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ussgallifrey · 2 months

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(She Moves With) Shameless Wonder | 31

✦ Summary: Your badge clearly said SHIELD consultant, so you weren’t entirely sure where Fury was getting this whole make you an Avenger idea from. But you had a feeling it might have something to do with the recent discovery of an artifact at the bottom of the Arctic Sea.

✦ Pairing: Steve Rogers x Female Reader

✦ Warnings: Alcoholism, canon divergence, dialogue taken directly from Captain America: Civil War and the Marvel Civil War comic, drunk Tony Stark, language, mentions of dead bodies, political discourse, shady government dealings.

✦ Word Count: 8.2k

✦ Playlist: Here

✦ Cinematic Soundtrack: Here

✦ Author's Note: Whoop, sorry about the lapse in updates and activity. I'm in the full school-prepping swing over here right now and I've spent the last three weeks deep in curriculum and lesson planning for my kids. But with a little bit of inspiration I was able to finish this chapter tonight - it may or may not have been sitting in my drafts since early July...

[Master List]

There’s a certain strangeness that occurs when one finds themselves in the shell of a once lively location. A place that previously held signs of exuberant life - joyous laughter ringing through warm halls, the wafting aromas of food laid out on a table, the busyness that occurs when people are constantly on the move.

You know that sensation; that eerie skeleton.

You’ve found it many times before. In the ruins of the Parthenon after the Germans invaded and raised their flag aloft. In the silence of Apollo’s temple, when you stood under the painted dome, staring up at a golden sun without so much as a wisp of familiarity to remind you of his existence.

That same feeling of abandoned life exists today as you walk the silent halls of the Compound. It permeates the walls and corridors. Sinking into the void of weeping guilt.

A tomb would be louder.

The far-reaching depths of space would make more sound.

Maybe that’s why it’s so unbelievably jarring when you enter Tony’s lab and are bombarded by the glass-shaking noise of heavy eighties rock music.

Without even asking, FRIDAY drops the volume down to a far lower level than what the lone inhabitant would like. He peers up over the edge of the workbench, his peace disturbed, as his red-rimmed and wild eyes meet your gaze.

“Fuuck offh!” Tony slurs inelegantly, pointing a bottle of alcohol in your direction before he sinks back to the floor from which he had emerged.

As the door swooshes softly behind you, you glance around at the state of affairs.

This was the billionaire’s secondary lab, his fuck around and find out lair. The main building held his most important and expensive instruments. This one was more similar to a forty-year-old man’s garage; the one that got tinkered around in for a few hours every weekend.

Average well-loved namebrand tools lay scattered around, while one particular mallet hammer seemed to have suffered a near-catastrophic blow somewhere around a smashed exhaust pipe.

As you meander through the destruction, you find yourself sidestepping glass shards and bits of shattered metal. The wall, opposite of the billionaire, has clearly suffered the brunt of his anger. There are an array of singe marks and concaved sections where something was obviously repeatedly thrown at it.

You find the bludgeoned torch a few feet away from Tony’s feet.

This hadn’t exactly been your idea of a somber morning. You didn’t want to come here.

But you had received a warning from FRIDAY, who had gone ahead and tried to contact both Pepper and Rhodes. But Pepper was trying to stay ahead of the media frenzy and Rhodes was tied up with far more important matters. Neither of them would be able to reach the Compound until at least early evening. And things were too dire to leave this unattended.

So, as Tony was refusing to see Steve and Natasha had been barred entrance as well, it was up to you to deal with the incredibly inebriated billionaire.

He tilts his head back at a severe angle, nearly slipping past the lip of the workbench - which would immediately send him toppling to the floor - as he blearily blinks at your presence.

“Thought I told you to fuck off.”

The unpleasant reek of bile and whiskey seems to glide from his lips to your nose as you peer down at the man.

“I’m not the best at taking direction from others.”

He gives a surprisingly thoughtful nod as he blindly spreads his hand against the concrete floor in an attempt - you assume - to find another bottle.

With a cursory glance at the far wall, you find a rather inconspicuous cupboard-style toolbox that’s been opened. Inside sits four shelves with varying amounts and brands of alcoholic beverages while the empty slots seem to be scattered around Tony’s feet.

Crossing your arms, you raise a tired brow.

“I’ve seen you in many states, Anthony. I think this one might just take the cake.”

He scoffs, scrambling to his feet. He has to grip the table behind him to keep steady as his legs seem to be made of some kind of gelatinous mixture as they wobble troublingly beneath him.

“Save me the pep talk, Double O. I could really give less of a shit.”

Popping the cap off on the edge of the workbench, he slurps back a violent swig of whiskey. A wet sound audibly pops as he pulls the lip of the bottle from his mouth and a dribble of amber liquid pools in the corner of his lips.

“Charming.”

Tony lounges against the table, resting on his heels as he holds his arms out as if to say it is what it is, a sort of wild look in his eyes. From here, you can see the smudges of grease and ash that coat his cheeks and bare arms. Something worryingly yellow sticks to the distinguished tufts of his unkempt hair.

“That’s me, Mister… Ch-arming.”

As he hiccups and belchs around his own words, you cross the lab and easily snatch the bottle from his hand.

“Okay, that’s enough.”

“Fuck,” he groans, eyelids heavy as he blinks up at you. “You’re acting like Saint Rogers now.”

As you settle the billionaire with a look, he lazily salutes you, a drunken smirk befalling his spit-slick lips.

“God damn, Rogers. Captain Idiot, fucking… running into shit. Can’t stop running into shit. Do you think it’s genetic?” he staggers out in front of you, his body seemingly more like a ragdoll than normal as his arms sway on their own accord.

“I don’t know,” you respond cooly.

Tony huffs a breathy laugh as he sways, tripping over his own feet before colliding into the opposing wall. He slams a hand against it, looking up as if surprised to find himself face-to-face with the concrete.

“Romanoff’s no better. Dragging kids into shit they shouldn’t be shitting with,” he laughs, but it’s a bitter tone. “Then you got Rumlow martyring himself like… like… who’s a good martyr?”

You tilt your head to the right, eyes squinted slightly as you try to ascertain his state, “Agnes of Rome?”

He hums, considering it for all of a second before he blows a particularly wet raspberry, “Naaah. We’re talking like… Guevara or something.”

As your brow raises in deep questioning, Tony staggers past you, collapsing half-bent over one of the metal workbenches.

“Should tell him that,” he spits.

Moving closer, you ask, “Rumlow?”

“Ross! When that fucker - ” he spins around, grinning wide though his eyes are hardly amused, “- comes here tomorrow and tries to tie us up and drag us out into the mob that’ll be waiting at the gates.”

“There’s no one at the gates, Tony.”

He balks, “A fucking miracle then! Cause there will be,” he nods, vigorously. “They’ll be coming and they’re gonna do worse than rip my suit away.”

Stark clutches painfully at the arc reactor as he backs away. Holding it just as preciously as Gollum did with the one ring.

“You’ll see, they’re gonna, they’re gonna drag our little Sokovian mutants out by the hair and string them up and Steve will do something noble and stupid and end up on the news and a fucking sniper will take him out. That’s what’s gonna happen, you got it?”

He trips over an empty bottle and you finally swoop down to catch him.

It takes a bit of adjusting, but you manage to convince him to drape his right arm over your shoulders as you grip him around the waist to hold him up. His head hangs heavily into his sternum as you heft the scientist out of his lab.

“I think you’re wrong, Tony,” you admit as you wait for the elevator to chime its arrival.

He blows out a huff of air as his head falls back against his shoulders, his dark eyes barely able to focus on your face as he lashes back, “You don’t know American politics, do you, oh dear Goddess?”

You did, in fact. You knew them quite well.

But for the sake of keeping him from stumbling out of your arms and knocking his head into a wall, you remain silent.

As you deposit him into an elevated chair in his room, a trash can near his side with a glass of water within reach, he blinks owlishly up at you.

“We’re fucked. You get that right? This… whole thing… it’s screwed whatever chances we had at negotiating.”

He’s oddly sober in his words.

Offering him the hint of a smile, you lean down and smooth a hand over his stubbled cheek, forcing him to meet your eyes.

“Whatever happens, we’re going to figure it out together. Sober, preferably.”

Tony guffaws into a fit of chuckles as you back away. When you’re at the threshold of the door, you remind him that Rhodes will be by later and FRIDAY will be informing you if he tries to nab another bottle.

Tony gives you a half-hearted, “Yes, ma’am,” before you finally take your leave.

Steve hovers in the doorway, staring down at the blank-eyed girl on the bed.

At least her door was still unlocked. No one had been able to get through to Pietro’s yet, even Vision was oddly repulsed whenever he tried to enter the space. According to FRIDAY, the teen was still in his room and remained in decent health, unharmed. For now, that had to be enough.

You had sat outside his door for the better part of the night and well into the morning. Steve had remained beside you for a portion of it, across from you for the rest.

When you had gotten the urgent call from FRIDAY, Steve had finally forced himself to stand up. Fighting the twinge of pain in his back from hours spent on a hard floor. When he scrounged up a cup of coffee for himself, he returned to the hall and found Pietro’s door still shut tight. Wanda’s, however…

Tear tracks brighten her cheeks as she hastily looks up, catching Steve’s eye, before she wipes her nose with the fabric of her long dark shirt.

“Hey,” he sighs as he forces his feet over the threshold, breaking that imaginary barrier at last.

She hums in return, her eyes wandering over to the TV.

“What authority does an enhanced undocumented immigrant have to operate in the United States, I ask you today, Hannah? That’s what the people of Manhattan want to know. Where do the Avengers get off inviting known criminals into - ”

Steve kills the segment before the political correspondent can finish his tirade.

The girl turns to look at him, eyes tear-rimmed, “It’s my fault, you know.”

“That’s not true,” he immediately rebuffs, moving across the room to sit beside her on the edge of the bed.

She huffs, “Turn the TV back on. They’re being very specific.”

“I should have clocked that bomb vest long before you had to deal with it,” the soldier defends.

Let him take that from her, let him bear the weight of terrible decisions. He can take it.

Wanda glances away, staring at the blank screen.

“It’s my fault,” he states, taking it back from her once again. “Rumlow said Bucky and… suddenly I was a sixteen-year-old kid again, in Brooklyn. And… people died. It’s on me.”

She shakes her head softly, staring down at her dark-painted nails.

“It’s on all four of us.”

Swallowing the words back down, Steve clears his throat.

“This job… we try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes, that doesn’t mean everyone. That’s part of the reason we’ve kept the two of you from coming along. It’s the reason I should have sent you away yesterday.”

Staring up at him, as if searching his eyes for some hidden message, the teen says, “She’s right. You do do that a lot.”

When he makes a questioning tone in his throat, she looks away.

“Taking the brunt of everyone’s failures. Don’t take mine from me today, Steve.”

With a sigh, he leans forward, balancing a hand on his knee.

“Look… if we can’t find a way to live with ourselves after something like this… maybe next time? No one gets saved. We have to find a way to carry on and right now, your brother needs us probably more than ever.”

With a broken laugh, she wipes at her eyes, “I can try to break down his door if you want?”

The phantom sensation of a smile graces his lips as he shakes his head, “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

Steve later finds you in the communal kitchenette around the corner from Wanda’s room. It’s about the width of an alleyway, with bright floors and dark counters. There’s enough room for a row of cabinets and a fridge on one wall and a small coffee bar and table setup on the other.

You’ve got your hands lodged in your hair as you stare up at the wall-mounted TV. An unsipped cup of tea sits in front of you on the table. Your gaze is unblinking as you watch the continuous news feed.

“Senator William Sharpe was considered a pillar in the Democratic Party, Andrew. Just three days ago, he publicly blasted his fellow senators in an interview with reporters saying: to protect the principals for which America stands, we must allow the Avengers to act unimpeded by the government. To do otherwise, would put us all at a great disservice.”

“At this time, both Mayor Marino and Governor Lennox have asked for the flags to be flown at half-staff while responders are still on the scene, aiding in the recovery of bodies. We’ll be going to our man in the field, Nick Rubio in just a minute to see how the cleanup process is going down on Wall Street. And shortly after, we’ll tune in to the White House as President Ellis is set to address the nation.”

As the segment moves to a commercial break, you finally blink away from the TV and lock eyes with him - as if truly seeing the soldier for the first time.

Wordlessly, Steve pulls out the chair beside you. Taking a seat, he leans forward and gathers your left hand into his combined palms. Tilting his head down, he kisses the smooth skin of your thumb as he desperately tries to blink back a surprising surge of unshed tears.

“Oh,” you sigh, using your free hand to card your fingers through the turbulent locks of his blonde hair. “Don’t start on me again, Steve.”

He snorts, warm breath puffing against your hand as his stormy eyes meet your broken expression.

“Sorry, sweetheart. Just one of those kinds of days.”

“Yeah,” you nod, tilting your head forward - gently knocking your temple into his forehead as you both breathe in the mingling air of discomfort that permeates the space around you. “We’re really racking those up, aren’t we?”

He chuckles low in his throat, shaking his head as your fingers pull free from his scalp.

“It’d be really bad of me to offer a free trip to a God Realm right now, wouldn’t it?” your smile is crooked, but your eyes are deeply somber.

“Any other day,” he sighs, squeezing your captured hand, “I might have taken you up on that offer.”

“No, you wouldn’t have,” you snort, ducking your head down.

“Tell me about them?”

Your face slowly peeks up from the hood of your hair, a curious lift to your eyebrows.

“What? The god realms?”

“Anything,” he admits. “So long as it gets you to stop watching that all day.”

As your gaze briefly moves toward the TV, you reach for the remote and gratefully mute the volume.

“Okay, any place in particular?”

Steve can feel the nudge of your foot as you lean back in your seat, facing him as you lounge out - your hand never leaving his.

“Where did you say your pal Thoth lived again?”

A true smile begins to break across your face and Steve can actually feel the unsettled feeling in his chest lift away for the first time in twenty-four hours.

“The Celestial Helipolis,” you enunciate with a slight gnash of your teeth.

As you proceed to describe the alien-like location, Steve finds himself leaning further onto his elbow - keeping your left and right hands intertwined on the table, blinking slowly, and his smile creeping higher.

It takes two days for Tony to properly sober up. And at the end of those two days, he does something incredibly stupid.

Worst of all, it’s captured on live TV.

With a hand latched over your face, your fingers spread just enough so you can watch the news feed, you stare in horror as the news anchor repeats the footage for a fifth time - with the audio now on for any listeners just tuning in.

“Ma’am, please. We’re going to have to ask you to leave,” says the burly SHIELD agent flanking Tony.

The woman, Miriam Sharpe - the widow of Senator Sharpe and the mother of Adam, one of the children who burned to death in the International School just a few yards away from his father - stares up indignantly.

The cameraman zooms in on the grieving woman’s face as tears spring from her eyes. Leave it to the Bugle to get something so painstakingly personal on file.

“Leave what? My own family’s funeral? Stark’s the one you should be dragging away!”

Tony, ever the foot-in-mouth artist, presses forward, “Ma’am, I understand that you’re upset - that you’re grieving an unbelievable loss. But the Maximoff’s recklessness had nothing to do with me.”

She turns on him, voice chillingly cold as the cameraman moves in even closer to capture the crystal clear audio.

“Oh, yeah? And who finances the Avengers, Mr. Stark? Who’s been telling kids for the past decade that they can live outside the law so long as they wear a fancy suit of armor or colorful tights?”

As you finally turn away from the video - it cuts back to two anchors who continue to play it in the upper right-hand corner of the screen - you find your gaze sitting on the shrunken billionaire at the end of the table.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Natasha demands.

He splutters, “Fuck, I don’t know, Romanoff. I thought comforting a grieving woman and offering her a large sum of sorry we destroyed your family money from the Stark Foundation might help soften the blow of you idiots sweetly and decadently fucking up!”

From across the table, you watch as Steve’s knuckles flex so tightly that the skin becomes worryingly white.

“I don’t know, Stark,” she bites back. “A letter, or a private call - not fucking wandering your still drunk ass to a double funeral.”

“It was quiet,” he sighs, “until the cameras showed up. Like she got her second wind or something.”

“At her husband and child’s funeral, imagine that,” Clint remarks with a shocking sharpness.

Holding his hands up in exasperation, he exclaims, “I fucked up! Alright? That’s what you want to hear? I biffed it, royally. I made an ass of myself and came out looking like a monster.”

“And you successfully ruined whatever positive image we once had,” you add, voice light as your glare seers across the table to meet Tony’s eyes.

“It’s worse than that.”

All eyes turn to see Rhodes as he moves into the room, dressed in his regulation navy service dress clothes. Beside him, co-Director Hill stands.

Tony grumbles something that sounds like fucking wonderful under his breath.

“What do you mean?” Natasha asks, arms crossed as she faces down the two.

“Well, thanks to Wall Street and with a little help from Tony making a general ass of himself in front of a grieving widow and mother - ” Tony rolls his eyes, “ - you’ve got the UN in an emergency special session.”

“What?” Steve calls, turning in his seat.

“Yeah, surprisingly, they take offense when their children are killed and their general consulates are destroyed,” Hill barks, with her arms folded and her stare capable of killing.

“What does that mean exactly?” Clint questions, glancing between them, Steve, Tony, and you.

“That you’ve managed to piss off just about every government official you can think of. Surprised Ross isn’t here to drag you to prison as we speak.”

Tony glances at you, his eyes seeming to say see, what did I tell you?

On the TV, the anchor cuts off a seventh viewing of the funeral scene, with breaking news.

“We go live to the floor of the UN General Assembly where the Sokovian representative, Andrej Bezák has asked for the Secretary-General to convene this eleventh emergency special session.”

“Fuck,” Clint groans, hands balled up on the back of his head as he leans back in his chair.

It’s two hours of sitting, glued to your seats, as you watch the news switch between the debate in the UN and the anchors. At one point, they break away to announce another breaking story.

“Congressman DeRusso has asked the Senate Majority Leader to proceed through with the vote this evening. The Senators will be voting on the passage of the SRA, which has been a hotly contested piece of legislation in the past week. But with the events of New York that have left the nation reeling, one has to wonder how our representatives will come together. Is this the issue that will unite a nation?”

“We’ll be live tonight, on the Senate floor, livestreaming the vote as it takes place. So, make sure to tune in at nine to catch this moment-defining vote.”

As the news switches back to coverage of the UN, Steve begins to shake his head.

The majority of the time had been spent in near-silence. Too stunned, too ashamed to contest the facts and videos that were being thrown back in your faces.

As one analyst comes on, covering up the audio from the special session, you watch as Steve’s fist tightens once again.

“A ban on superheroes? Well, Adam, in a world with an insurmountable number of violent criminals and alien forces yet to be known, that’s obviously impossible. But, properly training them and making them carry badges? Then yeah, I’d say that sounds like a reasonable response.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Rhodes announces.

The colonel had taken watch behind Tony’s chair - his hands tightening on the back of the seat every so often.

Steve glances over at the man, brow raised and voice tight, “If we hand over control to the government, then we’re losing our ability to work as any kind of protective force.”

Rhodes turns on the supersoldier.

“117 countries, Steve. That’s how many representatives you have sitting in the room right now. How often do you get the UN to come together over international security? Yeah, so you know this shit is serious. We’re at that point now; the line’s been crossed. We need someone to keep us in check.”

From beside you, Sam shakes his head - looking up at the colonel.

“I can’t believe I’m seriously hearing this right now. You just want us to roll over and let the government turn us into some kind of supercops?”

“Are you kidding?” Rhodes questions, “We’re lucky people have tolerated this for as long as they have, Sam.”

Steve’s eyes meet yours, a troubling darkness rests in his usually cool irises.

“Man, how long are you going to play both sides?”

Before Rhodes can respond, Vision interrupts from the couch on which he’s been sitting for the entire session.

“I have an equation.”

“Oh, this should clear it up,” Sam mumbles.

Vision blinks at him once before continuing his line of thought.

“In the eight years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. And, during the same period, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate.”

“Are you saying this is our fault?” Steve questions.

“I’m saying there may be a causality. The team’s very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict… breeds catastrophe. Oversight. Oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand.”

You glance back at the supersoldier. He looks away.

Natasha clears her throat, “Tony… you’re being uncharacteristically non-hyperverbal.”

“Boy, you know me so well,” he grunts, shifting up from his seat. “Fact is… we need to do it - sign on to the Act. We need to regain control before there’s a witch hunt at our door and we’re dragged through the streets - tearing your bow from your hands, Barton, and Cap's shield, and my suit from my body.”

Shaking his head, he leans back against the kitchen island, “I’ve been there before. It ain’t happening again.”

Maria nods from the head of the table, “There’s really no decision-making process right now. If you sign on, you remain in control of yourselves. If you don’t… the consequences will be unthinkable. Especially, if the UN adds on and makes their own resolution. You have enough to worry about if the SRA goes into effect.”

Tony nods, pointing at Hill, “Yeah, basically if we don’t accept limitations, if we remain boundary-less, we’re no better than the bad guys.”

The man across from you raps his knuckles on the table two times before he finally speaks up.

“Tony, if someone dies on your watch you don’t give up.”

“Who said we’re giving up?”

“We are if we’re not taking responsibility for our actions. The SRA is just going to shift the blame.”

Rhodes looks wide-eyed as he stares down at the supersoldier.

“I’m sorry, Steve. But that is dangerously arrogant. This is the United Nations we’re talking about. It’s not the World Security Council, it’s not SHIELD, it’s not HYDRA - ”

“No,” he cuts off the colonel, voice rising. “But it’s run by people with agendas, and agendas change.”

“That’s good,” Tony announces as he rounds on the table. “That’s why I’m here. When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands, I shut it down and stopped manufacturing.”

You can see the physical tension building up on Steve’s brow as he rubs his hand across his temple. He’s trying to keep his anger in check, but it’s growing. Soon, it will bubble over. You try to meet his eyes, but his attention is entirely fixed on the billionaire now.

“Tony, you chose to do that. If we agree to this, we surrender our right to choose. Wanda can’t just hang up her powers like you can your suit. We’re stuck the way we are. I can’t surrender the serum any more than you can the reactor. And as long as I have it, I’m going to use it for what I was meant to do.”

Clint sniffs from the end of the table, pulling the attention away from the two men.

“I mean, just spitballing here, but… what if these guys try to send us somewhere we shouldn’t go? Or, other hand, what if there’s somewhere we should go and suddenly they don’t let us?”

“Terms can always be negotiated,” Maria attempts to amend.

Steve sits upright in his seat, voice steady as he says, “We may not be perfect, but I still believe that the safest hands are our own.”

Tony sighs, severity in his tone “If we don’t do this now, it’s going to be done to us later. That’s a fact. It won’t be pretty.”

“You’re saying they’ll come for me.”

Whipping around in your seat, your eyes land on Wanda. How long she had been standing in the doorway, you’re unsure. But your heart aches as she glides into the room, rigid in her posture - as if already trying to shield herself from the team.

“We would protect you,” Vision answers, floating through the couch before landing in front of her.

“They have a point.”

As your gaze shifts from the teen, your eyes move toward Natasha. The Widow looks apprehensive as she shakes her head - refusing to meet Clint’s questioning stare.

“If we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off - ”

“Aren’t you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?” Sam questions, voice incredulous.

“I’m just… reading the terrain,” her gaze fixes on yours for a moment before shifting over to Steve. “We have made some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back.”

“Focus up,” Tony interrupts, leaning his hands on the table as he stares down at the redhead. “I’m sorry, did I just go temporarily deaf or did you actually agree with me?”

“Oh, I want to take it back now.”

“No, no you can’t retract it.”

Too lost in the conversation now taking place at the end of the table, you miss the moment when it all bubbles to the surface. Steve’s chair screeches against the floor as he stands up.

“You’re really considering this?” he questions, looking between Tony and Natasha.

“Considerng? No, Cap. You’re mishearing me. The consideration period is gone. This is happening.”

“Tony - ”

“Steve,” Hill sighs, pushing up from her own chair. “It’s going to pass through. The question now is, what side are you going to be standing on when it does?”

The bristles of his anger surge down his tense shoulders into the quiver of his fists. He meets your eye before landing on anyone else in the room.

You find yourself tilting your head slightly as you stare up at the supersoldier. Surely, he understood the cards that were being stacked against the team. Surely, he must know the best path forward if anyone here wished to operate in any official capacity ever again as designated superheroes. Surely…

Steve huffs a breathless sound before he stalks out of the room.

Surprisingly, it’s you that everyone seems to turn toward in the silent aftermath.

“You, uh, going after your pal there or…?” Clint questions, pointing a finger between yourself and the doorway through which Steve had just left.

Rooted to the spot, the news playing in the corner - they had just uncovered five more bodies from one of the restrooms at the school, Wanda sitting silently on the couch beside Vision, Natasha’s gaze flitting between Rhodes and Hill and -

You shake your head, gaze also locking on Tony.

Sam snorts, “Unbelievable,” before he too is up and out of his chair, striding out of the room after the supersoldier.

Feeling the daze of indecision wiping itself clean from your mind, you shakily stand up, pushing away from the table, as you turn toward the hall leading down to your room.

“So, we just calling it quits now, or…?” Tony calls out from behind you.

But you just ignore his questioning tone as you head for the stairs. Maybe now was the time to snap Pietro out of his solemn mood.

“I thought I told you to dress the part.”

Steve cranes his head back slightly as the woman in question brushes up against him. Shaking his head, his sunglasses dipped down on the slope of his nose as he browses the opposite shelf, he retorts:

“This is how I dress.”

“Exactly,” Sharon sighs, moving a few feet down the carpeted aisle.

The meet-up had been his request. The location was entirely her idea. Some off-the-beaten-path bookshop in Washington Heights, where the shelves were overstuffed and haphazardous piles of literature reached up to the ceiling. The floor was a strange lime green, the fabric slightly sticky against the soles of his shoes whenever he walked.

He’s in the self-help section; a little too on the nose for even him to even pretend to look at right now.

“You worked with spies for how many years and still you can’t get a decent incognito look down to save your life. Pathetic, Rogers.”

“Hey,” he growls, spinning on his toe to capture her arms in his hands.

Her brow lifts in return as she shrugs out of his hold. Moving to stand next to him, glancing down at the shelf with healthy living titles, Sharon lets the silence permeate just a few moments too long.

Steve shoves his hands in his jacket pockets, not-so-casually glancing around at the rest of the shop.

They’re relatively hidden back here in the corner. His hearing tells him that the young cashier up front is on her phone, volume high enough for him to make out the make-up routine video she’s currently watching. No, back here they’re not going to be disturbed and he didn’t spy any cameras on the way down this aisle, so why the hell is Carter still acting the part?

“You make a move on your girl yet?”

He splutters.

It shouldn’t… he shouldn’t…

Okay, admittedly, he’s a little broken about this morning. You had just sat there during the entire thing, not saying a single word. His mind had been fucking reeling at the time and there you were just… blank, disengaged. And when he had heard someone heading down the hall, he had been expecting it to be you - about to tell him how you told Hill and Tony off in his stead.

But it was Sam currently scoping out the bookshop from across the street. Not you.

Steve clears his throat, “How’s the new job?”

He can almost hear the audible raise of her brow, but she hides it with a chuckle, “Work is fine. But I’m guessing that’s not why you wanted to talk to me.”

Rising to her feet, she draws him in with a crook of her finger.

“I don’t think you understand the extent of what you’re dealing with here, Rogers.”

Tilting his head to the side, he follows her further down the aisle until they’re jutted up in the corner of the poetry and biography section.

“I’ve got ears, you know. Feelers, if you will,” she begins, causally opening a book from the pile next to her left hip. Flipping unseeingly through the pages, Sharon continues, “The SRA isn’t just going to enact some kind of oversight committee for you guys and call it a day. It’s kind of in the name, yeah? They want to register you all to a database - anyone claiming the title superhero - ” she exaggerates this point by moving her fingers in pseudo quotation marks.

“Yeah, I got that much already,” he nods.

“Well,” she breathes out, tossing the book down onto the pile.

Steve straightens it out neatly, the way it had been resting before they ever walked into the shop.

Sharon blinks.

“Well, after that point you would be assigned to work alongside the general government entities, like SHIELD. I mean, you got Hill in a temporary position of power but they’re looking to place someone into the proverbial Director’s seat.”

“And she’s not it?” he questions, glancing down at her warm eyes.

With a teasing smile, she shakes her head, “Not likable enough, apparently.”

Steve lets out a short chuckle. Yeah, he could definitely understand that.

“So… please tell me you’ve at least read through it. I know Ross was up your way a week ago or so.”

The supersoldier shrugs, “Most of it.”

She huffs a questioning tone, “Skimmed it then?”

“Basically.”

“I bet Stark read the whole thing.”

He nods, knowing it was very likely.

“Well, if you had bothered you might have come across a few interesting clauses, such as…” she tugs on the fabric of his shirt, moving him even impossibly closer toward her, “That little itty bitty clause about mandatory tracking devices. Or, if you happen to be a star-spangled man with a distrust of authority and choose to not follow their lovely guidelines, you could find yourself being arrested and imprisoned without the chance of a trial.”

Pulling back, he searches her gaze.

“That can’t be…”

“Legal? Oh, Rogers. I assure you, it very much is. And when that emergency motion passes in the UN, and it will pass, the US isn’t going to be the only country with such laws. Pretty much every country on earth has mutual extradition laws in place. If they find you, you’re gonna get hauled back here.”

Taking a step back, Steve begins to pace between the two shelves - not much room to do so, admittedly - but he has to move.

“Hill and Ross were going on about this plan and negotiating terms, but that was never their M.O. was it?”

“Fuck no it wasn’t,” she beams, leaning back against one of the bookshelves, her eyes following his frantic steps. “I’m not sure if you girl told you - ”

Steve pauses midstep, looking back at her.

“ - but Banner was never really enough for Ross. Not after Iron Man came on the scene and dazzled the citizens. That man would love to lock up every enhanced individual he could get his hands on. Think Nixon and the war on drugs campaign. Whoever he can get. Anywhere.”

The air in the bookshop becomes impossibly restrictive in the span of a second as Steve gapes, mind zooming in to one singular thought.

Bucky.

Running a hand down his face, the supersoldier’s shoulder sag as he leans his weight against the shelf opposite Sharon. She tilts her head to the side, trying to piece apart his inner turmoil for herself before he offers up his actual train of thought to her.

At least at the Compound, the team would be safe if they stuck together. But Bucky was out there, somewhere, on his own.

“Ever since D.C., I’ve been trying to track him down, you know. Two years, not a trace. At least when this goes through, I can just worry about everyone here. If I haven’t found him with all of Tony’s tech, then Ross sure as hell hasn’t either.”

At least that was a thought that could ease his current troubles. He would need to find an escape plan for Wanda and Pietro, maybe with your help. Because there was no way he was going to let someone like Ross get to the twins. They were foreigners with never-before-seen powers and they were underage. They were the perfect people for the Secretary to zoom in on.

“Steve.”

He glances up, catching the absolutely devastating look in her eyes as she pushes off from the bookshelf to move across to him.

“I’m so sorry.”

Scrutinizing her gaze, he questions, “What is it?”

“They… they found Barnes. Two months ago.”

There’s a tightening sensation around his chest that has Steve pulling away from Sharon, stumbling into the main alley of the store. His vision glazes over for just a second before a hand is clenching over his wrist - tugging him back to their hidden corner of the shop.

“Hey, snap out of it. I get it,” she sighs, squeezing both of his shoulders in her hands - trying to get him to come back to Earth. And god does it take a second, but that wide-eyed look in his eyes finally settles on her face. “You’ve been unsuccessful and they haven’t.”

“So… they know where he is. What now?”

Taking a step backward, her hands falling back to her side, she replies, “They are literally just waiting for the SRA to pass so they can detain him legally.”

“Jesus,” he snaps, volume too loud - he knows it - but he can’t stop it. It’s all too fucking much.

She tries to shush him, finger to her lips and everything, but he just runs his hand through his hair - tugging on the blonde strands to the point of pain.

“Why the hell are you even bothering to tell me any of this anyway? Huh?” he questions, pacing once again.

God, he couldn’t trust Hill or Rhodey or even Tony. God only knows who else was on board with this legislation.

“Well, Steve,” Sharon stretches the letters in his name out as she crosses her arms before leaning against one of the shelves. “Frankly I find Ross to be an asshole and after the shit that went down with SHIELD and Insight, I’m sort of over the idea of the government jumping in to pick off random people as they please.”

He can almost feel that choking sensation ease as he fixes her with a somber expression, “Sorry.”

She waves her hand in dismissal.

“I’m telling you this because I know you’ll do something about it,” she admits. “I don’t exactly know what their plan is for him, I’m just sort of assuming the worst-case scenarios right now. And… I think we can agree that the guy has been through enough.”

With a small nod, Steve stuffs his hands into the pockets of his jeans and asks, “Do you know where he - ”

“Rogers,” she sighs. “I wish I knew where he was. Hell, even if I did it would put me at risk for losing my job, and not to mention it would be considered a breach of national security…”

He understands, of course. It would be impossible for her to know that sort of intel when it was clearly being kept heavily under wraps. Lord even knows where she managed to learn any of this from.

A stroke of soft chuckles brings him back to her strange expression as she plucks a book out from the biography section. It’s a recent edition, with barely a scratch on the binding. Holding up the cover for him to see, Steve rolls his eyes.

Peggy Carter: In Her Own Words

“You know… even for all the shit she might have done back then, I sometimes still miss her.”

Steve glances away as Sharon begins to flip through the pages of the book.

“She was still family, even after everything,” he says softly.

Humming in return, the sound of moving pages halts.

“You know…” she laughs, shaking her head as her finger skims over the paragraphs of text, “She had a knack for imparted bits of wisdom every now and then. God, she wasn’t even American, but yet…”

“This nation was founded on one principle above all else,” Sharon glances up at him, a playful look in her eyes as she reads the quote, “the requirement that we stand up for what we believe in, no matter the odds or the consequences.”

Steve can almost picture the woman, hair tied back, straight-smart outfit, speaking in front of a group of reporters and journalists. Her accent scathing and beautiful as she commands their attention.

“When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world: No, you move! Director Carter, Congress, 1978. God, I don’t even know what this could have been about. It’s not like Reagan was elected yet.”

With a shrug, Sharon snaps the book closed and tosses it at Steve. He scrambles to catch it, giving her a strange look as she nods at him.

“Go on, buy it. It’s only a buck fifty, that’s practically a bargain these days.”

Steve stares down at the black-and-white image of Peggy, leaning against a desk, looking content in her position as Director. He sets it down on one of the stacks next to the biography section.

Sharon immediately snatches it back up, pushing it in his direction as she bites, “Take the book.”

Something about her shift in tone makes Steve take hold of the item, flipping it casually in his hand as if trying to decode a secret message.

Giving him a nod, as if pleased by his choice, Sharon takes off her jacket - turning it inside out, before bending down to roll down a skirt that was apparently rucked up around her waist - it goes all the way down to the floor. This is followed by her pulling a wig from her jacket, a curly brown thing, that she easily situates on her head.

“It was nice seeing you again,” she smiles a look that barely curls up at the corners of her lips.

“You too,” he says, a little too stunned by her entire wardrobe change to really comprehend that this is goodbye.

Giving the supersoldier a nod, she places a pair of sunglasses on her face

“And, hey… good luck.”

“Thanks.”

With a final look, the CIA operative turns and sneaks through the Employees Only door.

Glancing down at the book in his hand, Steve carefully flips through the pages - stopping only when a scrap of paper tumbles away from the seam. It only takes one look, but by then he’s already got it shoved back into place - wedged against the inner seam.

“Find everything okay?” the young woman asks when he makes it to the register.

Feeling more on edge than before, he hums in reply, glancing out at the passersby on the street.

Catching on to the fact that he wasn’t in much of a talking mood at the moment, she easily checks him out and offers to bag up the item for him, but he says it’s fine and snags the book and receipt before she can even say “Come again,” to him.

Striding across the street, barely even looking to see if there’s any incoming traffic, Sam launches up from the patio chair he had been occupying for the past thirty minutes.

“What’d she say?”

His grip on the book tightens as he glances around at the sidewalk. There’s a woman walking her dog down the way, but they’re otherwise alone and out of earshot of anyone nearby.

“Worse than we thought.”

Sam nods, using his index finger to push his sunglasses up higher on his face, “So, what does that mean for us exactly?”

“They’re going after enhanced individuals and anyone out there like us,” he murmurs. Holding up the book, he begins to flip through the pages, “They found him, Sam.”

Even from behind the dark lenses, he knows that the other man’s eyes are wide. They had been searching for two years now, Sam more often than even Steve because he was always being pulled to help out on official missions.

“You’re kidding me.”

Shaking his head, his fingers continue turning each page over at a time, “I wish I was. Ross is going after him.”

“Course he is,” Sam balks, crossing his arms. “And I bet we got nothing from Ms. Carter over there.”

Pulling the scrap of paper free, he twists it between his index and middle fingers for Sam to see.

“No… we got it.”

A smile cracks his features as he looks around at their surroundings, “Man, I shouldn’t be impressed, but I am.”

Steve gives a nod in return as he folds the paper and quickly stuffs it into his pocket - right next to the cool weight of the compass.

“So…” Sam breathes out, “How easily are we gonna be able to operate under the radar with this one?”

Letting out an uneasy breath, Steve thinks about the team - back at the Compound, likely debating their next move in the signing process. His mind flashes to the image of you, but he quickly pushes it away before it can linger too long.

“I think… this is going to be the last mission for us before they sign things over. And, if we’re going to do this, we’re going to need another hand if we want this to work out.”

The other man nods, mood somber as he takes in the unspoken consequences. The SRA was set to pass the Senate tonight, the House within the week. God only knows how long it would take for the UN to reach a concise conclusion. No, they had to get to Bucky first.

As they head down the street, his mind drifts back to his previous line of thought.

If he and Sam went to deal with this and things turned south - either on their end or over here, in the States - then at least he knows you would be able to handle it. If Ross, or anyone else, tried to come after the teens in their care, you would protect them.

“We’re sure, right?” Sam questions as they come to a stop at the crosswalk.

Sparring him a look, Steve lifts his brow.

“I mean… the dude kind of tried to kill us before and all,” at the supersoldier’s annoyed grimace, Sam laughs. “I’m… I’m just saying, man. The people who usually shoot at you, are also trying to shoot at me.”

“You don’t have to do this,” he states as the light switches.

“Nah, you see, that’s the problem. I do. Cause god only knows what kind of nonsense you would wind up in if I wasn’t there to watch your six.”

Feeling a smile stretching across his face, Steve smacks the other man’s shoulder with the palm of his hand.

“You’re a good man, Sam.”

“I gotta be,” he grins, “If I wanna keep up with you.”

The two of them disappear into the crowd of people exiting the subway before the CCTV cameras across the street can get a good look at either one of them.

Previous Chapter || Next Chapter

#steve rogers x female reader #steve rogers x reader #marvel fan fic #series: shameless wonder #my fic

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racefortheironthrone · 9 months

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How was Iron Man thought of by comics readers, before the movie? I've heard different takes, from him being despised to being generally popular.

This is one of those that really changes depending on the era you're talking about. It is true that, overall, Iron Man was not a particularly well-loved or important character before the movie.

Indeed, I would argue he was kind of the bottom of the C-tier. Yes, he was a founding Avenger and he had some solo stories people liked, but he also fucked off out of the Avengers after #16 (because of a weird Stan Lee idea), and wound up leading the West Coast Avengers who were sort of an in-universe joke, very much the also-rans to the Avengers (who weren't particularly that big either). There was likewise a running gag about villains finding it embarassing to lose a fight to "Old Shellhead."

But he wasn't despised, just kind of inessential and overshadowed by more prominent heroes. This would change in 2002 with the creation of the Ultimates and the Ultimate Universe.

Now, I fucking hate Mark Millar's work, but credit where credit is due: he made Tony Stark a main character when he had not been one before, and the movie would not have happened without his inspiration (although I'd argue there was a lot of sifting the pure from the dross on that one).

One of the ironies of the MCU, though, is that it got its liftoff from Iron Man just at the point where the comics had reached Peak Tony and fans really turned against him during Civil War. Mark Millar might have thought that the Pro-Registration side was self-evidently in the right, but no one agreed with him - especially once he started building interdimensional black site prisons for superheroes, recruiting supervillains to work for the government, and creating a murderous Thor clone. Not only did the fans hate him, but pretty much all of his old friends now considered him a traitor - and Marvel pretty much had to kill Tony and replace him with a pre-fash AI backup, then have Tony be the leader of the "good" side in Civil War II, to deal with the backlash.

(Incidentally, I would argue that Hickman's Avengers run did a way better job with Millar's concept than Millar ever could.)

This is why Captain America: Civil War ended up being a second take for the concept, where both sides were depicted as more reasonable in their motivations and actions than in the comics that inspired the movie, and then Infinity War and Endgame recontextualized Tony as a tragic character who ultimately managed to redeem himself with a heroic sacrifice. (Although since then, they really have gone too far with his canonization.)

#marvel #marvel meta #mcu #mcu meta #iron man #tony stark

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psalm22-6 · 1 year

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I present to you Les Miserables was stolen!, a 2003 French comic which "recounts a fictional and dramatic episode in the life of Victor Hugo."

It begins with Victor's publisher Lacroix arriving in Guernesey, where Victor lives in exile, surveilled by agents of Napoleon III. Note that he has no beard.

Everyday Victor follows the same routine while he finishes writing Les Miserables. Hmm....

Tragedy strikes! He finds that his manuscript has been stolen! He rushes to Juliette Drouet's house and they discuss what could have happened.

Could it have been someone with a personal vendetta? Or Napoleon III's secret police trying to surpress a revolutionnary text? Victor decides his only solution is to go to Paris and try and track down the thief. 'No' says Juliette, 'you'll be arrested!' But Victor has a disguise.

Now with a beard, he heads to Paris where he enlists the help of his friends: Adele Hugo, Dumas, Lamartine, and Sainte-Beuve ("although he is my wife's lover, he is not necessarily my enemy").

He needs a place to stay that no one will suspect so he goes in search of a woman he once helped.

She is a sex worker named Fanny Fantin, the inspiration for the character Fantine -___- and she agrees to help him. A strange man comes around and starts asking for "Fantine." Victor concludes that whoever stole his manuscript, knowing that he had drawn inspiration from real life, is looking for "Fantine" in order to find him. (Don't think about the plot too hard.) Victor bribes Fanny's pimp to track down the man and Fanny lures him to her room where Victor is waiting. A struggle ensues.

Fanny kills the man, saving Victor but they lose their lead. What's more, her scream attracts the attention of the police. Victor tells her to follow him onto the roof so that they can escape.

As Fanny lays dying on the sidewalk, a gamin named P'tit Louis, who is friend of Fanny's, tells Victor to run but Victor cannot resist saying some final words to Fanny, who is surrounded by onlookers and police. He promises he will take care of her daughter. Her daughter? Yes. Victor was surprised to learn that she has a daughter who she had left in the care of a suspicious couple. Victor's words were so eloquent that as he walks away, something clicks in the mind of a police man, who had heard rumors that a certain author was in town.

wtf is he wearing!! Anyways, Victor runs away. He gets a tip from the pimp that Hetzel, his old publisher, might have been trying to buy the manuscript off the murdered man so he and Dumas investigate.

This is a dead end. They then go to retrieve Fanny's daughter, Sylvie. Victor pays off the couple who were keeping her.

Victor wonders where he and Sylvie can hide. He tells Dumas that he thinks the thief will continue to track him via the plot of his novel so he decides he will go to the Petit-Picpus convent to try and catch the thief. The Picpus convent is a real place where ten years earlier Victor had been allowed to study their customs. The mother superior is reluctant to let them stay but when Victor reminds her of the isolated gardener's shack, she agrees. However!

Who should arrive but Sainte-Beuve, asking if Victor is hiding there. The mother superior won't say anything. Sainte-Beuve tells her that Victor is wanted for murder (because of the man Fanny killed). The mother superior tells Sylvie to fetch Victor.

Victor wants to know how Sainte-Beuve knew where to find him. Sainte-Beuve says that Dumas told him, before leaving for Italy (that's it, Dumas isn't in the story anymore.) 'Hmm okay seems reasonable' says Victor. Sainte-Beuve leaves. 'That was curious,' says the mother superior. 'When he saw Sylvie, he called her Cosette!' Hmmm... Cut to P'tit Louis. The pimp, the Thenardier equivalent character and their gang have tracked Victor to the convent and they want P'tit Louis to help them rob Victor, to avenge Fanny. However, P'tit Louis remembers that Fanny had once told him that not all bourgeoise are bad, for example, there is Victor Hugo.

P'tit Louis tries to warn Victor but the nuns won't listen to him.

Meanwhile, the police also arrive in search of Victor.

P'tit Louis jumps the convent wall and helps Victor and Sylvie escape by the sewer. However, the gang is waiting for them there! P'tit Louis helps them escape the gang too.

Victor and Sylvie take a carriage to Adele's house. Victor sees Adele leaving to go to Sainte-Beuve's. Victor follows her there and bursts in.

Victor starts tearing Sainte-Beuve's house apart. 'I know you have my manuscript,' he says. Only the person who stole the manuscript would have known the name "Cosette."

Adele can't believe that it is true. Sainte-Beuve hangs his head in shame. Victor is looking all over but he can't find it until...he notices that Sylvie is shivering. That's strange...why is it so cold in here!?

In the stove, Victor finds his manuscript.

Sainte-Beuve explains that Victor had everything he wanted for himself and so he wanted to get revenge. He had tried to burn the manuscript but it was so beautiful, he could never bring himself to do it. 'It wasn't enough to have taken his wife?' asks Adele and she slaps him. At that moment, the police arrive and take Victor to jail. Meanwhile. . .

Napoleon III is informed of Victor's arrest but he orders that he be secretly returned to Guernesey to avoid a scandal. The police put Victor in a carriage. 'Where are we going,' asks Victor, 'why are we at Père-Lachaise?' They stop at a grave.

It's a tombstone for Fanny Fantin, the immortal Fantine of Les Miserables. Who could have done this? Sainte-Beuve emerges from the shadows. 'You can't image the disgust I have for myself. This tomb bears witness to a regret that will not leave me.' 'All men are condemned to live with their mistakes,' Victor tells him. To wrap up, Adele and Victor try to convince P'tit Louis to come back with them but he wants to stay in Paris. Adele tells him to live at her house. The police officer tells Victor that he is just doing his duty by kicking him out of the country, but that he can't wait to read his book.

Victor and Adele arrive back in Guernesey with the manuscript and Sylvie. Juliette is waiting for them. 'What happened? Who is this?' Juliette asks. 'I'll explain everything,' says Adele. 'Now embrace me.'

They embrace. 'Who would believe it?' asks Victor's friend. 'It's not me but the theft of my manuscript that has brought them together,' says Victor. He learns that Napoleon III has just granted him amnesty. which he of course refuses. Fin!

#les miserables #victor hugo #off the rails content #lm inspired

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infiniteeight8 · 11 months

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Saw in a reblog that you enjoy prompts and are still accepting them. I'm not sure if this is your cup of tea, but how about an alternate first meeting? No ideas for alternate first meetings? Have some extra tone ideas, fully optional, mix/match/discard to your tastes:

Extra idea one: At least one of them is a superhero. Maybe both are and one is trying to hide it due to hidden magic or secret identity AU.

Extra idea two: They're both pompous idiots geniuses think they're geniuses who don't get along immediately. Clashing egos.

Extra idea three: One or both are in some state of injury. If paired with two, people who don't get along during their first meeting while in a perilous situation is delicious and never an old trope.

Take any or nothing, no worries if nothing sparks. Best wishes!

This AU is comics inspired, but only in the sense of the set up where Tony Stark is the Avengers’ benefactor and no one knows that he’s Iron Man. Otherwise, it’s MCU in my brain.

The best thing about Avengers galas was that Tony didn't have to go to them as ‘Tony Stark’. Iron Man got eager questions about battles instead of subtle angling for funding. Iron Man got admiration instead of digs at his personal history. He couldn’t drink with the faceplate down, but he didn’t need to drink to get through these things with the armor on.

All of which made it enormously frustrating when the neurosurgeon he was currently chatting with—Doctor Strange, a hard name to forget—visibly deflated when he learned ‘Tony Stark’ wouldn’t be making an appearance. If Iron Man started having to field funding requests, Tony was going to scream. “I’ve never seen someone so disappointed to meet the hero instead of the money man,” he said.

Strange shot him a withering look. “You know damn well that Stark is a lot more than the money man, and your eagerness to frame him that way does you no favors.”

Shit, had he slipped? What did Strange know? “Stark funds the Avengers,” Tony said. “What else would you call him?”

“More of a hero than any of you,” Strange says, waving a hand to indicate the other Avengers. “Sure, he funds the Avengers. He also funds the new superhuman rehabilitation wing at the prison. And the foundation that helps neighborhoods rebuild after battles. He wrote software that responds to supervillain attack alerts and quarantines the user’s devices to prevent data loss and he gave it away for free.” Strange glanced over the heroes attending the gala and snorted. “Any one of the Avengers falls, they’ll be replaced by a new recruit in a week,” he said. “There’s no replacing Tony Stark.”

Tony could only stare as Strange turned and walked away.

No one had ever called Tony Stark a hero before.

#IronStrange #triple drabble

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sineala · 1 year

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Steve/Tony Starter Comics Recs: 2023 Edition

I have been asked this month to talk about essential 616 Steve/Tony comics for a new reader, who is aware of the broadest strokes of their relationship (Civil War, Hickmanvengers) but wanted more context as well as recommendations for the best and/or most essential comics. [This is a repost from Patreon.]

First up, quick advice for newbies getting into Steve/Tony comics: I know there are thousands of comics and trying to figure out what to read is kind of like trying to drink from a firehose. It's going to be okay. You don't have to read everything. You're not going to read everything. Almost no one has read everything. A lot of things flat-out contradict each other. If you're looking to read fanfiction that is close to canon, most fic authors will generally give you an idea of when their stories are set, and you can look the issues up if you want. Or you can just wing it and see how far you get and look something up if you're really confused. That's what I do. Where do you find all these comics? If you are willing to pay money to access comics, the best thing you can do is subscribe to Marvel Unlimited, which is about $10/month and gives you digital access to pretty much every comic that is from more than three months ago. This is the way to go. They also have reading lists for characters and events. And they have recently introduced a line of comics called "Infinity Comics" that are only available though Marvel Unlimited that are designed to be read on your phone -- they're a single long comic that you just scroll through -- and as of right now they have just had a very fun Steve & Tony storyline in Avengers Unlimited. If you have a tablet, a regular-size tablet screen (mine is 9.7") will show you one page at a time, about the size of a regular page in a paper comic, and is definitely the optimal way to go. You can also read on your phone; most of the digital comics on Marvel's app are set up so it zooms in on a panel at a time. You can also read them on a computer, on their website, but the website version is much harder to use. There are a lot of different options for getting comics in paper -- and I'm happy to talk about them if anyone wants to know any of this, especially since some of the reprint lines have changed since the last time I probably made a guide about this. Just let me know. But I think for the newbie, digital is the way to go until you know more about what you like. Then you can fill your house with paper comics. If you are in the US (I cannot vouch for other countries), your local library almost certainly has comics in book form (usually paperbacks collecting multiple issues) and you can read paper comics for completely free. If your library subscribes to Hoopla, you can also read some digital comics for completely free. It's worth checking out. Right. I think that's probably all you need to know about acquiring comics for right now, so onto the recs. I have made some similar lists before. I have a list of essentials I previously made (yes, a lot of them are the same) and I have a flowchart of what the different volumes are. So a lot of this is going to be repeated from previous lists because the old stuff is still relevant. So, since the content will be similar, I thought I would arrange this a little differently than I've done previously, to liven this up. I feel like "best Steve/Tony comics" and "essential Steve/Tony comics" are separate lists with separate purposes, although some of the comics on the list overlap. There are a lot of comics with great Steve/Tony moments that we all love to read and share pictures of and so on and so forth. Like, "One Night in Madripoor." Great comic. A lot of fun. Would definitely recommend. But is it going to show up in fanfiction? Probably not all that much. It's just not a comic that inspires a lot of fic. So it's probably one of the best to read, but it's not essential to know. If you get what I'm saying. (The essential comics are generally also ones that are best to read, so it's really more of a subset/superset relation. Probably.) Okay, yeah, "essential" is basically the angsty shippy stuff and "best" is the fluffy cute shippy stuff. Essential Steve/Tony If you're coming from MCU fandom, the dynamic between 616 Steve, Tony, and the rest of the team may not be what you're expecting. They're not SHIELD's pet superhero project -- they in fact tend to have an uneasy and occasionally adversarial relationship with the government, for all that Tony originally founded SHIELD and Steve often works for them. The Avengers have existed in a world that's basically been full of weird shit for their entire adult lives, and so they've been dealing with it for their entire adult lives. They are seasoned professionals. They are also friends. You know all that 2012 Avengers MCU fic where the Avengers all live together and they eat meals together and they hang out and watch movies together? You know the fanon I mean? That's comics canon. People wrote MCU fic like that because that's exactly what the comics are like and everyone assumed it was going to be similar. The Avengers are also a little more structured than you may be expecting. They've got bylaws and procedures and -- when necessary -- courts-martial. It's also not a case of "Captain America always leads the team." He often does, but not always. He's not the team leader right now (Carol is; before her, it was T'Challa) and in fact he's not even on the team right now. When they started out, they actually rotated the position of team chair; the longest-serving chairs are Steve, Jan, and Natasha, in that order, but I think most of the major Avengers have had a turn at some point. Characters also leave and rejoin the team fairly often; it's unusual for the same lineup to persist for more than a couple years. So Steve's not there right now, but he probably will be again. It doesn't mean they're breaking up forever if someone leaves the team. They'll probably be back. If they're dead they'll also probably be back. The timeline's a mess but basically everyone was in their mid-20s when they started and is going to be in their mid-30s forever, for reasons that are too complicated to go into. So if you're looking for context, here's the best high-level overview I can come up with, focusing on Steve/Tony: The founding Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Wasp, Ant-Man, and the Hulk, who is retroactively un-foundered) have all been doing the superhero thing on their own for a bit in their solo books when they team up to defeat Loki, decide that they work well together, and decide to form the Avengers (named by Jan). They all move into the mansion. The Hulk then quits the team basically for forever (if you're here from MCU fandom, you should know he's... really not an Avenger) and he disappears, and while the Avengers are out looking for him in a submarine, they instead find a block of ice, containing Captain America, who is miraculously alive. (Iron Man is the first person he sees and also the first person who speaks to him. Fandom likes this.) After saving the Avengers, Steve decides to join the team. The team only remains the same for about twelve issues, at which point all the other founding members decide they need a break while Steve is off on a mission and he gets back to find that they have left him three brand-new Avengers (Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver), all of whom are career criminals. He's not real happy at first. The Avengers' roster changes many times over the years, and Steve and Tony are often but not always on the team together. Highlights in Tony's life include when he gets a heart transplant and no longer has to wear and charge the chestplate to survive, and also when he decides to stop making weapons. Steve quits and becomes Nomad for a few months while he gets over his feelings about the government, because the president of the United States has been conspiring with aliens to take over the world, and then commits suicide, shooting himself in the head right in front of Steve. Understandably, this messes Steve up more than a little. Steve and Tony first get a bit contentious in The Korvac Saga, in which Steve at one point punches Tony (well, Iron Man) in the face. They get over it pretty quickly. Tony develops a drinking problem. Then Tony gets sober, which lasts for a few years. In the intervening time Steve finds out Tony is Iron Man. Then Tony starts drinking again, it gets very bad, Steve is upset, and Tony nearly freezes to death in in a blizzard. Then he gets sober. At this point Tony has quit the main team to join the West Coast Avengers and then Force Works, where he stays for about ten years in real time. So he and Steve are on different teams for quite a while. Then Steve and Tony start to have fights. We get Armor Wars, where Steve disagrees with Tony trying to take back his technology, and we get Operation Galactic Storm, where they disagree about whether the main villain should die. Eventually they make up. They're still not on the same team. Eventually there's a massive plot that involves Tony being a brainwashed murderer, Tony being replaced by his teenage self, Tony dying in Steve's arms, and then everybody dying (except not really) while fighting Onslaught. They come back. Then we get a very nice run where basically Steve and Tony are friends and everyone is on the same team and everyone lives in the mansion and it's great, until Wanda loses her grip on reality, murders a few people, and blows up the mansion. Whoops. But Steve and Tony are still trying. They form the New Avengers together, move into the Tower, and everything is great until Civil War happens, at which point Steve gets killed (Bucky, who just came back to life, becomes Captain America) and Tony spends a lot of comics lying on the floor crying. Many bad things happen, including a Skrull invasion, which Tony doesn't really deal with as well as he could have on account of the lying on the floor crying. Eventually Steve comes back to life, and for Reasons, Tony develops amnesia and has now forgotten the entire Civil War. Steve remembers it, though. They don't immediately get back together. Things are a little rough and Steve isn't on the team because Bucky is still Captain America and Steve is off doing black ops with the Secret Avengers, which he is very bad at and is also depressed about, but eventually comes back, joins the Illuminati, gets the shield back, rejoins the team, and everyone generally has a good time other than the part where Tony has to drink to save the world and also the part where everyone punches the X-Men. Then the multiverse starts ending. Thanks, Jonathan Hickman. For reasons that seem like a good idea at the time, everyone kicks Steve off the Illuminati and then wipes his memory about this. Steve and Tony continue to be BFFs while Tony is lying his face off about this, until Steve remembers this and then attempts to hunt Tony down and kill him, which is complicated by Steve becoming suddenly old and deserumed and Tony becoming evil. Then the multiverse actually ends, a bunch of weird things happen, and then everything on Earth 616 comes back with basically the only difference being that Earth 616 now contains the Ultimate Universe's Miles Morales and the Ultimate Universe's Reed Richards who is a murderous psychopath. No one ever talks about the murdering or the part where the world ended ever again. After that, Tony is no longer evil, but Steve is still old. They aren't on the same team, I don't think -- Tony is main team, Steve is leading the Uncanny Avengers -- but then a Cosmic Cube makes Steve young again, which would be great except for the part where it secretly replaced him with an evil Hydra version of himself who then takes over America. This is a phenomenally unpopular move and this event ends much earlier than Marvel had planned. People tend to like this for villain AU purposes and also the AI version of Tony (because human Tony is in a coma). Also, oh, yeah, Tony finds out he's adopted. He found out a little before this, but now he's found his biological parents. Don't worry, his biological parents hate him too. We've spent the past five years having Jason Aaron's Avengers run which I don't think anyone really liked (it was okay) but at least Steve and Tony were both on the team, a couple of Cap runs with a lot of conspiracy theories in them (IMO, they've both been okay runs but not outstanding), and an Iron Man run where Tony gets addicted to morphine (do not read this run). Steve and Tony are on generally good terms at this point and have not tried to murder each other for years. (The brand-new Avengers run by Jed MacKay is really too new to say much about yet. The new Cap run hasn't started yet and will be by JMS, which I am excited about. The current Iron Man run by Gerry Duggan is absolutely the best IM run I have read in the past ten years.) So if any of that sounds interesting, that would be a place to start. If you're looking to familiarize yourself with comics that will give you the most context for fanfiction, I would recommend Civil War and surrounding events, as well as Hickmanvengers. This is because these two eras have a fair amount of fic about them and they have so much going on that's hard to figure out just by reading fic about it, and a lot of fic will be about the details. Whereas with something like Onslaught, it might get occasionally mentioned but you will probably never need to know anything more than "most of the Avengers died but they didn't really die and then they all came back a year later." So which comics exactly am I recommending, you ask? At some point you should probably read some version of Tony's origin story. The original is in Tales of Suspense #39, but there are a lot of retellings. Many people like the one in Extremis (IM v4 #1-6). Founding: The Avengers form up in Avengers v1 #1. Steve is found in Avengers v1 #4, and he and Tony are on the same team until Avengers #16. After that they are often both on the same team but this is the classic run with the founding Avengers. Heart transplant: This happens in Iron Man v1 #17-19 and Avengers #69. You probably don't actually need to read all this stuff to know what happens, but it's a great arc where a LMD tries to take Tony's place and Tony wanders around in the rain charging his heart from a car battery and then is kidnapped by people who think they are kidnapping the LMD and will train him to replace Tony. Weaponry: Tony stops making weapons in IM v1 #78. Nomad: Cap v1 #176-183. Steve isn't Nomad for very long. But he is in our hearts. Korvac Saga: This is Avengers #167-177. Demon in a Bottle: This is IM v1 #120-128. It's not actually the story whose events you think of when you think about Tony drinking (most people are probably thinking of the second drinking arc) but it is the storyline that first made him an alcoholic. Features Steve teaching Tony self-defense. This is by Layton & Michelinie who are responsible for a lot of fan-favorite classic IM arcs (this, Doomquest, Armor Wars, the introduction of Ghost, the Kathy Dare arc). Steve finds out Tony's secret identity: This is Avengers v1 #216. It involves Molecule Man stripping Tony out of his armor so he's standing there in his underwear. Second drinking arc: This one's the one with the blizzard. This is (most of) Denny O'Neil's run. It lasts from IM #160-200. Yes, it really is forty entire issues. Steve makes an appearance in #172 (the "flophouse" issue. where he has an argument with Tony). The blizzard is in #182. The rest of it is Tony trying to put his life back together. The villain in this one is actually Obadiah Stane; this is where he's from. This is probably my very favorite Iron Man run. I made a reading order for this. While you don't need a reading order for the main arc -- it's just a straight shot through forty issues of Iron Man -- it is referenced in other comics at the time and some of them contain scenes you might want to read. One issue that is not in that list (because I didn't know about it until recently) is Daredevil #204; Denny O'Neil was also writing Daredevil at the same time and he has a very drunk Tony make an appearance at a party Matt is at. Armor Wars: This is IM #225-232. The issue you actually want is #228, which is Steve and Tony having their first big fight. A bond is broken! Operation Galactic Storm: This is a crossover with about 20 issues across multiple comics; you can find a list somewhere. If you read fic where Steve is mad at Tony because Tony wanted to kill the Kree Supreme Intelligence, that's a reference to this arc. The easier option is to skip every issue in this except for the Aftermath issue, which is Cap #401, which features Steve and Tony discussing all the fights they've had. There are apologies. Kaminski IM: Len Kaminski's IM run is #278 to #318 and not all of it is great (however, if you are reading it, it's pretty easy to tell which parts are not great) but there's a lot of flashbacks here to Tony's childhood that often get referred to in fic; if a story has a canon detail about Tony's childhood, there's a pretty good chance it's from this run. 286 has the famed "Stark men are made of iron" flashback. 288, Tony's parents die and he buys the company that made their car and fixes the manufacturing defect. 313, the flashback with Tony taking his first drink, as a child. v3: I'd just like to issue a blanket recommendation for all of Avengers, Cap, and Iron Man volume 3 (this is the 1998 run). This is basically the very last of the classic Avengers dynamic, when everyone was still friends and lived in the mansion. Avengers v3: The first half of the Avengers run is by Busiek and Pérez and is, deservedly, a classic. The second half is perhaps a little less memorable but does contain Red Zone, which features everyone's favorite dramatic moment where Tony removes his helmet and exposes himself to a deadly airborne disease in order to give Steve CPR so Steve can live. No, don't think about the science; just enjoy the entire page of their mouths pressed together. Cap v3: I actually haven't seen much fic about the specifics of this Cap run (people will occasionally mention the part where Steve lost his shield and Tony helped him find the pieces) but it's by Mark Waid and in my opinion contains one of the best modern characterizations of Steve. IM v3: The first 25 issues of this is Busiek's run, which features both Carol's drinking arc and Sunset Bain's appearance in Tony's life. The rest of it has such great moments as the Sentient Armor arc (in which Tony's armor acquires sentience and then tries to kill him) and both DreamVision arcs, which are where Tiberius Stone is introduced. Civil War and surrounding events (CW, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, Siege, Captain America Reborn): This is where I (and a lot of other people) started reading. There's a period of maybe two years of comics including the lead-in to Civil War (mostly the beginning of New Avengers v1 and the beginning of the Iron Man and Cap runs), Civil War itself, Steve's death, then the events Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, and Siege. Then Steve comes back to life. Even if you read none of the rest of this you absolutely have to read "Civil War: Casualties of War" and "Civil War: The Confession." The Confession is why we have a Steve/Tony fandom in the first place. I have a reading list for this, but please make sure to read those two comics. Avengers v4: The last of Bendis' Avengers runs (he started with New Avengers and then basically wrote every Avengers book for like seven or eight years); this is basically the story of Steve and Tony trying to figure out how to be friends again after Civil War. The era opens with Avengers Prime, which is a great miniseries featuring a truly epic Steve/Tony hug, and then about two-thirds of the run is Steve and Tony having screaming fights in front of all their friends, and then Steve gets to be Captain America again and rejoins the team and then everyone is friends until Hickman takes over. Hickman (Avengers v5 & New Avengers v3): The epic saga of Tony betraying Steve and then the entire multiverse ending. If you're going to read any of this, this is about 100 issues long and you have to read all of it in a very precise order (reading both series at the same time) or it will make almost no sense. Steve gets old. You probably will want to read Superior Iron Man, in which Tony is temporarily evil. Then the multiverse, in fact, ends. Then Secret Wars happens, but Steve and Tony aren't there. I also have a reading list for this run. Secret Empire and surrounding events (Standoff, Civil War II, Secret Empire): So after the multiverse stops ending (everything's fine, don't worry about it) and Tony stops being evil, we get the event Standoff, where Steve is young again but is secretly evil (he is replaced by a Hydra version of himself), and he continues being secretly evil throughout the events of Civil War II, which this time is Carol vs. Tony and Tony ends up in a coma. The one thing you will absolutely want to read is Civil War II: The Oath, an epilogue issue in which Steve villain-monologues at Tony's comatose body and tells him that Real Steve always loved him. Then Secret Empire happens, and Steve decides to be openly evil and take over America. Tony is an AI. Eventually Evil Steve is defeated and Real Steve comes back. I think that's about it for what Steve/Tony fandom considers to be important angsty events. There's been more recent good stuff, I promise, but it's all mostly been fluffy, in the sense that Steve and Tony haven't fought each other since then and nobody's died. I mean, not permanently. Best Steve/Tony (that isn't already essential) And now the fluff. I mean, it's not entirely fluff. I put 1872 on here. In my defense, I think a lot of the 1872 fic that gets written is fluff and/or fix-its. Tales of Suspense #58: Tales of Suspense, the comic book that Iron Man debuted in in #39, became primarily an Iron Man comic book for nearly twenty issues after that. But starting with #58, he shared the book with Captain America -- every issue from #59 to #99 (when the book ended) had one IM story and one Cap story, but not related to each other, just two separate stories in the same comic. The exception to this is #58 here, a story about both Steve and Tony, in which Steve is impersonated by the Chameleon. Tony at first thinks Steve is in trouble, and then he tries to chase him down -- but he ends up chasing the real Steve. Whoops. (This is one of the stories mentioned in Civil War: Casualties of War.) Tales of Suspense vol 2 #1 (1994 one-shot): Better known in fandom as "the azure eyes" issue, this is a Steve & Tony team-up where they've been on the outs for no reason I can determine but they have to work with each other and learn to be friends again. There are two pages that are Steve and Tony's interior monologues about each other and how they both think the other one is amazing and way better than them. (Tony is particularly fond of Steve's eyes, hence the fandom name for the issue.) Captain America & Iron Man 1998 Annual: This is technically part of my blanket v3 rec but I'd like to mention it specifically here. It's a standalone team-up issue where for Reasons, Tony decides to give Steve some amnesia, but they eventually make up and are friends again and it's very sweet by the end. Captain America & Iron Man: Invasion Force: This is an obscure internet-only team-up comic (you can find it on YouTube in four parts) which includes, among other things, Steve joking about Tony's dick and Tony, in response, offering to make Steve a sex tape. No, really. Captain America: Man Out of Time: This is generally my first rec to everyone; it's a modern retelling of Steve's origin story with some cute Steve/Tony moments and the addition of giving Steve a choice about whether to stay in the future. One Night in Madripoor: Technically, this storyline is Captain America & Iron Man #633-635; "one night in Madripoor" is on the cover of the first issue. This is some excellent Steve & Tony shenanigans in Madripoor with a lot of great banter. Avengers Annual vol 5: This is the annual from Hickman's run, but it's not by Hickman. It's a Christmas story and it's also the story that features the panel where Tony has made Steve's password "Captain Handsome." Avengers: Endless Wartime: The overall plot in this graphic novel is not at all what I would call fluffy but if you pretend that the only panel that exists is the one where Tony calls Steve "beloved" then it's pretty good. I don't recommend paying more than about five dollars for this. 1872: This is one of the AUs from Secret Wars, a Wild West world where Steve is the sheriff and Tony is the town drunk. Yes, I know 1872 is not fluffy. I know Steve is eaten alive by pigs in issue #2. However, there are some really sweet Steve & Tony moments in the first issue and I think most of the fic is a little softer than canon. Captain America/Iron Man (miniseries): This is a relatively recent (2021) team-up miniseries. Five glorious issues of Steve and Tony fighting villains, bantering, and also being really nice to each other. Avengers Annual 2021: This is the last annual in the Infinite Destinies annual series and it's basically "Steve and Tony hang out at home together and work out together and Steve feeds Tony his own breakfast and then they go fight a robot who makes them fight projections of each other because it knows they are weak for each other." Avengers Unlimited #52-54: Civil Score: New as of last month, this is a fun storyline where Steve and Tony attempt to steal a flash drive from the Serpent Society at a fancy party except they're both trying to get it before the other one does. (The very first issue of Avengers Unlimited is also worth a look, because it features Steve and Tony teaming up to fight Ghost and Taskmaster, and Taskmaster stops Steve's heart and Tony has to put Steve in his armor. It is some great h/c.) That's all I can think of! I'm sure I've missed some. I hope this gives you a place to start.

#posts i actually wrote #comics reading lists

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aew-kun-age-regression · 2 years

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-Marvel Masterslist-

Moodboards

Caregiver!Peter Parker (Tom Holland)

Caregiver!Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield)

Caregiver!Matt Murdock

Caregiver!Wanda & Caregiver!Vision

Caregiver!Natasha Romanoff

Caregiver!Stephen Strange

Caregiver!Charles Xavier

Caregiver!Bruce Banner

Caregiver!Thor Odinson

Caregiver!Scott Lang

Caregiver!Peter Quill

Caregiver!Clint Barton

Caregiver!Loki Laufeyson

Caregiver!Logan Howlett (Wolverine)

Caregiver!Wade Wilson (Deadpool)

Caregiver!Gwen Stacy (Across the spiderverse)

Spiderman themed Moodboard

Regressor!Pavitr Prabhakar

Caregiver!Pavitr Prabhakar + Little!Miles Morales

Caregiver!Hobie Brown (SpiderPunk)

Caregiver!Steve Rogers

Caregiver!Stucky

Caregiver!Hobie Brown + Regressor!Pavitr Prabhakar

Caregiver!Guardians of the galaxy

Caregiver!Frank Castle

Regressor!Loki Laufeyson

Regressor!Peter Parker (Tom Holland)

Caregiver!Peter B Parker

Caregiver!Miguel O'Hara

Caregiver!Tony Stark

Caregiver!Mobius + Regressor!Loki Laufeyson

Caregiver!Mobius

Regressor!OB (Loki Series)

Regressor!Peter Parker

Caregiver!Victor Timely + Regressor!D-90 (Loki Series)

Caregiver!MJ + Regressor!Peter Parker

Caregiver!Clint Barton StimBoard

Regressor!Hercules (Comics)

Regressor!Matt Murdock

Caregiver!Old King Loki (Comics)

Caregiver!Mobius (W/ Fem Themes)

Caregiver!Erik Lehnsherr & Caregiver!Charles Xavier

Flip!Pavitr Prabhakar (Fox Themes)

Caregiver!Erik Lehnsherr

Caregiver!Hobie Brown (SpiderPunk) StimBoard

Caregiver!Matt Murdock

Caregiver!Matt Murdock StimBoard

Caregiver!Frank Castle StimBoard

Regressor!Matt Murdock

Caregiver!Wilson Fisk W/ Regressor!James Wesley

Daredevil Inspired MoodBoard

Caregiver!Bucky Barnes

Caregiver!Helmut Zemo

Regressor!Kate Bishop StimBoard

Regressor!Matt Murdock

Caregiver!Frank Castle

Story/Fanfics

Caregiver!Stucky, Platonic!Peter x Little!Reader (Loud..)

Caregiver!Stucky x Little!Reader (It's slippy..)

Caregiver!Stucky x Little!Reader (What was your favourite part?)

Caregiver!Winterwidow x Little!Reader (Snow!?)

Caregiver!Peter Parker x Little!Reader (Test..)

Caregiver!Platonic!Peter Parker x Little!Reader (Babysitter - Part 2 to "Loud..")

Caregiver!Clint Barton x Little!Kate Bishop x Little!Reader (Brave)

Caregiver!Bucky Barnes x Little!Reader (TV and Cuddles)

Caregiver!Matt Murdock x Little!Reader (Something's different..)

Caregiver!Matt Murdock, Caregiver!Frank Castle x Little!Reader (Talk to stuffies...)

Caregiver!Loki Laufeyson X Little!Reader (Mummy or daddy..?)

Caregiver!Hobie Brown (SpiderPunk) x Little!Reader (Stimming is cool!!)

Caregiver!Hobie Brown (SpiderPunk) X Little!Pavitr Prabhakar (Tea Parties!!!)

Headcannons

Caregiver!Charles Xavier Headcannons

Caregiver!Matt Murdock Headcannons

Caregiver!Bruce Banner Headcannons

Caregiver!Wade Wilson (Deadpool) Headcannons

Caregiver!Steve Rogers Headcannons

Regressor!Loki Laufeyson W/ How He Discovered Age Regression, Age Range, Favourite Agere Gear/Items, Favourite Thing To Wear And Something Unexpected About His Regression

Caregiver!Matt Murdock W/ Teaching Regressors Different Languages

Caregiver!Miguel O'Hara Headcannons

Caregiver!Frank Castle Headcannons

Regressor!Loki Laufeyson W/ If Their Regression Is Voluntary Or Involuntary

Regressor!Loki Laufeyson Headcannons

Regressor!Matt Murdock W/ Mama Bear Foggy Nelson

Regressor!Matt Murdock W/ Caregiver!Frank Castle Thoughts

Playlists

Art

Hobie Brown (SpiderPunk)

Pavitr Prabhakar

DNI Banner

Original 6 Avengers

Hobie, Gwen, Miguel, Miles and Pavitr

President Loki

Matt Murdock, Kate Bishop, Wanda Maximoff and Yelena Belova

Sam Wilson

Mobius

Old King Loki

Daredevil

Frank Castle (The Punisher)

Paci Icon

Miles Morales

Steve Rogers

Pavitr Prabhakar

Peter Parker (Tom Holland)

Mobius

Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield)

Regressor!D-90 (Loki Series)

#sfw agere #agere blog #sfw littlespace #little space #sfw little post #agere little #aewlittlerambles #fanfics #fanfiction #sfw little community #aewmasterlist #marvel agere #marvel x reader #marvel #across the spider verse agere #atsv agere

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vlagg20 · 3 months

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Since I have free time to do stuff I was thinking of translating some of the books I got from Paris and Swiss. I was thinking of translating the duck avenger comics that I got from my aunt but then I procrastinated and decided to just translate the thea sisters books because the French language seems easier than the German language sorry.

Besides the duck avenger comic I also got the thea sisters books (it was given to me by my French friend for free so girlie if you ever came upon this post thank you for giving me your old thea sisters books and I luv u very much <3)

I haven’t translate them all (I haven’t translate any of the books I got from Paris and Swiss haha) but with the free time I have now I could probably start.

Also I skimmed through the secret of the snow book (the one where they went to Japan inspired myth world) and end up on the bonus feature section where they talked more about the lore of the world and stuff like that but my ass didn’t pay attention into it at all because I got distracted by the tanukis.

They are so cute and fluffy :3

#geronimo stilton #thea stilton #thea sisters #also can I say #the fantasy book where they go into the ocean is THICK #like really fat #it isn't noticeable in the photo #but like trust me it is way thicker than the english one #the english one has around 300 pages #the french one has 320 pages PLUS 60 PAGES FOR THE BONUS FEATURE #so if you count it #that means the french version HAS 380 PAGES IN TOTAL #80 more pages compare to the english one…#im crying

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hobiebrownismygod · 10 months

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Researching Characters so you don't have to Part 8: Who is Jess Drew/Spider-Woman?

Origins:

Jessica Drew was originally born in England. Her father was a renowned genetic researcher and sort of a mad scientist, who focused specifically on arachnids (spiders). As a result of exposure to Uranium something her father often used, Jess developed a deadly illness which her father attempted to cure by creating a spider serum.

Although the serum did heal her, it also gave her spider powers, although she was not welcomed with open arms. She ran away to a nearby village where she fell in love with a young man, who she ended up accidentally killing. She was accused of being a witch and she was forced to run away again, eventually falling into the arms of Otto Vermis, a H.Y.D.R.A official.

She trained hard and became one of their top trainees, however she refused to kill Director Nick Fury during her first mission and rebelled against them, leaving H.Y.D.R.A.

After that, she became known as the vigilante, Spider-Woman, and also became a private investigator, patrolling the streets at night while being a detective during the day.

She ends up losing her powers then gaining them back and a lot more, but I can't fit her entire comic series into one post, so this is just her very basic origins.

She does however join the Avengers and SWORD, unlike a lot of the other Spider-people.

Fun Facts:

She's multi-lingual cuz of training with H.Y.D.R.A, and speaks Russian, Japanese, Portuguese, Korean, Spanish, German and French

She's a super spy - she's really really skilled in espionage

She has the ability to glide through the air - not to be confused with flying, which she can't do

She was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent

My Spider-Sona takes some inspiration from her!!

Sources:

#across the spiderverse #atsv #spiderman atsv #miles morales #spiderman #beyond the spiderverse #across the spider verse #jess drew #jessica drew #spider woman #researching characters #spiderwoman #Jessica drew #spider man across the spider verse #spiderman: across the spiderverse #spiderman across the spiderverse #btsv

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bromcommie · 4 months

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🤩🎯

Hi, thanks for the ask! :) 🤩 What led to your interest in the fandom?

Oof, boy. So, I mean, I was a geeky little kid and grew up loving the Spiderman and X-Men comics, so my interest kind of naturally progressed with the MCU boom of 2009 or whatever. As for Cap, I have to admit I didn't like him all that much at first - I'd only seen him in The Avengers and I think like many other people I kind of just viewed him as The Square Old American Imperialist Guy (thanks, Joss Whedon😒). It was only after seeing CATWS and retroactively CATFA that the floodgates opened. The interest was kind of on and off for a while, but it definitely spiked with time and I got into the Cap, WS, Black Widow and some other comics as well after that.

Idk when exactly I got into Stucky, because I distinctly remember having a phase of "why can't guys just be really really really good friends???" (I know, I know.) but between then and CA: CW I definitely fell in love with both characters and a) kind of went through my own awakening lol, b) started rapidly developing an unrelated but helpful interest in early and mid-20th century history and c) watching a shit ton of Cap edits on YouTube because I've always liked vidding. I eventually started making some of my own vids and fanart when my brain just woke up one morning and clicked into "oh shit. oh, not only is the premise of this story compelling on several levels, but these motherfuckers are in love in love" mode, and inevitably that also led to me starting to read fanfiction.

And that was just...a fucking revelation and a half. Because suddenly here were all these people writing heartfelt, compelling stories—sometimes heavy as shit, sometimes downright hilarious and sometimes just publishing quality—about everything ranging from grief and guilt and trauma to bodily autonomy and disability and queerness and self-worth to relationships with faith and nationality and community and intersectional identity to beliefs and morality and perseverance to violence and war and systems of oppression to different kinds of love and devotion etc etc etc I could go on literally forever. All set to a sprawling love story, all in a historical context I was interested in, all with about a million different perspectives you would never actually get to see on screen or on the page. I also fell in with a bunch of very passionate, nerdy queer people in college after, all of whom loved comics characters and shared these interests and had a lot to say on the overlap of the two, and well. I never really stood a chance, after that.

I guess ultimately what really drew me to it was the potential of taking material that was (I'm sorry, but let's be real) sometimes painfully mediocre-to-plain bad but with a great premise, and then projecting and exploring some really interesting and grounded and even vulnerable topics through the very fun sandbox that the more fantastical, epic aspects of these stories present—often in a subverted way and with mouthpieces (read: Stereotypical Empowered Bulky Macho Men) that you don't get to see in that light in mainstream media. And the Cap fandom really had (and has to this day!) an abundance of talented, curious people throwing themselves into that wholeheartedly and with such wonderful passion and creativity and care. So engaging with that as a hobby can be really lovely and inspiring and cathartic. And sometimes it's just plain lighthearted fun! I think the older I get the more I can really appreciate that.

Also, not to be super sappy or make it sound more serious than it is, but stories about goddamn superheroes overcoming painful, fucked up real life situations and aspiring to do and be better were a great comfort to nerdy Little Me, and so was getting to talk to people about the things I saw in them that meant something to me. I think Steve's character and origin—and the perspectives on it I got from other people—were just a big deal to my baby teenage brain during a time when I was starting to develop a real life social and political awareness and a sense of all the ways in which the things we do and say and how we stand up for each other matter. And as a grown-ass adult today, I still cherish that. And I cherish that even though I've matured and evolved and so have my other interests, I still got to come on here in the year of our lord 2024 when this particular hyperfixation suddenly came out of its long winter slumber and indulge in a comforting, creative hobby and stretch my writing muscles, and that I still got to find people to play in that sandbox with in a way that is extremely satisfying.

So there you go, and I'm so sorry. I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on this. Make of that rambling essay what you will.

🎯 Do you have a writing milestone you’re working towards?

In terms of fandom works, I really don't. I started writing fic just as a fun hobby for myself, and I never really thought of it in terms of goals like I do the original work I try to write, just because I think that'd probably take some of the fun out of it. I'm in a bit of a rut at the moment though, so I'd really like to be able to break out of it soon and post the next few chapters of orpheus I've been trying to work on, if that counts!

#ask game #ask #joy-returns-in-the-morning #thanks again<3 and sorry I gave you my whole life story ssdsgs

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queer-starwars-bracket · 11 months

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Queer Star Wars Characters (Semi-finals): Match 2

Juhani | Identity: lesbian | Media: Knights of the Old Republic

Juhani from 2003’s Knights of the Old Republic was the first ever queer character in Star Wars. The Mandalorian Wars rendered Juhani’s family refugees on Taris after the destruction of their homeplanet of Cathar. Juhani was enslaved due to her mother’s debts, but was liberated by the Revanchists when they freed Taris from Mandalorian rule. This inspired her to travel to Dantooine to train as a Jedi, where she fell in love with her fellow padawan Belaya. For her final trial, she was tricked into believing she killed her master when consumed by the Dark Side. She fled into the wilds of Dantooine, her turmoil agitating the wildlife. Dealing with Juhani is the player’s final trial as a Jedi, and they can either kill Juhani or handle the situation diplomatically and return her to the light. She then joins the player as a companion.

Traveling together, Juhani grows close to Revan and can be romanced by female Revans (the game shipped with the gender flag for romance bugged, but she is intended to be a lesbian). She takes the player turning out to be Revan very well, as she never truly accepted that Revan turned to the Dark Side due to how the Revanchists saved her. If the Dark Side ending is chosen, the player must kill Juhani.

Juhani strives to be a good Jedi, strongly believing in their principles. However, she struggles with the in-born aggression and heightened anger of her species, which with her perfectionism creates a vicious cycle that drives her towards the Dark Side. Other than Revan, she kept herself separate from the rest of the crew of the Ebon Hawk, especially Canderous Ordo due to the Mandalorian’s genocide of her people. She was also full of bitterness regarding the racism she faced on Taris, and struggled not to lash out against all humans because of it.

Sabé | Identity: bisexual | Media: Queen’s Trilogy/Darth Vader comics

Sabé, born Tsabin, was a member of a family of musicians who set their daughter on the same path. However, she was only skilled enough to ever have a supporting role and instead volunteered to be one of Queen Amidala’s handmaidens. She became Padmé’s most trusted operative, pretending to be the Queen during the Invasion of Naboo. After Padmé’s term as queen ended, she remained her operative and worked with Tonra, a member of Naboo’s security force, to attempt to free slaves on Tatooine. They eventually made contact with the White Suns, a Tatioone slave liberation movement. When the Clone Wars began, Sabé once again acted as Padmé’s decoy when Padmé was away from Coruscant conducting an investigation. There she learned Anakin and Padmé were married. However, to make sure Padmé didn’t have her closest confidant, Palpatine blasted Sabé’s brain with the Dark Side until she didn’t want to work closely with Padmé anymore. Sabé spent the rest of the war helping the White Suns.

After Padmé died, Sabé founded an organization known as the Amidalans- a rebel cell consisting of Naboo (including some of the other handmaidens), who sought to avenge Padmé. They attempted to assassinate Vader (who they deemed responsible) on multiple occasions. Sabé focused on deception, pretending to work with Vader to find Padmé’s killer and infiltrating Crimson Dawn. Until she figured out that Vader was Anakin. Remembering how Padmé’s last words (which had been recorded) was “There’s still good in [Anakin]”, she decided to actually become Vader’s operative. Her given reason was that the Empire and Vader did bring order to the galaxy, but it is just as likely she is following her queen’s last order to attempt to bring the man she loved back to the light. She remained by Vader’s side even when her fellow handmaidens came to “rescue” her. Her last appearance in the comics was Vader abandoning her on a beach until she could decide to fully commit to the Dark Side (emotionally speaking).

Sabé had crushes on a handful of people and even a romantic relationship with Tonra, but her most important was her romantic love for Padmé. These feelings were requited, with Queen’s Hope creating a love triangle where Sabé represented ideology and duty and Anakin was selfish love. As we know, Padmé chose Anakin, but a deciding factor was Sabé’s self esteem being temporarily shattered by Palpatine. Her wider moral view seems to have degraded after spending over two decades focusing on avenging Padmé instead of joining the wider Rebellion. However, even working for the Empire, she hasn’t gone completely evil yet- doing things like pretending to kill a bunch of refugees to gain their loyalty instead of actually killing them.

#star wars #sw #sw comics #sw darth vader comics #sabe #juhani #kotor #sw legends

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maxwell-grant · 2 years

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Sorry, I see you already answered that question in 2021, found that post.

My new question is: what is “the shadow”?

(Art by Dan Schkade)

“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow Knows…” The maxim that the weed of crime bears bitter fruit, intoned at the start of every program, was biblical in its sternness. The Shadow was an Old Testament avenger, a ruthless slayer of the wicked, very befitting the Depression decade of his greatest strength. The Shadow was both the force for good and lurker in the darkness. - The Shadow Scrapbook

The Shadow, also known as The Master of Darkness, The Dark Avenger, The Master of Men's Minds, Weird Creature of the Night, Identity Theft Georg, That Guy Who Lives in Lamont Cranston's House, "Shads" and other many names, is a mysterious figure who fights evil by turning it against itself. He is a former globetrotting aviator-spy-soldier (revealed to be named Kent Allard, 7 years into the character's run) turned crimefighting paladin who fights to protect and uplift the innocent and bring justice to victims of strife and calamity, and he does so with the black-clad design, domineering charisma, sinister cackle, Machievellian theatrics and ruthless efficiency of a villain.

In action, The Shadow loomed as a cloaked figure, materializing from out of the night, rescuing helpless victims and striking terror into the hearts of evildoers. However, he reserved such theatrics for a logical climax. Between times, The Shadow proved himself a master of deduction as well as disguise.

While his major missions were to stamp out mobs or smash spy rings, he often tabled such routines in order to find a missing heir, uncover buried treasure, banish a ghost from a haunted house or oust a dictator from a mythical republic. The Shadow was such an incredible character in his own right that almost anything he encountered was accepted by his ardent followers. - Walter Gibson

The Shadow began life as the spooky narrator of publisher Street & Smith's radio program, whose sibilant, mocking personality and sinister cackle were dramatically more interesting than any of the programs he was narrating, and so when listeners started asking Street & Smith for a Shadow Magazine that did not exist, they had to make one of their own. To that end, they recruited a young magician turned newspaper writer and former associate of Houdini's fraud-busting network, Walter Gibson, to write the adventures. Gibson was extremely acquainted with the ins and outs of illusionism and sleight-of-hand and worked personally with many of the greatest magicians at the time, and would extensively use said knowledge in crafting The Shadow's character and adventures.

And so The Shadow Magazine began, reviving the "hero pulp" format that had died out in the pre-WW1 dime novels and redefining the mold of crimefighting "pulp heroes" from that decade onwards, as well as many superheroes from that time period inspired by him and his successors. He is currently more famous for being plagiarized by the chief inspiration for a certain guy who runs around with bat ears and for his general role as a highly influential forerunner and influence in forms of storytelling still extensively used today.

On the taxonomical chart of Western comics he’s a common ancestor for a sizeable chunk of the marketplace. Every street vigilante, every masked crime-fighter, every necessary monster: he’s in the DNA of them all. A living fossil, a coelacanth or goblin-shark for the comics world, swimming in waters of ice and ink - Si Spurrier

The Shadow maintained a fluctuating radio career over the 1930s to go along with his highly successful magazine, and he'd eventually reach newfounds heights of stardom from 1937 onwards thanks to the debut of a new radio show, initially starring Orson Welles in the titular role. Said radio show would become an audience hit well into the 1940s and would introduce new fixtures to the character such as friend-and-companion Margo Lane and an invisibility superpower, which were eventually integrated since into the comics and pulps and other media. You can still easily find many of the character's radio adventures online as well as his exploits in comics and pulps (harder to find now, but still possible if you know where to look). I'll pass along my personal recommendations here.

(Art from Matt Wagner's The Curse of Blackbeard Skull, in The Shadow #100)

In the taxonomical history of American crimefighters he sits in between the hardboiled detectives of the 1920s and the 1940s superheroes, and although the 1930s pulp heroes were in part defined largely by imitating him, he is no traditional square-jawed do-gooder: he is a tall, gaunt, cadaverous wraith with the mask of a Western bandit and a vampire's cloak and the clothes of 19th-century cartoons of saboteurs and anarchist bombers. The barest glimpse of the man beneath is that of a judgemental patrician's aquiline nose and intense, sharp eyes, like icepicks probing the back of your skull. He makes a point to show every now and then how easily he can reshape that face to suit his needs, and make it your own, even doing so in front of you to make a point.

He is Dracula meets King Arthur, Sherlockian brainpower and Lupin trickery joined forces, centerpiece to urban thrillers turned into fairytales as The Big Bad Wolf switches sides to save us. Though his setting looks the part, The Shadow is no gritty film noir creature: he is what happens when the cutthroat gangsters and invincible spymasters and predatory businessmen behind it all meet the actual scariest guy around: Death itself, as the ultimate master and servant joined in one, who found a higher calling fighting for us instead, breaking and bending and controlling the rules and tipping them ever so slightly in the favor of those who are usually in no position to fight back.

(Art by Giovanni Timpano, for The Shadow #25)

As we discussed The Shadow, I suggested an opening scene with a cloaked figure emerging from a night fog to prevent a desperate young man from taking a suicide plunge from a high bridge. Thus befriended, the young man would swear loyalty to his rescuer and thereby become involved in exciting adventures with otherp persons who had been aided by the same benefactor, all being united in a common cause against crime. - Walter Gibson

That is where the Agents come in. As The Shadow is a distant living puzzlebox, we are very rarely privy to his thoughts and feelings, he glides through many stories scarcely-seen until he needs to be, and so we frequently experience things from the viewpoint of proxies, whether they are agents or characters swept into intrigue that only The Shadow can save them from. The first Shadow story opens up with a broke and depressed young man named Harry Vincent, ruined by the Great Depression reality of the time and trying to commit suicide, who is saved from it by The Shadow, and upon accepting a new purpose in life as his agent, grows into a dependable and strong ally, friend and even leader to people once like him over the course of the following adventures.

Across his history The Shadow has had agents and allies among all walks of life: redeemed/pretend criminals who use their reputations to provide The Shadow with inside knowledge, war vets, police officers, prison reformists, troublemaking journalists, government agents, politicians, criminologists, psychologists, high society chameleons, streetwise cabbies, janitors, the homeless, even crooks who once worked for those that The Shadow opposed, with some stories dedicated entirely to The Shadow playing guardian angel or working to provide second chances to those who've turned to crime. Community leaders with opposing viewpoints, rebel spies, prostitutes, historical figures such as Amelia Earhart and Nikola Tesla, robots, political activists and freedom fighters, doctors, birds, boxers, actors, magicians, beavers, and a list too big to get into here. There was a crimefighting dog at some point also and he was a very good boy.

Said list also includes the guy most people initially assume is his secret identity, a wealthy globetrotting man-about-town named Lamont Cranston. The first on-screen meeting between The Shadow and his secret identity Lamont Cranston consisted of The Shadow showing up in the dark at Cranston's bedside, wearing his face and telling him in pristine detail how much he's usurped Cranston's life, and effectively blackmailing him into leaving town so he can continue being Cranston uninterrupted. It is considerably less known, however, that eventually Cranston and The Shadow became weird friends following this ordeal and worked together several times, with Cranston turning out to be a pretty entertaining hero in his own right even besides his designated purpose of being rich and useless, even he was not immune to The Shadow's ability to enact positive change on his allies. Which is one note I'll end this post on: that The Shadow and his surroundings can be a lot more layered than given credit for.

I make the argument again and again that The Shadow is an intriguing character with much more to him than simply the gun violence and spooky laughter and murderousness that he's frequently reduced to, even if he isn't quite consistently so (as expected of one who's been around in virtually every medium for over 90 years). He can be compassionate, thoughtful, cautious and consequence-minded in his approach to effectively combat crime and protect others, ridiculous, eccentric, flawed in ways big and small and humanizing, for better or worse depending on who's writing him. He is a versatile shapeshifter as well as an unassailable force of personality to throw into any gathering, any circumstance, any narrative, and remain unique.

(Art by Michael Kaluta, from Hell's Heat Wave)

With those other “masked avenger” pulp types, their masked identities are an act, at least in part. Underneath the hat and mask they are regular guys with relatable motivations. With the Shadow, the guy in the hat and scarf IS the real guy, and his motivations and feelings are largely kept from us.

When we see him in his “civilian” identity, THAT is an act. So there’s a kind of brutal simplicity to his dialogue.

He is what he appears to be, and says exactly what he means. - Chris Roberson

And that's about it as a summary. I have a masterpost pinned at the top because, evidently, I have a lot more to say about the character and more I can't cover here. If you want, feel free to shoot me any additional questions and let me work out my fixation on the weird crime spooky murder man. I have to go off about him at least once a month or else I start eating my furniture so, help me out here.

#replies tag #the shadow #the shadow magazine #shadow comics #shadow radio #lamont cranston #kent allard #pulp fiction #pulp heroes

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