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sinner-as-saint · 2 years

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Like A Villain

Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Reader AU

Requested.

Run-through: The team is away, leaving you alone at the tower. And that’s when the enemy attacks. Assassins of HYDRA came to take you out, thinking you’re nothing but a helpless, new addition to the team. But little do they know that you too can fight like a villain. When the team comes back home to the bloody mess you left behind after dealing with the enemies, a certain blue-eyed, metal-armed super soldier is highly impressed; and suddenly he wants all the fierce aggression that you displayed directed right at him…

Themes: smut, avenger!reader,

a/n: for the lovely @breathtaking-cynthia

“Play the footage,” Tony called out to the AI, “I wanna see this.” He said, and gave you a smile and a wink to show just how proud of you he was.

You smirked, hopping up on the nearest table and watched how the screen started replaying the security camera footage from just a little over an hour ago. The team wasn’t here when HYDRA showed up at the tower. So you had to defend yourself and the tower all by yourself, and you did a pretty good job - as the team was about to witness.

They all stood around the screen, still in their combat suits as they watched.

The footage:

You were sitting on a stool at the kitchen island, on your floor, putting your nail polish on when the AI suddenly announced that someone was in the tower and that it wasn’t any member of the team.

You smirked, “Hydra?” You asked.

“Yes.” The AI replied.

“Let them come. Let the bastards think they’re sneaking up on me.”

“Noted.”

A few minutes of complete silence later, while you were just finishing up your nail polish, footsteps were heard behind you. You turned to face them with a deadly, villainous smile; occasionally blowing on your fresh manicure.

“Well, hello there.” You taunted the men who faced you while cracking their knuckles - showing off.

“Did the team leave you home alone? All helpless?” One of them asked, and you’d recognize that traitor’s voice anywhere. Rumlow. “Give up, you don’t wanna mess up your pretty nails now, do you, Princess?”

You leaned back against the kitchen island, looking all bored and unbothered. “You think I’m helpless because I just got my nails done?” You chuckled, “I could fight you and your pathetic men and still not mess up my pretty nails.”

He snarled, and his men all took a step forward in unison. You shook your head at them. Pathetic indeed. You smirked as you hopped off the stool, “Alright boys, let’s get this over with.”

They came at you one by one. Thank fuck it was just hand to hand combat because there was no way you’d survive bullets. But combat was your forté - though a challenge now because you couldn’t possibly mess your nails up. Of course, it was a silly promise that you made earlier but you liked to show off. Just a little.

You limited using your hands; just the elbows. Which happened to be to your advantage because elbow strikes hurt so much more than punches. So you fought, dancing your way around the men; kick, duck, elbow strike and repeat. Over and over again.

One of them tried to grab you but you escaped just in time, however he tore a piece of your clothes. You kicked that one extra hard in the face, breaking his nose and knocking him out cold immediately, yelling, “That was my favourite sundress!”

Rumlow fled at some point, realising who and what he was up against, leaving his men behind for you to absolutely obliterate and leave into a pile of bloody mess and broken bones.

You pinned down the last of them with your thighs, straddling him to the floor as you repeatedly brought down your elbow to his face - hard enough to knock him out, but just enough to keep him alive - your agents could use him for questioning later, you thought.

With the last one down, you panted as you stood up and looked around at the men lying on the floor, bleeding even more than you did. You wiped the cut on your lip with the back of your hand before lifting your hands up to your face, checking your fresh manicure and just as promised, your nails remained intact. Perfect as always.

You even made a show of blowing on your nails before looking up to where you knew the security cams were recording. You blew a kiss to the cams and winked before asking the AI to call for backup and agents to clean up and take care of the aftermath of what just happened while you went away to clean up after yourself.

Once the AI stopped the footage, the entire team turned to look at you with proud smiles and nods.

“That’s my girl!” Nat said, raising her fist to bump against yours.

You gave her a bright smile before turning to Bucky, who stood there so still. You and Bucky were known to always argue about which one of you has better combat skills. So you asked, “What do you say, soldier? Am I finally better than you?” You smirked, watching him as he frowned ever so slightly at you.

He was indeed proud but he still scoffed, “Your strikes could be a little cleaner.” He mumbled before walking away, the entire team either shaking their heads or chuckling after him before they walked up to you to tell you how proud they were.

–

Bucky didn’t stop at all until he reached his floor, where he could finally breathe right. Because fuck that was hot. Watching you fight and take down those men, all the perfect strikes and powerful kicks… you looked like a god, even in your little cocktease of a sundress.

“Fuck…” Bucky swore under his breath, looking down to the massive erection in his pants. Yup, you did that. That footage was gonna be the death of him. Not to mention the way you’d pin down that one guy with your thighs? Bucky had never been more jealous of a man before seeing that. He wanted to be straddled by you; with you either on top of his cock or his face he didn’t mind which one.

That alone would keep him up at night. The sight of another man writhing beneath you as you went absolutely feral while defending yourself and your home. Fuck… he couldn’t take it. He was so turned on, it hurt.

He sighed as he walked into the shower, already knowing what his night would consist of tonight: replaying that footage of you pinning down that guy with your thighs, and his cock in his hand.

—

When Bucky woke up the next morning, needless to say with a boner, the last thing he expected to see was you standing at the end of his bed. Arms crossed over your chest, with a smirk on your face. Wearing one of those damn sundresses you always wore whenever you weren’t dressed in your combat suits; the kind that made him want to tear them off of your body and empty himself inside your body.

He held back a groan as he grabbed a nearby pillow and tried to place it over his erection as subtly as one can but you caught it.

“There’s no need to do all that. I could see your boner through the blanket.” You said with a straight face, trying to hide the excitement.

He groaned out loud, “What do you want? Go annoy someone else.” He mumbled, getting out of bed in nothing but his boxers, strutting lazily all the way to his bathroom.

Your voice, more like the accusation in it, made his stop halfway. “I heard you, watching the footage last night. I think you tend to forget that my floor is right above yours, and I have excellent hearing.” You smirked as he turned to face you with a raised eyebrow.

“And?” He asked, pretending like he didn’t care.

“And,” You took a step forward, “Why were you replaying the ending? Over and over again?” You asked, giving him that seductive, lethal faint smile that most men fell for.

Bucky shrugged, “None of your business. Now get out of my room.” He said, turning around to walk away, hiding his growing erection.

You chuckled, “You look like you got caught. Otherwise why are you running away from me?”

“I’m not running, I’m going to shower and brush, now get out of my room and go annoy someone else. I’m sure Steve would be free right now.” He said as he entered the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

You called, “I’ll be right here, waiting for you to come out!”

He replied back, “Be my guest!” And then you heard the shower turning on.

You smirked and jumped back into his bed, not caring that he would kick you out the moment he stepped out of the shower. You smiled to yourself as you buried further under his comfy covers, stretching like a kitten on his warm bed as you breathed in his scent. He always smelt so good.

Fifteen minutes later, Bucky still hadn’t walked out of that bathroom.

“Are you hiding from me in there? Like a coward?” You called out, chuckling to yourself, knowing that that would make him walk out immediately. And it did.

Two seconds later, Bucky walked out and glared at you as you lounged on his bed. His long hair was still damp, so was his chest. He was now dressed in dark grey sweats which matched his shiny metal arm. He looked good enough to eat.

But first, you’d get that answer out of him.

“Friday?” You called out, summoning the AI. “How many times exactly did Bucky watch that footage of me fighting the bad guys last night?”

Less than a few seconds later came the reply, “Seven times.”

You smirked at Bucky, and you said to the AI, “Thank you.” Bucky visibly tensed up as you eyed him up and down. “Seven times, huh?” You teased. “I heard you, you know?”

He sighed as he approached the bed, looking unbothered, “Get out.”

You shook your head, smirking at him. Bucky barely had time to process what happened because by the time he did, you’d already pulled him down onto the bed and straddled his waist, pinning him down on the soft blankets.

“I saw the way you clenched your fists while watching the footage with the rest of the team last night,” You whispered, trailing your fingers up and down his arms before grabbing both his hands, flesh and metal, and bringing them up to rest on either side of your waist.

Bucky instinctively grabbed you and kept you in place above him. “That didn’t mean anything.” He said, his voice much deeper than earlier.

“Oh?” You taunted, “My guess is that you were either impressed by my amazing skills, or…” You trailed off, grinding on him, feeling his bulge throbbing beneath you, you held back a gasp as you said, “Or you were turned on when you watched me straddle the bad guy.”

Despite being a super soldier, he couldn’t hide the blush on his cheeks at the sound of that. You chuckled, grounding your hips against his even more. Bucky couldn’t hold back the grunt which escaped his lips this time, “Fuck… are you not wearing panties?” He asked, as if accusing you of something.

“No,” You replied, sounding so casual and nonchalant as you lifted up the hem of your dress to show him, “See?”

Bucky groaned at the sight of his clothed, erected cock so perfectly nestled against your bare, warm, wet flesh. You were leaving behind a patch of wetness on the front of his sweatpants as you kept grinding against him, gasping so quietly in pleasure that it made him lose his mind. He looked up at you, stared into your eyes with his lips parted in hunger.

“What do you want, huh?” He asked, tightening his grip on your waist, which was the only way to keep his hands occupied and keeping them from grabbing you and fucking you hard and fast.

“For you to answer my question, of course.” You said, teasing him even more. “Were you impressed, or turned on? Maybe both?” You teased. “Maybe you wanted to be the one in between my thighs instead. Hmm? What was it?”

Oh he had enough. He grabbed you by the throat, flipping the two of you around. He pinned you down on his bed, keeping you in place by your throat as he leaned in to whisper, “Stop fucking teasing me. You came here to fuck, right? So either you let me fuck you nice and hard, or you walk away right now. Which one will it be?”

Your body melted under his touch. And he was so, so tempting to give in to. You almost begged him for it. But you still teased him because watching a man of his magnitude losing his mind was a different kind of adrenaline rush.

“You tell me,” You sassed, “You’re the one who most probably came too many times while you watched me straddle another man last night, wishing it was you instead,” You smirked, “Like a perverted little boy.” You added, solely to mess with him.

One moment you were pinned down under him. And with the next few seconds, he’d torn your dress off of you, throwing the destroyed scraps of fabric somewhere behind him before he flipped you two back around, grabbed your hips and brought your dripping cunt up to his face.

Bucky dove right in, licking and tasting you like an animal in heat. He looked no less than a hungry beast either; his long hair all messy and wild, the heated look in his eyes, the way his beard made your skin burn.

You whined and moaned above him, unable to form coherent words or thoughts as he slid his tongue in and out of you, and around your throbbing clit. “Oh… Bucky!” You exclaimed when he playfully bit down on your clit.

“Yeah?” He whispered, lips brushing against your slippery, wet folds, “This feels good, huh?”

You whined, nodding and pulling handfuls of his hair as he ate you out.

“Ride my face, come on,” He demanded, gripping you by the hips and pressing you further down onto his face, smothering himself in between your thighs.

You giggled, his beard felt funny in between your legs as you rode his tongue just like how he asked. Bucky moaned shamelessly from beneath you, barely pulling away for air as he went wild, eating you out like he so desperately wanted.

“Is this what you wanted? Ever since you saw that footage?” You taunted, knowing he wouldn’t take the time to reply because he was having too much fun tasting you. “You couldn’t wait to be crushed between these t-,”

He cut you off by growling, throwing you down on the bed and climbing on top of you immediately before you could even process it. Next thing you knew, his lips were on yours and you tasted yourself on his tongue when he shoved it in your mouth.

You whined beneath him, lifting your hips up in the hopes of grinding against his throbbing erection but he wouldn’t let you. You scratched down his muscular back, making him groan against your mouth.

His hissed in pain, “Alright, alright, you brat.” He growled, “Spread your legs for me.” And you did as he asked so quickly that he couldn’t help but chuckle.

You whined again, “Hurry up! We can play later, not now please…” You murmured, looking up at him with puppy dog eyes. They didn’t work on him. Instead he just trailed his metal fingers up and down your wet slit, casually and lazily sliding a finger or two; in and out as he wanted, making your back arch off the bed. “Damn you, Bucky!” You cried out.

He smirked, then cupped you down there and said, “No one else is allowed in between these thighs from now on, you hear me?”

You nodded quickly.

He spoke again, “You come to me when you need something from now on. You want someone to eat you out until you can’t fucking think straight? You come to me. You need to be fucked hard? You come to me. You need a quick fuck at anytime during the day, or night? You come to me. Understood?”

You nodded again, whining. “Oh my fucking God, Bucky! Hurry up or I swear I will go find out if Steve is indeed free at the m-,”

“Shut up!” He spoke through gritted teeth as he pulled his sweats down just enough to free his cock, and slid it inside of your wet hole with ease.

You gasped, struggling to breathe as he filled you up. Bucky groaned at how warm and wet, and tight you were. You moaned as he removed himself entirely and pushed himself back into you, and watched in awe how you struggled to adjust to his size.

You were a moaning mess under him in no time. He kissed your open mouth while he rammed into you over and over again. “Bucky… please,” You whimpered.

“Hungry for my cock, now aren’t you?” he mumbled as he sped up into you. He pulled away from your face to look down at you, his metal hand coming up to wrap itself around your throat. “This is what you wanted? Hmm? This cock right here is what you wanted?” He taunted as he stretched you out completely, thrusting deeper into you.

“Yes…” You cried out, “Please, please, please… more!”

Bucky laughed, pounding harder into you. “You’ve been teasing me for a long time, you know that? Always taunting me, always showing off how much better than me you are…” He alternated between slowing down and speeding up as he fucked you.

Your mind was a foggy mess, struggling to register and process his words.

“Always walking around half naked in the mornings, testing me…” He growled, “Always showing off these lovely thighs…” He pulled out, leaving you gasping at the loss of contact, he reached down solely to bite down hard on your soft thigh before sliding back into you, making you moan and lose your mind. “That’s right baby, moan for me.” He whispered against your open mouth before shoving his tongue in there, swallowing your pathetic moans.

“I need to cum, Bucky please,” you cried, with tears in your eyes.

He surprised you when he said, “No, not so easily,” He pulled out of you, laid down on his back before pulling you on top of him again; sliding his cock back into you from under you he said, “You don’t get to come so easily while I do all the work.” He smirked, “Now come on, work for it.”

You growled, wrapping both your hands around his throat while he laughed. Fuck, if you weren’t this needy maybe you’d actually knock him out cold too. But fuck he felt so good inside you, you couldn’t get enough.

“You don’t get to boss me around like this, you hear me? I’ll obey just this once, understood?” You stared down into his pretty blue eyes, keeping your hands around his throat, applying just the slightest bit of pressure. “Just this once.” You repeated.

He gave you a cocky grin despite you choking him. “Oh please, you’ll be back time and time again begging for this cock.”

You almost argued, but then realised that it might be true. So instead, you just placed your hands on his muscular chest to hold yourself up as you rode him. His hands gripped your hips, guiding you up and down his cock until you both found a pleasurable pace.

“Fuck…” You moaned, “You feel so fucking good!”

His thick, throbbing cock stretched you open as you took him as best you could, moaning and whimpering desperately as he groaned and gasped under you. “That’s it, ride me. Ride my cock.” His grip on your hips tightened as he brought you down on his cock with force each time and thrusting upwards to fuck you deeper. “Come for me, baby.” He threw his head back, growling. “Come for me!”

Your hands tightened around his throat as you leaned in to press your lips against his, claiming his open mouth and muffling his animalistic growls as you came undone around him again. “Come with me…” You whispered, desperate to feel him inside you.

And he did. Groaning, and gasping as your hands tightened around his throat one last time before you let go.

You both caught your breaths, coming down from that high together. You got off of him and laid down on his bed, trying to calm your racing heart.

“Wow.” You both said in unison, before looking at each other and chuckling.

“That was…” Bucky trailed off.

“Yeah.” You answered, breathlessly.

He turned to face you with mischief in his eyes, reached out and trailed a finger lazily down your damp cheek, “You wanna go again?”

To which you replied, enthusiastically, “Fuck yeah, come here!”

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #avenger!reader #bucky barnes smut #marvel au

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jor-elthatendswell · 7 months

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It's a well worn topic at this point but the imminent release of The Marvels has me thinking about how militaristic the Marvel Cinematic Universe is, with Monica Rambeau aka Photon, a habour patrol member in the comics, reimagined as a captain in the US Air Force.

She follows Hawkeye, who was changed from an argumentative former circus performer with a heart of gold (a character so staunchly against lethal force he once revoked his own wife's Avengers membership because she sort of, maybe, subconsciously allowed a villain to fall to his death) into a hard-nosed black ops assassin.

Sam Wilson/ Falcon made his celluloid debut as an army man with twin submachine guns attached to his wrists. It’s a far cry from his print counterpart’s introduction as a social worker by day who uses his skill at falconry to protect his neighbourhood.

If we allow the argument that modern cinema goers are accustomed to a sprinkling of realism to make their superheroes palatable (and it’s a strange argument really- why should realism be a desirable quality in summer blockbuster escapism?) then what actually constitutes “realism”.

Sure, a man who learnt uncanny skill with a bow and arrow growing up with a travelling show couldn’t possibly hold his own alongside Hulk or Thor in the real world (and, yes, there isn’t a Hulk or Thor in the real world; as I say, this is a strange argument), but if he learned those exact same skills in some kind of military context then that somehow passes the bar for realism? The sinister upshot is that these children’s heroes become more warlike just as, globally, they reach more children than ever before.

Increasing the realism of superhero stories only serves to make them problematic. DC Comics' Batman, who is the frequently subjected to “realistic” treatments, is the prime example. If, in real life, a billionaire tooled himself up with the best weapons and body armour money can buy and began dispensing violent “justice” with no accountability, then of course that wouldn’t be a good thing. If they wore a costume with pointy ears and started calling themselves “Batman” then of course we would question their sanity. But Batman isn’t real; it’s a story. Nobody thinks The Muppet Show advocates animal cruelty. Quite the opposite, if anything. ("Not unless they're watching it", as Waldolf once heckled) Yet if a filmmaker decides they’re going to make a “grounded and realistic” remake where Fozzy is played by a real live bear wearing a pork pie hat and spotty necktie, then that's a whole other story. Suspend your disbelief and superheroes are less like the police or army and more akin to volunteers and activists, doing what they can with what they have to improve the lives of those around them. Their actions take the form of crime fighting only because that’s what makes for exciting colourful adventure stories for children.

In the MCU, even Marvel’s poster boy, Spider-Man (another champion of non-lethal solutions, known for his compassion even to his enemies and who possesses an enduring appeal to young children) is given a literal sheen of the military-industrial complex in the form of “Stark Tech” armour, replete with military grade strike drones. Tony Stark even thought to equip his 15 year old protégé-cum-child soldier with an “Instant Kill Mode”. In a moment played for laughs in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man rejects his on-board AI's attempt to activate this feature but seems untroubled that such an option exists and, indeed, come Avengers: Infinity War, he voluntarily deploys it. It’s not clear if Spidey actually does kill any of his alien adversaries, but it seems reasonable to assume that one doesn’t say “Activate Instant Kill Mode” without the intention of ending lives. Fans are expected to smile or applaud as Spider-Man says these words, recognising the call-back to Homecoming, rather than find it a gross misrepresentation of Marvel’s most beloved character or an alarming depiction of a children’s favourite.

The MCU Avengers as a whole are a US government “initiative “. The reluctant superheroes need to be cajoled into putting their differences aside for the greater good by army top brass Nick Fury. In a tweak from the source material, the ‘H' in Fury's organisation, SHIELD, stands for ‘Homeland’, making SHIELD as explicitly American venture as opposed to it being ostensibly intergovernmental in the comics.

There is a comic book precedent for this military take on Earth's Mightiest Heroes in the form of The Ultimates, a 2002 series by the British team of writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch. The Ultimates ,however, was satire. Millar was an unreformed lefty of the old school – someone who has boasted of voting Brexit for left-wing reasons, someone who once appeared on Russia Today as a guest of George Galloway. The Ultimates took swings at the gung ho jingoism of post 9/11 America. Captain America's “Surrender!!?? You think this letter on my head stands for France?“ is not supposed to be a badass one-liner, but rather a parody of the kind of things US media outlets were saying as Jacques Chirac proved less keen than Tony Blair to follow George Bush in bringing gunboat diplomacy to the Middle East. As Millar commentated at the time:

“The Ultimates is completely different because it's a character-driven piece and (something only a few people have noticed) my attempt as a left-wing writer to tell stories about an essentially right-wing concept and cast. It's very much the Anti-Authority, if you will. Captain America and so on are fully-paid members of the US military machine and this means a very different book and approach from a gang of slightly arrogrant, left-wing, superhuman utopians like The Authority ".

Wildstorm Comics' The Authority, which both Millar and Hitch worked on (although not together), was a precursor to Ultimates, featuring a team of similarly “any means necessary” heroes, albeit with a left-wing bent. The Ultimates does have something of The Authority’s utopian streak; Nick Fury and Tony Stark genuinely want to make the world a better place for everyone. It’s very idealistic – what if the head of the military and the biggest tech billionaire actually had the people’s best interests at heart? – and arguably closer to true superhero ethos (basically “with great power there must also come great responsibility “) than those characters more pragmatic MCU equivalents.

Yet, as Millar's one time writing partner Grant Morrison (who actually ghost-wrote at least one issue of The Authority under Miller’s name) observed in Morrison’s major nonfiction work, Supergods, the likes of The Authority, The Ultimates and, by extension, the MCU represent a “capitulation” to the view “that it was really only force and violence that got things done and not patient diplomacy, and that only soldiers and very rich people had the world figured out”. If the MCU is realistic, then it’s a sad indictment of the real world where the heroes are the ones with the best tech, the best guns and no compunction about using them.

Regardless of intent, The Ultimates left a door at Marvel’s “House of Ideas” just enough ajar to allow a malign notion to creep in: “These soldier superheroes are pretty cool. What If they were like that all the time? Wouldn’t they be more popular then”?

Certainly the navy SEAL aesthetic Bryan Hitch brought to the costumes (replacing the colourful tights and capes with pouches, straps and body armour) was soon adopted by superhero tv and film productions even pre-MCU. In fact, Hawkeye's journey from carny to commando mirrors the changes in superhero attire. Most famously, Superman's appearance with the red “overpants” derives from that of circus strongmen, but seeing any photography of early to mid 20th century carnival and circus performers makes it clear the early superhero creators had them in mind when they first put pencil to paper.

In an interview (found in Marvel Spotlight: Captain America, published in 2009) Hitch related how he showed an initial Ultimates drawing of Captain America with a machine gun to Grant Morrison, which Morrison then “described as the most obscene Captain America image [they’d] ever seen”. (NB: Morrison has since adopted gender neutral pronouns). Perhaps Morrison said this with glee, in on the joke with their friends, but in the years since, Cap with a gun became a common sight, even in family-friendly movies (where it was divorced from the irony of The Ultimates).

By a 2015 interview, Morrison lamented the fact that “the Avengers work for the government, and it's been like that since Mark [Millar] did The Ultimates” and said they were “bored with the idea that the best superheroes can represent is some aggressive version of the military. [...] They're supposed to be champions of the oppressed, they help ordinary people, they make things better for people. They don't prop up our grotesque, doddering culture of war and aggression”.

That same year Morrison introduced a new comic book superteam in the pages of The Multiversity. Pointedly the text likens this group, named “Justice Incarnate”, to a “cosmic neighbourhood watch” rather than any formal military or law-enforcement institution.

Millar himself reunited with his Authority collaborator Frank Quitely to create the comic Jupiter’s Legacy, which comes across in part as an apology for The Ultimates and all it begat. It concludes with the protagonists, Chloe Sampson and Eddie "Hutch" Hutchence taking up superhero mantles and promising not to make the moral compromises of their predecessors:

“No more bowing to authority and insitutions. No more deference to people in power”.

“There's a dignity in public service we mistook for old-fashioned, and a humility in having a secret identity, living among the people we protect.“

The Avengers, Marvel’s breakthrough billion dollar box office 2012 movie, by contrast, concludes with Iron Man dropping a nuclear bomb on the “Chitari”, an invading alien army and it seems likely this influenced Morrison’s comments on modern superhero stories.

In Supergods, Morrison

describes their childhood dread of nuclear weapons. The child of “ban the bomb” activists, the “gruesome hand-drawn images of how the world might look after a spirited thermonuclear missile exchange” which illustrated their parents anti-nuclear literature struck terror into the young Morrison. Therefore they seized upon superheroes as being an idea powerful enough to counteract – and overcome – the idea of the bomb.

“It’s not that I needed Superman to be “real,” I just needed him to be more real than the Idea of the Bomb that ravaged my dreams”.

Within the narrative of the movie, Iron Man takes the only option available to him to save New York. Destroying thousands of alien lives to save thousands of human ones. But The Avengers isn’t a documentary; the scriptwriters could have written a satisfying denouement which didn’t involve mass murder. They could at least have included some words of regret by the heroes over what it took to win, acknowledging that killing is not the ideal solution. Instead the Avengers trade banter and eat shawarma, collective conscious clear.

There is a moment in another Grant Morrison work, Final Crisis, which always brings the MCU to mind. In Final Crisis #3, drawn by JG Jones, (published in 2008, the same year the MCU began) “evil gods” from a higher plain of existence have been reincarnated on Earth. In order for the Justice League to counter this threat, a “draft for Superheroes” is implemented. Green Arrow (a Batman-a-like character who was subsequently reinvented to embody the countercultural sentiment of the late 1960s and has since served as the social conscious of the superhero set) responds to receiving his draft notice thusly:

“If anybody falls for this authoritarian, militaristic crap, it’ll prove I’m absolutely right about absolutely everything!... “

Cue the next page, where the drafted heroes have gathered en mass (including Green Arrow, impotently shaking his fist.)

Such an assemblage of characters in usually a triumphant moment in a summer "event" story, but here is framed as a sign that evil already has it’s hooks into reality. This world has fallen to the darkness and the superheroes who inhabit it are too morally compromised to realise it.

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seraphtrevs · 9 days

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Do you have any favourite Lalo line deliveries?

Do I ever!

I think the obvious answer is "Tell me again," since it's sort of his catch phrase. And don't get me wrong - it's great. Tony totally nails it - gives me the shivers. But it's a little TOO obvious.

Ditto for "Werner Ziiiiiiiiiegler." Like yes, obviously it's hilarious.

But there are so many more hidden gems, so I'm going talk about those instead. My favorites tend to be when Tony makes a Choice that is so perfectly insane, and so obviously completely his. Like he was taking direction with "tell me again" and "werner ziiiiiiiiegler." These gems are all Tony's.

Two of my favorite line reads are actually from 6x06, which is kind of a minor episode in the grand scheme of things, but both of Lalo's Germany episodes forever changed me. There was me before Lalo created an American alter ego, flirted with a hot German widow, then did NOT sleep with her (his immediate "of course" when she reluctantly turns him away, obviously hoping for him to try harder, is an honorable mention top line read), then broke into her house, then petted her little doggy, then spared her life, then crawled out the window and flew away to go chop a guy's foot off. And then there's the me after (like the me before but more insane).

Anyway, my top Tony line read is when approaches Casper, saying hello to him in German, and then Casper responds in German, and then Lalo says "I don't speak German." Like, the more obvious way to say that line would be apologetic - like it could could be sinisterly apologetic, like when a super villain traps the hero in a room full of snakes and apologizes for the poor accommodations.

Instead, Tony delivers the line like Regina George bullying some hapless freshman. And that is such a Regina move! Manipulate someone into saying something and then immediately use it to belittle them. But like - they're in Germany! It's perfectly reasonable for someone in Germany to assume a person speaking German to them can speak at least little German. But Lalo's like "ew, like I'd ever speak German 🙄" He looks so cunty too.

And then he doesn't really chase Casper, he just kind of casually strolls after him, holding his hand out weird like his arthritis is bothering him. It's all so bonkers and I love it so much.

And coming in second place is "Carajo! I think you broke one of my ribs!" Again, I think the obvious way to read that line would be angry, but instead he sounds more annoyed. And poor Casper the unfriendly soon-to-be ghost is rolling around on the ground, having just had his foot chopped off, and Lalo's whining about how one of his ribs might be broken, and his voice does that weird yelp at the end of rIBS!

And then he takes off his belt with one hand. That's not a line read but I still think about it a lot.

I could go on, and maybe I will later. Basically all Tony line reads are my favorite lol.

#lalo salamanca #asks #i tried to lighten up the last screenshot bc it looked almost completely black #but i suck at graphics sorry

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princess-of-the-corner · 6 months

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Fanfic Recs

some of my favourite Miraculous Ladybug fanfics, in case anyone wants to read them.

I would have put all of them, but I feel like recommending the author’s fanfic to the author is redundant.

Telling Lies? No Mama

Aishling

(My personal favourite long-form “Lila Exposed” fic. Portrays the class as flawed kids trying to do the right thing. Alya is far more supportive than in canon, and everyone is less of an idiot. Chloe even has a redemption - it can feel a little out of nowhere, but it is in-character for her, and I feel well-handled. Fair warning, Lila is very much portrayed as Evil, willing to work with a terrorist kind of evil, so it may not be for everyone.)

BURN THE WITCH

ChaoticNeutral

(My second favourite long-form “Lila Exposed” fic. Rather than the previous one, Lila is not portrayed as pure evil, but as opportunistic and manipulative, as well as impulsive and over confident. She’s so used to getting away with things that she doesn’t realize that there are some things she can’t lie away. It also has an interesting Akuma for the person manipulated by Lila, and some great characterization for all the characters.)

Threatened

Aki_Usagi

(yet another Lila Exposed fic, but one that changes things up a little. Marinette was all set to face Lila head on when she was the one being threatened, but what if Lila realized that? What if she didn’t threaten Marinette, but her friends?)

A Thief, a Thief

GalahadWilder

(Honestly, a super short drabble set just after Lila accuses Marinette of stealing - and it backfires hilariously.)

Double Monkey Dare

ChaoticNeutral

(a Lila Exposed fic that includes Kim at his most himb. one-shot)

Double Vision

dumbdpaus

(Marinette saves Lila’s life during an Akuma attack, and Lila is forced to do some examination of herself. One-shot)

Occam’s Razor

Flairina

(an interesting, alternative idea for why everyone believed Lila immediately - yes, magic was involved. No, it wasn’t Lila’s. Two-shot.)

what’s up danger

GuardianKarenTerrier

(A look at Miracuclass through the eyes of its teacher. One-shot. From the actual description on ao3:

“Caline Bustier has not seen a single one of her students come through the classroom door in a week and a half.

There would likely be more students on time if they weren’t all coming in through the windows or, in Juleka’s case, technically through the doorway- as much as going hand over hand along the ceiling counts. Caline’s not even sure how she’s doing that.

She’s not even sure who to blame for this anymore.”)

If At First You Don’t Succeed

Leisey

(a long but hilarious one-shot of the Miracuclass - headed by Chloe - deciding to take the reins and make Adrienette happen.)

Restorative Justice

Kasienda

(Chloe sitting through an in class activity she hates with a passion, and realizing that the two of only people she cares about - Adrien and Ladybug - are drowning under their responsibilities, and deciding to do something about it. Honestly one of my favourite versions of Chloe.)

Crash and Burn

quicksilversquared

(“Everyone expected Hawk Moth to die in a dramatic fashion during some battle with Ladybug and Cat Noir.

No one expected him to die in a car accident on a week day afternoon.

Least of all his son.”)

What the Cat Dragged In

Kryal

(A pretty good crossover fic with the Avengers. Tony Stark, Clint Barton, and Natasha Romanov head to Paris, and encounter the local heroes, the villain, and some kids with fascinating insights on how this whole “Miraculous” thing works.)

Little Devil

angelofthequeers

(An interesting take on Marinette being Akumatized, and Chloe becoming Ladybug. Pretty enjoyable.)

I think I’ve read a good chunk of these lmao.

#submission

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fanficshiddles · 10 months

Text

Villain Or Victim, Chapter 5

For the following few nights, Loki continued to take Echo out of her cell without anyone else knowing. Aside from Thor, who had given up on telling Loki how bad of an idea it was.

Usually, Loki took her up onto the roof, which seemed to be her favourite place. He did take her for a walk around the grounds too, which she seemed to enjoy.

But tonight, he had something different in mind. After taking her up onto the roof again for a little while, he suggested something else.

‘How would you like to use up some energy in the training field?’ Loki asked her while rubbing her arm. They were sitting close together on the rooftop and he had his arm around her.

‘Would that be ok?’ She asked quietly.

‘Of course. I know you will likely still feel trapped and cooped up. I thought perhaps doing some training of your skills will help, might help you sleep better too.’

Echo had been struggling to sleep well, and she had told Loki that yesterday. It probably was partly due to not doing much during the day, not getting the same exercise like she normally did.

‘That would be great… Thank you, Loki.’ She smiled at him.

Loki took her hand and gave her a gentle squeeze, he led her back down and outside to the field.

He watched from the side as she ran laps around the perimeter first, not quite at her full speed but still an impressive speed none the less. Then she impressed him with some fighting techniques on the robot trainers that Stark had invented. They kept popping up around her but she was able to take them all down with various kicks or punches. She was really agile and light on her feet, which Loki hadn’t noticed previously when they’d been originally fighting her.

He tapped his lip in deep thought while he continued watching her.

‘She has so much potential.’ He hummed quietly to himself.

The Avengers were all having their daily meeting to speak about Echo. They got updates from Loki about how she was doing with him, if she was opening up more and if she had told him anymore information that could be useful.

Bruce and Tony would update everyone about their progress in the lab. And there was some…

‘I think, if we can make a serum… a form of nerve block, so to speak, we can perhaps stop her outbursts. We now know the issue is coming from her occipital nerve, so we just need to come up with a solution that will last long enough to block it. Even if we need to administer it monthly, that would be better than nothing.’ Bruce said.

They had been able to work with Echo and she had been letting them run some tests. Including many brain scans to pinpoint where the issue was coming from. She had only been able to allow them to do said tests with Loki’s support though of course.

Though they did need to enrage her on purpose a few times, so they could see her brain in action, which had been relatively easy to do.

‘How long will it take to make this serum?’ Loki queried.

Bruce hummed for a moment in thought. ‘Not sure. It might take a few attempts, but I’d be hopeful within a few weeks we will have the right solution.’

‘I think we can probably do it in about ten days.’ Tony interjected.

‘That soon?’ Loki asked, keeping his tone casual though he was surprised to hear it could be so soon.

‘It shouldn’t be too difficult. We will need to take a few more samples from her, but it will be straight forward enough.’ Tony shrugged.

Loki nodded once. ‘Good.’

He then kept quiet for the rest of the duration of the meeting. He just listened to plans the team came up with, while also forming a plan of his own for Echo. Though he wasn’t going to have as much time now as he had originally thought he would.

Even though he had her trust, he still wasn’t entirely sure how far that trust would go yet.

‘Are the team any closer to finding a solution for me?’ Echo asked Loki that night, he was in her cell spending some time with her. He had pulled her onto his lap to cuddle, knowing how much she liked that. Especially when he stroked her hair, it was so soothing for her.

‘Not yet, but they are working hard on it. Between missions they’re in the lab trying to find one.’

‘Do you think it will ever be possible for me to live a normal life? To not have to be caged up constantly?’ She asked.

Loki gently cupped her face and rubbed his thumb against her cheek. ‘You’re not a danger to me, so that’s a big start. It proves it can be done.’

‘I just… want to be normal. I hate being like this, getting angry at nothing.’ She said through gritted teeth, even just thinking and speaking about it made her get worked up.

‘Shh, darling. It’s ok, we will get you there.’ Loki soothed her and she instantly began to calm again. He kissed her forehead, making her heart flutter.

‘Have you been sleeping better now that you’ve been doing some training each night?’ He asked.

‘Yeah, I have. Thank you.’ Echo nodded. ‘Would the others be really angry if they found out? Even though I’ve not done anything wrong, and I’ve always been supervised by you?’

‘They probably would. It’s best we still keep it a secret.’ He winked at her. ‘How would you like to try something a bit different tomorrow night?’

‘What do you have in mind?’ Echo asked curiously.

‘How about going off site for a little bit? There’s a… special little mission I need to do. One that I could do with having your help on.’ Loki said.

‘What… what sort of mission?’ Echo raised an eyebrow.

‘I will fill you in more tomorrow on the way there, if you’re up for going?’

Echo pondered on it for a moment, then nodded. She trusted Loki, so why not? If she could be useful, then surely that was a good thing?

‘Excellent.’ Loki grinned widely and gently kissed her on the lips.

#Loki #Tom Hiddleston #Loki x ofc #villain or victim #Loki fic

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thatdammchickennugget · 3 months

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Video Game Tag Game!

Questions:

1. What are your top 3 favorite games of all time? 2. What's a really popular game you don't like? 3. What game have you spent the most number of hours on? 4. What was the first game you ever remember playing? 5. What is your favourite console? 6. What is the first console you ever owned? 7. What Video Game world would you like to live in? 8. If you could have one power of any video game character, who would it be? 9. What game are you most excited to play this year? 10. What are your top 3 favourite playable characters? 11. What are your top 3 favourite sidekick characters? 12. What are your top 3 favourite villains? 13. What are your top 3 nostalgic video games? 14 What are your top 3 video game soundtracks?

1. What are your top 3 favorite games of all time? - Baldur's Gate 3 - Stardew Valley - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

2. What's a really popular game you don't like? - League of Legends :'D

3. What game have you spent the most number of hours on? - Stardew Valley (it's my comfort game)

4. What was the first game you ever remember playing? - Pokemon Ruby

5. What is your favourite console? - either PC or DS

6. What is the first console you ever owned? - Game Boy Advance

7. What Video Game world would you like to live in? - Animal Crossing or The Sims so I can motherlode my way through life

8. If you could have one power of any video game character, who would it be? - the little brother's from Plague's Tale, I wanna control hordes of rats

9. What game are you most excited to play this year? - maybe the Outlast Trials or Tekken 8

10. What are your top 3 favourite playable characters? - my tav's from BG3 - Joel Miller from The Last Of Us - Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn

11. What are your top 3 favourite sidekick characters? - Clank from Ratched and Clank - Navi from Legend Of Zelda - Lydia from Skyrim

12. What are your top 3 favourite villains? - Ketheric Thorm from BG3 - Dr. Robotnik from Sonic - Ganon from Legend Of Zelda

13. What are your top 3 nostalgic video games? - can't choose just three so here we go: Spyro Enter the Dragonfly, Dragon Quest VIII, Nintendogs, the Narnia DS game, Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2, Animal Crossing, Spongebob SuperSponge, Gothik 2 and 3

14 What are your top 3 video game soundtracks? - BG3 - Ocarina Of Time - Elden Ring

no pressure tags (if you're not into video games ignore this lol): @finalgirllx @pizzaapeteer @jayybugg @ashisgreedy @mrbudz

+ anyone else who wants to do this because I don't now if any of my mutuals are into video games other than Lyss, so I don't have a lot of people to tag here <3

#tag game #tagging game #video games #gaming

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pluckyredhead · 2 months

Note

for the ask game: 5, 10, 15, 19 !

5. What’s a tag you never want to use for your works even when it applies?

This first one might be cheating, but I don't like tagging villains when I'm trying to keep whodunnit a surprise, for obvious reasons. And I won't tag who is the top or bottom in a fic, because I want nothing to do with top/bottom discourse. If it matters that much to you as a reader, I am not the writer for you.

10. Top three favourite fic tropes.

I'm gonna say...slow burn, but it has to be a real slow burn, not 1k tagged as slow burn. Not Actually Unrequited. And Marriage of Convenience or Fake Dating or something in that vein.

15. What’s your favourite plotless fic you have written?

I'm going to narrow this down to fics that are literally just one sex scene, because I think anything longer than that does have a plot, even if it's a short or simple one. So I'll say Just as Long as I'm the Name on Your Tattooed Heart, because I think Jason and Roy are sweet in that one.

19. Share a snippet from a wip without giving any context for it.

An hour and a half later, he lay prone on the living room floor. He assumed he’d be lying there forever, since trying to sit up made his stomach muscles beg for mercy. He hadn’t realized he had stomach muscles, but now he knew that they were there, they were pathetic, and they were capable of incredible pain. “Poor Eddie,” Toni said, handing him a box of coconut water that he had to crane his neck to lip sadly at. Her abs looked great. “You’re my friend and I love you,” he told her, putting the box down. Turned out coconut water was disgusting. “But I want you to know that that was worse than walking in on Grant and Tommy.” She snorted. “You’re such a prude.” “He had a tail!” “Eddie, you have a tail,” Toni pointed out.

#meme

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sophielovesbooks · 10 months

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I was tagged by @dauen for the mid-year book freakout tag, and I was genuinely so excited because I had been meaning to do it, but then I wondered if anybody even cared. So yes, thank you so much! <3 And let's gooo ~

1. Best book you’ve read so far this year

Birnam Wood. Hands down. Everybody go read Birnam Wood.

2. Best sequel you’ve read so far this year

This question made me realise I don't read a lot of sequels. The ONLY one I've read so far this year is Hell Bent (the sequel to "Ninth House"). And it was kind of fun. But I didn't love it.

3. New release you haven’t read yet

Hm... I suppose I don't keep up with new releases like I used to. Though Carrie Soto Is Back comes to mind, if that counts as a new release. And Sea of Tranquility from last year. (I accidentally just mispelled that as "Transquility" lol)

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

Okay, so this is super niche and a bit weird, but it might be The Otherworld by Abbie Emmons. I've never actually read anything by her and I'm not sure if it'll be good, but I know her from YouTube and I'm curious. Has anybody else on here read any of her books?

5. Biggest disappointment

Probably The Midnight Library. I had seen so many people raving about this book online, but I HATED it. Genuinely the most amateurish writing I have come across in years. And so, so preachy. Not trying to be mean here. But yeah, it wasn't for me.

Oh, and Kill All Your Darlings by David Bell was also bad, sadly.

6. Biggest surprise

Hm. Birnam Wood was the biggest surprise regarding how much I loved it. And also regarding the ending. And Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney had one of the coolest plot twists I came across this year.

7. Favourite new author (debut or new to you)

100% ELEANOR CATTON WHO WROTE BIRNAM WOOD IT WAS SO GOOD OMG!

Also Victoria Gosling? I am currently reading Before The Ruins by her and it's quite good as well. Beautiful writing. Kind of entrancing. I feel like fans of The Secret History would be into it?

8. Newest fictional crush/newest favourite character

Hmm, I don't really get fictional crushes. But if I did, I would have to say Mira or Tony from, you guessed it, Birnam Wood. (Oh, and maybe David from Before the Ruins. Also quite cute.)

9. Book that made you cry

Hehe. What do you think. You have one guess. Oh, you said Birnam Wood? Correct. Why have I only read one great book this year so far lmao

10. Book that made you happy

Ummm... All of this is forcing me to face the fact that my reading year so far has NOT been that good. I reread If We Were Villains and that made me happy. For non-fiction I read Undrowned and that made me happy at times. But other passages were really sad and emotional.

11. Favourite Adaptation

Heartstopper! And I'm really excited for Red, White & Royal Blue! <3

12. Prettiest Cover

Though disappointing overall, Kill All Your Darlings did have a lovely cover:

13. A book you need to read before the end of the year

Gosh, so many! From a quick glance at my shelves: The Rehearsal, The Initial Insult, Outliers, Shadow of the Lions, Weapons of Math Destruction... and so many more. That I know I won't get to. So some are on my 2024 TBR.

Tagging @hrimceald @books-and-cookies @b1uetrees @jay-avian @yoongsea @r-osehips @minyardcva if you want to. Curious to hear about your reading years so far :)

#booklr #mid year book freak out tag #mid year book tag #reading #currently reading #tag games

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bluespring864 · 3 months

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you’re right about novak being overhated. his mistakes are amplified a lot more than everyone else and whenever he does something they don’t like people jump to say that’s the “real” him. wtf. like all people don’t contain multitudes. also just this week rafa’s uncle toni included in one of his articles (in the biggest newspaper in spain) how close he is to zverev (which in this moment is a definite choice considering his allegations and the trial being set and everything) and you just know if it was one of novak’s family members saying stuff like that right now people would be hating on him like crazy and calling him evil.

Oh i hadn't heard that about Rafa's uncle, that is disappointing though not very surprising. The more i hear about that guy the more frustrated i am with the fact that he's still a respected coach - his training methods also certainly leave a lot to be desired, to put it very mildly. And yeah, there is a double standard there. Basically whenever Novak is involved people will assume the worst, whenever any player the majority of tennisblr likes is involved people will assume the best. But to some extent that's the way Novak has been treated by the wider tennis fandom as well. For instance I am always surprised when watching a match how quickly most audiences turn on him (yes, he's sometimes provoking back, but he's only started that in recent years, and yes, people love an underdog against the favourite, but it is quite extreme sometimes). I guess people these days have trouble with accepting complex people, they want their sportspeople to play sports and be cute and nothing else and when they have done something they disagree with they must be the villain. Though people tell me a certain German player was cheered on by the crowd so it is certainly interesting what does and doesn't get identified as villainous behaviour 🤷

#tennis asks #bluespring asked and answered #novak djokovic #these answers are all so long bc tennisblr has made me think about this subject far too much #sorry for cluttering everyone's dash 🙈#and thanks for the ask!

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unearthlydust · 1 year

Note

Yeah, thank you, that's great. We all have our preferences, I just am weary of stans of one character villainizing another to make their blorbo an innocent baby (certainly not unique to Tony-Steve-Bucky). Also, I think Cap 3 was a mistake both as a stand-alone movie and within the Infinity Saga narratively.

Hi!

I'm usually drawn to posts about my favourite characters or posts that talk about the weakness or incoherences of storylines, so I don't really know how far some people can go to elevate their blorbos.

I have to say though that I would've liked to see a third Captain America movie mainly focused on Steve and not divided between him and Tony. We got three Iron Man movies, and I think we should've gotten three Captain America movies with no major interferences. I understand that Tony was important to the marvel cinematic universe, but I find it weird that we saw his parents in Captain America: Civil War when we never got to see Steve's mother... :/

#anonymous #i hope this makes sense fnfn #some choices were made at the time #nothing can change that now #unless they want to explore parallel universes? fnfn #unearthlydust replies

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brw · 1 year

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Simon Williams, Marvel's Wonder Man, their first evil Superman, or why out of all the obscure characters I could have latched onto, it's fucking Wonder Man.

I'll preface; the first reason why I ever gave more than a cursory glance at a wikipedia page at Simon was because he was attached to my favourite character, The Vision, and was heavily related to my other favourite character, Wanda Maximoff. I'm not going to lie & say that it was love at first sight or anything; I was a fan of Vision & Wanda for a while, & upon discovering Vision had a whole twin brother I never knew about, but one who had also dated Wanda later, I found it weird that I could find almost jack shit about the character online.

In the fandom spaces I was in, Simon was mostly "that asshole Vision is kinda related to and was weirdly quick to start flirting with Wanda when Vision got Byrne'd". I, new to marvel comics, was curious about this mystery man, and fell into a strange world of Marvel before the MCU was really the big thing people knew about it but also still sorta... there, as this is before they got completely overshadowed by the surge of new fans coming in from an increasingly amibitious production who were not versed in comic lore & therefore did not know nor care about Simon Williams, Wonder Man.

Anyway, I made it my mission to learn more about this guy because of my involvement with Vision & because it's just generally weird when you discover your favourite has an entire twin brother who had not one, not two, but three whole solo title runs where he headlines the comic (by the way, if you're not counting Vision & the Scarlet Witch or Ultimate Vision, is more solo runs than what 616 Vision has.) and appeared in comics almost 5 years before Vision was ever a thought on Roy Thomas' mind or before the man was even fucking hired at marvel. Needless to say, I became obsessed, and as of writing this am on my second comprehensive readthrough of every issue he's appeared in since debut in Avengers Vol 1 #9.

This out of the way, here is my very long & indulgent essay on why I think Wonder Man is great, subversive & when done right, a really good commentary on comics generally, with some vague gestures that I really hope some of these aspects will live on in the fabled Wonder Man series which I'm almost convinced is a psy-op to get me to do more unpaid work analysing Simon fuckin' Williams.

First point of this; Simon is an evil Superman. We've seen this trope a lot recently but I think it's always been a concept since conceptualisation of a character like Superman. A character must have an adversary for conflict, and while villains serve that purpose well initially, eventually the Man vs Man conflict enters into play; for what is more potentially crippling than ourselves?

Now, Simon isn't actually evil (usually), which kind of knocks him out as a proper evil Superman, but he is certainly a failed one. Superman gets his powers from the sun & from birthright, being the sole (ish) survivor of a tragedy that wiped out almost all of his people. It's what he chooses to do with these powers that truly define the character; his innate compassion & kindness towards others. Simon gets his powers after getting bribed from a weird Norse goddess after getting arrested for embezzling, and then gets experimented on & subsequently empowered by a weird Nazi scientist. He does betray these guys almost immediately after realising hey, maybe the Norse goddess & Nazi scientist don't have the best outcomes in mind for the Avengers, but still, it's not a flattering start to the character.

In Superman comics, his powers are something great that he has to be careful where he applies them to do good for other people, to create the best possible outcome for others. For Simon, they're something he's quite literally bribed into, experimented on with a definite lack of strong consent, & is unfamiliar with & doesn't even really use for good when he formally joins the Avengers. They're not something he works towards through intellect like Hank Pym and Tony Stark, it's an unnatural state for him to be in that kind of informs his actions unlike Vision & Thor, and it's kind of an accident he ended up as incredibly overpowered & superman-like as he has.

At the core of the character, there's this skeevy, unearned way in which he gains his powers, and there's this element that Simon doesn't even want them in the first place which I think get's stronger after his secondary character trait becomes defined. It's interesting, in that he sort of more simiarly references Beast in his power acquistion, of making a stupid decision in a moment of panic, drinking the beaker of glowing green/allowing yourself to get bailed out by some random woman you don't know but knows you well enough to bail you out, and having to deal with powers far greater & lifechanging than what you intitially wanted. Of course, in publication dates it's more like Beast references him, but either way it's an avenue I'm suprised no writer has taken their friendship.

Simon is also an evil Superman because ultimately, there's no nobility or inherent desire to help people that Simon has. At least not in the same way. Clark Kent will throw himself in front of every danger he can to protect those without the invulnerable skin or flight or eye lazers, and even his day job is protecting free speech & informing the people. Simon has a noted anxiety disorder in almost every fight he's in when he's first in consistent Avengers publication, and was raised an entitled rich kid who embezzled everything away & tried to run with the cash when things fell apart. His nobility was only achieved in his death, giving up so the Avengers could survive, and he's rewarded for that narratively with... a near crippling fear of death & of dying that prohibits him a lot from standing up or applying himself. In all fairness, he does get over this in ways, but it still remains something worth talking about; Simon has to work way harder, in my opinion, to act as a good person, that Superman, but even in universe, than the person who's brainwaves / soul they share, Vision. You know, there's a reason why Simon has murdered people in two separate comics by two separate writers in two mainline 616 comics in cold blood, and they fit in with his character & not just edgy bait for Superman or alternate universe shit. Simon is an incredibly anxious, very privileged boy who tries to scheme his way out of bankruptcy, fails, gets powers he can't imagine, and immediately dies & stays dead for like 13 years, and when he returns is a nervous wreck. It makes sense that Simon is easy to trick emotionally or, when just having a bad day, might punch too hard & kill someone. He was doing this in 1991.

Why is Simon like this? Well now we get into the other cornerstone of many evil Supermen, and indeed many general evil comic men; bad parents. It's not fair to say this only applies to villains, as many, many heroes can attest, having bad parents is not a trait exclusive to the baby-eating genocidal manics. That said, the ratio of villains having a happy & prosperous childhood to heroes is quite staggering. Superman is always notable for his origin with Ma & Pa Kent in Smallville, to the point of which they made a very long tv show just about Smallville Superman. Superman grew up to loving parents. Simon grew up to an abusive father & to a mother, who while loved him, never seemed to be able to connect with him before Simon died in the way she'd wished possible. Clark Kent grows up in Smallville, a well-named small town in Kansas. Simon grows up wealthy, the heir to a well-off company in New Jersey. Clark Kent's background unquestionably influences him as a person, his values and his interactions, and ... Simon's can, and almost does, but obviously the bar for consistency in background isn't as high for random C-List Avenger Wonder Man than the single most archetypal hero ever, Superman.

See, Simon being a victim of abuse both at the hands of his father and at the hands of his brother have very interesting potential implications for his relationship with afterforementioned Vision. The reason why I found nothing about Simon in my standard Scarlet Witch and Vision centered fandom experience is because he's an asshole to them. Specifically, in the John Byrne WCA run, the tragic ending of the long time staple of Avengers B-plots that was Wanda Maximoff and her synthetic robot lover, the Vision. Specifically, he doesn't give Vision back their emotions & memories when Wanda asks him too, because he has a crush on her and that gives him the right to effectively ensure the death of his own sibling & Wanda's spouse, something that yeah, will definitely make her start viewing you as a potential boyfriend. I think there's a very interesting potential narrative here about cycles of abuse & how in his own relationship with Vision, Simon becomes the perpetuater of the abuse rather than the victim. He gets into a big aggressive fight with Vision during the events of Operation: Galactic Storm, and even says right there and then that he considers Vision... his child. You would think with such a big weird statement that there would be a narrative about how both Simon & his brother, Eric were abused by Sanford, and how Eric in turn and as a response abused Simon. It would say a lot about Simon's relationship to the very concept of brotherhood & fatherhood, but it's just a bizarre throwaway line in a random event nobody remembers and there's just this entire fucking decade where Simon does a completely 180 in characterisation and there is zero effort to explAIN OR EVEN TALK ABOUT THE FACT THAT IT HAPPENED, WE JUST SWEEP IT UNDER THE RUG EXCEPT FOR MULLET FLASHBACKS, I FUCKING HATE JOHN BYRNE SO GDDAMN MU--

Another element to consider; even beyond just being personally unfit for the job of Superman, Simon has other engagements. Simon has dreams of being on the silver screen, a big movie star! This is probably the second thing you know about Simon other than the relationship to Vision & Wanda; he's an actor, and trying to make it big. This is often either played as Simon just being a sellout with no artistic integrity, or Simon actually having too much integrity, and struggling in an industry that takes big action sequences over moving, heartfelt Shakespearean dramas or whatever. Whatever the case, what makes Simon feel different to other similar characters in my opinion is that the superhero gig is the day job he puts up with to support his REAL love, acting. What makes some of Simon's contemporary depictions unfulfilling is that they swap them to the more conventional way, that he's bogged down in acting work but really wants to be taking on Galactus. This is a problem we run into where Simon is given an opportunity to be a genuinely interesting character subverting very common tropes & doing it well & in a satisfying way, only for the next schmuck who just got Simon's name out of a random hat of names and did whatever they saw written on the Wonder Man tin; shit Superman.

Not only does Simon not have a heroic origin of his powers, not only is he as a person is fundamentally unsuited to superheroics because he refuses to go to therapy, but Simon doesn't even have enough committment to the superhero gig to make it his primary job, instead choosing acting, which isn't even something he has a stake in. It's a completely new field for him, and as Simon soon learns, the world of acting is not as welcome to a complete newcomer & novice with very little actual professional work to his name. Not only does he effectively give up being an Avenger to persue acting, he's not even that good an actor. Simon has powers he doesn't want, is associated with a team he doesn't really want to be in, and puts all his eggs in the acting success basket and really it's a miracle it takes Deadpool to officially bankrupt him. We open up with his first ever appearance with him getting arrested & found guilty of embezzlement, it's not like he's established to be financially safe or intelligent with his money.

Simon, I genuinely think, fits the bill as an evil Superman. I mean, he's even got a solely red & black colour scheme with a weird trademarked symbol on the chest. He is the opposite of Clark Kent in so many ways, and yet somehow... tries to be heroic? And hero Simon is way more interesting than villain Simon, I mean, that's why after the character reaches the end of his arc in Wonder Man '91 he almost immediately just fucking blows up in literal issue 1 of Force Works until Kurt Busiek, an obvious big fan of the 70s & early 80s stuff brings him back completely reimagined and firmly established as a good guy, evil Simon is just too obvious a route. What keeps me coming back to this character enough to do two comprehensive readthroughs though, is the fact that in being so much an apparent antithesis of Clark Kent, he's a subversion of most comic book hero tropes, while remaining a hero. Were this character created today, I imagine after coming back he would just stay... an antagonist. Red & black colour scheme, yup, disinterest in helping others, yup, horrible traumatic upbringing, yup, an arguably power-hungery acquistion of his abilities, yup, antagonistic relationship to a primary coloured, established heroic character, in The Vision. In fact, I think having a gothier, more evil big brother archetype in the Grim Reaper / Eric Williams is a contributing factor as to why Simon ends up a surpisingly nuanced portrayal of the conventions of the superhero genre and how a character who goes against that can still be a hero when he's given time to breathe & not given a random time travel / future plot mixed with Big Brother, thanks Peter David--

Simon Williams, Wonder Man, is to me the best case scenario when rehashing old ideas. It clearly wasn't LeeKirby who figured "yeah let's bring back the guy we created to die in issue 9 of Avengers", but as time went on & more ideas were tacked on but never really expanded upon it's created this incredible incident where we have a bunch of really good ideas in a shared soul in a gay anxious ball of ionic energy who has tricked itself into sentient thought and an android associated with Marvel's first Human Torch who is also famous for their connection to the now incredibly recognisable Scarlet Witch. Simon is the evil Superman trope, but a hero still. Simon is a failed actor who actively prefers that to being an Avenger. He doesn't like helping people and has panic attacks and stops fighting vs supervillains more than once. His best friend is furry ape mutant who he's got this bizarre sexual dynamic with. He's dating Carol Danvers & Scarlet Witch, but his position as a C-List character means he's fundamentally never going to have a real shot with them, and he seems narratively relieved whenever they break it off. He's related to an evil necromancer with a scythe hand who abused him as a kid & felt so bad about that he dedicated his life to bringing Twink Simon back without ever changing his relationship dynamics with Simon when he comes back. And yet Simon remains often a footnote, and occasionally gets some focus when people remember he was supposed to have gotten Hulk to a stalemate once. Thanks again, Peter David.

I'm not insane enough to argue that Simon was secretly Marvel's best character all along. Most of this is honestly due to Simon being too obscure to majorly fuck up because that would require insider knowledge. These are just mind-bogglingly happy accidents that resulted in an actually okay deconstruction of the evil Superman trope like 20, 30 years before that was actually the thing to do. Simon is a character honestly prime to enter the spotlight, which is exactly why it’s so terrifying it’s happening. On one hand, largely what we have heard about the production & rumours surrounding the show is positive. We have an established actor in the comic book adaptation genre, and experienced writers in comedies. On the other hand, Simon is not a major enough character to attract ire if core aspects of him are lost, and I will mourn certain things that may be lost like the evil Superman of it all, the fact that Simon was pretty much established Jewish in 2005 & has a history of queer-coding that warrants it’s own post that I may one day get brave enough to write, with certainly more panel input than this. I don’t think Simon is a character with genius writing or implementation, but I strongly believe he has potential. There are so many potential storylines just by asking the fundamental question, “What if Superman was gay and had an anxiety disorder and was also a theatre kid and actively avoided the Justice League?”. The answer, somehow, is Simon Williams, and that’s an opportunity for stories that Marvel has sat on for a while, and while this may start to change I am wary of getting my hopes up about a character who I initially was calling D List when I first started writing this.

Ultimately, Simon Williams is what most characters are; a character glued together by fan speculation & connecting the dots from various storylines to make an attempt at a linear narrative when the writers do not care and will continue to not care. Still, I found that, as fans of Vision and Scarlet Witch, but also as an Ant-Man fan, the reaching I have to do to make everything in Simon's publication make sense is me hunched over my laptop like I am right now compared to the ritualistic intensive yoga I have to do to make the 90s & 2000s make any sort of interpretation of those other characters intelligible. Simon is a character with a rare potential in comic books; to make sense. Maybe not by ordinary standards but it's easier to argue that Simon would recreate a toxic relationship with his sibling who he considers a child given his own relationship to his elder brother & father, than whatever horse shit Avengers Disassembled & House of M are supposed to be. I want to believe badly that this vision is getting seen; why else would Simon get three different solo series & an entire fucking show with an actual good actor if there wasn't some understanding that this was a potentially interesting character. I want to believe. so badly.

This is my end, I guess, & I'll say that if you're interested in any specific sources for something I've said send an ask & I'll dig out the panel somewhere. A problem with reading a character with exactly 666 appearances in like, one month like I did the first time around meant I didn't save a lot & limits of my technology that haven't translated well to where I am now. My second time around, I'm being much more methodical with posting panels, which you can see in @wonderbeast if you're interested. But I'll be happy to dig out Marvel Premiere or Avengers V1 #184 or #15 of Wonder Man (1991) for you. Really. It's fans like us who REALLY make this company go around & man I'm not letting marvel forget that. Especially with an MCU project attached.

#brieuc.txt #comic book meta #wonder man #simon williams #long post #ch: the man of wonders!#over 3000 words this is!!!!!!!!! more i've written on any of my actual projects in many a time!#anyway! please read & rb i would appreciate it. i have so much to say abt an ultimately inconsequential character.

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pigtailedgirl · 2 years

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hiii I hope you're having a great day! I'm not kidding when I say that it took several read throughs before I sent this 😭 I was just wondering if you'd mind linking any marvel meta and critiques pertaining to civil war and the accords, endgame, tfatws, tony, peggy, and the way steve and bucky's characters were treated.

context: I'm trying to explain some things to a friend of mine, but I just know there's posts that explain it better than I can. I spent over an hour scrolling through various tags and I really struggled to find my favourites.

I hope this doesn't sound too demanding, and feel free to ignore it if you're busy or you don't want to do it. I'm honestly just hoping you have some kind of folder where you keep them all! if you do, though, I would love if you included your own posts, because yours are some of the best ones I've read.

anyway, wishing you the best 💖

I admit this makes me super happy because, it's like even the internet friends know I'm a folder person! I do have a lot CACW and Endgame meta even offline folder saved lol.

I don't know if there is any specific arguments or points you and your friend are discussing to direct at? Let me know!

Here's what I have that applies in my current bookmarks, except LewtonBus which I think are articles for self examine and not to bring to discuss in rebuttals with friends, because there is really good stuff in them to ponder but, they are thesis' I'm not 100% subscribed too.

Also I can't rec enough the blogs of @thehollowprince, @robotmango, @monardarmmm, @fearlessinger, @chirping_tiger, @kateis_cakeis, @laporcurina, @cosmicmechanism, @keire-ke. I've scoured there tags and takes and loved so much if it.

STUCKY & Endgame

https://bamsmackpow.com/2019/04/30/avengers-endgame-lack-of-closure/

This is my defining WTF Endgame article. I don't see how anyone can argue against it. There is no explanation or reasoning to give out to the obvious and intentional erasure of Steve and Bucky out of Endgame's story narrative and why it doesn't fucking matter if you like the ship or the characters at all, erasing them, denying it, failed the set up of the story structure and the basics of arc complete writing.

The Stucky Essay - bilittlebarnes - Captain America (Movies) [Archive of Our Own]

This essay is so good. I was drawn in by it's argument on the "Bucky is alive!" moment of Endgame critic, because it highlights that the movie itself knows Stucky makes more narrative sense and importance and therefore uses it, but of course won’t let it be acknowledged. America’s ass is on display, just not the one they think.

The Silence of Peggy Carter. Peggy Carter was founder and Director… | by Summer Barbeau | Medium

I'm being really critical of Peggy's character being so beloved lately, examining my past defense of, but I think this article is the bomb on why Endgame's Steggy is dismissive of the pairing and characters whether you like them or not. An ending that devalues and silences your partner for romance is a fail.

For CACW

Exorcism, Burial, and Analysis: Representing Trauma in ‘Captain America: Civil War’ – Ceci n'est pas un discours (wordpress.com)

CA:CW, the reaction - cute but prickly (tumblr.com)

TFATWS

‘Falcon & The Winter Soldier’ & The Myth of Nonviolence | by Alex Mell-Taylor | An Injustice! (aninjusticemag.com)

I know it might not run in pop circles to my friends list but I'll say I agree with most if not all of the Mooler's breakdown of TFATWS.

https://youtu.be/N0Tu6pCvjQ4

In that Karli read more villain than John Walker to me, despite show intent, and it needs massive overhaul, because it's message sucked in many many ways. And I thought Sam and Bucky did come of as morally wrong and kinda massive jerks in comparison to Walker, as did the ethics of the Flagsmashers, the Dora.

That doesn't mean I've any love or interest in the John Walker character independently, as Jessica Jones season 1 did that style story better...it's a story meh in comparison to what I want which is a focused Sam story...and I certainly have no love or respect for Zemo's addition likewise. Where to go with the Captain America stories and ethics of the characters is so f'ed right now.

#good meta #recs #captain america #steve rogers #anti endgame #anti tony stark #cacw meta #steve rogers meta #anti steggy #stucky meta #tfatws critical

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