#it was obvious he was a skrull in this

[brightnote]

Marvel is playing a fast paced no risk no reward game and the characters and story are really paying for it

Yes yes an old complaint that Marvel fails its female characters and instead of fixing it they just fall into the same old tropes. But Secret Invasion failed Nick Fury,  Rhodey, Talos, and Gravik too! This was a very very very good cast and they all did a great job with what they had but the stories are so bad, they are nonsensical, not well developed, filled with plot holes. In fact the only person who made it out of this show were the new characters G’iah and Sonya, and so far G’iah is pretty Mary Sue which is another Marvel problem!  

This is a long one.. 

Black Widow is such a good example of this. Marvel never wanted to make a Black Widow movie. They did it for fan service and as an easier way to introduce Florence Pugh’s character, it was not in anyway to provide Natasha with a background, history, story, or development and it was total rushed nonsense. That movie was BAD. I rank it slightly above Quantumania. Natasha and Maria were in the MCU in 2012 to be there to be beautiful women around men (the bad ass normal (hot woman) trope).   Also, the idea they had to kill Natasha off because she ~could never have a family!~ as if childless women don’t exist happily is pretty rough or because she could never deal with the mental stress of her old life…yet Hawkeye, Fury, all these male killers can adjust to life just fine, except for Gravik who apparently can’t get over killing so he kills Talos and Maria and all those other skrulls and people? Uhhh ok? Natasha gets a sad cold lonely death—at least a choice by her, a sacrifice to save everyone so Clint can go home to his wife and kids—after she spent five years doing Fury’s work because he died in the snap. Maria gets a sad cold lonely CRUEL death with nothing wrapped up and for no point. 

So, Marvel then decides they want to make a Nick Fury project and to be honest I don’t feel like many people were asking or pushing for this… but sure let’s give a look into his life for some reason, cause he’s a man and he deserves it! It’s true that Fury also doesn’t have very much development but some his mystery and intrigue actually makes Fury cool. Like he’s a private person, he has to be because of his job.  What we learn about him... is that all of his success was from Skrulls and women propping him up. So Marvel removes Talos and Maria from the story (but still makes sure Talos gets a family and a full on fucking funeral while Maria gets a body transfer and some random lady pathetically guilting Fury which didn’t even work) Marvel knows no one is gonna watch that shit if they find out it’s a short run for Hill and Talos and Ross and advertises this show as Fury + Friends spy thriller boots on the ground!! NO SUPERS!! What is it instead? A barely comprehensible loose outline where no one has ANY development at all there is no spy thriller storyline and there are ALIENS AND SUPERS THE ALIENS ARE THE SUPERS!!  The the Super Aliens just kill the Fury Friends the regular way with a gun and a stab…. Then Fury who insists he is one step ahead and there’s a chess theme all around has so many awkward flubbed supposed to be cool lines and they make no sense. 

Let’s look at them for a minute: 

“Even when I’m out I’m in!”  Yeah… he’s so IN that he couldn’t spot a totally obvious trap that gets his No. 1 ally killed right off the bat? Yeah welcome back to earth… he’s so in he only prepared his team FOR A BOMBING with infrared glasses, A+ game.

“Nobody calls me Nick” - Except the long history of many people calling him Nick, I don’t even know why this was a tell and this whole scene was so weird why would a skrull care about the human’s son sure idk makes sense……and also Talos is his close friend so if the allowance is that only his close friends can call him Nick, it wouldn’t be weird if Talos did…… ….. 

“No one can defend the world like I can” - says a man who can’t even defend his team from a knife and a gun…! This whole show just makes Fury look really really dumb and really really bad at his job and then he didn’t even do it he just left after assisting in creating even more chaos. 

Is the point of this show that Fury is a delusional narcissist who never should have come back from SABER and probably maybe should have never been the head of SHIELD? So far this is my take away. What if this whole show is a set up for a Fury exit? That would make the most sense because after this circus you don’t got it buddy. No one really wanted a Nick Fury solo project. In fact, killing off Nick Fury’s allies who have propped him up for years so he can take all the credit for the win is very telling about the problems that exist in Marvel story telling. It really is too bad because this could have been a great set up for a Fury exit and if they just killed off Maria so she wouldn’t replace him in the next movies I think that’s unbelievable, the woman could have retired and gone to the real Tahiti, she doesn’t have to work forever? I think it’s fine if Monica takes over and with Maria gone she’s who I hope does but I always thought it was great to have a non super be the one doing it. Also Maria has to die to not get a promotion? We don’t even know where or what she is working on or who for, maybe she has different ambitions now, geeze Marvel. 

I think a more fun plot for Secret Invasion is that Talos and Maria figure this shit out and get Nick Fury into gear—and they do it alive! I mean if they want to do this sad boi act, I think that’s fine but I he can’t just go from beach boy happy to suddenly so sad and pathetic in one year? It’s a much more interesting story to have the people around him get him together after he spent all his life getting them together!! People can be separated from their allies without dying?? And killing characters to show us THIS SHOW IS SERIOUS it’s just kinda dumb it’s already serious there’s one million shape shifting skulls and a skrull army trying to take over earth with super DNA and eradicate all people in a nuclear holocaust... but not enough stakes! If you wanted more stakes maybe don’t show off that Fury is gonna be in the Marvels before his show comes out, yeah? We know it’s fake we get that some people will die but to kill them in these dumb ways that does nothing for the story is so god damn stupid. Having Rhodey have been a skrull since Civil War? THAT IS FUCKED UP. No way. That totally ruins such great moments with him. This is not thought out. I am still wondering why Cobie said she had a lot of scenes with Don and I hope it is for something somewhere… but now I just don’t know. 

The writing in Secret Invasion is bad.  The cuts and edits are also bad. The plot twists aren’t really twists at all.  In fact, there is not a single plot twist that wasn’t obvious from the get go. This whole show could have been a 5 minute clip at the start of the Marvels…people learn about the skulls and that they had kidnapped people and were pretending to be others, all chaos breaks loose on earth. 

Plot gaps I am still mad about that we will never find answers on:

Why are Ross and Hill in Moscow? Was Maria tracking Ross and intercepted his call? That could have been SO COOL. But nothing on that front. Were they working together, what were they doing? Why would Ross call Maria for extraction if he had the top secret Gravik plans unless he wanted Maria to see them or know of them? What exactly is Maria’s job now and how can she just drop it all to go help Nick Fury? Was she still working for Fury this whole time? How if he keeps ignoring her? WHEN ROSS DIED AND CHANGED INTO AN ALIEN DID THEY JUST LEAVE HIM THERE? MARIA AND FURY DIDN’T TELL ANYONE, DIDN’T SOMEONE NOTICE THAT ROSS WAS MISSING???? 

Why would Hill contact Nick for Talos if Talos can contact Nick? Why would Hill contact Nick and tell him to come back if she was going to tell him to sit this one out? Why would Nick, a man who isn’t supposed to be on earth and that people are looking for, go out to a bar with Maria? Why and how was Gravik at the bar before Nick?

Why do Nick, Maria, and Talos have infrared glasses but not protective vests? Where did Maria’s glasses go?  When Maria was looking at Gravik as Nick wouldn’t she have noticed he raised his gun up to shoot her? She was literally looking directly at him. If she saw Nick with a gun out at a bombing she wouldn’t take hers out too? Why would Gravik shoot Maria in the stomach and not like the heart like he shot G’iah? Did Gravik and Skrull Rhodey decide to shoot Maria from the start at the bombing or did Gravik just do it by chance? If the whole plan was to use her death as leverage against Fury why wasn’t it ACTUALLY leveraged against Fury? Why did this not get wrapped up.  When did Maria, Talos, and Fury lose all sense of reality where they think they are invincible against bombs?? Like how was this the plan HOW WAS THIS THE REAL PLAN?  Most importantly, why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Why was Maria not wearing a vest? Not like a gay vest, like a protective vest? 

Why would Maria notice G’iah at all and what is the purpose of their fight in the tunnel other than to give Maria a scratch on her nose so no one can think it wasn’t a different Maria that died? Like that was it? How does Maria lose a fight to G’iah??? Why does G’iah just change sides and why does Talos and Nick believe G’iah changed sides just like that. After it was a set up, why do they still trust and believe her? If Gravik is broken from all the killing he’s done for Fury why did he kill Maria and Talos?

Why did Nick only go to the body transfer and not her actual funeral, why didn’t he go to Talos’ funeral? I am sorry but for Maria that is not fucking funeral. It was literally just the transport of her body and why did they bring Maria’s mom out to that?? Does Maria have two moms? And Why did Nick only talk to one of them? Why did the cast Maria’s mom to guilt Nick into getting his shit together when still hasn’t even gotten his shit together and just goes home to his wife and is all happy?  The only thing I learned from this show is that Nick Fury fucking sucks now, like yikes? His mental crisis comes at the expense of many innocent people and he does little to show gratitude or care for others. I get it’s Nick’s story but why bring Maria back to pick him up and then just die and serve no purpose to the story? 

WHERE WAS MARIA IN FAR FROM HOME? Was she on a mental health break or does only Nick Fury get to do that? Why wasn’t Nick thanking Maria for taking care of shit while he was up in space? Instead he was kinda of rude to her a few times — but I guess this is what we learned about Nick is that everyone else props him up and he thankless about it?  He makes a huge fucking mess again and then goes back up to space? Couldn’t this whole skrull reveal be where SECRET INVASION STARTS AND NOT WHERE IT ENDS? Idk why they made this show, except to make a nice pay day to Cobie? It’s really too bad because Marvel should have taken the opportunity to usher Maria in as a new lead for when Fury retires, people know her, Cobie has a huge following, and people like her and it would have been such a great way to tie in the old phase one people with the new phase 5 people. G’iah taking over for Fury would be very stupid, the whole point of Fury / Maria / Coulson is that they are bad ass normals. G’iah taking over would be dumb and no one is going to know who she is since she’s not going to be tied into the Marvels, which makes NO SENSE? Sigh. I guess Maria will never get her moment. RIP.

#secret invasion #secret invasion spoilers #secret invasion theories #marvel #mcu #marvel cinematic universe #maria hill #cobie smulders #nick fury #samuel l jackson #talos #ben mendelsohn #aos #agents of shield #skrulls #rhodey #james rhodes #don cheadle #olivia colman #sonya falsworth #g'iah #emila clarke #natasha romanoff #scarlett johansson

[sylkishagsuperiority]

It’s fascinating how two years after the show so many people still wholeheartedly believe the TVA propaganda of Loki and Sylvie being “the same person” and that Loki “fell in love with himself”.

Neither of those statements is true beyond the most surface-level interpretation, and while it works for the casual audience on some level (since most of them will look at it like “oh how funny, of course Loki would fall for himself”), it’s also been used to justify a hate campaign on a completely harmless ship.

Loki and Sylvie are only considered “the same person” because when HWR isolated the events of the Sacred Timeline (presumably the sequence of events that would lead to his birth and not any of his variants), he needed everything in every enslaved universe to happen the exact same way. That means every universe had to have the exact same people in it, making the exact same choices over and over again. But because every universe is its own reality, it wasn’t possible to make everything perfectly identical, and it only worked as long as the TVA was pruning branches 24/7. The universe wants to break free, after all. People want to make their own choices. But under HWR’s tyrannical rule, everyone was allowed only one singular path, a role to play.

That’s what “a Loki” is, at the end of the day. A role, an archetype, a catalyst to the Avengers. As long as the person assigned that role fulfilled their part, it didn’t matter if they were a white man, a Black man, a woman or an alligator. But at the end of the day, every person saddled with that role was their own individual. They’re not one person in multiple bodies. They’re not clones. They’re all completely separate, autonomous beings that exist independently of each other.

That’s where the accusations of Sylki being “transphobic” fall flat, because Loki and Sylvie are not, and have never been, the same person. Sylvie was never meant to be a fem Tom!Loki. She’s from a separate universe and never met him until they were both adults and probably well over a thousand years old. She led a completely different life and has entirely different memories, experiences and skill sets. People who purposely reduce her to a female version of someone else only do it so they have an “ethical” argument against the ship, but their misogynistic refusal to see Sylvie as her own separate person doesn’t change the fact that she’s exactly that and always has been. At no point in time did she ever exist as Tom!Loki, nor did he ever exist as her.

The TVA propaganda reduced variants to the same person because they only saw them as their assigned role on the Sacred Timeline and nothing else. And a lot of people bought it without giving it even a moment’s thought. But now that the Multiverse is free, the concept of variants doesn’t even exist anymore. Now there are bound to be universes where there is no Loki at all, or where the “God of Mischief” isn’t Asgardian, or where they don’t have powers, or a million different possibilities. And all of those people are only bound together by temporal aura - the only indicator the TVA used to identify variants, since DNA is useless (once again, Loki and Sylvie are not genetically related, which frankly should be obvious given we’ve seen an alligator variant and now also a Skrull Kang variant). Hell, for all we know, the temporal aura thing might not even work anymore either, given that the universe is free to do as it pleases instead of following a single predetermined path.

Tl;dr: Loki and Sylvie are not the same person, it was TVA propaganda meant to justify their 24/7 genocide of realities, and Loki didn’t fall in love with himself; Sylvie being as different from him as it gets is kind of the whole point.

#sylki #pro sylki #loki series #pro loki series #loki (marvel) #sylvie (marvel) #loki x sylvie

[oluka]

Invincible Iron Man 11-13: Emma and Tony's relationship develops

Is it Wednesday? No. Is there an Iron Man comic out this week? Also no. But I've skipped a few months and now I have things to say about Iron Man again. Namely, the developing friendship (relationship??) between Emma and Tony.

Look at this combo attack. Isn't it the best????

Iron Man has been a bit slower paced since the wedding, which makes sense, since the time for desperate reaction to Orchis' attack has passed, and Tony's now firmly in the planning stage for the final boss fight against Orchis/Feilong. It does mean that it's more interesting to look at several issues at once, though. And what I want to talk about is Tony and Emma. Their interactions are kind of a subplot to the whole "get mysterium and make an armour out of it", but every word bubble and action says something about their relationship. Remember, in IIM #8, Tony and Emma were screaming at each other about the Sentinels, Emma was devastated about losing her cuckoos but didn't let Tony give her comfort, and Tony had a panic attack that Emma helped him through.

Where are we now? They're married and have basically been living on top of each other for a few weeks now. First the honeymoon, where they flaunt themselves on the beach (and make innuendos at each other) and Tony secretly breaks into Krakoa.

Emma doesn't have time for this bullshit. It's fun. They banter. Also, Tony brings back a book that her cuckoos made for her, and gives it to Dr. Strange for safekeeping. Emma doesn't know about this.

This is the kind of small thoughtful kindnesses that I love to see from Tony.

And Emma isn't indifferent to Tony either. She may be snarky, and (rightfully so) insist that their marriage is fake, but she doesn't seem to mind when Tony calls her his wife. She even hosts a Thanksgiving dinner with him, and they finish each other's sentences????

They're clearly getting along well. It's even more obvious in the latest issue, where they go on a space trip together to retrieve the big mysterium reserves that the mutants stashed on Gameworld.

They get brought there by Starfox, who hilariously fails at charming Emma.

Notice a few things: One: Tony feels the need to apologize to her. He's been nothing but courteous to her since the beginning, and I dig that. Two: Emma is a sapiosexual, which means she finds intelligence attractive. Draw your own conclusions :)

I also really love the combo attack they did, combining Tony's repulsortech (I'm guessing he turned the beams into only light in order to let Emma refract it?) with Emma's diamond form. Really badass.

But the best part about issue 13 is maybe when they get back and see that the skrull impersonators they hired to play them went on a date at the rockefeller center. And when Emma says that she'd always wanted to skate there, what does Tony do?

He kisses her hand while affirming they will win, and then he takes her skating! As a date! Because she said it had been something she wanted to do!

Aren't they cute?

Honestly, I'm pretty ecstatic that they are getting along so well. Their chemistry is great, and I really like how easily they banter back and forth, always in good faith. It feels like they both have reached an equilibrium, where they know what to say and what to do and understand each other. I'm actually not opposed to them staying together even after the Fall of X event ends, but if they part ways, at least they will do so as friends. I hope. Duggan, don't mess this up now.

Anyways, it's been fun to see Tony be more and more overtly affectionate towards Emma, and Emma not minding it one bit.

See you next time for more Iron Man thoughts.

#iron man #tony stark #emma frost #Invincible Iron Man (2022) #irondiamond #oluka's comic thoughts

[gatorbites-imagines]

hi! i dunno if your requests are still open but if they are i was wondering if you could write headcanons for dr strange and/or tony with a male so whos sorta like a eldritch god/horror? if not i understand but thanks anyways(:

Marvel x eldritch horror male reader

  How did you know non-human reader fics were one of my favorites?

I sprinkled in some Steven Grant cuz I am obsessed with him, even though I haven’t watched the show yet, hope that’s okay lmao. I don’t know much about DID so I tried not to mention it much, and used what I know, so hopefully its alright.

I loosely based the readers main appearance of an oc of mine who is something like an eldritch horror themselves ^^

 I may have gotten carried away, but enjoy anyways.

Tony Stark

-          You meet when Tony is trapped in space with Nebula. You were just floating through space like always, taking in the sights and whatnot when you saw the ship and felt living organisms inside. One of them feels near death though, so you worry.

-          You haven’t interacted with many humans in your eternal life, so you panic and slither your everchanging form into the ship towards the dying being. Feeling around you with your smoke like mass, and using your abilities you can tell he is dying from lack of oxygen, so you make some.

-          He’s still falling unconscious, but not dying this time. So, you grace his mind just enough to get an impression, and take the form he would find most pleasing to look at. You end up taking him into your now only two arms, and holding him as he rests.

-          Things pass like in the movie, except you easily reverse what Thanos did and take the stones away from the ugly grape and fling him into the void.

-          Now that the threat is gone you grow close to Tony, and take great interest in human culture. You could learn it all immediately if you pleased, but having Tony show you and explain it made what would be your heart warm up.

-          In the beginning Tony, and all his companions, thought you were some type of alien that took human form, like the Skrull. So, it was kinda awkward to explain that you weren’t just that, you were what they called an eldritch horror.

-          Tony needed some time to come to terms with it, especially the fact that you were far beyond science. But after a while he seemed to just accept it, giving up that he couldn’t ever figure you out. Though he does try to at times still.

-          The two of you start dating, and it takes some time to get used too, mainly for Tony. You grow more comfortable letting your human go and just being more yourself. Though you keep your form mainly human.

-          You help out the Avengers at times, but mainly leave it to the heroes to go save the world. Though you will swoop in if they’re in life threatening danger.

-          You pick up cooking, though it isn’t very successful in the beginning, but tony seems to be very supportive, though he isn’t that happiest to be the taste tester as some of the dishes he swears are cursed.

-          You get better over time though.

-          The relationship is announced to the public, and you have to keep your human form when out and about for obvious reasons. The world is led to believe you have shadow based powers and have lived alone for most of your life, which makes up for you not understanding many parts of society just yet.

Stephen Strange

-          You meet when Stephen is doing magic work, maybe he has to cross over to the shadow between realities or universes to collect something or fight someone. He catches your attention by entering your domain, which normally no one can enter.

-          You keep your attention of the cloaked man, as he moves through your darkness with ease that surprises even you. His cloak flinches back when you reach a shadow up to pull on it, which confirms that it is alive.

-          The magic-user walks around your domain for a long time looking for what he’s after, but can’t seem to find head nor tail in the eternal darkness. You feel what’s almost akin to pity, like what you feel when you see a kitten stumble and fall. So, collecting a tiny part of your mass, you take a human-like shape.

-          The shape is like if you took shadows and dark mass and shoved it into a human shaped mold. You hadn’t really met humans before and you didn’t want to dig through his mind, so you took the next best option.

-          Stephen gets ready to fight when you appear, but when it becomes obvious, you’re friendly he tells you why he’s there and what he’s after. You offer to help him which he hesitates with at first, but ends up accepting. With little work of your powers, you’ve moved the two of you to what he needed

-          The two of you fall into talks, you mainly asking questions which he only seems to answer out of politeness as this is your realm, but as time passes, he becomes more friendly. He’s on edge around you in the beginning, but it lessens up.

-          When he leaves you vow to visit him regularly, which you then do. You pull apart the curtains of reality and step into whatever room he’s in, and as time passes you start to take a more human form as you learn about them. Though you keep certain features about yourself, like having more than two arms and smoke-like clouds rising from you at times, though Stephen doesn’t seem to mind at all.

-          The sorcerer grows to really apricate your company, and he treats you much warmer as time passes.

-          You dating is never really said in words, at some point you just start staying with him for longer, you start holding each other and kissing. Its only when Wong tells you to take your sucking faces somewhere else it clicks for the both of you.

-          Your relationship continues as normal, doing sorcery things, reading books, traveling places. Though now there’s more physical affection.

-          Stephen is very interested in the special brand of magic you use, though you explain it isn’t magic and just more you are bending reality to your will. He’s still very interested though.

-          He takes time off from being sorcerer supreme to spend time together, the two of you especially like traveling to other planets or alike to explore or go on holiday.

Steven Grant (Marc and Jake too i guess)

-          Unsurprisingly you meet Steven because of moon knight business. You first spotted him when he entered the afterlight as it is partly your domain, but before you could interact with him, he left again. You’re intrigued by the man, so you keep one of your many million eyes on him.

-          You let small parts of yourself start to slither into the human realm by poking holes in the fabric that is reality. Normally you would just have shoved a chunk of yourself out there, but the god that follows Steven around would notice immediately. Not that you couldn’t win with ease if the god wanted to fight, but you didn’t feel like it.

-          You had planned to grace over his mind for a shape when he slept, but he so rarely did. It made the small part of yourself you had put under his bed jolt as he got right back up, after he had gone to sleep. Flexing your abilities, you figured out there were not one, not two, but three people in the body, one of them being Steven.

-          Now you have always been an eternal everchanging being, so it didn’t weird you out or anything, you simply noted down for later to pay attention to who was fronting and that was it.

-          Weeks pass like this, and you’re comfortable just watching and observing. That is until Steven apparently gains control of the body in the middle of a battle. He’s lost and doesn’t even realize he’s in a fight until he almost gets punched.

-          Steven appears not to be much of a fighter, but you stay still until one of the people he was fighting pulls out a gun, which you now know is a weapon. You collect all the small shadows you’ve had cross over and mash them together to take form. You take a human form, the only thing showing you’re less than human nature are your eyes, which turn pitch black.

-          You make quick work of the goons, going as far as to crush the gun in your hand and flinging the people across the street and into a dumpster.

-          The god that follows Steven around immediately gets confrontational and curses at you and wants you gone, but you ignore him to crouch down to Steven and ask if he’s alright, lifting a smoke covered hand, where the smoke slithers around and seems to heal whatever bruises and cuts he has.

-          It takes some explaining and calming Steven down to explain who and what you are, and why you are there. He blushes when you explain how you found him so interesting and sweet you couldn’t help but want to stick around.

-          Khonsu seems to stop his cursing and threats when he figures out you are far beyond even his level of power, though the two of you don’t seem to realize. You don’t even notice when he seems to leave, giving you major side-eye.

-          One thing leads to the next and you’re spending a lot of time together, though its just you and Steven since you leave when you notice the other two fronting. You don’t want to make them uncomfortable or anything, and you and Steven thought that since Marc and Jake kept a lot of secrets in the past from him, its okay until you two know each other more.

-          When you start officially dating you end up introducing yourself to Marc and Jake, who both seem quite uneasy with you, but when they hear how you and Steven talk about each other they begrudgingly agree.

-          They won’t admit it, but they start to like you too, and get red in the face when you compliment them or hug them.

-          You and Steven talk about his interests for hours, and you can tell him many things that Khonsu doesn’t know or hasn’t told him, you even go as far as to tell him about how you have your own realm and alike. You visit it at some point, though there isn’t much to see as its just darkness and void.

-          Steven helps you learn the ways of the human world, though he struggles with it himself too, so you lean on each other for support. Though most days it can become quite a lot and you’ll just go home and cuddle in bed until Steven falls asleep and either Marc or Jake takes over, the man blushing when they realize they’re in your arms.

#marvel #avengers #moon knight #tony stark #stephen strange #steven grant #marc spector #jake lockley #male reader #tony stark x male reader #tony stark imagine #tony stark headcanon #stephen strange x male reader #stephen strange headcanon #stephen strange imagine #steven grant x male reader #steven grant imagine #steven grant headcanon #marc spector imagine #jake lockley imagine #moon knight imagine #moon knight headcanon #moon knight x male reader #marvel imagine #marvel headcanon #marvel x male reader #avengers x male reader #avengers imagine #avengers headcanon

[breckstonevailskier]

Nice try with that fakeout there 😂

Yeah, you really want me to think G'iah got offed by Gravik here?

It was obvious when she was shot that it was a fakeout...because there's too many shots of her in the trailers that haven't happened yet. 😂

This shot is obviously not from when she met with Talos in episode 1. In that meeting, she stood in front of the taxi that he picked her up in.

While we did see G'iah go into one of the fracking pod storage areas in episode 3 to access the one with the real Commodore Bob (which we also saw to be the one where the real Chris Stearns, Pamela Lawton, etc. are being held), we never saw her go into this one.

In fact, we actually had a shot in the trailer of Sonya and one of her men in possibly the same room.

Then there's this one on one scene between G'iah and Fury, with a line of dialogue from her to the effect of "You're out of moves, Fury" popping up in some of the Twitter teasers.

And these shots of G'iah using guns haven't happened:

The above one is certainly Fury's house given the masks on the wall.

While these two of G'iah firing a shotgun are of her with Varra.

And this is clearly her at the attack on President Ritson's motorcade.

So the real mystery is, what's her way out here?

Likeliest answers are A) Kevlar or B) Extremis. My money leans more toward Extremis because 1) we saw how the Extremis healing factor works when Gravik frees his hand that Talos had impaled. 2) We've seen G'iah snooping around the Daltons' work, and there was this trailer shot of her going into the lab:

Then there's the fact that the "Previously On" for this episode made a point of showing her when she eavesdropped on Pagon conversing with the Daltons.

And while I can't find it right off the bat, there was one promo shot of G'iah glowing in an energy field that looked very much like it was in the middle of this chamber.

There were even a few rumors a few months back about G'iah having some kind of fire-based powers, which would be consistent with her getting Extremis.

For now, she's just playing possum long enough for Gravik to drive off, and she'll heal herself as soon as he's out of sight. Notice that while she reverts to Skrull form upon getting shot, this happens almost instantaneously. Whereas with every other instance we've seen of Skrulls getting shot while in disguise (like the Proprishchin imposter that Fury killed, and the Commodore Bob imposter that Talos killed), there was a delay between them getting mortally wounded and when their disguises wore off.

#secret invasion #secret invasion spoilers #g'iah #emilia clarke #talos #nick fury #gravik

[my-head-is-an-animal]

Home Calling

Talos x Original Female Character/Keller x Original Female Character

Chapter 3

Fury would never understand it, he would never really understand why I never wanted to see Keller again. There was a memory I’d buried deep inside me, one even I would have a hard time finding. Something happened that I’d decided was best left alone, forgotten. And I trusted that instinct more than anything.

    Talos was interesting, he was warm and kind. He seemed to be someone who had a lot of things to deal with on the inside. I wondered a lot about him, where he came from and what he was doing here on Earth, but I suspected I would eventually find out.

    That was the problem with this so called gift, at some point, whether intentional or not, I touch everyone. Of course, the only exception as far as I was aware was Keller. I never dared go near him, not for any reason. Fury and Hill had been an accident once, but I buried those memories and refused to access them again, I wasn’t sure if they believed me or not.

    ‘Maybe it’s best you stay here then.’ Talos suggested. ‘If we’re expecting company we don’t want our best player put out of action. We can bring the suspect to a safe location and, as long as you’re okay with it, you can do your thing and find out what we need to know.’

    You hated the shudder that travelled down your spine, something about him asking permission to use you, had you thinking on Keller, but your reaction seemed somewhat out of place.

    ‘We might not have time.’ Fury argued, leaning forward on his knees. ‘The attack will happen in a few hours and we still don’t know where exactly. We can’t waste time transporting terrorists.’

    There was an awkward silence in the room, before Talos turned to me with a sympathetic look.

    ‘What’s the worst thing that will happen if you come into contact with someone before we capture this guy?’ He asked with a genuine curiosity.

    ‘Erm…’ I couldn’t help but hold his bright blue gaze. ‘It depends, if it’s someone older than fifty, it can be quite disorientating, draining. Older than eighty and I could pass out before I can be of use.’

    Talos turned away, disappointed. ‘Fifty?’ He confirmed and I nodded, confused. ‘So, you mean to tell me that if you come into contact with someone who is say, one hundred and thirty-six in human years-‘

    ‘Best case scenario, I could slip into a coma.’ I confirmed. ‘I take it that’s how old you are?’

    ‘Yeah.’ Talos breathed, sitting back to think. ‘The Skrull we’re looking at is around one hundred and ten years old, relatively young still by our standards, but I’m not confident that you’ll still be standing by the time we’re done.’

    The room took a collective breath, when suddenly I remembered something.

    ‘I still have a syringe.’ I turned to Talos, who frowned. ‘One of Keller’s. It could help to limit the effects?’

    ‘What syringe?’ Hill asked, also leaning forward curiously.

    ‘Keller tried to dull my abilities,’ I explained. ‘He came up with a few different variations on the drug to try and stop me absorbing memories altogether, but he was only able to dull it for a short while. It might work long enough to get what you need, at least limit the damage it’ll do.’

    ‘It could just delay it though.’ Talos shook his head. ‘It’s too risky.’

    ‘What do you think the chances are?’ Fury asked, ignoring Talos’s concerns.

    ‘Fifty-fifty.’ I shrugged.

    ‘I think it’s worth it.’ Hill made her vote clear, and we all turned to Talos.

    ‘I think this is a very bad idea.’ He shook his head.

    It was somewhat settled, Talos would escort me back to my flat to get the last syringe while Fury and Hill tracked down the Skrull they were looking for, by the time we were done, we’d be able to capture him and interrogate him.

    ‘Why are you so against this?’ I asked, watching Talos drive strangely well for someone who wasn’t from around here.

    He gave me an odd look as if it were obvious, one I recognised all too well. ‘Because it could kill you.’ He exclaimed.

    I half laughed. ‘Would that be such a bad thing?’ I asked. ‘I’d finally find a bit of peace in my pathetic life and no one would be bothered by me. I wouldn’t get in anyone’s way or-‘

    ‘Keller would miss you.’ Talos interrupted me, shaking his head. How could he say that? ‘Look, I don’t know why you ran away, but it’s pretty clear to me that you both care for each other, otherwise he wouldn’t be sending you drugs to help you and you certainly wouldn’t look at me the way you do.’

   ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

    ‘It means… my wife used to look at me the same way.’ Suddenly his whole demeanour changed. He was in pain and it was fresh by the looks of things. Talos looked like a man who had lost far too much in such a short amount of time, there was nothing I could do about it.

    ‘I’m sorry.’ I mumbled.

    ‘For what?’ He asked, still annoyed. ‘For my wife? For Keller? Or for wanting to throw your life away so carelessly?’

    I didn’t have an answer.

    ‘I’m sorry as well.’ He sighed. ‘I didn’t mean to get angry or upset you. I don’t know you and I don’t know what happened between you and Keller. But it is obvious, no matter how far down you’ve buried that memory, that something did happen, and I have never seen anything good come from burying that kind of emotion.’

    We sat in silence the rest of the way. Talos led the way up to my flat and deemed it safe enough for me to go in and find the last syringe. He suggested packing a bag as well, I wouldn’t be coming back for a while. For whatever reason, I shoved two bottles of whiskey into the rucksack as well as clothes. I didn’t have much use for anything else.

  If you liked this, please consider supporting me ☕ thanks for reading!

#talos x reader #talos x ofc #talos #director keller x ofc #director keller x reader #Director Keller #secret invasion

[cowboyhorsegirl]

CAP-IM Rec Week: Absolute Faves Monday

a quick & dirty reclist of all some of my absolute best beloved stevetony fic faves <3

You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) by @kiyaar

“Why don’t you take that off,” Tony whispers back, and he tugs at the guy’s mask. He tries an arm around his waist, firm, solid, hot. Tony is hard and it’s obvious. He thinks he’d be more of a gentleman about it under normal circumstances, but in this place, it’s like a handshake. He shudders and his back muscles move beneath Tony’s hand. Tony’s pants grow tighter. He smells like Barbasol. A well-respected man. Tony wants to disrespect him. (an AU where Steve never gave up the Nomad mantle, Tony has a coke habit, and they meet on the dance floor at Studio 54.)

Podfic available from @whenasinsilks!

Please everyone go read this fic immediately and then report back so we can all go disco dancing together while screaming abt the SteveTony identity porn mutual pining drug-fueled blowjob of all time <3

Sins of Omission by @kiyaar

A Post-Civil War, Pre-Secret Invasion AU where Steve is dead, Tony's a mess, and everything sucks. In which Tony deals poorly with Steve's death, falls off the wagon, sees ghosts, and misses a lot. Oh, and the Skrulls are about to invade.

Literally a classic, this fic is the SteveTony Odyssey.

Under God by @isozyme

“Captain America represents the values of our country. The recent allegations about his sexuality are specious and designed to smear an American icon. Captain Rogers regularly attends the Church of Saint Agnes and invites the citizens of New York to attend worship with him this Sunday, April 14th. God bless America.” Nobody was ever going to know. Steve would be a good husband, a good father, and he’d never give in to sin and touch another man. But Steve makes two mistakes, one after the other: he leaves two words out of the Pledge of Allegiance, and he doesn’t notice a camera flash among the strobe lights of a dark club, because he’s dancing with his clumsy hands on Tony’s hips.

Podfic available from Cathalinaheart!

No words, only ugly beautiful emotions about being gay in the Zeroes, internalized homophobia, falling in love, and perhaps even preempting the Iraq War.

the face and the mask are mirrors, baby (the genderqueer remix) by @imaginaryelle

When Tony’s young, he thinks maybe he’s built wrong. He thinks: Maybe one day, if he gets good enough, he’ll be able to redesign Tony Stark. Cast himself in a new mold. One day, he’ll be better.

I actually think this fic was created in a secret lab specifically for me to read and be irrevocably changed and made better by it; sharing so that you all can also partake in the revolutionary experience of reading this fic and being better for it too :)

Semaphore by DevilDoll

"I’m trying to like you, Tony. You’re just making it very hard."

Podfic available from crinklysolution!

To me, this is always The 2012 Avengers-era SteveTony fic. In my eyes, it eclipses and predominates the whole of its fandom. It was I think, maybe the first MCU SteveTony fic I read back when I first got into this fandom over 10 years ago and it's stuck with me ever since, and if that isn't enough of a recommendation then I simply do not know what is!

Amor Fati by citsiurtlanu

Tony Stark has always known what the words on his wrist are supposed to lead to. What he's never known is who the words are for. 616 soulmate AU.

Honestly and truly and genuinely don't have the words to articulate how heartwrenchingly gorgeous this fic is. It has pulled real life tears from me and imprinted itself into my memory. For all the ups and downs of 616 canon, we can thank every moment of it for having existed because citsuirtlanu was able to distill it down into this incredible, incredible story. <3

Five Days a Week by @festiveferret

The day after Pepper's funeral - after Rhodey has come and gone, after Natasha has come and gone, after Tony has forcibly sent Happy away - Tony looks out of the front window, Morgan snoozing in the crook of one arm, and sees a dark, heavily-tinted car in the driveway.

The perfect, the perfect Endgame fix-it. There's a certain kind of magic in this story that I don't think I've found in any other stevetony fic to date. This fic is heartbreak and grief and guilt and friendship and romance all rolled into one indescribably lovely story.

#It's still Monday where I am so this rec list still counts! #capimrecweek #fic! #stevetony #i can't believe there's so much incredible fic in this fandom truly we are blessed with a bountiful and talented community <3

[daisy-mooon]

Furys Glowstick Army - daisy_mooon

Meeting Carol was an event and a half.

Fucker had fallen through a building, raided the Radio Shack, called him stupid, evaded arrest, bullied him into joining her mission, gave him a singular pager in compensation and then fucked off to never be seen again. As much as she was likable, she had been very, very annoying. The paperwork for shape-shifting aliens and amnesiac alien glow sticks was not worth it.

For some reason, he names the Avengers after her. Because fucking why not. His intention was to assemble a group of enhanced people, and there was no obvious reason why he couldn't call them the Avengers. It sounds a hell of a lot better than the Protector Initiative.

"Does that mean you'll be recruiting more glowsticks?" Coulson asks innocently, hands clasped in front of him.

Fury stares directly into his fucking soul. "I am not looking for an army of glowsticks."

-

Monica wants to be like Carol one day. And sure, it's cute for a kid to want to be a superhero, but secretly he prays a thinks that the blonde idiot did fuck off, because if he hears someone bring up glowsticks one more time he's going to shoot them.

-

Fifteen years later and he had another glowstick.

Thor. Asgardian God of thunder. He'd grilled Carol and Talos on information about space before they went off to crusade outer space and never be seen again, but they hadn't even mentioned the fact that "hey, Norse gods are real and they're super fucking weird".

Thor isn't a real glowstick though, more like a firecracker. And somehow even more annoying - Carol had the decency to break into PEGASUS without causing a massive scene. Thor had just walked into their research facility and started fighting people.

So no. Not a glowstick. Fury doubts he'll ever find another glowstick again.

Coulson asks him, briefly, about glowsticks.

Fury flips him off.

-

Tony is not a glowstick. He does not glow like Carol. He doesn't even spark like Thor. Tony mother-fucking Stark is not a glowstick and anyone who says he is will be shot.

-

Wanda Maximoff is interesting. But she's not a glowstick.

She could probably make a glowstick, but that's not important. She's not a glowstick. He's also no longer the director of SHIELD. Not a glowstick.

-

Monica is now in her mid thirties, can shoot a gun, can drive a car and can apparently avoid getting killed by a very upset Wanda Maximoff. It makes Fury reel, in a way- when the fuck did she grow up and how did she grow up so fast-

And she glows.

Not like Thor, or Tony or Wanda. It's the closest glow to Carol's that he's seen, and possibly more impressive - Carol harnessed the energy. Monica became the energy.

He avoids mentioning Carol after a Skrull references Danvers and Monica's face sours. He silently debates whether or not to encourage her to start a fight with her deadbeat aunt, who had fucked off to space again, it has been two fucking weeks since the blip for gods sake, or letting the universe live in peace and not suffer from the fall-out of said fight.

He then realises, half way through internal debate, that Monica is a glowstick.

…motherfucker.

-

As long as Coulson doesn't find out, it's fine. He's back from his… what, third death? This time as an android. He's retired now, living peacefully with agent May, now an empath who teaches kids instead of beating soldiers to death. And his flying car is back. And his kind-of-daughter visits on weekends when she isn't busy causing earthquakes with her boyfriend from 1950.

Because all of that happened. Why the fuck not..

There was a whole time travelling thing. Apparently. Coulson had sent him an email. Coulson sent him a lot of emails, mostly talking about how proud he was of his kind-of-daughter Daisy whenever she caused a category seven earthquake.

Fury decidedly did not send Coulson an email about Monica. If he ever found out that he had gained another glowstick? He would honestly prefer the category seven earthquake.

-

There's a teenage girl. There's a teenage girl that got powers at Avenger Con. Caused an accident, fixed it, saved a kid at Eid and accidentally dropped him off the side of the local mosque, before evading arrest and pissing off Damage Control very damp badly.

All whilst dressed in a Captain Marvel cosplay.

That's certainly asking for a lawsuit, but that lovely sample of chaos is far more in character to Carol than any airforce propaganda that's come out in the past five years. He replays the seething video someone at Damage Control left him and laughs

Then she starts glowing.

…Fury is not getting involved. It's not his problem.

-

So what was supposed to not be Fury's problem ends up being the worst and most annoying problem of Fury's life. Monica switched places with a terrified teenager whilst in the middle of space, the teenager was the girl at Avenger Con who apparently was enough of a superhero nerd to know him by name, what the fuck, and Carol is back and has just fallen through another building-

Their powers are- entangled? Monica can manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum, Carol can manipulate energy and the girl- Nightlight, Ms Marvel, Kamala Khan or whatever - can crystallise light. He doesn't see any connection between them other than energy. They're barely even the same species. Carol is half Kree and Kamala is a mutant/dijnn/clandestine/he doesn't even wanna know at this point. But whenever they use their powers at the same time they switch places, which is really not ideal when said people are a highly classified secret agent, an alien busy fighting an intergalactic war, and a sixteen year old highschooler who doesn't even have a driving license. So. It's unfortunately now his problem.

Monica is stressed that her relatively normal day has spiraled off the rails. Carol has the emotional stability of a plastic fork and has failed seven interactions in a row. Kamala is hyper and excited to meet her favourite superhero and actual Sword agents, not the low budget shit they had at the Department of Damage Control. Fantastic.

Kamala's family is not hyper or excited. Their living room is in tatters, their dining table has been wrecked and there are three unconscious Kree soldiers plonked on chairs. Mrs Khan does not share Kamala's excitement to meet Captain Marvel. Mrs Khan, upon realising who Carol is, stares at her for five long seconds, shuts her eyes, and sighs "Astaghfirullah" from the very depths of her soul.

-

Kamala Khan is NOT a glowstick. This becomes apparent when she makes a few glowing platforms when Carol and Monica are talking like totally emotionally stable and responsible adults and aren't using their powers to mess around. Fury sighs in relief because he honestly doesn't know what he's going to do if she is.

-

Kamala Khan has just encased herself in glowing crystal armour and has punched a Kree ship out of the sky.

He groans. Kamala Khan is a glowstick.

-

The new Emperor of the Kree Empire is also a glowstick, with the same powers as Kamala.

She also wants to kill them. Because Carol.

Goddamn. He hates how fucking everything can be explained with the two words 'because Carol'. Why does he have a cat? Because Carol. Why is there a sixteen year old running around in outer space? Because Carol. Why did the Kree Empire almost collapse in the resulting civil war of a power vacuum after their capital planet was burnt to the ground, allowing a dictator glowstick to seize power? Because Carol.

-

Why does Fury keep amassing glowsticks? Because Carol.

-

Normal people aren't going to find the phone number of the old director of SHIELD just anywhere. But Kamala Khan is no normal person - she's a sixteen year old with a hyperfixation on the Avengers. The laws of nature do not abide to hyperfixations.

Fury isn't even surprised she found it. He's disappointed. HYDRA, Kree, Skrulls, DoDC, US government and fucking AIM have all tried to kill slash arrest him multiple times, and the only person ever to find his phone number is some kid who stans Loona and writes Captain Marvel fanfiction.

The two messages she leaves him are simple. They state shit whilst doing the weird sending shit mid sentence where a pause would be that Gen Z do.

"Hey Fury! Its me Ms Marvel :).

"My friend has the same powers as me so i was wondering"

He blocks her whilst she's still typing.

-

Monica texts him. Then again. Then twice more. He considers blocking her too, but he has to go to work tomorrow and the fact that he's her boss has never stopped her from bullying him mercilessly. That's the real reason you shouldn't hire a glowstick. There's no stopping their reign of terror once they get started.

He leaves her on read.

-

Carol sends him a very long message in Kree.

He texts back a simple what the fuck

Her response: 'I forgot to translate hahaha'

Noticeably, she does not translate anything. He asks Talos what it means. He takes one look at it and almost dies laughing.

-

"So this is Kamran," Kamala beams at him, gesturing to a tall boy about a year older than her, awkward and sheepish. When he asks her a string of questions involving: is that the kid that was wanted by Damage Control last month, why the hell are you in SABER on a school day, how the goddamn fuck did you get into my office, she tells him to do the thing and he creates a glowing yellow-blue crystal.

The glowstick kind of yellow-blue crystal.

FUCK.

-

They did this on purpose. Kamala called Kamran and asked if he would like protection from SWORD. Carol took her live laugh love spaceship to pick him up and take him there SWORD. Monica purposefully notified them when Fury would be in his office and not busy so they could force him to deal with this shit. And also broke them into his office. But that's not relevant, apparently.

What's relevant is that he now has to deal with a fourth glowstick.

He's not amused.

-

He kind of hopes that Carol would just fuck off again.

She does not fuck off, under the emailed explanation that she needs to be a “responsible, more promising example hero” and should be more “thoroughly engaged and concerned with human affairs”. It's a very… stiff email, and he guesses that she wrote it in Kree, threw it in a translator, and called it a day.

The email annoys him a lot more than it should do because Carol's snark, worth its weight in comedic gold because its infinitely more entertaining to read a message crammed with sarcasm than it is to read some poilite bullshit, has been lost to the brutal fact that Kree and English are such different languages thay the translator physically can not interpet whatever the fuck she's jesting about in a way that he would understand.

He shoots a text to Talos, asking where the hell he can learn Kree, because he might as fucking well at this point.

Talos sends a singular message back.

"Ver-kels kav is Kree for glowstick."

Fury blocks him.

-

By the time Thor calls him to tell him about his newly adopted daughter, Love, he's suspicious of any and all contact. He didn't even know Thor had a phone. But then he hears the words 'her eyes can shoot purple energy' and he grits his teeth.

Fury ignores it. But then it turns out that Carol is on babysitting duty and because her goal in life is to give him as many headaches as possible, she spams about eighty fucking images of the kid.

…it's a cute kid. But he's not getting involved. He is not getting involved.

-

Coulson rings him.

Fury wants to block him too, but he's already blocked Talos' human phone, Carol's private number, a solid third of Monica's socials and every app, website and game that Kamala is so much is mentioned on. Which is no easy feat - she has four alts on Roblox alone. So he decides fuck it, he's going to pick up and follow this conversation through.

They talk for a bit about various planet endangering events; time travel, androids, aliens, his daughters category seven earthquakes going to category fifteen when she gets really angry, etcetera, etcetera. He decides to ask how his daughter is doing, because politeness, and the last time he had as much as seen her was right before SHIELD collapsed when she sadly could not cause a category seven earthquake, and Coulson goes on a long tangent about her Inhuman earthquaking that he almost starts to fall asleep-

"Oh, before I forget, she has a half sister. Yeah, I'm not too close with Kora, but she's nice. A bit skittish. I think having your sister be able to destroy planets can be pretty hard to live up too when it comes to Inhuman powers."

Hm. Hes talking about the Inhuman powers of someone he doesn't know and didn't ask about.

Uh oh.

"...why are you telling me about Kora?"

"Well, funny story, she can manipulate energy-"

Fury hangs up on him.

-

Coulson comes up to SABER a week later with Kora standing next to him, and although he claimed not to be that close too her, he's wearing a proud dad grin and she's looking almost defensive of him. Which is laughable, considering he's now an android or whatever. But then she makes a few sparks and Monica's head instantly pokes into his office because she can sense energy and the two of them start talking about energy manipulation and damn it theyre exchanging phone numbers-

Coulson smiles at him. Proud dad grin. He can fuck right off, Fury's a solid ten years older than him. But it doesn't change the fact that he now has five glowsticks. He hates it here.

-

Monica is technically more of an Avenger than an employee of SABER, but he's still her boss, which gives her full legal rights to annoy the shit out of him. So when she enters his office in her most professional blazer with a stack of files in hand, he's instantly on edge.

"Here's a list of enhanced individuals that we pulled from the SWORD database." She's wearing the look of collected ease that she's perfected over the years. It slips into a tiny grin. "Talos made sure to select that ones that you would be most interested in."

He already knows what he's going to find. He opens it anyway. A list of three hundred enhanced with energy, light and fire related powers stare back at him.

He almost fires her on the spot. He doesn't, because he's just that nice of a person.

The actual reason is because it turns out that Monica is only SABER employee that knows how he lost his eye and he would rather nuke the damn space station than let her tell anyone.

-

"So, sir." Coulson smiles, hands clasped in front of him.

It's training day at SABER. Training day meaning that he's begrudgingly let a bunch of enhanced run around one of the gyms for three hours. His only relief is that three of the people he allows in have powers completely unrelated to energy.

Three people that have decided not to come, but that's irrelevant.

Fury leans back in his chair just as someone causes an explosion. He's pretty sure it's Carol. He honestly doesn't care what happens, as long as the room looks halfway presentable when they leave. Of course, that never really goes to plan, but if they do cause too much damage then he can just force them to pay for it. Being the boss has its perks.

He side eyes Coulson. Apparently being the boss doesn't have every perk.

"I could have sworn you said you weren't looking for anymore glowsticks." He says innocently. More than innocently. Coulsonly. Because only Coulson could pull off that face.

"I'm going to let Goose eat you." He half threatens.

"That's alright sir." He brushes it off fairly easily. "Dying is my superpower."

That one is Fury's fault. Well. Kind of his fault. It's not his fault that Coulson turned into a motherfucking robot, but he takes the hint and decides not to let Goose eat him.

He settles back in the chair. Maybe glowsticks aren't such a bad thing, after all.

-

There's a new hit fanfiction on Wattpad. It's kind of impressive; no one knows how the fuck fanfiction trends work on that God forsaken site, but reaching top ten in seventeen tags and #1 in the Fanfiction category is no small feat.

He wonders why the hell Coulson sent him this. He continues reading.

"If you knew nothing about yourself, would you let a stranger help you? Amnesiac warrior Vers doesn't know, but then she meets secret agent Nick Fury mid mission. He's too mysterious for her to know, but if she's to trust him, then she needs answers - and fast. Is he a friend? Foe? To trust or not to trust? And did he really loose his eye in a fight, or is he lying to cover up a furry companion?"

He frantically skips to the last chapter, skims until he finds out, to his absolute horror, that it does reveal how he lost his eye. In a #1 trending fanfiction. Which has four thousand reads and counting.

Author: Slothbaby.

He takes everything about liking glowsticks back. He hates glowsticks. He despises them. He's never going to look at a glowstick again. This is the worst, most outrageous thing that had ever happened to him, and it happened because of a glowstick.

Coulson sends him an email containing a singular laughter emoji.

Motherfucker.

#writing #ao3 #archive of our own #fanfic #fanfiction #nick fury #carol danvers #kamala khan #monica rambeau #captain marvel #ms marvel #the marvels #the marvels 2023 #mcu #marvel cinematic universe #semi crackfic #im alive mfs

[marvel-starwarsfangirl]

Secret Invasion ep. 4 Review

Y’all, I’m still crushed. But overall, I still enjoyed the episode. For me the strongest points were the conversations between the characters. The convo with Rhodey and Nick was great and I loved the back and forth quips. With Priscilla, it was more romantic and I liked the call back to the poem from the flashback earlier in the episode. It was a beautiful poem btw. And Talos and G’iah! It’s such a heartbreaking encounter when you know what happens later (we’ll get to that, don’t worry). Talos has such a beautiful heart. I love green space dad so freaking much. 

The action sequence was also pretty well done. It was high stakes and had some great effects. But poor Talos. This poor guy was trying to stop himself from shifting after he got shot, but it was obvious the pain was too much for him. He really is the MVP of this show, not just emotionally, but because of his determination to prove that Skrulls and humans can co-exist. This man was still trying to save the president even thought he was hurt and shifting back.

Rhodey reveal was great and the transition was pretty cool. So, uh... where’s the real Rhodey and how long has he been captured?

Ok... that scene. btw, I don’t think we’ve ever scene Fury react with that much heartbreak. That was his best buddy. Some people have hope. Me? I’m kinda leaning more pessimistic. Yes, yes, I want nothing more than to see Ben again. But, two fakeouts? Would they even do that? What purpose would that hold? I will stand in my river of denial and fanfics until then. 

Talos is the MVP of this show. There is no doubt he is the emotional core. The love he has for his family, his people, and Fury is truly heartwarming. All I’m saying is that I feel this show won’t be the same without him. Samuel L. Jackson can hold his own, no doubt. But, it’d still feel empty without Ben.

#secret invasion #mcu #marvel #talos #ben mendelsohn #talos my beloved #come back #please #nick fury #samuel l jackson #james rhodes #Don Cheadle

[ultrahpfan5blog]

Secret Invasion - Excellent performances and interesting ideas squandered with mediocre execution....

I was actually pretty psyched for Secret Invasion when the trailers came out. I didn't feel there was a whole lot of hype around the show but I was looking forward to it. After the fairly jokey nature of recent MCU, I was looking forward to the pivot towards more darker material, similar to TWS, and TFATWS. Now I didn't think TFATWS was great but it was solid and TWS is arguably my favorite MCU film to date and the trailers for Secret Invasion definitely felt like they were more that tone.

Having seen the series, it really feels like Marvel just don't have a handle on how to pace and structure their tv shows. Secret Invasion, at 6 episodes and such an intricate storyline, had no business being a slow burn show with a rushed ending. This should have been a fast paced paranoid thriller. Maybe all of it should have been set within a very short window of time. Instead, as a lot of these MCU shows have done, there are episodes where very little happens, and then there are episodes where a lot happens and it feels rushed. Given that this is now a common occurrence in the MCU tv shows, it seems obvious that the writers don't have a handle on how to pace these 6 episode series. Also, this show was oddly small for a show that was about something so big. There was a lot of sidestepping to try and explain why Fury was the person who had to be the one who stopped Gravik and why he couldn't involve some of his powered friends. While the explanation works up to a point, when the world is on the brink of WWIII, the explanation starts falling apart. Then there are certain relationships that are very essential to the emotional weight of the show, which have far too little screen time for us to really care. The marriage of Fury and Priscilla/Varra is a bond that is brought up throughout the back half of the season, but the truth is that it is treated with a sort of reverence in the show which it has not earned from the audience, which is a damn shame because Jackson and Woodard do some excellent work in their scenes together. Then there is the whole ending of the show. While they do shake up the status quo a bit, which I hope will be followed up in the next Captain America movie, there are some very dumb decisions taken as well. For example, the decision to make G'iah into a superpowered being who is ridiculously overpowered is something that will be a ramification the MCU will have to deal with for a while. Maybe they will have this make more sense in a future MCU project, but for now, it does seem strange that they made such an OP character all of a sudden. Also, the bait and switch in the finale cheapens a very fine scene. The entire scene between Gravik and Fury was actually very meaningful, but having Fury be G'iah all along makes that scene loose its emotional value because we don't know if that is what Fury feels.

The damn shame about the show is that there is actually a fair amount of stuff that is actually pretty good. There is some excellent acting work in the show. Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Olivia Colman, Don Cheadle, and Charlayne Woodard all do some excellent work on the show. The actual story of the show is interesting because we actually do genuinely see that the Skrulls have very legitimate grievances against Fury. He is a man who used the Skrulls as agents, gained power within SHIELD as a result, but did not find a new home for the Skrulls and did not have the courage to admit that finding a new home wasn't possible. And then he deserted them on Earth and went to Saber. The resentment built up in the Skrulls is totally understandable. And Jackson does an excellent job showing a much more brittle and guilt ridden man, as opposed to the confident operative we have seen in the past. His dynamic with Talos is one of the highlights of the show. Ben Mendelsohn was insanely likable as Talos and his death was honestly one of the most gut wrenching deaths in the MCU. Olivia Colman just looked like she was having a ball of a time and boost of witty energy whenever she's on screen. Don Cheadle does some of his best work. The scenes between Fury and Rhodey, both before and after Fury find out that he's a Skrull, are impeccable. Kingsley Ben-Adir does a lot to make Gravik was a very understandable villain, even though his backstory is half baked and told rather than shown. Similarly, Charlayne Woodard is excellent, even though her character gets the sort of reverence from the show which is never earned by the writing. The scenes with her and Jackson are excellent and they are able to get that "married for a long time" feel despite barely any setup. Emilia Clarke is a bit of a mixed bag. She's forced to be rather stoic throughout most of the show, so she doesn't get to stand out despite being a significant part of the show.

The tone and story of the show is interesting. The idea of infiltration and creating paranoia is a good concept and when the show leans into that, its pretty good. But the show then also tries to be a bit too big for its boots by introducing super Skrulls and attempting to start WWIII. So it sometimes feels like the showrunners and writers aren't sure what show they are trying to make.

All in all, this isn't a bad show, but it had potential to be much better. If executed right, it could have been up there with MCU's best. Its a show that actually had some major character deaths like Maria Hill and Talos, and at least seems to have rattled the status quo of the Earth and not every thing is settled by the end of the show, but the execution of how things led to that point felt a little lacking. I would say this ranks around a 5 to 6/10.

#secret invasion #secret invasion spoilers #samuel l jackson #olivia colman #ben mendelsohn #emilia clarke #kingsley ben adir #don cheadle #charlayne woodard #skrulls #nick fury #sonya falsworth #talos #g'iah #gravik #james rhodes #priscilla fury #varra

[crankynewt]

Secret Invasion Doctor Doom End-Credit Scene Prediction

(NOTE: These are my own theories and interpretations of details from the show, upcoming releases, and supposed leaks). 

As in the comics the Skrulls - especially Super Skrull, who Gravik is shaping up to be - are heavily linked to the Fantastic Four. In fact, the show is using Groot, the Frost Beast, Cull Obsidian, and Extremis to substitute the powers obtained in the comics from Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm, respectively. 

Now there have been a number of supposed Doctor Doom leaks over the years, the two central to this theory are a (again, supposed) leaked concept art and knowing Marvel planning release dates around reveals and keeping spoilers. In the concept art we have the rear view of the character whose hair and clothing is quite similar to Ben-Adir’s as Gravik facing Doom in full armour. While not identical, the key here is similarity as it is not a photograph but concept art. 

While yes, he is not the first marvel character to have a fade or wear collared clothing/a hoodie, both villains have very common roots it would be a plausible interaction given that apart from The Marvels, the next time we will likely see Skrulls may be the Fantastic Four. 

Where this theory begins to gain more foundation is in the timing of Secret Invasion’s final episode, which is the Wednesday following San Diego Comic-Con, 3 days later to be exact. SDCC is of two events Marvel is known to announce projects/casting and play exclusive footage they are yet to release to the public. The F4 casting is arguably the most anticipated of any project and with the supposed leaks, Marvel will probably want to get ahead of it if they have a finalized casting (as there are rumours of Adam Driver and Margot Robbie falling through if that leak had even be real). Regardless if they are announcing a cast that has already been finalized or they have not finished casting but still want to set up the film to feed anticipation, starting to tease Victor von Doom is a fairly obvious choice. Further, it is not guaranteed F4 will be the first time we see or hear of Doom in the MCU, as they may want to establish Von Doom Industries as a point of tension beforehand (so we may get a cameo or start hearing about him sooner, and then we have a face to go with the name). Regardless, Feige has time and time again shown “exclusive” footage at these conventions that is released to fans days or weeks later and timed their announcements/reveals for different projects or events to not leave too much time between them. Most notably of the latter would be Hawkeye and Spider-Man: NWH to not reveal Charlie Cox’s return as Daredevil by releasing Hawkeye episodes with D’Onofrio far in advance. 

Marvel is most likely going to announce their Doom and show this end credit scene (or even not show the scene and let it generate additional excitement for their recent SDCC reveal a few days later) as Secret Invasion doesn’t need to set up The Marvels - Ms. Marvel already did that. What it is, however, is the only plausible link to the Fantastic Four with heavily connected characters from the comics that had a release likely planned to line up with one of the major events they use to announce castings.

But who will be playing Doctor Doom? Thankfully, we may know more than we think. 

Secret Invasion filming took place from September 2021-April 2022, and in May 2022 there was a “leak” shared in this article by Giant Freaking Robot that Nikolaj Coster-Waldau had joined the MCU, most likely as Doctor Doom. While one rumour does not prove anything, the dates line up in a way that would mean this “trusted insider” likely learned this casting if Coster-Waldau had recently been involved with Secret Invasion. While this is in no way any confirmation that he will in fact play Doctor Doom, he has been a fan-favourite choice behind Cillian Murphy and if this was in fact when they would have filmed this end-credit scene, it may in fact be credible.

We also know Marvel likes to take advantage of hype from other shows like Game of Thrones, like that interaction between Richard Madden and Kit Harrington as Ikaris and Dane Whitman in Eternals mirroring their farewell as Robb Stark and Jon Snow. While we probably wouldn’t see Emilia Clarke and Coster-Waldau as G’iah and Doom interacting in Secret Invasion, Marvel knows how fans make these connections of their actors having worked together before (like how half of the Secret Invasion cast has been in Star Wars). They know a lot of their fanbase know Clarke predominantly as Daenerys Targaryen and to put Jaime Lannister on the opposite side of the struggle would take advantage of this notoriety.

And we can’t forget which might have been a little hint in this Secret Invasion interview at 1:06, where Ben Mendelsohn goes on and on about Doom’s character arc and him being the best Marvel villain. While this very well may be just him loving Doom and being a fan himself, Mendelsohn being a Marvel fan may mean that he would want to leave this kind of hint to look back on later. Some of this adoration could also come from him seeing Coster-Waldau’s scene already and knowing he is going to do an incredible job. Either way, if this is a hint, thanks Talos!

**Although Coster-Waldau is a phenomenal actor and would play a MCU villain very well, it must be noted that Victor von Doom is a Romani character and should in fact be played by a Romani actor. Yet as Marvel has unfortunately not been competent in their appropriately cast Romani or Jewish characters of actors of a shared heritage, I find it difficult to believe that this behaviour had been amended in time for this casting.**

#secret invasion #marvel #mcu #doctor doom #fantastic four #secret invasion theory #marvel theory #fantastic four theory #f4 #f4 theory #fan theory #nikolaj coster waldau #victor von doom #nick fury #samuel l jackson #talos #ben mendelsohn #gravik #kingsley ben adir #skrulls #emilia clarke #g'iah #sdcc #sdcc2023 #fantastic four cast #marvel prediction

[slayerchick303]

*SECRET INVASION SPOILERS*

I've been thinking about episode 3, and I have major thoughts and questions about it.

Was the kid human, or was that SkrullBob's skrull child masquerading as the real Bob's kid?

If the kid was a human, why did SkrullBob care so much about him being harmed? Gravik's group's whole deal is death-to-all-humans. Why does SkrullBob care about this kid? When SkrullBob took on real Bob's memories when he replaced him, did those feelings transfer over, or had SkrullBob been at that post for so long that he got attached to the family all on his own?

The humans in those fracking pods are all going to die, right? Skrulls are resistant to radiation, humans... not so much. At best, all those humans will leave those sites with major cancers.

MAJOR SPOILER: Is Rhodey in one of those pods? Will the radiation damage happen to him?

When was Rhodey switched? If it was any time before Falcon and the Winter Soldier, I'm going to be mad. It would hurt so many meaningful moments in the MCU if he was a skrull before then.

The gun Priscilla retrieved from the safe deposit box couldn't be an ordinary gun. She's a spy. She's married to Fury. She'd have easy access to firearms. This gun has to be linked to something serious to be held in those safeguarded conditions.

Why did she get the gun? It sounded like she believes in Gravik's cause and is possibly working with his group, but she looked a little nervous at the bank. The phone call made it sound like she was being threatened or manipulated into getting the gun. Maybe that was just me reading it that way, though.

Speaking of reading something, did the show intentionally make it seem like Talos and Fury were an old married couple? They spent a ton of the episode straight up flirting. Even most of the straight guys I saw react to the episode were saying that Talos and Fury should just kiss already. We can't all be crazy. "Help me, Talos. I would be lost without you." ... "I'm not with Gravik 'cause I'm with you." About as subtle as a sledgehammer.

I think we all know G'iah isn't dead. They wouldn't waste Emilia Clarke's time like that or get our hopes up for her future in the MCU. She's an amazing actor for Marvel to get, and it makes zero sense for them to kill her after 3 episodes. Episodes we don't even see her in much. I think they're going to make her Abigail Brand. My fan cast for Brand was Charlize Theron, but that's not happening for obvious reasons. Reading the Astonishing X-Men comics, I could practically hear her delivering Abigail Brand's dialog. If they do choose to make Emilia Clarke Abigail Brand instead, I'm positive she'll do a great job.

I know there were a bunch more questions and thoughts in my head about episode 3, but that's all I could think of right now. I'm a fan of the comics run, so I was very worried about this show. I'm less so now.

#secret invasion #talos x nick fury #fury x talos #nick fury #talos #samuel l jackson #ben mendelsohn #priscilla fury #charlayne woodard #disney marvel #disney plus #mcu #marvel mcu #marvelcomics #marvel comics #marvel cinematic universe #marvel

[ordinaryschmuck]

Quick Thoughts on Secret Invasion...The Comic event. Not the Show.

So, with Secret Invasion coming out in a week, I thought I'd share my thoughts that no one asked for on the event it's based on. Because this is actually the first time I have read the entire source material before throwing myself into the adaptation, mainly because I had the time and was always curious about what it was about. And truth be told...it's okay?

I mean, I feel like this is one of the instances where the source material is outclassed by an adaptation. And I'm not talking about the MCU because...that's not out yet. I'm talking about Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Yeah, the show with a TV-Y7-FV rating somehow manages to do better than a comic event geared toward teens and adults. And there are a few reasons for that.

#1. The event rarely doesn’t move forward.

In the comics, so much about Secret Invasion focuses on flashbacks to explain how the invasion happened in the first place and tie-ins that show what other characters were doing at the time. While the flashbacks are necessary, it takes the momentum out of the present story. As for the tie-ins, they're unnecessary. Oh, don't get me wrong, there's some fun to be had, like...

Deadpool training Skrull clones of himself to become as insane as him.

War Machine turning into a giant mech to fight off enemy ships.

Thor defending a town from god-killing Skrulls

And Black Panther defending Wakanda from another faction of Skrulls.

There are a lot of fun side stories and tie-ins but could skip a lot of it and miss nothing. All you really need to keep track of are the Avengers and the Thunderbolts. Speaking of which...

#2. It focuses mostly on the Avengers.

Three comic titles were about the Avengers at this time. You have The New Avengers, The Mighty Avengers, and The Avengers Initiative. The only ones who had prominence in the event were the Thunderbolts, and that's about it. A fun thing about events is seeing how all the heroes react to it while feeling like they're part of a larger story, but here it's mostly about the Avengers. And sure, everyone was practically an Avenger at that time, but the universe doesn't always revolve around them. I want to see the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and even the Guardians of the Galaxy showing up for that final battle against the Skrulls or all of their fights to stop them from feeling like they make a difference rather than shoved off to the side in a skippable story.

I read a story where Thor wielded Mjölnir and Stormbreaker to kill a god-killing Skrull...and you can skip the whole thing. That's frustrating.

And it's extra frustrating because...

#3. The premise is great, but the execution is NOT.

The idea is that Earth has been invaded by Skrulls, only this time, it's done in a way where NO ONE can detect them. Not by spider-sense, magic, or telepathy. NOTHING. They're completely hidden, and Avengers have no idea who to trust. That is a fascinating idea for an event...There are just a few problems with that.

A. It's incredibly vague how the Skrulls can hide themselves so well. The best explanation we get is that a clone of Reed Richards figured something out...and that's it. They never say HOW he figured it out. They just say that he DID.

B. They only really play around with this premise in flashbacks, which, as I've said, ruins the momentum of the present story.

C. Most of this premise is wasted on Avengers fighting Super Skrulls instead of the ones inside their faction.

And D. The best usage of that premise is when it should be painfully obvious who's a Skrull and who isn't.

At one point, the NEW Avengers and the MIGHTY Avengers go to the Savage Lands to investigate a crashed ship that holds Skrulls disguised as them but in outfits from the seventies/eighties, all in a way to play with the Avenger's heads about whether or not the invasion has been planned for that long. Absolutely NO ONE should have fallen for that, yet they all do. It's honestly frustrating that these heroes who have been doing this shit for decades NEVER picked up an obvious trap as it was literally punching them in the face.

And it's here where I get to how Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes does all of this better.

It starts early on to tell the audience that Skrulls have invaded factions of superheroes, including the Avengers. For almost half of Season Two, we see our heroes deal with this as it happens in the background as the audience knows who the Skrull is while our heroes remain clueless.

It makes sense why it's about the Avengers because...Well, it's a SHOW about the AVENGERS. I mind it less when a big story focuses slowly on the Avengers when it's abundantly clear that the Avengers are the sole focus of the story and no one else. Especially when this show takes place in a universe where heroes are starting out and are more unprepared for something like a Secret Invasion.

And finally, it executes the premise perfectly, having a Skrull mess with the Avengers and subtly tricking them instead of letting a gigantic fight against Super Skrulls be the crux of the invasion. It's all interesting to see and a lot more of what I expected going in when reading this event from start to finish. Only to be... disappointed.

There are some fun stories, cool fights, and solid character work in Secret Invasion, but it's still an event that feels more carried by its premise than its actual story. A cool premise for sure, but too much bogs it down. I'd sooner attempt to read Secret Wars again. That actually had a cool premise with even better execution from the...VERY LITTLE that I've read.

Still, would this mean the MCU's take on the story will be any better? Well...depends on how well they play with this "Who can you trust?" aspet. But if you want a better version of the story, just watch Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

In fact, just watch that show in general. It's SO good.

#avengers #deadpool #war machine #thor #black panther #avengers earth's mightiest heroes #secret invasion #marvel comics

[glapplebloom]

This was a long time coming for me...

You wanna know how long I was waiting to do this match? Since 2017. I already did Galactus and even Unicron Research at that time. So when it finally came time to do this match for real, I was already ready for Galactus. It also meant I needed to update my research to match the more modern style as well as catch up to some new stuff.

Galactus’ first appearance was in Fantastic Four (1961) Issue #48 and he was Green and Red for some reason. Next issue he’s in a more recognizable Purple but still with a lot of red and no pants. When they say every species who looks at him sees him differently and apparently it is also true among colorists.

As you suspect, the Galactus Research was done before the Surfer Research. So he helped a bit when it came to researching the One True Herald. Shame it couldn’t work the other way. While I do give Surfer credit for beating two Galactus Level Threats, it is pretty obvious Galactus is the bigger dog of the two. Like Surfer struggles with Mephisto. Galactus is on even footing until he gets hungry.

So while Galactus could create life, the image I used to show it was not an example of such. Surfer Research helped clarify that after Zenn-La was destroyed, Galactus created an illusion to keep his promise. An illusion so good, the Skrull, the Kree, Silver Surfer and even Mephisto believed they were real. 

Speaking of images, the three videos used when explaining “Is the Wolf evil for hunting the hare” and such were all my suggestions. I still haven't seen Beastars fully but I did enjoy that clip. While editors can use different images or clips if they think it is better, we usually put clips as possible suggestions. Besides clips and images used to show off the character’s feats, I don’t recall many of my non-character clips being used. So it was a treat to see all three used back to back.

People thought the Dark Energon would corrupt Galactus, but that wasn’t the first time someone thought their energy would work to enslave Galactus. Dormammu, who you may remember for Dr. Strange making a bargain with, is apparently High Hyperverse level to Low Outerverse level if you follow the Vs wiki, though feeding Galactus Magical energy would enslave him. It instead was the equivalent of giving him cocaine and he was willing to destroy everything to get more. Dormammu even died. 

Speaking of dying, Galactus also died. So apparently there’s this thing called Black Death that was so powerful, it destroyed the DC Universe. It claimed Galactus was his herald and was what caused the old Universe Galactus lived in to be decayed. So Thor defeated it using Galactus’ body as a bomb. In short, Thor used Galactus power to kill it but in doing so killed Galactus.

Of course, as with all things in comics, nobody stays dead. The Silver Surfer saw the universe needing balance and went to Thor to get the corpse. Shenanigans happen and Galactus lives once more. This time he seems to only seek knowledge, but it is only a matter of time before the Galactus hunger begins and we get the good old Galactus back.

Now for some fun stuff. Galactia is Galactus’ daughter. She was basically a sentient Tapeworm that formed within him. This is how she finds out she’s pregnant. Her comic is also where the Safety being on comes from. But my absolute favorite is when Galactus entered the Ultimate Universe. He came in, kicked butt, and left because they thought the Negative Zone would let him be gone forever. It did not.

Next season, I am aiming to do Wile E Coyote. And I already know I got another assignment. Just need to find out who else.

#research bin

[thevibraniumveterans]

SECRET INVASION

S1E5 — Home

.

.

SPOILERS!

Priscilla comes home to dead men in her hallway and receives a call from Fury. For obvious reasons he’s not telling her where he’s going.

Fury arrives at base camp

Not!Rhodey visits the President. The admiral has notes, but not!Rhodey shoots those down. Not!Rhodey tells the President, “It’s the Russians, 100%.” Which is part of Gravik’s plan, and also not true.

Fury enters the Skrull HQ, coughing from the radiation. Sonya calls not!Rhodey.

Gravik walks circles around Fury, taunting him. Telling him about how Gravik was a former fan of Fury who looked up to the older guy, but was disillusioned and went rogue because of inaction and empty promises.

Gravik is enraged, rightfully enraged by Fury’s promise of a better life unfulfilled. Gravik says, “The species you spent your entire adult life defending, they were condemned to die the day I realized you weren’t a man of your word.” Basically, he means, why should the Skrulls live a bad life, when he could just make it quick and easy for them, to end their suffering as fast as possible? Imagine personally feeling like your hero has failed you. Everything you’ve looked up to for YEARS, down the drain.

Fury has thought that getting dusted was dying. That’s what it felt like for him.

Gravik takes the vial of the Harvest from Fury.

Scene cuts back to the hospital; not!Rhodes is getting the President out somewhere.

Gravik secures the vial, and the screen lists off several known Avengers plus a few of their adversaries. The blood is not that of ordinary people; but some of the strongest amongst them.

Sonya intercepts not!Rhodey outside a door. Fury is in a coughing fit in Skrull HQ. Gravik fires up the machine, there is a bright light that encapsulates the both of them. Gravik, now supersized, throws a punch at Fury, who - SURPRISE! - blocks it. See, the machine gave Fury powers too. Gravik was too caught up in his rage to remember that the stage was set for not just him to be powered up, but Fury too.

PLOT TWIST! It wasn’t Fury, after all. It was G’iah. But this raises the question: Where actually is the real Fury, if this was G’iah? When did he hand the vial off to G’iah? We find out two short scenes later that the real Fury is in the hospital. Which makes sense because Fury was in the hospital the WHOLE time. From last episode, he was always there. However, this means that G’iah would have had to play the long game and shapeshifter into at least 2-3 other people. But the question is when? I ask because the scenes in the hospital occur concurrently with the events at Skrull HQ.

Gravik and G’iah use a few different powers. He powers up with the Abomination, Hulk, Groot, and (???), and she powers up with Extremis, Drax, and Ghosts powers. They begin to fight, and G’iah uses Frost Beast powers. Gravik also utilizes Ebony Maw’s powers. Despite the ice shard G’iah struck him with, he recovers.

We cut to a silo, which opens. It has platforms within; why does this place look so familiar? I feel like we last saw this place in CACW, but I cannot be certain.

We cut back to the fight, and G’iah goes cosmic, just like Captain Marvel, and packs a punch at Gravik. He also has similar powers, playing her at her game. However, she one-up’s him by going Mantis. He plummets to the ground, recovers, and they go at it again. Two ridiculously overpowered individuals slugging it out. He taunts her saying, ‘You’re just like your father. You’re just like them.” She shoots a cosmic beam of light straight through his torso, killing him.

G’iah heads indoors, shutting everything down one machine at a time. She also frees the captives. One of them being the real Rhodey. Which begs the question, how did he get captured? Everett Ross too.

The real Rhodey appears much weaker than everyone else who was rescued; this is explained by him being held hostage “for a very long time”, perhaps for FAR LONGER than anyone else.

Ritson, now better and on the mend, gives a speech to the nation. He says, “We all witnessed the terror attack that was carried out on my motorcade earlier this week in England. The terrorists responsible were a shape-shifting alien-born species known as Skrulls. That is why tonight I’m presenting to Congress, for immediate emergency authorization, a bill that designates all off-world born species enemy combatants. We know who you are. We know how to find you. And we will kill every last one of you.” This is a very political metaphor, and I don’t like speaking of politics on here. However; this speech brings to mind 9/11 of sorts, where because of the actions of a few select subset of individuals from a certain place and racial ethnicity and religion, the USA decides to be openly hostile to that particular group of people, including sending troops to indiscriminately kill the guilty AND innocents of that group. This speech is very scary, because in Secret Invasion, the actions of a few (namely Gravik and his henchmen) have ruined the reputation of the many (innocent Skrulls AND every “off-world born species”). Ritson didn’t want to eradicate a few, he wanted to eliminate them ALL. Didn’t matter who it was, he wanted them all gone.

Sonya meets up (‘gently corners’ sounds better) with G’iah, and offers to make her a leader to fend off Ritson’s planned attack on her people. Sonya and G’iah enter a deal in which both sides can benefit.

Fury drives to a clearing at night. He phones Ritson, and admonishes the president on “that hateful-ass speech” he made. Fury continues, “Putting things back together was never gonna be easy. You took a situation and made it worse. That’s real one-term-President stuff. But we have to act now. Before the hit squads you inspired kill off the Skrulls who still wanna help us. Now you’ve got dumbass vigilantes killing innocent humans, too. When they’re not getting killed themselves. Call off your war.” (This monologue is interspersed with scenes of violence at various places.) Ritson returns fire with, “Give me a break. There’s only one was this ends. The old Nick Fury would have known that. And if you truly care about the Skrulls, get ‘em off my planet.” The President is discriminatory, just like many individuals in power around the world.

Fury is about to head off, but his wife Priscilla (Varra, actually) catches up to him. He tells her, “The Kree said they are open to peace talks with the Skrulls.” She is unamused. “The Kree make peace. Reminds me of that old joke. What do Skrulls call good luck? Bad luck.” Fury requests that Varra join him and be a diplomat, she agrees.

The two head onto the space ship, and the episode ends.

Thoughts: Also a pretty dark episode, but I found the fight between G’iah and Gravik fascinating, not least because we get a glimpse of what a fight would look like if you had the ABSOLUTE strongest genes and the ability to switch between them at will. Wasn’t epic, but fascinating. Oh, and the politics. I barely touch on politics in my posts, but Secret Invasion is a sort of spy vs spy thriller, with obvious political undertones. So, obviously, there are some lines that MCU could and did cross; after all, Marvel really does reflect the world outside our own windows. 10/10 on the intrigue, fascination, and darkness.

#mcu #secret invasion #secret invasion spoilers #nick fury #samuel l jackson #everett ross #martin freeman #g’iah #emilia clarke #gravik #kingsley ben adir #james rhodes #don cheadle #sonya falsworth #olivia colman

[starsnheroes]

TRIGGER WARNINGS: canon-ish miscarriage mention (new avengers, i know it was skrull bobbi but clint believed it so), and alcoholism // @thefleetsfinest

FOR THE RECORD, he doesn't actually think he was going to open the cabinet and dig out the bottle that he knows was there.

The whole ship has been off, recovering from flying through a dubious gas that had left a lot of folks having dreams or psychic visions or feeling faint, which would explain why the medical bay's been all hands and twice as busy as their busiest days.

They've been on yellow alert all week, orders to report to medical if anyone thinks they've been brought under the weird phenomena happening to the ship. That they should report to med-bay if thy feel unwell. It's been touch and go all week, and well, CLINT LIED.

He had said he wasn't experiencing anything strange like the parts of the ship; not everyone experienced this anyways. He figurees the numbers were somewhere between one-fourth or one-third. SCIENCE WAS ON IT. It's exciting discoveries or something, he really was not a science, as well as a problem, given the whole dreams (causing insomnia and other sleep issues), hallucinations and visions experienced by parts of the four hundred something crew.

Engineering has been working overtime along with science, and Clint's had to keep his eyes peeled on the computer and hands tights around the controls and dials. WHO KNEW UNDISOCVERED PARTS OF SPACE WERE DANGEROUS. . . . AND SUCKED? ⸻ Oh wait! He did!

He has been lying about not experiencing anything, and he will tell Peter, he thinks as his fingers trace up the glass of the bottle. He hasn't taken it out, and Clint knows that Leonard would have noticed him slip in right and go right for his office. That's a pretty obvious RED FLAG, and fine, call it a cry for help. Peter had already been out of bed, they've been off of each other's schedules; and he'll talk to him when he can catch him but with the trouble this week has been. . . . He's not going around bothering anyone for the fun of it.

Clint had been awake, for all of ten minutes, before he can't kill the feeling in his gut and get THAT DREAM OUT OF HIS HEAD. The problem was that he can't tell if it was because of what was going on with everyone, or if it was because somewhere - someone mentioned that it was October on Earth. SO IT COULD JUST BE THAT.

His hand withdraws when Leonard's finally come in to see him, and his eyes glance to the door and that needs to be closed. Privacy drawn, than his hands contemplating drawing out the bottle but he doesn't. He's in control, he's in control. Clint sighs, and HIS HANDS FEEL EMPTY. He's here because he needs a friend.

Leonard will know, they've talked a lot and he'll know. He'll tell Peter later, seek more comfort from his partner, but IT'S ALL SO RAW AND HE KNOWS. If he doesn't talk about, if he doesn't let it out; than he'll lose control and go drink instead to handle it.

❝ I've been dreaming that I HELD HIM ⸻ ❞ Voice tight, it's not a strange dream like he's heard others have been having. His felt real, based on something that could have been for him. It wasn't strange like others said.

His hands ball into a fist and he almost considers slamming it into something in the office. He's not angry, he's hurt and lost. Sadness that not many would know. Bobbi's on his mind as well, ❝ Like- like he was there, IN MY ARMS, Bobbi and I's little Frankie. We- I had time with him. ❞ The dreams were too lucid, different every night and it's like he was back years. Living with Bobbi, and being too hopeful for a future that wouldn't happen, that would be taken from them. MEMORIES OF THAT LIFE, the kitchen debates about names and ⸻ ❝ It's October, back home, that was suppose to be his. . . ❞ birth month; which he doesn't finish.

❝ I. . . . I hurt. ❞ ⸻ He wants a drink, NEEDS a drink; and what he needs is for them to be out of this sector of space and things to go back to business as usual. ❝ We need to get out of this fuckin' part of space like NOW. ❞ Clint's considers asking Leonard to request he be relieved of duty until the dreams go away or the urge to drink does.

#ic; clint barton #thefleetsfinest #rp; thefleetsfinest #clint barton; thefleetsfinest #verse; clint barton; to boldly go (ss; crisispider) #TRIGGER WARNINGS #miscarriage cw #alcoholism cw