#tania belinsky

[marvelousmrm]

Incredible Hulk #207 (Wein/Buscema, Jan 1977). Reeling from Jarella’s death, the Hulk begs the Defenders (after an obligatory clash) to resurrect her. Strange gives it the ol’ college try but fails… It’s shocking to see Hulk despondent, defeated by grief.

#marvel #marvel 616 #incredible hulk #bruce banner #hulk #kyle richmond #nighthawk #tania belinsky #red guardian #stephen strange #doctor strange #barbara denton #valkyrie #len wein #sal buscema

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

This blog is mostly dead, ngl, but I found my Fantasma post from three years ago was randomly deleted (?!?!?) so I’m making it again to the best of my ability because (1) that bugs me and (2) I like Fantasma. She’s really interesting, kind of bizarre, and more than a little tragic. Fantasma debuted in a 1989 issue of The Avengers, where she was referred to as Fantasia (which is how she’s listed on the Marvel wiki). However, in every appearance after her first, she is called Fantasma, so that’s the name that I use for her. She’s been a consistent member of Russian superhero teams---the People’s Protectorate, the Supreme Soviets, and the Winter Guard, which are basically all the same State-owned Russian squad but with different names that change with the times and occasional additions/changes to the lineup. Her powers seem mainly focused around mentally scanning and tapping into what she calls an individual’s “bio-field”. This allows her to read emotions, detect lies/truth, induce unconsciousness, block people’s sensory perceptions (effectively able to make herself or anyone else she wants be invisible to the target), and forge telepathic links. She forged one such link permanently with her teammate Red Guardian aka Josef Petkus (not to be confused with Tania Belinsky and others who also used the codename) the first time she touched him, though the reasons how and why are still unknown. She’s also very potent at casting illusions, such as when she used this to disguise the Soviet Supremes as the Avengers, and another time when she made foes believe that spiders were swarming all over them. She is described as a “witch” by many, often as an insult, and her powers are said to come from sorcery. It was indicated early on that the lovely face we see is not her true one, during a battle in which an enemy felled her, only to be shocked at her true appearance. However, we the reader did not see it ourselves, and no explanation for what could be so awful was ever given for years.

So, Fantasma is originally introduced as something of an antagonist. She’s not evil at all, she’s just on the superhero squad opposing our protagonists. The Soviet Super Soldiers (Darkstar, Vanguard, and Ursa Major) had grown so disillusioned with how the USSR had used and manipulated them that they attempted to defect to the US. The USSR responded by assembling a new crew of national superheroes, The Supreme Soviets, of which Fantasma was among, and then sending them after the Soviet Super Soldiers. The latter were nearly killed, rendered comatose, and returned to the USSR. They definitely had beef with the Supreme Soviets after, as you might imagine, but after the dissolution of the USSR they did all eventually come together as The Winter Guard to collectively serve and protect the Russian people. . .under the management of the Russian government. In the early 2000s, Darkstar was serving in the Paris branch of X-Corps. She was killed on a mission. The Russian government, not wanting to lose her valuable image, found a way to create replacement Darkstars by infusing genetically compatible women with her DNA, giving them her powers and appearance. Some of the members found this wrong, and it lead to a great rift on the Winter Guard. So great that many of the members, including Fantasma, quit the team. They had not been seen for a year since. . .until a tear in reality opened up in St. Petersburg, and who fell out but an unconscious Fantasma?!

Note that the blonde woman here is Darkstar, but not the Darkstar (Laynia Petrovna) who died and was, at this point, still dead. This Darkstar is Reena Stancioff, one of the aforementioned replacement Darkstars.

Fantasma says some pretty ominous things when she wakes up.

So. . .question is, what’s going on with her? Where’s the rest of the team that left with her? And what the hell was she doing in a trans-dimensional rift like that? We get our answer to at least one of these swiftly. The rest of the Winter Guard who had left–Vanguard, Starlight, and Powersurge—appear in the city streets through a similar portal. And they’re talking in a VERY hostile way, calling themselves The Protectorate (which I think is what they and Fantasma decided to go by when they split off originally?). In the next issue, they’re fighting the Russian military in the streets of St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, Reena and Galina (Crimson Dynamo) are slut-shaming the traumatized Fantasma behind her back. I don’t care if they did end up correct, I don’t like this. 

As for Fantasma, she doesn’t really remember her former comrades. Or much of anything, apparently.

Galina and Reena come in to report that the rest of the Protectorate came through with Fantasma. Cut back to the Protectorate, and their dialogue indicates that Fantasma, formerly one of them, is now their foe, and that she has “forces”, but we’re not told WHY she’s now their enemy or who her “forces” are, as thus far she’s been alone. But according to them “it’ll be up to us to save the world”

Anyway, their gambit to get the attention of the Winter Guard by fighting worked, and the latter show up. Naturally, rather than talking and explaining the situation, there has to be a superhero battle, which I’ll spare you. Back to Fantasma, she stayed behind at base since she’s still recovering from whatever it was she went through. She’s being given a tour of the base by a handler, Dimitri, who hopes it will restore her memory. For some reason, he sees fit to introduce her to one of the prisoners, Sergei Krylov aka The Presence. The Presence is the biological father of Vanguard and the original Darkstar, and a supervillain who wields nuclear radiation for various mad and disgusting deeds. His track record includes making Starlight, one of the aforementioned Russian heroines and member of the Protectorate, into his mind-controlled “lover” and attempting to do the same to Laynia…aka the original Darkstar…his DAUGHTER. And yes, he KNEW she was his daughter. Ick. And now it seems he has designs on Fantasma, thanking Dimitri for bringing him a new “playmate” and telling Fantasma she is “everything I hoped for” ick ick ICK. Fantasma freaks out upon being told this, but not in the way you’d think—she yells “I MUST SAVE THEM ALL!” and takes off running. Ok then. 

Dimitri follows her and she’s run all the way down to a part of the sub-basement I’m guessing no one knew about, because it’s filled with sinister-looking eggs. They’re big, purple-red, and creepy eyes can be seen through the membranes of some. Fantasma doesn’t think it’s creepy though, she says it’s “so much beauty” and “my destiny”. She explains that “As a foundling, I was always confused living in a human’s world. I never had a sense of belonging or understanding. But now. . .it has all been made clear to me.”

I’ll be honest with you guys, as an autistic person who grew up feeling fundamentally alien from those around me, I have a ton of feels about this and all the sympathy for Fantasma. But I’ll get into my feelings later. Right now I’m just relaying what happens. She kneels, caressing the eggs, continuing, “This citadel was our fertility center, a place were science and sorcery converged. These eggs were a precautionary measure. . .hidden from prying eyes. . .They have spent many months waiting to be fully birthed . .waiting for a surrogate mother to raise them.” Her hand is no longer human. Her entire left arm has transformed into a purple, clawed appendage as she speaks. The rest of her body turns purple, her face becoming ghastly, her eyes solid glowing green, “I am that mother. I am their salvation!”

She has completely transformed into a huge purple monster, unrecognizable as her former self, and the reality of what she—and these eggs—are is revealed, “THE DIRE WRAITHS WILL BE REBORN!”

Dimitri is shocked, uttering “All this time we served together. . .” but Fantasma is more concerned with the eggs, noting that they have not yet been fertilized. But she says, as she reaches out tentacles to her former comrade, “I know just how to remedy that.” Dimitri flees and shouts for the computer to alert the Winter Guard, to alert support staff, to open the armory. . .the computer says none of it can be done, and Fantasma says she’s already begun to “infect” the headquarters. So. . .can Dire Wraiths infect computers too? In any case, as she pursues Dimitri, she passes the Presence’s cell once more, and he speaks to her, telling her, “Let me show you what the universe has in store for us.”

Anyway the Winter Guard continue to fight it out with the Protectorate until FINALLY they actually TALK and explain it’s Fantasma they’re after and why that is. Basically they explain that the rift that they and Fantasma came out of is Limbo, and that there’s this powerful being named Immortus there who they sought out, asking him to use his abilities to manipulate the timestream to revive the original Darkstar. Since his realm was infected with Dire Wraiths, he asked that th Protectorate serve as his personal guard against these invasive monsters for a year. In the process, it was revealed that Fantasma, their longtime ally, was a Dire Wraith herself. How this was revealed, it’s never explained, it’s just “oh she was a Dire Wraith” and like. . .I really wanna know how that happened? It seems like Fantasma HERSELF didn’t know this, she said she believed herself to be a “foundling” so I don’t think she was consciously undercover, I think she really thought she was human and had no idea what she was til Limbo. And then. . .once she fell out of Limbo and back into this world, I guess she lost her memories all over again (girl, you gotta get that checked out, that sounds like an issue)

  Anyway, speaking of Limbo, she found a tear in time and space there, and came back to this world, so the Protectorate followed her to stop her from infecting this plane with Dire Wraiths as well. Looks like they were right to, since by the time they got back to base, it’s clearly SWARMING with. . .idk, flying Dire Wraiths? I guess she infected some pigeons or something? There are flying demonic-looking things all around it that I presume as Dire Wraiths but they don’t normally fly. . .but they are shapeshifters. . .well whatever, next (and final) issue! Outside the citadel, th Winter Guard are fighting their way past the flying Dire Wraith things. Inside. . .inside, Fantasma and the Presence are levitating with their bodies pressed together (ick) and the Presence complains of the Winter Guard’s breach as “What madness threatens the completion of our intimate congress?” (ICK ICK ICK)

Fantasma begins to hatch the eggs, apparently through telepathic command, saying “Never will our children be manipulated, forced to hide what they really are.” Again, I’ve got compassion for her here. She also says that “Like me, they will draw their power from the aether. But they owe all their loveliness and their very lives to you.”

So I guess she’s saying they’re Dire Wraiths like her, they’ll have magic powers like her, but I guess the Presence is somehow what made them come alive? Maybe he fertilized them (ICK) since she said earlier they weren’t fertilized yet? How does that work? Do I want to know? Or maybe she means they owe their lives to him somehow triggering her memory of them? It’s all very unclear and it never really gets explained. We do, at least, learn (sort of) how The Presence knew what Fantasma really was even when SHE did not, as he says that the building itself told him: “While in confinement, the citadel whispered its special secrets to me. But I knew I needed you to unlock the door. The grand design is well underway.” Does the Presence telepathically communicate with computers or something? That’s not part of his typical powerset, but in this storyline he also has “powers of awareness” that tell him that it’s the Winter Guard who is breaching the base, so idk. New powers as the plot demands! He’s radioactive so that can just explain anything! Comics logic! Also how Dire Wraiths breed is damned inconsistent too, like they can infect and convert a victim into a Dire Wraith but also lay eggs but apparently those eggs also need fertilizing and that can come from a non Dire Wraith (Dimitri, the Presence) but it’s not clear. . .how? IDK guys I’m lost and I’ve read this more than once, just go with it. Anyway, Fantasma sends her children to go attack the Winter Guard, but they fight their way through (though the current Red Guardian is decapitated) and reach Fantasma and the Presence. Fantasma is hanging off the Presence looking al sexy except for her head and one hand, which are both that of a Dire Wraith and it’s super freaky looking and also kind of funny. The Presence, in typical villain fashion, tells the Winter Guard how they’re going to release Dire Wraith egg spores into air, water, and soil, and “rewrite the Earth” because “after all, my children need  someplace to call home.”

This would be understandable for Fantasma but why on earth does The Presence want this? I understand he’s meant to be insane, but that’s not a good enough answer for me. Anyway, the Dire Wraiths continue to attack the Winter Guard. The present Darkstar is killed almost immediately via a Dire Wraith’s drill-tongue to the back of the head, which grotesquely emerges from her mouth on the other side. Nasty. She is, as a result, instantly infected and becomes a Dire Wraith herself. Now, remember, this is NOT Laynia, the original Darkstar, this is a woman named Reena who was essentially made into a duplicate of Laynia to be the new Darkstar. And while Darkstar’s brother Vanguard openly found this disgusting and a defilement of his sister’s body and memory, he’s still horrified at seeing her become a Dire Wraith because “She was all I had left of my Laynia!” to which his father, The Presence, comforts that “You can join her” and Fantasma, trying to infect Vanguard as well, says “We are willing to adopt” though she’s stopped by Starlight. Starlight, it should be noted, was formerly mentally enslaved by The Presence into being his longtime “lover” and accomplice, and during her time in Limbo became (consensual) lovers with Vanguard. That’s. . .a weird choice, but ok girl, as long as it’s what YOU want. Nothing wrong with Vanguard, just. . .I don’t think I’d choose my abuser’s estranged son as my next boyfriend. I know it’s not Vanguard’s fault and he had nothing to do with it, but it still seems weird to me. Anyway–

Galina aka the current Crimson Dynamo opens up another tear to Limbo using a….nuclear dimensional displacement device, I think it was called earlier? Fantasma does NOT like the look of this, yelling that she will not be sent back there. Galina, though, disagrees, as she grabs Fantasma and hucks her into the tear. Fantasma’s last words are “I will not face oblivion alone…” and she uses her tentacles to grab Starlight and drag her through the tear with her. But though Fantasma is gone, the other Dire Wraiths remain, including the one that was Darkstar. Now leading the others, she has the Winter Guard surrounded and encroaches on them. . .and then suddenly she turns into pretty Darkstar again and wipes out all the Dire Wraiths! And not just any pretty Darkstar—it’s Laynia! Reborn through. . .the power of Immortus, whom the Winter Guard made a deal with? Or something to do with the Darkstar gem that housed her psyche and DNA? Who knows! She’s back! Oh yeah, then Powersurge sacrifices his life to kill the Presence and the team just barely makes it out before the place blows up. Much like how many of the team (including, ironically, Fantasma herself) had left the Winter Guard over the death of the original Darkstar, Galina now leaves the team over the death of Reena and the resurrection of Laynia “inside the body of [a] brain-eating abomination, hiding in plain sight among us” which does raise the question of if there’s any Dire Wraith left in Laynia. A question that’s never really been answered, but thus far seems to be no. This wraps up Fantasma’s story for good (thus far). Will we see her again? Well, I don’t think so, but then again, who would have predicated when she debuted in 1989 that in 2010 she’d be revealed to have been a Dire Wraith all along? Comics are weird, characters will come back when you least expect it, often in ways you’d least expect, I’ve learned that multiple times over. So, now that you know Fantasma’s full tale, let’s talk about her. Dire Wraiths are supposedly innately evil (which is a problematic concept in itself but let’s just accept it FOR THE MOMENT) but she served as a superhero for. . .it’s hard to say how long in comic book time, but 20 years in publication time. And while the task she’s debuted with—retrieving the Soviet Super Soldiers against their will from the US—is hardly heroic, but we see in other adventures that she does do heroic stuff too, such as helping evacuate a town of civilians. Given that she didn’t have her memories of being a Dire Wraith at this point, we can’t say she was just doing this to disguise her true nature as an “evil” creature. And speaking of her “true” nature, we’ve seen examples that it might NOT be the case that Dire Wraiths are actually as innately and intrinsically always evil as is claimed. Two Dire Wraith males in canon  cast aside their evil ways and entire Dire Wraith identities to live as “human” men with the human women they loved, and another Dire Wraith who was sent to Earth to scout it for invasion purposes ended up admiring humanity instead, and turned against his own people to defend Earth. So it seems like upbringing can have an impact on them, and even those that grew up fully in Wraith society can turn around out of love for individual humans. Not exactly an altruistic reason, but still a step up.  And one of the Wraiths that married a human woman had a hybrid son, and while said son did end up being evil, that wasn’t until AFTER he was found by other Dire Wraiths who indoctrinated him into their ways. So he wasn’t just born evil. Also, while she may have been forced to be a superhero by the Soviet government (see my theory on her backstory which I get into in a bit) she demonstrated that she COULD leave, she left with the other members in disgust after Darkstar’s death. So she could have just fucked off from being a hero by choice, at least once the USSR dissolved, but she never did, not until the remains of her TEAMMATE were defiled by the government. That shows some very human emotion, and not evilness. It suggests she served as a hero because it was the right thing to do, and also had affection or respect for the original Darkstar. Let’s say she was innately evil though. Her story is still sympathetic. She’s an amnesiac “foundling” who believes herself to be human, but a human who is a shapechanger whose true form is a hideous monster. Like, all the angst Mystique is implied to have had about being blue in her true form before she got on the Mutant & Proud train? Imagine how it was for Fantasma. Like at least Mystique still looks like a HUMAN BEING. Fantasma must have felt like an absolute freak, and it’s no wonder to me that she crafted such a sexualized, over-idealized form for herself; she was pretty clearly hyper-compensating for the fact that to a human perspective she’s a grotesque abomination that NO ONE could even TELL was female. No one human, anyway, I’m sure Dire Wraiths know. Like, you guys, I’m a very cis woman, I very much want to be a cis woman, if my very female gender identity was in the body of a huge freaky monster with no gender indicators, of COURSE I would make myself be The Sexiest Most Feminine Beautiful Woman in a costume that makes sure you KNOW it.  Despite the costume though, Fantasma never had a sexy or flirtacious persona. As mentioned at the beginning of this biography, she was cool and aloof, not mean or cruel but not the easiest person to get to know or get along with. Kinda robotic-ish. And that makes a ton of sense, as does her saying how “I was always confused living in a human’s world. I never had a sense of belonging or understanding” when she finds the eggs. Because she’s literally an alien who thinks she’s human, and thus expects herself to have human emotions, to relate to other humans around her in a human way, etc. And she CAN’T. And not only does she expect it of herself, other humans around her, also thinking her human, surely expect it from her as well and react negatively when she fails to. Again, as someone who is autistic, this hits home HARD for me. I really don’t care HOW evil she is (and I don’t think she is, certainly not when she’s amnesiac) she’s relatable as hell to me. So, how the fuck did a Dire Wraith come to be on the Supreme Soviets team anyway? If she had her memories, the natural assumption would be that this was a deliberate longterm infiltration scheme. After all, the Dire Wraiths had infiltrated the USSR government before in an 1983 story. And actually, I think that’s how she got there, just it wasn’t a deliberate infiltration on her part. While all the Dire Wraiths at their base in the Dead Zone were apparently either killed or banished to Limbo in this story (Rom #46) I think it’s most likely that one was missed, and captured by the USSR government later, perhaps in a weakened state from the battle. Maybe she was amnesiac already from the fight somehow, or perhaps the Soviets mindwiped her. Either way, she lost her memory and knowledge of what she was, but still had the shapechanging and sorcery skills of her species. And they put that to use by making her “Fantasma” and feeding her a story about being a foundling and put her on a superhero team, not unlike how they told Darkstar and Vanguard that their parents had abandoned them when in reality the Soviet government had taken them away at birth for their own use due to their mutations. This is sad and fucked up no matter what Fantasma’s own morality is, she’s the victim here. It doesn’t matter who or what she is, or if she tried to help take over Earth, or what, this is wrong. It’s a thousand times more fucked up than if they’d just killed her. Also, during her pre-reveal days as a hero, it comes up that Fantasma is claustrophobic, and I have the WORST feeling that whatever the Soviet government did to her probably accounts for that.

And as for when Fantasma gets her memory back. . .ok, she more arguably is evil then, what with trying to infect the planet with Dire Wraiths that presumably will kill all humankind, certainly a great many. That is pretty bad. But from her perspective. . .why should she give a damn? Seriously, why should she care about a species that effectively ENSLAVED her, that either took advantage of her amnesia or even caused it for its own purposes? And the eggs were already there, leftover from the original Dire Wraith invasion, why should she not prioritize hatching them over the lives of humans? They’re the equivalent of CHILDREN to her, remember. And she’s never had family before, or others of her kind, at least not in a long long time. She’s probably always felt so lonely and weird, and now she understands WHY, and has a chance to live on a planet of people like HER, instead of a freak among people who used her. Is it right? No, I’m not arguing that. But I think it’s understandable for reasons beyond just “well she’s evil” She doesn’t seem to hold any love for her former teammates, I notice. But I also notice none of them have any for her either. They’re all after her ass without hesitation or apology, there’s no “I know you’re in their somewhere!” or “We’re your friends, try to remember!” type stuff here like you’d expect. They’re each just trying to murder each other. It really, REALLY makes me wonder how the reveal of her real species went down in Limbo. Did Fantasma still think of them as friends then? Was she conflicted? Or did she just jump immediately to wanting to infect and conquer the planet? And how did the Protectorate react? Did they give her a chance? Did they still see her as the same Fantasma until she acted otherwise? Did they try to coax her back to being their friend, to talk her out of giving in to her Dire Wraith ways? Or did they immediately see her as an enemy that had deliberately deceived them and must be removed without remorse? We never know. We never get to see how it happened at all, nor is any of it hinted. And that drives me NUTS because it would give SO MUCH additional context to this situation. I also have to wonder just how long this was intended as Fantasma’s background. Again, she’s introduced in 1989, and this story is in 2010. It’s pretty unlikely to me that this idea was just waiting in the wings this long til someone did something with it. On the other hand, there is that panel where that woman is shocked by whatever Fantasma’s true face is, so it seems like there was definitely intended to be SOMETHING up with her. My PERSONAL guess is that it’s probably like the Monet St Croix/M Twins/Penance scenario, where there was plans for one thing to be revealed, but then it got turned in to something else by the time another writer actually got there to do it. That’s just a total guess though, no evidence for it. Anyway, I feel bad for Fantasma, I feel like she was a much more tragic villain than she was actually portrayed as, and I feel super duper bad for Starlight too, who is likewise very tragic yet that tragedy is seldom paid attention to at all for what it is by writers. And now they’re both in LITERAL comic book Limbo (which. . .apparently this Limbo isn’t Magik’s Limbo, it’s a different Limbo? JFC CALL IT SOMETHING ELSE THEN) and who knows when they’ll ever be so much as mentioned again. But you can bet I’ll be here to yell about them!

#marvel #Marvel Comics #dire wraith #dire wraiths #fantasma #supreme soviets #winter guard #Darkstar and the Winter Guard

[marvelman901]

Starlight (Tania Belinsky) . Before getting the name Starlight, Tania was called Red Guardian... . Did you prefer Tania as Red Guardian or Starlight? . 1st - 4th slide is from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe v3 6 (1991) by Keith Pollard and Josef Rubinstein. 5th slide art is by Gus Vazquez and Keith Griffen. 6th slide art is by Sal Buscema. 7th slide art is by Keith Pollard and Josef Rubinstein. . #starlight #defenders #josefrubinstein #keithpollard #keithgiffen #salbuscema #90s #gusvazquez #redguardian https://www.instagram.com/p/ChkzD-XMkSs/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#starlight #defenders #josefrubinstein #keithpollard #keithgiffen #salbuscema #90s #gusvazquez #redguardian

[doctorofmagic]

New series just announced: Defenders - Beyond!

While Stephen won’t be in the main team, he’s the one who'll gather the new members.

“It all kicks off when Doctor Strange sends a dire warning from beyond the grave! Blue Marvel, America Chavez, Taaia (the mother of Galactus), Tigra, and Loki (a variant of the God of Mischief who should be familiar to readers of Ewing’s LOKI: AGENT OF ASGARD series) will have assemble to defend reality itself! Their mission will take them to the very limits of space and time (and beyond it) as they confront questions few heroes have dared to ask and receive answers no one in the Marvel Universe is prepared for…”

Even in death, my man won’t rest haha.

It was also hinted by the cover that the main enemy will be the Beyonder from Secret Wars II (yeah, the disco version).

Al Ewing also hinted that one of these characters won’t make it.

“We’ve got an eclectic new crew of Defenders chosen for the task by the final spell of Stephen Strange – I’m saying what’s probably a final goodbye to a lot of stuff from the past ten years with this one, and for at least one character, this will be the last adventure. Hope you survive the psychedelic experience, pilgrim!”

My money goes either to Ikol!Loki (which is also his creation) or Taaia. It’s sad to choose, but if I had to, I’d save Taaia because she’s great. And it’s really painful because I also love Ikol!Loki haha :’)

I’m excited. I already read Ultimates by Al Ewing, which included both America and Blue Marvel. My only new surprise is Tigra, so I’m very excited!

The book will be a five-issue series and will hit stands on June 16.

[Source]

--

Not sure if I’ll be doing a review on this one but of course I’ll post panels when Stephen shows up. And definitely will be reading the whole series. Also the og team on the cover could be bait but I’d love to see them together n.n

#doctor strange #stephen strange #hulk #bruce banner #namor #valkyrie #brunnhilde #gargoyle #hellcat #patsy walker #beast #iceman #angel #warren worthington iii #silver surfer #norrin radd #nighthawk #kyle richmond #red guardian #tania belinsky #tigra #blue marvel #adam brashear #america chavez #loki #taaia #al ewing #javier rodriguez #marvel comics

[defenders-core]

#defenders #marvel's defenders #defenders-core #marvel #luke cage #valkyrie #facebook #clea #red guardian #tania belinsky

[thecorteztwins]

Pitch for yet another series I’d love to see featuring characters only I care about (and some mutuals I have forced to care): A team of Starlight, Madelyne Pryor, and Haven. All women brutally robbed of agency both in-universe and on a narrative level. All walked a very complicated area between villain and not. All with very good, heroic aims, but manipulated and controlled by greater forces. Two of these forces were demonic (Maddie, Haven), all of male or masculine-coded (The Adversary, The Presence, Sinister, Sym), all  three were exploited in ways related to their gender (Haven as mother, Starlight as lover, Maddie as both). And who is this team assembled by? Not by any mortal force but Gaea, the Earth Mother and Elder Goddess in Marvel comics canon. Their missions focuses around protection of children, animals, human rights/hunger/illness, and the environment with no allegiance to any nation or demographic. It’s very much gendered and on the one hand, yeah, women as nurturers is a cliche not without problematic aspects, but I also like the idea of departing from the idea of “feminism and empowerment means being a callous unemotional jerk with no weaknesses and punching things” because I’m just not a fan of that either, but I am a huge fan of soft strength and female bonds and mutual healing through mutual support. And Starlight and Maddie aren’t exactly one-note “softies” either---but at this point, putting some softness back into Madelyne would be more progressive for her, imo, given the “dark crazy seductress” stereotype she’s become. Also these are just all neglected characters who I love (including Gaea, I’m a slut for Earth Mother/Mother Goddesses, HENCE MY LOVE FOR HAVEN) and I want to see back. And yes, this fantasy is constructed specifically to appeal to me, WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

#madelyne pryor #tania belinsky #radha dastoor #gaea #marvel #idea #fic pitch #out of cortez

[panels-of-interest]

Hellcat joins the Defenders.

[from The Defenders (1972) #44]

#Avengers #Defenders #Hellcat #Patsy Walker #Valkyrie #Winter Guard #Soviet Super-Soldiers #Red Guardian #Tania Belinsky #Starlight #Wong #Doctor Strange #Red Rajah #Defenders membership

[scribeofmorpheus]

Counterpart [5/5]

Pairing: Bucky x Reader x Framework!Steve

Series Masterlist | Main Masterlist | Words: 6k | AO3

A/N: Incase people are unfamiliar, The Red Guardian is the soviet equivalent of Captain America. I was going to use Alexei Shostakov in this chapter but I ended up using him in AFWHI so instead, I went with Tania Belinsky. In the end, I liked how having Steve fight Tania emphasised the darker nature of Framework!Steve. And yes, I admit, some parts were rushed (serves me right for planning a short series with too much potential to draw from!) but fear not, there’s an epilogue.

Note: this chapter acts as the spin-off opening chapter for The Liberators. Send me an ask if you want to be tagged in that going forward.

Warnings: This chapter contains language, violence, oral sex (public-ish...), kinda voyeurism if a figment of someone's imagination counts, torture, etc. It’s a dark series, expect a darker take.

Song: Stay Alive by Hidden Citizens.

CHAPTER FIVE: THE CHOICE

~

The light fixture above sparked, bulbs exploding from the residual energy rippling off Wanda’s charged aura. Several unconscious bodies lay haphazardly on the floor in no discernible pattern. The door barricaded by debris, upon debris, until there was barely a peephole to look through to the other side.

Exhausted, Wanda fell onto the glass panels of the submersion tanks, a dark rivulet of blood gradually meandering from her nose, the glow of her eyes fizzling out like a gyroscopic disco light.

"Boss, are you okay?" Friday asked after a beat of deafening silence.

Wanda heaved, sweat matting her hair to her cheeks, "I just… I need to catch my breath is all." She glanced over to the tank which housed Y/N, her fingers dusting over the glass as a weak smile crept over her tired face.

"I'll keep them safe," she swore to herself, to the universe.

The sound of a plasma cannon being charged behind the wall of debris worried Wanda, but as much as she wanted to stand, and stay focused, she could barely keep her eyes open. She was past her threshold now, slipping away into unconsciousness. Whether she liked it or not, she was out of commission.

"Friday," her voice was soft, breathy. "How… long?"

"They've been in there a little over eight hours, boss," the program’s Irish lilt was like an unintended lullaby to Wanda's ears.

"We… still… have… time…" her mind was dragged into the clutches of sleep, her hand slipping away from the glass.

    Your body shook violently, it felt like you were in the middle of a seizure, unable to control your limbs or the sheer quantity of neurotransmitters that flooded your brain, drenching it into a pool of anxiety.

"Hey, shh, shh," Steve tried to soothe your panic attack away, hands bracing your head and lower spine as you grabbed onto his jacket.

A few junior agents had caught wind of the commotion and stalled on their way to their desks, prompting Steve to sneer at them, "What the hell are you looking at? Move along!"

Feet scurried after that and the dial had been turned back up, now you could hear the usual bustle of the office space flow around you uninterrupted.

"Come on babe, let's calm you down," Steve pulled you off the ground and walked you towards the med bay. He placed you on one of the empty beds, sealing the room shut with a protocol override thanks to his higher clearance.

"Hey, babe, look at me," his hands pulled your face away from your chin. "Good, that's a good girl," he smiled, worry clearly showing in his assertive tone. "Now breathe, just like me."

Steve took a deep breath with his nose and let out a long exhale through this mouth, pads of his thumbs rubbing at your cheek as he encouraged you to do as he did.

Slowly, you mimicked his actions, letting each breath erase the shuddering of your jaw and the rapid hammering beneath your ribs. Swallowing hard after each interval.

"There you go," Steve's grip never softened, he was your rock through the tumultuous storm, rubbing circles on your uncomfortably tight spine.

"I- I think I'm okay now," you whispered softly, hands unclenching from his jacket leaving deep crinkles around the expensive leather.

He pulled up a chair, "What happened to you in there?"

"Honestly," you chuckled with uncertainty. "I don't know. One minute I'm ready to crack skulls and then the next I'm..." you trailed off, a sinking feeling warning you that he might not believe what you had to say.

"What?" his eyes were soft and understanding, this was the gentler side of him that few got the pleasure of seeing.

"I started seeing things, like memories, only…" your hands fidgeted, the urge to bite your nails was strong. “They weren't my memories." A shudder crept through you. You turned to look at the Hydra sigil tiled onto the floor. "Sometimes I feel like nothing is real." You admitted.

Steve stood, his hands massaging your neck in languid strokes, his beard tickling your skin as he brought his lips to caress the sensitive flesh. Your head shot back, eyelashes batting rapidly before finally closing as you bit your lip.

"Does this feel real?"

You gasped as his lips moved lower, his hand moving to the underside of your breast placing a strong grip over the curve of your ribs that guarded your heart.

"Yes," you whimpered.

"And what about this?" his hand grazed a nipple through the light material of your dress shirt, tongue lapping at your skin letting the air cool it so it prickled with sensual energy.

"Hmm," you bit your lip harder.

Steve brought his lips to crush over yours, coaxing a moan out as he massaged the top of your spine with his other hand.

"It's been a stressful few days," his voice was laced with lust, hand moving to pop open the button on your jeans. "Let me take some of that stress away."

He pushed your body down, spreading your legs as he dragged the chair closer so his face was aligned with your thighs, his thumbs hooking over your belt loops, tugging them down ferociously.

You gasped and his laugh carried across the exposed flesh of your inner thigh, hands slipping underneath you to cup your ass and raise your legs so he could trail kisses from your knee to the apex of your thigh. His breath was hot against your lace panties.

"Steve," you gasped, trying to get lost in the moment, but for every sensual sensation running through you, causing your legs to shake with want, your brain kept playing back a song like a recorder stuck on a loop. The image of another man laying over you, being deep inside you, as his hair tickled your breasts with every thrust, fogged your senses. His steely blue eyes matching the man in the interrogation room. Making you feel ashamed of thinking of another man while your husband lavished ay your moistening core.

You squinted, trying to drive those foreign images away, fingers digging into Steve's hair, nudging him further into your core.

He complied, suckling at your clit through the lacy fabric, eliciting another gasp from your lips. The pressure from Steve's mouth pulled blood around your bud, making it become engorged with desire. You grew more sensitive with every lap of his tongue and every nibble of his teeth, crying from pleasure, unashamed that anyone passing by would clearly be able to see the two of you participating in lewd acts if they walked past the semi-translucent door.

Steve's tongue was like a salve for the ache milking you internally and as much as you just wanted to lay there and let your senses go haywire, the more you lost control under his touch, the more your mind wondered.

The ghost, that damned ghost with his perfect eyes and his long silky hair and brooding disposition, came to life in the dark recesses of your subconscious.

Steve finally stripped your panties free and you wiggled into his touch, pushing your hips downwards so his tongue could fill your entrance as he stroked, suckled and devoured you.

"Steve..." you moaned with pleasure and that drove him wild. His hands palmed your ass as his fervour increased. Soon he was fingering you at an unbearable pace while he returned his mouth to your clit. The knot in your stomach began to coil tighter and tighter and tighter.

"Say my name," the ghost whispered.

You snapped your head to the side and defiantly mewled Steve's name again.

"Say. My. Name." it was too light to be a threat, but the edge present in those words made you quake and soon you were unravelling, juices seeping into Steve's hungry mouth.

"Steve… St-Steve, ahh!" You came harder, the climax far from over.

A cold shiver spread from your ear lobe all the way to your aorta and deeper within. The ghost closer than before, close enough to smell his scent and feel his warmth, spoke out again, "Say my name."

You whimpered, the final wave of your climax washing over you as you bit into the pillow and whimpered, cracked voice feather-light, "Bucky..."

When you opened your eyes and you saw Steve stand from between your legs licking his fingers like some starved wolf. A devilish grin hiding under his beard.

What the hell did I just say? You questioned yourself as you looked into the reflective surface of a heartbeat monitor. Your own eyes taunting you, a clear window into your fractured mind.

The ghost stood behind you, a smile of triumph on his face.

"You remember me," he said.

You turned in the direction of the ghost’s reflection, but all you saw were curtains and medical equipment. You glanced back at the monitor wearily, a migraine beginning to form. You flinched from the pain, your thoughts telling you to take another pill.

"The pain is a good thing," the ghost said. "It means you're fighting this world," he crossed over to face you now, had hovering close to your radiating skin. "Fighting this lie…" his hand hovered lower, close to your chin. “Come back to me."

"Y/N?" Steve's voice tore through the apparition and your focus was pulled back to his face. "You still with me?"

You stared dumbfounded for a moment, before pulling up your pants and switching positions with Steve, a menacing smirk asserting itself over your features.

If it took being numbed to the rest of the world by Steve’s incendiary touch in order to get the ghost to leave, then you weren't averse to spending a few more minutes in this room with him.

"Perfect," you replied as you got on your knees and freed his pulsing member. "Now, it's time for me to help you relax."

You took him in your mouth and he pulled at your hair possessively, pushing you down further until you felt his tip knocking at your uvula.

You let his scent fill you. The musk of his pure desire was overwhelming, a sensory overload that turned your mind into a blank sheet, white with static and nothingness. You savoured the quiet, the lack of discord, as you pleasured him with the same enthusiasm he had used on you. Steve’s ringed finger entwined with yours as he whispered through pleasured grunts, “God, I love you.”

You wanted to say ‘I love you’ too, but for some reason, it never resonated as completely true.

 After you and Steve got cleaned up, the infirmary doors were overridden and a short but plucky looking woman walked in, her professional glower making her look older than she was.

"You mind telling me why two of my operatives locked themselves inside the med bay so they could play house instead of interrogating our prisoner?" she tapped her heels on the ground, pointing to the cameras. “You know we could see everything down in control, right?”

You cursed under your breath and Steve held back a playful chuckle.

"Executive Director Lewis," he informally saluted. “I was simply easing my wi- Uhem, I mean Agent Rogers here out of her panic attack.”

Darcy rolled her eyes at the two of you.

"Ma'am," you hid your blush by keeping your eyes on the Hydra sigil on the floor.

"Spare me the ass-kissing, get your asses into that interrogation room and make that little piggy squeal. I want to know everything he knows. It's been nearly four years since we last spotted the Canary, and I don't want to screw anything up now that he's in our custody after you failed to bring him in last time, Rogers!"

"I’ll get right on that ma'am," Steve strode out of the room.

"Darcy, hun, I've been looking for you everywhere," Clint jogged over, motioning to place a kiss on her cheek. She pulled away, a firm hand pressed to his sternum.

"That's Executive Director during work hours, Clint."

"Oh, right. Not in the workplace," he clicked his tongue. "Your father- err, the Director, wanted to see you." Clint thumbed at the doorway.

Darcy side-eyed you for a moment, a warning shot your way, “Be more discrete next time, agent.” She sauntered out of sight.

"Whew!" Clint pretended to wipe sweat from his brow. "Crisis averted. You owe me for the rescue, kiddo. The 'ol ball and chain can be a bit of a ball basher." He smirked.

"Thanks, Clint," you exhaled as you walked past him. "How did you know we were about to get a major tongue lashing from Control?"

“You know she hates that nick-name.” Clint laughed, "Her vein does this thing next to her left eye when she's about to chew someone out. I figured you would be the only one reckless enough to incur her wrath after that fiasco a few days ago."

You shook your head, "You two will never stop being an enigma to me."

"What can I say, she had me at 'What the hell do you think you're doing Agent Barton?'." His long gait caused him to turn around and talk to you while walking backwards. "Now, let’s go play good cop, bad cop and observer cop!"

 You watched from the other side of the one-way mirror as Steve bloodied his knuckles bombarding the imprisoned man’s face with brutal blow after brutal blow. One of his eyes was already discolouring, the skin turning puffy.

"Well, old friend," Steve's fist connected with his mentalis muscle, splitting the skin on his cheek so blood flowed down to his neck and below in a dark red stream. "I can't tell you how long I've been waiting to see you again." Steve flashed his canines in a dishevelling smile.

Bucky's muscles reflexively shook, his eyes staring into Steve's face as though he were looking up at a stranger.

You rubbed at your arms, the hairs sticking up. You hated seeing this side of Steve, it felt… wrong. You couldn't believe this was the same man who held you each night. The same man you married. The same man you were raising a daughter with.

You glanced down at your ring, the metal still cold and unfamiliar to you.

Clint was quiet, not his usual wise-cracking self, as he looked on, watching Steve work.

"That doesn't belong there," the ghost appeared beside you. You chose to ignore it. "That's why it still feels cold no matter how long you wear it. Odd isn't it. That's not how metal and heat work."

You wrung your ear, hoping the scuffling sounds would drown out the imposing presence that bore the same face as the man in the interrogation room –they like some form of twisted doppelgangers, only one was tangible the other was incorporeal.

"Whoever you think I am," Bucky stated, a wetness to his voice. "I'm not him. Just like how you're not my best friend."

Steve cocked his head to the side, his knuckle lodging itself into Bucky's hard stomach, "What, no happy tears for your old pal?"

Blood splattered out of his mouth, "My best friend would never allow himself to be anyone’s bruiser, especially not Hydra."

"Tell me, Canary… how's the view up there on your high horse?" Steve pulled Bucky's head back, roughly. "Does it make this sting any less?" He brought his knee to Bucky's nose, an uncomfortable crunch filling the space.

"Jesus," Clint whispered. "I knew these two had unfinished business, but I've never seen anyone get under the Captain's skin like this before." 

You shivered, finding it hard to swallow. "We're getting nowhere with these tactics." You raced out of the room, bursting into the adjacent room with great speed.

Steve's head craned to yours, unhappy with your disturbance. "Leave." He barked.

"Give me five minutes with him."

"I'm in the middle of something," he was seething.

"And I was his original interrogator," you bit back. "Give. Me. Five."

Grinding his teeth, Steve let go of Bucky's head roughly before complying with your request -albeit begrudgingly.

 You placed a wet cloth on Bucky's face, he instinctively leaned into your touch, and it startled you how right that felt. You jumped back slightly.

"Don't be afraid of me," he told you, his eyes still warm despite the bruised flesh forcing his eyelids closer together.

"I'm not," you answered truthfully.

"Then don't be afraid of yourself."

How did he know? You pondered. Does he really know me? Do I know him?

"James…" you placed the cloth back on his jaw. “That’s your name isn't it?"

"Bucky. My friends call me Bucky."

Your mind flashed back to the med bay where you whispered that very name into a pillow as you climaxed around Steve's face. You pressed your legs together, forcing yourself to stay in the present.

"Earlier, you said your plan worked. That you wanted to be here, to be in the same room as me…Why is that?"

He leaned his head forward and you applied pressure to the gash on his chin, "Isn't it obvious? I came back for you. I'd cross universes for you. And I did."

"I don't know you," you lied.

"Yes you do, I can see it in your eyes. You remember me. I know a part of you does, otherwise, why did you run away when you saw me."

Steve knocked on the door, growing impatient.

You held up five fingers before turning your attention back to the bloody and beaten man in front of you.

"Come back to me," he pleaded, leaning into your touch some more. "You're the last good thing in my life and I should have told you that every morning we woke up and every night we went to bed. You mean everything to me. You are my world. I love you."

Warning! Memories desynchronizing...

Searing, hot pain shot through your veins and you were repelled backwards by the forceful pounding at your temples. You cried out, vision turning to shit. Your instincts telling you to fight the pain, to make the screaming stop, but then you remembered what the ghost had said -what the phantom Bucky had told you.

The pain is a good thing. It means you're fighting this world.

You couldn't say for certain why you chose to listen to him, why you chose to embrace the pain. Maybe it was because your ring always felt cold and foreign on your ring finger, maybe it was because there was nothing but discord rupturing within you unless Steve was touching you, or maybe it was because you had finally lost your fucking marbles. Either way, you picked yourself up off the floor, upholstered your gun and fired off two shots. One pierced the camera. The other broke the chains that bound Bucky to the chair.

"I knew you'd remember," he wrapped his arms around you in a hug, the metal of his arm not nearly as cold as the metal on your ring finger. A second later, Steve kicked in the door.

"Reunion time later, let’s get us out of here," you told Bucky as you aimed your gun at Steve, the memories of both worlds mixing to form a muddle of confusion in your brain.

"What the hell are you doing Y/N? Have you lost your mind?" Steve barked with disbelief.

You shrugged, planting a bullet in his thyroid, "No. I've found it."

Bucky used the jagged edge of the chain to dig something out of his arm, it was small and cylindrical with a red tip. He pressed it and a red LED started to flash from the tip. He extended his arm to you, a look of faith in his eyes that you'd forgotten was once a constant in your life. "Do you trust me?"

Your memories were still a mess and you felt torn, almost like two people were trying to live inside one body, but you also felt confident and when you clasped your hand in his, you felt safe for what seemed like the first time in a decade. "I don't know. But I know I'll be safe as long as you're by my side."

He smiled, running out of the room with you in tow, Steve biting back grunts of pain as he rushed after you.

***

"Congratulations, Agent Carter," Darcy handed her a new shiny badge that smelled of newly tanned leather and chromium. "You're officially promoted to active duty. Now you can finally step out from behind your ex-husband's shadow." She laughed darkly.

Sharon looked down at the badge, lacklustre expression making Darcy cock her head to the side. "Don't look at this as anything other than what it is. You deserve that badge and I'm proud to stand beside you as the newest member of the Syndicate."

"Agent 13?" Sharon read the designation below her name.

Darcy chuckled, "The Syndicate has a flare for the dramatic. Everyone uses call signs while out in the field." Darcy pulled out her own badge. "Since I'm the one pulling the strings in the dark, they took to calling me Control. Ridiculous, granted, but you'd be surprised how useful an alter ego is in our business of hunting subservients."

"When will I meet the rest of the team?"

"They're currently off base, but they should be arriving shortly for your inauguration," Darcy glanced at her watch.

Suddenly, the alarm blared overhead, yellow warning lights turning the walls into a nauseating colour.

"What the fuck?" Darcy groaned, head craned to the spinning lights. She pressed down on her earpiece, her tone authoritative and scary. "This is Control, what the fuck is going on in my building?"

"Ma'am, it seems agent Rogers has defected," a junior agent replied over the comms.

"Steve?" Darcy asked.

Sharon's eyes narrowed, her grip bending the badge at the sides slightly.

"Negative Ma'am. Agent Y/N."

"Son of a bitch," Darcy marched to her office.

"What's going on?" Sharon stammered.

"We have a subservient in our midst. Your ex-husband's wife just tried to break out the Canary. Get your ass to the tenth floor, I have a feeling this is a fight you might want to get in on."

"Where are you going?"

"To assemble the Syndicate and get Clint his sword."

***

"Come on partner, let's talk about this," Clint hurled pens at you with the accuracy of a ninja. Several ballpoint tips embedded themselves into the desk you'd flipped to the side for cover.

You shot off defensive shots, making sure to miss any vital organs, he dodged them easily, rolling to another point of cover. "I've seen how you hash things out, Clint. I'm not a fool."

“Oh, now don’t be like that.”

Bucky blocked several bullets hailing from a line of agents, the ping noise showering around him in hurried succession. Steve pushed several desks out of his way as he stalked towards the two of you.

"Y/N, honey, whatever's gotten into you, we can work it out. You aren't yourself," he hurled a desk at Bucky and his metal arm punched through it, cracking it in half. "You're sick, baby. A side effect of the medication. Think about us. Think about Sarah."

You froze and Clint managed to get a shot in at your arm, the pen piercing your flesh like a blunt needle.

"Arrghhh!" You ducked lower, pulling Bucky's shirt down. "Where the fuck is your back up?"

Bucky glanced at his watch, the countdown putting him on edge. "They should be here."

"Y/N, why are you helping him? You know who he is, who he used to work for. He's a traitor. If you turn yourself over now, I'll make sure Pierce and Lewis don't press charges," Steve assured you as he picked up a desk chair and hauled it at Bucky.

Bucky dodged to the side, his eyes landing on Steve's as they were face to face. Steve placed a strong hand on Bucky's shoulder and Bucky, in turn, spun out of his grip and twisted his arm around his back.

Steve groaned through gritted teeth as he head-butted Bucky in the nose. Disoriented and in pain, Bucky stumbled backwards and Steve's fist was about to drive a right hook into his off-balance body when a blur of blue and silver whooshed past, taking Bucky with it.

"Wha-" You searched the room for any sight of the blur or Bucky, but there was nothing except an over imposing sense of confusion hanging in the air.

Clint lobbed one more pen your way and in a flash, the blur returned, removing the projectile from its flight path. Pietro looked down at you, a dastardly smile on his face as he sent a wink your way, twirling the pen between two fingers. "Hey."

“Hey.”

And then he was gone.

Out of a hidden corner, a shower of pens were hurled at a mass of agents, including Clint, and they all hit their mark successfully. Cries of pain emanated out just when Bucky appeared behind Steve's back to heave him over his shoulder in a body slam. Something in Steve's shoulder popped and you could see the bulge of a bone sticking out of alignment as he rolled off of Bucky.

Glass shattered from the windows as a helicopter lifted to your floor, Sam at the helm with Natasha gripping a semi-automatic. Her bullets piercing through the air and ripping through several enemy agents.

While Steve and Bucky came to blows, your gaze fell on Sharon, who was pointing a gun at you, a torn expression drawing her eyebrows down. It was a silent stalemate and you dared not flinch.

Off the helicopter, a large woman with the biggest muscles you had ever seen crashed into Clint, sending him flying like he was made of papier-mâché and crashing against Steve. The Black Panther suit maundered over several desks to take on a multitude of junior agents with little effort on their part.

"T'Challa?" you whispered causing the person to crane their neck so swiftly it would have given anyone whiplash. It was then you saw the person in the black suit had a small bust and a feminine frame. This wasn’t T’Challa, it was someone else, a fragment of your mind that was attuned to the Framework remembered that T’Challa had been killed in an explosion years prior. “Shuri…” you uttered softly and she nodded in place of a verbal reply.

"Fuck, that is one strong lady," Clint struggled to stand and out of the elevator, Darcy sauntered over, no fear in her eyes as she called out Clint's name and tossed him his swords. "Thanks, honey!" he replied as he unsheathed his katana.

Spectre materialised out of the wall and shot a plasma beam at Shuri, sending her flying through cubicles. Her vibranuim armour caused a bubble of energy to erupt from the point of contact. Papers, files and electronic components were cast through the air by the static cushion.

Pietro sped over to her side, catching her from mid-air and stopping her momentum. With a snarl, he charged after Spectre but was hit by one of Clint’s throwing stars. Shuri retaliated, pouncing onto Clint, her extended claws sparking fiery lights as they came in contact with his sword.

Sharon was still standing there, unable to move.

A few blocks down, a beam of light shot up into the sky like a beacon.

Sam shouted from the helicopter, "That's our signal, we gotta go!"

Sharon lowered her gun, looing between you, Sam and Bucky, her brows furrowed as she tried to make sense of what everything meant. “One day at a time…”

Darcy barked order's into her comms, "Warmonger handle that fucking chopper!"

"Where is he?" Shuri demanded through each slice and swipe, her Wakandan accent still thick.

Clint parried with an expert’s stance, "Where is who?"

"Peter Parker!" She growled back.

Clint swiped his leg under her and she somersaulted away, "I have no clue, kid."

A sniper got a shot off from a distance, clipping Steve's side just as he was about to get his hands around Bucky's neck, the residual force made him stumble backwards allowing Bucky rush to your side.

"We have to go, Y/N!" He gripped your shoulder. "Now!"

You looked to Sharon and suddenly her face was taken over by something, a kind of steeled determination. Then she lifted her gun and turned against her own people, aiding you and Bucky so you could make a break for it. You exchanged curt nods before you got out from behind cover and raced towards the helicopter.

"Agent Carter, what are you doing?" Darcy spat in anger.

Behind Sharon, Ava Starr materialised through the walls, stalking towards her unsuspecting prey, the shimmer of her invisibility cloak giving away her position. Shuri pounced on her, releasing an electrical spike into the ground, frying her cloaking tech.

"Uh, guys, I don't know if you have any tricks up your sleeve, but we've got a bogey incoming," Sam shouted as a small humanoid flying object left jet trails through the sky.

"Warmonger..." you gasped out.

Spectre charged his plasma beam and you instantly released Bucky's hand so you could tackle him, sending the both of you tumbling until you were mere inches from falling out of the ten-story window.

Natasha fired off her weapon at Warmonger, failing to get a shot in. She braced for impact right when a man in a winged suit clutched onto Warmonger with his claw-like feet and used his momentum to swing him into the opposite building, accidentally banging into the tail end of the helicopter in the process.

Natasha was shaken from her post and sent tumbling into the building, her eyes locking instantly on Clint's. They stared at each other with menace, an unresolved vendetta clearly hanging over them like an open wound doused in salt and spirits. They were both frothing at the mouth as they charged after each other.

“Romanoff,” he said with venom. “I’ve been dying to cross paths with you again.”

Natasha struck him in the face with a roundhouse kick, “Its Romanova! And you’ll pay for what you did to me!”

Pietro rushed to your aid when he saw you struggling to gain the upper hand with Spectre, but a minute insect-like creature whacked into his cheek, sending him hurtling backwards once it resized into a full-grown woman wearing a hornet-like suit.

You scrambled towards the helicopter, Warmonger and the Vulture coming to blows in the air a few blocks away. Bucky's metal arm wrapped around one of the Hornet's wings and pulled, ripping it from her back in a brutish manner. She screamed as though the wing was part of her.

The large Russian woman struck Steve with her shoulder, pushing him further away from you. He easily broke her hold and landed several tight formation blows to her sternum and ribs letting out cracking sounds. She gasped through the breaks and Steve forced to her up from her knees in a gruelling show of unbridled rage.

"Belinsky!" Natasha screamed after her.

Steve held her up off the ground until her feet dangled. Even though they were of similar build, Steve barely broke a sweat as he held her up, his lips curling up into a smile the more she struggled.

Another slug ripped through his cheek, turning his head from the force and lacerating it in a straight line. Yet still, Steve's grip held strong and the woman -Belinsky- clawed for breath.

Shuri tried to get to her but was obstructed by Ghost phasing ahead of her, Sharon fired off several shots to pry an opening but was kicked square in the stomach by a stiletto belonging to Darcy. Pietro was preoccupied with trying to draw Spectre's line of fire away from everyone else while Natasha and Clint were locked in a matched battle. You cursed at the harrowing realisation that you and Bucky were too far away to make a difference.

"Don't do it, Steve!" You begged, the chopper muffling your desperate pleas.

Natasha reached for Belinsky but Clint sliced through her calf muscle, making her slip to the ground.

Steve peered over at you and Bucky, the veins in his arms pulsing with adrenaline, his pupil’s dark and diluted. His smile grew into a grin and your breath halted as he twisted her neck too far, the cracking sound ringing through the pandemonium of screams, bullets and chopper blades.

"No!" Pietro cried, stalling for a moment, allowing Spectre to drill a hole through his shoulder with the plasma beam. Shuri scurried to his side and yanked him to safety, leaving Sharon to face off with Ghost and Darcy. Natasha crawled towards the limp Russian woman, choking back tears, a scream tearing through her when she finally placed two fingers on Belinsky’s non-responsive pulse points.

"What have we done?" you gasped as Bucky dragged you to the helicopter, a hail of bullets firing at Spectre from the building across from you, drawing the android's attention away from Shuri.

Steve grabbed a discarded gun from the floor and fired at Sam, one bullet piercing his gut, forcing the helicopter to swerve just as you and Bucky jumped.

The plasma cannon broke through the barricade and Wanda, who still too weak to stand, tried to summon her powers but all she achieved was a flicker of her irises. As armed men scuttled into the room, she closed both her eyes, the look of peace and fatigue battling for dominance.

If she was going to go, at least she'd die amongst friends.

The sound of guns being cocked drummed into her ears and she took a small breath waiting for the inevitable to occur. Just when she thought it was all about to be over, a stark light exploded around her and out of the light came a suit of red and gold armour.

"Stark?" she mumbled in her delusional state.

"Half-right," Pepper answered as she took on the gunmen. She raised her hands, lights from the triangle power core charging up as she braced her stance. "This suit does have under-water capabilities."

You applied pressure to Sam's chest as his lung threatened to collapse.

"Shit, hurry Bucky!" You blared into the headset as Bucky took over the reins of the chopper and flew you towards the beacon of light.

"Hold on Sam," you ran your hand against his cheek in a comforting motion, sniffling your tears away.

"We're almost there Bird-man," Bucky looked back, his brow heavy with worry. "Hold on, man!"

Sam gritted his teeth, holding back his painful snarl as more blood soaked through the compress and seeped onto the diamond implanted in your ring, slipping between the cracks and turning the carbon stone blood red.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," you let the harsh winds carry your words away from Sam's ears. "This is all my fault." You could feel his skin growing colder, his lips turning near white and all you could do was pray.

When the helicopter touched down, Bucky grabbed Sam and slung him over his shoulder, hobbling with him towards the beacon tunnelling through the ground like concentrated sunlight.

Out of your blindside, Steve's shield whirred past, striking Bucky's legs and fracturing the bone.

Bucky dropped Sam as he fell forward. It was then that you realised Sam's chest wasn't moving, it was agonizingly still. Bucky failed to stand on one leg, the throbbing pain from his shattered bones forcing him to bite down.

You turned around and saw Steve and Warmonger stride towards you.

"Steve, wait," you raised your hands.

Bucky dragged Sam on one leg towards the portal, Warmonger languidly stalked after them, biding his time, building the tension.

"Should I kill ‘em Cap?" Rhodey's voice became clear once his helmet was removed.

Steve looked at you and then back at the Bucky’s hopeless labouring to get Sam into the beam of light. "Not yet, I want them to struggle."

"Steve, please!" You caressed his cheek so he could look to you. "I know you're better than this. I know that some part of you doesn't want to be this man..."

He smiled, weakly, his fingers touching the love bite he had made on your skin in the med bay. "And to think, everything had been so different an hour ago." His hand braced around your neck with no pressure applied, at first. But then he began to squeeze, forcing you backwards. "How long have you been a spy? How long have you been planning on betraying me?" he screamed.

"St-Steve… It's not… It's not like that," you rasped.

He slammed you into a wall, hard. "No? I gave up everything for you. I left Sharon for you. Tore Sarah away from her mother! And for what? So you could betray me the first chance you got?"

"Let her go, Steve!" Bucky shouted out, a few inches from the portal, his metal arm braced around the unconscious, barely breathing Sam.

"Bucky… get… Sam… out… of… here!" You ordered.

"Not without you!"

You turned your eyes to him, neck stiffly held by Steve's tightening grip, a tear running down your cheek. "You already saved me. Now… save him!"

Warmonger kneeled over Bucky, his shoulder turret aimed at his chest. "Say bye, bye birdy."

Bucky shed tears of his own, his chin quivering, "I love you." he said, oceanic eyes falling to you as he stuck a hidden blade into Rhodey's neck and hoisted himself and Sam over into the portal.

You shut your eyes, "I know..."

Bucky's arm broke through the glass, landing on both his feet as the water pushed him out of the tank and spilt onto the electrical equipment.

"Bucky?" Wanda breathed, her eyes drooping from exhaustion.

Without a second to lose, he broke through the glass of Sam's tank, the beep of a flat line haunting his senses as he laid his friend on the ground and started chest compressions.

"One, two, three..." he forced air into Sam's lungs. “One, two, three." He repeated the action.

"Come on, you're more stubborn than this!" His flesh arms pounded on Sam’s chest desperately.

"Is… Is he?" Pepper failed to finish her question, her face obstructed behind an earlier prototype helmet of the Iron Man suit.

"Come on!" He cried out. "I can't lose anyone else." He beat limply at the rigid chest.

Wanda crawled towards Sam's body, the red mist trickling out around her fingers weakly. She hovered her hand over Sam's chest and concentrated. Her breathing turned ragged, strained from overuse, and with a yell, she discharged what little energy she had left into Sam's body, an electrostatic charge bursting outward, shaking his limbs.

At first, there was nothing, and dread loomed near, but then Bucky felt the faint beating of a heartbeat below his open palm.

Sam coughed out water, his eyelids pulling back slowly.

They all sighed in relief.

"Did… did we make it?" Sam asked.

Bucky let out a breathy laugh, "Yeah, we made it."

"What about Y/N?"

Bucky's smile faded as he slumped against the wall. "She was right behind me, but then… Steve found us. He… he got to her. I… I couldn't save her." He braced his head as tears finally fell. “She wanted me to get you out.”

"No..." Wanda looked up at her best friend, still submerged in a tank. "No, I refuse to believe that. She's strong. She'll make it out of there."

Pepper walked over to the tank, reading the vitals on display. "Her heartbeat is erratic. She's in a heightened state of stress. She may go into cardio-vascular shock."

Bucky’s metal arm crushed the ring that was strung around his neck, the pathetic sound of the metal bending distracting him from the empty feeling gnawing in his gut.

They stared at the tank, waiting patiently with bated breath for her to open her eyes and return to them –return to her family.

 ***

Epilogue coming soon...

AFWHI tags: @fangirl-colo @dormousse @smallmarvel @ren-ni @sargentbucket @nikolett3 @wnygirl2012 @jentismyname @evilgeniuslabz-blog @myrabbitholetoneverland @sleepingspacedragon @500daysofbecky @reidreader  @

Permatags: @gruffle1 @thechickvic @notawarriorjustyet @savethehoneeybees

Tags: @ladybugsfanfics @ninaminaromina @xstevenat

#steve x reader #hydra!steve #steve rogers #bucky x y/n #bucky x you #bucky barnes imagines #steve rogers imagines #bucky barnes imagine #bucky imagine #steve imagine #bucky x reader #steve rogers x reader #bucky barnes x reader #marvel fic #counterpart fic #framework fic #final chapter #wanda maximoff #sam wilson #shuri black panther #clint barton #darcy lewis #steve smut

[marveldailyart]

Wait, THIS is the origin of the Red Guardian?! “There was an earlier Red Guardian, and then Tania Belinsky took on the role of the new Red Guardian”?? That’s it?!? #marvel #defenders #redguardian #ripoff https://ift.tt/2LIz1ZM

#IFTTT #Instagram

[marvelperil]

Oh noes! Doctor Strange and Red Guardian are trapped by Spore Monsters that look like Langoliers! 

- Defenders v1 #37

#Doctor Strange #Dr Strange #Stephen Strange #Red Guardian #Tania Belinsky #Starlight #Tania Belinskaya #Defenders #The Defenders #Plantman #Plant Man #Samuel Smithers #trapped #monsters #Sorcerer Supreme #surrounded #carried off #villain gloating #Distressed Dude #Damsel in Distress

[sashashostakov]

... is she an oc?

No, she’s not. She’s a canon character, you can find her rp account here - I think she’s the only Tania rper on this site, and this is one of my bbys … seriously, she’s Alexei’s wife (I RP russiasredguardian/Alexei Shostakov), they’re not ‘married’ per se, but he’ll introduce her to others as his wife.

Tania Belinskaya/Belinsky’s first appearance was waaaay back in 1976, and she’s actually a really understated character. I mean, I have a soft spot for all of Marvel’s Russian characters, but Tania should really get some more publicity.

Daughter of a known dissident. Her father was sentenced to a life term in one of the State’s Gulags, where he died. Despite the shadow of shame that may have cast on her reputation and the glass ceiling his sentence could have imposed on her career, Tania surmounted those obstacles.

She became one of the Soviet Union’s top neurosurgeons. And she aided Dr. Strange on several occasions throughout her history.

Tania also took on the mantle of the Red Guardian after the second Guardian’s ‘death’ (the second Red Guardian being Alexei Shostakov). She later went on to join the Soviet Super Soldiers, alongside Vanguard (who would later become another Red Guardian), Ursa Major, Darkstar, Crimson Dynamo … the list goes on.

She also had a stint as Sergei Krylov’s love interest - him being otherwise known as The Presence (father to Vanguard and Darkstar).

The list goes on.

But yeah … one of the characters I have a serious soft spot for. And without tooting the feminist trumpet too loudly - what’s not to love about her? She’s crazy intelligent, pretty, athletic and she became the Red Guardian for a stint - Russia’s equivalent to Captain America. I just think that’s amazing, and it’s such a shame that more light isn’t cast on the Soviet corner of the Marvel universe.

#Anonymous #replied #The Red Guardian #Red Guardian #Tania Belinsky #Tania Belinskaya #Alexei Shostakov #Alexi Shostakov

[marvelousmrm]

Defenders #36 (Gerber/Buscema, June 1976). Hulk’s timeline aligns with Omega the Unknown, but not his own book. Kyle recovers from brain surgery and Valkyrie is arrested, while Strange and the new Red Guardian are ensnared by Plant-Man… Oh, and that Bozo cult is still growing in power. This book makes zero sense but it’s a lot of fun!

#marvel #marvel 616 #the defenders #stephen strange #doctor strange #barbara denton #valkyrie #bruce banner #hulk #kyle richmond #nighthawk #tania belinsky #red guardian #plant man #steve gerber #sal buscema

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

Obscure Marvel fancast of the day: Rachel Shelly as Dr. Tania Belisnky aka Red Guardian aka Starlight!

Tania Belinsky was a brilliant neurosurgeon from Russia, written back when the USSR was still in power. She grew up a devoted patriot to her country, and though she found some of what the government did to be (in her own words) repulsive, she was still dedicated to the positive Communist ideals of unity and the individual serving the many. However, when her father was exiled to Siberia for being a dissident, Tania become a costumed vigilante who fought crime, but also protected other dissidents, in hopes to reform Soviet society from within. For this reason, she was considered an enemy of the state and a wanted criminal herself by the Russian government. As a vigilante, she called herself the Red Guardian, after a previous superhero, a man who had been Russia’s answer to Captain America during the 50s. She had no superpowers, fighting purely through athletic skill, hand to hand combat, and the use of a bladed belt buckle as a weapon. Tania came to US at the request of Dr. Stephen Strange. Strange did not know she was secretly a superhero; he merely wanted her help as a fellow neurosurgeon in performing a brain transplant. The operation was a success, but right afterwards, Strange was attacked by the supervillain Plantman. Tania revealed her secret identity as Red Guardian, and they defeated Plantman with the help of Power Man. After that, Tania stayed in the United States to serve as another member of the Defenders alongside Dr. Stranger, Power Man, Valkyrie, Nighthawk, the Hulk, and other heroes. Alas, she only had a few adventures with the Defenders before she received a call from Russia, threatening her loved ones if she did not return. She did as commanded, and when she returned home, the KGB was waiting for her. They informed her that they knew of her secret identity, but it was not the government that they were taking her to…but instead to the most powerful man in all of Russia, the feared being known only as “Codename: Sergei”. It was he who had ordered her return and orchestrated this kidnapping. Tania fought her captors, but a mind-calming cowl was placed on her head, so that she was in a subdued state when she was brought before this man–Sergei Krylov aka “The Presence”, a mad scientific Soviet genius who had caused a Chernobyl-like nuclear disaster in the “Forbidden Zone” by using cobalt radiation that had transformed him into a superhuman being. He had been monitoring Tania and her activities, and while he considered her heroic ideals to be naive and misled, he had decided she was his ideal mate. Tania was forcibly subjected to the same radiation, and granted superhuman abilities as well—flight, super-strength, invulnerability, and the power to shoot blasts of pure nuclear radiation. However, these powers came at a terrible cost: her free will. Tania was now in mental thrall to the Presence, as little more than his zombie-like slave…though even in this state, she always begged him not to hurt others. However, the Presence was a supervillain (what a surprise) and when the pair inevitably came into conflict with Tania’s former teammates, the Defenders, Tania regained her free will when Presence was about to kill her friends. She rejected him, and when he called her the thing he loved most, she called out how his very words showed he just thought of her as a THING, and said that he didn’t really love her, he loved a fantasy he had of her, a zombie he had created. Basically, the Presence was a gross incel before a term was invented for it, and she called him out on it. His heart broken and ego deflated, the Presence departed. As for Tania, she was kept isolated at a Soviet research facility, til the Presence unleashed a giant radioactive amoeba on Russia. Tania was unleashed to do battle the amoeba and stop him. When she arrived on the scene, she realized he wasn’t the blame for the giant amoeba, but was fighting it himself…and failing with their combined powers, they destroyed it…and then Presence confessed his love to her and as if that weren’t bad enough, SHE STAYED WITH HIM! And, surprise, she was later shown to be under his mental control again later! which makes me think that his control never really left her in the first place, and that her getting away from him physically helped her stave it off, but when she got close to him again while fighting the amoeba, that re-activated it, and THAT’S why she agreed to stay with him once more. Anyway, Presence starts going mad with power…which just means he gets more egotistical and gross. he decided he should not just be content with ONE mind-controlled consort, but should have ALL the sexiest Soviet superheroines. So he sends the mind-controlled (yet still aware enough to cry) Tania (who now goes by Starlight instead of Red Guardian) to kidnap her fellow Russian heroines, Black Widow and Darkstar. Darkstar, by the way, is the long-lost daughter of the Presence. And he knows this at this point. And yet he still wants her in his little Soviet Harem. Seriously. It’s so gross. Starlight says that this shows how he isn’t mentally well, but his “symptoms” seem to be just being egotistical and thinking he’s entitled to a bunch of hot women being under his command including his own daughter, he doesn’t seem insane so much as just disgusting to me. In any case, Starlight once again manages to snap out of his control, but “chooses” to return to him since she believes that her love can heal him. Yeah, I don’t think that’s really her choice. I think her “love” for him is just more mind-control. And if it’s not, it’s Stockholm Syndrome. And the tragic thing is, if she ditches him for real? She’s all alone. His radiating her didn’t just give her powers (which seem to have been simply to enable her to do his dirty work, like KIDNAPPING WOMEN) they also make her radioactive herself, so she can’t be around other people long or she’ll irradiate them, killing them or making them sick. He’s ensured that he’s the only person she can be around, it’s either him alone or total isolation. Just like a real abuser often isolates their victims through mundane means. Anyway, yet again she “chooses” to be with him after he is defeated by the Avengers in another villainous effort. Tania begs for his life to be spared and accompanies him into custody despite the fact she did nothing against the Avengers during their conflict, only looks sad. The exposition says that Thor shakes his head at her choice, but…as I’ve said, I don’t think it’s a choice. It’s either some degree of still-active enslavement, or the “choice” of any other abused victim when they “choose” to stay with their abuser. That’s what so many people don’t get about abuse—that victims usually “choose” to stay with them, because of how much the abusers warp their mind. And that’s just in real life, where super-powered mind-control doesn’t exist. Starlight and Presence are later released from custody to fight a greater supervillain threat, Kang the conqueror, and Presence plans to use their regained freedom to do more villainy, but Starlight talks him out of it. That’s usually what she does, try to persuade him not to be a supervillain or hurt innocents. So she’s not under totally robotic control, she can have free thought like that, she just…can’t leave or disobey him. In a way, that’s almost crueler than if she was just a robotic zombie, because it means she’s aware of what’s going on. No wonder she looks sad a lot, huh? But then again, her “persuading” Presence not to go rogue while fighting Kang…was by threatening to him that she would leave him if he did. And he agreed. So he at least does believe she can or would leave. Maybe his control waxes and wanes. Or maybe she really is choosing to be with him, so long as he doesn’t go too far in his evil, because she thinks she can change him or because, as mentioned, she can’t be around anyone else. Of course, HE can’t be around anyone else either, so does that give her one bit of leverage too. Abuse victims do sometimes have that, and it doesn’t invalidate their victimhood or make them “not really victims/not really abused”. Anyway, at some point offscreen, she grew able to control her radiation seepage, so that she was able to be around others again, and she left Presence. She became a superhero again, and joined the Winter Guard, the Russian superhero squad. Darkstar and Vanguard, the Presence’s long-estranged children, were on this squad…and Starlight started a romantic relationship with Vanguard. The son of the man who enslaved her and forced her to be his lover and servant. And as weird as that is…I get it, actually. Abuse victims often desire to go back to their abusers, and many do. Others have to fight themselves on it, even years after escaping. It’s quite possible, likely even, that Starlight still “needed” Presence, and thus getting with his son was a way of coping with that, a way to be with him without returning to him. So yeah it’s weird and squicky but it makes sense. As for Presence, he took up with a Dire Wraith sorceress named Fantasma (who was a former member of the Winter Guard herself) When the Winter Guard fought them, Fantasma was thrown into Limbo…and she dragged Starlight along with her. Neither has been seen since. My problem with Tania’s story isn’t the content itself. A story about a smart, powerful woman with her own interesting life who has everything taken from her because a man decided he owned her is a very realistic one, despite the fantastic trappings of this scenario, and it’s worth telling. But it needs to be handled with care and attention. This should be TANIA’S story. It should be ABOUT her. We should see her tragedy and triumph up close and personal. The writers should CARE and ask the readers to care too. But that’s not what happens. This cool lady joins the Defenders, has an interesting personality set up with an interesting personal conflict set up (her loyalty to her country vs her hate of its government) and then all of a sudden she just gets swept off the playing board and is kind of forgotten, popping up here and again over the next 20+ years to remind us that she belongs to this gross guy now and has limited to nil free will, escapes a few times but only temporarily, and the heroes she was friends with just all kind of ignore it. This isn’t like Bucky Barnes or Laura Kinney where the story of her trauma and enslavement is the focus, where she’s the main character, where careful attention is paid to her arc, where she HAS an arc. Tania doesn’t have an arc. Hell, when she finally gets her free will back and her radiation-seep under control, it’s completely offscreen! Her victory is never shown! She just shows up with the good guys again and we’re left to infer what happened, as if it’s some insignificant detail! And just as she’s done this—she gets tossed offscreen, forever. At least forever thus far. It’s just…so unfair. And I don’t mean on an in-universe level, where drama and conflict and unfairness should happen just like in the real world, and to keep the story moving. I mean it’s unfair in how it was handled on a meta level, and this character and her story deserved a fuck ton better.

#marvel #marvel fancast #fancast #red guardian #tania belinsky #starlight #rachel shelley

[marvelman901]

Starlight by Keith Pollard (1991) Tania Belinsky #marvel #superhero #redguardian #defenders #russia #comics #soviet #90s #starlight #keithpollard #leningrad #doctor https://www.instagram.com/p/B7L5V7BBwfR/?igshid=17lnp0y0inqeg

#marvel #superhero #redguardian #defenders #russia #comics #soviet #90s #starlight #keithpollard #leningrad #doctor

[doctorofmagic]

I'm having a bit of trouble remembering this, but I think there was an issue of The Defenders (or some similar team up issue) where Stephen had to preform surgery on someone using magic (I think they got shot). Do you remember which one that was? I seem to recall they were in court when it happened (I think it had to do with Nighthawk?)

Greetings and thanks for asking!

In fact, he did it many times. But in this specific occasion, I can think of three different cases since it reminded of all of them.

The first I recall was that time when Nighthawk’s brain was swapped into Chondu’s body by the Headmen. Nighthawk/Chondu fought the Defenders, but was defeated. They found out that something was wrong with Kyle, and Stephen even called Daimon to perform an exorcism, but it failed because that was not the case. So Stephen decided to call Dr. Tania Belinsky - an expert in the field and also the Red Guardian - to perform a neurosurgery on Kyle. But it didn’t involve magic or shots. It starts with Defenders #31 and goes until #38, more or less. The story is very confusing, too many plots at the same time.

There was also the time when Stephen was hurt and used his astral form to guide a surgery. It’s from The Oath, but there’s no courtroom or team-ups, except for the Night Nurse and Wong.

And finally, he did perform a surgery with his own hands in a courtroom, but it was not on Kyle. It was on a random character from a team-up with Spider-Man and Iron Man. He was shot, so I think this is the one you were referring to? It’s from Marvel Team-Up v1 #51 (1976).

These are all the moments I can think of. I hope it helped!

#how can the sorcerer supreme be of assistance? #ask #stephen strange #doctor strange #kyle richmond #nighthawk #tania belinsky #red guardian #peter parker #spider-man #iron man #tony stark #defenders #marvel team-up #marvel comics

[defenders-core]

#defenders #marvel's defenders #defenders-core #marvel #steve gerber #red guardian #tania belinsky