#Young Adam Reed

[ms-ajt-whumps]

Handholding and Asthma

Genre: Whump, Fluff. CW/TW: Bullying, Asthma Attack

Fandom: The Adam Project Characters: Young!Adam, Y/n, Ray, Chuckie, Ellie

2332 words

Let me know if any tags of warnings should be added, I want to be sure everything I post is properly tagged.

@almost-gabrielle

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Adam would never admit this, but Ray did scare him a little bit. It wasn't that Ray was actually an effective bully, it was more that he had a couple inches on Adam and serious daddy issues. There was also the chance that Ray would accidentally hurt Adam, worse than he himself was truly capable of. Freak accidents could always occur.

It had started simply enough: Ray had been picking on Adam’s friend Y/n during lunch. Now, it wasn’t that Adam like-liked Y/n, because he really, truly, most definitely, 100%, probably didn’t, but he couldn’t stand by while Ray picked on her. So, he’d instigated. Ray had rounded on him and bolted, and so did Adam. They’d run through the lunchroom and the school, dodging teachers, the principal’s grabbing hand, and other students until eventually Adam (who felt that his lead in the race would save him from a serious ass-kicking) burst outside. He’d hesitated, looking left and right, breathing heavily but not badly, and hurried to one side. He had felt, with his advantageous lead and stable (so far) breathing, that he’d win. He had not. Adam fucking tripped and went sprawling. Ray had been on him in a second, yanking him to his feet and pinning Adam up against a wall, glaring at him. Adam's mouth went a mile a minute. Quips, jabs, one liners, some of them even pretty good. They had flowed out automatically, the easiest thing in the world for him. It wasn't until Adam had said something about Ray and Chuckie being too stupid to snark anything back that Ray had really reacted. 

“You turds are standing here like a couple of mute mimes, ventriloquist dummies with no puppetmaster. You really think I'm going to be scared of a couple of meat bags who can't even talk?” Or something like that. Adam couldn't really remember what it had been right now, as he was on his back on the ground, Ray's foot stomped down into his chest. 

“You think you're so funny, Reid.” Ray had sneered. He had grabbed Adam by the front of his shirt and jerked him forward and around, pushing him to the ground. “Well, we'll see how funny you are when, …when you've lost!” Ray had put his foot on Adam's chest triumphantly. Chuckie had offered up his hand for a high five, a lumbering and slow gesture, a stupid grin on his face, and Ray smacked it, smirking down at Adam.

“That's your best? Really?” Adam snarked back from the ground, to which Ray pressed his foot down harder. This was when it began. It, the pressure. Then It, the crushing feeling, the internal collapse of systems intended to keep you alive. Damn it, he’d been fine running, even. You'd think providing oxygen to a 98 pound twelve year old would be an easy task, but no, apparently not for Adam's lungs. He sucked in a thin, wheezy breath, looking up at Ray. Adam tried to glare but the fear was setting in. He did the only thing he knew how. “Step any harder on me and I'll have to petition your mom to stop being so fat. The weight was…” he gasps slightly as pain snaked through him, “transferred to you in bone density. Thank God not in fat density, or you'd be enormous.” 

Ray looked presently peeved at this, and moved to punch Adam in the face. Adam sucked in another wheezing breath. Chuckie stood stupidly alongside Ray.

“Leave him alone!” An indignant shout rung out across the lot. 

Ray's head swiveled to see who it was. The girl from lunch. The quiet one. He smirked. “Go home, you're not involved in this.” He pulled back from Adam, his foot still on his chest, baring his own chest to the girl. He was trying to look big and scary. Ray almost didn't even bother really looking at her, he figured she would be scared off pretty easily, but at the last second caught a glimpse of her expression. His eyes snapped up, a thin trail of dread trickling down him. He saw anger. Crystal clear, unfiltered fury. More than Ray had ever seen, even from his mom when he failed tests. She also looked calm, like she knew precisely how to… how to…

“Let him go,” Y/n said firmly. “Before I have to fuck you up, Ray.”

This made Chuckie nervous; he took an unconscious step backward. Ray looked to him desperately, betrayed. “Chuck,” he hissed.

Adam wheezed tightly again, hands twitching against the concrete, searching for something to hold onto.

She stalked towards the three, a menacing stature about her. Determination, Certainty. “Go, Ray. Before I have to bring you home in a bag.” Y/n was two feet from him when his nerve finally broke. He stepped off Adam, who gasped and coughed, and took a couple nervous steps backward. Y/n looked at him darkly, shooing him away with her hands. 

Ray really wanted to be tough, but he kind of believed her. Maybe she would bring him home in a bag. Maybe she was insane or something. He took another couple steps away, still hesitating, looking for an opening he could hurt her through. But there were none, so he ran. Chuckie ran with him of course, much more slowly. 

Y/n called, “You're a bitch, Ray! Everyone knows it!” Then she was on her knees, talking to Adam very gently. “What's wrong?”

He wheezed, hands grabbing at his chest. He looked briefly at her, the panic now evident in his brown eyes. 

“Asthma attack, Ok. Where's your inhaler?” Y/n said quickly, hands at the ready, hovering in the air over Adam. “You have it with you, right?” Her eyes flashed to his, suddenly nervous.

Adam nodded, coughing, and grappled with the front pocket of his jeans. Y/n pushed his hands away quickly–they fell uselessly to the ground–and wrestled the inhaler from his pocket. She pulled the cap off and tossed it aside, bringing the inhaler to Adam's mouth.

“Ready?” Y/n asked.

He couldn't respond, just coughing and wheezing. He reached for her and grabbed her arm tightly, pulling it towards himself. 

Y/n put the inhaler in his mouth and triggered it. “3… 2… 1…” she counted down for him, watching his face closely. Adam let his breath out in a burst of air. Y/n rested a light hand on his chest, keeping the inhaler near his face. “Good?” she asked quietly. 

He shook his head, weakly pulling her arm back towards him, brown eyes wide with anxiety and focused on the next dose of medicine. He winced as his lungs wracked with pain again. She put the inhaler back in his mouth and triggered it again. Y/n counted again, watching him closely. Adam relaxed slightly, closing his eyes as he held his breath. He let his breath out slowly, the correct way, and sighed. His eyes flickered open, looking at Y/n with a surprised, trusting expression. He didn't talk for a long minute, just laying tiredly on his back, staring at this girl in front of him. Adam dimly realized that he still held her wrist and awkwardly let go, hand falling to the ground.

Y/n asked, “Should you sit up?”

Adam nodded, tiredly trying to get himself up. Y/n helped quickly, pulling him up by the arms. Adam ended up slumped against her, which made Y/n blush slightly. She supported his weight though, figuring that he needed the contact. Adam still didn't say anything, just breathing slowly. Y/n grabbed his hand and pushed the inhaler into it, wrapping his fingers around it for him. “There you go,” she said softly, feeling awkwardly self-conscious about holding Adam like she was. That wasn’t something that people who were just classmates did.  

“Thanks,” Adam finally said. “Ray is a bitch.” He continued to just slump against her, trying to pretend that he would get up soon and that he wasn’t really liking being this close to her. He didn’t have a crush on her. 

She nodded, smiling. They sat there in the quiet for a long time. Adam toyed with his inhaler and glanced shyly up at her and away quickly again when their eyes meet. He breathed slowly. “What makes you brave enough to…” Adam asked quietly, his eyes tracking her face.

She shrugged, jostling Adam slightly, looking off into the distance as she considered the question. The way Adam was leaning on her reminded her of the one time when she was a child and had found a puppy with a hurt foot. She’d cradled him too, as a protector. “I just know how to scare him. He's not really that big.”

“Bigger than me,” Adam mumbled, still fiddling with his inhaler. 

“Everyone's bigger than you, Adam,” she teased, laughing. Y/n looked back to him, catching a smile on his face.

Adam was laughing too. He found he didn't mind when Y/n teased him. He pushed himself up, sitting alone now. 

“I'll have to teach you my tricks.” She smirked. 

Adam nodded quietly, triggering another puff off the inhaler into his mouth. 

“Do you usually have to do more than once?” Y/n asked curiously.

Adam held up a finger to show that he needed a second. Y/n waited patiently. He let out his breath slowly, then speaking. “For the worse ones.” 

“Oh. Okay.”

Quiet again. Adam looked shyly between the ground and Y/n, who pretended not to notice. She looked towards the playground. 

The awkwardness present wasn't only because these were two awkward middle schoolers, though that wasn't helping at all, …it was because Y/n had had a crush on Adam Reed for a little while now. Sure, he was scrawny and had asthma but who really cared? His jokes in class always made her want to cry laughing, and he seemed to not care about all the stupid stuff teachers were always trying to make kids care about. It was kind of like he knew what was important in life. Like he knew there was something bigger out there. He looked at her and her insides would do flips and turns and some shy part of her brain would urge ‘look away, look away right now!’ So she stared at the playground. Y/n could feel his gaze on her, and saw in her peripherals that he seemed just as nervous as her. He was looking at her and then away, then glancing back.

The most hopeful part of her brain whispered quietly, ‘What if he likes me too?’ But the protective part was quick to reprimand, ‘don't think like that, he probably doesn't.’ Y/n glanced quickly at him, their eyes met, and she looked away.

Adam looked away too, blushing. 

He wasn't sure why he was feeling so nervous all of a sudden, he'd never felt nervous around Y/n before. Usually she would just let him copy off her homework and would trade good snacks at lunch. It was chill. Maybe he was feeling weird ‘cause she'd saved him from Ray, not that Adam wouldn't have survived on his own, he would have been fine. Maybe it was because she had been so smart about his inhaler, or like… something about her not judging him, or… he glanced at her again, noting the pinkish color on her cheeks and ears.

‘Oh, dear god no, please no,’ some part of Adam’s mind pleaded. He glanced at her again. ‘Fuck. …That’s it, we’re fucked. We’re fucked for sure.’ He tried to shush his racing mind, and think like one coherent thought at least but before he knew it was going to happen his mouth said, “Wanna come over and see a movie?” This was punctuated by a mental ‘Fuck! No! What are you doing?!’ But it was too late, he’d said it. Now he was trapped. He stared hopelessly at Y/n, waiting for her to… crush his heart, maybe? Perhaps he was still too young  for that. Would she accept? She wasn’t even looking his way, what if she said no? Would he just die on the spot?

Y/n turned to him with an abashed smile and said, “Sure.” She was blushing. 

‘Dear god, no! You’ll get cooties or something, god, stop!’ “We could watch something at my house, I’m sure my mom could bring you home after,” Adam said, trying to play it super cool. His hands danced nervously around the plastic inhaler. 

She nodded. “That… that sounds good, I’ll bet my dad could pick me up too if needed.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked nervously at him, never wanting to look away but also thinking, ‘I need to blink, did I blink enough? Or too much? God, I’m the worst. This is terrible.’

“My mom should be here soon, we could…” He gestured to the pickup area of the parking lot.

“Yeah.”

-

Y/n and Adam were sitting on the sofa before the big screen, Alien playing. Ellie was at the kitchen table, trying desperately to comprehend her husband’s tax filing system. 

The tension was palpable. Y/n and Adam could basically feel electrical vibrations passing between the two of them. Neither were watching the movie.

“Do you like the… movie?” Adam asked softly, looking to Y/n.

“Yeah, I think so.” Y/n smiled, looking back at him. 

Adam glanced over his shoulder at his mom, then to Y/n. His whole brain was screaming not to, but he hesitantly placed his hand onto Y/n’s. His breath hitched nervously, as he waited for her to punch him in the face or scream in disgust, but… her fingers laced into his calmly. Adam glanced up at her, face beet red. She smiled, squeezing his hand in her own. 

Adam looked shyly back to the TV, a grin creeping onto his face. 

-Fin

[certifiedl0serloll]

who is that in your profile picture ❓

adam Reed from the adam project (played by walker Scobell) !! I’ve thought of changing it for awhile but I’ve had it for so long so idk

[to-be-a-dreamer]

Frankly, I’m obsessed with the fact that these two characters are supposed to be the same age the 12-14-year-old years are WILD

[bookaddict24-7]

(New Young Adult Releases Coming Out Today! (August 20th, 2024)

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Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

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New Releases:

Something Like Right by H.D. Hunter

House of Thorns by Isabel Strychacz

Helga by Catherine Yu

Love Requires Chocolate by Ravynn K. Stringfield

Prince of the Palisades by Julian Winters

Mighty Millie Novak by Elizabeth Holden

A Bánh Mì for Two by Trinity Nguyen

The Darkness of Dying in the Light by S.E. Reed

New Sequel:

My Salty Mary (Mary #3) by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, & Jodi Meadows

Wisteria (Belladonna #3) by Adalyn Grace

Clown in a Cornfield: The Church of Frendo (Clown in a Cornfield #3) by Adam Cesare

Drown Me with Dreams (Sing Me To Sleep #2) by Gabi Burton

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Happy reading!

[notearsnora]

Emerald City Set plans, photos and concept art via @setcircle on Instagram. Full post caption:

Did you know the Emerald City Express weighed 58 tons? (That's about 127,868 pounds.)

Production Designer - Nathan Crowley

Supervising Art Director - Ben Collins

Senior Art Directors - Rod Mclean, Gavin Fitch Art Directors - Jenne Lee, Roxi Alexandru, Luke Sanders, Chris Peters, Sarah Ginn, Quinn Robinson, Jo Finkel, Hugh Mcclelland, Rhys Ifan, Gordan Champ, Peter James

Assistant Art Directors - Michael Pybus, Julia Tonetti, Sonia Kasparian, Triin Valvas, Claire Peerless, Greig Cockburn, Will Smith, Andy Young, Teri Fairhurst

Set Designers - Jack Leather, Tessa Flanagan, Jason Houssein, Alice La Trobe, Emma Savill, Jordan Muir, Charlotte Anthony, Grace Taylor, Shalina Bhamra, Melissa Wood, Emily Beswarick, Harry Taylor, Holly Cleaver, Angelica Sacrepaye, Imogen Dhesi, Nina Carroll, Martin Nice, Cayti Crozier, Noela Salvatierra

Model Makers - Jack Cave, Conrad Aryling, Colin Armitage, Emily Bates, Jacob Riley, Duncan Mude, Andy Fordham, Claudia Dance-Wells, Andy Baker, Roy Bell, Sidorela Shabi

Storyboard Artists - Giles Asbury, Tracey Wilson, John Coleburn, Kurt Van Der Basch, David Allcock

Concept Artists - Gerard Dunleavy, Vilius Petrauskas, Adam Leary, Oliver Beck, Saiful Haque

Concept Illustrator - Phillis Lehmer

Graphic Designers - Dan Burke, Anthony Noble, Esmeralda Power, Annabel Gibb

Assistant Graphic Designers - Aoife Reed, Laurine Cornuejols

(Of course, there are too many wonderful art department crew members to include in the list above. Please visit IMDB - Wicked (2024) - Full Cast and Crew!)

[shellsarepretty]

Reconnected

a/n: requests are more than welcomed <3

summary: walker and you had a thing for eachother in seventh grade. you were both really awkward, but then covid hit. you grew appart, but then walker landed his breakthrough role, Adam Reed in the Adam Project. would you guys start talking more?

warnings: none <3

Y/n had always thought about Walker, but she never expected to hear from him again. Seventh grade had been a whirlwind of emotions—awkward glances, shared smiles in the hallways, and that brief, silly crush that only lasted as long as school dances and the fleeting days of middle school. It felt like another lifetime now, especially after everything that had happened in the past few years.

Then came COVID.

School shut down, and the world seemed to slow to a halt. Y/n and Walker drifted apart just like everyone else. Virtual classrooms, chaotic schedules, and the strange isolation that followed made it hard to hold onto friendships, especially when people were stuck inside their own worlds. So, it wasn’t surprising that communication between her and Walker ended as quickly as it had started. They never had a dramatic falling out—there was no fight, no grand goodbye. It was just the inevitable separation of time and circumstances.

But in the back of her mind, Y/n had always wondered what had happened to Walker. She had seen the rumors and glimpses of his face in the news, always curious but never digging too deep. Then one afternoon, her phone buzzed with a notification: Walker Scobell liked your story.

It wasn’t a direct message, just a like on an Instagram story she had posted to celebrate Walker’s recent success. She had seen that he landed the role of Adam Reed in The Adam Project, a Netflix movie starring Ryan Reynolds. Y/n had always been proud of him—even from afar. She remembered how passionate he’d been about acting when they were younger, and to see that he was living his dream made her smile.

She opened the notification, not expecting anything beyond a simple acknowledgment of her post. But there, in the comments, was Walker’s familiar face emoji, followed by the words: Thanks so much for the support, Y/n!

Her heart skipped a beat.

It was the first time they had spoken in years, and it was almost as if the past had never happened.

Walker liked my story!

She stared at the screen, unsure of what to say back. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she typed, Of course! You’ve worked so hard for this, you deserve it.

Before she could second-guess herself, she hit send. Then the conversation started flowing, slow at first, like two people testing the waters of a friendship that had been dormant for too long.

A Week Later:

It didn’t take long for their conversations to become a regular occurrence. Walker had reached out again after that first exchange, and the two of them picked up right where they left off, as if no time had passed. They texted each other every day—sometimes about the movie, sometimes about school, and other times just about the random thoughts that popped into their heads.

Y/n found herself grinning more than usual whenever her phone buzzed with a message from Walker. It was strange, but comforting, to hear from him again. He was still the same—kind, funny, and easy to talk to. He had changed in some ways, of course. He was no longer the boy from seventh grade who fumbled his words in front of her, but the confident young actor who had a growing fan base and a life full of opportunities.

But he still had the same spark in his eyes, the same goofy sense of humor that made Y/n laugh until her cheeks hurt. They had both grown up so much, but some things remained unchanged.

Then, one day, Walker mentioned that he was coming to town for a promotional event related to The Adam Project. The movie had just been released, and there were interviews, press tours, and all kinds of events happening. He had asked if she wanted to hang out when he was free, just the two of them. The invitation was casual, but Y/n could tell there was something more to it.

She had a nervous flutter in her chest.

What if he didn’t feel the same way anymore? What if this was just a friendly gesture? Her mind ran through a thousand scenarios, each one more confusing than the last.

But she couldn’t say no. She was already in too deep.

“I’ll be there,” she typed back. Her fingers trembled as she hit send.

January, 2025. Walker was 16 now, and Y/n was (sadly) still 15. It was strange to see how much they had both changed—physically, mentally, and emotionally. She noticed the way Walker carried himself now, the subtle confidence that came with having achieved something most people only dreamed of. He wasn’t just an actor anymore; he was a star.

When they met up at a café near his hotel, it felt like no time had passed at all. He greeted her with the same warmth and energy she remembered, that goofy smile spreading across his face when he saw her.

“You look exactly the same,” he said, and Y/n could tell he wasn’t just saying it for the sake of being nice. He genuinely meant it.

She smiled, trying to hide the blush creeping up her neck. “You, too. Still that same old Walker Scobell.”

He laughed, a sound that felt like home to her. “I hope so. Don’t want to lose my charm.”

They sat down at a table by the window, and the conversation flowed effortlessly. They talked about everything—their favorite memories from middle school, their experiences during the pandemic, their lives since they’d last spoken. Y/n was surprised at how easy it was to talk to him again. It was like they had never stopped being friends.

But there was something different now. A subtle tension in the air that neither of them wanted to acknowledge. Walker kept looking at her with a softness in his eyes, his gaze lingering just a little too long. Y/n could feel it, too—the way her heart beat a little faster when their hands brushed, the way her stomach fluttered every time he smiled.

It was clear to her now. Walker wasn’t just friendly anymore. He was… interested.

Later that Day:

They walked around the city after their lunch, talking about everything and nothing. As the afternoon sun began to dip, casting long shadows on the ground, Walker pulled her to a quiet spot near the water.

“Y/n,” he said, his voice suddenly serious. “I’ve missed you. A lot.”

Y/n stopped walking, her breath catching in her throat. She turned to face him, unsure of what to say. The words hung in the air, unspoken, between them.

“I know we were just kids when we first met,” Walker continued, “but I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. You’ve always been so important to me, even when we lost touch. I… I don’t know, it’s just hard to explain.”

Y/n could feel her pulse quicken. This wasn’t just a casual hangout anymore. This was something else, something bigger.

“I’ve missed you too,” she said softly, her heart racing. “I didn’t think I would, but I have. A lot.”

Walker smiled, his eyes lighting up. “Really?”

She nodded, a shy smile creeping across her lips.

Walker stepped closer, the space between them shrinking until there was only an inch of air separating them. “I don’t want to mess this up,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “But I think… I think I might like you, Y/n. A lot.”

The words hung between them, and Y/n’s heart fluttered. It was the same feeling she had had all those years ago, back in seventh grade, but stronger now.

“I think I like you too,” she admitted, her voice trembling slightly.

And in that moment, everything felt right. All the years of silence, the time apart, the confusion—it all melted away. They were here, together again, in a place where nothing else mattered except the way they felt in that moment.

Walker smiled, a grin that reached all the way to his eyes. “Then let’s not let anything get in the way this time.”

Y/n nodded, her heart soaring. “Yeah. Let’s not.”

And just like that, the past melted away. They were no longer the awkward seventh graders who barely knew how to talk to each other. They were two people, reconnected by time and chance, ready to see where this new chapter would take them.

As the months passed, Y/n and Walker grew closer. Their bond strengthened, and what started as a simple reconnection blossomed into something deeper, something that neither of them had expected. Walker continued to juggle his acting career, but he always made time for Y/n, and she supported him through it all.

It was like they were picking up the pieces of a puzzle that had been left unfinished for years. And now, they were finally putting them all together.

Y/n smiled to herself, thinking about the journey they had taken to get here. She had always known that life had a funny way of bringing people back together, and with Walker, she had never felt more sure of anything. Their story was just beginning, and this time, they weren’t going to let it slip away.

a/n: i tried to sound more like third person for this one tehe. lmk if you like this style of writing better than the other fics ive been doing.

[p4lm5prings]

MCU character playlist masterpost

*Crossed-out playlists are playlists that will be linked eventually!

Thunderbolts* The New Avengers

Yelena Belova / Black Widow Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier Bob Reynolds / Sentry Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian Ava Starr / Ghost John Walker / U.S. Agent The New Avengers Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

Fantastic Four

Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic Sue Storm / Invisible Woman Johnny Storm / Human Torch Ben Grimm / The Thing The Fantastic Four

Avengers (og6)

Steve Rogers / Captain America Tony Stark / Iron Man Thor Odinson Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow Bruce Banner / The Hulk Clint Barton / Hawkeye The Avengers

Avengers (and just who I assume will be avengers in doomsday lol)

Sam Wilson / Captain America Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel Wanda Maximoff / The Scarlet Witch Shang-Chi Scott Lang / Ant-Man Peter Parker / Spider-Man Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk Stephen Strange / Doctor Strange Joaquin Torres / Falcon James "Rhodey" Rhodes / War Machine Hope van Dyne / The Wasp The Vision Pietro Maximoff / Quicksilver

Young Avengers

Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel Kate Bishop / Hawkeye Cassie Lang / Stature Billy Maximoff / Wiccan Tommy Maximoff / Speed America Chavez Riri Williams / Ironheart

Daredevil / Defenders saga

Matt Murdock / Daredevil Foggy Nelson Karen Page Frank Castle / The Punisher Ben "Dex" Pointdexter / Bullseye Kirsten McDuffie Nelson, Murdock and Page Maya Lopez / Echo Jessica Jones Elektra Natchios Luke Cage Billy Russo / Jigsaw Trish Walker / Hellcat Ray Nadeem Claire Temple

Spider-Verse

Peter Parker / The Amazing Spider-Man (Andrew) Peter Parker / Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man (Tobey) Michelle "MJ" Jones Ned Leeds Mary Jane Watson Gwen Stacy Felicia Hardy / Black Cat

Agatha All Along

Agatha Harkness Rio Vidal / Death

Guardians of the Galaxy

Peter Quill / Star-Lord Gamora Rocket Raccoon Nebula Mantis Drax the Destroyer Adam Warlock

X-Men / Mutants

Wade Wilson / Deadpool Logan / Wolverine Scott Summers / Cyclops

Asgard and TVA

Loki Laufeyson King Valkyrie Jane Foster / Mighty Thor Lady Sif Darcy Lewis Hela Odinsdottir Sylive Laufydottir Mobius M. Mobius

Wakanda

Shuri / Black Panther T'Challa / Black Panther Nakia Okoye Namor the Submariner M'Baku Erik Killmonger

Moon Knight

Marc Spector / Moon Knight Steven Grant / Mr Knight Jake Lockley / Moon Knight Layla El-Faouly / Scarlet Scarab

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. / Agent Carter

Maria Hill Sharon Carter / Agent 13 / Power Broker Peggy Carter Phil Coulson Daisy Johnson / Quake Melinda May Jemma Simmons Leo Fitz Bobbi Morse / Mockingbird Lance Hunter Alphonso "Mack" Machenzie Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez Deke Shaw Grant Ward Daniel Sousa Edwin Jarvis Dottie Underwood / Black Widow

S.W.O.R.D. and S.A.B.E.R. (and other agents)

Monica Rambeau / Photon Nick Fury Everett Ross Jimmy Woo

Eternals

Sersi Thena Makkari Phastos Druig Kingo Ajak Gilgamesh Ikaris Sprite Eros / Starfox

Werewolf by Night

Jack Russell / Werewolf by Night Elsa Bloodstone

[nunalastor]

First Man!Alastor

in one of the last posts for this AU one of the Anon's talked about how Alastor accidentally prevented Cain from murdering his brother; probably because Alastor couldn't help himself from mercy killing an injured goat in front of the children giving them a deep understanding of death young. So who takes their place, well Adam and Alastor of course.

Shortly after Alastor invents reed instruments Adams frustration deepens, he thinks he needs a situation where if he could make Alastor take a tumble spraining his ankle he'd become reliant on Adam and the others. Eventually on the cusp of Cain's 18'th birthday that day comes.

One of Abel's goats got loose and is now resting on a ledge Adam knew was unstable. So after making sure everyone else(+himself) is preoccupied he asks Alastor to fetch them. Alastor seeing that Adam is scheming decides to where those thoughts lead him, as anything done to ease boredom is at least something.

The actions taken to get to the goat are quick and simple; shooing them down is easy and dull. It's when Alastor is about to turn around to head back down the mountain he feels and sees the ground give out from under him. The last thing he feels while alive is a sharp pain between his eyes before waking up in heaven.

Adam still ignorant to what happened is busy shearing the wool of some sheep while happily patting himself on the back mentally. It isn't until he hears Cain wailing in despair that it's obvious something went wrong. His son had returned home early from finishing his chores.

Cain is inconsolable as the parental figure who was always there for him and his brother lays still in a pool of his own blood.

👀

[xariarte]

happy for you that both rockets/raptors games tonight ended up being fun watches <3 i've been rooting for tor since they got iq and rj and was so sad about their injury luck this season, they're such a tough team to play when everyone's available, i'm glad their season is trending back up! lowkey need a team to root for in the west what is your rockets sales pitch/what got you into them?

hi anon!! sorry for taking eons to answer this one! i thought a lot about this ask and honestly i have no idea how to sales pitch the rockets on Tumblr.com because the Houston Rockets are a main rival of the Golden State Warriors and Dallas Mavericks, two of the BIGGEST sections of NBA Tumblr 😂 and also with the upcoming potential opponent for the seventh seed...well...

anyway i’ll do my bestest 😎

how i got into the rockets (link here for a longer answer): after vanvleet walked away from the raptors, i was like, “i wonder how that old man jerk is gonna fare with a bunch of early twenty year olds when he couldn’t even handle scottie b” and then the younger core got me with all their fun personalities + lots of overlap from team canada dbrooks so i stuck around lol

my sales pitch: listen every single team in the league is lovable, so yes, the houston rockets are also super lovable (unless you’re a fan of one of the teams i listed in the first paragraph lol) BUT if you like defense, if you like a good underdog who wants to prove themselves after so much heartbreak (tanking), if you like trash talking, if you like up and coming youngsters, then the rockets are a good team to look into!!!

a brief summary of the younger core players

alperen sengun #28 (i like to call him alpey but the correct spelling is alpi): the turkish delight center of the team, he's always happy, learned his english through jalen green, the most affectionate rocket, is the hype man for the team, likes to be coached extra hard, and one of his shots is called the flamingo (because he shoots it with one leg off the ground)

amen thompson #1 (i call him demon puppy but his nickname is twin): the best youngest player on the team, he used to bully ausar when he was younger so god gifted him with coach ime udoka and veteran dillon brooks

tari eason #17 (nicknamed tari): the funniest rocket on the roster, besties with jabari, defensive beast, was a little held back from injuries over the years, and grew up watching documentaries

jalen green #4: the star shooting guard of the team but can kind of be inconsistent, the prettiest on the roster, has flourished underneath fred vanvleet's leadership and will never leave the house without black nail polish on

jabari smith jr. #10 (i call him jaba or bari): used to bake when he was younger, loves strawberry flavoured desserts, his father played against lebron james, gets affectionately bullied by tari constantly, and constantly yaps to dillon on the bench

reed sheppard #15: is the rockets newest young core member, was the best shooter in his draft class, has been adopted by steven adams (and they went to the houston rodeo together)

cam whitmore #7: may be the second prettiest young core rocket next to jalen green, likes to trash talk a little more than the others, has crazy dunks, and hasn't gotten that many minutes this season

the beloved veterans (not as important but provide support)

dillon brooks #9 (i call him rat bastard no apologies): he brings the defensive energy, gets out scuffled by his own team, is somehow canadian, is somehow from my city, is somehow still alive, xar be nice to dillon challenge (mission failed), um…oh he's having the best 3pt shooting year of his career (ok fine i guess we need him)

fred vanvleet #5 (i call him milf gnome or old man jerk give or take): the grumpy mother hen, udoka's right hand man, all the younger core rockets loves him, is a sengun merchant, and pays for everything (he earns $43M per year so he has to)

jeff green #32 (or unc jeff): has a pre-game handshake with jalen, bullies everyone on the team, sometimes gets called grandpa, is JG squared with jalen green, is a part of the stay ready crew with jock and aaron and tate

jock landale #2 (nicknamed the saucy aussie): has a really thick australian accent, bullies everyone on the team, has mother hen vibes, is our backup backup center, rarely shoots threes and likes red frogs candies

jae'sean tate #8 (called tate): god's strongest soldier bc he's the one veteran who has been on the team throughout the tanking years and is close to bari and tari

aaron holiday #0: is jrue holiday's brother, is the backup point guard, and usually shoots the three pretty well

steven adams #12 (nicknamed stevo): a beloved beautiful kiwi center, run into him on the court and you will die because he's so strong, and combines with alperen for a double big lineup

[purplepeptobismol]

I'm curious on your fancast for your IWMOY kids

Personally I would cast Thomas Bradie Sangster as Cooper, Natalia Dyer as Robin and McKenna Grace for Stacy

WOLFENSTEIN, IM SORRY BUT THOMAS BRADIE SANGSTER IS SO OLD!!! WHAT??!! 😭😭😭

Okay but on a serious note, it’s interesting you say this because whenever I picture IWMOY in my head, it alternates between animation to real life. I don’t think I have a fan cast for the kids BUT, if there ever was, I would want it to be with actors who fit this sort of vibe I have for them in my head.

ANOTHER BUT— I actually do sometimes imagine irl Cooper to be a bit like Walker Scobell SPECIFICALLY in the Adam’s Project!!!

If you’ve seen the movie, you know that the character he plays (young Adam Reed) is SOOO in par with the chaotic loser personality Cooper gives.

In my daydreams, I’d cast someone like him but in that 14/15 age tho. Interestingly, Walker Scobell’s actual eye color is close to the grey I imagine Cooper in!! Though… I guess the hair color is a bit close… but I do imagine it a tad bit lighter??? I guess, idk? Netflix wants to make IWMOY a 12 episode series sooooo bad ooooooo

[cinemaocd]

Jenny's June Movies

Portrait of Jason (1967) Furiosa (2024) Beijing Watermelon (1989) Jubilee (1978) The Player (1989) Oliver Twist (1948) Ugetsu (1953) Mank (2020) Living (2022) The Wonder (2022) Summertime (1955) Don't Look Now (1973) The Elephant Man (1980) Klute (1971) The Man Who Laughs (1928)

Portrait of Jason: (***) Fascinating documentary that is just a talking head interview. Film making doesn't get any simpler than this, but Jason Holliday is such an interesting subject that it doesn't matter. Director Shirley Clarke brings us along for the wild ride of a long conversation with this gay, black hustler and cabaret performer living in the Chelsea Hotel in the 1960s.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (***) My favorite so far in the Mad Max saga, the story is rooted in a terrific performance from a child actor (Ayla Brown) melded digitally with Anna Taylor Joy's portrait of the young Furiosa and her rise to the exalted position of Praetorian in the brutal world of the citadel. Containing Easter eggs from all four of the previous outings as well as a confirmation of the mutability of the Mad Max Universe (narration at the end describes the story as a legend whose telling may change depending on the teller), the biggest joy was the quiet, heartbreaking romance between Furiosa and Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke).

Beijing Watermelon (***): After watching Nobohiko Obayashi's House, earlier this year, I was expecting something far crazier than this relatively quiet portrait of a man consumed by helping a group of Chinese students by feeding them from his market stall, to the detriment of his own family and eventually his own health. A memorable fable about the way in which simple acts of care can transform a community, as well as the ways in which ego can play a part in generosity. The movie only gets as experimental and strange as the director's previous work, toward then end, when filming the ending set in China was impossible due to massacre of student protestors in Tianamen Square. Obayashi turns the story into a meditation of film making with a fourth-wall breaking technique to address the difficulties with the viewer. The movie leaves you feeling an ache of sadness especially when you remember the actual history behind it.

Jubilee (**) Derek Jarman directs this violent, bleak look at dystopian Jubilee Britain, featuring a host of punk icons from Adam Ant to Siouxsie Sioux and the Slits. There is also some nonsense about Queen Elizabeth I time traveling into the film. Honestly the most interesting part of the film for me were the glorious aesthetics, with clothes and make-up by Viivan Westwood, who later disowned her work in the film. Adam Ant is the biggest surprise in the movie, he is always charming and watchable, a stand out among the rest of the cast.

The Player (***) Not my first time through this movie, but another viewing solidified it as the top of the pile for 90s Altman. A wonderfully meta film about film making that is so loaded with jokes about film history and industry insider details that it impossible to catch them all on the first viewing. All of this in a tidy film noir package, led by Tim Robbins who plays a souless film executive being pursued by a disgruntled screenwriter.

Oliver Twist (***1/2) Stands out as the best and most memorable new to me film of the month, with a painful caveat. One of the major milestones in director David Leans estimable career, Oliver Twist is marred by his insistence on keeping the character Fagan as he is depicted in the novel, a hateful Jewish stereotype.. The visual look of this film, with its grimy, slicked cobble streets and rooftops of London nightmare fantasy set, would go on to inspire so many movies, but most notably, Carol Reed's The Third Man which came out the following year. Robert Newton is a standout as a terrifying and nuanced Bill Sykes and John Howard Davies ably carries the film as Oliver. Lean beefed up Oliver's role in the last third of the novel, setting up a chilling and dramatic conclusion to the action.

Ugetsu: (***) Another immediate post war film, that is set is Japan of the past in the time of warlords. A pair of couple navigate the coming of war in different ways, leading to devastating unforeseen consequences. A haunting--quite literally--film about war and the inability to ever fully return from it.

Mank (***) This was my second time through David Fincher's dreamy movie, inspired by real life story of writer Herman Mankiewitz, screenwriter of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, told in a style that closely mimics that classic. While all of it is pretty to look at, and the ensemble cast is up to the task of creating William Randolph Hearst's inner circle, attempts to make real life into too much of a movie, make the whole thing creak at the hinges a bit. Tom Burke stands out as Welles, Amanda Seifreid who I'd previously only seen in Mamma Mia, gives a lovely performance as Marion Davies, Hearsts mistress, while Gary Oldman is transformed through make-up and accent work into Mank. I wish I wasn't so aware of the stage craft, but that too is like the original I suppose and there is enough insider stuff in this movie to make a film nerd like me happy through any number of screenings.

Living (**1/2) a remake of an Akira Kirosawa film, about a dying bureaucrat who does his best to make an impact before he dies, features Bill Nighy in the lead role. Nighy creates a subtle portrait of a man who is practically fossilized in his desk at work, slowly coming to life as he takes on the project of getting a playground built in the post-Blitz London.

The Wonder (**1/2) One can be forgiven for confusing this movie with Lady MacBeth, which also stars Florence Pugh as a young woman in rural Britain, getting involved in a deadly web of intrigue. Like that film, The Wonder features a lot of scenes of Pugh in Victorian dress walking in the windblown landscape, and staring into the camera while she is seated quietly in a room. The setting here is rural Ireland twenty years after the Great Hunger. Pugh plays a nurse who is sent from England to watch a young girl who has supposedly survived months without eating. Hired by the village to either prove or disprove the so called Wonder of the title, the film slowly builds into almost unbearable tension in the final acts. Lovely performance from the whole cast, including, once again, TOM BURKE. (Are you seeing a theme in June Movies????)

Summertime (****): Classic David Lean, classic romance. Is it gay? Well yeah, I think Hepburn's character is a lesbian who has finally met the one dude who does it for her and he fancies her too and it foments a complete crisis of identity. Also it's an ode to women traveling alone and living their best life and having fun and doing walks of shame for the first time and oh I just love seeing this middle aged woman get to be 20 something!. Rosanno Brazzi is so cute and this is the movie that made me fall for him.

Don't Look Now (***): So I watched this and Summertime back to back and wow you could not get two more different views of Venice While Lean's film is more of a straight forward travelogue it's not excessively gritty or excessively pretty. It's balanced and though it is a tourists view it still takes on stuff like throwing garbage in the canal or getting lost. All of those things are present in Don't Look Now but they take on a darker edge. This is a city designed to hypnotize seduce and confuse you and you'd better be careful or lose your life. Features a great twist and absolutely top tier 70s psychological horror with lots of creepy vibes.

The Elephant Man (***): I had not seen this since it was in the theaters and I was so blown away by it. It's every inch a David Lynch film...it's like Eraser head with a big budget in many ways. I seriously can't believe someone watched Eraserhead and said: yeah lets give this guy millions to make our studio film. Even more amazing that the final product is so fucking successful as both a studio film and a distinct piece of Lynchian art. Johnny Gielgud and Wendy HIllier are both in this and both fabulous and Anne Coates is the editor. It's like an ode to British Noir films like Gaslight and The Lodger and especially Oliver Twist--and even a little Pygmalion callback in one scene that HIllier is in. John Hurt plays John Merrick and is heartbreakingly human when those around him can only see a monster. Lynch makes the choice to reveal his face about 45 minutes in and it's so impactful. The makeup is incredible, but also he lets the character exist for a long time so he isn't just the makeup. Anthony Hopkins is amazing playing the Victorian doctor who "rescues" Merrik and ends up exploiting him as well. The real horror of this film is in the realization of his own culpability/responsibility that gets shifted onto the audience.

Klute (***): Part of my Donald Sutherland memorial minifest, this movie really belongs to his female costar. Jane Fonda plays Bree Daniels, a Manhattan sex worker who is being stalked by a former client. There is nothing in The Conversation that isn't done first and frankly better in Klute, using modern technology and paranoia about it to maximum effect. Sutherland plays the titular cop, Klute who has assigned himself to the cause of protecting Daniels. An interesting love story develops between the hardened and wary Daniels and the hardened and wary cop.

The Man Who laughs (***): I got to see this for the first time on the big screen with a new original score performed live, which is the best way to see silent films. Veidt is incredible acting through and over and around this makeup, expressing so much with his eyes. Like The Elephant Man, this is a movie about the way society perceives difference as monstrous. A beautiful love story and a revolutionary social justice vibe tie the room together.

[cas-is-queer]

INTRO POST! FINALLY!

I’m probably forgetting some stuff, so this might get updated.

My name is Casey, you can also call me Cas. I use he/they pronouns, idrc which ones you use. I’m asexual omniromantic, and I’m transmasc and nonbinary! I'm also AuDHD. If you’ve been w me long enough,  you’ll remember when my url was something different. Fun fact I actually never posted about that change so y’all just had to figure it out for yourselves. I used to be fandomtrash67, back when my blog was just reblogs and likes and nothing important, when I was only on here like once a month. 

I have personal tags! cas has thoughts is my original posts, but not all of them. The site I used to sort through the frankly copious amounts of reblogs I have still filtered out when I had full thoughts in the reblog, so it's missing some. cas does things is my polls and asks and shit. cas writes things is my writing tag.

THIS POST IS MY MAGNUM OPUS: X

This is mostly a Doctor Who blog, ngl, but I’ll randomly post about some other fandoms too (which are listed below). 12 is my favorite Doctor, followed by 10. My biggest ships, in order, are: Thoschei (literally insane about them. Mostly twissy, but all variations too), 12clara (I also fw 11clara), and Timepetals (all variations). 

I am a destiel sleeper agent, they will show up randomly. 

I am a fic writer, but I’m sorta inconsistent on my posting. Find me here: X

Unfortunately, I am American, so US politics will show up sometimes. Shit fucking sucks.

FANDOMS/SHIPS BELOW CUT

Buckle up, because this is my insanely long fandom/ships list! IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER! BOLD IS MY FAVS! THIS IS REALLY FUCKING LONG!! (The bold is only showing up for me on desktop and not mobile, so sorry if it's like that for yall too)

Supernatural, Doctor Who, Haven, Grimm, Grey’s Anatomy/Station 19, Scream, Heartstopper, First Kill, PJO and all associated fandoms, Lie to Me, Good Omens (I do not support Neil Gaiman), Marvel, Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel, My Hero Academia, X-Men, Lord of the Rings, Saw, Once Upon a Time, House MD, Daredevil & The Punisher, The Last of Us

Ships that got me fucked up! Bold are from bold fandoms or I just really love them. / is romantic, & is platonic.

Dean Winchester/Castiel (Supernatural), Dewey Riley/Gale Weathers (Scream), Tony Stark & Peter Parker (MCU), Nathan Wuornos/Audrey Parker (Haven), Cal Lightman/Gillian Foster (Lie to Me), Cal Lightman & Emily Lightman (Lie to Me), Loki/Mobius (Loki/MCU), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Gabriel/Beezlebub (Good Omens), Maggie/Nina (Good Omens), Charlie Morningstar/Vaggie (Hazbin Hotel), Angel Dust/Husker (Hazbin Hotel), Charlie Morningstar & Lucifer Morningstar (Hazbin Hotel), Stolas Goetia/Blitz (Helluva Boss), Rose Tyler/Any Doctor (Doctor Who), Clara Oswald/11 or 12 or fuck it throw 13 in there (Doctor Who), 12th Doctor & Bill Potts (DW), 10th Doctor/Simm!Master (DW), 12th Doctor/Missy (DW), 13th Doctor/Dhawan!Master (DW), 13th Doctor/Yasmin Khan (DW), 13th Doctor/Yasmin Kahn/Dhawan!Master (DW), River Song/Any Doctor, but mostly 11 (DW), 10th Doctor & Donna Noble (DW), 12th Doctor/Missy/Clara Oswald (DW), Clara Oswald/Ashildr (Lady/Mayor Me) (DW), Amy Pond/Rory Williams (DW), Charles Xavier/Erik Lehnsherr (X-Men), Agatha Harkness/Rio Vidal (Agatha All Along/MCU), Aragorn/Legolas (Lotr), Lawrence Gordon/Adam Faulker-Stanheight (Saw), Amanda Young/Lynn Denlon (Saw), Peter Strahm/Mark Hoffman (Saw), Gregory House/James WIlson (House MD), Wade Wilson/Logan Howlett (Deadpool and Wolverine), Billy Loomis/Stu Macher (Scream), Sidney Prescott/Tatum Riley (Scream), Tara Carpenter/Amber Freeman (Scream), Randy Meeks/Mickey Altieri (Scream), Kirby Reed/Jill Roberts (Scream), Kirby Reed/Samantha Carpenter (Scream), Regina Mills/Emma Swan (Once Upon a Time), Matt Murdock/Foggy Nelson (Daredevil), James Wesley/Vanessa Fisk/Wilson Fisk (Daredevil [and also all the individual pairings within that]), Karen Page/Frank Castle (Daredevil), Joel & Ellie (The Last of Us [show])

Statistically I forgot some, so forgive me. Congratulations if you made it this far!

[elliehopaunt]

Ben Whishaw (“Paddington”) and “Happy Valley’s” Sarah Lancashire are set to join Keira Knightley in Netflix’s upcoming spy series “Black Doves,” Variety can exclusively confirm.

More details about the series, which was written and created by “The Lazarus Project” showrunner Joe Barton, have also emerged.

A story of friendship and sacrifice, “Black Doves” is set during Christmastime in London. It revolves around Helen Webb (Knightley), a politician’s wife, doting mother — and professional spy. For years, Helen has been passing on her husband’s secrets to the Black Doves, the shadowy organization for whom she works. But when her lover Jason is assassinated, Helen’s life is turned upside down and only her old friend Sam Young (Whishaw) can keep her safe.

Helen and Sam set out to discover who killed Jason and why. But Sam, a suave, champagne-drinking assassin, also has problems of his own. Out of the game since his last job went wrong, he soon realizes his past is coming back to haunt him.

“Together, they set off on a mission that will lead them to uncover a vast, interconnected conspiracy,” reads the logline. “One that links the murky underworld of London to a looming geopolitical crisis — and leads them to question the cost of the moral choices they’ve made.”

Lancashire will play Helen’s enigmatic spymaster Reed.

Joining Knightley and Whishaw in the six-part series, which began shooting in London last week, are Andrew Buchan (“Carnival Row”), Omari Douglas (“It’s A Sin”), Andrew Koji (“Warrior”), Kathryn Hunter (“Andor”), Sam Troughton (“Chernobyl”), Ella Lily Hyland (“Fifteen Love”), Adam Silver (“The Diplomat”), Ken Nwosu (“Look the Other Way and Run”) and Gabrielle Creevy (“In My Skin”).

“I started writing the scripts for this show over last year’s Christmas holidays, fuelled by turkey sandwiches and discarded bottles of cream liquor,” said Barton. “To be now going into production with a cast and crew full of people whose work I admire so much is unbelievably exciting and I couldn’t be more thrilled to get to see this show come to life.”

“Black Doves” is produced by Joe Barton’s Noisy Bear and Elizabeth Murdoch-founded Sister (“Chernobyl”) for Netflix. Barton exec produces for Noisy Bear alongside Jane Featherstone (“This Is Going To Hurt”) and Chris Fry (“Giri/Haji”) for Sister and Keira Knightley. The series is directed by Alex Gabassi (“The Crown”) and Lisa Gunning (“The Power”). Harry Munday (“Kaos”) is producing.

[captainx-camino]

Adam Marks

Adam hasn't changed much over the years outside of just general growth in my own style and abilities as an artist and has, in fact, remained almost the same (basic design wise) for nearly 20 years.

Which is hilarious, considering very early drafts of this idea saw Adam as a girl named 'Kay'.

Basic Info

Full Name: Adam Marks

Nickname: Mooney (by Dawn), Señor Luna (by Miguel), Addy (by Aaron), Ace (when he was a young child, by Lucas)

Age: 18

Gender/Pronouns: Male, He/Him

Sexuality: Demisexual

Species: Manufactured Demigod

Ethnicity: Romani

Blood Type: O+

Likes: Music, Fall weather, and clear, quiet nights

Dislikes: Crowds, strong smells, and being the focus of attention

Specific Features/Identifying Marks: His eyes are an unnatural violet hue and almost appear to glow in low light, he has a large scar that runs from the left side of his head, over his shoulder and back, and down his left arm the resembles a tree, and he is missing his left ear, which has been fitted with a prosthetic that sticks out a little more than his natural ear.

Complexion: Tan

Eye color: Now purple, used to be dark brown

Moles: A few, but most notably on his left cheek below the outer corner of his eye

Body Type: average, medium build

Height: 5'8

Dominant Hand: right

Hand detail: Hands have some disfiguring from fingers being broken

Teeth details: Underbite

Sense of fashion and style: Hoodies, jeans, T-shirts, generally comfortable sneakers or shoes

Health (disabilities, illnesses, conditions): significant hearing loss and disfigurements to his left side, which he tries to hide. Also suffers from severe PTSD stemming from the car crash that caused his injuries.

Other Characteristics: quiet and reserved, rarely social unless required to be. Takes time to open up but thrives within his small, tight knit group of friends.

Cultural Background: Romani

Residence: Deerbrooke

Zodiac: Sagittarius

Fears: Death, dying, losing a loved one

Intelligence: average

Education: highschool

Sense of humor: dry, self deprecating

Problem-solving skills: above average

Emotional Intelligence: low at first but learning

Introverted or extroverted?: introverted

Pet Peeves: hypocrisy, his brother's treatment of women, showboating

First Emergency Contact: Aaron Reed

Sleeping habits: Unfortunately mostly nocturnal

[hellomystraightlacedfriend]

Of the High Evolutionary and Spider-Woman - and why I like Jessica Drew's Second Origin Story the Most

Like a lot of Marvel characters, Jessica Drew has experienced retcons and revisions to her history. In her very first appearance, 'Arachne' was told by Hydra General Vermis that she was originally a spider but was transformed by the High Evolutionary into a woman with spider-like properties. (1st Origin, found in Marvel Spotlight #32: written by Archie Goodwin, with art by Sal Buscema.)

However, this origin was immediately retconned in her very next appearance when it was revealed that Vermis told Jess this story to make her feel disconnected from the rest of humanity. Vermis and Hydra brainwashed her into believing that they were the only people who would want anything to do with her. They were her only hope for survival and acceptance. (The fact that Jess was young and very naive and her pheromones actually did have an unnerving effect on other people made this idea even easier to swallow).

In this version, Jessica Drew was the daughter of Jonathan and Merriem Drew. Jonathan was the research partner of Herbert Wyndham, who would later become the High Evolutionary. When Jess became sick from exposure to uranium as a young child, she was given a cure (made from spider blood), which gave her her powers.

This was Jessica Drew's 2nd origin story (developed largely by writers Marv Wolfman, Mark Gruenwald, Chris Claremont and their respective artists), and the one that was hard canon from the 1970s up until 2005. It's also the backstory that is still used in Marvel handbooks and was the one given in History of the Marvel Universe (2019).

In 2005, Brian Michael Bendis and Brian Reed wrote a 5-issue mini called Spider-Woman: Origin. And while I get why certain changes were made - obviously, there was an effort to simplify/streamline Jess's backstory - I just hate a lot of them. In stripping it down, many aspects of Jess's backstory that I found unique and personally fascinating were lost.

Also, some of the changes actually made things more complicated - like the decision to retcon Wyndham into just a Hydra general. Because the High Evolutionary is a key character in other characters' backstories - like Adam Warlock and the Maximoffs - this decision didn't really stick/was ignored by other writers. Because of this, Spider-Woman: Origin does not fit into the broader continuity of the Marvel Universe.

So today, I wanted to go over what I enjoyed about Spider-Woman's 2nd origin, and examine the changes that were made afterwards.

Before I proceed further, though, I do think it's only fair that I acknowledge that Bendis was responsible for really bringing back Jessica Drew as a character and making her a little less obscure. Also, there are definitely choices he made with the character that I like/find interesting, like: developing her friendship with Carol, continuing her relationships with Wolverine and Nick Fury, and getting her Spider-Woman title/costume back, among others. I even really enjoyed the whole Veranke imposter thing, which I know pissed off some fans.

That said, I still have a very visceral reaction to some of the ways Bendis handled Jessica Drew - and how some fans treat him as the end-all-be-all for the character.

So, let's go.

Part 1: The Man Who Would Be God

Okay, so the thing that probably offended me the most is how Spider-Woman: Origin turned Wynham into just a nondescript Hydra General. The reason for this is because the High Evolutionary and the Drew family actually have a very tightly wound history, and Bendis obviously wanted to stress Jess's relation with Hydra. But even though the High Evolutionary doesn't have a lot of comic book appearances (under 200 as of today) he has been quite an influential character, playing an important part in the Maximoff twins, Adam Warlock, and Spider-Woman's backstories - and also making recurring appearances in X-Men, Avengers, Thor, and even Spider-Man comics.

Also, I just like him. Like yeah, the dude's a piece of shit, but I find him interesting as a character - so that is why I am starting with him and who he is in the main Marvel Universe.

Note: While I am not going to give specific dates, this was originally supposed to take place around the 1920s - 30s. The time period isn't vitally important, though, in my opinion. It was more just that this was supposed to take place some 30+ years before the main Marvel events (like the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four forming).

Also, no, the High Evolutionary's whole "evolving" animals into more "advanced" versions of themselves isn't scientically accurate - but I like chewing on the thematic elements it creates.

So to begin, Herbert Edgar Wyndham was born in Manchester, England, into what was probably once a well-off family. However, his father’s passing (when Herbert was still young) seemed to have put financial strain on the family. Due to this, Herbert's dream of attending Oxford University to further his studies in genetics depended entirely on him getting a scholarship or sponsorship.

This didn't seem completely out of the realm of possibility - because young Herbert was something of a genius who was already pouring hours of his free time into obsessively studying the genetics of rats.

Herbert had become fixated on the idea of improving the world through accelerated evolution - and he wanted to be the one to do it. He'd even made a machine that he hoped would evolve the rats into later stages of rat evolution. Although all of his attempts so far - which had mostly been bombarding rats with radiation - had just ended with dead rats. But as much as their deaths saddened him, Herbert wasn’t one to give up.

Now Herbert was living with his mother, and she completely doted on him, so when Herbert got an invitation to attend a major genetics conference in Geneva, she was the one to go to all of their relatives to collect money, so he could go on his trip.

And this is where he bumped into a young American - Jonathan Drew, a student at Yale specializing in arthropods.

The two of them hit it off right away - Herbert seeing in Jonathan a fellow "visionary," as Jonathan Drew wanted to use the genetics of spiders to 'improve' the human race - making them less susceptible to toxins and disease.

During the convention, Herbert and Jonathan attended a lecture, where the speaker warned against the dangers of genetic tampering - saying that more theoretical research needed to be done into the long-term effects. Over dinner, an angered Herbert complained to Jonathan about this, when he suddenly felt dizzy and went out to get some air. There, he was approached by the inhuman geneticist Phaeder, who gave Herbert the genetic information he needed to perform his experiments.

(Although Phaeder didn't actually introduce himself as Phaeder, he just gave Herbert a stack of papers and then fucking left. Apparently, Phaeder gave out information like this to other human geneticists as well - like some weird fairy godmother or twisted Prometheus - but his reasons for doing so aren't relevant to this story).

Shortly after this, Herbert did end up getting into Oxford, but he blew the opportunity by spending all of his time working on a machine to turn animals into more "evolved" versions of themselves. When he couldn't even manage a demonstration on what he was working towards, he was kicked out of Oxford.

After getting kicked out, Herbert finally made a successful attempt with his machine - a machine which he had named his "genetic accelerator." He "evolved" his pet dalmatian - enhancing its intelligence to that of a chimpanzee and getting it to walk on its two back legs.

Herbert was estatic. However, the poor dog was accidentally shot by hunters, who then called it "a freak of nature." This led Herbert to believe that the only way for him to keep his "creations" safe was to keep them away from the rest of humanity.

So, he met back up with Jonathan, who had married a European woman and was now living in Europe.

Note: The nationality of Jessica's biological mother is inconsistent across sources, sometimes said to be English, sometimes French. Sometimes, she is listed as being born in Transia. Also, I guess she could have been born in Hungary, too, because of the whole Viper thing. (We'll get back to that.)

Jessica Drew's place of birth, however, is universally London, England.

Anyway, Herbert reconnected with Jonathan Drew, who now had a young daughter named Jessica. Jess seemed a pretty outgoing and affectionate child as she immediately climbed up on Herbert, something her mother scolded her for, but Herbert said he didn't mind.

Herbert and the Drews decided to pool their resources together to create "a citadel of science." Jess's mother, Merriem, had just inherited a tract of land in (the fictional Balkan country of) Transia - in the shadow of Wundagore Mountain. So that's where they decided to set up their base.

Herbert sold his mother's house (without fucking asking her!) for building money. (He'd already persuaded his mother to move into her sister's place so he could rent out the house for money for his experiments - which really demonstrates his complete but rather oblivious self-centeredness.)

With these plans in hand, Herbert, Jonathan, Merriem, and little Jessica all moved to Wundagore together to start their new lives.

Part 2: Wundagore

When Herbert and the Drews got to Wundagore, they immediately heard rumours from the locals that there was an evil spirit trapped in the mountain, and werewolves and vampires living close by. There was, in fact, an evil spirit trapped in the mountain - the evil elder god Chthon - but Herbert and Jess's parents (in a very Dracula moment) dismissed the nearby villagers as superstious simpletons.

Their arrogance grew when they found that the soil in the land they owned contained a lot of uranium ore. Now they would be wealthy! Interestingly, though, this turn in fortune did not cause any friction between Herbert and the Drews, as even though the land was technically Merriem's, Jonathan assured Herbert that they were all full partners in this venture.

Note: It's funny how especially compared to how Bendis and Reed wrote the Wyndham & Drew relationship (in Origin) as being pretty much purely professional - in Mark Gruenwald's hands, Herbert Wyndham and Jess's parents come across as having a rather unconventional closeness.

Herbert especially seems quite fond of Jonathan Drew (even though he often expresses waryness of humanity as a whole), and the fact that their finances are all so willingly tied together is very interesting to me. It would be more expected, particularly in a villain's origin story, for there to be more infighting around money. Instead, Jonathan and Herbert like each other enough that this never became a problem.

Herbert and Jonathan started working on their citadel of science, but because the engineer they hired to build it was obsessed with outerspace, they got a lab with space-faring capabilities. Jonathan was like "is this really necessary???" But he had bigger problems.

His young daughter had collapsed on the dirt she was playing in. Because even though Jonathan warned Merriem to keep Jess away from the dirt, they were both pretty neglectful in actually watching their daughter. Jess was now suffering from uranium poisoning that had been building in her little body for months. She was sick and quickly dying.

In a panic, Jonathan injected his young daughter with the experimental spider-blood serum he had been working on. However, Jess didn’t respond. Herbert then offered to use his genetic accelerator on Jess, but Merriem argued against it. She thought that it was too late for Jessica, and accused her husband and his partner of just using Jess as a guinea pig. Against her wishes, Herbert did put Jess in his genetic accelerator, merging Jess's genetics with those of the spiders.

However, Jess still seemed completely unresponsive, and Herbert put her in an induced coma/partial suspended animation in the hopes that the serum would slowly cure her over time. Angry and distressed that her daughter had been experimented on for what seemed to her no reason, Merriem rushed off into the night - and was killed by a werewolf.

Note: Okay, I wanted to pause here, because I actually highly prefer this version of Jessica Drew getting her powers to the one in Spider-Woman: Origin - where she accidentally gets spider DNA beamed into her body while she's still a fetus.

I just find it more interesting seeing these characters have this genuine fear and panic about their little girl dying - and maybe it resonates with me more because my little brother became very sick when he was three years old and eventually died (and I spent quite a bit of time in children's hospitals growing up) but there's also more nuance in this origin.

For some reason, Bendis and Reed made Jonathan and Merriem Miriam more black-and-white figures, with Jonathan being painted as a guy who secretly hated his daughter - because he's weirded out by her spider DNA - but still used her to advance his research. Whereas Jess's mother was presented as a much more sympathetic figure, as she was first taken in by her husband lies about her daughter being sick and thus the testing on her being necessary, and then later when she found out this wasn't true, she fought to defend her daughter from him.

But in the 2nd origin, especially in the parts penned by Mark Gruenwald, neither of Jess's biological parents was actually perfectly "right." Here, it is pretty clear that although Jonathan genuinely wanted to save his daughter's life, he also really wanted to see if his serum would work, and he very much wanted the glory of that success. However, Merriem was going to stand in the way of her daughter possibly surviving - because on principle, she didn't want her daughter to be used as a science experiment. Jonathan's motives were not close to being 100 percent pure, but if Merriem had gotten her way, Jess would have absolutely died.

Which is more unique for a Marvel backstory, because there are so, so many bad father/nicer mother narratives in Marvel. Which I am not saying this isn't a dynamic that doesn't occur often in real life, but I feel like Jessica's story was more about all her guardians failing her one-by-one.

But anyway, Merriem was killed by a werewolf, and it was Herbert who found her body. Not really believing in werewolves but also not wanting Jonathan to become biased against nonhuman life, Herbert staged the death to look like a fall.

Jonathan was absolutely devastated: first his daughter had become sick/comatose and now his wife was dead. Herbert tried to think of ways to console his despondent friend, but it wasn’t long after this that Herbert woke up to a note from Jonathan Drew, saying that he couldn’t stand being there anymore without Merriem, and he was going back to America. Jonathan left Herbert the citadel, and his daughter.

Part 3: The New Men and Recreating Camelot

So, Herbert found himself alone and lonely in his now completed citadel. The only person with him was his former partner's unconscious child. He decided that he would be a father to this abandoned little girl, and well, any daughter of his was going to have a world-class education. So he set up audio recorded lessons and lectures to play in her cryogenic chamber while she slept.

Herbert was (unsurprisingly) still lonely. He couldn’t really talk to Jessica (and she didn’t seem to be getting better), so he had this whole empty citadel to himself. To keep his mind busy, he set to work on making himself the perfect suit/armour to protect himself from environmental toxins. But also as a 'just in case' - even though he did not believe in werewolves or werewolf folklore or any of this crap about a demon living inside the mountain - he made the suit silver-plated on the outside.

When his perfect silver-plated hazmat suit was completed (after an intense process of trial and error), Herbert started wearing it all the time. It wasn't long, though, before his mind started itching to work on something else, and his thoughts drifted back to the evolved dog he had "created" before.

He started acquiring both domestic and wild animals from all over: lions and tigers and bears and pigs and cows and sheep. And he started putting them through his genetic accelerator. Those that survived and showed successful signs of intelligence, he called his "New Men" - though he would also more affectionately refer to them as his "children."

The New Men were absolutely bewildered by this whole process, but Herbert assured them they would adjust to this new way of existence. He had them watch educational tapes until they gained the ability to speak, and he started to feel a little less lonely.

Then, joy of joy, Jonathan Drew returned to Wundagore. Herbert was like, "I missed you. It hasn't been the same without you!" And Jonathan was like "Actually, I'm not Jonathan. I'm the ghost of 6th century wizard who took possession of your friend's body to warn you that you are in grave danger." And Herbert was like 😯 (Quotes aren't exact exact but pretty damn close).

Herbert didn't believe the whole ghost possession story, but he decided it was "a harmless mental disorder" caused by Jonathan's grief. So when "Jonathan" suggested they teach the New Men to be lance-wielding knights, Herbert decided to commit to some long-term LARPing to make his friend happy. Besides, this new code of honour would guide his New Men, make them civilised. Also, he did enjoy being the king of his castle. This is when Herbert started going by "the High Evolutionary" - a title that "Jonathan" encouraged.

Now Jonathan was, in fact, being possessed by a 6th century ghost. A guy named Magnus, who had come to Wundagore to warn Herbert that all his drilling into the mountain had awakened a dormant demon. Herbert - the High Evolutionary did not want to hear about this, though. He was like (paraphrasing):

"John, dear John, or Lord Magnus - however you want to be called, you can tell me all you want about how you used to work with Morgan Le Fay, before she murdered you with her bare hands, but don't speak to me of demons. I am a man of science™ There are no demons, and there is certainly no demon trapped in my mountain."

But like I said before, there was, in fact, an evil spirit in the mountain. He had been bound to it by Morgan Le Fay and her followers back in the 6th century - once she realised she couldn’t control the spirit she had summoned.

But back in the 20th century, time passed. A decade went by. The New Men, now called the Knights of Wundagore, kept training. Jessica Drew kept sleeping, and in her sleep, she aged very, very slowly. She had still not fully recovered from her sickness, and the High Evolutionary wondered if she ever would.

Then, one stormy night, a woman on the point of giving birth came to Wundagore and gave birth to twins. The mother slipped away in the night, leaving a note asking for the High Evolutionary to find her newborns a good home.

It was during this time that Chthon attacked, and Herbert/the High Evolutionary came face to face with a fucking Elder God. He and his knights fought back but were quickly overpowered, and Herbert watched in horror as many of his "children" were dashed to pieces in front of him. Luckily, Magnus ended up being able to put Chthon back into his dormant slumber, using a magic book called the Darkholde. However, not before Chthon put a piece of his essence into one of the twin babies: the girl who would grow up to be Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch.

Note: Not related to Spider-Woman: Origin directly, but I have seen other people bring up Bendis' erasure of Wanda's chaos magic (in his Avengers Dissambled Arc) and speculate that he was trying to write Chthon out of the Maximoff twins' backstory and out of the Marvel Universe. This is most likely true. For some reason, Bendis seemed determined to take all the magic away from Wundagore Mountain, which - is something I'm not a fan of.

Back to the story though, one of the surviving New Men, a cow-woman who Herbert named "Bova" (derived from a Latin word for cow) was tasked with taking care of the infants, while the High Evolutionary looked for a new home for them. He ended up placing the infants with Django and Marjya Maximoff, a Romani couple who were unable to have children of their own.

Note: Sorry, another complaint...it’s just super weird in Spider-Woman: Origin that the whole Bova in evolved cow is made out to be a delusion put in Jessica Drew’s mind by Hydra, and that Bova is actually a human woman named Bova????? I'm sorry, but why the fuck would that be her name? Did her parents hate her?

Also, it's just annoying because Bova doesn't have a purpose in the story other than to be a vehicle for the writers to be like "oh, yeah, we are retconning the High Evolutionary and his New Men! Yep, they never existed. Mhm, Hydra made them up entirely to mentally torture one child."

It seems evident that someone thought that this origin was too weird, but I just – aghhhhhhh. Okay, let’s move on.

After this, Magnus departed, saying that his duties there were done and that he had to relinquish Jonathan's body and return to his grave. But he also told the High Evolutionary that he would miss him and tasked Herbert with not neglecting the daughter of the man whose body Magnus had borrowed.

Part 4: Leaving 'Paradise'

It would still be years, though, before Jessica Drew finally woke up well from her prolonged sleeping beauty slumber. When she did wake up, her memories of her parents and her former life were very dim. She had been so young when she had gotten sick that she didn't remember anything clearly from before. So this strange world of talking, anthropomorphic animals and a knight's code of honour and all that - that was the world she really grew up in.

Note: I think that's part of what made me fall so hard for this backstory. Something about how casually and naturally Jess relayed it all to Nick Fury when looking back years later: the "High Evolutionary" promising to raise Jess like his own daughter, animals with the intelligence and faculty of human beings, the desire to recreate Camelot. They were all presented as the most normal things in the world, which is what really gripped me.

Because that is how a child raised in a bizarre environment would take it in - as their normal. And as someone who grew up in a cult, well, I really resonated with that. I mean, there are other ways that Jess's upbringing resembles being brought up in a cult (which I'll talk about a bit more soon) - but even the just talking about bizarre things as if they are completely straightforward (because that was your lived experience) is so interesting to me.

I also really like the idea of Jess being raised in a knight-centred culture, because this actually gives more context/insight into her character. Like why she has more negative emotions around being "a coward" than she does about killing people. Or why one of the things that pisses her off the most is seeing someone attack someone who is weak/defenceless, and why Jess would go in for the kill against the attacker in those situations. Of course, anyone would be upset about that, but there is a such level of anger there that we can see this goes against one of her core beliefs. An honourable knight is going to defend the weak, and hurting someone who is weaker than you is utterly despicable.

And it's just interesting that these values are following her even to this day, even though they were put in place by someone who was neglectful/abusive.

That's getting a little ahead of the story though:

So, when Jess woke up she had only physically aged to around 10 years old (or in some sources her early teens) - even though she had been asleep for over three decades. However, because she'd been in a coma-like state all this time, emotionally, she was still younger.

The High Evolutionary immediately placed Jess in Bova's care. He claimed he would be like a father to her, but he was preoccupied. His confrontation with Chthon had had a huge impact on him. For the first time, he had been come across something he couldn’t explain and was so much more powerful than him. That had rattled him, had shaken him to the core.

It's also possible that witnessing so much death and having his friend effectively abandon him a second time had resulted in Herbert becoming more emotionally detached. When he did interact with Jessica, it was mostly to examine the abilities he and Jonathan had given her.

One of the darker implications from around this time is that Jess has an ability to be resistant to toxins, but the way the power works is that she has to be exposed to a poison, endure the effects of it, heal from it, and then she will have an immunity to it. The fact that she already has a very clear understanding of how that power works in her first solo series suggests that multiple poisons were tested on her before it.

Looking back at this time in her life, Jess also expressed that she mostly felt like a labratory animal (which could be one reason why she has such a strong affinity towards characters like Logan/Wolverine or even the Hulk.)

Note: I will say that Spider-Woman: Origin does also have Jess be a test subject (although Jonathan is the perpetrator instead of The High Evolutionary.) I also do think the writers of the mini did enough research into Jessica Drew that they did try bring forward some of the same themes.

Sadly, one thing that was lost in this new origin was Jessica Drew seeing her father/father figure as a god/God. It's just one of my favourite things in stories where parental figures are lifted up onto this worshipful pedestal, and in this case, it makes a lot of sense. The High Evolutionary did save Jess's life, and he had cared for her even after her biological father abandoned her. He was her saviour.

Also, all these people around her - the New Men - they saw the High Evolutionary as God, because he was the one who had brought them to this new level of consciousness, and if he wanted to, he could also take that away. The New Men had also basically been taught that their whole purpose in life was to serve the High Evolutionary. This was readily accepted by most of them, and while others, like Bova, would go on to ponder if there was more to their existence, no one at this time was really questioning the High Evolutionary's authority. He was their king, their God, their everything.

And this does remind me of how cult members are "supposed to" and how many people in cults do view cult leaders. Add to this that the High Evolutionary did not allow outsiders (with very exceptions) into Wundagore, and that he forbade the New Men and Jessica Drew from ever leaving, and you have a very isolated and insular environment. Which is very, very cult-like.

There is also something about how the High Evolutionary can and later does devolve New Men - whether that be as punishment, or because he thought it was a mistake to evolve them up in the first place, or just because he was tired of a particular New Man - that makes me think of the dehumanisation that often takes place in cults. How personhood can be given or taken away.

Not that this is the only way to view the High Evolutionary, especially since he does eventually become more and more actually godlike in power and is even referred to as "God" at some points - you could also see the High Evolutionary as critique on God or how God is perceived, or well, something else entirely I suppose.

However you want to look at it, being "God" isn't always easy. Which Herbert was starting to realise.

Because the New Men saw him as this omniscient being, the High Evolutionary was getting flooded with questions. So, to bear the brunt of that barrage, the High Evolutionary recruited Jane Foster (yes, that Jane Foster) to be the New Men's new teacher. That way he could concentrate on what was really important to him.

Which, if you thought that would be spending some quality with his adopted daughter...well, no, that wasn't even on his radar. What he wanted to do was work on his genetic accelerator, with the hopes of making more advanced New Men.

It was just the hand that fate had handed him, his duty to make a perfect world, yada yada

Now Thor (Jane's love) happened to see Jane being taken off to an isolated location and thought she had been kidnapped. He came down to Wundagore, and basically walked into an ongoing battle.

The High Evolutionary had been making adjustments to his genetic accelerator, and had beamed a different type of isotope at the wolf he was evolving up. The wolf ended up coming out more "advanced" than the other New Men: smarter, more capable, but also filled with hate - towards the High Evolutionary and all of humanity. Declaring himself to be the "Man-Beast," the evolved wolf quickly took control of the genetic accelerator, and made new New Men - ones who would be loyal to him and help him overthrow the High Evolutionary.

A battle ensued, with Thor joining forces with the High Evolutionary, the Knights of Wundagore, and Jessica Drew to put down the Man Beast's rebellion. (This would be the first time Jess would use her venom blasts in a fight.) The Man-Beast and his underlings were defeated, but the High Evolutionary was again shaken. For the first time, he wondered if he had made a mistake tampering with evolution. Thor certainly thought so.

Finally, the High Evolutionary decided that humanity and his New Men couldn’t peacefully coexist. So, taking all but a handful of his New Men into his spaceflight-capable citadel, he took off for the stars.

Jessica Drew watched in Bova's arms, as her home lifted off the ground and disappeared into the sky.

Note: I don't know why, but I just find the image of Jess watching her home and her father/God disappear into outerspace never to return to her again particularly poignant. I especially ruminate on this when thinking about her and Carol, and how they see outerspace so differently. Carol having such positive connotations with it, and Jess such negative ones. It would just be interesting if it went all the way back to their childhood. (Even though, of course, a big reason why Jess hates/is scared of space is the whole being kidnapped/held captive by Skrull thing.)

But to return to the story, Jess and Bova and the rest of the New Men have to go on and adjust to life without their "God." Now none of the New Men, besides Bova, had really shown Jess any love or acceptance. They had tolerated her presence because the High Evolutionary had called her his daughter. However, now that the High Evolutionary was no longer there, well, things were different. The New Men started to become more and more vocal about their dislike for Jessica Drew.

The reason why they disliked her basically came down to two things. 1) at this point time Jess was instinctively/subconsciously giving off alarm pheromones that upset people around her 2) the fact that she had both human and spider DNA upset the New Men's sense of order. The High Evolutionary was fully human. They were animals brought up to personhood, but Jess was neither of those things, so they did not know how to view her.

Also, now that the High Evolutionary was gone, Jessica Drew was the only none New Man around, and though she begged and pleaded for their acceptance, the New Men just became more and more hostile towards her.

Finally, Bova decided that this was getting way out of hand, and she and Jess agreed maybe it would be best if Jess left and tried her luck among humankind. At this point in time, Jess was physically around seventeen, but because she was still catching up from spending a chunk of her childhood unconscious and had lived such an isolated existence, she came across as younger and was certainly very naive.

Despite this, Bova did not go with the child she had been ordered to take care of. Not that I actually exactly blame her in this situation. It had never been her decision to have or take care of a child. Also, she probably thought that Jess had a higher chance of being accepted if she weren't with a talking cow. Bova would have also wanted to stay with the people/community she knew and cared about, and would not want to go to some stranger place where she knew she would be shunned.

This did lead, however, to Jess going out into the world alone, a child among strangers. And in very mutant backstory fashion [even though Jess is not mutant - well, at least, not as of yet] Jess ended up accidentally killing a human man with her powers. (She was suddenly startled and hit him with a venom blast.) This led to the village turning against her, and a terrorist organisation - Hydra - coming to her "rescue."

Part 5: Hydra

After this point, this origin and Spider-Woman: Origin become a lot more alike. In both origins:

Jess joins Hydra when she is physically seventeen but emotionally/mentally younger (because in both origins she spends a sizable chunk of her childhood unconscious.) She is lied to/brainwashed in some way. She is then trained to be a spy/fighter/assassin. A guy named Jared starts a manipulative relationship with her, as he becomes her boyfriend and handler. Jared allows himself to be captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., so that Jess will come and rescue him and kill Nick Fury. Jess breaks into Fury's location, but while she is there, it is revealed to her that Hydra - and Jared specifically - have been attacking innocent/defenceless people. Jared tells Jess that their relationship was fake/that he never loved her/that he found her disgusting - before he ends up dying by her hand. Jess then ends up killing Otto Vermis. Fury tries to recruit her to S.H.I.E.L.D., but she slips through his fingers.

Some differences include:

1.

In Spider-Woman: Origin Taskmaster is shown to the one who trained Jessica Drew. This is more an addition than a contradiction to anything that was previously canon. And it's something I do actually like/have no problem with.

Well, the one nitpick I have is Taskmaster taunting Jess's costume - which would not bother me in isolation. It's just that Bendis put her back in this costume, only to have multiple people make fun of it, so whenever I see a character doing that, I hear it in Bendis' rather than the character's voice.

I also would have kind of preferred if Chris Claremont's addition to the costume's history was included. Basically Claremont had it be Jess's idea - that she fought for - to have the costume be not the usual Hydra green.

The brightly coloured costume is not great for stealth work, but I would say that it could speak to Jess's character. The colours are interesting because they are typical of poisonous animals, so the costume is like a warning sign. It could speak to Jess's sense of fairness or even her cockiness to go after her enemies in red and yellow and black.

It would also make a lot more sense to why she kept using the costume after leaving Hydra, even though that wasn't the smartest decision. If she chose the colours and felt like this was her first successful rebellion after being controlled all her life, yeah, that would give a lot more emotional/sentimental value to the costume.

I also like this idea because the person who designed Spider-Woman's original costume was actually a woman, the Marie Severin.

2.

In previous versions Otto Vermis was the Hydra general Jess was serving under, and who she killed by bending the wing of his plane and making it crash. But because Spider-Woman: Origin plays musical chairs with the characters, Wyndham (instead of being the High Evolutionary) is the Hydra general, and Vermis (instead of being the general) is just a Hydra guy Jess sleeps with for information about her father's whereabouts and then kills after he tries to kill her.

Now I don’t think it's totally out-of-character for Jess to start a sexual relationship with someone she is not attracted to in order to save/protect someone she loves, because the upper limit to what she would do to protect the people in her life is very high, but I still thought this was well, unnecessary.

3.

In Spider-Woman: Origin, Jonathan Drew is killed by Viper because he finally decides he doesn't want to be involved with Hydra anymore. In Spider-Woman (1978) after finally returning to America, Jonathan Drew is killed by an American congressman because Jonathan uncovered the motives of this group he was doing research for.

I will say that Spider-Woman: Origin is neater - is that the word? - more contained with Jessica Drew's parents' deaths. Miriam Drew is killed by her husband in front of her daughter, and then Jonathan Drew is killed by Hydra, specifically Viper. But in my opinion, the addition of having Jess see her father kill her mother in front of her doesn't really add anything to her character. And because earlier in Origin, they also had Jonathan Drew not like Jess from birth, it just kept making me think of Brian Banner, and how this backstory fits Bruce Banner better.

For some reason, it also really irritates me that Merriem/Miriam is made out to be the vastly better parent, and I don’t like how this has continued into newer comics. Maybe this is an overreaction, but I feel like I'm being spoon-fed this idea that all biological mothers are instinctively more loving and nurturing.

Speaking of biological mothers though, I did say I would get back to Viper. So, basically, the story behind Viper and Spider-Woman is just that Chris Claremont wanted Viper to be Jessica Drew's mother, so he made that retcon in Spider-Woman (1978) #44. However, J. M. DeMatteis, who was writing Captain America comics parallel to this, apparently didn’t like this idea, or someone didn't like it, so the retcon was retconned a year later (in Captain America #281.) So now Viper wasn't actually Jessica Drew's mother. Morgan Le Fay had just planted false memories in Viper's mind to make her believe that she was Jessica Drew's mother.

Which I mean I don’t really mind either scenario. I would be cool with Viper being Jess's biological mother, but also Morgan Le Fay did want to be the one to kill Jessica Drew (after Jess refused to swear eternal fealty to Morgan Le Fay and instead skewerd Morgan with her own sword), so I could totally see Morgan fucking with Viper's mind/memory just so that Viper would hesitate and not beat her to killing Jess.

4.

Okay, I am just going to make note of one other difference, and then I'm done, I'm through.

Weird thing: Jessica Drew unexplainably attending San Francisco State University in Origin takes me out of the story more than the not-scientifically sound explanation of being "extensively educated by the High Evolutionary during stasis." I actually find it pretty easy to accept the story logic of Jess learning languages and the contents of books subconsciously.

But not only does Jess attending university not fit with Spider-Woman (1978) or any of Jess's earlier appearances, but it leads to so many unanswered questions, like (if she wasn’t learning anything in the ten years she was in a coma) what was her schooling like up to this point? How did she get into university without a prior education, or transcripts? Like maybe she's just sitting in on a class, but that is not explained either. Nothing is explained.

Okay, I'm finally done now. Thanks for reading, and if you'd like, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject too!

Sources:

Thor #134-135 (Stan Lee/Jack Kirby)

Marvel Spotlight #32 (Archie Goodwin/Sal Buscema)

Marvel Two-In-One #29-#33 (Marv Wolfman/Ron Wilson)

Spider-Woman (1978) #1, #5, #6, #20, #35, #37 (Marv Wolfman/Carmine Infantino; Mark Gruenwald/Carmine Infantino; Chris Claremont/Steve Leialoha)

Avengers #187 (Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant, David Michelinie/John Byrne)

The Saga of the High Evolutionary (Mark Gruenwald/Paris Cullins & Ron Lim), found in:

X-Factor Annual #3, The Punisher Annual #1, Silver Surfer Annual #1, New Mutants Annual #4, Fantastic Four Annual #21, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22, X-Men Annual #12, Web of Spider-Man Annual #4, West Coast Avengers Annual #3

Collected by bringbackwendellvaughn here:

Scarlet Spider Unlimited (Glenn Herdling/Tod Smith)

Quicksilver #9 (John Ostrander, Joe Edkin/Ivan Reis)

Marvel Atlas #1

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol 1 #5

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol 1 #14

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol 2 #15

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Avengers 2005

All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #5

FF: Fifty Fantastic Years

History of the Marvel Universe (2019) #4 (Mark Waid/Javier Rodriguez & Alvaro Lopez)

Spider-Woman: Origin (Brian Michael Bendis, Brian Reeds/Jonathan Luna, Joshua Luna)

[devoted-horror]

THE RULES.

◇ given the nature of this blog, there will be graphic content that some people may be uncomfortable with, like unhealthy relationships, murder, and the sort. if that sort of stuff makes you uncomfortable, i ask that you do not read any content on this blog.

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WHAT I WRITE.

◇ horror movie characters [slashers & victims]

ㅤslashers — michael myers, jason voorhees, bubba sawyer, thomas hewitt, billy loomis, stu macher, ethan landry, quinn bailey, corey cunningham, mark hoffman, amanda young, brahms heelshire, tiffany valentine, jennifer check, charles lee ray, bo sinclair, vincent sinclair, lester sinclair, billy lenz, asa emory, jesse cromeans, xenomorphs, candyman, mary mason, baby firefly, otis driftwood, pinhead.

ㅤvictims — sidney prescott, tatum riley, adam stanheight, lawrence gordon, jill tuck, peter strahm, ellen ripley, erin harson, kirby reed, grace le domas, samantha carpenter, colin gray, tara carpenter, anita lesnicki, arkin o’brien, carly jones, nick jones, lindsey perez, allison kerry, skye riley, rose cotter, joel (from smile).

◇ dead by daylight

ㅤ— every killer excluding the nightmare and every survivor.

ㅤ— this includes the casting of frank stone characters. minus stan.

◇ lollipop chainsaw

ㅤ— everyone excluding rosalind.

◇ the walking dead

ㅤtv series — rick grimes, lori grimes, morgan jones, glenn rhee, theodore douglas, carol peletier, daryl dixon, andrea harrison, maggie rhee, beth greene, michonne grimes, sasha williams, tyreese williams, tara chambler, eugene porter, rosita espinosa, abraham ford, gabriel stokes, enid, aaron, negan smith, paul rovia, ezekiel sutton, magna, yumiko okumura, luke abrams, connie, kelly, juanita 'princess' sanchez, maxxine porter, michael mercer.

ㅤgame series — lee everett, kenny, katjaa, doug, carley, lilly, ben paul, christa, omid, molly, luke, carlos, nick, sarita, jane, javier garcía, kate garcía, violet, louis, marlon, minerva, james.

please note that everything above is subject to change in the future.