hobie's heart wrenched and he cleared his throat again, trying to keep his voice from breaking. "I hope so."

"Bye."

Hobie watched you walk away, heading towards the car your husband was standing outside of. He felt his eyes well up slightly and he forced himself to tear his gaze from your retreating back, breathing heavily as he looked back towards the playground.

"Bye, dove." He whispered under his breath before shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his vest, and heading in the opposite direction, searching for a safe space to portal back to HQ and finally leave you behind. For real this time.

"I'll miss you."

[icannotpickanamewtf]

The Day The Music Died (Part Two)

(PART ONE)

Possessive!Spot x femSpider!Reader & Possessive!Miguel x femSpider!Reader

Summary: Spot looks for you + you are not up for chatting. Things happen. Shit goes down.

Warnings: Cursing/Sexual themes. Angst. Dark!Spot. Maladaptive behavior.

From that day on, your very first customer, was guess who?

The fucking weirdo.

Every morning he’d come in and pull the same shit. 

Saying to open the register, the he was going to rob you, that he was going to hurt you, blah blah blah.

You honestly could not find it funnier. 

But he had a little complex about your teasing, so just to ensure the safety of the Parkers, you kept it down to a minimum. 

Which wasn’t that helpful.

Part of you even looked forward to his little dramatic entry, he reminded you of a puppy. 

It was a morning like any other, Peter in the back, Mr. Parker in his office, and you dealing with an inter dimensional supervillain that seemed hellbent on terrorizing you. 

This time, you felt a bit more generous with others so you kept your snark under control a little. You loved the fall weather that broke out in New York during September. Especially that you could dress in comfy long-sleeved sweaters. Man-made heat was the fucking dream.

“Why can’t you just let me rob you!” Spot seemed to rely on whining a lot more nowadays. 

“‘Cause that’s not as fun.” You always had a straight face and harsh tone, and you could tell that Spot had adapted to your absence of emotion. 

“Please! Please, just let me rob you this once!” 

You stayed silent as you looked at him in a daze. Spot’s confidence seemed to have increased as he got much <em>much</em> closer to you over the time he decided to target your little shop. 

Now he towered over you as he leaned over the counter. 

Was it bad that you kinda liked his height?

His weirdness was definitely rubbing off on you. 

But it made you feel something at the very least.

“Coffee? Yes or No.”

You had never bothered to ask with his constant banter, but like you said earlier, you were feeling generous. 

Spot seemed a bit flustered at your question and stuttered a bit before finally finding his words again. 

“Oh–Oh! Yes! Absolutely yes! I used to love coffee, more than tea really…Well…the thing is…I–I guess I liked it with two creams and one sugar? Four shots of espresso. Whipped cream too.” He leaned over the display as you turned your back to him to make a coffee. 

“Are you–Are you making me coffee?”

You only gave a soft noise before continuing on with your work. Soon enough, you held his exact order in your hand. 

“Shut up, please.” You thrusted the coffee into his hand, letting him wrap his hands around your right hand that held his coffee. 

Spots large palms engulfed yours completely, but for real. Like you literally could not see a bare centimeter of your hand underneath his. 

He seemed to notice with how he lingered with both of his hands onto of yours. You could even say he seemed enraptured and pleased with this new found discovery. 

“I can’t move my hand. Let go.” You were still as straightforward as always.

If he had a face, you would bet it would definitely be blushing. 

“My bad! Sorry..uh…was thinking about–villain things.” He was totally lying. 

“Yeah. Sure.” 

Spot still seemed out of his element. “Hey…I don’t have any money I can’t–“ 

“I wasn’t expecting you to pay. Don’t.” You couldn’t care less. Really. 

“Oh. Oh, thanks.” Spot relaxed and took a sip of his coffee, 

or more like poured it into his face hole. 

He made a moan to indicate how good it tasted. 

That--was…uhm…a surprise. 

Spot didn’t even realize the effect or what that noise sounded like and just kept telling you thank you between sips of coffee. 

“Don’t drink too fast. You’ll get sick to your stomach.” You weren’t worried, but you didn’t want to have to deal with radioactive–or whatever the fuck he was made out of–throw up on the floor. 

He nodded shyly as he slowed down to enjoy his coffee more. 

“Seriously…thank you. This–This is the first time anyone has…” Spot trailed off as he whispered thanks <em>again.</em>

You knew what he was going to say, so you didn’t let him finish. 

“Ok.” That was enough talking and being open for today. 

“I’m sorry for trying to rob you all this time. Would you–Do you…Do you maybe want to–“ 

Nope. Nope, you were not going to do this. You were feeling generous and this is what you get. Of–fucking–course. 

The bell chimed behind him, causing him to freeze mid sentence. 

Thank god for that annoying door for once. 

“Bye.” 

“Well! Wait–I was thinking–“ 

You literally just stepped back and pretended to check on Peter in the kitchen. You did not want to deal with--with whatever this was.

When you peaked over to see if Spot was still there, you only saw the new customer examining the muffins that lined up behind the glass. 

Walking back out, you looked at the countertop and saw a tiny folded up napkin. A note.

Nope. Nope.

You threw it out before you could think twice. 

–––––––––

The next day, when you groggily woke up from your totally amazing sleep last night--

about three hours at best,

you immediately noticed the heatwave that dripped through your body followed by an unreasonable amount of exhaustion. 

Oh, a breakdown and a cold. 

Yay.

You groaned as you rolled off the safety of your bed and picked up your phone. You called Mr. Parker. 

Mr. Parker said your name softly over the phone as you grunted out a brief hello and a quick explanation to why you weren’t coming into work, saying you were on your period. 

These…lapses…always made you more snappy and sad. Way too sad to deal with customer service.

So, you would prefer to keep your sanity and lock up inside. 

Mr. Parker was more than understanding and you could hear him shouting for Peter to man the counter for the day while he offered to work in the kitchen.   

You ended the call before he could even say goodbye and flopped back into your bed. You forgot all about Spot when your head hit the pillow and the soft fabric of your silk pajama top chilled your scalding heat.  

—————-

Spot walked into Collin’s Coffee. This time, he was going to ask her. Nothing could stop him. Hell, he was a supervillain.

What if she was secretly horrified with how he looked and just didn’t tell him?

No! She was obviously fine with that. She didn’t even flinch when he attempted to rob her for the first time a few months ago. 

Should he be concerned about that?

Too late, since he was already turning the familiar knob to enter the whimsical shop. Spot had to duck in order to fit through the door due to his height. His distorted size was one of his big stand-out features.

Your hand beneath his, covered by the pale expanse of his skin. Clutched around a coffee made for him. He could feel your small knuckles and rough callouses from being burnt from coffee machines. They were soft, natural. They felt perfect in his.

Spot looked up and almost immediately threw out his same old greeting. Expecting to see your dead-faced glare. 

Your lips looked soft, plump. He wondered what it would feel like to touch them. What it would feel like to have them on him. You always were honest and spoke to the point. What did you look like flustered? Would you shake under him? Would you hold him? Would you--

You weren’t there. 

Some kid with brown hair stood in your spot, eyes wide and jaw unhinged as he stared at Spot. 

What?

“Who are you?–“

“What are you?–“ They both said at the same time. 

It was the echoing silence that followed that left pinpricks in his skin(?). Where were you? 

“Where is she?” Spot asked after a few moments of awkward staring. 

“Are you talking about–“

Spot was starting to panic. Who was this kid? Where were you?

“Yes. Where is she.” Static started to seep into his voice and boom throughout the tiny coffee shop. 

“Woah! She’s–She’s at home!” The boy clutched the counter as waves of energy swamped him. 

“Write down her address, please.” Did that sound creepy? Maybe…but Spot needed to know that you were okay. 

You were the only normal, constant, thing in his life left. This was completely reasonable.

“What? No! You–“ The boy, or his name tag said Peter, began to object.

”Now. Address.” Spot started to leer over Peter, intimidating him with the pure strength he held behind his voice. 

Peter hastily scribbled down your house number and handed it over with shaky palms. Spot just took it from him and used a portal to travel to the door of your apartment. 

Hopefully you were alright. 

He could take care of you if you weren’t. 

This was him caring after his…well…his….

You never told him what you guys were. 

Friend?

Yeah. Friends. Like a partner in crime. 

———————

A few knocks racked your wooden door, causing you to wake up for the second time that day. 

You were not in the mood to walk the whole six feet to the front door. So you didn’t.

“–Hello? I’m coming in!” 

Was that…was that Spot?

Before you could even stop him, a black dot appeared in front of your bed and out came Spot. 

“Oh! There you are! You weren’t at work so I–“

Your pajamas consisted of a baby blue silk short-sleeved Macy’s pajama top and skimpy white lace panties that were decorated with Lillies of the valley. 

You weren’t even wearing a fucking bra. 

“Spot. I’m on my period. Relax and shut up. Leave.” You were too exhausted to even question how he knew your address.

“But do you need anything? I could–“

“I am half naked.”

This seemed to snap Spot out of his 'nanny mode' and into his 'flustered grown man mode.' But he didn’t even have the audacity to pretend to look away. 

“Oh! Oh…my bad, sorry. Yep--very sorry.” After looking at you for a bit too long of a time after you admitted your current state, he turned his whole body away from you. 

“Get out of my house. Bye.” Sure, it was a little meaner than you intended, but you genuinely were starting to get a headache. 

“No.”

“What?” You were stunned. 

What did he just say? 

Spot the blushing virgin, 

Spot the failed robber, 

the same Spot that wrung his hands together when you tease him said–

 no?

“I said no.”

Huh. So he grew some balls. But just not at the right fucking time.

“Did you not hear me. I said get the fuck out.” You allowed yourself to be a little more mean. You were starting to get annoyed. 

“You're annoying me. Leave.” 

“No. You are sick. I can take care of you. Just–“ Spot tried to reason with you, even approaching the bed that you laid on. 

“Come near me and I’ll sock you in the face.” You were done being nice. You hated being 'sick.' 

You especially hated it when others saw you 'sick.' 

You were vulnerable when you were 'sick.'

Spot wasn't having it. “Just let me help. I can get you some soup–like chicken noodle or something?”

Shut up.

“I’m vegetarian.”

Please just leave me alone.

“Then vegetable soup! I can steal some soup from the–“

Shut up.

“Don’t.”

Shut. The fuck. Up. 

“It’ll be super easy, I can just teleport–“

“Shut up. Please.” You were so confused. Why was he so adamant on this?

“Just go home.” You flipped so you no longer faced him and closed your eyes. Ignoring the problem always made it go away. 

It was silent.

Fucking finally. 

But weirdly enough, when the echo of silence fell over your room like a weighted blanket, it felt like a stone landed in your gut. 

You felt…guilty. 

Taglist: @arachnagirl--spidergirl

[siryouarebeingmocked]

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: I may have activated my own trap card

Spoilers for a movie that's two months old and also out on home release.

So, Miles, Gwen, Pavitr (Spider-India), and Hobie (Spider-Punk) all seem to have modern left-wing politics, though Gwen's got edited out. Hobie's introduction specifically says he hates "fascists", which carries over from the original comics.

By the time Hobie came around, I assumed he was just another poser, cooler than the hero rival character, expressing generic leftie politics, and his punk ethos wasn't sincere.

Which is exactly what the writers wanted me to think.

Not only is Hobie perfectly sincere about being anti-authoritarian, but he's been helping Miles since before they even met. He's been blatantly stealing junk from the Spider Society to build his own universe-jumping watch, and disguising it as petty vandalism.

He even tries to talk Miles out of trying to join the Spider-Society before the reveal that Miles himself is an anomaly, and the SS (geddit?) tries to detain Miles.

When Hobie says he's against authoritarianism, he really means it.

Speaking of the left-wing politics, Miles has a "#BLM" pin on his bag. It's very visible while he sits next to his dad.

Who's a cop.

(TANGENT: A few years ago, someone drew a stupid, very bad comic where Spider-Man (Peter Parker) was a) black, b) hated cops, and c) assaulted and subdued riot cops when they asked him for help.

That the comic didn't even show the riot cops were wrong. We were just supposed to assume they deserve to be left to the mercy of an angry mob.

Also, in this comic, Uncle Ben was killed by a cop, not a random thug who Spidey could've stopped but chose not to. Which makes me wonder how that would shake out.

It's kind of weird for someone to look at a character who's about personal responsibility to an unhealthy degree, and use him to express their collectivist anti-cop terrorism fantasies. That, or they didn't think through their fantasies.)

During Spider-India's opening, Miles says "I love Chai Tea!" And Pavitr goes on a rant about how "Chai" means "tea". Later on, The Spot says he's been on a "journey of self-discovery", and Pavitr basically says he's racist.

Which is a tad ironic, because Spot is literally white. And also because Pavitr is the one making the racist assumptions.

And I personally go to a church - in England - that has a lot of non-white non-British people. Mostly Africans. And me, of course. I wonder if any Asians ever went on a journey of self discovery to South London.

And I don't just mean as a cab driver.

"Wait, SYABM, didn't you move to the UK for self-discovery?"

W-well, yes, partially.

Aside: I made the mistake of watching a Youtube video with the Chai Tea joke, and then I looked at the comments.

One guy said "tfw when Twitter users write a movie". An idiot (with much more upvotes) said "bro out here wanting blatant racism in movies".

...When the whole point of the joke is that the racism is not blatant.

It's only "blatant" if you're insufferably Twitterized. There are loads of redundant phrasings in English, like "ATM machine", and words often shift when they're adopted from other languages.

Also, "I dislike this joke" is not the same as "I want racism in this movie", when the "racism" in the movie is only there so it could be mocked.

One of the issues with putting real world movements in worlds that are drastically different - it's one of the main selling points of the franchise - is that it may seem odd that those movements exist in very similar form to the IRL version.

For example, Miles supports BLM in both his video game, and this. Which makes me think "did Trayvon Martin get shot in Florida? How about Mike Brown? Wouldn't the existence of supervillains throw things into a new perspective?"

Did I mention the giant George Floyd-style "REST IN POWER" mural to Miles' dead uncle? I cringed at that in the Wakanda Forever trailer, and I rolled my eyes at it here.

Floyd wasn't a saintly martyr, he was an unlucky violent thug.

Also, Aaron was a supervillain killed by another bad guy who nearly destroyed the city, not a cop.

Also, this is at a party to celebrate how Miles' dad is about to be promoted. Assuming Floyd died and the 2020 protests/riots also happened in Miles' universe, then it seems a tad tasteless to have a mural inspired by an anti-cop movement overlooking it, even if the party is not full of cops.

Spider-India lives in "Mumbattan".

The people who settled the Manhattan area were originally Indian. But the other type of Indian. The Indians we're not supposed to call Indians anymore.

The name "Manhattan" is even Native American.

The first permanent settlement was Dutch. Then the English got it. I guess the English could've shipped Indians to the other side of the world and eventually ceded the area to them, or maybe in this world India was a world-conquering superpower and Mumbattan is the result of...importing Native Americans?

Which would make Pavitr's complaint that "the British stole all of our stuff and put it in their museums" seem a tad hypocritical.

Of course, since I wrote all that, someone reminded me that Pavitr explicitly says the joint is in India.

"SYABM," you say, "you're overthinking this."

Yes, I am. Because the filmmakers didn't think it through. If you want to use ha-ha-funny to make a serious point, you invite examination of that point.

Miles (as Spidey) now works with his dad, though he disguises his voice. At one point, Miles tells his father that men bottle up mental health issues.

This is true (and ironic, considering Miles is hiding who he is from Jeff), but it's not the first time I've seen some progressive work try to address men's issues in an very awkward way. At least here, it's played for comedy.

Also, seems a tad hypocritical coming from a guy who wears a "#BLM" pin in the presence of his cop father.

Also, if you work the timeline, that would mean Miles was about 7 or 6 when BLM started. Which means he's gone most of his life knowing nothing else.

There was a controversy over a "protect trans kids" trans flag in Gwen's room, which was apparently edited out.

IMO, it seems a tad strange for a girl who feels estranged from everyone in her world to join a social movement, but what do I know? Maybe it was there before then.

Some people came to the extremely logical conclusion that Gwen herself is trans. Even though she's distinctly physically feminine and possibly too young for puberty blockers depending on Earth 65′s laws.

Like the "oh great, it's Liv" shippers, people are reaching really hard to see what they want to see.

Some people have said that Gwen's issues with her dad and herself seem awfully similar to the issues LGBTQIA2S+ kids go through.

Gee, it's not like, y'know, feeling estranged from one's family is a common theme in fiction about teenagers and superhero, and the whole "superpowers = minority" thing has been done to death for most of the past century.

Perhaps most notably - and clumsily - in X-Men.

I'm not saying this wasn't the intended subtext. I'm saying if it was, it would just be really, really cliche.

There's this recurring theme of people telling miles "how [his] story is supposed to go".

When he's at a meeting with his parents and his guidance counselor, the lady says his story of being a black-Latino son of an immigrant would sound great in the college application letters. His mom is a tad miffed, given that they're a) solidly middle class, and b) as a Puerto Rican, she considers herself American.

Miguel (Spider-Man 2099) doesn't want Miles in the multiversal council of Spiders, because Miles was bitten by the radioactive spider from a different universe. Which is why his local Spider-Man died, and the spider's home dimension has no Spider-Man.

Also, Miguel is fixated on "canon events". The idea that there are certain things, especially tragedies, that have to happen to Spiders, or their entire universe falls apart.

And he knows this, because he tried to take over for a version of him that got shot dead by a thug. Tried to raise his daughter.

And he watched as the universe collapsed in front of him.

So he's projecting his own guilt onto Miles, a tad.

According to TVtropes and other sources, this was actually about the people who didn't accept Miles as a replacement Spidey, possibly out of racism.

Yeah, that's real hard-hitting topical meta-commentary about a character who debuted 12 years ago. 8 years when the first movie came out.

I'd also like to point out that despite stereotypes of comic book fans, certain minority successors to banner superheros have been fairly well-received. Like Jaime Reyes, or Cassandra Cain.

(Note: I wrote that before the Blue Beetle movie came out. And flopped.)

And, of course, loads of people like Miles specifically because he's a minority Spidey, which is also racist, just from the other direction. In fact, a lot of his fans seem to forget the "Latino" part of "Afro-Latino". From what little I've seen of Miles early comics, they did actually put strong emphasis on his race.

I also suspect the filmmakers may be misinterpreting the usual successor knee-jerk reactions

as racism. If you're using an established brand name for your new hero, you're creating some expectations.

Also, you know the most popular meme about regular Spidey that I see? That Marvel's writers just keep making him suffer and don't want him to actually develop. Which would kinda make Marvel closer to Team Miguel than Team Miles.

Miles also gripes that Miguel is letting "some algorithm" tell him what to do. While I agree with the sentiment, I'd like to point out that, again, Miles supports BLM.

A movement popularized by an algorithm.

A movement made up of narratives and assumptions.

A movement which has never proven a single incident was because of racism.

During the big chase scene, we see a Spider girl in a wheelchair, aka Sun-Spider. She's from the comics. Same initiative that gave us "Web-Weaver".

Who is, of course, an extremely effete gay fashion designer Spidey. I kinda like his outfit, though the Spider-eyes with eyelashes is a little too far.

And Sun-Spider seems exactly like a character a stereotypical 90s executive and focus group would come up with. Down to the backward baseball cap.

(Turns out she's Dayn Broder's actual Spider-Sona.)

Also, while I was looking up that one black and white Spider who said "nowhere to run" (Metro-Spider, played by record producer Metro Boomin [/sic]), I found out that Aunt May's full name is "Maybelle", not just "May". TIL.

There's a bit of a double standard with this version of Spider-Woman, who's black and pregnant. -People in the movie - including Peter B - regularly point out how Peter B endangering his infant daughter Mayday by taking her along with him. But for some reason, nobody says a word about Jessica, who's an active-duty stunt-biking superhero.

Even regular motorbiking can be dangerous for pregnant women.

In fact, the movie portrays this as heroic and impressive. When Gwen sees  Jess is preggos, she asks if Jess can adopt her.

Not to mention the whole "afro and hoop earrings" thing, which seem like a bad idea for a type of hero who often gets into melee combat, even with Spider-Sense.

Yes, I'm aware that female heroes, including the Spider-Ladies, often have exposed hair. It's a genre convention. Incidentally, it was nice to see Batwoman wore a detachable decoy wig in the comics. Some bad guy tries to grab it in a fight? It comes right off.

Also, Jess doesn't have much actual character.

Being pregnant is not a character trait. In fact, her only real traits are basically "cool but stern sassy mentor", to contrast with Peter B. -Incidentally, someone on TVtropes pointed out the double standard. And when I saw the page again, a page-camper had deleted it, with no explanation.

Guess they couldn't stand someone pointing out the flaws of their waifu.

(One) Spider-UK in this movie is Muslim. I know she's Muslim because she wears a Spider-themed headdress. Note that regular Marvel 616 has a muslim lady Spider-UK, but her name is Zarina Zahari and she doesn't wear a hijabi.

(Also, she could be mistaken for Ms. Marvel.)

ms marvel.jpg

You might be thinking "wait, isn't a headdress impractical in a melee fight? Doesn't it give your enemy something to grab?" Yes, it is.

But so are Jess's earrings, afro, and being pregnant, so clearly there's a lot of artistic license going on.

Maybe it's partially tearaway, like Batman's cape.

I gotta wonder about the religious rules of wearing a head covering over a mask that *already* covers your entire head. Did she go see her imam and go "Okay, I have a really weird question..."

Come to think, Spidey is usually slim, but a lot of lady Spideys in this movie seemed to have wide hips. Including muscular ladies. Kris Anka's concept art goes really hard on wide hips. I don't know why. Stronger, faster character reads during the big chase?

I guess Spiders could be expected to have strong legs.

BOTTOM LINE:

I liked the movie overall, though the progressive bits made me roll my eyes a little. I...want to see the third one, with reservations.

[amageish]

So, Nico Minoru's in Spider-Man Freshman Year... Let's talk about it.

About a year ago, Marvel spilled some details about the upcoming animated Spider-Man series, Spider-Man Freshman Year. There was a lot of discussion about it, what it was, what it wasn't, and whether what it is is better or worse then what people wanted it to be.

A couple weeks ago, a trademark filing indicated that the show was scheduled for Winter 2024. In an era where companies are killing announced and nearly-finished projects, I was honestly thinking the show was on thin ice... but since it seems to still exist, I want to talk about something that I feel has gotten surprisingly little discussion in all the discourse about the show: the inclusion of Nico Minoru, of the Runaways, as Peter Parker's best friend.

Now, from a Peter-centered perspective, I think this choice makes sense in a very specific way? If you flash back to the original 60s Spider-Man comics, which the show seems to be trying to invoke aesthetically from the little we've seen, Peter Parker had a female close friend who was representative of 1960s youth counter-culture: Mary Jane.

The degree to which Stan Lee's own values undercut MJ's counter-culturism is something that people could/do entire academic essays about, but suffice it to say that she was meant to appeal to the zeitgeist of the era and the character's spirit certainly got through to viewers. Like, there is a reason that she the OTP for Peter for so many people, even if Lee at the time had intended to keep the focus on Peter's more traditionally conservative romance with Gwen Stacy.

Nico Minoru slots into this classic pre-MJ-as-the-love-interest MJ role very well, in my opinion at least? In her 2000s comics, she was cast as a edgy goth social outcast who made her own clothes and did her own thing... In her 2010s MCU show, she was cast again as an outcast, but with a certain amount of doomerpilled depression that she outgrows as the show goes on... In the 2020s game Midnight Suns, Nico is still a devoted goth, but also draws from queer youth culture and has a certain semi-ironic peppiness to her (she calls the player "friendo" constantly - she's just like me fr).

So, honestly, I think picking Nico Minoru for Spider-Man's best friend is a really clever move that slots her into this historical role of the foil to Peter Parker - fun choice!

However, from a Nico-centered perspective, I have a lot of questions about what this version of the character will be like practically... The biggest one being: Why is Nico in New York? One of the core concepts of the Runaways as a team is that they are a response to the oft-asked question "Why is New York always under threat? Why are there no superheroes having to save LA?". While the West Coast Avengers do, y'know, exist, the Runaways introduces another answer to this question: Supervillains cannot operate in LA without permission of the Pride, a LA-based supervillain mafia who made a pact with a demon from Limbo and require a cut of all crime committed in the city. The titular Runaways are the children of these villains, who choose to reject their parent's lifestyle and go on the run rather then be complicit in their villainy.

So... How did Nico get in New York and end up enrolling in a New York high school? That's a big change for her and I hope the explanation is satisfying.

Nico and her team also don't usually appear as traditional costumed heroes with secret identities, at least not for prolonged periods of time. They've used several codenames and several costumes, but it's always bit a touch comedic - Nico goes by "Sister Grimm" because they decide they need nicknames to be superheroes as somewhat-cringy-teens while she later uses "The Gloom" partially at the encouragement of her girlfriend, but she's still largely just... Nico. It's worth noting that both Midnight Suns and Marvel Snap break naming conventions to call her by her first/last name instead of an alias - something Snap mostly does with big-deal characters like Jean Grey and Kitty Pryde, with even other characters more known by their real name like Emma Frost and Danielle Moonstar being called by their hero names instead...

So, I'm curious if Nico will be using her powers to fight crime and, if she is, what codename/costume she has... On top of that, I wonder if Peter Parker will know that Nico is a blood witch and if Nico will know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man - or if they mutually uncover that across the events of the series... Doctor Strange is also set to be in this show - will he be a mentor for her as a budding witch, perhaps even more then he is a mentor for Peter? There's a lot of possibilities there too.

Finally, there's the big question of Nico Minoru's queerness. Now, there's basically two lists of Marvel queers - the characters written as queer by the writers and artists at Marvel and the characters Marvel corporate have actually approved as being queer and stamped with a big rainbow stamp of approval. This is what separates your "did a gay kiss once" characters from your "paraded out every June" characters...

Nico is in the latter category and is potentially one of the most corporate-approved queer characters there are. This girl is BISEXUAL and Marvel is uncharacteristically interested in making sure you know it. She got a Pride variant cover kissing her girlfriend when Pearlmutter was still at the company. Her MCU show is full of gay kisses and has not one but TWO fantasy gay wedding sequences (it also got removed from Disney+ earlier this year, funny that).

Now, uh, America Chavez is basically the face of Sapphic Marvel in the comics and her queerness got reduced to a Pride pin in her movie, so I'm not sure if Nico's bisexuality will be acknowledged in the show given that precedent... but I sure hope it does!!! It'd be cute if Karolina pops in too, helping her girlfriend out with whatever antics she gets into... She wasn't in the initial revealed character line-up, but I could also see them waiting to reveal her and hoping to get hype specifically from shippers who haven't thought about the pairing in a few years since the Runaways TV show ended.

ANYWAY. That was a lot of thoughts, but I'm just very curious what's going to happen here... I love Nico and am eager to see her in this show, but it also just feels like such an unconventional choice... to the point where I am apparently thinking about it this hard a year later.

[journey-to-the-attic]

So if Solomons a Villian is it better for the themes of accidental divorce in every universe for Mephisto to be a hero or a Villian?

Or is newspaper club just an actual team of journalists now?

my instinct is to go with what i consider the funniest option: this is one of very few universes where they are legally divorced

i feel like i put them through way too much in most aus (rpg and dragon comes to mind), so this is the ONE au where their dispute really is purely mundane and marital, like peter b parker with mj in the first spiderverse film

i reckon solomon's that specific brand of crazy scientist where he genuinely doesn't think he's a villain, he sees it as more of an 'professional collaboration', because he just wants to figure out what makes the superpowered humans tick and this is apparently the most efficient way to get them on his biopsy table

don't get me wrong mephisto was pretty much supportive of his unethical experiments. it's solomon's BEHAVIOUR after getting so obsessed with studying superhumans that made him break it off

(and yeah, i reckon the club would be journalists here! i like to think that they start off as a satire paper, then get mixed up in the whole hero-villain dispute and end up way out of their depth - in part because of mephisto's connection to one of the supervillains, in part because they're all really nosy)

[sophieinwonderland]

i know the supervillain bit (when you explained Vira) is a joke but you would make an awesome supervillain i think. you would be good at it. well. you would be evil at it i should say. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 (lighthearted) -orv & tom

Thanks! LOL!

You know, I've talked about this before, but I've been thinking about this again since my host has been playing Spider-Man lately... And that's the tendency for a villain to be the person taking initiative to change the world.

Sure, plenty of villains are just naturally bad. But there are also many who just end up victims of their own ambitions.

The Lizard in Spider-Man media is usually just a disabled scientist looking for a way to regrow limbs. In Spider-Man 2, Doctor Octopus is just a guy who tries to make renewable clean energy. Both characters want to make the world a better place. And both really end up victims of the writing, punished for doing what other people aren't brave enough to even try.

I'm not saying they don't go too far. Of course they do. That's what makes them villains.

But it bothers me how often the only representation of ambitious people who want to change the world is in the form of a villain.

Meanwhile, Peter Parker won't even sell his web fluid. Think about how many deaths by cops could be prevented if you replaced their lethal bullets with a web gun? Think of how useful it could be for rescuers to have instant ropes they can shoot from a small handheld device.

But Peter just keeps it for himself so he can use it to beat up criminals.

It just feels like a lot of Spider-Man's villains were originally good people who tried and failed to change the world for the better, and ended up punished by the narrative for their failure, while Peter Parker is someone who never tried at all. As a hero, he usually just tries to maintain a status quo in the world.

Superheroes all just tend to think too small for my liking. They're too reactive with their world-saving, where the villains are proactive.

To be fair, Iron Man was supposedly working on using his Arc Reactors to make cheap renewable energy too. We just never see the fruits of that labor. It's an off-hand thing mentioned about how Stark Tower would be the first to use it. But where is this technology 10 years later? Surely, every car and plane coming off the assembly line in the MCU should be powered by Arc Reactor tech, right?

They can't be that expensive to produce. Tony made one in a cave with a box of scraps.

All in all, I guess what it comes down to is that comics are a world where status quo is God. And in that world, the only people who can try to change the status quo are villains, because they're destined to fail. And on the rare occasion lip service is paid to heroes trying to change the status quo, it's ultimately forgotten about because they're not allowed to do that.

And the message it sends to youths is to keep your sights low and don't rock the boat. That a "hero" is someone who try to keep things the way they are, and anyone with ambition who wants to change world is a villain.

Through that lens, I guess I'd rather be the supervillain. Better to be bold and ambitious, and fail, than to accept stagnation and uphold a flawed status quo.

[thestorygenerater]

Something I hate story’s for portraying poorly but REALLY want to see properly is, “Character ends up in real world and/or sees their fans.” Every time it is written it just becomes, “I’m not real and my fights are written for other’s amusement.” Which just less impactful. That story has been told to many times without a shake up so here is one I thought of.

An adult Spider-Man is exhausted by the bad press he’s gotten recently, he wants, no NEEDS a break but can’t get one because he can’t disappear for to long. But with a chat with Doctor Strange, Steven offers him a chance to get his vacation. He has come across a universe where their adventures are told like the legends of King Arthur, some tales true or false but everyone knows them.

He could take Peter to that universe for a week, with no threat of a supervillain appearing there. While there Peter can go to Comic Con and be himself without having to hide his spider self, he could talk with fans of Peter Parker and everyone could just think he is cosplaying. By the time they return home, a day won’t have even passed.

I wonder how Peter would react to everyone’s Love For Spider-Man, he is the most popular and beloved hero on earth after all.

[practically-an-x-man]

What about 5 and/or 18 for Peter Parker (any version)?

Thank you!! I think I'll go with 5 for this one, with Andrew Garfield's Peter!

5. making a choice that goes against their morals for the greater good

More Angsty Prompts

____ No Going Back

Word Count: 580 Tags: Angst, character death, gen fic, character study ____

He was out of webs. His suit was torn in a dozen places, and barely-clotted cuts dotted his skin underneath. If the fabric hadn't already been red, he bet it would have stained.

It had to be one of the worst fights of his life, and that was a tough list to top. It had taken weeks to track down this adversary - weeks spent navigating the destruction of the city around him, weeks spent running on too much coffee and not enough sleep because he had to catch this guy, and he had to do it fast - and the battle alone had lasted hours.

But he'd caught him. After so much searching, so much fighting, Peter had finally won. He held the villain in an armlock, smashing his cheek against the asphalt beneath him. He didn't dare loosen his grip.

No webs. Normally he'd have strung up this baddie like all the rest, wrapped him in a cocoon and tipped off the police from afar so they could come pick him up. But that wasn't an option. No webs.

So what, then? Let him go? Call the police from here, and risk betraying his identity? Loosen his grip and scour the surroundings for some kind of rope, zip-ties, anything that would secure him?

Letting him go wasn't an option. He'd trashed the city, killed thousands of civilians, in the five weeks it had taken to track him down the first time. If Peter let him go now, he'd redouble his efforts. He'd be impossible to track down a second time. And he'd kill thousands, if not millions more innocents in the process.

Calling the police... just as bad. Perhaps the supervillain's capture would be worth the risk to his own identity, but it wouldn't accomplish anything. He'd escaped from prison before - Supermax, even, the Vernon C. Bain center would be child's play to him.

And there wasn't a damn thing that would keep him secured. Not without webs.

He couldn't let this one get away again. There was no other choice.

Peter Parker did not kill. Every death gnawed at him. Even when a supervillain made their own undoing, it tore him apart from within.

He'd lost so many of his morals over the years, after Gwen's death, after he'd been beaten into the ground so many times and was still expected to pick himself back up.

But he hadn't lost that. It was his final rule, the only standing barrier that divided him from what he never wanted to be. Peter Parker did not kill.

Thousands of civilians dead. Millions more to come if he let him go. The destruction of the city, the country, the world. The slaughter of all his allies, all the people who might've stood a chance of stopping this and any other threats.

He couldn't go back from this if he did it.

The world couldn't go back from this if he let him go.

Millions of lives... or one.

To keep the city safe. To keep the country safe. To keep the world safe.

To nip this in the bud before it got any worse. And he knew it would get worse.

Peter shifted his grip, keeping his knee pressed to the spine of the villain below him. One hand to the side of his head. The other hooked around his jaw. His grip was loose... for the moment. Disgust welled up in his throat, bitter bile that made him want to gag.

He wouldn't be able to live with himself.

But the rest of the city would be able to live.

He shut his eyes. He couldn't bear to watch this. The only thing that kept him from losing his nerve was the promise that it would be over quickly. A merciful death. Much more merciful than all the deaths this man would leave in his wake if given the chance.

This was for the greater good.

Being a hero meant you had to make the hard choices. Being a hero meant you rarely felt like a hero. Being a hero meant you shattered your own morality in the hopes that thousands of others could afford to keep theirs.

"Forgive me, Gwen." he whispered. He hoped that somewhere, among the entropy of the universe, she could hear him.

He wrenched his hands. He heard a brief and terrible crack!

And then it was done.

[theshadowrealmitself]

Your "everyone thinks Peter Parker either already is or is on the edge of becoming a supervillain" au has bewitched and captivated me. I keep picturing him having a Tobey McGuire, "You want forgiveness? Get religion," workplace wall slam moment or one of his, "Sorry I rabidly beat up your important investor for talking shit about you, Harry 🥺" comic moment.

The way the air would go out of the room. The release when it's over. Everyone concluding that could have gone SO much worse, considering

That should still be Eddie Brock (he said that to him right? it’s been awhile since I’ve seen the movie), but the one from the Venom movies, who has the symbiote, and is not scared of Peter at all, just forgives the guy for having a bad day

Meanwhile everyone keeps checking on Brock to see if he’s okay after that “harrowing” event

[itsybiggy]

Stuck With Me: Peter Parker x OC

Cute Peter Parker slow burn, less spiderman action more just good ol awkward Parker.

Peter has been in a bad mood all month, but with soon to be divorced parents, trying to figure out what's wrong with him is the last thing Lani needs. Thankfully summer break is here. Lani, Ned, Peter, and MJ set off on the summer vacation road trip to California. Drama ensues

🕸️Chapter 2🕸️

Chapter 1

Master list

•🕷️🕷️🕷️•

He left me on read. He never does that, like ever. My thoughts begin to wander to attempt to make evenly winged eyeliner.

So much for keeping it positive.

Intrusive thoughts pile up in my mind. I'm not dumb enough to really believe that Peter now hates the mere thought of me; but the little "read" under my text makes me anxious all the same.

I being wracking my brain. Thinking of everything I have said to him in the past weeks. I mean maybe I said something to make him upset or did something and just not realize it. But honestly, it only makes me smile as I recall the jokes we cracked and fun we all  have had. Nothing bad is really coming to mind.

My screen is still void of any text notifications.

I check my refection in the mirror, smiling. I usually try to stay positive when it comes to my appearance. And I definitely can't complain of how my butt looks my black maxi skirt. I adjusted my white crop top, making sure the tiny cross stitched spider was visible. After a quick click of my off brand Dock Martins I decided humidity was a virtue and mirror time was over.

It was already 5:15, I didn't feel quiet ready but Ned would be waiting.

~15 minutes later~

"GET IN LOSER WE ARE GOING SHOPPING!" I yell as Ned walks down the apartment stairs.

He gets in the car "Hey."

"Hey." My smile drops and I hope it's subtle. The tone of his voice worried me. Silence between us is uncommon. I squirm a bit in my seat.

Seeing as he isn't going to make conversation, I speak up.

"Did you get the texts from me and Michelle?" I say.

"Yeah, I have no idea what's wrong with him. Maybe we will figure out tonight" he says quickly, shrugs and looks out the window. Silence fills the car again.

I know you can't sound like anything over text, but Ned sounded a lot peppier when we were messaging. What was going on with my friends?

"We should go see a movie after."  I make a lame attempt to kindle a conversation.

Ned seems to perk up a bit at this.

"Yes! The Joker is out!"

I laugh at this, I'd never been much for DC superhero comics. Especially when they are made up. It didn't really make a lot of sense why someone would make up a superhero and a supervillain when there are plenty to choose from that are real. Movie production companies have tried to profit off of rising superhero stars. The movies are never as good as the up close and real action.

I shrug "I'll see whatever you want bubby."

He winces at 'bubby' and goes back to looking out the window.

I feel my face getting hot. Ok mental note, after being called bubby for 3 years Ned now doesn't like it.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH MY FRIENDS! Blasts in my mind. My only hope now was that Michelle was normal.

___

To my relief she was. We got to the diner at 6:04, Michelle sitting down at our usual table in the back. We try to sit in the back as to not disturb other customers. Our laughs are usually boisterous and frequent not to mention the cheeky jokes. And all being on the decathlon team, heated arguments or "debates" on some old dudes theories or such tend to heated. But we are high tipping customers so we don't worry about it too much.

"Hey guys surprised to see you have made it here alive." She jokes.

"I don't know where you got that I was a bad driver!" I motion for Ned to take a seat before I slide in next to him.

"Oh I think you know." She winks.

"what?" I look at her, perplexed before she shakes her head.

"Speak of the devil" she said just as Peter walks through the door.

The little bell at the top of the door gives a joyful ring. Peter flinches but his body quickly moved back into its slightly hunched position with a frown on his face. Oh great.

"Hey Peter!" I say as he sits down next to Michelle.

He looks into my eyes and gives a slight smile. But says nothing.

A waiter soon comes around with menus "Can I get you started off with anything to drink?"

"I will have a coke." Michelle starts.

"Same." Peter mumbles.

"Sprite." Says Ned cheerfully.

"Tea for me please and thank you." I say brightly, I had to stay positive. I am with my friends to get away from negativity, not have more of it.

Once the waiter left we all began talking. Peter slowly starts engaging more, and it seems to feel right again. Something about him is definitely off; though that does make me very worried about him, I know now was not the time to ask. I will just do my best to cheer my moody friend up.

I smile, mentally stepping back from the conversation, contentment filled my heart. There is nowhere I would rather be and no group of people I would rather be with. I mean they are the only friends I have...

Good Eats has become a favorite of ours. We started eating here for dinner or after school almost every weekend, for about 3 years now. It was cheap for the quality of simple yet delicious diner food. But it's usually pretty quiet in the evenings— (we learned the hard way to avoid it during the mornings where the line is out the door.) —a steady stream of customers usually taking things to-go. Which I don't get, a big part of this place being great is the aesthetic. It reminds me of a 70s diner and most likely opened then. Yellow booths, a jute box always playing great oldies music, kinda ugly wallpaper, and warm lighting. And the store owner is a really nice guy. He usually brings his grandkids. It's always funny when you get rung up by a 10-year-old or have your water refilled by a 7-year-old. Since we have been coming for so long so often, the owner has a special discount for us "I've got to treat my best customers right!"  he always says I'm pretty sure it's just a %10 student discount. We usually tip as much much as we can.

I snapped back into reality when I heard my name. I didn't really know who it came from.

"What?" I said shacking my head out of the clouds.

"We were asking about the van. Summer break is almost here, when is Caroline gonna be ready?" Ned asks

"Oh right, I would say just in time for school to let out." I say.

We have been planning our summer break since school started this year. It will be our last summer vacation ever, so it had to be epic. I always get excited butterflies from it, but it is usually mixed with dread too. Dread because I know when I get home my parents will be officially divorced. Not that I haven't known this was coming or that it needs to happen. It definitely does, I have a cup bruise on the side of my head to prove it.

No, nope stop! I feel my eyes watering. Internally I let out a big sigh. This summer vacation has to be perfect. I don't know what I will do if it's not.

"Alright let's go over the plans one last time," Peter says.

I smile reaching into my purse, and pull out a small, light pink, piece of paper. 1-10 lists of things we need to do while we are in California. We had decided a beach trip is definitely what we need.

I clear my throat and begin to read.

1. start off at Stark Tower to go over things with Tony such as Hotels, food reservations, and tickets

Did I mention all of this was Peter's early birthday gift from TS himself. We are all pretty jazzed. And by that I mean we about shit our pants when Peter told us.

2. head out across the country stopping at the finest Tony Stark hotels (hotels with penthouse suites that Tony has frequent so much he just straight up bought the hotels.)

3  get to LA and check out our crib

4. beach

5. Disney Land

6. More beach

7. eat at a super fancy restaurant

8. ruins of Mr. Stark's Malibu mansion

9. Santa Monica Pier

10. hike to the Hollywood sign

It was a packed summer for sure, but it had to be the best, it just had to be. My last slice of happiness before I move away with my mom, before I move from Queens to which ever relative my mom decides to move close to. Away from all of my friends, who are more of a family then my real ones. Who have gotten me through so much, stuck by my side through it all. And even feeling upset makes me feel like I'm a monster. I want to support my mom, but I don't want this! I don't want to be away from them. Away...I hate that word.

"You ok La?" Ned asks  his hand rests on my back, lightly rubbing it.

My cheeks grow warm with embarrassment- I was crying. And of course Ned's kind questioning made more tears flow. I quickly wipe my eyes with my sleeve, and give a quick fake smile to my friends. They look concerned, except Peter. He looks almost angry, this made me cry more. Amazing.

"Yeah I'm fine. I-uh-i yawned." I stammer, I yawned wtf, who would believe that?!

"What the hell Lani?! No one's yawns make them cry that much." Michelle said, her voice rose she was almost laughing at the dumb lie that came out of my mouth. But I knew she was just concerned.

Ned quickly drops his hand from my back, my head instinctively turning towards him. He's looking at Peter.

"I'm fine I, I-just." I paused. I had told them about my parents getting a divorce, but not much. More importantly, I hadn't told them I was moving, and I wasn't planning on it till the trip is over. If they knew it would just ruin the whole trip for me. Not to mention I was so scared to even say it out loud, it would just make it seem more real. I tried my hardest to not think about it ever. Yea I know it's is unhealthy, but it's how I'm coping now. Might as well let future Lani deal with it.

"It's just my parents divorce, it's getting close to the last of all the court stuff. I just, can't stop thinking about it." My face continued the hot embarrassed sensation. I felt my under arms tingle and I could feel their eyes in me. My eyes stayed glued on my hands like my left depended on it.

There was a small pause. Oh gosh this is embarrassing.

"Lani, no madder what, you will always have us. We love you." Michelle finally said. Her tender words caught me off guard.

I looked back at her, giving a genuine smile "Thanks, that means a lot."

But the little voice in the back of my mind kept screaming Except they won't always be there for you.

"Are you guys ready to order?" We all jumped a bit as the waiter had finally returned to serve us. She placed each of our drinks in front of us.

After we ordered I had asked if we could just forget I said anything, what I needed was a fun night with my friends. They all agreed and once Ned had brought up The Joker, a new conversation sprung. I was just happy to not discuss anything family related.

___

Once we had all gotten and eaten our food, we decided to head to the movie theater to watch The Joker.

"Ok how about Peter pays for drink, Ned pays for Popcorn, and Lani pays for the tickets?" Michelle suggests as we walk into the theater.

"Um, that's convenient, seeing as you pay for nothing." Said Peter, slightly annoyed "and we should all pay for our own tickets, they are too expensive for Lani to pay for alone."

Michelle give a little snicker before we all decide it was every man for himself/herself.

I walk up to the counter, and smile brightly at the young man at the register. "Four tickets for The Joker, please and thank you."

"Sorry The Joker is sold out." He replies in a monotone voice.

"What?!" Ned exclaimed "but- I just checked online like 5 hours ago."

"Sorry The Joker is sold out" he repeats in the same voice. I don't blame him, he has probably had to say this so many people tonight.

"Hey, guys it's fine we can just pick another movie!" I say trying to lift their spirits.

"It 2 is out." Michelle offers.

Oh no

"Yeah I'm down" says Ned.

Oh no

"Yeah me too" says Peter.

Shit

Three pairs of eyes look at me. I give a sheepish smile. I get scared very easily, they know this, but I'm willing to take one for the team... even if it means I won't sleep for a few da-weeks. "Yes, let's go see It 2" I say in a fake enthusiastic tone.

I turn back to the man at the register "um, four for... It 2 please."

___

The theater is completely empty, which makes it about 1099999373783298xs more scary. It's a pretty popular movie so the rows of seats absent of people makes it feel like the twilight zone. We look around, deciding to sit in the far back.

I see Peter hanging back, walking slowly behind us. Strategically, I begin to slow my pace; slipping behind MJ to sit beside Peter. If there is anything that will distract me from the killer clown, it's Peter. We enter the row and settled in. And Peter grabs my hand.

[themculibrary]

Flash Thompson Redemption Masterlist

A Soft Place to Land (ao3) - Ink_Vault betty/ned, flash/peter N/R, 98k

Summary: "With great power comes great responsibility." Yeah, right. More like, with great power comes stab wounds and bloody sheets and a hero complex that could take down even the strongest of men. And Peter, well, he isn't the strongest of men. Not to mention that Peter's hero complex doesn't exactly extend to himself.

May still doesn’t know that he’s Spiderman. Because of this, she also doesn’t know about his increased metabolism, hunger, strength, sensitivity, everything. He didn’t really notice, for the first few weeks, until he hears May on the phone with one of her work friends discussing how she didn’t realize how much teenage boys eat. Peter immediately stopped eating.

Flash knows something is up. He knows the signs, or at least he thinks he does. And he's going to get to the bottom of things, one way or another.

Bad Reactions (ao3) - orphan_account M, 5k

Summary: Flash finds Peter mid-panic attack, and for once, isn't an idiot about it.

don't you forget about me (ao3) - OnlyForward G, 8k

Summary: peter parker, ned leeds, michelle “mj" jones, cindy moon & flash thompson are all in school for saturday detention. as secrets get spilled, they get to know each other a lot better over the course of the nine hour day.

aka the breakfast club but midtown high edition

end of beginning (ao3) - webss312 mentioned peter/mj, pepper/tony G, 126k

Summary: Eight months ago, Spider-Man was killed in an explosion orchestrated by HYDRA, leaving behind his mourning friends and family.

Eight months ago, Peter Parker opened his eyes in an underground bunker, in a room with Director Fury.

The only one who knows of Peter’s continued presence in the land of the living is Fury himself, and he offers Peter a proposal— becoming an undercover SHIELD agent.

Fury's motivation: a HYDRA computer disk containing critical information– and Peter (enhanced, anonymous, and seemingly deceased) is the perfect undercover agent.

Peter’s motivation: protect his friends and family, and continue his duties as Spider-Man, in order to take down one of the most infamous supervillain organizations in the world. No biggie.

Everywhere you go (there’s someone after you) (ao3) - Spider_enthusiast pepper/tony T, 22k

Summary: And just like that Peter’s entire world collapsed. With all his luck, all of the gods, and all of the odds, he got placed with the one person he didn’t want. He turned to Ned and they shared a devastating look.

“Well, what are you all waiting for? Get to work!” Mr Harrison said, spinning his chair back to his desk.

Ned and Peter stood up, both grabbing their things. “We jinxed ourselves.” Ned mumbled.

Peter sighed, “I know.”

Or; Peter is placed in a science project group with Ned and FLASH, just his luck. Now he had to figure out how to get through this project while dealing with Flash’s sudden extra-passive-agressive-ness. What the hell was his problem??

Little did he know Flash wasn’t too excited about this either, especially not while finding files on Peter Parker in his own house. Why the hell did his dad have files about Peter and Spiders at OsCorp? And what the hell was an “enhanced one”??

Flash Thompson, First Aid Extraordinaire (ao3) - angels_creative, Brentinator T, 9k

Summary: Just barely managing to stumble through, Peter had all but a second before his knees buckled and he fell face-first into the rug beneath him. Breathing heavily, he could feel someone placing a hand on his shoulder, someone turning him over, but his eyes had already started to shut and he couldn't figure out who it was.

"Parker?" he heard, before he lost consciousness. "What the f—?"

(Or, Peter tries to get help after being injured on patrol, and accidentally reveals his identity in the process.)

Fosters, Brothers, Friends (ao3) - JAWorley G, 34k

Summary: Flash's parents die and he doesn't have any other family to go to, so he goes into the system. He's upset about his family, but also can't believe his luck when the social worker tells him he's going to be fostered by none other than Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. But then he gets up to the penthouse and is confused as hell to find Peter Parker there.

OR

Flash can’t figure out what Parker’s deal is. He doesn’t understand why Peter has a bedroom in Tony Stark’s house, or why he is there every weekend, or why he gets to spend time in Tony’s lab, but Flash doesn’t. Flash isn’t a bad guy, even if he is sometimes a jerk. He learns that perfection doesn’t equal love, but sometimes imperfection is what makes a family whole. This is an Iron Dad fic through and through, but in an outsider POV format as Flash is discovering what's going on.

how to return home (ao3) - JBSForever T, 10k

Summary: Flash Thompson is a good person, but not a great one, so when Peter Parker accidentally gets drunk at his house party, all he can do is say, “Shit.”

- - -

Or: the one where Flash is just trying to be a decent person and get a drunk Peter home. Peter, on the other hand, has different plans.

Letters I Can Never Send (ao3) - Misscar past peter/mj T, 55k

Summary: Set post NWH.

For the first time in Peter’s life, he is alone. No friends, no May, no other Avengers, and no one that remembers who he is. All he has left is Spider-Man. So he starts over. If he keeps writing letters to May, nobody needs to know. There’s no one for him to tell anyway.

How Peter Parker rebuilds his life one month at a time.

Show Me a Piece of Your Heart (ao3) - happybeans T, 15k

Summary: Peter considers the pros and cons of telling Mr. Stark something important about his past. Meanwhile, he's busy with an investigation as Spider-Man and a Robotics project for which he's been paired up with Flash Thompson, of all people! How's he going to survive this one?

Smiling to the Mirror (ao3) - ambivalentangst G, 5k

Summary: Tony Stark meets Flash Thompson at a formal event neither of them wants to be at. He's not exactly expecting to see himself in the kid dressed to the nines and doing calculus at a back table, but life is full of surprises that way.

He's also not expecting the two of them to have a mutual friend, of sorts, but he's good at rolling with the punches—or knives, as it were.

//

Or, Tony Stark and Flash Thompson meet without knowing what they have in common, and this leads to some interesting situations.

Under the Surface (ao3) - Dwoality G, 10k

Summary: Flash overworks himself to sickness but luckily Peter, the angel that he is, is there to take care of him.

Walls (ao3) - faerialchemist T, 7k

Summary: “Miss Jones-Watson, you’re partnered with Mr. Thompson.”

Flash’s eyes found hers from across the classroom, and MJ gave him a curt nod to acknowledge their pairing. When his upper lip curled in distaste, she fought the urge to roll her eyes.

MJ was not looking forward to this.

We Can't Have Faith For Everybody (ao3) - Hale13 peter/mj T, 38k

Summary: It starts like this:

MJ and Flash, hands cuffed to each other and Peter, wrists and ankles held to the wall by thick metal cuffs and dangling in a way that’s surely to leave his shoulders aching.

The first week Peter, verbally, gives as good as he gets. He never lashes out physically and always does what their captors want the first time they ask. He still spends most of his time that he is in the cell chained uncomfortably to the wall. After the first week someone, apparently, decides that Peter is weak enough from the constant abuse and malnourishment that he is no longer chained up after his sessions; just dropped unceremoniously onto the dirty floor and left for MJ and Flash to care for.

Or:

Peter, Michelle and Flash get kidnapped to get information on Tony Stark.

You Will Be Found (ao3) - faerialchemist T, 13k

Summary: Peter snickered, shaking his head as he tucked his phone into his backpack before Ms. Ricci could catch him with it out in class.

Seriously, though, who would’ve thought?

Maybe “nice” was a word to describe Flash after all.

Or: 5 times Flash made an effort to be better, and 1 time he realized kindness begets kindness. After all, there’s plenty of love in the world for those searching with open arms.

(A Flash Thompson-centric 5+1 set between the events of There’s a Fine, Fine Line and If I’m What You Choose.)

[greenlantern94to04]

Green Lantern #51 (May 1994)

At last, after months of hype, we've finally reached the official debut of DC's sensational character find of 1994: Ohm! You know, Ohm? The guy who fights (and almost beats) Kyle Rayner in this issue?

Oh yeah, and as of this issue, Kyle Rayner is officially named "Kyle Rayner" and not "the rando who got Hal Jordan's ring."

But, before getting his ass kicked by Ohm, the first thing Kyle does with the ring he got in Green Lantern #50 is visit his ex-girlfriend, Alex, who at first assumes this is some practical joke. I guess she's used to Kyle showing up at her door in the middle of the night wearing tight-fitting costumes? Kyle insists that this is real and explains that he got the power ring from a blue little person in a red dress who materialized in an alley, only he doesn't say "little person."

Apparently, Kyle is a bit immature and irresponsible (hence the "ex-" in "ex-girlfriend"), and his job as a freelance artist doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but he thinks the ring represents a chance to get his shit together and make something of himself. He tells Alex he could become a big shot superhero in New York (they're currently in a small town called "Los Angeles," by the way) while she, a photojournalist, could take photos of him and sell them to the newspapers for big bucks. The ol' Peter Parker gamble.

Alex is eventually persuaded by the idea, though I get the impression she's just humoring him because she wants to go back sleep (without him; he's on the couch). The next morning, Alex wakes Kyle up because some nutjob stole one of those experimental armors S.T.A.R. Labs likes to leave laying around and is trying to use it to siphon all the electrical power in LA. Alex tells Kyle to stay in the car while she takes photos and he assures her he won't do anything stupid like, say, try to fight a supervillain with a power ring he's only used to change his clothes and levitate slightly. We already know how that went. Guess we can add "impulsive" to "immature and irresponsible."

That takes us back to the start of the comic, with the ALL-NEW Green Lantern getting pummeled by the mighty Ohm -- that is, until Alex reminds Kyle that he can create stuff with the ring, like a shield to protect himself from Ohm's attacks or a big... stick thing to knock him down. Thirty years later, I still have no idea what this is:

So, Kyle successfully avoids being murdered on his first mission and saves the day as the crowd cheers for "Green Lantern," with only one guy commenting that his hair looks different now. Perhaps inspired by that, Alex later tells Kyle he should put that Graphic Design degree to use and make himself a new costume that will give him his own identity, resulting in the iconic new look that we'd already seen in the cover, and in the ads for this issue, and at the end of GLCQ #8.

(Note that they're at the beach, which means it's possible Kyle couldn't think of anything for the new mask, looked down, saw a crab in the sand, and said "I've got it!")

Meanwhile, at a maximum security supervillain prison known as "the Slab," some poor guards try and fail to contain the breakout of one of the inmates, who turns out to be... our pal Mongul! As in, the one who broke Hal Jordan's arm (GL #46) and helped break his brain by destroying Coast City. And he wants a rematch with "Green Lantern."

Whelp, hope he's better at remembering hair color than the average LA pedestrian...

Plotline-Watch:

According to the DC wiki, this is Ohm's one and only appearance, which I find really surprising. I'm shocked (pun intended) that he survived that period in the mid-'00s when Geoff Johns and James Robinson were going around murdering obscure DC characters for shock (pun intended again) value.

On the other hand, New Jersey's very own Slabside Penitentiary, which also debuted in this issue, went on to become a recurrent location in various DC stories, most notably the Joker: Last Laugh crossover and the Arrow TV show.

Speaking of the Slab, there are a few villain cameos in that scene: a devil guy I don't recognize (is that Nightcrawler's dad?), Shrapnel from Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad comics, and Captain Atom nemesis Major Force. As a fan of the Captain Atom run where MF was introduced, I was thrilled to see him here and wished DC put him to use more often. (Somewhere, a monkey's paw curled.)

I will echo Neil's comment on the post for GL #48 that the timeline for Kyle and Alex's breakup doesn't make sense. In this issue, Alex says they broke up "last week" and doesn't even wanna let him in, yet they seemed pretty chummy in #48, which seemed to take place only a few hours ago. The only way I can make sense of it is that it took longer than implied for Ganthet to crawl out of that pile of bodies and travel to Earth. Future issues do reveal that he made some other stops before settling for Kyle, so it's possible he spent several days offering the ring to random people in alleys before someone finally said yes.

I like that not only does the crowd mistake Kyle for Hal, but Kyle himself doesn't even remember the Green Lanterns were a thing until Alex reminds him, and he was already wearing the costume. This acknowledges Green Lantern's status for casual comics fans as a guy you kinda sorta know but don't really care enough to fully remember. That was definitely the case for me, until this run changed it.

No Guy-Watch this time... because he's getting his very own post! Coming soon.