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not-close-to-straight · 4 years

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More Than Words (Spideypool)(One)

Welcome to the story! This will be a time traveling shenanigan ft. Modern!Omega!Peter and Mountain Man!Alpha!Wade! Buckle up for 25 chapters (and growing!) of all the sass, sweetness and smexiness we love about Spideypool!

(For anyone new to my Spideypool: None of these characters are SM:HC/FFH. I pick my faves from Tobey Maguire/Andrew Garfield movies, and everyone else pretty much comes from the comics!)

(also, if anyone cares. The Title is from this cover of THIS SONG)

MTW MASTERLIST HERE

Enjoy!

****************

“To Peter, who managed to not only expose a terrible corporation for it’s greed and lack of morals, but also managed to shake Tony Stark’s hand without melting into a puddle of fan boy goo--”

“Harry!.” Peter pinched the Alpha in the side and Harry oophed theatrically. “Either give me a proper toast or shut the hell up!”

“I got one, I got one.” Gwen stood and raised her wine glass. “To Peter, who literally changed the world with his expose on Hammer Tech, and proved that the little guy can and does make a difference.”

Peter rolled his eyes over the little guy comment but raised his drink anyway, and Gwen blew the Omega a kiss. “We are really proud of you Pete. Way to get famous.”

“Way to get famous!” Johnny cheered and clanked his cup with Peter. “Also? Way to land that hell of a check. How many zeroes were on that thing?”

“I counted three before the decimal.” Mary Jane tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear and leaned close for a quick kiss on Peter’s cheek. “Way to go, Tiger. Taking on powerful corporations, writing inflammatory exposes and catching the attention of Tony Stark? Not bad for a punky kid from Queens.”

“It’s not bad.” Peter echoed, tugging the other Omega in for a one sided hug. “And meeting Tony Stark was pretty amazing, even though I think half the reason he gave me the grant was to rub it in Hammer’s face. Apparently those two hate each other.”

“Look at that.” Johnny drawled. “The rich and famous are just like us , they have petty rivalries and everything.”

“Hey, if their petty rivalries mean Peter doesn’t have to pay rent for the next year, then keep the bullshit coming!” Gwen decided loudly and Mary Jane murmured an agreeable, “I’ll drink to that.”

“Was it really enough to pay your rent, Pete?” Harry raised his eyebrows. “All because of your story?”

“Mr. Stark said something about how I couldn’t focus on saving the world if I was worried about my rent.” Peter shrugged off his friend’s wide eyed disbelief. “So he cut me a check from the Stark Foundation and told me to keep searching for the truth. And now--” despite his attempt at modesty, Peter’s smile stretched wide. “And now I’m not worried about my rent.”

“So I’m thinking you and I should be roomies now since I would love to not pay rent for a year.” Gwen chimed in and Johnny snorted a laugh. “But let’s circle back to that later, because I found you something amazing when I was out thrift store shopping and this seems like a wildly inappropriate time to give it you, so here we go.”

Peter shot a curious and maybe suspicious glance towards the usually prank happy Alpha, and tore the wrapping off the box while Harry protested, “I didn’t know we were supposed to bring congratulatory gifts tonight! That’s not fair, way to show us all up, Gwen!”

“Well Har, I’d say give Pete a chunk of those famous Osborn millions, but I think he’s got the money part covered now.” Johnny leaned back in his chair and cocked his head in a clear challenge to the Alpha. “Which means you got nothing to give him, don’t it? Nothing to offer the Omega at all.”

“And what exactly are you gonna give him?” Harry retorted, and Johnny bared his teeth as he replied, “Well a kiss, of course. Exactly what every Omega wants from a good lookin’ Alpha.”

“Giving something I can get anytime isn’t really a present.” Peter deadpanned and Mary Jane giggled at Johnny’s affronted expression. “You give away kisses like you’re going out of business, Johnny. No Omega wants kisses that cheap.”

“Brat.” Johnny huffed, scowling when Harry chuckled at Peter’s sass. “You’re just irritated you didn’t think of it, Harry. Gwen got Pete a present, I’m offering to give him kisses, so you’re the only Alpha around that doesn’t think enough of Pete to treat him well.”

Harry’s lip curled in a snarl and Johnny echoed with one of his own, and just as Peter started to look annoyed, MJ cleared her throat and announced, “Boys! Alphas who act like knot heads won’t be invited to any more parties!”

“Yeah, cut it out.” Gwen gave each of the other Alpha’s a swift kick beneath the table and scowled at them. “Stop ruining Pete’s big day.”

“... sorry, Pete.” Harry deflated first, Johnny’s muttered apology coming next. “Sorry. Open your present and we’ll behave.”

“Thanks.” Peter gave each Alpha a sweet smile, and went back to his present, quietly and wholeheartedly grateful for things like scent blockers.

Nothing was worse for an Omega than getting a nose ful of hormone heavy Alpha scent, and today of all days, Peter didn’t want to play patient with a couple of jealous, horny Alphas. Usually Johnny and Harry were low key about their interest, but lately Johnny’s jokes had skewed towards sexual and intimate while Harry’s friendly protectiveness was inching towards possessive and Peter really just--

--oh God, he really just didn’t want any part of it.

No thank you.

“Oh my god.” Attention diverted from the Alphas by his present, Peter burst into laughter when he saw-- “Gwen, is this a romance novel? ‘Claimed by the Mountain Alpha’?! Why would you buy me this?”

“Oh please.” Gwen looked pleased as hell that her gift had made the Omega smile. “I have it on good authority you have an entire shelf full of smutty romances, Pete! And I know all your favorites are falling apart because you read the sexy parts over and over while you--!”

“GWEN!” Peter turned bright red and the Alpha almost cackled with laughter. “For the love of God, stop talking!”

“I just thought you’d like something to read while you drink your champagne tonight.” Gwen amended, sounding only slightly less wicked. “You can get bubbly drunk and swoon over the x rated parts and I promise to only tease you a little for itt.”

“Hey now, what an Omega does with their smutty novels--” Mary Jane started to defend Peter, and then paused to ask, “Wait. Were you going to drink champagne alone tonight, Peter? That is the saddest thing I’ve heard in my life! Champagne isn’t meant to be drank alone!”

“I don’t think it’s the saddest thing in the world!” Peter protested. “Lots of people drink alone!”

Harry was recovered from his earlier embarrassment and winked as he cut in, “Besides, I think it’s probably for the best Peter drink it by himself. I think we all remember what happened last time Pete got champagne drunk in public.”

“Can confirm.” Johnny held up his phone and waggled his brows. “In fact, I still have the pictures! Shall we take a stroll down memory lane?”

“That’s enough from all of you.” Peter said loudly and the group of friends dissolved into laughter. “Honestly though, Gwen. Did you set out to find me the cheesiest historical romance ever, or was it just a happy accident?”

“I don’t want to say I went searching specifically for it.” Gwen’s glee over Peter’s embarrassment was almost comical. “But I did check six stores and ask people’s opinion about the purchase.”

“Kill me.” Peter groaned. “Gwen--”

“Holy crap!” Johnny snatched the book and ogled the cover, eyes overly wide. “Look at the tiddies on that guy! Are we sure he’s not the Omega?”

“Not all Omegas have breasts, moron.” Harry took the book next, furrowing his brow at the scantily clad Omega clutched in a brutish Alpha’s arms. “Besides, that’s an old school Alpha right there, look at those fangs. No one has fangs anymore, they started yanking those on Alphas in the seventies. Gwen how old is this book?”

“Apparently older than the seventies.” Gwen ran her tongue over her decidedly fangless teeth. “It’s nice they don’t just rip our fangs out anymore huh? A few hours at the cosmetic dentist and all us Alphas are perfectly socially acceptable.”

Both Johnny and Harry grunted in agreement, and Gwen turned back to Peter. “Anyway sweetheart, I thought you’d like the book mostly for the vintage feel. It will fit right in with all of Uncle Ben’s records and Auntie May’s cross stitched pillows you keep around.”

“I do like old fashioned things--” Peter began, but he was interrupted by MJ, who flipped a few pages of the novel and shouted, “WOW! Pete the sex in this is amazing!”

The three Alphas at the table immediately began clamoring for the book and Peter could have just died when Harry read a line out loud about the Omega being taken roughly against the door and Johnny moaned through a description of the Alpha’s turgid--

“Alrighty then.” Peter snatched the novel and shoved it in his bag , blushing hard enough that the scent of embarrassment filtered out even through his suppressants, effectively shutting up the Alphas and making MJ automatically purr at him. “Please don’t read my smutty things out loud, and definitely don’t shout lines at the top of your lungs, mkay? Thanks.”

“Aw Pete, we’re just teasing.” Johnny drummed his fingers on the table, clicking his tongue soothingly until Peter’s scent mellowed again. “Sorry about that.”

“We didn’t mean anything by it, Pete. But come on, be honest.” Harry waved down the waitress and motioned for another round of drinks. “An Omega like you doesn’t really want an Alpha like that, right?”

“What do you mean an Omega like me?” Peter sipped at his wine and scowled at his friends. “What does that mean?”

“You refused to kiss me until I had my fangs filed down.” Gwen pointed out. “And we were thirteen. They were barely fangs, Pete!”

“You wear suppressants even on dates.” Johnny said next and Harry added, “You only call one of us for your heat at the very last minute when you can’t handle it anymore, then kick us out right after getting knotted.”

“I called you Omega last week and you about bit my head off.” Gwen stated. “One time when we snuggled, you purred real sweet so I growled and called you pretty, and you kicked me off the couch.”

“Okay okay okay!” Peter held up his hands in surrender. “Alright fine. Yes, Gwen I’m very happy that Alpha’s don't have fangs anymore because honestly, yikes. And seriously how is the growling thing hot? Growling is practically a threat!. I wear suppressants on dates so the Alpha has to pay attention to me and not my scent, but lots of Omegas do that, it’s not just me. You Alphas wear scent blockers too, how is that any different?”

“And kicking you out after I get knotted? I mean--” Peter didn’t even have the grace to look ashamed. “What else do I need an Alpha for? What’s the point of you guys sticking around? I don’t want stinky Alpha cuddles after my heat, I want a shower and a pound of pasta.”

Predictably, the three Alphas erupted into arguments about how post heat cuddles were necessary and that their knot wasn’t the only thing they were good for, and amid the commotion Mary Jane leaned over and whispered, “Okay, but you don’t really hate Alpha scent and growls, do you?”

“It’s not my favorite.” Peter whispered back. “What’s sexy about an Alpha getting possessive and growling? They’re like a dog acting greedy with a bone, except instead of a bone they have knots!”

“Oh my god.” Mary Jane muffled a giggle. “You’re absolutely right about that, but I stll think it could be romantic! An Alpha being driven so wild by my scent they are reduced to growls? Imagine having your true mate, your soul mate absolutely speechless, reduced to nothing but their basest instincts when they see you. Or wow, to actually be scent bonded? For an Alpha to know you are meant to be theirs just because of your scent?”

“And fangs?” She lowered her voice some more. “I know Alphas don’t have fangs anymore, but come on, Tiger. You’d totally melt if an Alpha pushed you against a door and ran their teeth over your neck. Imagine it with sharp and dangerous fangs. Just think about it.”

“I think you’re just a horny Omega who needs a good knotting.” Peter decided and MJ squealed at him.

“I’m being serious! You don’t think it’s romantic? Not at all?!”

“I think that our grandparents literally had to march on Washington to give Omegas the right to vote.” Peter said flatly. “Your parents campaigned to have their Omega-Omega bond seen as legal just so they could adopt you. It took years and years of serious legislation before Omegas had access to reliable birth control and suppressants so we could lead lives outside the house and it was May’s generation that demanded Alphas use scent blockers so the rest of us aren’t subjected to their aggression and hormones.”

“Well sure but--”

“Remember forced marriages because Alphas would scent match and imprint, and the Omegas had to mate so the Alpha wouldn’t snap feral and hurt someone?” Peter pressed. “Omegas and even Betas in the hospital for emergency or plastic surgery because an Alpha raged out and tore them up with their fangs? You’d rather have this sort of dynamic--” Peter pointed to the book, to the fangs and the Omega’s clear submission in contrast to the Alpha’s nearly animalistic dominance. “Then what we have now?”

“Well it doesn't have to be all or nothing.” MJ groused. “Just because I like Alphas getting growly and maybe fantasize about getting stuck with some fangs doesn’t mean I want some Alpha to scent bond me and then force me to mate. Sheesh Pete, lighten up a little.”

“History has proved, it’s pretty much all or nothing.” The Omega lifted on shoulder in a half hearted shrug. “It’s either fangs and no chemical regulators and a society where we Omegas are literally at the mercy of an Alpha’s hormones, or a world where everyone takes their medicine, Alphas get rid of the weapons in their mouths and Omegas can lead normal lives.”

“Pete.” Mary Jane rolled her eyes. “You talk like you have no use for Alphas at all. Look me in the eye and tell me you’ve never once read one of these stupid romance novel and wanted a mate of your own. Social things and work and all that aside, you really don’t want a mate? You’re twenty four and never even had a serious relationship. Don’t you wonder what you’re missing?

Something awful flitted through Peter’s dark eyes then, painful and vulnerable enough to make Mary Jane catch her breath in surprise. “Oh honey, are you okay?”

She reached for him, but Peter leaned away and schooled his features, managing a nearly bland, “I dunno, MJ. I think I prefer this life. Mates and scent matches are about as necessary as fairy tales, you know? I’m not missing out on anything.”

“Pete--” Mary Jane whispered, but just then the Alphas decided to stop arguing and rejoin the conversation and Johnny stuck his nose in to ask, “What’s this about mates? Pete, are you finally thinking about settling down?”

“Nope.” Peter slashed his hand through the air and shook his head. “Don’t get your hopes up. I was telling MJ that mates and scent matches are unnecessary, but what is entirely necessary is my next project, so I need to get home and get started. Mr. Stark didn’t give me all this money so I could blow it drinking with my friends.”

“What’s your next project, Pete?” Harry reached for the bill before the Omega could, and passed his card off to the waitress. “I thought the Hammer Tech story was your entire workload.”

“I’ve been working on a side project for a while now.” Peter blew the Alpha a kiss as a thank you for buying his drinks. “I was going to do one of those genealogy charts as a present for May and was tracking our family through secondary biologies, but then I came across an article that said almost all male Omegas have a mutant in their family tree. So I started researching mutants and it sort of spiraled from there into a --”

{{AUTHORS NOTE: This fic will include themes of racism towards mutants and will reference things such as WW2 concentration camps and past treatment of different religious/ethnic/indigenous groups at the hands of the government. It is talked about in a “It was terrible what they did back then” sort of way, and as the fic continues, I will try and TW anything notable with in the chapters so you can avoid/skip as needed}}

Peter stopped when Johnny and Harry shared very uncomfortable looks, and Gwen’s eyes widened in alarm. “...what?”

“Pete.” Gwen cleared her throat, visibly thinking through her words before speaking. “Uh… the mutant thing isn’t really… I mean, people don’t talk about that, you know? No one talks about it. Maybe steer away from that when you do you family tree.”

“What?”

“There used to be a lot of hostility towards mutants.” Johnny said slowly. “And even though they aren’t around anymore, people still get up in arms about it. Hundreds of people died in the mutant uprisings through the last century. My grandpa died in one of those riots, Pete.”

“I know he did, Johnny.” Peter tilted his head and trilled comfortingly at the Alpha. “And I’ve come across some pretty horrifying accounts of what happened on both sides of those fights. I’ve read about mutants in the camps during World War II, I’ve read about different battles across the country, the riots in the seventies-- I’ve read it all.”

“Well, a lot of people think the mutant population is better off gone.” Harry spoke up then. “And no one wants to talk about it. It’s one thing to take on big companies who are ruining the earth, but the mutant control they enacted in the forties and fifties… there’s still people around that would take serious offense to you digging around in that. It’s better off left alone.”

“I’m not trying to step on anyone’s toes.” Peter waved off their concerns. “I’m trying to uncover anything, I’m looking for some answers about my own family tree and that’s it. Male Omegas being the last of what we could consider mutants is pretty interesting, but I’m not looking for anything inflammatory, just my own history. I’ll be fine.”

“Promise me you’ll be careful.” MJ worried at her bottom lip. “I know what it means to look for who you are, Pete. Being adopted means I don’t know anything about my family and I understand wanting to look, but a connection to mutants…that’s not great, Tiger. You don’t want that, or at least you don’t want to make a big deal about it.”

“I’ll be fine.” Peter repeated, slinging his bag over his shoulder and blowing kisses to his friends. “Thank you for the drinks and the little party, Gwen, thank you for your present. I’ll talk to you guys in the morning?”

There was no reason to worry his friends with more details about this particular project. They didn’t need to know Peter’s research had skewed far past ‘ancestry’ and deep into concerning accounts of brutality and forced assimilation. They’d hate if they knew Peter had found scattered stories about experimentation and what scientists had done in a horrifying attempt to advance science, about schools that were more like prisons and prisons that were more like concentration camps right here in their own country.

Peter had found hints of a settlement near the Canadian border thought to be a mutant village that had rallied and revolted, attacking a military installation, and killing every soldier, every woman and child. But worse were the hints Peter found about the same settlement, hints that said it had been less of a revolt and more of a massacre, less of an uprising and more of a slaughter, that the women and children had been taken from the village and held captive and the attack was an attempt at a rescue.

It was horrifying, stomach turning, the sort of thing Peter couldn’t just leave alone--

--and then among the scraps and barely there information about the village had been a picture of a man who looked so much like him it was almost terrifying, and Peter’s growing interest in the project had taken an abrupt turn towards obsessive.

There were blood stained secrets in the wilds near the border, secrets that involved someone related to Peter, and he fully intended to find out every single one.

******************

“Journal, check. Extra battery for my camera, check. Couple of changes of clothes, check. Hotel itinerary, check.” Peter muttered to himself as he packed a backpack. “Ibuprofen, check. Phone charger, check. Digital recorder, check. Gwen’s terrible romance novel in case I get bored, check. Toiletries, check--”

His doorbell rang and interrupted his packing, and the Omega wrinkled his nose in annoyance. He’d told the Alphas he was busy, Aunt May never came around without calling first, it had better not be the maintenance guy finally showing up to fix the leaky faucet at eight at night. “Hold on a minute!” Peter finally called when the bell dinged again. “Give me just a second to get-- Oh. Mary Jane.”

Peter checked down the hall to see if anyone else had come along with the redhead. “Hey. What are you doing here?”

“I would have called, but my phone is dead. Can I use your charger?” MJ pushed right past Peter and into the apartment, holding up a bag of Peter’s favorite take out as she went. “I kept thinking about you drinking that champagne alone and that drove me crazy so I stopped and got food and came to share the bubbly.”

“You’re very sweet.” Peter stepped close to the other Omega and brushed his nose across her cheek, smiling when she trilled softly and returned the gesture. “I’m not doing much, so dinner and champagne sounds great. Thank you.”

“Are you already working on your new project?” MJ’s coat landed over a chair as she went right for the champagne. “Or have you started that book Gwen got you? I swear Pete, would it kill you to do some relaxing outside your apartment? All you ever do is work and--”

The pretty redhead paused when she caught sight of the half packed backpack, her gaze sharpening in curiosity. “--Pete? Where are you going? You didn’t say anything about leaving when he had lunch today.”

“Yeah.” Peter scratched at the back of his neck uncomfortably. “Yeah, um about that. I’m heading for upstate tomorrow, gonna do a little hiking and poke around up by one of the lakes. Some rest and relaxation, you know? I won’t be gone more than a few days.”

“Uh-huh.” Mary Jane narrowed her eyes. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Well I mean--” Peter tried for casual, trying to make his friend laugh and hopefully distract her. “Remember the last time one of us tried to leave town for a mini vacation?”

“Mm-hmm, Gwen was going to road trip to visit her Nana and we all ended up crammed in her Subaru and driving to Disney World.” Mary Jane picked up the legal pad full of Peter’s notes and read through the first few lines. “I vividly remember having to sit on Johnny’s lap the entire time-- Pete, this is all notes about mutants. Why do you have all these, you said it wasn’t that big of a project, just an ancestry thing.”

Damn it. “Yep.” Peter shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “That's-- that’s what I said.”

“Then what is all this?” Mary Jane flipped through a few more pages. “Newspaper clippings and quotes and what’s this, a piece from an old book? What happened to researching your family tree?”

“I... was.” Peter hedged, taking the legal pad from her hands. “I was researching. But then it turned into something else.”

“Something else what.” MJ prompted. “Why are you so interested in mutants all the sudden? Where’s the mystery in it, Pete? They used to exist and now they don’t, and every book you pick up is going to tell you the same thing--mutants disappeared in the seventies and no one knows what happened.”

“Someone has to know what happened, MJ.”

“Well.” The Omega huffed. “Sure someone has to know, but this is like chasing aliens. Everyone has accepted that mutants don’t exist anymore, and the people who haven’t accepted it get treated like they’re crazy until they get overly nosy and irritating and get visits from men in black suits. Is that what you want? To have everyone think you’re nuts?”

“Doesn’t the visit from men in black suits prove there’s something they’re trying trying to hide?” Peter pointed out with a small smile. “And yeah, I read all the books MJ. I tracked down newspaper articles, I’ve done my research on the claims the tabloids print about super powered humans and dangerous mutants. I know it’s crazy and I know--” he blew out a deep breath. “-- I know working on this could cost me every bit of credibility my last article gave me. I know that.”

“Then why are you risking it?” Mary Jane gestured to his bag, to the stack of information. “Don’t you remember Doctor Connors from a few years ago? He got hooked on research about mutants and genetic experimentation and ended up in a padded cell, screaming about turning into a lizard and regrowing limbs. All his research has been trashed, the books he’s written discredited, and everyone thinks his mental state was so compromised that his previous findings can’t be trusted. That could happen to you, Pete.”

“It know it could, but I have to find out anyway.” Peter shrugged helplessly and Mary Jane threw her hands up in frustration. “I gotta find answers about this. If there’s a mutant in my family tree somewhere, I have to know who they are.”

“This is about what happened at lunch.” MJ suddenly realized. “When we were talking about you missing out on something because you don’t have any interest in relationships. You got this real awful expression on your face. What's wrong, and what does it have to do with mutants?”

Peter looked at his friend for a long long moment, and then finally asked, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up every morning and grieve for something you don’t know you’re missing? It’s something essential from your core, from your very center of being, and you can’t even breathe for lack of it, but you don’t know what it is.”

Mary Jane only blinked at him, and Peter sighed, dropping onto the couch and putting his face in his hands. “I feel like that every day, MJ. It started after I lost my parents and it got worse when I had to move schools and a worse again when I moved out of May and Ben’s to get my own place. I have a great life, you know? I have great friends and a wonderful career-- I mean hell, I won an award today. Because of my work, those slums will be bulldozed and Hammer Tech has to pay to build quality housing for their workers. I did that, and I’m very proud of it.”

Peter tapped at his chest. “But I’m still empty. Hollow. Something is missing from me and lately it’s been getting worse. I’m hardly sleeping, I can’t concentrate, I’ve lost like fifteen pounds cos I can’t make myself eat. I think I’m depressed but why would I be depressed?” and then with a self deprecating laugh. “I’d say I’m in love and needing my Alpha, but I’ve never been in love in my life.”

“Oh, Tiger.” MJ clicked her tongue sympathetically and joined Peter on the couch, budging close and wrapping her arms around his waist. “I’m so sorry.”

“This is why I became a reporter.” Peter suddenly sounded tired, exhausted really, more weary than Mary Jane had ever heard. “I’m looking for something in my life and being a reporter means I get to go places and meet people and research and maybe one day I’ll figure out what’s gonna fill this void inside me. I love you so much, MJ, but it’s not friendship I need. And before you say anything about me needing a bond, I am telling you--”

Peter actually shuddered as he said the words. “I am telling you, the thought of mating with any of our Alphas makes me want to run away. Gwen is perfect and Harry is gorgeous and Johnny is hilarious, they are all amazing Alphas, amazing people and would be amazing mates, but I can’t be with them. They aren’t enough, they’re almost...they’re almost boring. I’m bored with them.”

“You’re bored.” Mary Jane echoed, clearly not understanding but trying her best to be supportive. “What does that mean?”

“You know why I read those terrible romance novels?” Peter offered her a wobbly smile. “Because those characters are completely fulfilled by whatever they find, whether it’s a life they didn’t know they wanted or a romance with someone unexpected or an adventure they didn’t think they were ready for. They are content and I don’t think I’ve ever been content. It’s like there’s a piece of me out there that I can’t get a hold of and until I find it, I can’t rest. I can’t rest, MJ. I’m just running in place, breaking my own heart over something I don’t understand.”

“And you think the thing you’re missing has something to do with this settlement up North?” She clarified. “Why do you think that?”

Peter chewed at the inside of his cheek for a few seconds, then reached into his pack for a folded photograph and passed it over. “Because of this.”

The other Omega studied the grainy picture for a minute before her mouth fell open in an ‘o’. “Pete, when is this photo from? This guy could almost be you, is this your great grandfather?”

“I don’t know.” Peter admitted. “I’ve traced my family history back as far as I can trying to find him but there’s a point about a hundred and fifty years ago where the family split and the tree gets real messy in some spots and very blank in others. But when I was looking into the Haven settlement by the border, I found this picture in the very bottom of an old box of newspaper clippings and--”

“-- you think whoever this person is, he’s in your family tree somewhere.” Mary Jane guessed. “And if he was in the village upstate, then he was most likely a mutant and that’s why you’re chasing this story so hard.”

“It’s a part of my past.” Peter ran careful fingers over the time yellowed photograph. “And maybe understanding more about the time period and more about who this person is could help me understand myself.”

He placed the picture back and shook his head ruefully. “I know I sound crazy. And I’m definitely grasping at straws. This is probably nothing more than a coincidence but it also could be really important and as crazy as it sounds?” Peter waited for Mary Jane to meet his eyes. “MJ, this is as close to feeling whole as I’ve ever been. The search for answers is keeping me up at night but it feels good, it feels like I’m finally on the right path. I don’t even have words for how relieved I am every time I find something else. It’s just-- it’s just--”

“Sometimes when our souls are involved, it’s more than words can say.” Mary Jane offered simply. “That’s what Ma says when she talks about how she and Pop fell in love. It was their souls recognizing each other, and there isn’t any words for how incredible it is. If this project is pulling at your soul, then no wonder you can’t let it go.”

“Yeah.” Peter managed a smile. “It’s my soul. My soul is relieved every time I get a little bit closer to figuring this out, so I can’t stop looking. I won’t.”

“And I don’t think you should.” Mary Jane handed Peter a few more notes from the table. “If this is what you’re called to do, then do it. I’ll support you, Tiger.”

“I love you.” Peter breathed out shakily and leaned into his friend’s arms. “Thank you. I’m sorry, I know this was supposed to be food and champagne and then I got all intense and--”

“Stop.” MJ hushed him, petting through Peter’s thick hair and purring softly until he went limp against her. “The food and champagne will keep. Let’s just hold each other for a while.”

Despite Peter’s insistence that life was better with suppressants and blockers, that Omegas were better off not having their hormones and scents control their emotions, there was something to be said for the way two Omegas could connect and bond and soothe each other.

Mary Jane always scented like sweet peaches and spicy ginger and Peter tucked his nose into the crook of her neck and breathed in deep as the Omega’s scent flooded rich with comfort and affection and MJ only trilled in approval when Peter stretched out on the couch and brought her down onto his chest so their suppressant muted scents could mingle for a while, calming them both.

“You won’t do anything reckless up at the camp site, will you?” Mary Jane asked sometime later and Peter shifted beneath her until he could tangle his fingers in her long hair, tugging at the strands idly. “Pete? Promise me you won’t do anything crazy.”

“I won’t do anything crazy.” Peter promised.

“Take some bear spray.”

“MJ, I’m not taking--”

“Take some bear spray, Pete.”

“Fine.” Peter kissed the top of her head. “I’ll take some bear spray.”

“Thank you.”

Only after Mary Jane had closed her eyes and snuggled close again did Peter glance over at his phone when it lit up for the third time in just a few minutes.

He had joined a chat group and message board several weeks ago, one dedicated to asking questions about mutants and Peter had asked a lot of questions. He had an entire list of things he had to know, and he sat up for hours every night reading answers and threads and following links and taking notes.

And then finally, sort of suddenly really, someone named Nathan Summers had contacted Peter privately, promising answers to some of the harder questions.

Peter had told him about the village up North and Nathan had known immediately what he was talking about. Nathan had suggested they meet up and walk the site together, Peter had only hesitated for a second before agreeing.

He had to know.

Peter’s phone lit up with another message from Nathan right then, probably double checking what time they were going to meet at the hotel tomorrow, and Peter swallowed back a flash of trepidation as he reached with one hand to type a message back.

This was probably a terrible idea, but he wasn’t going to turn back now.

He had to know.

**************

It took nearly five and a half hours to make it to the hotel Peter had booked, and he only stopped long enough to check in and drop off his computer before getting back in the car and continuing North.

The supposed camp site was two hours off the highway, down a dirt road and nearly running into Lake Haven in some areas, skirting the edge of the mountain very closely at others. Peter craned his neck to take in as much as he could see without driving off the increasingly sketchy road, looking for signs or landmarks or anything that resembled the less than rudimentary maps he’d found.

Winter warped the landscape here every single year, avalanches wiping away trees and displacing huge pieces of mountain, the rains flooding in the spring and summer washing away roads and swelling rivers until they jumped their banks and created new pathways. A dam built twenty-something years ago had created a lake where there hadn’t been one before and dried out a previously hidden valley and Peter knew he could be on a wild goose chase. The odds of finding anything resembling ruin or evidence of a village were slim anyway, but after a hundred and fifty years everything he was looking for could be hidden under water or swept under a mudslide or a rockslide or shit, New York even had tornadoes, it could have been a tornado--

“Oh thank God.” Peter breathed a sigh of relief when he finally made it around a final corner and into what was left of the parking lot of an old campground. The State had tried to make this area close to the border more accessible to the public, but no one came this far North without wanting to see Ontario or continuing West to the falls or just skipping the border to get into Canada, so the dozen or so installed campgrounds had fallen to ruin.

Thankfully this one still had a mostly paved parking lot and what looked like permanent outhouses, and since Peter knew no one would randomly stumble onto his car here, he felt perfectly safe leaving it locked as he hefted his backpack and took off hiking into the woods.

He was supposed to meet Nathan tonight at the hotel, so Peter had most of the afternoon to explore around the river and into the forest. The village was rumoured to be on the other side of the lake and he certainly wouldn’t make it that far today, but he could at least find a way through the forest so tomorrow hiking with Nathan would be easier.

“Tell me your secrets.” Peter murmured as he reached to touch a nearly faded plaque marking the site as one of historical significance. “I want to know everything.”

Curiosity and the cat, right?

Peter lost himself for hours wandering around the massive trees, ducking under low hanging branches and climbing up and over boulders, stopping to take pictures as he went.

It seemed impossible that anyone could have survived here without machinery to clear a path, without lights to chase the shadows from the looming forest. How did they get water? How did they get supplies? Had the mutants considered themselves American and went to the Fort for supplies or did they cross the border and head further North? Was it a terrible life, a difficult life like the stories of settlers out West? Did they even speak English or was there a mutant language that had ceased to exist like so many other indigenous dialects?

Peter had so many questions, hundreds and hundreds of questions and he wanted to know everything and yet he found himself slowing, lingering, just looking as the urgency of it all faded away into awe and appreciation for the land around him.

It was beautiful up here, wild and open and Peter stopped just to tip his head back and breathe. He’d never noticed how polluted the city was until right now, hadn’t realized how loud traffic could be until he couldn’t hear anything but the birds and the hum of insects and the wind swooping through the trees. The sunlight filtered through branches in patches, lighting some areas golden and covering others in shade and if Peter tilted his head and listened, if he breathed deep and stretched his senses he could almost feel the lake close by.

It was beautiful and peaceful and Peter thought maybe a bit of his soul settled as he leaned back against the sun warmed surface of a big rock and closed his eyes.

Why did this feel so good?

Peter wished he’d thought to bring a tent just so he wouldn’t have to leave, but this time of year night came quickly, bringing the cold right along with it and with the sun already dipping in the sky, Peter had no choice but to leave the unexpected sanctuary of the woods and head towards his car. The road had been barely passable in the daylight and he couldn’t imagine how difficult it would be in the dark, and Nathan would be waiting at the hotel restaurant here in a few hours, so he really had to go.

Still, it almost hurt to leave and Peter touched the plaque again as he passed, lingering over the letters for a long moment and--

“You’re Parker?” a sudden voice from the gathering shadows, low, gravelly and frightening. “Peter, right? I didn’t expect you to be an Omega.”

“Holy shit--” Peter whirled around, clutching at the can of bear spray MJ had demanded he bring along. “Who’s there? Who are you?”

And then almost as an afterthought, “How do you know I’m an Omega? I’m wearing scent blockers and it’s half dark outside.”

“I can smell it on you.” A shadow darker than the others separated and Peter caught a flash of Alpha red eyes from beneath a hood. “Those scent blockers you use only work on tamer Alphas. One like me can sniff out your biology without even trying.”

“Ooookay. Well fair’s fair with that so if you don’t mind--” Peter swallowed a little and leaned in towards the stranger, flaring his nostrils and trying to gather as much of the Alpha’s scent as he could.

But the Alpha reeked of blood and burning, of metallic and copper and smoke and when Peter sucked in a sharp breath ready to scream, the Alpha interrupted, “It’s not blood, Parker. It’s metal. Just metal and smoke is what you’re scenting. Don’t panic.”

“You’re-- you’re Nathan Summers?” Peter bit at his lip and shifted nervously on his feet, hoping his suppressants were still working enough to choke the fear drenching his scent. Fuck this had been a bad idea. “You said we would meet at the hotel, what are you doing here? How did you find me?”

“That doesn't matter.” A flare of a match and the end of a cigar lit cherry red between them. “And the name’s Cable. Haven’t been Nathan Summers in a long while now.”

“It absolutely matters how you found me.” The Omega tried for a bravery he didn’t feel. “And alright Cable, you said you had some solid information for me, so I want it. It’s getting cold and dark and you’re wasting my time. What do you know?”

“Mouthy little shit.” Cable might have chuckled, but it came out almost a growl. “Omegas always have too much attitude. I know you’re scared, I can smell it on you. You’re still gonna try and be a smart ass?”

“Well I--”

“You’re gonna stop looking into the meta humans.” Cable interrupted. “Your little project doesn’t exist anymore, alright? I had to get you face to face to make sure you weren’t a real threat, and now I’m telling you to stop looking into the meta humans.”

“Meta--” Peter cleared his throat, his damned curiosity and the ache in his heart telling him to keep asking. “Meta humans. Is that what you called the mutants? Why meta? Are you saying the mutants have super powers? Or powers in general? I’ve only heard about physical mutations and there are a few recorded cases of feats of strength but--”

“You’re not listening, kid.” Cable took a deep drag on the cigar and blew the smoke out over Peter’s head. “Stop asking questions, stop posting online, stop your research. Nothing involving meta humans ends well and you do not want the type of trouble this will bring. Back off, little Omega. Run along home.”

“Go back to the meta human thing.” Peter ignored the flare of annoyance over being called little Omega and squinted in the dark when he caught a glimpse of something gleaming along Cable’s shoulder. “Just tell me yes or no. Powers? What about the settlement here, was it actually an uprising that brought the Army after them? It had to be an uprising if you’re talking about people with super powers, can you tell me if--?”

“You’re trying my patience.” Cable grunted and turned further from Peter’s view. “This is your last warning kid. Stop digging around or I can’t be responsible for what comes knocking on your door. We’ve stayed hidden a long time just trying to live our lives, I’m not going to let some nosy Omega screw it up.”

“No no wait!” There were a hundred things Peter should have done right then-- and all of them involved running away-- but instead Peter lunged forward and grabbed onto Cable’s left arm as the man started to walk away “Tell me! Tell me what’s going on! I’m tired of never getting a straight answer with these things and I have to know, you don’t understand I have to know--”

Peter had only a split second to realize he wasn’t feeling flesh but machinery under his fingers, and then a split second more to register an ear splitting noise like grinding gears before Cable flung him into the trees.

Peter screamed as he went flying through the air, nearly bit his tongue in half when he smacked into a tree trunk, and lay there crumpled and stunned for a full minute.

Machinery, the scent of blood, the weird clicking, the way Cable called them meta humans and not mutants and talked about--

“--We’ve lived a long time just trying to live our lives.”

Our lives.

Cable was a mutant and he’d just thrown Peter twenty feet without even trying.

Oh my god, I could die tonight.

“I didn’t mean to do that.” Cable was suddenly in front of Peter, over Peter, crouching down and reaching to check that the Omega hadn’t broken anything in the fall. “I know you’re just a kid and don’t mean to cause trouble but--”

He stopped talking when panic turned the air bitter, and the Alpha covered his mouth when he gagged at the stench. “Parker, what--”

“Your arm.” Peter’s eyes were very wide, his face very pale in the dimming light and Cable muffled a curse when he realized his hood and cloak had fallen away. “What the hell happened to your arm?”

“It’s a long story.” Cable rotated the mechanism, grimacing over the grind of gears and the tug and pull of metal along his shoulder, up his neck and into his skull. “And one you don’t want to know. You think the rest of the world wants to hear about this? You think people want to know I'm walking around in the shadows?”

“I--I--I--” Peter’s eyes darted from the mutant’s face to the metal at his arm, up to the eerie glow of one robotic eye and the flashing red of Alpha in the other. “How-- oh my god--”

“I don’t even want to be like this.” Cable said then and he sounded bone weary, patting at a disc shaped object on the strap around his chest. “Kid, no one wants this. Whatever you are looking for up here? Let it go. Just-- Just let it go.”

“I can’t.” Peter whispered and the Alpha’s expression flickered in what looked like resignation and maybe even understanding. “I gotta know and you-- you gotta help me.”

“I’m not going to help you.”

“But you have to!” Peter’s eyes dropped to watch when Cable touched that same disc again. “Why else would you come all the way up here?”

“I came up here to warn you-- HEY!” Cable shouted in alarm when the Omega darted forward and snatched the disc away, kicking Cable right in the face before taking off running into the woods. “Goddammit Parker! Get back here right now! You don’t know what that thing is!”

“Then tell me!” Peter cried as he fled. “Is this a mutant thing? Or a meta human thing? What is it? I want answers!”

“Stop with the endless questions and just give me the damn device!” Cable muttered a curse when the Omega only picked up speed, swerving towards the parking lot. “No! No you fool! Give that back right now, you have no idea what you’re messing with!”

Peter was gone though, sprinting through the trees towards the lights of the campground, the device clutched tight in his hand. He was almost to his car, almost to safety, almost there almost there almost there--

--It was like hitting a brick wall, and Peter screamed as he jolted to a stop, his entire body forced to stillness abruptly enough to make his head hurt and his fists clench, pain washing through his core.

“What?” Peter tried to make his feet move, tried to make his hands move, tried to do anything but he was utterly trapped and as Cable marched up to him with one hand held out and a furious red glint in his one human eye, Peter knew it was the mutant Alpha’s doing. “Wh-what is this? How are you doing this?”

“There are a thousand things in this world you cannot begin to understand.” Cable said shortly. “And believe it or not, I’m not even close to the worst of them. Hand me that device slowly and I’ll let you go. Slow and easy, kid. No one needs to get hurt, alright?”

“No one needs to get hurt?” Peter repeated, the words coming thick through honey, his tongue not quite working right. “You’re chasing me through the woods and threatening me and I’m supposed to think you’re not going to hurt me?”

“You’re messing with things you will never understand, and I’m not going to let you ruin lives because you can’t stop asking questions.” Cable held out his free hand and snapped his fingers. “My patience is gone, so here it is. We’ve got two options-- I keep you suspended so you can’t run and you hand me that thing willingly, or I rip you in half to get to it. What’s it going to be?”

Peter didn’t answer though, and after a moment Cable snapped his fingers again. “What’s it going to be?”

“...is this supposed to be ticking?” Peter asked very very quietly, holding up the disc as it began to glow. “Because-- because it started ticking a few seconds ago. What’s happening?”

“Oh god dammit--” Cable dropped the hold on Peter and lunged for the Omega, lunged for his device but a second before his fingers made contact, the ticking stopped.

“No no no no---!”

A flash of bright light, the acrid scent of smoke and when Cable stumbled to a stop, both the Omega and the device were gone.

Gone.

“Oh no.” The mutant dragged both his hands through his silvering hair and groaned. “What have I done?”

*****************

1872

The early morning frost crunched beneath Wade’s feet as he stalked through the woods, heavy boots breaking branches and kicking stones out of the way, three or four rabbits hanging limp over his broad shoulders, a rifle held securely in hand.

This time of year the bears tended to be fat and lazy so the Alpha wasn’t too concerned about disturbing one of them, but he’d seen mountain lion tracks outside his cabin the other morning and again last night, and the big cats were a different sort of danger altogether. Wade kept his eyes sharp as he scanned the trees and bushes along his path for anything feline, kept his nose to the air so he’d catch anything dead that would attract the predators, and kept his rifle ready just in case.

Sometimes fangs and brute strength just weren’t enough to keep a man alive in this wilderness.

Wait. The Alpha stopped in his tracks when the air tinged with a scent that didn’t belong-- smoky and burnt and brimming with panic, but beneath all that was the thready scent of Omega and that-- well that wasn’t right at all.

What the hell was an Omega doing all the way out here?

“Oh shit.” Wade dropped his gear abruptly when he saw a form at the base of a tree, an Omega laying limp in the frost like he’d been dropped from the sky and left for dead. “Shit shit shit, how did you get here?”

Wade ran careful hands up the Omega’s legs to feel for broken bones, pressed gingerly to check for busted ribs, glanced at and then away from the unmarked bonding spot and reached for the Omega’s chin to tip his head back and --

“Oh.” The Alpha gulped when he got a clear look at the Omega’s features, thick hair and freckle dusted skin and gorgeous lips, dark eyes fluttering open in confusion and fear and Wade automatically rumbled something soft at the Omega, murmuring “Hey, shhh. It’s okay. I dunno what you’re doing here, but I got you, okay? I’ve got you. Let’s get you off the ground, come here.”

The pretty thing didn’t weigh enough to matter and Wade lifted the Omega without any effort at all, but when the Alpha got a nose full of heady lavender and sweet honeysuckle scent, his knees buckled and nearly sent them both pitching back to the forest floor.

“Oh.” Wade wheezed, hazel eyes snapping red and a growl working in his throat as the Omega scent filled his senses and left him reeling, stumbling. “Oh fuck--”

“Mmmm.” The Omega was barely conscious but he still turned and tucked his nose tighter to Wade’s chest. “...smell...good…”

“Damn it.” Wade automatically held the Omega tighter, helpless against his biology’s sudden call of protect, and more worrisome, the soul echoing claim of mine. “Where did you come from Omega?”

There was no answer, the Omega slipping unconscious again and the Alpha swallowed hard, barely able to form the words to ask. “And how long will it be before Cable comes back for you?”

*****************

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imgoingtocrash · 4 years

Text

I Want to Go

by @imgoingtocrash for @slothbeans

Rating: G

Word Count: 5,179

Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker (mentioned), Pepper Potts/Tony Stark (mentioned), Peter Parker & Pepper Potts & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark (mentioned), Ben Parker & Peter Parker & Tony Stark (mentioned)

Summary:

““There he is.”

It’s Tony. Anthony Edward Stark. Mister Stark. His Mister Stark, his mentor, his friend, his could-have-been father figure if only they had more time together, if Peter hadn’t wasted it, if Tony hadn’t—

Not-dead Tony whirls around on a rolling stool, his arms propped against his knees. Peter can’t move his eyes off of the man in front of him, but he knows the space well enough to recognize where he is: the lab. Tony’s old lab at the Avengers Compound. The lab that doesn’t exist anymore. It was obliterated in the battle with Thanos and replaced with a new one that only Bruce, Doctor Cho, and Peter himself seemed to get any use out of.

This is the Tony he never got to know, inhabiting the familiar space.”

Tony Stark becomes a guardian angel after his death, and his task is watching out for Peter. After a harried run-in with the Green Goblin leaves Peter on the brink between life and death, Tony and Peter get the chance to talk about Peter's recent less-than-stellar life choices that led him to this point.

Read on Ao3

My gift for the second @friendly-neighborhood-exchange! I hope you enjoy it! Full fic also under the cut as requested by the exchange!

Peter really should have expected something like this to happen.

There are a lot of sayings about it: burning the candle at both ends, biting off more than you can chew, too many irons in the fire…he’s got melted wax all over a heaping plate of food and—okay, yep, this metaphor is going nowhere.

He’s a disaster lately, is what he’s getting at. And proving it by using too many turns of phrase at the same time in his head when it doesn’t really matter.

What even is his head, right now?

He doesn’t remember falling. Getting the tar kicked out of him…well, it’s more likely, but he still doesn’t actually remember it.

Everything is hazy. It’s like looking into his camera when the lens is unfocused. And everything is bright—oversensitive to his already wonky spider-senses, bright.

Is that a concussion symptom? He can’t remember that either.

“Karen?” he tries, but it comes out as a bit of a slur. The AI doesn’t respond, so he tries again. “Kare-bear, you up?”

Then he realizes his vision is certainly not being obscured by the lenses of his mask. He’s not wearing it.

Moving doesn’t hurt like he thought it would. He expected that gut-bombing feeling that comes with nausea, a pull of muscle against his spine or ribs, maybe the feeling of blood trickling down after a bullet or knife pierced something it shouldn’t have.

Instead it’s—fine. The blur of his vision clears as soon as he sits up and he’s…on the floor.

More senses come back with his eyes. The floor underneath him is cold. There’s a smell of oil and something just slightly burnt in the air, flaring his nostrils.

He’s not in an embarrassing dream where he’s naked, at least. He’s clothed in…no, that can’t be right. He hasn’t worn Tony’s old MIT sweatshirt in years. Not since…

“There he is.”

This is the Tony he never got to know, inhabiting the familiar space.

The older man is wearing dark jeans and t-shirt color expertly matched with the grey cardigan that completes the outfit. It’s a warm ensemble. It’s like the picture he always finds himself looking at when he visits the Stark cabin: Tony and Pepper on a hospital bed, exhausted but holding their new baby girl like she’s the only thing in the world.

Welcoming.

Loving.

Soft.

He wanted that Tony too. He wanted Tony back in any form most days, period.

Tony watches Peter examine him head to toe before continuing to speak.

“I’ve never done this before. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to wake you up or not. And not that I don’t love you, kiddo, but I’m more of a hugger than a Prince Charming type.”

Tony had hugged him. In the middle of a battle to save the universe, Tony took those ten seconds and hugged him and maybe if he hadn’t there would have been more time, another way, anything but watching Tony’s light go out.

“I am so glad Morgan’s finally growing out of her Disney Princesses phase, by the way. Aren’t you?” Tony says, like it’s just another Tuesday instead of whatever day of the week it is where Peter’s seeing things and losing his goddamn mind.

“Not that her running around screaming The Next Right Thing wasn’t cute and all. It’s just like—we all have our limits and I reached mine two Disneyland vacations ago."

Tony tilts his head.

“If you and MJ ever have kids, though.” Tony whistles. “Ben’s told me stories about your obsession with Kidz Bop songs. I hate to say it, but I think you two are in for it worse than Pepper and I ever were. I mean, at least Morgan has taste.”

“Mister—Tony, I—Ben—what?”

“Oh. Yeah, shit, sorry to spring all of that on you at once. I get carried away, you know me. Here, take your seat. We have time.”

Tony rolls over the other stool with his foot, patting the leather in invitation.

Peter keeps staring.

Tony gives a put-upon sigh. “Alright, let’s get this out of the way, then. No, I’m not one of Beck’s illusions, or one of Doctor Ocavious’ serums, or—what other reality-bending bad guys have you messed with lately. Did I cover them all yet?”

“Chameleon.”

“Oh, right, yeah. He had the gall to impersonate me and Michelle. That was rough on you, I’m sure.” Tony scratches his beard. “Though your last toss up certainly wasn’t better, considering.”

“Considering?” Peter asks. Curiosity has always been his problem. Right next to talking too much, which he’s currently doing very well with.

“One thing at a time, web-head. We’re certainly going to get to that.”

“That’s a new one.”

“Hm?”

“A new nickname. For me.”

“Huh.” Tony smiles to himself. “Guess so. Nice. I really thought I’d run the gamut. You know, that fire kid pisses me off to no end, but he’s really creative with the names. Makes me really aspirational about your generation.”

“How do you know Johnny?“ Peter shakes his head. Just another thing that needs explaining. “I think I’d really like to know what’s going on now, Mister Stark.”

“Fair enough. Alright, J, let’s get metaphysical.”

“Certainly, sir,” a prim, robotic voice replies.

With a resounding clap of Tony’s hands, the room descends into darkness before a set of holograms lights up around them, depicting a map of stars that expands around their heads.

“Let’s start with the facts: some people were right and some people were wrong. I wasn’t ever a very religious guy, but that doesn’t matter so much. All I know is that this is…whatever you want to call the afterlife part. The end after the end. What comes next, and so on. Well, an extension of it. Specifically from me to you.”

“How does that work?”

Tony snorts. “That, kiddo, is one of the few things I don’t know. There’s less all-knowing after death than I thought there’d be. Thor’s people have some theories—they call it Valhalla, theorize about their god-types—but I’ve yet to meet any kind of Grand Poobah as of yet.”

“But you did. Die, I mean.”

“Yeah, I did.” Tony sighs, placing a hand on Peter’s knee. “It was a tough choice, sacrificing myself. Strange thought it was the only one and I…” He swallows. “I would have done anything it took to make sure that you and everyone else in the universe got to live. So I made that call. And I accepted that it meant I would be out of the picture for the foreseeable future.”

There are a lot of things Peter wants to say, but doesn’t. I wish you hadn’t. We weren’t worth it. I’m not worth it.

Tony clears his throat, trying to breathe levity back into the atmosphere.

“But apparently, while we’re all here waiting for the rest of our loved ones to join in…we get perks.” Tony gestures to the room around them, an exact replica down to DUM-E and U rolling around in the corners instead of where they’re currently sitting in Tony’s dusty garage.

“It turns out the end isn’t totally the end. We get to watch and wait in style—go to old haunts, see old friends and family. Sometimes lend a hand, push away a bullet or two.” He nudges Peter’s shoulder on that one. “Specifically, I was offered the very coveted position of being the spiritual watchdog for a very special Spiderling.”

“So you’ve been watching,” Peter summates. “That’s how you know about—about Morgan and Johnny and everything that’s happened since you’ve been gone.”

Tony nods. “Your Uncle Ben had the job first. Maybe he took turns with your parents, I never asked. But what I do know is that you made that excellently unflappable man…well, stressed out to no end. We can only do so much from here, and you were throwing yourself headfirst into danger every other day. Before I entered the picture as your mentor, he was worried you’d join him sooner rather than later.”

Peter looks down at his lap, guilty. He can’t deny it—after Ben’s death, Peter was determined to use his powers for good instead of flipping around the streets entertaining himself as he pleased. That meant wearing himself thin on sleep, skipping classes, and being a little less careful about avoiding rather than attacking. Every robber from bank to bike thief got their punishment. Knife wounds didn’t matter, turning his skin black and blue didn’t either. Guns, he was particularly unforgiving about.

He had already faced what he thought was the worst trauma of his life at that point. He could afford an injury or two, and May was so blindsided with grief that she let him get away with leaving blood on the bathroom sink from doing his own stitches or waking up with a black eye for long enough that he got better at covering it up.

How could he have ever considered that Ben would be watching? He doesn’t want to think about all of the scrapes Tony’s now seen him get into.

“When I came up here…well, he and Nat were my welcoming party. Those two get along like old drinking buddies, actually. Weirds me out.” Tony scrunches his nose in what is likely false distaste.

He softens, though, moving his hand from Peter’s knee to cup his cheek. It’s something Tony’s never done, but Peter feels like he’s melting. Tony’s skin is warm. His fingers are still just a little callused and scarred.

Tony must get the impression that he doesn’t like it, but before he can move away, Peter traps his hand there, bristling his smooth fingers against the still-present wrinkles of Tony's skin.

Would Ben still look exactly as Peter last remembers him? Dressed in a button down with that stupid Giants baseball cap that’s still buried in a box somewhere at May’s place? Would he be fully grey now, or would it still be that salt-and-peppering brown? Does he need his glasses here?

“He’s so proud of you. Seriously, Pete, hearing him talk about you…well, he sounds like me. Just a couple of old saps between the two of us, I guess.”

Tony is smiling, but Peter wants to see it, he wants to hear it. He wants Ben and he wants to keep Tony here and never let him go again.

Tony swipes a fallen tear from Peter’s cheek with his thumb.

“He knew I wasn’t really…satisfied with how we left things. I spent five years missing you and all I got was a hug before I…” Tony clears his throat, looking away uncomfortably.

All this time and the first snap still haunts Tony. All this time, and Peter still dreams of ash.

“He offered to look after Morgan for me instead, considering it’s a bit of an easier job. I’m hoping he can coast on easy mode until she hits her teen years.”

“I still get to see her, too—and Pepper. God, all of you in the same room at Christmas is just—“ He shakes his head reverently. “That’s my day. My perfect day. I never thought.”

“She misses you,” Peter says. He doesn’t want to be mad at Tony, but sometimes he is, and he knows that Morgan is getting old enough to forget more about her dad than she remembers. He tries to tell stories, tries to explain pictures and videos but it’s just…not the same. It’s not enough. It’s not what she deserves.

“I know. I miss her too. I can watch you guys all day, but talking to you,“ Tony shakes Peter’s shoulder. “Touching you…there’s no replacement for it. I’m watching her grow up, but I don’t get to be a part of it like I used to. It just—sucks.”

Tony sighs again, but seems to rejuvenate with it, clapping and turning the lights of the lab back on.

“But that’s not important right now. We’re here because of you.”

“Me? What—?”

“Don’t what me, Pete. The only reason you’re here with me right now is because you’re close enough to death. Your body is in a hospital bed in the compound because you were reckless, and I brought your mind here to snap you out of it before you take the final step to this side of the spiritual plane!”

It seems otherworldly, the idea of his body currently being separated from his mind. Supernatural. Definitely something he’d usually associate with Doctor Strange.

As for his possible death...he doesn’t remember it. His more recent memories seem lost in a fog, and the welcoming warmth of this place makes the loss of them feel a lot less important.

“You’ve been—god, you’ve been beating yourself up for months. Ever since Gwen Stacy died—“

“Don’t.” Peter swallows back a sudden lump in his throat. “Please, don’t.”

“You’ve been running from it for months.” Tony replies. “Peter, you’ve been running from your life for months. You broke up with Michelle when I know for a fact that you have a ring made for her in your underwear drawer, you let things fall out with Harry when you never blamed him for everything that happened with his father, you don’t go see Pepper and Morgan anymore—“

“Because they’re not safe!” Peter finds himself standing, suddenly, string-tense and angry.

Tony doesn’t look surprised at the outburst, just sad.

“Don’t you get it?! No one is safe around me! It doesn’t matter if they’re heroes or civilians! It’s my fault that Gwen died! It’s my fault that you—” Peter shakes his head. “I can’t let that happen to anyone else. I won’t.”

“Peter, it is not your fault that I used the infinity stones.”

Peter stares at the ground and thinks about all of the ways he could have changed what happened during the battle with Thanos. He could have made that sacrifice instead. Anyone else on the battlefield could have. Some of them had the power to do it and survive. But it was Tony that came up with the idea to build a gauntlet of his own into his suit, Tony that made that choice with exactly one thing on his mind.

“Pepper told me about the picture. She said that you’d spent all those years caring about me, that you only considered time travel because of me. That makes it my fault.”

“No,” Tony insists. “It was my choice. That’s it. You were an influence, yes, but not the only one. I wanted a better world for my entire family—I did it Morgan and Pepper too. I wanted the rest of the world to have their families back because I finally realized how much I treasured my own. You are not to blame for my decisions. Period.”

“That doesn’t change what happened with Gwen! With Doctor Octavious! With Beck!”

He doesn’t let Tony interrupt again.

“Every time I try and do the right thing, bad stuff happens to the people I care about. So I cut them all away and according to you, I still ended up almost dead.”

“That was the Green Goblin’s fault. He escaped the Raft and went on a revenge-fueled rampage against you. You were overwhelmed. If you had help—”

“I don’t want help!” Peter shouts. Tony is always trying to fix Peter’s problems, a habit Peter knows he shares from his attempts to constantly fix New York. Tony just can’t fix Peter—who he is, what his life does to the people he loves. It’s never going to stop. Peter’s never going to stop. Not while he’s alive and has the means to keep trying.

“Then what do you want?” Tony asks, standing up himself and taking Peter’s shoulder in his hand. “I just want to make things better, buddy. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. Tell me what I can do.”

Peter looks at Tony, thinking of all the mistakes he could have helped correct, every missed birthday and holiday.

“I want to stay here.”

There’s a clear beat of silence. Tony’s face morphs from empathetic softness to a hardened frown.

“Peter, no—“

“Yes! Out there I can’t stop myself from—ruining my life all the time, no matter what I do. I can’t be Spider-Man the way everyone wants me to, I can’t be Peter Parker because I am Spider-Man, and everyone is looking at me to lead Stark Industries when I don’t even work there anymore!”

Working at SI had been what he thought he was supposed to do. Go to MIT. Graduate. Work for Pepper. Fulfill the legacy. Make Tony proud. Make everyone proud. Be the smartest and Spider-Man and a good boyfriend all at the same time.

But then Gwen died and he was already struggling to fill his mentor’s shoes and he’d just—surrendered to the part of himself that always doubted, that could never reconcile Tony’s belief in him and the way he often saw himself.

“Here I could be with you and Ben and my parents,” Peter reasons. “Tony, I lost them when I was five! I could finally see them again—“

Peter grabs for Tony in an attempt to reason with him, but Tony shakes it off.

“Peter, this was supposed to be a mission to make you snap out of it. You’re teetering between dead and alive right now and you need to go back.”

“No, please,” Peter begs. “Please, Mister Stark, please. I want to go. I want to go with you. I don’t want to leave you again. Ever since you died everything’s been—everything just keeps going wrong. Maybe this is a sign. I can never make the right choices, maybe it’s time for me to—“

“No.” Tony is looking down at him, like Peter is fifteen and naive and the world would be so much simpler if only Peter would listen to Tony.

“Don’t you dare try to act like your life out there doesn’t matter, like this is the better option.” Tony shakes his head back and forth. “The point of this place is to be after your life. I know that you’ve been through a lot already, but you’re not done yet. You’re not.”

Peter buries himself into Tony’s chest, desperate. He grew taller in the last few years but here in this lab, in this place that doesn’t exist, he is the boy Tony remembers, the boy he misses getting to be.

“Please.”

“I’m sorry.” Tony echoes Peter’s last words on Titan, and he knows it, he must, to still be so affected by losing Peter in the first place. He keeps Peter encased in his arms, rubbing his back over and over in a soothing gesture.

“I’m sorry things have been so hard without me. I’m sorry that you’ve missed me so much, and that I can’t be there. I’m sorry that the only way I could figure out to save the world didn’t include saving myself.”

Tony pulls away slightly, enough so that he can catch Peter’s watery gaze.

“But Peter, that is no excuse to think your life should be over. You know I have always encouraged you to be more selfish. I spent so long telling you to go after the things you wanted—the parts of a normal life that you deserve—because you are an incredible, empathic, intelligent kid. But for once I am begging you to think about other people. You have responsibilities, Pete. You have people that love you down there. You know that.”

“And think of everything that’s happened to them because of me! I—I’ve given May more grey hairs than you, I’ve put MJ in danger—I’m the reason Harry’s dad went away! Without me…without Spider-Man…maybe they’d be better. Maybe this is what’s supposed to happen!”

Tony doesn’t respond to this, but Peter can read his face. He doesn’t believe Peter at all.

“Let me show you something.” It’s a complete diversion, and Tony relies on Peter’s silent surprise, leaving their loose embrace and tapping at a set of holograms in front of him until a feed appears.

It’s an alley.

Somehow, Peter knows it’s in New York. Maybe it’s all of the time he’s spent in dumpsters—both searching for old technology in his youth and getting his ass kicked into them—that allows him to recognize that.

It’s not the most interesting footage—the most activity on screen for a minute is a mangy tabby cat scampering by.

Then a masked man comes running by the camera, a leather purse in hand and darting glances behind him.

A string of familiar webbing comes on screen, followed by a lithe, masked figure whose body slams into the robber’s, knocking the man down before sticking him to the ground with a layer of webbing. The masked figure takes the purse and swings away, back toward the mouth of the alley.

“Tony, what is this?” Peter asks.

“That is Miles Morales. Fourteen. Brooklyn native. Remind you of anyone?” Tony rolls his eyes at Peter’s unamused face. “Yeah, you get it. Anyway, two months ago, Mister Morales was bit by another one of Oscorp’s freaky mutant spiders. He didn’t tell anyone, but when Spider-Man was put into a coma fighting the Green Goblin and he didn’t help…”

The clip loops again, repeating the swing and kick of Miles’ body slamming into the robber.

“He became Spider-Man.”

Tony nods. “A cheap copy, though, of course. Underoos 2.0, you might say.”

“Only you would.”

“Ouch,” Tony hums. “I’m just saying, without Spider-Man, without you, someone else is always going to step up. It might be Miles, or the Avengers, or that little group of vigilantes near Hell’s Kitchen…”

“Then you’re just proving my point, they don’t need me to—!”

Tony holds his hand up.

“That doesn’t mean you aren’t still needed. You—Peter Parker, Spider-Man—are the person that knows the streets of New York’s boroughs better than anyone else. You’re the same person that helped take down Thanos and fought against Beck and the rest of his little Sinister Six friends. You’re the only Peter Parker that Michelle wants. You’re the only best friend that Ned Leeds wants. You’re the only nephew your Aunt May has. You’re Morgan’s only big brother, Petey."

The warmth that was surrounding Peter until that moment fades slightly. Here, the world that he came from seems so far away. It was easy to say he wanted to stay when the most important thing was right in front of him.

But Tony isn't the most important thing in Peter’s life. Peter's grief seemed to be important for years after. It felt heavy, all-consuming, a weight he was backpacking around on the top of all the good things because the world wouldn’t let him forget. From the murals and statues to Beck’s raging hunger for revenge, Peter felt the ache of Tony’s loss much like he had for Ben—acute and piercing his life with holes.

The thing is—Peter still grieves. All of Tony’s loved ones do. They wish he was there at birthdays and barbecues, reminisce about this story or that, tell Peter and Morgan of his love for them, his pride.

It just doesn’t hurt the same, these reminders. It doesn’t hurt as consistently. His sadness ebbs and flows, bleeds and stems, metaphors on metaphors on metaphors.

“You’re the only you that there is, kiddo," Tony continues. "You need to stop blaming yourself for everything that hasn’t worked out and start realizing that you’ve done a lot of things right. You’re allowed to grieve the past, but you can’t stay here. You need to move forward. That doesn’t have to mean letting go. It means taking us with you, and continuing to make us proud, just like you have been, even when everything is going wrong.”

Tony's eyes are expectant. He wants Peter to really listen to what he's saying, to believe it.

Peter nods, even as some part of him doesn't want to. Tony is right, and Peter is old enough to admit it, to want to believe it. Tony’s death is not as fresh as Gwen’s, and still newer than the death of his uncle, but he is allowed to hold his loss as he moves on from it. He knows that. He was trying for so long, but the losses kept piling up, and he’d forgotten because it was easier to wallow in his grief than try and recover for the umpteenth time.

It’s tiring.

As if Tony can see as much in Peter’s eyes—because he has seen it all, because he knows what Peter’s gone through without him all the time—he finishes his speech.

“Peter, I know you’re doubting yourself and your abilities. I know it’s hard. But you don’t need someone else to fix that for you—not me, or Ben, or your parents. It’s okay to miss us—you know that we miss you. But you don’t need me around to be a great hero or a good person. You’re all of those things on your own.”

Tony puts a hand on Peter’s head, pulling back his curls and looking directly into his eyes. “But if you need the assurance…you’re everything I could have hoped for and more. I love you, and I’m so proud of you, okay? No matter what.”

"I still want to stay," Peter admits, his voice quiet. There's a difference in knowing he can't and wanting. It's a childish part of himself that he's allowing to be obstinate.

Tony only smiles, though, understanding when he admits, "And some part of me wants to keep you here. But it's not your time. Not yet, okay? You have apologies to make to a very pretty girl, an aunt that would break the rules of spacetime to kick my ass if you died in your twenties, a kid that needs your mentorship…"

"What if I get him killed?" Peter asks abruptly. He hadn't even considered what mentorship would mean, in the long run. "Tony, how many times did I almost die before I turned eighteen? I did die, on an alien world. How can I promise that won't happen to him?"

"You can't," Tony chuckles. "There are no guarantees in any part of life, kid, you know that. He could get taken down by a supervillain or a car in equal measure. But one way he's fighting for the city—for the people he believes in. One way makes him the hero that he is."

Tony shrugs. "That's why I never stopped you."

"You couldn't stop me."

"That too. But that fear? That's what is going to make you better. It made me better."

Peter nods, understanding. His fear for a kid he doesn't even know is just the same as Tony's fear was for him in the beginning.

But look at what grew out of that: he and Tony freakin' Stark, standing here in the afterlife filled with love for each other, planning to continue their lifelong legacy of work to make the world a better place.

Peter would argue that alone is worth it.

Peter steps forward, bringing Tony into another hug—a final hug. "I love you."

Tony's thumb finds the back of Peter's neck, gently stroking. "I love you too, kiddo."

"You'll keep watching over me? Just in case?"

"Of course. I'll let Ben take a turn too, invite your parents into the Spidey Protection Program."

"I'd really like that." He backs up to look at Tony. "And when May gets here, could you—"

"We'll take care of her." In exchange, Tony asks, "Can you tell Pepper and Morgan—oh, and Rhodey and Happy, and don't forget Bruce—"

"I'll tell everyone that you miss them. That you're waiting."

"Such a good kid," Tony remarks, running a hand through Peter’s hair again before landing to cup his cheek again, like he’s treasuring the new gesture before it’s taken from him. "Be safe...well, as much as you can. More family vacations and less hospital visits, okay?"

"Yeah, okay,” Peter agrees, twitching up a real smile through the last of his tears. “Goodbye, Tony."

"Bye, Pete. I'll see you soon. Just—not too soon! And I want to see any future grand-babies all the time, you hear me? No absentee fathering! And—"

The world around Peter grows blurred again, taking him out the same way he came in.

The sound of Tony’s voice echoes into the beeping of a heart monitor.

The ethereal warmth fades into the reality of cold air conditioning—a scratchy hospital blanket is the only shield from the cold. A tube is uncomfortably jammed down his throat.

The life in front of him is no more enticing than it was before, with Tony. It will be weeks spent in recovery despite his healing powers, groveling at Michelle’s feet to make up for leaving her in the first place, apology after apology to his aunt for not calling. He’ll owe Morgan at least a week at the cabin, if not more treats to be exploited from his wallet later. Most importantly—at the risk of Miles Morales’ life—he has to track down a reckless kid and try to teach him to be a better hero when Peter himself is a five alarm tire fire and a half.

But there is also a lot of life still out there that he doesn’t want to forget about:

Aunt May’s one and only good recipe—sweet potato pie. She always flits around their tiny apartment covered in flour and smelling of spices, slapping his hands away from the counter with a firm, “Don’t you dare.”

MJ’s drawings from years past taped to the walls of his bedroom, her unread stacks of hardcovers littering every empty surface, and the way she always stops reading to kiss him goodnight before he goes out on patrol.

Morgan and Pepper, the cabin, the memories he wants to forget and all of the new ones he’s made there next to his little pseudo-sister that have helped make her into the kind, empathetic kid that he would do anything for in a heartbeat.

Peter still has a lot to tell all of them, the words he promised Tony he’d relay.

Peter opens his eyes.

#irondad #spiderson #marvel #friendly neighborhood exchange #Tony Stark #Peter Parker #my writing

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whisperoftheheart1995 · 6 years

Text

An Unexpected Moment- Chapter 6

(Also posted here)

(Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5)

(Warning for brief references to underage sex. nothing actually happens, written or not, more just discussion of "being safe" and as peter has to deal with the awkwardness of people finding out about their relationship)

Peter sits next to MJ on the couch, her feet resting in his lap as she leans against Ned, eyes glued to the documentary she put on the TV. Ned has an arm around her as he scrolls through his phone.

Peter has his own phone out, staring incredulously at a Daily Bugle article accusing Spider-Man of tax fraud, when Ned speaks up.

“Did you see Johnny’s new post?” Ned asks, still staring down at his phone.

“Uh, no?”

He turns his phone around for Peter to see. It’s a shirtless picture of Johnny lying in bed, a lazy smile on his face, hair messy in a way that seems natural for once. Peter’s heart does little flips in his chest.

“The caption says ‘thinking about him’ and then it has, like, fifty heart emojis.”

Peter feels his cheeks heat up.

“Called it,” MJ says, leaning over to get a better look. “I knew there was no way that guy was straight."

“Who do you think it’s about?” Ned asks curiously.

Peter shrugs wordlessly, suddenly feeling hot all over, and stares straight ahead at the TV.

He can feel MJ’s eyes on him, a calculating silence filling the room. He fidgets nervously under her gaze. “That post is about you.”

“WHAT?” Ned all but yells.

Sometimes he hates how perceptive MJ can be. Most of the time, actually. Peter rubs the back of his neck, then nods. “I mean, I think it is. Unless he’s kissed any other boys in the last 24 hours.” He laughs awkwardly.

“You kissed him?!” Ned exclaims. He throws a pillow at Peter from where he’s sitting, but Peter catches it easily. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!”

“Technically, I think we made out.” Peter ducks out of the trajectory of another throw pillow. “Sorry, bad joke.”

“Ugh. I hate you.”

“So do you want to hear about it or not?”

“No,” MJ replies at the same time Ned says, “obviously.”

He recounts the story for Ned’s sake, of how Johnny kissed him for the first time at their usual spot (“The Statue of Liberty? That’s so tacky,” MJ says bluntly, but Ned interjects that it’s actually super romantic).

“And now we’re together. Like, together together.” Peter smiles goofily.

“Oh my god, that’s so great. We should totally go on double dates. Triple dates even, if MJ would finally let me set her up with someone.”

“Never gonna happen.”

“But I know the perfect girl-”

“No you don’t.”

Ned rolls his eyes at her, then turns back to Peter. “You know I was just giving you a hard time before, right? I really am happy for you.”

Peter nods. “Yeah, I know. And thanks.”

Ned holds out his hand for their secret handshake. “What are friends for?”

Peter laughs and pulls him into a hug instead.

It’s late when Peter shows up at Johnny’s window. He taps lightly, grinning at the way the other boy lights up when he sees him.

Johnny unlocks the window, stepping aside as Peter crawls through. He takes his mask off, tossing it aside.

“Hey,” Johnny greets, kissing Peter’s cheek. “What are you doing here?” His expression hardens. “You’re not hurt again, are you?”

Peter nearly melts at the concern in his eyes. “No, I’m fine. I just wanted to see you.”

Johnny puts a hand to his heart. “Aw, that’s so lame. You’re going soft on me, Parker.”

Peter elbows him. “You’re such a jerk.”

“Yeah, but you love me anyway.”

Peter rolls his eyes, but can’t quite bring himself to argue.

“You wanna play video games or something?” Johnny asks, turning away.

“Not really.” Peter grabs Johnny’s hand. The other boy looks back at him, smirking.

“Oh? You got something else in mind?”

“I think I can come up with something.” Peter pulls Johnny to him with a little too much force, sending the other boy stumbling into him as he kisses him. Johnny laughs against his lips.

“A little eager, are we?” he murmurs.

Since they first started dating, Peter has become a lot more confident in himself, and their relationship. He’s not afraid to take control, especially since Johnny seems pretty into it.

“I just spent two hours fighting Scorpion. Give me a break.”

Johnny frowns. “Is Scorpion actually a scorpion?”

“What? No, of course not.”

“I don’t know, you fight a lot of weirdos.”

“And you don’t?”

“Is now really the best time for this argument?” He pushes Peter backward onto the bed, crawling into his lap. “Less talking, more kissing.”

“But you’re the one who-” he starts to argue, but breaks off into a moan when Johnny nips at a sensitive spot on his neck.

“God, that’s- shutting up now.”

They both fall quiet. Peter kisses him again, deepening it when Johnny’s hands tangle in his messy hair.

Peter flips them over so they’re both lying down, settling himself between Johnny’s legs. Johnny looks up at him, eyes a little wide.

“Woah.”

“Sorry, was that- was that too much?”

Johnny shakes his head. “Spider strength is so hot.” He pulls Peter back down toward him, connecting their mouths again.

Peter’s hands have just found their way under Johnny’s shirt when the door bursts open, startling Peter so badly he falls from the bed.

The Thing stands in the doorway, looking somewhat amused. Peter is pretty sure his face has never been as red as it is right now.

“Ben!” Johnny yells, more angry than embarrassed. “Knock!” He picks up a pillow and throws it in his direction.

“Sorry. Didn’t realize ya have… company.” He turns to leave, making a point of leaving the door wide open when he does. Johnny grumbles.

“Sorry Mr. The Thing!” Peter calls out nervously from the floor.

Johnny looks at him, eyebrows raised.

“What?”

“Mr. The Thing? God, you are so lame.”

Peter sticks his tongue out at Johnny, who blows him a kiss in response.

“Ugh,” Johnny groans, running a hand through his blonde hair. “I guess we better go face the music. I’m sure he’s told Sue by now.”

Peter starts following him out of the room, but stops when Johnny turns around to look at him quizzically. “No mask?”

“A little late for that now,” he says, laughing nervously. “Besides, I trust you guys.”

Johnny nods, then takes his hand and gives it a little squeeze. “Let’s get this over with.”

Ms. Storm is surprising calm, given the fact that Peter had his tongue in her little brother’s mouth not even ten minutes ago.

He guesses it’s not the first time they’ve walked in on Johnny with someone, but judging by the look of surprise on her face when Johnny introduces Peter as his boyfriend, it’s the first time it’s actually meant something.

“Told ya the kid was sweet on Spider-Man,” The Thing says to her, loudly enough that he and Johnny can both hear.

“Ben!” Johnny whines, cheeks tinted pink.

Peter can’t help it. “Aw, you have a crush on me,” he teases. “That’s so embarrassing.”

Johnny gives him a look. “Peter, we’re dating.”

He shrugs. “Still.”

Johnny elbows him gently and Peter laughs.

Ms. Storm stares at them with a knowing smile as they joke back and forth.

The rest of their conversation goes smoothly. He tells them about how he got his powers and is using his internship at Stark Industries as a cover. Ms. Storm promises that his secret is safe with them, and that he’s welcome anytime. She doesn’t even bring up all the “menace” stuff, which he considers a win.

For a minute, he thinks he got off easy.

Until the next afternoon, that is.

“So, kid,” Mr. Stark starts and Peter flinches. “Somebody told me that you’re doing the nasty with the Human Torch.”

“WHAT?” Peter practically screams, face turning bright red. “Who even told you that?”

“Sparky’s sister. She said Ben walked in on the two of you.”

“That wasn’t- We weren’t-” They weren't, and they wouldn't have, even if they hadn't been interrupted. Peter's never even kissed someone before Johnny, there's no way he's ready for that.

“Save it, I’m not your aunt, you don’t need to lie to me. I just want to give you something.” He pulls something out of his pocket and hands it to Peter. “Go nuts, kid.”

Peter looks closer at the small wrapper and flushes when he realizes what they are. “Mr. Stark, I don’t-”

“No need to thank me. Just keep your hormones in check in my lab, okay?”

Peter opens his mouth, then shuts it again quickly, nodding curtly. He knows his chances of changing Mr. Stark’s mind are nonexistent, and he’d rather the conversation end now before he offers to show Peter how to use them or something equally embarrassing.

He turns back to the modifications he’s working on, but finds himself completely unable to focus the rest of the afternoon.

“How was your day, Peter?” May asks kindly over dinner, but Peter is still thinking about his conversation with Mr. Stark. He’s never been so embarrassed in his life.

“Peter?” May waves a hand in his face. “You okay, kiddo?”

“Mr. Stark gave me condoms,” he blurts, then cringes. He probably could have brought it up a little smoother.

“What?” May all but shouts. “That’s incredibly inappropriate, he’s your boss, there’s no reason for him to be- I’m going to call him.”

“May, please don’t-”

“I’m sorry, kid, but that’s not okay with me. He overstepped his boundaries with you and now I have to yell at him.”

She’s already pulling out her cell phone, dialing the number and putting it up to her ear. Yikes. If this is how she’s reacting to condoms she’s definitely not going to be happy when she finds out his “internship” frequently involves getting shot at.

“Hi, yes, this is May Parker. Oh, hi, Pepper. I’m okay, but I do need to speak with Tony about something he did that I’m not exactly comfortable with. He gave Peter condoms.” A pause. Peter can practically hear Ms. Potts’ frustrated exhale. “He did. So I’m sure you understand why that’s completely inappropriate. Peter is only sixteen, and he’s an employee, it hardly seems professional to- uh huh.” Another pause. “Thank you so much, Pepper. We should get dinner sometime next week if you’re free.” May nods. “Thursday sounds perfect. I’m looking forward to it already. That’s fine, I’ll wait while you go find him.”

It’s then that Peter flees the room, though May is loud enough he can still hear her, even behind his closed bedroom door. She’s on the phone for at least an hour, yelling loudly at Tony the entire time about how inappropriate his actions were and how uncomfortable he made Peter feel (which is technically true, but doesn’t make it any less embarrassing). When she hangs up, there’s a quiet knock on his door.

“Come in,” he calls, flopping backward onto his bed. May comes and sits next to him, brushing away some of the hair that’s fallen on his forehead.

“I’m sorry you had to hear that. But I hope you understand why I had to do that.”

He nods wordlessly, sitting up next to her. May goes silent for a moment, as if contemplating her next words carefully. “Do you need condoms?”

“No!” Peter yells, blushing profusely.

May softens. “Peter, I want you to feel comfortable talking with me about these kinds of things. I’ll admit, I think you’re a little too young, but if you’re going to have sex, I at least want you to be safe about it.”

“May, I’m not having sex. I promise.” He looks down at his shoes. “But there is something I want to talk to you about.”

“What is is, honey?”

“I’ve sort of been dating someone.”

“That’s great news!” she says cheerfully. “Can I meet them?”

Her choice of words isn’t lost on Peter, the way she says “them” instead of “she”, like she knows that might not necessarily be the case. It makes him wonder how he could have ever thought he could hide something like that from her, why he ever thought he might need to.

“You’ve met him actually.” He rubs the back of his neck nervously. “Johnny?”

He fidgets with his hands. “I’m bisexual,” he admits.

“Oh, sweetheart,” she murmurs as she pulls him into a tight hug. “You know I love you no matter what, right?”

Peter nods, feeling a little choked up. “Right.”

“It doesn’t matter who you love, if they’re a boy or a girl, all that matters to me is that you’re happy.”

“Thanks, May,” he says, giving her a squeeze. “I love you, too.”

“So…” May starts again a few minutes later. “I want to know all about this new boyfriend of yours.”

Peter grins. “What do you want to know?”

#i'm so bad at remembering to post this on here jdhfk #spideytorch #my writing

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mvgicshcpx · 6 years

Text

𝕋 ℍ 𝔼 𝕄 𝔸 𝔾 𝕀 ℂ 𝕊 ℍ 𝕆 ℙ 𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐌 𝐈

welcome to 𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕄𝔸𝔾𝕀ℂ 𝕊ℍ𝕆ℙ !! you have found yourself in 𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐌 𝐈. this is where you will learn all about our first 𝒯𝐻𝑅𝐸𝐸 heroes, villains, heroes-in-training, and civilians alike !! of course, if you have any questions about something that we forgot to cover here, feel free to ask !! all questions ( and non-questions ) are more than welcome !!

𝐊𝐀𝐍𝐆 𝐉𝐈𝐖𝐎𝐎 𝒶𝓈 𝐻 𝒪 𝒩 𝐸 𝒴

honey was raised in the down-and-out streets of espilon city.

their father was a villain, their mother simply lived to raised them to be the best person they could be.

however, their mother passed away when honey was four, right before their quirk came to light.

with no mother in the picture to convince him otherwise, honey’s father saw them as nothing more than an object ( a doll, if you will ). his plan was to raise honey as a villain and no more than that.

however, when honey’s quirk came to light when he was four-years-old, their father was less than pleased with the result.

honey’s quirk is DOLLIFICATION, meaning that they have the ability to turn living beings to dolls - i.e. take away their consciousness and turn their physical being to that of a doll, as well.

the quirk alone was referred to as dainty, weak, fragile, soft by not only honey’s own father, but their father’s cohorts, as well.

then, as if their quirk, itself, wasn’t bad enough for them, it was revealed that the quirk came with a bit of a price.

the more honey uses his quirk ( i.e. the more people they dollify ), the more they slowly turn into a doll, themself.

of course, this displeased their father even more. such a powerful villain refused to have a doll for a child.

still, considering there was nothing to be done of it, his father decided that, since honey’s quirk, itself, was foolish and nothing to be proud of, they must use the quirk in such a way that would make them worthy to be his child.

thus, honey, in all his tenderhearted glory, became a villain.

honey was born with the visuals of a doll. however, due to being forced to use his quirk so much over the years, his visuals have only become even more doll-like and now he, almost entirely, looks like a porcelain.

again, due to being forced to use his quirk so much over the years, they have become incredibly fragile physically ( they have always been fragile emotionally, truly ) and, thus, cannot take part in much, if any, physical combat.

when they get injured, instead of their skin tearing, their skin cracks and their bones are easily shattered.

important note: their right eye is LILAC and their left eye is GOLD.

they are, quite literally, as compliant and submissive as a doll. they tend to go along with most things without any questions and, when being spoken to, they tend to just nod and blink emptily, ready to comply.

whether them being so compliant is their father’s doing, considering he practically programmed them to be this way, or its their quirk slowly dollifying them, no one is quite sure ( though a bit of both would make perfect sense ).

on a softer note, they adore people playing with their hair and holding their hands !!

on a less soft note, HERE’S A CONCEPT: a dumb, submissive baby boy with the power to, essentially, take away peoples’ lives ?? one could literally put them on strings and use them as a weapon and they would be none the wiser, so ?? some villains out there probably strive to do exactly that with them, because they literally no longer obtain the ability to oppose or fight back.

𝐊𝐖𝐎𝐍 𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐄𝐔𝐋 𝒶𝓈 𝐻 𝐸 𝒜 𝒱 𝐸 𝒩

definitely doesn’t have as elaborate a backstory as honey does, but here we go, nonetheless !!

born in the city of epsilon to two incredibly well-known superheroes, heaven was raised in some of the wealthiest streets of the city !!

he lived the spoiled brat life. what he wanted, he got. what he didn’t want, he got. what he didn’t even know existed, he got. basically, he owned one of everything, no matter what those things were.

despite being pampered to no end, however, heaven is not close to his parents at all.

due to being such well-known and popular superheroes within the city, they were constantly too busy to actually raise heaven, themselves. thus, heaven was raised by numerous nannies.

his nannies never stayed for more than a few weeks, though, due to the trouble that he would get himself into while under their watch ( especially once his quirk came to light ).

heaven’s quirk is BOUNDARY MANIPULATION, meaning that he has the ability to create, shape, destroy, and manipulate boundaries, whether they be physical, material, spiritual, existential, pataphysical, conceptual, metaphysical, and so on.

considering his quirk and how, basically, limitless it is, one can only imagine the trouble that heaven could have caused for his nannies within the all-too-expensive penthouse that he had the honour of calling his home.

truthfully, it should have been obvious that heaven was getting into such trouble and causing such antics because he was trying to get his parents’ attention, yet no one ever brought that to his parents’ attention.

thus, heaven grew up as a bit of a troubled kid, despite being given everything he could ever possibly want or need.

due to this, he had a bit of a vendetta against superheroes, because he figured that they were all just as neglectful ( ?? ) as his own parents were.

with this, he began failing in all of his hero-training classes, seeing as he cared very little about becoming a hero.

around this time ( about middle school age ), he started fighting, using it as an ( unhealthy ) way to let his anger out.

his teachers took note of this and had him talk to his counselor who, to both his dismay and his luck, insist that he pick his grades up and continue on with his hero-training.

“ if you hate today’s heroes so much, why don’t you show them what heroes should be like ?? “ --- his counselor, the words that changed his life.

so, he did exactly that. he picked his grades up and has maintained a perfect gpa ( or the equivalent of ) ever since.

this doesn’t mean that he no longer gets into trouble or causes antics anymore, though. no, he still does all of those things, oftentimes nearly killing himself in the midst of them. but he still does them, because he wouldn’t really be himself if he didn’t.

and, of course, he is still entirely resentful and bitter toward his parents, but he is even more determined to show them up, to prove to them that you can be a hero and a human being at the same time.

on a lighter note, he’s a little shit, so do with that what you will !!

𝐊𝐈𝐌 𝐉𝐈𝐇𝐘𝐄 𝒶𝓈 𝒫 𝐻 𝒪 �� 𝒩 𝐼 𝒳

born into an unlikely ( and unknown ) family of villains, phoenix was raised in a mansion just outside of epsilon city.

her parents were some of the most successful villains within the city of epsilon, and yet, nobody knows that they were ever villains at all.

the two pose as the ceo of one of the city’s biggest, most well-known companies and a male model ( yes, her father poses as the model !! ), and they have never even been so much as suspected as possible villains.

phoenix, too, lived the spoiled brat life. what she wanted, she got. what she didn’t want, he got. what she didn’t even know existed, she got. basically, she owned one of everything, no matter what those things were.

her parents were actually incredibly involved in her life, truly. they spent time with her every day, doing their best to make every moment special and exciting. they truly seemed like wonderful, dedicated parents.

of course, she also knows, all too well, that her parents are the villains that they are and that villainy is how and why she has lived in luxury all her life. she knew that the only reason they bothered to spend time with her was to try and distract her from their villainy.

it didn’t work, though, and, knowing that her life is the result of villainy, phoenix lived her entire life, ashamed and full of guilt.

thus, when she was about five and her quirk finally came to light ( no pun intended ), she began to use it to help other citizens within the city.

phoenix’s quirk is SHADOW MANIPULATION, meaning that she has the ability to create, shape, animate, destroy, and manipulate darkness & shadows.

so, she used her quirk solely to help those who needed it within the city, yet she never had so much as a thought that becoming a hero was a potential pathway for her.

it wasn’t until she was fourteen, when she saved a child from a villain and was, then, referred to as “ the shadow hero “ by him, that she even considered training to be a hero.

her parents heard of the good deeds that she began doing around the city and they gave her a choice: be a hero or be their daughter.

of course, it was a painful decision to make, because phoenix loved her parents, even despite their immoral and corrupt ways. they raised her and loved her all her life.

in the end, though, she chose to be a hero. she chose that she did not want to be as immoral and corrupt as they were. she did not want to live a guilt-ridden life any longer. she wanted to do good and only good.

so, she began attending hero school at around age fourteen and has been attending it ever since.

she is still somewhat resentful and hurt over the fact that she was disowned by her parents, but she knows that she made the right choice.

due to this, though, she tends to be reserved and reticent about most things, including her hero training, and, thus, tends to need a bit of a push in order to finally work up the courage to do certain things.

on a lighter note: her shadow essentially acts as a mix between peter pan’s shadow & johnny 13′s shadow from danny phantom !! it’s sort of like a friend or a pet !!

she and her own shadow like to play with other people’s shadows, as well. so, she will definitely temporarily take people’s shadows and, knowing her, she probably forgets to ask first, so ... missing shadows being a reoccurring theme on campus ?? absolutely !!

so, do not be alarmed if you suddenly have no shadow !! just check with phoenix and she will be happy to return it to you, as well as offer a sincere apology !!

and on a depressing, finishing note: these shadows are most definitely her only friends and family ( even if other people see her as a friend, she is most certainly afraid to call them a friend in fear of being abandoned or disowned again ), so ... do with that what you will, as well !!

#tag later !#bc its 2am and i gotta sleep bUT !!#here are three (3) of my babies #do w them what u will #pls lov them #<3333333 #it got kinda lq toward the end i'M SOZ ABT THAT #BUT HERE U GO

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lamujerarana · 7 years

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people have been calling the ff dated for ages but I still don't understand it - I get that the dynamic is based off sixties sitcoms but I don't see why a story about family is perceived to be too old fashioned to resonate now - why do you think the ff lost their popularity?

I’ve written already on why I think the FF are still relevant and more important today than ever.

But as to why people consider them outdated, well, I think it’s a combination of two main things:

First, perceptions of the FF, among the general public but especially in comics fandom, are stuck in the past or very simplified. I think people see the bright uniforms and the family dynamic and assume that the FF are a happy, functional family who lead overly privileged lives, have no real problems, and always have goofy, ridiculous adventures. They think the FF’s lives are unrealistically bright and wholesome and happy, like something out of a Disney cartoon, which isn’t really in vogue at the moment. It’s similar to why people think Superman is no longer relevant (they are wrong on both counts).

Of course, they don’t realize that the FF’s lives aren’t like that in actual comics canon (this is why actually reading comics and not relying on fandom interpretations is important). Honestly, they never have been. They love each other, but they are not perfect people with perfect lives. That has literally always been the point of the FF. They’re more realistic and natural and flawed as people than the heroes who came before them (and, I’d argue, plenty who came after them). They bicker amongst themselves frequently. They have very real problems. As Waid wrote in FF V3 #60, the FF as a family is more Addams than Cleaver (or Kennedy). But the thing is, together they – and their love for each other – are perfect, and they can get through anything as a family. So, yes, there’s a hopeful message at the heart of FF comics, but that doesn’t mean their lives are storybook perfect. More like beset by tragedy, despair, and disillusionment, but that’s what makes the fact that they do overcome in the end so important. They’re the ones who never give up, no matter how bad everything gets, and things do get very, very bad for them. Literally, that is where Peter Parker and so many other heroes learned that “never give up!” phrase from.

I mean, for fuck’s sake, just to list SOME of the things they’ve been through:

Cut for length.

Johnny and Sue watched their father get murdered in front of them way back in 1964, when Johnny can’t have been more than 17. Johnny nearly died stopping a nuclear bomb from destroying a small town at 16, the same year he was one misfired bullet away from being shot to death. He is a rape survivor. He was trapped for two years in a Negative Zone prison where he was violently murdered and brought back to life, over and over, hundreds and hundreds of times. He’s been experimented on repeatedly, including by a future version of his own sister. He was beaten, during Civil War I, into a coma by the same civilians he’d repeatedly risked his life defending since he was literally a child. Ben’s superpowers are a thinly-veiled metaphor for full-body disfiguration, which he struggles to cope with daily (in Mythos: Fantastic Four he actually suffered full-body burns in the accident, which later turned into the rocky skin). Ben’s brother, father, and mother all died before he hit 18. Reed suffers from chronic anxiety because of his superpowers and the effort it takes him to retain a human shape. For several months, half of his face was badly scarred by Doom, and he believed there was no cure (it took divine intervention to fix it). Sue had her mind invaded, violated, and warped by the Psycho Man. She also witnessed her future self’s murder at the hands of Doom and held her own funeral. Reed and Sue’s kids have been possessed, thrown into hell, kidnapped, and forcibly taken away by court order. The FF lose everything periodically. Every member of the FF at one point or another has been either actually dead or presumed dead, and, yes, the others grieved. Are grieving, in Ben and Johnny’s case, over the loss of their entire family. Their origin story is 100% a horror story, where they are all turned into monsters against their will by a horrible accident they are lucky to have survived at all, and it was experienced by every member of the FF as deeply traumatizing. People never understand that the FF’s celebrity is a carefully constructed shield to protect the FF from discrimination and ostracization, or that it’s only partially successful. They have been called freaks, refused housing, subjected to bigoted mob violence because they are metahumans (and Franklin is a mutant), had people refuse to associate with them, been taken in the dead of night to military prisons and studied, where they witnessed another inmate being called a freak and executed…and that barely scratches the surface of what the FF have been through.

So, again, their lives are not always – in fact, rarely ever – like something out of a storybook. The point is that they overcome difficulties and tragedy as a family, not that they never face any the way people bafflingly seem to assume. This misconception of what the FF are like very much contributes to the hatred of the most recent FF movie as “too grim and dark,” when it is actually not too far off from the comics. Most of that film’s plot was taken from Ultimate Fantastic Four, and the scenes from the military prison are, frankly, watered down, less horrifying versions of Fantastic Four: First Family and 1610/616 canon in general. The FF in the comics are fascinating. They are all complex characters with complex problems. They can at times be delightful, hopeful, and happy, but there’s an undercurrent of tragedy and horror to their story that never goes away. They took a terrible, tragic accident and made the best of it, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t tragic.

Which leads me to my second point: fandom characterizations of individual members of the FF also tend to be outdated, simplistic, and so much duller than actual canon. For the most part, they are inaccurate, pure and simple. I partially blame the 2005/7 films for misconceptions about Johnny (who is NOTHING like that in the comics) and maybe Sue, partially the tendency fandom has to whip out 30-50yo, out-of-context panels to verify their outdated characterizations, and partially the mischaracterization of the FF when they guest star in other comics (Reed gets the worst of this by far – I still get angry about what Civil War, Mighty Avengers, and New Avengers: Illuminati did to his character. It was just petty and unnecessary and OOC – I suspect the writers were intentionally making him look bad to prop up their Avenger faves, which is gross and has done a lot of damage to fan perceptions of the FF).

So, for the record, Reed is not an arrogant, selfish jackass who loves science more than his family. That is the exact opposite of who he is. It was a literal plot point during Hickman’s run, that he has to listen to his heart just as much as his mind. Reed’s entire life revolves around his family. Everything he says or does is for them. And, for the record, he’s actually shown in canon being 100% involved in his wife and kids’ lives. Family picnics, family dinners, family movie nights, date nights, romantic island getaways, reading his kids bedtime stories, putting them to bed, nightly feedings, ball games, vacationing with the family at his California summer house – for fuck’s sake, he homeschools his kids. I have a VERY hard time buying that he neglects his kids when he’s sitting in a classroom with them several hours a day, five days a week. He’s also driven by his desire to make the world a better place – i.e., he feels a great deal of sympathy for the people around him and a moral responsibility to care for their well-being. And he is not boring! He’s an explorer! He’s Mr. Adventure! He’s half Indiana Jones, half Einstein. The FF’s lives are never boring when he’s around, and they all love him for it and love the life fantastic he makes possible for them all. And Reed works hard to give them that life because he feels so deeply guilty for the space flight accident that gave them their powers, which he believes robbed them all of a chance for a normal life. (No one else holds him responsible, but that’s Reed’s thing. Taking responsibility for everyone and everything around him.)

And, I can’t believe I actually have to say this because it is one of the most ridiculous arguments fandom has ever concocted, but Reed does not now nor has he ever abused his wife and children. Even in the 1970s, he broke through some serious mind control because the thought of physically harming Sue was so repulsive to him. He would literally die for her. The panels that typically get bandied around as indicative of his abusiveness are part of a badly-written plot that necessitated Reed act like a jerk for a few moments to save his wife’s life. Is it a terrible plot? Sure. Does it mean Reed is abusive? FUCK NO. It actually means the opposite – that is framed as very unlike him in the actual comic. So. Was he sexist/dismissive of Sue at times in the beginning? Sure, but pretty much every other male superhero who has been around more than maybe two decades was the same way about women. Let’s not kid ourselves – many male heroes still are condescending to women. So if we’re dismissing Reed because of period-typical sexism from 50-30 years ago, we’ve got to hold every male superhero who’s been around, oh, more than two decades accountable the same way. What matters is that Reed’s characterization has shifted since 1961 and he’s rarely – if ever – depicted as sexist these days and consistently hasn’t been since the late 1990s, which is more than I can say about certain popular, beloved male “heroes” who regularly get taken up as feminists by fandom, despite their lengthy history of violent, abusive behavior towards women, behavior that has never been addressed and they’ve never been held accountable for (is it sad that I am thinking of two separate “heroes” when I say this? Reading the comics is important, kids, because it keeps you from doing things like that). Mostly I think we need to differentiate between period-typical sexism – which we can assume would no longer occur in a modern-day context when a sliding timescale is taken into account (i.e., a character expresses a sexist belief because it is seen as normal in the time period in which the comic was written, but once it’s updated to a modern-day context, they would no longer do so) – and virulent misogyny, which is a set character trait that does not change even if you move the story forward into modern times. Reed is the former, not the latter (he was actually, if you can believe this, considered “hen-pecked” in the 1960s). As a point of comparison, Reed nowadays is consistently depicted treating his wife as his equal if not better, while Namor’s toxic, condescending, misogynistic treatment of Sue remains very much unchanged (despite the disturbing tendency of some writers to romanticize Namor’s unhealthy obsession with Sue). So. Reed’s sexism in the 1960s was period-typical, Namor’s was and is due to his own misogyny. One changes, the other does not. And also? Reed’s wife is one of the most powerful women in the Marvel Universe, and she’s smart as hell. She doesn’t let him get away with anything, even on those very rare occasions when he tries, believe me. If he keeps a secret out of a misguided desire to “protect” her, he knows it’s only a matter of time before she figures it out, and she always, always does, sooner rather than later. (It’s hard to keep secrets from someone who can turn invisible.) But most of all, Reed and Sue are equals and partners, in every sense of the word. They are one hell of a power couple, emphasis on the “power.”

Sue isn’t a weak, passive, neglected housewife who dotes on Reed’s every word. Please stop with that. She’s a ridiculously powerful badass superhero, the COO of Fantastic Four, Inc., a dedicated philanthropist, an intrepid explorer, a part-time SHIELD agent, a skilled diplomat, the Queen of Old Atlantis, and a woman who can defeat the Avengers singlehandedly, terrify seasoned supervillains into fainting from sheer terror, and easily outsmart men who are trying to outmaneuver her politically. And she’s a very happily married woman, thank you very much, who adores her husband and considers herself his equal, and he feels the same way. He has, in fact, called her the true leader and most powerful member of the FF, and she describes him as a man who “oozes integrity” and calls her love for him “the lodestone of my being.” He’s grateful that she loves him, and says he loves her more than anything. She loves Reed and she loves that her life with him is always interesting, one adventure after another. Let me explain something that sums up Reed and Sue’s modern-day dynamic to you: bad guy does something to piss Sue off (like threatening/harming a family member), Reed makes sure other good guys keep out of the way so she can personally kick bad guy’s ass, doesn’t even question whether his wife can handle it because he knows she can, enjoys watching Sue kick the shit out of said bad guy because she’s such a badass and he’s so proud of her. This happens more than once. Reed gets captured, body swapped, mind controlled, etc.? “Not worried. I know Sue will save me, even if she has no reason to think I’m in trouble. She’ll figure it out and save me because she’s so smart and wonderful.” Sue needs to do something well-nigh impossible? “She can do it. I believe in her.” He trusts her implicitly. So. Reed is sweet and gentle as a lamb, and Sue is as fierce as a lioness. Personally, I have to say, sweet, absent-minded, unassuming scientist/husband and scary, badass, overly capable, powerful COO/queen/wife is exactly the sort of ship I love. So, hey, guys? Maybe don’t assume their marriage has the same dynamic it had 50 years ago. Because it doesn’t, and I think if you stopped to think about it for ten seconds, you would know that a sexist dynamic like that wouldn’t have survived this long.

Johnny’s not a conceited playboy/frat boy or a jock. I assure you he has never been in a frat in his life – he dropped out of college to be with his serious girlfriend – who he nearly married – not long after enrolling (…at like 19, he was already trying to get married…he just wants a family). He’s very noble, compassionate, gentle, heroic, loathes violence, and cares deeply about the greater good/helping other people. He’s very paranoid about potentially losing control and harming other people with his powers because he would literally rather die than let that happen. He’s VERY responsible and always in control when it comes to his powers, because if he’s not people die. He doesn’t like sports very much – he’s a geek who canonically loves video games, Star Wars, The Matrix, Quantum Leap, Sliders, and Buffy. He loves fashion and cars and Broadway and cooking and babies and his family and his hair. He has very low self-esteem – mostly he thinks he’s worthless without his powers and that people only like him for his looks (which is why he’s so fixated on them, btw). He wants desperately to find true love, get married, and have kids of his own, but he never manages to do it, which always negatively affects his self-esteem. He’s only ever broken up with someone ONCE in his whole life (Lyja, for excellent reasons) – his partners, on the other hand, dump him, over and over, in the most traumatizing, dismissive ways possible. He is bipolar (he’s called himself manic-depressive in 1970s FF canon, an older term for bipolar), and suffers from chronic depression. He’s also word-of-god canon queer, and his character has a pretty lengthy history of queer-coding. So, you know, maybe stop assuming he’s a straight dudebro jock when he’s very much not in the comics.

Ben, as I’ve mentioned, isn’t a happy-go-lucky guy who is just a collection of antiquated quips – he struggles constantly with his superpower/disability and the depression it causes. It took YEARS for him to work up the courage to go out in public (when not superheroing) without hiding behind a trench coat/hat combo. He thought of himself as hideous and monstrous and would frequently have angry outbursts when people reacted to him with horror or disgust. It was only his family’s unconditional love and loyalty as well as Alicia’s capacity to see the good man within that helped him, after a very long time, to accept himself. His story is one of struggling with disability and learning to love yourself again. It’s hard for him! It’s incredibly hard and he still backslides some days. Also, he’s Jewish! Why doesn’t anyone ever know that he is canonically a Jewish war hero who originally fought in WWII? He’s a fascinating, important character and I think he could resonate strongly with modern audiences.

Basically, fandom is very, very wrong about all of them. Everything about the FF that fandom thinks is “outdated” or “boring” or “unlikable” is either an invention of fandom or something it cannot move past even though canon (largely, with very few exceptions) did long ago, and thus it does not coincide with actual, modern-day canon.

Fantastic Four comics are not stuck in the 1960s. Fandom is.

#androidavenger #fantastic four #reed richards #ben grimm #susan storm #johnny storm #brief rape mention #i didn't add links for everything #but if you want to know where in canon #im getting something from #let me know #ive got the panels #fandom problems

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aion-rsa · 7 years

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Weak Sauce: The 15 Lamest Superhero Weaknesses

As CBR knows only too well, the world of comic books would be pretty damn boring if none of the heroes had any weaknesses or limitations; after all, their powers have to be balanced out somehow or every battle would be over in seconds. Without conflict, there are no comics… or, at least, none worth reading!

RELATED: 15 Superpowers That Would Suck in Real Life

That being said, we here at CBR reckon some heroes’ vulnerabilities are a whole lot easier to justify than others. Brute force? That’s pretty plausible. Magic? Heck, why not. But when incredibly powerful characters are taken down by simple, mundane or outright bizarre weaknesses such as a tree branch, lack of water or a color, you can’t help but wonder what the writers were smoking. Listed below are the lamest weaknesses CBR can think of. Try not to laugh too hard!

SUPERMAN: PRETTY SPACE ROCKS

Kryptonite isn’t the lamest superhero weakness out there, but CBR reckons it’s got to warrant a mention. After all, being allergic to pieces of your home planet is a pretty weird vulnerability to have, especially when its radioactivity is so weak that humans are largely unaffected (Post-“Crisis” Lex Luthor excluded, of course). The variant colors of kryptonite affect Superman differently and some of the symptoms are flat-out hilarious: green just makes Superman weak, but red makes him have psychedelic visions or morph into embarrassing shapes. Silver, meanwhile, turns him into a hungry drunk. And pink? Well, pink makes him super… effeminate. We have Peter David to thank for that absurd little morsel.

Perhaps what’s most ridiculous about Superman’s biggest weakness is that kryptonite is so readily available on Earth. As per “Action Comics” #600, Krypton was located approximately 50 light years from our own planet — falling within Tomar-Re’s Sector 2813, for any “Green Lantern Corps” geeks out there — so even if a few meteorites carrying the substance did make their way into Earth’s atmosphere, it’s unlikely that more than a few fragments could be recovered. So how come Lex Luthor’s got stockpiles of the stuff?

DAREDEVIL: NOISE POLLUTION

After a young Matt Murdoch is blinded by a radioactive substance while trying to save a man from being flattened by a truck, he develops other super-heightened senses that allow him to “see” using sound, smell, taste and touch… okay, okay, mostly sound (don’t worry, he’s not going to start licking the walls to track bad guys or anything). Oh, and he also becomes a martial arts master because, y’know, it’s a Stan Lee comic and it’s cool.

Although this sensory sensitivity works effectively as a substitute for vision most of the time, it comes at a high price. Therein lies Daredevil’s daftest weakness: he can’t bear loud noises. So much so, in fact, that particularly powerful sounds weaken all his senses rather than enhancing them (not just hearing, but balance and orientation too), and can immobilize him completely as the sensory overload is so painful. You could quite literally defeat him without throwing a punch: just yell at him through a megaphone!

AQUAMAN: DEHYDRATION

Since his creation by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger back in 1941, Aquaman has been the butt of many a joke. He’s gifted with a range of pretty impressive abilities, including super-strength, enhanced hearing, night vision and the capacity to withstand bone-crushing pressure, but his affinity for oceanic creatures has always made him seem a bit… well… fishy.

However, we here at CBR would argue that the silliest thing about Aquaman isn’t that his closest allies could be defeated by a fishing net, but that his entire power set is reliant on him having regular access to water. Sure, the average Joe might get a headache if they don’t stay hydrated, but being out of the sea for more than an hour renders this Atlantean King completely powerless, a flaw that was retconned in during “Adventure Comics” #256 in 1959.

Aquaman can easily fight the baddies on the beaches as part of the Justice League, but what about in the middle of the city, a space station or an underground lair (all legitimate supervillain hangouts by the way)? Take him out his element, and he gets a lot less super.

THE HUMAN TORCH: ASBESTOS

Don’t let those dodgy “Fantastic Four” films fool you: Johnny Storm is a force to be reckoned with (although, granted, he’s a little wet behind the ears). Not only can he create, absorb and manipulate fire, which is pretty awesome, but his nova flame is hot enough to vaporize the particles of anything in his way, whether it’s a bullet, a bad guy or a building.

There is, however, one tiny exception to this rule… his powers can’t penetrate asbestos. This doesn’t seem like much of a weakness, given asbestos is now banned across most of the world, but back when the Human Torch was first conceived by Stan Lee and Ernest Hart in 1963, it was commonly used to insulate pipes and wires, soundproof rooms and even make cheap garden furniture.

This initially left the Torch open to a wide range of hair-brained attacks he had no defense against. In “Strange Tales” #111, the imaginatively-named villain Asbestos Man side-stepped Storm’s powers completely using a fire-retardant shield, net and “super-asbestos” suit. However, the Human Torch prevailed in the end and the toxic properties of Asbestos Man’s suit meant he later relied on an oxygen tank for survival. Tough break, man.

THE FLASH: RUNNING TOO FAST

They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but in the case of Barry Allen, the opposite is true: his speed might be his greatest strength, but excelling in his abilities puts his life in mortal danger. As part of the 1985-1986 “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover comic written by Marv Wolfman, the Flash uses super-speed to thwart the Anti-Monitor’s evil plan, but the speed vortex he creates to stop the villain’s anti-matter cannon firing is so fast it sweeps the Flash away along with it. He ends up being stranded for 23 years in the Speed Force — the mystical energy field that gives all speedsters their powers — being thought dead by his closest friends, including Wally West, who takes up the Flash mantle in his absence.

Being one with the force does have upsides though, as according to the “Secret Origins” Annual #2, Allen is able to go back and mess with his own timeline (again… will he ever learn?!), becoming the lightning bolt that hit his lab and gave him superpowers in the first place. Plus, he didn’t stay dead forever, as Grant Morrison brought him back for 2008’s “Final Crisis,” but his need for speed still makes him vulnerable!

ADAM STRANGE: FORCED DEPORTATION

To anyone who thinks archaeologists can’t be superheroes, we give you Adam Strange, the intrepid dirt-explorer who inadvertently found himself on the planet Rann and was gifted with all the powers of a superhero in “Mystery in Space.” His creator Julius Schwartz never really explained why, but Strange quickly settles down on Rann with his space-babe of a wife, Alanna. unfortunately, this life of bliss is frequently interrupted by his rather inconvenient transportations back to Earth, where he has no powers at all.

The technology responsible for bringing him to Rann — the mysterious Zeta-Beam — only allows him to remain there for as long as it’s transmitting back to Earth… and as it takes the beam a good few years to reach Strange’s home planet, it’s not exactly easy to catch a ride back. Strange might well have been recruited as Rann’s savior, but his timing issues really make his role more of a part-time gig. He could be mid-way through his heroics before vanishing without a trace. He even left his wife to nearly get eaten by a tiger once! Luckily, as Alan Moore’s “Swamp Thing” series clarified, the Rannians are more than capable of looking after themselves when Strange isn’t around.

GLADIATOR: LOW SELF-ESTEEM

Marvel’s Gladiator, created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum, is arguably one of the most powerful comic book heroes ever, and that’s a big accolade. Being gifted with planet-shattering strength, super- speed, heat vision, frost breath and a few psionic abilities to boot, he’s a superhero most guys would love to be… but, funnily enough, he’s never really learned to love himself.

Although low self-esteem isn’t exactly fun for anybody, for Gladiator it’s a fatal weakness. His power fluctuates according to his confidence, as seen in Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s “War of Kings” crossover in 2009. As such, he can be defeated by opponents with far lesser abilities if only they can make him doubt himself. A prime example of this crops up in “War of Kings” #3, when Guardians of the Galaxy’s Rocket Raccoon manages to convince Gladiator his gun will hurt him and, despite withstanding far worse in the past, succumbs to the self-fulfilling prophecy and is beaten. So he’s not just insecure, he’s also dumb enough to be outwitted by a raccoon. Should that count as two weaknesses?

BANSHEE: A SORE THROAT

It’s not exactly a secret that shouting yourself hoarse won’t do you any good, mainly because everyone around you will think you’re cray. But what if your voice was your superpower? That’s the problem that Marvel’s Banshee faces, as an X-Men mutant with a sonic scream powerful enough to disable his enemies. Of course, having super-powered vocal cords doesn’t make you invulnerable to a sore throat, as Banshee learned to his peril in “Uncanny X-Men” #119.

In it, he completely lost his powers during a battle with the terrorist Moses Magnum after overexerting himself… and by overexertion, we mean yelling really, really loudly for a few minutes ‘til he ran out of wind. It’s odd to think that something most people could cure with a lozenge or two is capable of taking down a superhero permanently (as Banshee retired shortly after this defeat to shack up with Professor X’s ex-girlfriend), but since when have comic book vulnerabilities made any sense at all?

CYCLOPS: MISPLACING HIS GLASSES

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Cyclops is a powerful mutant and an effective leader of theX-Men; well, so long as he’s wearing his ruby quartz visor, that is. Without it, he’s basically a walking death trap. His optic blasts may be incredibly precise, but he’s unable to control or direct them without the visor. This weakness originated from a childhood brain injury (as stated in “Uncanny X-Men” #156), but was later retconned in “Astonishing X-Men” #14 and explained as a self-imposed mental block, resulting from the trauma of his parents’ death. Either way, even opening his eyes a little without his designer cyber-specs is likely to cause general carnage and endanger everyone around him.

Laughably, many fights with Cyclops inevitably involve him losing his visor somehow and blasting holes into everything until someone stops him scrabbling around on the floor blindly. You’d think with all the super-powered technology lying around Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, someone would’ve been able to design something to help Scott Summers keep his visor on!

MARTIAN MANHUNTER: FIRE

He’s a powerful superhero who can shapeshift at a molecular level, changing his entire genetic composition to allow him to pass through solid objects, withstand ferocious attacks or bend light waves around his body. Moreover, he hails from Mars, otherwise known as the Red Planet or the Fire-Star. So, why exactly should Martian Manhunter be so afraid of fire?

In Frank Morrison’s “Final Crisis” #1, the Martian Manhunter is captured and killed by Libra in the presence of the Secret Society of Super-Villains on the orders of his past B-list foe, the Human Flame. Theoretically, J’onn J’onzz should be able to shapeshift into something fireproof, or wet, or something, but he ends up being torched like a marshmallow instead. Weirder still, any attempt to overcome this aversion to fire turns J’onn J’onzz into an entirely different person, specifically the Burning Martian Fernus, one of J’onn’s ancient Martian ancestors. As Joe Kelly’s “JLA” #87-89 proved, Fernus isn’t really a very nice guy — he’s fuelled by “psychic grief,” after all, which is almost never a good sign.

THOR: 60 SECONDS

As the God of Thunder, Thor is granted a range of truly awesome abilities, including enhanced strength and endurance, flight, weather manipulation and a near-immortal lifespan. However, it’s worth pointing out these powers are granted by his mystical hammer, Mjolnir… and it just so happens that Mjolnir can be pretty damn fickle. Original canon dictated that if Thor lost physical contact with his hammer for more than 60 seconds, he would instantly revert back to his mortal alter-ego, Donald Blake. Moreover, if someone “worthy” of Mjolnir’s power reached the hammer first, they could claim Thor’s abilities for themselves.

Creator Stan Lee unwittingly made Thor an easy target for quick-thinking villains and wannabe gods. After all, Thor’s preferred method of combat is throwing his hammer around and occasionally using it to pin down a bad guy or two, so taking him down became very simple: keep him occupied for more than a minute and create an obstacle to prevent Mjolnir returning. Boom! De-powered Thor. Thankfully, the 60-second rule was abolished in 1984, in “Thor” #340 during the “Stormbreaker” story arc written by Walter Simonson, so bad guys can’t take out the Thunder God so easily anymore.

WONDER WOMAN: BONDAGE

Superheroes don’t come much more kickass than Wonder Woman. As a gifted warrior with enough power to take on the gods and win, she’s shown time and again that she can hold her own in the testosterone-fueled world of comic book heroes… but she wasn’t always the self-assured feminist icon we’ve all come to know and love. As it turns out, Wonder Woman’s creator William Moulton Marston had some pretty barmy ideas about the amount of power men should be able to wield over women back in the day.

Case in point: despite being a super-powerful Amazonian princess in a land ruled by women, Marston made sure Diane of Themyscira’s powers (like those of her kind) could easily be neutralized by any member of the “greater” sex through the simple act of binding her wrists. This, according to Aphrodite’s Law, made her “as weak as other women in a man-ruled world,” reinforcing the idea that women should be answerable to men at all times. Incredibly, this gender-specific weakness persevered from Wonder Woman’s debut in 1941 (in “All-Star Comics” #8) right through to the mid ‘80s, when DC finally retconned this flaw out for the good of all womankind.

POWER GIRL: ANY NATURAL UNPROCESSED MATERIAL

You’d think that after getting around that whole “vulnerability-to-kryptonite” thing through the sheer convenience of having come from another dimension (kryptonite doesn’t work when it’s brought to other realities), Power Girl would pretty much be unstoppable; after all, she’s got exactly the same powers as her on-off cousin Superman, and that strong personality of hers means she can stay sharp and decisive when the going gets tough. There’s only one problem with that: Power Girl’s got a different weakness, one that is far more common than an obscure, radioactive space rock. She’s vulnerable to all raw, unprocessed materials. Yes, you read that right.

After being knocked to the ground by a tree branch and then impaled by it in Peter David’s “Supergirl” Vol.4 #16, Kara tells a bemused Supergirl that “sticks and stones can really break my [bones]” in a nod to the old schoolyard rhyme. CBR can only assume that means “names will never hurt” her. Small comfort! Wood, stone, dirt, sand — if it’s on Earth and it’s not man-made, it can harm her. Being impervious to bullets only counts for so much if your enemy can take you down with a slingshot!

CAPTAIN MARVEL JR.: SAYING HIS OWN NAME

Speaking of being hurt by name-calling… did anyone call for Captain Marvel Jr., DC’s resident narcissist? Unfair, maybe, but there aren’t many superheroes whose powers rely on their ability to say their own name, and for good reason. Apart from being a rather ridiculous way to activate someone’s powers, it also opens the character up to mishaps of sitcom-worthy proportions.

If Captain Marvel Jr. tries to introduce himself to a super-powered ally or, for some reason, feels the need to say his name in the middle of a battle, he’ll instantly be transformed into Freddy Freeman, a decidedly ordinary young lad who relies on a crutch to walk. If he speaks his superhero alias aloud while in the guise of Freddy Freeman (who works in a newsroom — an environment where everyone’s bound to be interested in superhero shenanigans), he’ll transform into a shimmering beacon of muscly justice and give himself away.

Writer Jerry Ordway tried getting around this flaw during Captain Marvel Jr.’s sporadic appearances in “Teen Titans” between 1995-1998 by having Freeman refer to himself as “CM3” so he could avoid accidental transformations, but the change didn’t stick (largely because saying it made him sound like a CMd-bag).

GREEN LANTERN: YELLOW

For many fans, Hal Jordan is the definitive Green Lantern. He’s protected the Earth from innumerable threats through sheer force of will, making him one of the most impressive wielders of the Power Ring. However, being color-coded does have its downfalls… like being rendered useless by the color yellow. Yes, yellow. The color of sunshine, raincoats, buttercups and pee-pee.

According to canon, an impurity in the ring’s power source meant that Jordan became powerless when faced with this color. This was later explained in Geoff Johns’ “Green Lantern: Rebirth” as being tied to Parallax, a yellow fear entity who was locked in the Central Power Battery, thus weakening it. Before this was revealed, though, GL’s weakness was exploited to hilarious effect, incuding by writers such as Frank Miller. He had the Caped Crusader trap Jordan in a yellow-painted room in “All-Star Batman & Robin” #9 before letting a gold-suited Robin clobber him. Why? Because, as stated explicitly in the comic, it’s the “dumbest weakness… ever heard of.” Bruce Wayne can be a bit of an a-hole, but he’s often right.

Can you think of any other daft superhero weaknesses? Let us know in the comments!

The post Weak Sauce: The 15 Lamest Superhero Weaknesses appeared first on CBR.com.

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birdmanreviews · 5 years

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HEYO! We’ve hit the 50th post on Birdman Reviews! This is going to be a rather large post so I might not even get it out for Tuesday’s normal post slot! If that is the case then this post will override the Wednesday posting slot and the White Rose will be reviewed on Thursday instead.

As we begin this extravaganza, there are a handful of people I’d like to thank as without their help I probably wouldn’t even have this blog, let alone make it to fifty entries posted (semi) regularly. The first up is my editor who will go by the Question whenever I refer to him on these future postings. Thank you for all your help you sexy man beast, without whom I would have been horribly lost and without any sort of quality control (at least that’s what this note he handed me says (I think, his handwriting is utterly atrocious)). I mean you can’t blame him, he’s fairly dark and mysterious after all.

The Question! DC please don’t sue us.

I’d also like to thank Mary Delano for helping me set up this blog, to begin with. I’d also like to thank my friends and family for the encouragement to keep on keeping on. The final group I really have to thank is you, my readers. Those who comment on every post or like the posts I put out help keep me updating regularly. I’m just glad you all found value in a mediocre writer’s ramblings.

The show must move on!

From left to right: Jonathan Joestar, Joseph Joestar, Jotaro Kujo, Josuke Higashikata, Giorno Giovanna, Jolyne Cujoh, Johnny Joestar, JoJolion

I love anime, some people don’t particularly like it as much, and I get that. It’s freaking goofy at points and the one I’m about to discuss is up there in terms of sheer weird factor. However, it’s one of the most delightful, refreshing, and enjoyable animes that I’ve gotten a chance to watch in a long time. I am planning on reviewing each part individually, but I figured why not give my thoughts on what I’ve watched so far in the series?

Currently, I’m watching Diamond is Unbreakable, which is part four of the overall behemoth of this series. This one features the fourth Jojo, Josuke Higashikata-I need to stop now, because this is starting to sound like my reviews. Anyway, what I wanted to do is give a little blurb on certain things like favorite Jojo, favorite supporting character, favorite part, and so on and so forth.

Favorite Jojo: Josuke Higashikata

While I have a special love for all the Jojo’s that have appeared thus far, Josuke has stood the most. Before him my favorite was Jonathan (no he isn’t boring, he just had like nine or ten episodes versus everyone else had a much longer run time than him), but Josuke managed to dethrone him in what I’ve seen of Diamonds is Unbreakable. Josuke was the first Jojo since Jonathan that didn’t come off like a punk and was fairly likable from the get-go. While I warmed up to Joseph and Jotaro as their stories moved on, but I liked Josuke the second he popped onto the screen for us all to see. Not to mention his stand is actually really cool and didn’t feel one-dimensional like stands when we first found out about them (to be fair they were a new concept). Because of all of this Josuke stands out as my favorite Jojo.

Favorite Supporting Character: Caesar Zeppeli

Grandson of Baron Zepelli from Phantom Blood Caesar burst into Joseph’s life with some turmoil. The two simply couldn’t stand each other. Only starting to trust one another when they underwent training from hell from Lisa Lisa. Caesar proved to be a valuable ally and a complex character. He stands out the most out of the main supporting characters in Jojo because he was one of the few supporting characters that were strong enough to go head to head with the main character post training. Not to mention he stole the spotlight whenever he appeared through his flamboyant nature.

Favorite Mentor/Chewer of the Scenery: Robert EO Speedwagon

This one needs a smidge of explanation. Every Jojo gets someone in a mentor role who usually sits there and describes in detail whatever the camera is pointing at. The best one out of all of these is Robert EO Speedwagon. He is a man with a buzzsaw hat, and if you need much more than that you will not get far in this series. No one quite chewed the scenery like Speedwagon did and even now his influence is felt far into the future as his Speedwagon foundation continues to pop up with every Jojo thus far. His loyalty going far beyond his grave.

Favorite Villain: Dio Brando

The Pillar Men came in a CLOSE second, but there hasn’t been a villain as devious or deadly as Dio Brando. From his dubbed voice that sounds like pure silk to his over the top nature, Dio is a treat to watch whenever he shows up. His stand has one of the coolest powers and designs. Not to mention he’s also a nigh-immortal vampire on top of it. The most impressive part is that he blends all of this without coming off like a villain sue, but a complex and interesting character that has a supreme amount of layers to dissect.

Favorite OP: Crazy Noisy Bizzare Town

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Originally, it was going to be Jonathan’s OP Sono Chi no Sadame. However, there’s something a lot more fun and upbeat with Crazy Noisy Bizarre town. I’m actually mad they swapped for a different theme after episode seventeen for an OP that was not NEARLY as fun or fitting for the tales of Josuke. This was an OP that got me hyped every time a new episode rolled onto my TV as I watched this while typing whatever entry I needed to write for the day.

Favorite Stand: TIE: Star Platinum & Crazy Diamond

I honestly couldn’t decide between these two so I decided to pick both. I love the designs, the powers, and the users behind these two almost equally. Not to mention they both have a slight amount of quirky character to both of them. Plus, their attack noises are both equally laughter worthy. Diamond may have been the first stand from a character that I truly went, “oh, wait that’s awesome”, but Star Platinum was the stand that let me fall in love with the idea of stands (I hated them at first as I really liked hamon a ton better). So it ends in a tie between these two stands.

Those are some of my general thoughts over the series thus far. I will try to review the series in parts (Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency will be grouped together). Hopefully, I will get around to this before too long has passed, but I am excited to write over this at some point. Onto part two of this very blog!

Okay, if you haven’t seen the new Spider-Man trailer then I’m linking it right here. Go on, watch it, I’ll be right here when you get done.

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Hokay, how awesome was that trailer in and of itself? We get to see Spidey out of his normal element of swinging around New York (that’s my big gripe with Marvel as it only ever seems to have bad guy plague New York City of all places), and there was so much goodness to unpack in this that makes me think that it’ll probably be my favorite superhero movie of the year (sorry Infinity Wars part 2).

First of all, for some people that are griping about showing Nick Fury coming back. We knew that he was anyway. In the Infinity Gauntlet comic, the same thing basically happens and the heroes come back. However, this time it’s going to be how Marvel shows what happens that’s going to make all the difference. I digress because I want to save this for a future Infinity Wars post. We are discussing Spider-Man now.

I like the fact that we get to see Spider-Man away from all the main heroes. He’s the kid brother of the group, but the actually competent kid brother. He’s inexperienced but smart enough to pull off some good moments or take down the baddies even if he stumbles a lot along the way. Now, we are seeing a more battle-hardened and smarter Spidey. To the point where it seems like Nick Fury could trust him alone to handle the bad guys without calling in the other superheroes to bail him out.

Another positive, Spider-Man tends to swap suits around throughout the comics. Not to the extent Iron Man does, but it is still fairly regularly. I love the fact that they are keeping the webs under his arms in (an old silver aged thing that gets brought in on and off through the comics). Plus, they look like they’re doing a version of the Spider-Man Noir suit, which I adore the aesthetic of so much.

On top of it, Mysterio, freaking Mysterio looks awesome! Mysterio is one of those villains that I was never sure how well he’d translate to a big screen. He’s one of my favorites, but he is so goofy looking in compared to some of the other villains that I wasn’t sure he’d hold up. Somehow, they made him look great, and they got Jake Gyllenhaal of all people to portray him. Even if this is a movie over my favorite superhero Mysterio alone might be my biggest selling point. I am curious as to how they will reveal his powers and what his big thing will end up being.

I personally and biasedly think that this is a Spider-Man movie that will be one to remember. Homecoming was already a very fun work that ended up propelling Tom Holland into my favorite Spider-Man, and I know that I am not alone in that regard either. He has been a wonderful Peter Parker and Spider-Man so far and managed to combine the two very different roles in a likable and entertaining way.

So, I try to read a lot obviously, and I’m trying to take more and more suggestions. I’d like for you all to see what I am working with. Also why it pains me when I don’t get more read in a timely manner. Here is what I call my fire hazard, these are all books that sit on my dresser or nightstand that I still have to read.

Yeah, I am in a bit of a pickle. Especially since some days, I don’t always feel like reading (I had four days off and didn’t read more than twenty pages). I do my best though I might have to slow down the number of reviews I do each week. Especially since some books are a trek to get through. I could read a ton more Warhammer books to catch up, but I don’t want this to be a Warhammer centric blog like I’ve stated.

I do have a fair amount of different stuff coming up through that I can’t wait to read and share with you all. Anne Rice, the spin-off First Law stuff, the Drizzt series, and Children of Blood and Bone are all some things that I am super excited to try out. I also am going to be starting the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, which I have mixed feeling on due to excessive hype, but also because a lot of people tell me to just get through book one. I know the struggle of having to just get through something to really start to appreciate or enjoy the series in question. I still want to give it a fair try, but I am still a little hesitant to get into the series as a whole.

I am curious now, what do your to read lists look like? Let me know in the comments below.

At only a little over two thousand words, I am a little disappointed at the length of this considering that I broached three different subjects. Alas, that’s life I supposed, Yet, this blog wouldn’t be without a bit of news, would it?

A bit of news, and then I’m out. I also saw that I hit twenty followers the same day I hit my fiftieth post on here. That’s quite something now isn’t it? I honestly thought this would be a blog where it was just me screaming into the void over and over again with every quickly passing blog post. Thank you all for following this post once again, and I hope to hit one hundred posts at the rate that I am going as of late.

Wednesday or Thursday, whenever this drops, will be my White Rose review, and will finish off the first trilogy of the Black Company. Friday will be something, I honestly hope to finish the Rook by then. I really am enjoying that book, but I haven’t been urged to pick it up as often as some of the other books that I’ve read. We will have to see how this week goes. I’m also due for more snow and what not this upcoming weekend. So, I might blog out of oppressing boredom. Until next time!

50th Post! Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Spider-Man Trailer, and a Picture of My Fire Hazard. HEYO! We've hit the 50th post on Birdman Reviews! This is going to be a rather large post so I might not even get it out for Tuesday's normal post slot!

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totesmccoats · 6 years

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Dark Nights: Metal #4

Dream whisks an aged Batman and Superman from the Dark Multiverse into the Dreaming, and tells them a story that could help them save everything from turning dark. Meanwhile, the teams of Wonder Woman, Dr. Fate, and Kendra Saunders; Aquaman and Deathstroke; and Hal Jordan, Mr. Terrific, and the Plastic Man-Egg search the universe for the last traces of Nth metal. The first group runs into the guardians of the Rock of Eternity, then gets betrayed by one of their own. The second finds that the tomb of Atlantis’ first King is actually a portal further into the depths; and the last finds that a new ruler sits on the throne of Thanagar, aided by Starro.

Things start off bad for the heroes in this issue, and they end even worse, but there’s still hope. It takes some digging to find it at times, and after spending what feels like decades being tortured in the Dark Multiverse, Batman has almost lost it completely. Luckily, he’s standing right next to Superman, who helps Batman find his one source of immutable hope – his family.

At this point, Metal is inventing new stops just to pull them out: introducing Nightmare-Supermen that feel a bit like a throw-away, once again tweaking the mythology of the Monitor and Anti-monitor, having one character burst out of another’s body, bringing in a new-and-improved Starro, and more. Metal is pure comics spectacle, a cosmic and mythic opera reaching every corner of the DC multiverse that shows no signs of slowing.

Batman #37

Lois and Clark, and Selina and Bruce go on a double date to the Gotham county fair, though they have to be in superhero costumes to get in. To not be too suspicious, Clark and Bruce switch, and while Lois dresses as Catwoman, Selina gets in on purr charm. And then the two couples talk, the boys and girls sticking to their own, each asking the other about their relationships. Also, Clark and Bruce develop a baseball rivalry. It’s a cute, funny, feel-good issue. The worst thing that happens is that some loser attempts to steal Lois’ purse, with both Superman and Batman right there. And while I wouldn’t say this issue is sexy, it doesn’t shy away from the fact that these couples totally bone, they have fun doing it, and it’s a substantial part of their attraction to each-other. It’s, you know, more mature than either the chaste Golden age stuff, or the hypersexualized stuff we still get in some comics today. Which isn’t to say that Clay Mann draws either gender modestly.

This and the previous issue make for a short arc that really puts more of the emphasis on “friends” than the “super.”

Justice League #35

Glenn Gammeron comes to the Justice League asking for help finding and catching a bug that could potentially eat everything on Earth. The League, and Wonder Woman especially, is still under suspicion of blame for the death of the nun last issue – but unlike last issue, this one sees the League come together to find and eliminate a world-ending threat with precision and coordination. Not that their heroism today does much to curb the shock and horror of the leaked footage of the nun’s death by the end of the issue.

This issue is actually quite simple and straightforward, mainly earning its recommendation on the strength of Priest’s flavor, chiefly a two page conversation entirely in untranslated Spanish between Jessica Cruz and Glenn; and an exchange on black beauty between Glenn and Cyborg. Priest is one of the superhero genre’s best natural-dialogue writers, and the camaraderie he writes between the league makes this book stand out despite it’s formal simplicity.

Wild Storm #10

IO and Skywatch prepare for war, and everyone else who knows about their existence prepares to be caught in the middle. The HALO team plans to plant a bomb in IO’s lab, The Doctor (not that one) and Jenny Sparks have a drink over what each of them knows and doesn’t about the two agencies, and Pris has her greatest fears confirmed.

There’s an easy tension through this issue, a calm before the storm, a serenity in knowing that things right now aren’t nearly as fucked as they will be shortly. Bendix and Lauren of Skywatch are the prime example, their scene playing out like Sorkin walk-and-talk between colleagues who aren’t planning a secret war between the most powerful forces of and off Earth. But also, The Doctor (not that one) and Jenny are getting as drunk as their bodies allow them while discussing their roles as the Earth’s sworn defenders. Given the current political climate – with the Republican controlled Congress having just signed off on their catastrophic new tax bill the morning I’m writing this – the overall tone is uncomfortably relatable. A type of hyper-banality, holding on to the feeling that *this* is real, and everything to come will be somehow less so.

Marvel 2-in-1 #1

While Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm pop up in the Marvel universe from time to time, with Spider-Man, or the Guardians of the Galaxy, or the in humans; but Reed and Sue, and their children have disappeared completely – and with them, the Fantastic Four. And without the Fantastic Four, Ben and Johnny have drifted apart. Johnny has started behaving even more dangerously, as though seeking death, while Ben is more quietly melancholic. But a gift from Reed, by way of Doctor Doom, finally reunites them, and gets them to set off on at least one more adventure.

Chip Zdarsky gets better with every series he starts. And this one feels so much different if only because it’s probably his first that wasn’t pitched as primarily a comedy. Chip has done a great job finding the humor in depressed characters, but in this issue he’s allowed (himself) to let Ben and Johnny sit in their loss. The two have lost their family and the thing that gave them purpose. Johnny feels like he may even be losing his powers. More than ever, they need each other, and they need something to keep them going, looking forward instead of wallowing in the past. And luckily they what they need. They reunite, they fight, they find something to do together. Both of them are still clearly very sad, but now they’ve got something to do, together.

Cheung, Dell, Wong, and Martin’s art is a perfect fit for Zdarksy’s story, with lots of fine, realistic, detail and intense hashed shadows that hang and drop over the characters despite being on fire or a big rock.

Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #298

This is, unfortunately, another lesser issue of Peter Parker, as plot once again takes priority over character. Teresa and Johnny break Peter out of jail, and as Peter and Teresa attempt to go to Horizon University in San Francisco for help, they’re accosted by the Vulture and Whiplash. Luckily for them, Black Panther comes in with a deus ex machina. Like, I get swooping in from nowhere to solve problems is what a superhero *does*, but that doesn’t excuse poor storytelling.

Ms. Marvel #25

Kamala has left Jersey, leaving the Garden State under the protection of Red Dagger, and her friends, who take turns moonlighting as Ms. Marvel. They still haven’t put together that a missing Kamala and a missing Ms. Marvel are related, tho.

Despite Kamala not appearing in this issue, Ms. Marvel. Her friends working together and sacrificing their time and safety to patrol Jersey is Ms. Marvel all over. Them taking turns and time to patrol for burglary as well as looking into an assisted care home to make certain there’s no science dungeon in it is in the spirit of what Ms. Marvel means to her community. She’s such a symbol of stability that when she’s not around, Jersey finds it necessary to recreate her. And judging by the final pages of this issue, they’re gonna need her.

Comic Reviews 12/20/17 Dark Nights: Metal #4 Dream whisks an aged Batman and Superman from the Dark Multiverse into the Dreaming, and tells them a story that could help them save everything from turning dark.

#2-in-1 #batman #dark nights #dc comics #fantastic four #human torch #justice league #marvel #metal #ms. marvel #spider-man #superman #the thing #two-in-one #wild storm

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gracewithducks · 7 years

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“Get up, and do not be afraid” (Matthew 17:1-9)

Like Christmas and Easter, the story of the Transfiguration is one of those stories that comes around at us every year, like clockwork – even if, unlike Christmas and Easter, we tend to forget about it for the 364 days in between. But every year, on this, the last Sunday before we enter the season of Lent, before we make our way into the wilderness of confession and repentance, before we spend time to really wallow in our mortality – every year, we get one last hurrah, one last moment on the mountaintop.

This is a fascinating story, in so many ways. During his ministry, Jesus goes up on a mountaintop, and he takes with him his three closest disciples. And while he’s there, he’s changed – literally, that’s what “transfiguration” means – Jesus is changed; his face “shines like the sun.”

Just think about that for a moment: what would that even look like?

What would you do if, one day, while you were out with your closest friend – she changed, right before your eyes? What if his face suddenly grew so bright you could not look at it? What if her whole demeanor seemed to change, so you could barely even recognize her? Picture the sun – the sun, we’re not even supposed to look at the sun, because it can burn our retinas, it can burn its image right onto our eyes so that, all our lives, we can never see anything else – and maybe there’s a whole sermon there, in the idea of the image of Christ being so indelibly burned into our sight so that, for the rest of our lives, no matter where we look, he is all that we can see; no matter who we encounter, we see the face of Christ… but can you even imagine it? Can you picture it? Picture the sun, where the face of your beloved should be.

Do you have that image in your mind?

Because it gets weirder: While Peter and James and John are still blinking, squinting, absolutely overwhelmed and hopelessly confused – suddenly, two other men are there: Moses and Elijah, the two great heroes of the faith, two heroes from the past, are standing there, talking to Jesus.

I can’t even imagine what it must have been like. It would be like right now, the sun started shining out of my face, and John Wesley and Harriet Tubman suddenly were standing up here, and the three of us started talking about the state of the world and the days that are to come.

You’d be speechless.

In fact, I dare say, you’d be out the door. And maybe one day, it would be a really cool thing to say, “Yeah, I was there, the day the pastor went supernova with Johnny and Harriet by her side.” Maybe one day, you’d love to reflect and ruminate on the symbolism of John Wesley and Harriet Tubman appearing in that way, on that day, and you’d wish you’d heard more of what they had to say.

Maybe. But right now, today, it would be really, really disorienting, confusing, and terrifying. And that’s okay, because if I was in those pews – I’d be scared, too.

But somehow, somebody works up some courage – in the scriptures, it’s Peter, who so often stands and speaks for the others; he works up the courage to say, “Hey, um, welcome, and, um, is there anything we can do? You guys want a place to sit down? Maybe some water? Want us to order some lunch?”

Okay, so Peter doesn’t offer to order sandwiches; but he does offer to set up some dwellings, so that Jesus and Elijah and Moses can take their time, uninterrupted, so they can take all the time they need to do – whatever it is that they’re doing.

While Peter is trying to figure out what social protocol applies, while he’s still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them – I tell you, I could spend an hour trying to figure out what exactly a “’bright cloud” looks like, and how it can be bright and cast a shadow at the same time – but while they’re still blinking in the light of Jesus’ face, this shadow moves over them – and then the cloud starts to talk. And it says, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

And that was the last straw. Bright clouds and solar faces and ghosts in the flesh and voices from heaven – that was it.

Peter and James and John, they crumbled. They fell to the ground. They literally couldn’t stand it any more.

Have you ever had moments like that?

Okay, maybe not the sunshine faces and historical figures and disembodied voices – but have you had moments that have left you crushed, unable to move, crumbling and suffocating under their weight?

Sometimes we are struck speechless by the beautiful moments, wonderful moments that bowl us over: wedding days, holding your child or your grandchild in your arms for the first time, watching a sunrise, listening to an orchestra, looking at the stars: they are moments that take your breath away. Sometimes there are moments in our life that are just so full of power – that intangible, ineffable power – that you’re overwhelmed by it, and even as you are drinking in its beauty, there is this bittersweet fear that comes with: it’s the knowledge that this moment will pass, and there’s a fear of missing it, or forgetting it, or failing to properly take it in.

Sometimes the moments that leave us breathless do so because they are moments of opportunity: times when we realize that what we say, what we do, what we choose has the power to change the course of the rest of our lives. They are moments when we recognize that we are more powerful than we dared to believe; and we are in awe, and we are filled with anticipation, we are filled with hope, and we are also filled with fear – because we know, we just might get it wrong.

And sometimes the moments that leave us breathless are moments of grief, of pain, the times when everything we thought we knew – has changed; the times when the parts of our lives we thought were unshakeable and unbreakable – fall part; the times when the hand we’ve always reached for – isn’t there; when the voice that gives us joy – is gone. And we gasp in our grief, and we are afraid, afraid that this is where we will live the rest of our lives, afraid that we will never escape its grasp.

The moments that leave us breathless are moments when everything changes; they are moments when we are changed.

And that is a beautiful – and that is a terrifying – thing.

I think a lot of us have experienced that truth lately: moments of opportunity, moments of power and change – are so often moments when darkness and light intermingle; they are filled with hope and fear, with faith and doubt, all together.

We are, I believe, as a people, as a nation and as a people of faith, in one of those seasons that is ripe with opportunity and the power to change. The decisions that we are making, right now, will shape history; they will define who we are, and who we are going to be. We have the power, by our advocacy, by our apathy, by our actions and by our silence, to make a difference, to bring light into darkness, or cast a long shadow; we have the power to speak life and to bring life for those who are desperate for hope today.

These are the days that, one day, our children’s children will learn about, just as we have studied and remembered the Civil War and the World Wars and the Civil Rights Era… and for all the times when we ever looked back and said, “I would have done this, I would have been there, I would have stood up for that” – this is our time; this is our chance.

And it’s exhilarating. And it’s terrifying. And it’s exhausting.

I can relate to Peter and James and John – they walked with Jesus, and they heard his sermons, and they also heard what he had to say around the table at night or on the road between towns. They saw the miracles he worked; they saw this miracle, and they knew that they stood in the presence of power, real power, the power to transform lives and even change all creation.

And it gave them so much hope, they left their homes and families and livelihoods to follow him.

And it confused them; and it left them off-balance and unsettled.

And some days, like today, it left them trembling on the ground, faces in the dirt, crushed and incapacitated by their fear.

And this – this is what I need to hear today: Jesus doesn’t scold them; he doesn’t berate them for their lack of faith; he doesn’t tower over them, and he certainly doesn’t abandon them there, because he’s got more important friends and bigger things to do.

Jesus comes to them, right where they are.

He kneels beside them, and he touches each one – on his head, on his shoulder, the gentle touch of a friend.

And he says, “Get up and do not be afraid.”

When they finally raised their heads, they saw he was still Jesus, just as he always was: their leader, their teacher, their friend, was with them still.

This is what we need to hear today: it’s okay to be afraid. It’s okay to be driven to the dirt at times, by the weight of all that’s wrong with the world, by the realization of how small we are, by the grief for all those whom we’ve lost, by our fear for what the future holds, by the bittersweet beauty of today.

It’s okay. But we don’t have to stay there. We are not alone; our Savior, who shines like the sun, the Word who spoke and created the cosmos – is still our friend, and is with us still.

We don’t have to do everything. We don’t have to understand it all. We don’t have to get it all right.

But we do, at some point, have to get up, to put one foot in front of the other – to decide for ourselves that love, our love, the love God has for us, the love we have for others – that love is bigger than our fears.

And we keep going.

For all that Peter got wrong, for all the times that James and John stumbled along the way – still they got up; they did the best they could, to put one foot in front of another, to follow the best they could; they got up, and they kept going. And sometimes, that in itself is a mighty act of faith.

Shortly after our son died, I read an article – and I wish I had saved it, so I could give credit where it’s due – but I read an essay written by another parent who had lost a child and who was farther down the road. She said, when you’ve lost a child, there is this idea that people have, that you’re somehow superhuman – because you’ve lived through the biggest nightmare, and somehow, you’ve survived. When you still have other children at home, people expect you to be such a good parent, to be infinitely patient and to treasure every single moment, because you’ve lost so much, and because you now know, you’ve learned the hard way, just how precious and fleeting life can be.

But it’s hard. People who tell you to “treasure every moment” – they don’t know what it’s like. They’ve forgotten how exhausting it is to be up all night for months on end with a child who just won’t sleep. They’ve forgotten about the terrible twos and tween attitude and teenage growing pains. All that stuff, it’s hard. Just because you’ve lost a child, that doesn’t make the other hard stuff any easier.

And what I remember for that other parent is the words: you are doing okay. You don’t have to be perfect. You are showing up. You are loving your children. You are putting one foot in front of the other. You’re finding ways to get out of bed, to play, to make peanut butter sandwiches and laugh at bad knock-knock jokes, on days when all you really want to do is collapse and cry.

You may not be perfect; but you’re doing it. You’re showing up. Give yourself credit. You’re doing the best you can do.

In a lot of ways, I think so much of our life – and our faith – is like that. We want to be perfect; we feel expectations, from others and from ourselves, to be more than we are. But we get weighed down, by our grief, by our fear, by our doubt, by all the times we feel small and all the ways we’ve gotten it wrong. Sometimes it’s all we can do to collapse and bury our faces in the dirt.

But then we get up.

That’s when we feel that touch, when we hear that whisper: “You can do it. You can get up; you are not alone. This fear, this grief, this pain – it’s not where the story ends. You can do it. I’m here with you. Just get up.”

Maybe our children’s children won’t think that we were perfect. But I hope that they will at least be able to say that we were not paralyzed by our fear; maybe we didn’t get it all right, but we got up, and we put one foot in front of the other, and we did the best we could.

And maybe, by God’s grace, that will be enough. And we will be transformed, and our lives will shine light into this darkened world, too.

God, you know the burdens we carry today. You know what it is that’s wearing us down, that’s crushing us, stealing our strength, bowing our heads, robbing our hope and our joy. Help us to know that you are with us, still; help us to feel your presence, to feel your touch, to hear your voice calling us to get up – because you are with us still. Restore our weary souls, and give us a faith that is stronger than our fear; in Jesus’ name we pray; amen.

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