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scarlet--wiccan · 20 days

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Do you think if Vision hadn’t (for all intents and purposes) died in WCA, he and Wanda would’ve stayed together? I mean, if it wasn’t that it probably would’ve been some other convoluted comic drama, but under ideal circumstances where nothing very pointedly came between them. I don’t want them to get back together, but I wonder if they could have weathered the decades like Reed and Sue.

Specifically, I think Crystal and Pietro probably would’ve struggled to stay together even if it weren’t for her infidelity and Max’s manipulation just bc they weren’t a very well-suited match. I don’t think the same is necessarily true for Wanda and Vision

Not everybody can be Reed and Sue, or Scott and Jean. Hell, even Scott and Jean can't be Scott and Jean for more than a few years at a time. I think you could argue that, yes, Wanda and Vision had what it takes to become one of those enduring, iconic couples, and could have filled that niche for the Avengers in way that nobody else has ever successfully done. Their relationship was given a lot of attention at the time, and it made a really big splash in-universe.

Most of events which led to their marriage dissolving-- everything in late-80s Avengers West Coast, and then, many years later, Disassembled-- could be described as authorial intervention, and in Wanda's case, character assassination. Byrne set out pretty intentionally to ruin everything Englehart and Mantlo had done for the characters in Vision & the Scarlet Witch. Vision's destruction, the baby retcon, the Darker than Scarlet storyline, all of it was done to break these two characters down and pull them apart. So, I think if it wasn't Vision's personality re-write, it would have been something else. And if it wasn't any of that, it would have been House of M.

As much as it pains me to say this, it's hard for me to imagine what Wanda would be like without those storylines. I don't mean to diminish the levels of misogyny and ableism that have gone into her treatment over the last several decades, but since before I was born, Wanda has been a character who, for better or worse, has been defined by trauma, exploitation, and loss. A lot of the texture and nuance of how I analyze and relate to this character is informed by that, and so much of what I love about her and her family in the modern day wouldn't exist if contemporary writers weren't responding to that history.

That's kind of the main reason I balk at the desire many fans (and creators!) seem to have to return to a much earlier version of this character/relationship. We'd be losing a lot, and sacrificing a lot of our ability to have insightful conversations about what Wanda represents, just to satisfy nostalgia for something most of us weren't even around for. And it's not lost on me that this nostalgia is something Marvel, the company, is constructing and marketing to us because of their racist little TV show.

#the vision #wanda maximoff

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necronatural · 10 months

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as someone whos read gwenpool, how much of it do you think holds up, or when should a reader stop reading it?

Original run. Christopher Hastings of Dr McNinja fame is a seasoned VETERAN at painfully earnest lolsorandum humour. It's what he does. There are some slightly stronger entries though

-Unbelievable Gwenpool: Cream of the crop content. Some of the best side character writing I've ever seen. Read this

-Holiday Special: This one's a Christopher Hastings original. Banger

-Gwenpool Merry Mix-up: Another good one. Christmas gets all the good stuff. Second comic in this run is by Ryan North, another lolsorandom veteran.

-Rocket Raccoon and Groot: Nobody understands her. Nobody gets it. It's so dark in here. The best they could do with her gimmick was a Bendis joke and it sucked too

-Gwenpool Strikes Back: SOME OF THE WORST COMIC WRITING I'VE SEEN IN MY LIFE if anyone has ever been turned off by hearing a summary of what Gwen is about they are thinking her character is EVERYTHING IN THIS COMIC. PUTRID. Made me forget Gwenpool is good for a second. Literally one of the main conflicts in the original comic is done as a cute joke in here. I think this author may actually hate the character. I can never reread this it'll make me too angry

-West Coast Avengers: Very clearly written by someone who doesn't feel comfortable doing outrageous comedy and is also discomforted in writing interpersonal tension so they just default to giving her a love interest and uh, like, nothing else. Like she is just "the cute lighthearted one" almost entirely to gel with Quintin and kind of blends in with the others. It's a fun comic but if you're really into Gwenpool it'll probably make you mad. Like actually pissed off. You'll be like JUSTICE FOR SILLYGIRLS!!!!! kind of pissed. Anyway comic crossover events with Gwen are with the WCA run so you get god-awful Gwen writing mixed with the fact the middling MCA writing doesn't even make the whole crew a redeemable asset. 6/10

-Love Unlimited: Gwenpool: Gwen becomes canonically aromantic! I don't like the joke about Gwen's power accessing the internet but it does actually handle her abilities in a sensible way. UNBEARABLY saccharine and a lot of personality is lost in the sort of Very Special Episode Everyone Is Patient Understanding sort of way. If you want more Gwendolyn Poole you aren't getting it here but they didn't like, fuck it up. Incompetent writing by someone who genuinely understands her. Fanfic-esque in that manner. This is like the only run ever to do ok with her powers actually so a double-feature of "you get it, but you suck anyway"

#gwenpool #asks

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brawltogethernow · 1 year

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Why hasn’t Deadpool never been an official member of the X-Men?

With affection: Probably because of his overpowering Deadpool stank!

In universe, almost nobody in the mutant hero community likes him, also he kills people. Out of it, everybody likes him too much. If you put Wade in a book with any amount of focus, well...congratulations! It's a Deadpool book now! He's a very loud personality dripping with distracting gimmicks that might as well be designed to force a writer's hand to make him the main character of the universe if he shows up for more than a cameo. On top of how whenever he's on page (or screen) he causes a major tone shift, his name sells like crazy, so an X-Men book with Deadpool recurring in it is just going to become Deadpool and the X-Men.

I do think he can work as a non-headlining member of a team, but a sprawling, unironic soap opera of one like the core X-Men would be...challenging. You'd have to spend so much energy getting him to not ruin the vibe making fun of the latest love triangle. And this brings to mind how other fourth wall breaking characters have functioned in team books. When She-Hulk was in the Avengers at the same time that her own title was a metatextual gagfest she full stop didn't get to, which worked fine because the fourth wall's never been her main thing. With Gwenpool, for whom it is, they filed her down to a nub to keep her from being storybreaking when she was a West Coast Avenger, and the meta gags that were left over still managed to be grating. Of course, everything else about that book except the art also sucked. Anyway.

While I generally think leaving the meta trait on the table with characters heavily associated with it is a coward's move, I do get it, because once you bring that in uhhh your whole story wants to be about it. Wade is basically quarantined in titles with his name on the cover to protect everyone's peace of mind. It's honestly fascinating what books he hasn't been in. Like not to make everything about Spider-Man, but Wade had a fifty issue (!!) team-up book with the guy, and I think he's been in one of Peter's books while Peter was there (so not Superior)...nnnnnnnever? This pattern repeats less dramatically with...a lot of characters. Like every character he's headlined a book alongside. Wade barely even gets to hang out with Cable, who before they had their team-up titles he was introduced as a supporting character for. That's insane. Unless you look at Wade and his lowest common denominator star power for two seconds and then it's like. Ah. Yeah.

Actually hang on I am going to bring this back to my powerful disappointment in WCA volume 3, as a metaphor-example. It's like. If there's no room in the structure of your book for an indestructible, potentially murderous jester character drawing attention to how it's all just a story, and you strip away those traits, you have to confront the traumatized little freak who was cowering under them. If you can't do that you are doing a bad job. But if you can holy shit. Lmao actually maybe Wade should be on the X-Men.

#¯\_(o_o)_/¯#deadpool #wade wilson #(sighs) i miss gwenpool volume 1.#marvel #writing this up got me like. is there a term for tvtropes' genre theory of comedic sociopathy that isn't called that.#i have multiple reservations about calling it that.#asks answered #anonymous

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indigosabyss · 2 months

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Now that I've changed the idea of GPiDDS2 (semi-complete index here) so that the Gwen isn't the 616 Gwen but rather Poison Gwen, and Quire is being written out, I'm playing around with the idea of having a different fic, where WCA is still together. And Gwen and Quire are messing with the teleporter built by Nadia's G.I.R.L. buddies. Something goes wrong, they fall through, classic mistake.

The two find themselves in 1960's America. And everything is normal. No heroes, no villains, no costumes, and not even a hint of superpowers.

Gwen freaks out, because she thinks she's back in a 'Real World'-type of place and even if it's not the real thing, she can't handle the thought of being funneled back into the life she had before. And that makes Quire freak out too. Because even when she said she didn't have powers, she always managed herself with confidence, no matter how crazy shit got. How bad is it that Gwen is having a panic attack?

Anyways turns out they're in X-Men First Class and run into the plot accidentally, so Gwen can leave that crisis behind without any introspection (or so she thinks).

Is it too early to think about this, seeing how I have still to write the first fic?? Yes, but the vibes of this movie are impeccable. It has all the vibes. Gwen Poole would love it. Quentin Quire would flex his omega level powers all over Charles, and then freak out when he realised it was THE Charles Xavier.

#anyway more thinking abt gwen's mind being read by a telepath #every person she sees immediately springs forth disjointed memories of blurred comics and movie clips #it's just a tornado #charles thinks that quire did that to her (quire was on a bit of a brain scrambling spree when the two met)#and quire has to be like 'nah she literally is just like this'#gwen poole #gwenpool #quentin quire #kid omega #x men #x men first class

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thisbloghasbeeenarchived · 10 months

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greer nelson. blog canon. please read.

OKAY. SO. Given my deep love of Greer Nelson aka Tigra; and having gone through all of her original appearances (re-reading west coast avengers at the moment); I want to draw back in some themes and give a distinct setting and idea for where her character is at with Marvel. This will be vastly headcanon, but it is my canon as Marvel ain't gonna give it to us.

If you read her original stuff with her as Tigra, before she gets put into Avengers; she's a were-woman, now she still will follow what her canon rules on transformation and in terms of her soul (wca agin) that holds true. She started out facing down supernatural creatures, encountering monsters; one of her first spotlights as tigra was in marvel chillers. tigra is a character tied to mystics lore of marvel universe. i need to find the panel, i think it's in new avengers, where dr. strange looks at all potential sorcerer supremes, and tigra is one of them (of many).

i write william as a secondary muse; since he is attached to me writing her mama, greer, and a major part of her character

PLEASE GIVE THIS LIKE IF YOU VIEW AND PLEASE VIEW. It is important to my blog canon, but I threw this under a cut cause it got long.

anyways, i want to bring back some of that older themes seen in greer's stories back into her canon. so here's what is what.

Remember Greer's apartment from New Avengers (2005) (click) -> well, to pull Tigra back into the mysticism of Marvel; her original New York apartment before he was forced to move, was a place to which she preserved Cat People artifacts (both Earthborn and the Land Within Cat People) as well as held onto other magical/mystical items. She also had personal effects of Dr. Joanne Tumolo, Professor Leon, and other Cat People who have passed on. -> After she had been assaulted and had to move on orders from the Initiative; her apartment was raided and all items stolen from her. -> Present day, she is looking to find these items and return them to hers to preserve; on the fact that some have historical and cultural value to the Cat People (especially consider most earthborn cat people are gone), as well as items being magical and thus, needed to be kept somewhere safe

GREER, MAGIC, AND MYSTIC AWARENESS -> While you could not go to Greer and ask her to cast a spell like Dr Strange, Wanda, or Loki. She still has strong senses when it comes to mystics and magic, about to smell magic cast, and has quite a bit of understanding due to her over the years accepting herself as Tigra, the Cat People's mighty protector and mystical warrior. She can use magical artifacts, after all her amulet is illusion magic that allows her to appear human again, and she has ideas that allow her to open the doors to The Land Within, to which she has a sense of direction towards where those are. She can tap into magic on specific occasions, and with training could possible even do spell work; as being Tigra, she is in tune with the mystic arts. She will still turn you over to Wanda or Dr. Strange or others who deal in the mystic arts, since she is still more warrior than magician.

HER BABY'S DADDY -> Holding true to comic canon, Greer does not inform her son or anyone/most people in general the truth about William's parentage. She upholds to the lie that Hank Pym is William's true father, and in a way that is true; he does share genetic makeup to Hank Pym. She will speak fond of Hank, though knowing his shortcomings and problems, because of her son. She refuses to give name or power to the truth; some of that comes from Greer not resolving her own trauma, but greatly comes from wanting to give her son something good to grow up on.

RAISING WILLIAM -> Given that her son is not human, and her own experiences with how people can treat Cat People? Curious, perhaps well-intentioned people reaching out to grab her tail, touch her fur, say something that was vaguely offensive, ask questions because she's not human, doesn't hide her power or who she is. Given her own experience, and know how overwhelming that can be on herself, and knowing how she reacts to a given situation say being grabbed (lashed out with claws), or snapping a no and being adult able to say no; she doesn't want that on her son, knows how children could be and does not trust other parent to teach their kids not to see her son has an object, a pet, a toy despite being a kid like them, their friend. William is homeschooled, because the options for non-human kids that aren't "mutants" and can't hide their non-humaness isn't the best.

SO HOMESCHOOL -> this means that a majority of Greer's time is spent with her son, gathering schooling materials and teaching him; now she does enlist a lot of her super friends, or people she can trust to watch him to give herself time to work or time away, as well as even "jokingly" enlisting friend to be "substitute" teachers, or help him do homeschool work he has laid out. Given that she has chose to take this route for her son's education, so that he can be fully accommodated to his needs and safe from people who don't respect a non-human's boundaries. This can leave her quite frazzled.

MIDNIGHT MISSION -> Following Moon Knight (2022) quite closely, with one addition to this; as she stated was sent by the Avengers (T'Challa) to keep an eye on Moon Knight, but does fully flip on that and simply finds herself involved in MK's work. She does consider herself to work with the Midnight Mission and for Moon Knight to some degree; helping out any of those who seek out the Midnight Mission and its services. She does this as a good friend to Marc, as well as because she does simply want to help people in need.

MIDNIGHT MISSION 2 -> Given that that the House of Shadows is presently inhabiting/tied to the Midnight Mission; Greer is very aware of the House's presence and power, given her mystic attunement, Greer does communicate to the House, mostly speaking kindly to it and thanking it for what it does; doing this in part so that the HoS treats her kindly, lets her in, and may in the future want to continue help and defend her, Moon Knight, and company.

INDEPENDENT WORK -> While the best way to contact Greer is through the Midnight Mission and that is where you would find her and meet her, if hiring her out (paid work; sorry, but the half-avengers pension is not as big as you think and she's a single mom) normally she will be met there, or around the area of the Midnight Mission. Greer does some independent work; typically her services tie to tracking people or objects down, finding lost and missing things, things that don't want to be found, as well various other related services to her using her senses. She has taken a few odder jobs like bounty hunting, but it's never with intent to kill. For the right price, she can do more within reasons.

MONSTER HUNTING -> Bringing back her monster genre themes, Greer would be an ideal for taking on hunting down monsters and cryptids; she's the survival, predator, and hunter instincts to track down and take down. She tends to be drawn to by mystic instinct and attracts monsters as well. Greer can and will take them down; again hired/paid service.

AVENGER? -> If a crisis arose and her number was called, than she would come but otherwise Midnight Mission is as much team work as Greer does. She's a single mom first as well, but she is not opposed to being an Avenger again; and still keeps in touch. After all, she had originally been spying for them.

Verse dependent, but I will occasionally run with Marc being Greer's boyfriend again as the new Moon Knight establishes. Anyways, these are somethings to keep in mind when writing with present day / present canon as well as my portrayal of Greer in general.

#about; greer nelson #about; blog canon #all headcanons tag

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infinitexmuses-archive · 11 months

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@kitxkatrp asked: “When I say run, I need you to do as I say without looking back and don’t wait for me.” Mori and Dianne (>:D) Protective Prompts

"I... I-I..." It felt difficult to breathe... Her chest felt tight, and her body was stuck in place. Dianne heard what he said, and she understood what he had meant by it, but...

She couldn't, literally. To do that would take so much physical and mental effort, she wouldn't even make it out in time. This was the job she needed to do. It had been the latest one she had taken on, and she had been hoping it would be a quick in-and-out job. She didn't realize the contents of it until she had already gotten started with the beginning steps.

She didn't think the Port would be after the same group she was. It seemed that Mori had been on his game, as of late, with these sorts of things. Jobs have been getting more difficult for the WCA to find, and this seemed to be exactly why. But she had least expected Mori himself to be here, taking care of the issue. He tended to have other people do the dirty work for him...

"...I..." She wheezed out, voice broken, yet soft. "I... Can't..." She wanted to... Good god, she wished she could. Every fiber of her being hated the position she was in, knowing full well that this was going to eventually lead to the exact thing that Akihiko mentioned back at the meeting.

It was the job... To force her way in, then break them from the inside out.

She tilted her head forward, simply trying to breathe amidst the absolute agony she was feeling at that moment. It hurt... Just thinking about abandoning the mission hurt so much...

The blonde practically choked on air for a moment, a tear falling from her face. "Mori..." She hated the fact that he even had a chance to see her like this. Broken down, completely useless, and unable to even try to save herself from the grim reality. They took a liking to her appearance... Among other things.

She wanted this to be over already.

She could feel herself going limp, her body giving into itself from the mental struggle. "I'm... I'm sorry... So sorry..." And from there, she found herself breaking down into sobs.

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sineala · 1 year

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Intertextuality in Steve/Tony Comics

Hi, Tumblr! I wanted to talk about intertextuality in comics. Actually, I mostly just wanted to talk about this 616 Steve/Tony fact I found that I had no idea existed until the other day but I didn't want to spoil what it was in the title, so this post just sounds way classier than it actually is.

So if you're a comics fan to any degree you've probably figured out that comics are big into intertextuality. Superhero comics are probably the biggest stories that exist -- Marvel's been going with zero linewide reboots since the 1940s, so barring retcons, any comic you pick up from the past eighty years is going to be basically "true" in canon. And comics take a lot of opportunities to play with that fact, using recurring villains, recurring lines, and of course lots of panel redraws of iconic moments but now with other characters. It's a genre that often rewards knowing what has come before, although of course usually you don't have to know in order to follow the plot because if it's something you need to know, it will be filled in.

(An example of this in recent comics that I thought was really clever was Secret Invasion #1, the new miniseries by Ryan North. It is completely readable if you know nothing about Skrulls (although you should probably know that they are shapeshifters) because by the end of it you will know everything you need to know to understand, but the more you know, the more you will understand what the comic is doing as it's happening. The issue opens with Nick Fury visiting a family because a woman wants to show him the body of her dead husband. She explains that she is thrilled that he is dead because she believes that he was replaced by a Skrull and now the Skrull is dead and her real husband must still be out there. We then get a panel of Fury swearing in dismay and frustration. The thing the book hasn't told you at this point is that Skrulls revert to their real forms upon death -- so when you see a dead human, as Fury has, you know for sure that it's a dead human. So if you already know this about Skrulls you know exactly why Fury is upset: he has to break this woman's heart because he knows for a fact that the guy wasn't a Skrull. The book itself fills you in about this fact a couple pages later, but the scene totally works if you just think Fury strongly suspects this guy isn't a Skrull. You just get to feel real smart if you already know why.)

Anyway. That wasn't the kind of intertextuality I wanted to talk about. Just wanted to rec the Secret Invasion mini.

I wanted to talk about the thing that happens where you think you know every detail about a comics event and you later find yourself reading a comic book from the same era that as far as you know has absolutely nothing to do with that event, except, surprise, it does! And there's just some random detail there that wasn't anywhere else in any other comic and it really changes how you think about the whole thing. Because that's the thing that happened to me the other day.

Okay, so. For Reasons, I needed to know about the circumstances surrounding John Walker joining the West Coast Avengers. I'd already been reading Cap from that era, so I knew that in Cap #355, Steve gets a call from the government informing him that Walker is alive and can they borrow that black uniform if Steve isn't using it because they're going to force the WCA to take him. So the thing I started wondering was, hey, what did Tony think of Walker joining the WCA? Because Tony was on the WCA a lot in that era, so he was probably there. Except I checked, and... he wasn't. Walker joins the WCA in WCA #44. Tony is not on the team then.

I haven't read a whole lot of WCA, so naturally that meant I now had a new question, which was "when did Tony leave the WCA, and when did he come back?" So I poked around the appearances list on the Marvel Wiki and found that he left the team in WCA #31 and came back a whole twenty issues later, in WCA #51. I just want to say that Tony has picked some terrifically awful times to leave and rejoin the team, because #31 is the middle of the plot where Bobbi gets raped, and #51 is the BABY ARMS. But that's neither here nor there.

So now I was wondering why Tony left the WCA. I figured I'd go read the issue where he left and it would tell me why. I figured it was probably one of those standard superhero things where he makes a standard goodbye speech, whatever, he's got stuff to do.

That is definitely not how any of this goes down.

So Tony enters the plot in WCA #31 when he's walking around and happens upon Tigra and Moon Knight making out. Like you do, I guess.

Tony, who is rather uncharacteristically angry, tells the two of them to leave. He'd like to sit there by himself because he has some important stuff to think about. Scram. Tigra and Moon Knight, quite reasonably, tell him that this is their romantic scenic overlook and he can go get his own.

(Yes, Tigra knows Tony is Iron Man; she was there in the Molecule Man issue (Avengers #216), so she found out at approximately the same time Steve did. Most but not all of the rest of the WCA knows. Clint and Bobbi specifically do also know because Tony told them in IM #193, which was the recovery phase of the second drinking arc. We will see a few more people who know in this issue.)

Clint, whose attitude to team leadership at this point appears to be, "oh my God, why do I have to be the responsible adult now? thanks, I hate it," shows up to tell Tony to knock it off. He'd like to know what Tony's problem is. Tony says he can't tell him.

Tony says, essentially, that he has to think about some things. Clint really wants to know what's going on because, after all, the WCA is his team. And Tony asks Clint to trust him. Clint says he trusts him. And then Tony's like "okay, thanks, bye," and zooms off.

So at this point, as you can imagine, Clint is wondering what the hell is going on with Tony, and he laments to Bobbi that Tony won't just tell him what's going on.

At this point I too am wondering what's going on with Tony. Because, like I said, I haven't read a lot of WCA, so my assumption at this point is that whatever is going on with Tony is some ongoing development that has been happening in the pages of WCA and that I just don't know what it is because I haven't been reading WCA. I feel this is generally a reasonable assumption. Also, I'm wrong.

We are then interrupted by Clint getting a call from the East Coast team. And this is when we find out what's been going on with Tony.

You may have already figured it out. I didn't.

Spoilers: it's Armor Wars.

The East Coast team is calling to tell the WCA about Armor Wars.

And the framing of this is really, really interesting. I am speaking here as a Steve/Tony fan.

So you might think that the thing everyone's going to be upset about is that Tony is running around stealing his technology back from people because that seems like kind of a bad look for a superhero who is supposed to be a good guy.

They are upset about all that stuff later, yes. But that's not the part of it they're upset about now.

The issue that just happened is Iron Man #228, which as we all know is the issue where Tony breaks into the Vault to steal his technology from the Guardsmen. That's still not the part they're upset about.

They're upset that Tony fought Steve. That's why they're calling.

As far as I know, every other canon recounting of this issue that isn't specifically by Steve or Tony doesn't mention Steve and Tony fighting at the Vault. For example, the Vault thing is part of Ty's smear campaign against Tony in IM v3 #39, but it only mentions Tony fighting the Guardsmen. Nothing about Steve.

We do get other retellings of the fight and scenes that discuss the impact of the fight but they're all Steve and/or Tony, with no one else even present: Steve's POV on the fight in Cap #340, the discussion in IM #238, the famous apology scene in Cap #401, and even Civil War: Casualties of War. Like, as far as I can tell from the rest of canon, it might as well be the case that no one but Steve and Tony knows anything about the fight.

But that's not actually true, because here we see that their fellow Avengers know they've fought. They know, and they're horrified.

You have to remember, this right here is pretty much the first time Steve and Tony have ever seriously fought. Steve took a swing at Tony way back in the Korvac Saga, but I don't think either of them really treated that very seriously. Steve was upset about Tony drinking in Denny O'Neil's run. But those fights they have where they're seriously trying to beat the shit out of each other and then they stop talking to each other or one or both of them die or there are big dramatic apologies? They haven't had any of those yet. This is the first one.

So their teammates -- and note that Steve is not even a current Avenger at this point, but the Avengers obviously still care about him -- instead of being like, meh, whatever, sometimes Steve and Tony beat each other up, are visibly shaken, because Steve and Tony are friends. This has never happened before. This is really wrong. It's a very emotional reaction. So that, I definitely wasn't expecting.

And the other thing I wasn't expecting was that the way this news is delivered is basically as if it is Tony And Steve's Abusive Relationship.

I'm absolutely not kidding about this.

So here's Monica Rambeau calling the WCA up and being like, I'm sorry I have to tell you this, but I just found out that a few days ago Tony attacked Steve at the Vault. Steve didn't want to tell us, and no one would have known if he hadn't been able to conceal it.

The WCA expresses their disbelief, and Monica insists that she's not kidding -- "Steve's got the bruises to prove it!"

Yeah, so, uh. Marvel's really not being subtle about this. I was just sitting here staring at my computer like OH MY GOD, THEY ACTUALLY WENT THERE. They really are framing this like it’s an act of domestic violence and not garden-variety superhero punching.

So, understandably, Clint is freaking out. He's like, holy shit, both these guys are my friends, I've known them for so long, I told Tony I trusted him, oh no.

Tony then does not appear in WCA for twenty more issues.

So you might be wondering whether they just leave this plotline hanging and they in fact do not. They catch up on it in the very next issue of the mainline Armor Wars story, which is IM #229.

So at some point Tony comes back to the WCA compound and the WCA want to know what the hell is going on:

Somehow by this point the team knows about the thefts that are the actual plot of Armor Wars, but Simon does mention the part where Tony beat up Captain America:

So Tony gives a big summary of all of Armor Wars (yes, including mentioning losing Steve’s friendship):

I enjoy the fact that Clint's response is instantly "you could have told us." Given the way the next page goes I'm pretty sure this is general sympathy and not "you know how much I love committing crimes, Tony, why didn't you think of me?" but I like to pretend it's the second one.

Anyway, what Clint actually says is that he understands where Tony is coming from but that Tony can't do this and be an Avenger. So Tony is off the team.

And once again, Tony zooms away.

So that's the WCA, the Armor Wars, and Tony And Steve's Abusive Relationship.

But after all that, I am left with one question: where did the bruises come from?

Monica says Steve has bruises. From the way she says it, it doesn't sound like it's any kind of metaphor -- it sounds like they're actual bruises. It sounds like the reason the team got the Armor Wars story out of Steve is because they saw that he had actual bruises.

But we all know how the fight in IM #228 goes: Steve and Tony have a brief angsty conversation, Tony claps a negator on Steve's shoulder, and Steve falls to the ground, temporarily paralyzed, while we all learn that a bond has now been broken.

What Tony did was very bad, yes. But also, what he did shouldn't have left bruises. No one punched Steve during this fight. No one punches Steve on his way in or out of the Vault. So Steve shouldn't look like he's been in a fistfight with Tony. But Monica is describing Steve as if he looks like Tony has been hitting him and apparently Steve confirmed that to her.

So they can't be talking about the fight at the Vault. Except they said they were. So what's going on?

As far as I can tell, what they're actually talking about is the confrontation in Cap #341, which happens as a result of the IM #228 fight. This is the one where Steve breaks into Tony's place to wait for him to get home so he can angrily return the shield that Tony made for him earlier in IM #228, like a normal person who has totally normal feelings about another person.

Steve actually returns the shield by throwing it directly into Tony's unarmored stomach, so I feel like (a) there is a sense in which Steve actually picked this fight that is being blamed on Tony (although, yes, obviously the initial conflict was Tony's fault) and (b) this is not really a good look, Steve.

Tony does eventually armor up and fight back, and there are blows exchanged.

I assume this could have bruised Steve up. There’s my explanation.

So that is, as far as I can determine, the only event at all related to Armor Wars in which Steve probably has bruises from being attacked by Tony, although it seems to have been conflated with the Vault attack itself, which if Steve let the Avengers assume this (when Steve actually started this particular fight) is frankly kind of shitty of Steve, but, y'know, Armor Wars is not an event where anyone comes out of it looking good.

(Yes, I know the Doylist explanation is most likely the fact that Armor Wars was by Michelinie & Layton, and West Coast Avengers was by Steve Englehart, and that Englehart was probably working with some kind of rough plot summary of Armor Wars and ended up fleshing it out with details that ended up not existing. It's definitely not the worst plot hole in Marvel Comics.)

Anyway, so there's some information about Armor Wars I didn't have before a few days ago that definitely ups the Steve/Tony angst of Armor Wars even more.

#posts i actually wrote

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newx-menfan · 1 year

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Marvel Infinity Comics Love Unlimited #43

*Spoilers*

The issue starts with Gwenpool on Krakoa, instigating her own “meet-cute” with recently revived Wither, while talking about Romance Tropes. (Basically think about it like if every Mindy Kaling show was a comic book plotline…. 😂🤣)

They get to talking about plants (Gwen remembered he was into Gardening and Art from NXM!) and they plan to meet up for dinner so Kevin can help her with her garden!

(For people who don’t know- Gwenpool is a character used to parody and commentate on Comic book Tropes- she’s essentially a real person who has been sucked into the comic verse…)

We find out Gwen has “main character syndrome” and has decided what she really needs to up her recognition is a love interest…and apparently Gwen is also a hardcore NXM fan and LOVES Wither! (So do we Gwen…so do we!)

Gwen tries to look into the future via the web/breaking the fourth wall and sees various web info on COVID and on herself…mainly negative commentary on how she’s a derivative copy of Deadpool (we do LOVE you on TUMBLR Gwen!!); also we find out Gwen has been in the Marvel verse for 8 years now…and is kind of still bitter about her book getting cancelled (understandable!)!

We find out Gwen was also a huge Rogue/Gambit shipper growing up (honestly…same…just don’t read the most recent comic book Gwen! 😂🤣🤣)and wants to copy the will they/won’t they- “we can never touch” tension…

In between plant innuendos at dinner- Wither touches Gwens hand…and we discover Kevin now has full control of his powers, much to Gwen’s chagrin…

(Does this mean Wither and Selene aren’t “together” anymore??)

((As much as Gwen complains the relationship is super BORING now…STILL better than Kid Omega during WCA! 😂🤣🤣…))

Gwen decides what she needs to spice this up is a love triangle…and who BETTER than Wither’s PRIOR rival….Elixir?!!

Review:

This whole comic is just a KICK honestly! Jeremy Whitley did an AMAZING job!!

The jokes are great (LOVED the “One More Day” call out especially!), it’s well researched, and in the same vein as “Spider-Man and the X-Men”!

It’s basically a NXM must read!!

Honestly…It was really hard choosing which panels to feature in the review… it’s THAT amazing!

The only downside is the art…which is pretty meh…but all things considered- it’s just a fun issue!

Super excited for the next one to come out- honestly this kind of content makes me want to get a Marvel Unlimited account!

Gwen really SHOULD interact with the X-Men MORE!!

Predictions:

Gwen totally forgot the biggest hiccup to this plan…Wallflower! 😂🤣🤣

Really hope we get more NXM cameos…maybe Gwen will try to get in on the Surge/Prodigy/Speed drama next!! 😂🤣🤣

#Spoilers #Marvel infinity comics love unlimited #love unlimited #Gwen Poole #Gwenpool #Wither #Kevin Ford #x men #new xmen #new x men #Marvel #academy x #new x men academy x #god was this a fun F- comic!!#Jeremy Whitley #bless you Jeremy Whitley!!#❤️❤️❤️#like 😭😭😭

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