#anton vanko

[87ofbite]

Heroes and villains from Marvel

[comicchannel]

Marvel Legends Series Retro Iron Man Whiplash Hasbro F9028

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[d3vil36]

Am the only person who ships Justin Hammer and Whiplash from Iron Man 2?

[sonofcoulson]

1959 Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series 2

S.H.I.E.L.D. has been running pretty smoothly for some time now. But a pair of terrible twins are about to disrupt things for the team…Fenris! They are older (77) in 1959 (their age is related to where The Gifted is in this timeline) and some of their story will be told in flashback.

They have been setting up Hellfire Club chapters around the world, trying to manipulate world events in the club's favour. They create terrorist incidents and blame them on other factions, plant misinformation etc. They have also been finding or rescuing promising mutants then enticing/forcing them to join.

Nathaniel Essex is referred to as "our employer" but never by name. No one has been able to work out how the bombs were planted in these incidents, but Howard works out that Fenris are the bomb, managing to link these incidents together and build up a profile for the now elderly Von Struckers. 

In a slight rework from the original The Gifted timeline, the London incident should be 1915 and it's the Police in pursuit, Rio should be 1930 with SSR investigating and pursuing. They manage to evade capture until this series. 

They chase them across the world after the latest incident in Plac Zamkovy, which kills hundreds. They can't figure out what gives them this power (no one knows about mutants, except Otto Strucker). They finally catch up with them and Andrea is killed before they can detonate. Andreas flees to grieve and consider his next move.

They have embedded themselves in Hydra to disguise their true allegiance.

Peggy, Howard, the Howling Commandos, Brian and Jacqueline Falsworth are all present but Adam Brashear is now off world and Sousa 'died' in 1955 as per original AoS s7 continuity. James Braddock (actor tbc) is more prominent here after being a background character previously, also he had "mystically given" powers, but kept them secret from all but a select few, also a great scientist. Very useful for S.H.I.E.L.D. and S.T.R.I.K.E.

As a second arc in this series Howard and Anton Vanko finalise their prototype for the arc reactor. Howard wants to keep developing it in secret, with a view to sharing it when he is sure it can't be copied or duplicated without them both. He has learned his lesson from season 1 of Agent Carter where some of his technology was dangerously flawed or misappropriated. He doesn't want the arc reactor rushed. He doesn't want the technology to fall into the wrong hands. Vanko wants to patent it and start selling the idea straight away. 

Vanko: It's too important not to share it right now.

Stark: I see that it could help the world right now, but I am not prepared to compromise on safety or security. If we rush out a design that could be reverse engineered relatively easily it could start another world war.

V: You just don't want to share the technology with Russia, do you? You think Russia is Leviathan? You think I am with Leviathan? I have known you 13 years Howard…

S: Now Anton, it's not like that, I just need to put in some checks and bal-

V: You want to take all the credit! Where is the proof I was involved in the design if there is no patent?

S: Now wait a minute Anton-

V: You want all the profit too?

S (scoffs): This shouldn't be about money.

V: This is easy for you to say. You live in America like a billionaire,  I live here like a Russian immigrant.

S: I pay you well enough Anton…Let's just…let's just cool off…talk about this in the morning. We can work this out.

V (tersely): Good night, Mr Stark.

By the next morning, Vanko has gone and so have the blueprints. S.H.I.E.L.D. tracks him down and recover the blueprints and hand him over to the company lawyers who have him charged and deported. Howard is too angry to object to the industrial espionage charges or the deportation. He does, however, offer to pay Vanko his share of any profits their design makes. Vanko refuses, arrogantly thinking he can recreate the designs on his own in Russia. He cannot and ends up drunk and destitute setting up Iron Man 2.

Post credits:-

With the Fenris bomb duo out of the picture, we see Sebastian Shaw at the Las Vegas chapter of the Hellfire Club taking a phone call from his employer saying he "would be delighted to be the new black king". After he hangs up he says "now to find myself a queen".

[theconstantsidekick]

My Greatest Creation Is You

Pairings: Tony Stark x Stark!Reader (siblings), Howard Stark x Stark!Reader (best friends)

Genre: A bickering fluffy look back at the good times, with slight angst

Summary:  Tony realizes he never really knew his father. Thankfully he has a box of Howard Starks's stuff and a video message from beyond the grave to help him out.

(These scenes incorporate y/n, codename—Static, into the pre-existing story as a character without making drastic changes to the plot or mythos. All the major plot points from the MCU remain in place with the addition of the reader as Static, who is not only a Stark but also enhanced. Whatever events from the canon aren’t mentioned, take place without much change.)

Warnings: Swearing, Mentions of Death, Mentions of Past Trauma.

a/n: read Age Of Ultron for more information on Y/n's backstory

sidenote: I just missed Tony a lot, ok?

The Suit And Tony Stark Are One (previous part) | Series Masterlist | The Avengers (Ft. Static) | Age of Ultron (Static Origin Story) | Static Verse Masterlist  | Iron Man 1 (ft. Static) | Bucky Barnes, the Boyfriend

“That thing in your chest is based on unfinished technology,” Fury tells him as they sit next to each other, listening to the sound of bird chip away at what once used to be his center table. They’re at his place, it’s pretty banged up from the party, the windows are all gone, he can hear the waves beneath them, hell, he can even hear the birds chirping. 

“No, it was finished,” Tony argues. “It has never been particularly effective until I miniaturized it and put it in my—”

“No,” Fury interjects. “Howard said the arc reactor was the stepping stone to something greater. He was about to kick off an energy race that was gonna dwarf the arms race. He was on to something big, something so big that it was gonna make the nuclear reactor look like a triple-A battery.”

This is the first he’s hearing of this. 

He begins pouring himself a glass of water. “Just him, or Anton Vanko in on this too?”

“Anton Vanko is the other side of that coin. Anton saw it as a way to get rich,” Fury tells him.

“I told you he got deported, what I didn’t tell you was that Howard was the one who got him deported,” Y/n chimes in from where she stands in front of them, smoking a cigarette while leaning against what used to be a wall. “Once he got back, the Russians found out he couldn’t deliver so they shipped his ass off to Siberia after which he spent the next 20 years in a vodka-fuelled rage.” She exhales letting out the smoke.

“Not quite the environment you want to raise a kid in, the son you had the misfortune of crossing paths with in Monaco,” Fury adds.

Ok, got it, he thinks. Irrelevant now, I’ve got bigger fish to fry.

“You told me I hadn’t tried everything. What do you mean I haven’t tried everything? What haven’t I tried?” Tony asks.

“He said that—” Fury points towards with a glass in hand as he continues, “you were the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started.”

Well, fuck.

“He said that?” Tony doesn’t believe a single word of it.

“Are you that guy? Hm?” Fury leans in, resting his elbows on his knees but his eyes or well eye remains locked on Tony. “Are you? ‘Cause if you are, then you can solve the riddle of your heart.”

It takes a second for Fury’s words to settle, but when they do, all Tony can do is shake his head slowly in what would be considered something similar disagreement or even maybe shock? “I don’t know where you get your information, but he wasn’t my biggest fan.”

“What do you remember about your dad? Huh?” There’s a challenge in Fury’s words.

“He was cold, he was calculating. He never told me he loved me. He never even told me he liked me, so it’s a little tough for me to digest when you’re telling me he said the whole future was riding on me and he’s passing it down. I don’t get that.” He really fucking doesn’t. “You’re talking about a guy whose happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school,” he adds, as he leans back into his chair. 

It’s a fucked up day, don’t you think? Tony’s being told Howard Fucking Stark bet the goddamn future on the son he couldn’t wait to get rid of.

“That’s not true,” Fury counters. His words fall out easy as if the years and years of trauma Howard gave him were not valid. As if whatever he lived through with his father wasn’t all that real. The world has always seen his father in a much different light than he ever did. He made peace with that. Howard Stark was a completely different than Tony’s dad but FUCK if it doesn’t grind his gears when he hears Fury spew this shit.

The future riding on me? Bull fucking shit!

“Well, then, clearly you knew my dad better than I did,” Tony half-concedes, wanting the topic to be over.

“As a matter of fact, I did,” Fury comments, putting his glass down on the makeshift table in front of them. The moment the words fall out of his mouth, a couple agents along with Agent Coulson and Natali—fuck! No. God!—Natasha Romanoff walk up in front of them. “He was one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D.” Fury says that like that wasn’t a fucking bombshell he just dropped. The asshole is all nonchalant, looking down at his watch, absolutely uncensored about how he just broke Tony’s fucking brian a little bit.

The agents drop the crate infront of him.

“What?” Tony asks Fury, confounded. “WHAT?” He looks over at Y/n, who looks even more zen than Fury. “WHAT THE FUCK?”

Fury gets up off the chair “I got a two o’clock.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait! What’s this?” He asks, pointing at the crate.

“Okay, you’re good, right?” Fury asks, ready to walk away.

Tony’s up too. “No, I’m not good.”

“You got this? Right? Right?” Fury asks, pointing over at the crate.

“Got what?” Tony’s fucking lost. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to get.”

“Natasha will remain a floater at Stark with her cover intact,” Fury informs him as he puts on his jacket. “You remember Agent Coulson, right?”

“Yeah,” is all he can say because he knows he’s not getting any more answers out of that guy.

Fury begins walking away, but stops for a second, turning to face him again, “Oh! And Tony, remember, I got my eye on you.”

That’s fucking hilarious.

Natalie/Agent Romanoff/Natasha—We will—we’ll just call her Agent Romanoff from hereon out. Anyway, so, Agent Romanoff says, “We’ve disabled all communications. No contact with the outside world. Good luck.” And with that she leaves as well.

Turning to Coulson, Tony begins, “Please. First thing, I need a little bodywork. I’ll put in a little time at the lab. If we could send one of your goon squad down to The Coffee Bean, Cross Creek, for a Starbucks run, or something like that, that’d be nice.”

“I’m not here for that,” Coulson’s reply is simple. “I’ve been authorised by Director Fury to use any means necessary to keep you on-premises. If you attempt to leave or play any games, I will tase you and watch Supernanny while you drool into the carpet. Okay?”

Fuck me! “I think I got it, yeah,” he replies instead. 

“Enjoy your evening’s entertainment,” Coulson comments. He turns over to Y/n then, “Ms. Stark, good to see you again.”

She smiles then. “Hey Phill, how’ve you been?” She asks as she pulls out the cigarette from between her lips, pulling a foot up and rubbing the butt across the soul of her boots, releasing pretty yellow embers. Pocketing the now extinguished butt she walks over to the men.

“I’ve been great. You?” She just passes a pointed look over at Tony as a response and Coulson has the audacity to smile. “Fair enough. You need anything?”

“A pack of menthols would be great,” she answers with a smile.

“On it,” Coulson nods, walking off.

And Tony cannot help but stare.

“What?” She asks, looking absolutely innocent.

Rolling his eyes, he replies, “Fuck the fuck off, Stark.” And that somehow makes her chuckle.

She waves him over, “Come on,” she says pointing at the crate. Understanding her instruction, both of them pick up the damn thing and begin dragging in downstairs.

It’s a little while later when they’re in the basement that Tony is hit with the realization that he never really knew his father at all.

He’s looking through the crate, it’s all stuff that seems fairly out of place but somewhat useful? He’s not sure. There are blue prints for the arc reactor, newspaper articles, videos reels and such.

He decides to play one of the reels. It seems to be the outtakes from the video of his father that he showcased at the Stark Expo earlier.

“Everything is achievable through technology. Better living, robust heath,” his father speaks on the video tape, while Tony tries flicking through a notebook and notes down some of the calculations he thinks might come in handy. “—and for the first time in human history, the possibility of world peace. I’m Howard Stark, and everything you’ll need for the future can be found right here. City of the Future? City of Tomorrow? City of—Hang on” Dad begins to fumble on the screen, redoing the take. “I’m Howard Stark and everything you’ll need in the future can be found right here.” This is fucking stupid, Tony thinks. He’s about to turn off the damn thing when—

“Hold on,” Y/n speaks up from behind him. It startles him a little because he didn’t even know she had entered the room. “You’re gonna miss the best part.”

And yeah, that grabs his attention.

As she walks over to lean on her side against the wall opposite Tony, the video continues.

While Dad keeps talking to the camera, he reconginizes a small child pop up from behind the model and pick up a building with a mischievous smile on his face. 

“So, from all of us at Stark Industries, I would like to personally—” Howard turns a little and then seems to finally notice Little Tony. “Tony, what are you doing back there? What is that?” He scolds the kid on screen. “Put that back. Put it back where you got it from. Where’s your sister? Y/n? Y/n!”

And then Y/n walks onto the screen, annoyed.

“I’m right fucking here, Howie! Okay? Can you—can you just—I don’t know, relax maybe?” She looks the same as she does right now. Maybe a new wrinkle or two, but mostly the same, except a lot more pissed. “And don’t fucking yell at him, you asshat!”

“Don’t curse infront of him, Y/n! You know how he is, he’ll pick it up and Maria will kill us both,” Howard reprimands her.

He watches as Y/n walks over to Little Tony, leaning down and dropping a kiss on his head. “Well, then don’t talk to him like that. He’s an inquisitive kid. I mean he’s your kid, what the—” she covers Little Tony’s ears with her hands. “—fuck—” she takes them off, “else were you expecting him to be like?”

His dad just shakes his head. “I’m trying to do something here,” he says, pointing at the camera that’s been rolling.

He can see Y/n rolling her eyes at Howard. “Yeah, yeah. Because this is what he’ll remember years later—not the parts where you kept yelling at him for absolute—” she covers her ears again, “—fucking bullshit—” uncovers them, “—that you seemed to care more about. A1 parenting Howie. Why don’t you write a book about it?”

And clearly, Howard feels some sense of guilt about it all because his head falls. With one hand on his waist and the other resting on the model, he revalutes his word for a few seconds and then looks up. Tony (this Tony, not Little Tony) can see he’s about to say something, wants to say something but before he can, Y/n picks up Little Tony on her shoulder. 

“Come on, Stark, we’ll go have our kinda fun and not invite Dad at all,” Y/n says excitedly, making Little Tony giggle.

He watches his dad let out a sigh in defeat.

Then the footage cuts off.

The screen shows a few more outtakes of Howard talking to the camera guy while drinking whiskey or redoing takes.

Tony can’t help himself.

“Why didn’t you tell me Dad founded S.H.I.E.L.D.?” He asks.

Y/n (real Y/n, not the video Y/n) looks over, now leaning on her back, she shrugs. “Wasn’t really pertinent information.”

“Wasn’t pertinent—Are you fucking kidding me?!” Tony’s gonna loose his fucking mind.

“I told you I worked with him!”

Tony can’t help but chuckle. “Now that’s just bullshit!” He’s shouting now, “I thought you meant at Stark Industries!”

“Why the fuck would they need a goddamn spy at Stark Industries??!!” She bites back, standing straight now. She’s shouting too.

“To spy on competitive companies! I don’t know??!!”

“You think Stark Industries needed an expert spy, adept at espionage to keep an eye on their competition?!!” Her hands are flying everywhere. “Is the palladium giving you retroactive brain damage?!”

Frankly? It does seem really stupid on his part to presume that she worked as a spy for Stark Industries. But come on! He wasn’t provided the entire data.

“Oh my god, I get that you’re trying to insult me but that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever,” Tony bites back regardless. “Maybe you’re the one with brain damage.”

She begins walking over to him. “I’ll show you brain damage—”

He gets off the chair, ready to throw down with her. “Yeah, fine, show me, granny—”

Both Stark sibling halt in their position, with hands around each other’s throat, ready to throw punches, when the video recording on the screen calls out to him.

“Tony.” Dad is looking into the camera, sitting atop the model behind him. His previous put together suit gone, all that’s left now is his messy tie and white shirt with rolled up sleeves. “You’re too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put it on film for you. I built this for you. And someday you’ll realise that it represents a whole lot more than just people’s inventions. It represents my life’s work. This is the key to the future. I’m limited by the technology of my time, but one day you’ll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is and always will be my greatest creation is you.”

The reel runs out. Screen goes white.

Both the Starks, slowly take their hands off each other and sit down on the floor, facing each other.

After a silence that seems to stretch on for a little too long, Y/n decides to break it.

“How could you think I was a spy for Stark Industries?” She has a small smile on her face.

Tony can’t help but smile too. “I don’t know, man. You’re just… You’re like the box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in my kitchen cupboard. You’re just here, you’re always here, you’ve always been here. I don’t question it.” He shrugs. “I just enjoy having it be there.”

“It's me,” Y/n says, leaning back far enough to support herself with her elbows.

“What?”

“I replace the boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.”

Tony laughs, “Figures.” He shakes his head. “I—I—I think—” He can’t help but laugh again, “I didn’t put much thought behind it, but I kinda just figured that Aunt Peg just handed you to Dad and that was that.”

Nodding her head slowly, she agrees. “That’s kinda exactly what happened. I was this freak of a thing she’d recued on an op, and then yeah, she basically handed me over to Howie.” Her head falls back as she looks up at the ceiling. “It helped that he was probably my best friend in the entire world.”

Tony snorts in amusement. “Didn’t really look like it on the video,” he says, pointing to the screen.

She looks at him then, “After—I guess, after you were born—I don’t know. It got complicated. I expected him to do better by you. And don’t get me wrong, he tried to… but—” Her words drop off.

“But—” He prompts, desperate to know more.

She shrugs. “But it wasn’t good enough, it wasn’t persistent. He could’ve done better, he should have. He knew that.” She shakes her head. “Like I said, it was complicated.” Her head falls back again. “Once you were born you became my favorite person in the entire world and nothing was good enough. I guess—I mean maybe he just didn’t know how to be a dad, you know? He didn’t make for a great dad, but he was still my best friend.”

And yeah, he can understand that.

This man, the man who saved her, gave her a home, founded an organisation with her, for her—opposing him on anything couldn’t have been easy for her. It all does sound fairly complicated.

I guess Howard Stark never had an uncomplicated relationship, did he?

The thought makes him smile.

But then he remembers.

“Still pretty uncool of you, you know? Going behind my back and calling mom,” he says, with a cunning smile.

She looks at him with an unimpressed look. “I called Fury because he was the only guy who could get through to you. You have a habit of overlooking my advice when shit is hitting the fan.”

He nods in understanding. “But you still called mom.”

“I saved you from dying.”

“...by calling mom.”

She kicks him gently with her leg. “Whatever, asshole.”

Read the next part here.

Find the series masterlist here. Find the Static Verse Masterlist here. Read The Avengers (ft. Static) here.

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[random-movie-ideas]

Essential Characters to Include in an Iron Man Series

These are the most important to include if you want an in-depth series:

Tony Stark AKA Iron Man

James Rhodes AKA War Machine

Riri Williams AKA Ironheart

Pepper Potts AKA Rescue

Bethany Cabe

Happy Hogan

Edwin Jarvis

Howard Stark

Steve Rogers AKA Captain America

Natasha Romanoff AKA Black Widow

Nick Fury

SHIELD

Obadiah Stane AKA Iron Monger

Justin Hammer

Justine Hammer AKA The Crimson Cowl

Anton Vanko AKA Crimson Dynamo

Boris Bullski AKA Titanium Man

Count Luchino Nefaria

Giuliette Nefaria/Whitney Frost AKA Madame Masque

Mark Scarlotti AKA Whiplash

Milos Masaryk AKA Unicorn

George Tarleton AKA M.O.D.O.K.

A.I.M.

The Mandarin

The Ten Rings

Fin Fang Foom

[satashiiwrites]

Snippet sunday/wip whenever

tagged by @outtoshatter for a wip whenever/snippet sunday. Tagging the usual suspects: @monsterrae1 @missanniewhimsy @quietborderline @westernlarch @rosieposiepuddingnpie @whimsyswastry @tkwritesdumbassassins @alyxmastershipper with no pressure tagging—this is just for fun.

From my July Rough Trade.

Title: Scintillation, chapter 4B

Pairing: main Winteriron, one sided Stucky, Erik Killmonger/T’Challa

Fandom: MCU

tags/warnings: canon typical violence, covers a lot of the events of Iron Man 2 with Tony’s inner commentary. First draft. Non-linear storytelling. Sentinel/guide AU. Tony is not a fan of Natasha atm.

Someone goes through a lot of effort to break Vanko out and make it look like he died.

Tony’s money is split between Senator Dickwad and North Korea—he’s leaning toward Stern, with maybe someone like Justin Hammer whispering bad ideas in his ear.  

Rhodey is smarter than doing something this dangerous and stupid, and he immediately messages saying it wasn’t him. Unfortunately, Rhodey also has zero idea which dark and damp hole Vanko has disappeared into. 

Tony instructs Jarvis to keep digging. Eventually, someone will make a mistake, and he’ll know where the Russian is. In the meantime, Tony gathers as much information as possible on Ivan and Anton Vanko. It turns out dear old Dad had known Anton, but the son is a thief and sold weapons to terrorists—even the Russians felt he deserved to be locked up and the key tossed away. 

Russian prisons are brutal. Tony’s been around the block before and met former prisoners, but Vanko makes his skin crawl more than usual. 

His data mining is interrupted by Rhodey warning him that he’s on thin ice with the military. Stern is doing everything in his not-inconsiderable power to try and force the turnover of Tony’s suits to the military, which Tony’s been trying to prevent for the last year. 

When will everyone understand that it’s the man within the suit that makes Iron Man special—not the prosthetics he wears? He wasn’t kidding in his senate testimony when he called the suit a prosthetic. It’s an extension of him and gives him possibilities, but it’s still his decision to pull the trigger and his brain marking targets. 

Take away the human element, and you’re looking at something worse than what happened in Gulmira. 

He won’t let that happen. 

So… he maybe wrecks his own party and house—it’ll make it easier for Pep to redecorate later so she can remove the parts that are too painful to remember about him. He has to push Rhodey to do what Tony needs him to do. If he just asked Rhodey, the man would focus too much on trying to save Tony that he’d defer taking what Tony wants him to have. 

He’s known Rhodey for a long time, and Tony is very aware of exactly when he crosses the line and can’t be ignored anymore. 

Tony needs to know Rhodey will take the shot when it matters. 

Rhodey does, and he takes the suit—or, as Rhodey later puts it, commandeers it. 

You stole it, Honey Bear, and I let you.

Tony is sleeping off the battle and maybe has a slight hangover when he wakes with a craving for donuts. His donut time is interrupted by none other than his royal sneakiness and wannabe pirate, Nick Fury. 

Fury gets in his face and is unimpressed by Tony’s chatter that’s designed to irritate and confuse. 

“I’m the realest person you’re ever going to meet,” Fury insists, but the effect is ruined by the smell of cherries coming from his mouth from the donut he’d just eaten. 

He’s also infuriatingly observant and points out the taint from the palladium that’s starting to creep up Tony’s neck. “What is that? It doesn’t look good.”

Tony is maybe hiding behind his sunglasses like a petulant child. He has a plan and wants to die in peace without being hassled by the spy of spies. 

“I’ve been worse.” He means hangovers, but Fury doesn’t take the line he’s selling. 

Of course, that’s when Natalie Rushman—I’m sorry, Natasha Romanoff—makes her presence known. She’s one of Fury’s pets. He should have known. That’s why she felt like silk stretched over solid steel.  

Tony thinks her ass looks good in her leather suit, but the hair hanging loose in curls is impractical. Pep would be on his side and snarkily observe that capes and long hair are terrible if you’re going to be in the superhero business. She-spy should take note. 

“We’ve secured the perimeter, but I don’t think we should hold it for too much longer,” she informs Fury, ignoring Tony. 

He immediately fires her, which she smugly informs him isn’t up to him, sitting next to Fury and snagging one of Tony’s donuts. 

Uncharitably, Tony hopes she chokes on it. 

[queen-of-the-avengers]

Iron Man 2: Part Eight

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.8k

Warnings: canon violence and angst

Author’s Note: any and all comments are appreciated <3

x

After the fight, Tony's house looks completely broken. As the fight was happening, you didn't register just how much damage both men actually did. Now that it's been at least twelve hours, his house looks sad and broken. Fury, Natasha, Phil, and other SHIELD agents are scattered throughout the house while you and Tony sit with Fury in the main part of the room. The glass walls are gone due to the blast so it's just an empty and open room.

"That thing in your chest is based on unfinished technology," Fury says to Tony.

"No, it was finished. It has never been particularly effective until I miniaturized it and put it in my--"

"No. Howard said the arc reactor was the stepping stone to something greater. He was about to kick off an energy race that was gonna dwarf the arms race. He was on to something big, something so big that it was gonna make the nuclear reactor look like a triple-A battery."

"Just him or was Anton Vanko in on it too?" you wonder.

"Anton Vanko is the other side of that coin. Anton saw it as a way to get rich," he says before looking at Tony. "When your father found out, he had him deported. When the Russians found out he couldn't deliver, they shipped his ass off to Siberia and he spent the next twenty years in a vodka-fuelled rage. Not quite the environment you want to raise a kid in; the son you had the misfortune of crossing paths with in Italy."

"What didn't he try, Nick? We've tried everything."

"He said that Tony is the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started."

"He said that?" Tony scoffs.

"Are you that guy? Are you? If you are, then you can solve the riddle of your heart."

"I don't know where you get your information but he wasn't my biggest fan."

"What do you remember about your dad?" you ask him.

"He was cold and calculating. He never told me he loved me. He never even told me he liked me. So, it's a little tough for me to digest when you're telling me he said the whole future was riding on me and he's passing it down. I don't get that. You're talking about a guy whose happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school."

"That's not true, Tony. He had a bright mind and was excited about things. He talked about you before you were even an idea. I had the pleasure of knowing him when he was your age."

"Well, then, clearly you two knew my dad better than I did."

"As a matter of fact, I did. He was one of the founding members of SHIELD," Fury reveals.

Two men bring a metal box over to you three and set it in front of Tony. He's clearly shocked to hear about this but you knew it would eventually come true. Howard was an inventor and you knew he would go on to do big things. SHIELD wasn't a thing back in the 40s, so it had to have been after you and Steve disappeared from Earth. Howard went to go find Steve in the water and ended up finding something else. You know he did. Maybe he found the Tesseract, you're not sure, but he found something that would influence him to start this organization.

"Excuse me?" Tony asks.

"I got a two o'clock," Fury says after he checks his watch. 

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. What's this?" Tony gets up from his seat and you follow.

"Okay, you're good, right?"

"No, I'm not good."

"You got this? Right?"

"Got what? I don't even know what I'm supposed to get!" Tony shouts.

"Natasha will remain a floater at Stark with her cover intact. You remember Agent Coulson, right?" Fury reintroduces Phil to the group.

"Yeah."

"Tony, remember, I got my eye on you," he says seriously and leaves the premises.

"We've disabled all communications. No contact with the outside world," Natasha says from behind you. You and Tony turn to face her and she just smiles. "Good luck."

"Okay, please. First thing, I need a little bodywork. I'll put in a little time at the lab. If we could send one of your goon squad down to The Coffee Bean for a Starbucks run, or something like that, that'd be nice," Tony says to Phil.

"I'm not here for that. I've been authorized by Director Fury to use any means necessary to keep you on the premises. If you attempt to leave or play any games, I will taze you and watch Supernanny while you drool into the carpet. Okay?"

"Phil," you sigh.

"I think I got it, yeah," Tony nods.

"Enjoy your evening's entertainment."

Phil leaves you and Tony alone with the big metal box that's been left for him by his father. With nothing left to do, Tony gets to work going through the box of memories. He takes the box down to his lab where all of his electronics are. Weirdly enough, the fight never touched the lab. You reach into the box and pull out what looks like blueprints. Upon further examination, you see they're for the arc reactor.

"Who knew all of this stuff was in here."

"You didn't know?"

"Tony, he started on this after I left Earth," you sigh.

You open the blueprints up to their maximum length but what's on the page doesn't make any sense to you. You disregard it and move on to whatever else is in there. Besides the blueprints, the box contains articles about Anton being deported and going crazy, film reels, some of his notebooks, and other little trinkets that have no importance right now.

Tony sifts through the different film reels before deciding he's going to watch the second one he picked up. He has three of them. You take the film reel and place it inside the machine that can showcase these kinds of reels. It's not very often you see these kinds of machines nowadays. The film starts, and it's the behind-the-scenes of Howard Stark when he was making the video that was shown at the Expo earlier.

"Everything is achievable through technology. Better living, robust heath, and for the first time in human history, the possibility of world peace. I'm Howard Stark, and everything you'll need for the future can be found right here," Howard says and points to the table behind him. 

You're fully invested in this since you considered Howard Stark to be a good friend of yours while Tony looks through one of his notebooks.

"City of the Future? City of Tomorrow? City of," he trails off and looks at the camera before starting again. "I'm Howard Stark and everything you'll need in the future can be found right here. So, from all of us at Stark Industries, I would like to personally..." He focuses on something or someone behind the camera. "Tony, what are you doing back there? What is that?"

Kid Tony is seen lingering in the background, and he picks up one of the buildings of the model that's on the table. Howard finally notices him and immediately gets stern with him. 

"Put that back. Put it back where you got it from. Where's your mother? Maria? Go on. Go, go," he sighs.

A cameraman picks Tony up and brings him to wherever his mother is. This isn't the Howard you knew.

"This isn't him," you mutter.

"It is. You just weren't around to see it happen," Tony rolls his eyes and flips through the empty pages in the back of the notebook.

The video stops and you put in another film reel. This one is a bit thicker so it has a lot more video footage. It's of the same setup, just at a different time. Howard is leaning against the table and staring straight into the camera.

"So, from all of us at Stark Industries, I'd like to personally show you my ass," Howard jokes. It seems like he doesn't know what to say. "I'd like to... I can't... This is... I can't... We have this, don't we? This is a ridiculous way... Everything is achievable through technology."

The film cuts to a different point, and Howard looks serious this time. 

"Tony. You're too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put it on film for you." Tony looks up from his notebook emotionally. "I built this for you, and someday you'll realize that it represents a whole lot more than just people's inventions. It represents my life's work. This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out. When you do, you will change the world. What is and always will be my greatest creation is you."

Tony looks like he's about to cry at the end of it since all of this is new information. His father loved him, he just wasn't great at showing it.

"He loved you so much, Tony," you whisper and pat his leg as you stand up.

That's all for the film reels so there is only one place left to go. His office has the exact table that his father was working on. It's not a great start but a start nonetheless. You two pile into his luxurious car and he speeds down the highway to get to his office. Phil must not care about a security breach since he didn't stop you from leaving.

It's a beautiful day to be traveling only if Tony would slow down to enjoy the scenery. There is a person on the side of the highway selling strawberries to try and make ends meet. Tony pulls over for the man who looks excited he has a customer.

"How much?" Tony asks.

"Six dollars. Six," the Spanish man nods.

"I don't have any dough. Do you?" he asks you, but he doesn't wait for a response. He decides to trade in his very expensive watch for the box of strawberries. They are your favorite but you know he didn't buy them for you. He bought them for Pepper. "Here."

"No, sir, that's too much."

"No, it's fine. Take that. It's fine"

"No, señor."

"Take it. Take it," he insists. The man takes the watch and hands Tony the strawberries but you grab the box instead. "I don't like people handing me things."

"I got them," you sigh.

"Are you Iron Man?"

"Sometimes," he says and peels onto the road.

"I don't think a box of strawberries will be a big enough apology," you state and eat two.

Tony continues down the highway until he gets to his office. His employees used to practically bow down to Tony but since Pepper became the CEO, they've been distant towards him. He walks into his office despite what her assistant says while you pause by the door. A certain redhead down the hall captures your attention.

"Hey," you greet Natasha when you see her.

"Hi. What are you doing here?"

"Tony needs something from his office. Something his dad left him." Natasha nods and gathers some papers that Pepper needs to sign. "Look, we haven't had a chance to talk since that night because of everything that's happened since, but I want you to know I really like you. Would you let me take you on a proper date once this has blown over?"

"Yeah, I'd like that," Natasha smiles.

Despite what her file says about her, she is very sweet and kind. She's a woman underneath that Black Widow persona, and she still gets butterflies when someone she likes flirts with her.

"Good. I'll let you get to it, then."

You leave her alone and join Tony and Pepper in her office. She is on the phone with someone, and she doesn't look happy about it. A news reporter is on the TV talking about you and Tony, and what happened in Italy.

"Listen, it's our position that Stark has and continues to maintain proprietary ownership of the Mark II platform," Pepper says.

"When Mr. Stark announced he was indeed Iron Man, he was making a promise to America. We trusted that he would look out for us. He obviously did not. Not to mention the secrets Y/N is keeping from us. What serum runs through her body? Is it a threat to us? Are there others like her we need to worry about? No statement has been given from either Y/N or Stark, but that just leaves us with more questions than answers."

You walk over to her desk and take a seat while Tony browses his office. In the corner are big platforms with sheets covering them that Tony rips off to reveal the same table that Howard was standing in front of. Whatever is on that table is the key to Tony's survival.

"No... Burt... Burt... Burt, listen to me. Don't tell me that we have the best patent lawyers in the country and then not let me pursue this. ... Well, then, tell the President to sign an order. We'll talk about it at the Expo. ... Hammer's giving a presentation tomorrow evening. Will Tony Stark be there?"

"Will I?" Tony asks as he pulls up a chair beside you.

"No, he will not. Bye," she hangs up.

"Got a minute?" he asks and sets the strawberries on the desk.

"No."

"Come on, you just got off the phone. You're fine. Thirty seconds."

"Twenty-nine. Twenty-eight," she sighs and counts as she looks at her watch.

"I was just driving over here and I thought I was coming to basically apologize, but I'm not."

"You didn't come here to apologize?"

"Look, that goes without saying and I'm working on that. I haven't been entirely upfront with you, and I just want to try to make good. Do you know how short life is? If I never got to express... By the way, this is somewhat revelatory to me. I don't care... I mean, I care. It would be nice. I'm not expecting you to... Look, here's what I'm trying to say. I'm just gonna say it."

"Let me stop you right here, okay?" she interrupts him. "If you say 'I' one more time, I'm gonna actually hurl something at your head, I think. I am trying to run a company. Do you have any idea what that entails?"

"Yes."

"People are relying on you to be Iron Man and you've disappeared, and all I'm doing is putting out your fires and taking the heat of it. I am trying to do the job that you were meant to do." She looks at the box of strawberries and sighs. "Did you bring me strawberries? Did you know that there's only one thing on Earth that I'm allergic to?"

"This is progress, Pepper. I knew there was a correlation between you and this," Tony says and motions to the fruit.

"I need you to leave... now."

Someone knocks on the door, and Natasha walks in with Happy behind her.

"Ms. Potts? Wheels up in twenty-five minutes."

"Thank you."

Natasha walks over to the desk and hands Pepper some papers to sign. Tony can't stop staring at her since he found out who she really is.

"Anything else, boss?" Happy asks.

"I'm good, Hap."

"No, I'll be just another minute," Pepper says at the same time as Tony.

It appears that Tony thought Happy was still reporting to him when really, he reports to Pepper now.

"I lost both the kids in the divorce," he laughs, but Happy just shakes his head. "Are you blending in well here, Natalie? Here at Stark Industries? Your name is Natalie, isn't it? I thought you two didn't get along?"

She doesn't answer him but the fire in her eyes is an answer enough. 

"Actually, while you're here, maybe you and Natalie could discuss the matter of the personal belongings," Pepper clears her throat.

"Absolutely," Natasha nods.

Pepper and Happy exit the room, and it's only when they are both gone that Natasha and Tony start mouthing off to each other.

"I'm surprised you can keep your mouth shut," she says.

"Boy, you're good. You are mind-blowingly duplicitous. How do you do it? You're a triple imposter. I've never seen anything like you. Is there anything real about you? Do you even speak Latin?"

Natasha says something in Latin but you never got around to learning the language. You're fluent in a lot of languages that you've gotten the chance to learn over a thousand years. Latin was used in the 7th century, BC. That's way before your time here.

"Which means? Wait. What? What did you just say?" he asks as she walks towards the doors.

"It means you can either drive yourself home or I can have you collected," she leaves.

"Damn," you whistle. "Everyone hates you right now."

"Shut up," he mumbles and gets up.

He takes the box of strawberries and throws them away. The pile of his things in the corner just sits there and Tony stares at them wondering what to do with them. He yanks down the rest of the sheet so that everything is visually available to him. There is something on the table that he can't stop staring at, and he covers one eye to have a different perspective. His right hand forms a circle and he places that hand over his eye.

"Tony, what are you doing?"

"Help me with these to the car. I think I have something."

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[marvel-ousmondays]

Iron Man 2

All right, let's do this.

Not too long ago I saw a post somewhere where someone was complaining about this movie. I was trying to think back and remember what they might not have liked.

Having rewatched it, I just think they are crazy.

I might as well start by fangirling over Mickey Rourke's depiction of Whiplash. This character DESERVED more than one movie, it was so well done. (Accent not withstanding- I don't know what a good Russian accent sounds like, but I know a bunch of people didn't like his.) First of all, we have this powerful specimen of a man weeping over his father's death, demonstrating depth of emotion. We then see him kicking ass in the science department. Rourke plays this menacing genius so well. He is largely silent and unreactive, so every word we get from him, every twitch of an eyebrow is meaningful. He's captivating from the moment we meet him. He's also not screwing around. When he goes after Tony, he goes for the kill. He does not care about casualties. Too often, superhero movies will have a villain expound on their reasons for what they are doing, thus giving our hero time to get away. Whiplash doesn't do that. He gets down to business. He's strong, he's brilliant, he's capable of this destruction. But for the foresight of Pepper bringing the suit and Happy driving, Stark would be dead. Luck is Whiplash's undoing, not his own ego.

To dive in further here though, I love the way the movie forces us to see everyone else's perception of this man. Hammer WATCHES Vanko (Whiplash) hack into his suits, he WATCHES him do physics on a Stark scale, and yet still, when money fails to produce results, he treats him like a big dumb lug who can be bullied by bigger, dumber lugs. Because Vanko refuses to speak proper English throughout the movie (which my headcanon is that he can, but chooses not to) and because he's large and tattooed and has long messy hair, the assumption is repeatedly made that he's a dumb ox. EVEN WHEN THEY HAVE EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY. What I love about this is that it's so freaking true to life. People will make assumptions about a person based on physique and will hold on to these assumptions, even when PROVEN wrong. (See Lizzo and every plus-size athlete.) Tony IS a notable exception here. When he confronts Vanko, he talks to him scientist to scientist, acknowledging his intelligence, before taunting him with being stuck in prison. He sees the brain combined with the brawn and, while he refuses to show any fear, he knows the man is a force to be reckoned with.

My only complaint is the dismissive attitude everyone had regarding Howard Stark having Anton Vanko deported. I'm not a HUGE fan of the fact Marvel opted to make the Russian guy "only out for money" while the American guy "wanted to provide energy for the people", but even if I go with that, it's problematic. Stark already HAS oodles of money by the time he's creating the arc reactor- of COURSE he can opt to just make something for "the good of humanity." Vanko defected, from RUSSIA, during the COLD WAR- he'd have been left with nothing but his own talents, knowledge, and skill. He finds a job and realizes he can make his own millions and we're supposed to think that's bad while loving Howard? Come now. And to have him deported back to the country he betrayed for it? Howard's a hypocritical ass.

I had forgotten this was our first introduction to Black Widow, which was awesome overall. I love Scarlett Johannsen's ability to play the emotional manipulator and also the badass. There's a little overplay on her use of sexuality here, but it makes sense given Tony's proclivities. I do like that they move quickly from animosity to friendship with her and Pepper- we don't have to groan at the two women backstabbing BS.

When I watched this the first time, I did guess the atom thing about a half hour before it happened (to the shock of my friend). I appreciated the building of the collider more this time. I also appreciated Iron Man's character building more this time. He'd just started saving the world, just started paying back an impossible debt to Yinsen, only to learn that his time is more limited than he thought. And he fluctuates between wanting to do so much more and also just wanting to have "fun" in his typical self-destructive spiral way as he's dying. RDJ does this well, though this is actually one area where I felt the fast-talking, West Wing style banter sometimes hurt audience participation in these emotions. There were times where you didn't quite have enough time to process before we were on to the next.

Hammer is annoying. And this is what some people will complain about. Except... he's supposed to be! Hammer is the epitome of people who want to buy legacy. He wants to be known and liked and yeah, a little feared. (If he only cared about being known and liked, he'd have gone the charity route, rather than the war arms route.) He has no skills, so he trades off others' skills and fails to understand anyone who money doesn't speak to.

I want to be clear on this - people who money doesn't speak to, not people who already have money. He does understand Tony Stark to a degree- they both inherited money after all- and his undoing there is more jealousy that Tony got brains to go with his bucks. But he knows legacy is where to hurt the man. He's right about that. What he's wrong about is his ability to bribe and bully Whiplash.

The film quality is definitely sleeker here. We're moving toward the "modern Marvel" LOOK. But there are still lots of times moments are allowed to sit and harsh truths are revealed. I'm watching for the type of banter people complain about but it's not here yet.

Oh, last because if I don't address it, someone will complain. Don Cheadle vs Terrence Howard as Rhodey- the fact is both men are incredibly talented and equally capable at playing this role. I wish they'd stuck with one or the other but both played their A game in the movies they were in. I don't think I gave Cheadle enough credit when I watched this one the first time (I was on a real Terrence Howard kick at the time and still think really highly of him as actor) but he pulled off the switchover very well.

Note for me:

Directed by: Jon Favreau

[tobiasdrake]

Man, there is a lot going on here with Ava. And I mean that in a good way.

Her dad is Anton Vanko. Like. Elihas Starr's backstory is literally "Anton worked with Howard Stark on their Super Science project but then Howard had Anton fired and deported for reasons," but with the proper nouns swapped out. A&W's over here taking a mulligan on Iron Man 2. Ghost is the film's Whiplash.

But she's not exactly Whiplash. Do you remember when I said the Iron Man movies came out too quickly, and would have been better if they were more spaced out across the franchise? This is what I was talking about.

A&W exists in a post-"S.H.I.E.L.D. is Hydra" world. And that recontextualizes things. Ava was taken in by S.H.I.E.L.D. and trained to be a black ops agent, and that should immediately be setting off red flags. Like. Oh shit. She's not just Whiplash. She's Whiplash as the Winter Soldier.

And she's here now as a consequence of both Janet being reachable in the Quantum Realm and the dissolution of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Winter Soldier leaving her out to dry. Hydra cells going underground has been well-tread territory at this point. But no one ever stopped to ask what happens to S.H.I.E.L.D. "assets" like Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver that didn't have a Hydra cell to take them, and were simply left out in the cold.

[rocksrntpeople]

MCU Rewatch - Iron Man 2

So, turns out I did know what Iron Man 2 is about and just thought that it was Iron Man 3. What the hell is Iron Man 3 then? Something, something, annoying little kid, something, something, Iron Man? Idk, but at the very least this is the last one that makes me go, “what the hell was this about again?”

Granted, Iron Man 2 was a lesson in cinematic dichotomy and I had a hard time feeling engaged with the Ivan Vanko plotline. It seemed super shallow and just generally less interesting than what Stark was dealing with.

So, the main plot of this movie is actually tri-fold. Firstly, we have Tony Stark dealing with palladium poisoning. He’s dying because of the device that’s keeping him alive and it’s the first time he’s dealing with failure somehow, and there’s just a lot of internal strife going on. 

Alongside this is the much more public battle of Iron Man’s identity. The U.S. government wants the Iron Man suit to be a symbol of the US military, to represent power and glory over all through violence, but that’s not who or what Iron Man is. Up against Stark is a bloated (literally) politician and a weapons contractor who may be one of the most annoying characters in the MCU.

And this leads us into the third, kind of shoe-horned-in plot of Anton and Ivan Vanko. When Anton dies at the beginning of the movie, his son Ivan decides that now is the time to take revenge on Stark, as opposed to a few years earlier before he had the Iron Man suit and before Ivan’s dad bit the dust. But okay. And what is he mad about? That Tony Stark’s dad “stole” the arc reactor idea from Anton and then decades later Tony actually made it somewhat useful.

I’m sorry but that is just a stupid plot. So this guy, who’s been trapped in Siberia for decades, finally decides to leave and his motivation is that some guy whose dad used to work with his dad used old technology to create new technology? And he’s going to combat him with…whips? Powered by technology that, not only was totally available to this villain since well before Tony “stole” it, but is also literally impossible for some of the world’s best scientists in top facilities to create?

(Do you remember this, Marvel? It was two movies earlier.)

Meanwhile, the other two plots are doing great work with the whole dueling egos and themes of identity crises between private and public personas. Plus there’s a whole overarching moral lesson of friendship is power!

Once again, chef’s kiss; perfect. It’s clear that Favreau loves Iron Man; it’s where he started and it’s where he thrives. Despite having to shove in a fairly generic action plot, he manages to tie together the rest of the movie to create seriously humanizing moments that endear us to Iron Man.

There’s a lot to like about this movie, but it’s mostly in the quiet moments, the atmosphere, the snappy comebacks Stark tosses out like nothing. The cuts to the Vanko story were often jarring and felt like commercial breaks cutting into what I really wanted to watch.

And to be completely honest, what I wanted to watch was a lot of world and character building. We’re still in the dawn of the MCU here, and Iron Man 2 and 3 do a lot of heavy lifting as far as establishing new characters and letting viewers see how the rest of the world responds to superheroes.

I was more excited to see Black Widow than I thought I would be. I don’t dislike her or anything, but when she came on screen it was electric, like this is it, the world is expanding. She doesn’t belong here; she’s not part of the Iron Man team. Yet here she is, meddling.

Along with Romanov, we also get Coulson on the scene again and of course, Nick Fury. The little nods to Thor throughout the film were shockingly enjoyable. I didn’t know shit about Thor when this came out, so going back knowing everything that will happen…it’s a whole new kind of tension. This is gonna be a theme for a while, I think. The MCU ball doesn’t really start rolling until after Captain America shows up.

While SHIELD is basically only in the movie to give Iron Man some much needed pep talks, the rest of the cast does a great job supporting Tony Stark. He doesn’t make it easy, but by the end he’s friends with Rhodey again (after getting into a mech fight and having Rhodey steal one of the suits), he saved the public from US military contractors, he gets together with Pepper finally, and he even gets a message from his father validating his love for him! Come on! Everyone is in Iron Man’s corner!

Except, obviously, the main bad dude Vanko (and also that idiot Hammer). This guy kept saying “you lose” like he didn’t waste his life in Siberia being evil, and then just…explodes. Okay; girl, bye.

Can we talk about how cool this movie is for a second? As time goes on, the movies begin to rush the action a bit, especially as the battlefields become more complex, but in Iron Man 2 the actions make sense.

For example, Tony Stark’s germ thing. There are many possible reasons why he might have an anti-germ thing, primarily the fact that he’s dying throughout most of the movie, but what’s awesome is how he asks Pepper to put on a mask when she’s coughing, how he refuses to take things handed to him, how he shirks away from people trying to touch him. Those little continuity details make a big difference.

I especially loved when Black Widow and Happy are fighting at Hammer Industries and you can literally see Happy fighting in the background while Black Widow has a whole long fight scene.

(And yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it’s a little ridiculous that she got changed and moussed her hair in the car. I don’t care; I overlooked Vanko and I’ll overlook the little Black Widow gaffes too.)

Then, there are so many awesome shots done for no reason other than Iron Man is cool as fuck. 

Whereas Iron Man established Tony Stark’s character, Iron Man 2 established his new personality, the one that can just barely handle failure and needing help and overall considering the impact of his actions beyond his immediate circle.

Most of the MCU characters have this type of personality evolution, and it’s one of my favorite elements of the franchise. Stark will undergo a few personality shifts throughout the series, as you’d expect since he was the first one in. I’m very excited!

Speaking of personality shifts, I’m so excited for Thor! I have just a bit of hatred for the original Thor characterization, but the other characters are great, the plot is decent, and it’s just really amusing to see this fancy, stuck-up Thor, knowing what’s to come for the character.

Iron Man 2 gets a 6/10 for me overall. Definitely one of the weakest MCU movie, but it had plenty of redeeming qualities.

[milehighmechanic]

@myatonements // moved from here

She hadn’t thought much about their life in the orphanage, not until she had been assigned to Tony. She suddenly misses that cafeteria and playing in the attic and driving Luteau half mad with the trouble the two of them caused. Life had its own hardships back then, but it has been good. It had been so much easier than it was now. 

Nothing had been more complicated than escaping the orphanage and following their dreams. They’d been wide eyed and so full of hope. 

And now — now she has to watch Tony die. She knows that life isn’t fair. God, she’d lost her career as a dancer because of a broken ankle and now she’s about to lose Tony too. Losing her career as a ballerina she can handle, but losing Tony? That would destroy her? 

Her hand tightens around his, and Natasha clings to him, like if she lets go, she’d lose him now instead of later. “Tony, you invented wearable wings in order to fly. If you’re missing an element in saving your life, make it up.”

He knows why she’s so adamant that he can fix it. She doesn’t want to lose him. And Tony gets that. He doesn’t want to leave her, not again. And maybe Natasha’s determination can be enough for the both of them. It certainly used to be.

“Howard Stark invented the arc reactor, right? Him and Anton Vanko, back in the sixties. And they used palladium to fuel it. Which is fortunate, because I could dig it out of the missiles in Afghanistan when I needed it------- but it’s not quite right as a fuel source, it gets corroded by the process. I think Howard knew that, it’s all over his notes, but then his research on it seems to just. Stop. Which, I guess might be because that was around the time Stane kidnapped me to France, but-----” He sighs. “Wish I could just ask him.” He’s never felt a particular attachment to the Starks, even if there’s clear evidence they mourned his disappearance. Natasha’s always been his family, far more than anyone else ever could be.

He looks at Nat wryly, the corner of his mouth pulling up in a smirk. “How’s your particle physics doing these days?”

[every-marveler-ever]

Tony Stark Bingo Mark VI

Tony Stark Bingo is one of my favourite things to participate in whenever they host events, I just love the inviting nature the bingo brings. I was so excited to join another bingo and even more excited when I realised I actually could yell BINGO!

THANK YOU to @tonystarkbingo for hosting once again (and I am sorry for calling it Mark VI I know you suggested Round 6 but the mark just makes me happy) I can't wait to participate in the next one.

TSB MARK VI CARD:

Name: Marveler Number: #6010 Bingo (x2) Squares: 17/25

masterlist | bingo masterposts

S1) Peter Parker: Moving In | College move-in day is always a stressful one for not only students but families as well and it’s sweet. [G]

S2) Stony: Laundry Day | Steve is looking for his jumper, his and his alone, Tony thinks the jumper he's wearing fits him just right. [G]

S3) Secret Hobby: Pinterest Scrolling | Tony likes to decorate, especially around the holidays. [G]

T1) Tower: Attic-ness | The attic is very attic-like unless it’s not an attic at all. Then it’s just a very high floor in Stark Tower that Peter has come across on accident. [G]

T2) Pepperony: Smiling Hard | Bucky likes Tony so it’s unfortunate that Tony is dating Pepper, or is he? [T]

A1) Drunk Dialing/Wrong Number: How Do You Meet A Soulmate? | Can a wrong number really lead to meeting your soulmate? [G]

A4) AU: Coffee Shop: New York Coffee | Days in New York are hard, they’re filled with paperwork and meetings and Obie breathing down his neck anytime he says anything of any nature, coffee helps with all these things (or at least most). [T]

A5) Vessel: What I Think A Hallmark Stucky Movie Would Be | Bucky is a lawyer, Steve works for ends meat, Bucky moves his parents into a new home and never visits, and Steve is their next-door neighbour and makes himself helpful. Christmas is slightly awkward when you haven’t been home in years and you are fairly sure you’re parents are replacing you. [G]

R1) On Opposing Sides: Game Day Experience | At Superbowl LIX, people are calling this the game of the century as they watch married man Sam Wilson play for New Orleans Saints against his very own husband Steve Rogers playing for the New York Giants. [G]

R2) Physical Therapy: Fatal Struggling to make your mind up on tough situations, that’s normal, this? This is not normal, especially not for Tony Stark. [M]

R3) Tony/Sam: Stark Gala Reunion | And they meet once again. [G]

R4) Witness: Background Character | Lila Rhodes did not expect to be in this lecture hall, she doesn’t even go to this school, so she really shouldn’t be a witness to one of the largest news stories in MIT history. The largest may be an exaggeration she’s making seeing as the news story includes her brother. [G]

R5) Anton Vanko: Bundle of Quiet Tony’s workshop is rarely ever quiet and when it is, he’s always ready for a screaming body of mess to come in. [G]

K1) PICTURE: “Anyone could see that the Prince was charming. The only one for me.” | Sam and Tony watch Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, but Tony is fairly sure that it’s not Snow White on screen because he never remembers a proposal in the movie. [G]

K2) Tony/Stephen: Date Nights | Date nights are a little different now. [G]

K4) Steve Rogers: College Days: Ch1) Bias | Sam is just a column writer who graduated with a degree in journalism and he writes the sports column at Stark Media, that’s it. Steve Rogers on the other hand is a masterpiece on the American Football field, but that’s not it. [G]

K5) Pair The Spare: Not All That Spare | Tony Stark is okay with being single, he is happy just to sleep around, not caring who he is with, their gender or their personality. It doesn’t matter what his friends say at every gathering, he’s okay being single, and there is no need to pair the spare. [G]

[marvelreader]

Tales of Suspense #52 (Jan 10, 1964)

Angered by Anton Vanko's defection, the Soviets send in the Black Widow... and some dude named Boris. Boris steals the Crimson Dynamo armor and Anton sacrifices himself to save Iron Man from Boris. Black Widow (who's barely in the issue) slips away with the promise that she'll return next issue.

Lee / Heck

[amarriageoftrueminds]

Do you see Tony stark as a male version of Peggy Carter? A rich high class brat that won't hesitate to do anything and side with anyone to shine and then act like everyones protective god mother? Or do you think he is at least a bit redeemable because he might have learned bit from his mistakes.

There are certain similarities. Peggy definitely has more in common with the Starks than anyone.

In her show, all her 'friends' are not from the same SEC as her, as with the Starks. In fact, her friends are... employees. Butlers, waitresses, housekeepers... they're almost literally being paid to be friends with her. You see that with Tony, too. His 'friends' are: an air force colonel (when Tony has extremely lucrative military contacts with the air force), his PA (who gets made his CEO and... immediately dumps him), his bodyguard, his robot butler, his other robot servants... and women who benefit financially from sex with him (Christine Everhart and Maya Hansen). In Peggy's case, she's that woman to Howard Stark. 😬 (And Steve).

In AC, the only time you see a person from the same socioeconomic class as Peggy, they're a villain. Similar thing with Tony's villains in IM (Obadiah Stane, Anton Vanko, Justin Hammer, Aldrich Killian...) they're just Other Tonys.

(So you can tell that TPTB have some kind of... English fetish going on and think upper classness is definitely part of her Specialness?)

While Tony has the same 'avoidance of all consequences for his actions' wealthy white privilege that Peggy has, there are certain important differences.

Generally speaking, they share one over-arching trait, which is: if you consider whether or not the world / people around them would be better off if they didn't exist, the answer is yes.

Without Tony, there'd be no Anton Vanko, no Aldrich Killian, no Quentin Beck (which means no Spider-Mans dimensional incursion), no Ultron (which, in another universe, endangered the entire multiverse), no dead Pietro, no dead Sokovians generally (meaning probably no Scarlet Witch, no Vision, no Westview Hex, all the knock-on effects of that?), no Snap. And Hulk or Thor could have put the nuke through the wormhole in A1 (except he wouldn't because it wouldn't have been written into the story at all since Hemsworth doesn't have short man syndrome.)

With no Peggy, Steve's story in CATFA isn't altered (because she didn't matter to the plot or his life at all). But there would be no Winter Soldier programme (since she wouldn't be around to give the man who started it a job at SHIELDra), ergo no Black Widows being mind-controlled either (since that was based on Winter Soldier tech), no continued Hydra (WhatIf confirms all this by showing that a SHIELD founded by everyone else who was there originally, except her, has no Nazis in it.) Ergo no Project Insight. No Winter Soldier means no assassination of Howard Stark, so no Civil War bust up of the Avengers, if Tony still exists (unless Zemo found some other way to effect it). C.1940s her male colleagues in SSR would have handled everything she interfered with in AC, Edwin Jarvis's wife wouldn't have been sterilised by gsw in the uterus, and Daniel Sousa would have settled down with a nice girl (nurse Violet, possibly Skye) and wouldn't have been assassinated by Hydra for whistleblowing in 1955, because there wouldn't be any Hydra.

.

Now the differences:

First, Tony is actually above-average at some of the things he thinks he's good at, so his arrogance based on that is at least partially warranted (which Peggy's conviction of her own competence, moral integrity, etc. isn't).

His estimate of his own ability is debatable, though, since his genius (in the MCU) stems from the Grand American Capitalist Tradition of stealing other peoples' work, doing a minimal amount to hone it, and then claiming all the credit / reaping all the financial reward.

(See: Iron Man suits, AI, E.D.I.T.H., B.A.R.F., Extremis serum, time-travel, etc. Tony's only original creations I can think of in the MCU are his robot-servants and the improvised booby-traps from Iron Man 3.)

Second, Tony may have got into MIT as a legacy admission (nepotism), but he does actually have at least some of the expertise in a STEM field to warrant a place, which Peggy lacks.

(She gets an honorary degree from IIRC Oxford: ie. rewarded for doing no work. And while she claims competence in mathematics (as part of the AC retcon of her war record), outside of one code-breaking scene her alleged mathematical ability is never shown. And in fact there is a scene where a character has to explain to Peggy how many sides a cube has. No, I am not exaggerating. This literally happened.

And Bletchley Park's happy concession to her leaving mid-war suggests she wasn't a crucial employee. It's like the opposite of all those 'screenshots of my boss begging me to come back after I quit' stories.)

Third, while Tony may have inherited his company without earning it, he does have the necessary brains and thieving habits to create and maintain such a company if he wanted to. He was CEO for decades (since the age of 21) without the company imploding.

Although Obadiah Stane was dirty dealing under his nose without his knowledge so- er wow okay looks like he and Peggy are neck and neck? Except that Peggy did know she had bastards working for her and kept them on anyway (see: Zola, Mitchell Carson).

Tony has some appropriate skills; which cannot be said of Peggy in any of her unearned spying jobs.

Peggy is a nepotism baby who couldn't stomach any of the jobs she was handed on a silver platter, one after another, that she kept idiotically choosing to ask for despite her unsuitability for them (which she also cannot recognise).

And then she flaked out on these jobs from 'boredom,' even in the middle of a crisis like a world war (failure is never her fault, always the job's, always the mens').

Essentially she keeps asking for desk jobs she doesn't deserve, being given them because of glass ceiling nepotism, and then whining when she… is expected to do them? And is not respected when she doesn't?

She believes she is a brilliant, underappreciated spy, surrounded by inferiors, but cannot spot a single spy when they infiltrate her organisation or home (any one of many, many occasions: during the war and after).

She's a spy who craves attention.

Whose disguises fail in seconds, and are so inept that she cannot avoid detection by someone who barely knows her, even when photographed from the back!

(Contrast that with actual-spy Natasha, whose disguises are so good not even we realise it's her until she reveals herself! Or Coulson, who is not disguised but is so unassuming that he has no need!)

Peggy is a woman who thinks she is a sort of hero to other women... but is fine shunting the work which she considers beneath her off onto them... (but she reacts with outrage when men do that exact same thing to her) ...or fine with letting her rich male friends get away with chauvinism.

Who interferes to prevent male feminist colleagues from taking steps that would make life better for the Other Girls (whom she is Not Like and who Cannot Therefore be allowed to Become Like her.)

(Because as long as White Feminist knows Her value, she's the only person that matters!)

It takes a certain level of competence to correctly gage the extent of your own competence, or relative incompetence. It's the basis of true self-awareness.

She lacks that.

(Whether Tony also lacks it is... not clear. Maybe he does, too).

Peggy's continued bloody-minded belief that she is, eg. a competent spy and a feminist, directly contrary to the evidence... (because the writers aren't capable of recognising when they've written the exact opposite of what they vaguely intended) ...is the proof that she lacks the qualities necessary to actually be either of those things.

And to realise that she is just not physically or temperamentally suited to spying or heroism, at all.

She does share Tony's habit of blaming anything but herself for her problems, though. 🤔

When Peggy shows up hours late for work, eats like a slob at her desk while all the men are doing their paperwork, refuses to do said paperwork (even though that's the job she's been hired for and accepted) as if it's an insult to even ask her, shunts it off onto female underlings (can't expect Her Majesty to do it, but those working class sluts upstairs?), and then does nothing except sabotage her colleagues' work for months, then unilaterally hires someone (Johann Fennhoff) who cannot be trusted and so kills 40+ people...

She acts as if her male colleagues' lack of respect for her ability is due to ONLY sexism, and not to her being -- for example -- lazy, treacherous, bad-tempered, entitled, disastrously incompetent, and a self-outing nepotism hire, who is ALSO a woman.

(The fact that she is also sloppy/unprofessional at work is moot, since at least one of the male agents is too, and in this field her capacity for violence is a feature, not a bug.)

When Tony calls himself a "genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist" he is at least getting 1/4 of those right... ish?

(Is it genius to commit industrial espionage and rip off the designs of other men including employees, do 12% of the work and then patent them as your own?

When it's JARVIS and FRIDAY who do everything for him, actually?

Is inheriting generational wealth a flex?

Does exchanging sex for favours make you a womaniser or a creepy Weinstein-esque loser?

Does making money off cleaning up the very mess you caused, for Rich-White-Guy tax write-offs, count as actual philanthropy?

Would an actual philanthropist list philanthropy last, of all those things on the list?)

He does appear to learn from his mistakes for a brief period...

(His Act 1 Fuck Up is usually revealed as a Plot!Coupon necessary for his Act 3 Success; the icing over of the Iron Man suit, the double-reverb attack gained from firing at Rhodey in IM2, etc.)

...But that is over-ruled at the beginning of each new Iron Man movie, when the lessons of the last one are ignored to set his personality back at 0. 🙄

In the case of the Avengers movies, though, he doesn't learn at all. Ultron tries to murder everyone (WhatIf reveals he would have eventually destroyed the entire multiverse.)

Hydra tries to enact Project Insight A.I. to kill millions...

And yet years later Tony is still claiming those two as morally correct successes, flawed only because they were made to fail (not because they were horrible fascist ideas to begin with), and redoing Insight as EDITH only giving it to a disaster teenage boy. 🤦‍♀️

Peggy, however, is pathologically incapable of learning from mistakes, because that first requires you to acknowledge that you are capable of making mistakes, which is inconceivable to her.

She has herself up on a high pedestal, as the pinnacle of womanhood around which the world and all other women surely revolve, and cannot be knocked off her axis.

The closest she has ever come to an accurate self-assessment was when Edwin Jarvis called her arrogant and ignorant and she flippantly pretended to agree. (Inadvertently proving him right).

Tony is possibly redeemable because he at least has sensible people around him, telling him he's a fucking idiot.

He does occasionally make the obeisance of saying 'my bad,' even if he doesn't fully comprehend it.

Peggy on the other hand isn't redeemable because she doesn't think she's ever done anything wrong in her life, ever.

She thinks she is practically perfect in any way. Atwell thinks she's a good enough sort of woman to fix any man! Like a lot of TERFs and white feminists, she would see the mere suggestion of any wrongdoing on her part as preposterous.

[ennmaximof4]

VIÚVA NEGRA

Natasha Romanova

Humana / Assassina / Vingadora

• Fisiologia Aprimorada Artificialmente: Natasha foi bioquimicamente aprimorada através do Programa Black Widow quando ela era uma criança. Ela recebeu a versão da Sala Vermelha do Super-Soldier Serum que foi criado pela Dra. Lyudmila Kudrin para melhorar seu sistema imunológico, condição corporal e longevidade.

√ Quantos trabalhos mais... Quanto tempo vai demorar... Não sei se vou conseguir... Nem que eu pudesse me perdoar... Isso é o que eu sou agora. E você nunca saberá quem eu era antes. - Romanova.

HISTÓRIA:

O ano exato e o local do nascimento de Natasha Romanova são desconhecidos, assim como quem eram seus pais. Há rumores de que Natasha estava de alguma forma relacionada aos últimos czares governantes da Rússia, mas esse boato nunca foi comprovado.

Existem vários relatos do início da vida de Romanova. Um relato afirma que em 1928, houve um incêndio em Stalingrado que queimou o prédio onde a criança Natasha e sua mãe moravam. Segundo o relato, pouco antes de morrer no incêndio, a mãe de Natasha a jogou pela janela para um soldado russo lá embaixo. O nome do soldado era Ivan Petrovitch, e ele cuidou de Natasha por toda a sua vida, permanecendo ao seu lado como seu "pai adotivo". Outro relato data o incêndio no outono de 1942, durante a Batalha de Stalingrado.

Enquanto Natasha estava sob a proteção de Ivan, o barão von Strucker sequestrou Natasha e a apresentou à organização de assassinos chamada Mão em Madripoor. Natasha estava de fato trabalhando sob as ordens de uma fonte misteriosa e seu 'sequestro' era para torná-la uma Mestre Assassina da Mão.

Outro relato estabelece que Natasha foi criada desde a infância pelo programa "Black Widow" da URSS, além dos cuidados de Ivan Petrovitch. Diz-se que Petrovitch a levou para o Departamento X, com outras 28 jovens órfãs, onde ela foi treinada em combate e espionagem na instalação secreta da "Sala Vermelha". Lá, ela foi aprimorada bio tecnologicamente e psico tecnologicamente, um relato que fornece uma justificativa para sua vida extraordinariamente longa e jovem. Nesse relato, ela nunca treinou balé no Teatro Bolshoi, tendo sido implantada com memórias artificiais de fazê-lo.

Independentemente de qual relato é preciso, eventualmente, foi arranjado para Natasha se casar com Alexi Shostakov, um distinto piloto de testes soviético. Mais tarde, ela foi chantageada para concordar em agir como espiã quando a vida de seu marido foi ameaçada.

A inteligência do governo soviético (KGB) decidiu que os conjuntos de habilidades de Natasha e Alexi os tornariam excelentes agentes especiais e os separariam enquanto Alexi estivesse em uma missão. Treinado como o Guardião Vermelho, Alexi se tornou a resposta da União Soviética ao Capitão América dos Estados Unidos. Natasha foi informada de que seu marido morreu em uma queda de foguete experimental. Ela foi convocada para a KGB e se tornou sua melhor agente, tornando-se excelente em combate e coleta de informações. Durante esse tempo, ela teve algum treinamento com o Soldado Invernal e eles começaram um relacionamento secreto. Após um incidente durante uma operação de assassinato, Barnes foi considerado instável e colocado em criostase sempre que não era necessário para uma missão, deixando Natasha arrasada quando descobriu.

Natasha mais tarde salvou Logan dos assassinos da Hydra quando ele apareceu na América sem nenhuma lembrança de seu passado. Ela encontrou o homem novamente algum tempo depois, quando estava em uma missão da KGB para impedir que três espiões americanos desconhecidos (Logan, Carol Danvers e Ben Grimm) roubassem o Projeto Tempestade Vermelha da Rússia.

A Viúva Negra foi designada para ajudar Boris Turgenov no assassinato do Professor Anton Vanko por desertar de seu país ao se infiltrar nas Indústrias Stark na América. Tony Stark, o Homem de Ferro original, continuamente frustrou seus esquemas contra as Indústrias Stark. Romanova mais tarde conheceu o arqueiro novato Gavião Arqueiro e o colocou contra o Homem de Ferro, e mais tarde ajudou o Gavião Arqueiro a lutar contra o Homem de Ferro. Infelizmente, a associação de Clinton com espiões russos o rotularia de criminoso no início de sua carreira.

Durante este período, Romanova estava tentando desertar da União Soviética e começou a sentir amor por Clint, enfraquecendo sua lealdade ao seu país. Quando seus empregadores descobriram a verdade, eles a mataram a tiros, mandando-a para um hospital, convencendo o Gavião a seguir em frente e se tornar membro dos Vingadores.

Capturada por seus mestres novamente e submetida a uma lavagem cerebral, a Viúva Negra foi forçada a contratar o Espadachim e o Poderoso para destruir os Vingadores. Essa trama acabou falhando quando os Vingadores derrotaram os dois vilões e Natasha livrou-se dos efeitos da lavagem cerebral. Tentando fazer as pazes com o grupo, ela os ajudou contra o grupo racista conhecido como Filhos da Serpente.

Tendo recebido anistia, Natasha fez uma oferta para se tornar membro dos Vingadores, ajudando-os em sua batalha contra os Ultroids. Ela ameaçou matar seu líder Ixar se ele não deixasse a Terra, ganhando a vitória, no entanto Clint encobriu esse fato para que ela pudesse se tornar membro do grupo, embora ela violasse seu código de ética em relação à matança.

Depois de um tempo se recuperando no hospital, Natasha voltou para a Mansão dos Vingadores e decidiu desistir de sua carreira de aventuras fantasiadas. No entanto, isso provou ser de curta duração, pois ela voltou ao super-herói logo depois, no entanto, seu romance com Hawkeye tornou-se tenso, já que ele geralmente estava muito ocupado com os negócios dos Vingadores para prestar atenção nela.

Cansada de ficar fora de ação, a Viúva Negra aceitou outra missão da S.H.I.E.L.D. para evitar que Egghead usasse uma plataforma orbital para manter o resgate mundial. Ela foi capturada, levando Hawkeye (que ainda a amava) a usar a fórmula de crescimento de Henry Pym para se tornar o novo Golias e resgatá-la. Ela ajudou os Vingadores a parar Egghead, embora tenha terminado com a aparente morte de Egghead e do irmão de Golias, Barney.

Natasha não conseguiu evitar o super-herói por muito tempo e, depois de desenhar um novo traje preto elegante e adaptar suas pulseiras com "Mordidas de Viúvas" elétricas, ela procurou provar ser uma aventureira capaz ao derrotar até mesmo sujeitos com super poderes. A Viúva Negra logo se tornou um peão manipulado pelo computador conhecido como Baal do futuro distante da Terra-71778. Nessa realidade, a humanidade foi exterminada e a história passada do Demolidor e da Viúva Negra desempenhou um papel crucial. Isso acabou levando a um longo relacionamento e parceria entre os dois heróis, mas acabou chegando ao fim.

Enquanto trabalhava com a S.H.I.E.L.D., a Viúva Negra foi brevemente capturada como parte de uma conspiração da Hydra para se infiltrar e fazer uma lavagem cerebral na organização, fazendo com que ela regredisse a uma antiga identidade secreta da professora Nancy Rushman. Felizmente, ela foi descoberta e resgatada pelo Homem-Aranha, posteriormente trabalhando com ele, Nick Fury e Shang-Chi para derrotar seu plano.

Ela co-fundou os Campeões de Los Angeles depois que eles frustraram com sucesso uma conspiração de Plutão para invadir o Olimpo. A equipe logo se desfez devido à falência e Natasha tentou uma parceria com a Hércules, mas sem sucesso.

Após esses dois fracassos, Natasha decidiu ficar sozinha e como agente freelancer por um tempo. Foi nessa época que um inimigo de seu tempo ao lado do Demolidor sequestrou Ivan para atraí-la para a morte. Damon Dran planejou trazer Natasha para sua ilha para que um pequeno exército de mulheres especialistas em combate pudesse destruí-la. Assim que ela estivesse fora do caminho, ele enviaria uma falsa Viúva Negra de volta para a S.H.I.E.L.D. para assassinar Nick Fury.

Em uma missão independente, a Viúva Negra tentou impedir que a Mão roubasse o cadáver há muito tempo de seu Mestre Guerreiro, Kirigi. Utilizando venenos mortais, Natasha foi morta pela Mão. Ela foi revivida por Stone, e juntou forças com Stone e Daredevil para impedir que a Mão revivesse Elektra.

Em uma missão, Natasha encontrou seu marido Alexi Shostakov vivo. Mal sabia ela que era apenas um chamariz de modelo de vida criado por agentes russos para chantageá-la de volta ao serviço da Mãe Rússia. Assim que ela terminou as tarefas que lhe deram, os russos lhe contaram a verdade e tentaram matá-la. Com a ajuda de Ivan, ela derrotou os russos e destruiu o LMD.

Com o tempo, a Viúva Negra voltou para os Vingadores e se tornou uma co-líder, gerenciando as operações na base enquanto o Cavaleiro Negro liderava no campo. Quando a maioria dos Vingadores foi morto durante a saga Onslaught, a Viúva Negra tentou formar uma nova formação ao lado de Hércules e Mercúrio. A situação só piorou quando Mercúrio renunciou com raiva por causa de uma proposta de resolução da ONU que culparia coletivamente toda a raça mutante pelas ações de Onslaught. Quando dois congressistas entraram com uma moção para anular os acordos do governo com a equipe, Natasha finalmente decidiu dissolver os Vingadores e entregar a mansão para a supervisão da S.H.I.E.L.D.

Outro agente russo reivindicou o manto da Viúva Negra, o que a trouxe contra Natasha, Yelena Belova. Pouco tempo depois, Natasha capturou Yelena e teve seus rostos trocados tecnologicamente em um esforço para descobrir o que o general Stalyenko estava fazendo com o governo Rhapastani no vale do rio Hudson. Depois de se encontrar com quem ele pensava ser Yelena, Stalyenko descobriu que não era realmente ela e tentou matá-la.

O estresse de ver seu marido, outrora morto, outrora vivo, outrora morto, agora vivo novamente, levou Natasha à aposentadoria. Ela viveu por um curto período no Arizona antes que os agentes da Sala Vermelha começassem a rastrear ex-agentes da Viúva Negra e matá-los. Natasha recrutou Phil Dexter, um associado da S.H.I.E.L.D., e tentou rastrear os assassinos. Em sua caçada, ela encontrou Sally Anne Carter, bem como Lyudmila Antonovna Kudrin, que era a ex-chefe de biotecnologia da Sala Vermelha. Descobriu-se que as Viúvas Negras incluíam 27 garotas treinadas para serem assassinas perfeitas.

A trilha das Viúva Negra levaram a Vassily Ilyich Ulyanov da Sala Vermelha e Ian McMasters, CEO da Gynacon. Natasha os alcançou em seu iate e os matou, tornando-a a criminosa mais procurada nos Estados Unidos. Natasha procurou a ajuda de Yelena Belova em Cuba. Yelena dirigia uma empresa de lingerie e canais de televisão de pornografia leve na época. Em troca de um lugar para ficar, Yelena pediu ajuda a Natasha para exportar suprimentos médicos roubados de Miami. Para sua surpresa, Natasha descobriu que os suprimentos médicos eram de Gynacon e que Sally Anne havia sido levada pela máfia. Kestrel e Martin Ferris capturaram Natasha em Miami e tentaram mudar sua mente usando drogas para descobrir o que ela sabia. Com a ajuda de Yelena, o Demolidor resgatou Natasha, que então rastreou e matou Kestrel e Ferris. Em toda a loucura, Natasha soube que Sally Anne havia sido experimentada por Gynacon, mas havia escapado.

A Viúva Negra foi designada para rastrear o Consertador em um esforço para encontrar o financiador por trás dos supervilões da América. Disfarçada em uma burca, ela rastreou o Consertador até o castelo de Lucia von Bardas, a atual primeira-ministra da Latvéria. Infelizmente, o presidente recusou o pedido de Fury para uma derrubada de von Bardas com foco na S.H.I.E.L.D. Forçado a agir sozinho, Fury reuniu Viúva, Capitão América, Homem-Aranha, Luke Cage, Demolidor, Wolverine e Daisy Johnson para derrubar von Bardas.

Quando a identidade de Matt Murdock como Demolidor vazou para a imprensa, o governo veio prendê-lo junto com Luke Cage, Punho de Ferro e Foggy Nelson. Natasha conseguiu impedir que todos, exceto Matt, fossem para a cadeia.

Durante a Guerra Civil dos Super-heróis, Natasha se tornou uma defensora da Lei de Registro de Super-Heróis e membro da força-tarefa liderada pelo Homem de Ferro. Posteriormente, Natasha se permitiu ser registrada e se juntou aos Vingadores reconstituídos.

Natasha, ainda uma das agentes de espionagem vivas mais procuradas do mundo, foi recrutada pelo Homem de Ferro e pela Sra. Marvel para fazer parte da mais nova equipe de Vingadores ao lado do Sentinela, Ares, a Vespa e o Homem-Maravilha.

Natasha estava entre os Vingadores infectados junto com centenas de outros cidadãos de Nova York por um vírus simbionte, mas foram curados pelo Homem de Ferro. Natasha ficou muito desconfiada de Jessica Drew, que mais tarde foi descoberta ser o impostor Skrull, Veranke. Durante esse tempo, Natasha também havia reatado seu relacionamento com Barnes, que ainda estava vivo e havia recuperado suas memórias perdidas, sendo agora o novo Capitão América.

Natasha assumiu a identidade de Yelena Belova para se infiltrar nos Thunderbolts de Norman Osborn para Nick Fury. Osborn a descobriu invadindo a S.H.I.E.L.D. abandonada e ofereceu-lhe a posição de líder de campo. Em sua primeira missão, ela e o Homem-Formiga assumiram o controle do Força Aérea Um com o Goblin, Doc Samson e o novo presidente a bordo. Osborn começou a representar Fury em mensagens para armar Natasha para fortalecer os Thunderbolts e levá-lo a Fury.

Natasha foi enquadrada em uma trama visando espiões globais. Ela foi acusada de assassinar o senador americano Whit Crane. O filho do senador, Nick, foi capturado por um espião rival Fatale, que queria saber sua fonte por implicar Natasha. Natasha roubou Nick dela e o levou para uma base secreta da CIA para assustá-lo e fazê-lo dar a ela sua fonte. O tiro saiu pela culatra quando os dois foram atacados. Natasha e Nick escaparam, mas enquanto estavam na Polônia foram atacados por Fantasma e Crimson Dynamo. A conspiração contra espiões acabou sendo mais ampla e Natasha encontrou Mockingbird e Hawkeye na mesma trilha na Rússia, onde encontraram muitos espiões estagiários e um agente da S.H.I.E.L.D. foi morto.

Após o Cerco de Asgard, a Viúva Negra se juntou aos novos Vingadores Secretos do Comandante Rogers. Algum tempo depois, quando a Torre Stark foi reconstruída, ela se juntou à equipe principal dos Vingadores e até teve um quarto lá. Ela desempenhou um papel vital em ajudar o Homem-Aranha a frustrar o último esquema do Sinister Six quando ela, Spider-Man e Silver Sable foram os últimos heróis que ficaram de pé depois que o Six derrotou o resto dos Vingadores.

Durante a guerra dos Vingadores com os X-Men, Natasha ficou do lado de seus companheiros Vingadores. Após a guerra, ela foi chamada para se juntar ao esquadrão principal dos Vingadores. Vários meses depois, quando a S.H.I.E.L.D. assumiu os Vingadores para encontrar os Illuminati e trazê-los sob custódia, a Viúva Negra deixou a equipe e se juntou aos Vingadores do Mancha Solar. Quando os Illuminati e os Vingadores colocaram suas diferenças de lado devido à destruição iminente do universo como resultado do fenômeno Multiversal conhecido como incursão, a Viúva Negra foi encarregada de trazer pessoas selecionadas a bordo do Life Raft da Future Foundation. Quando a incursão final estava chegando ao fim, a nave da Viúva foi danificada e Natasha se machucou na explosão que se seguiu.

Após a eventual restauração do Multiverso, Natasha deixou os Vingadores e voltou para uma vida de espionagem. A Viúva Negra foi forçada a trair e desertar da S.H.I.E.L.D. quando um novo adversário apelidado de Leão Chorão a chantageou. Em uma missão que se seguiu, Natasha descobriu a existência de uma Dark Room Academy fundada pela ex-diretora da Red Room. Depois de virar o jogo contra o Leão Chorão e fazê-lo trabalhar para ela, a Viúva Negra investigou ainda mais a Sala Escura. Ela conseguiu impedir uma tentativa de assassinato na Casa Branca de recrutas da Sala Escura, e posteriormente evitou que a filha da diretora, Anya, comprometesse a S.H.I.E.L.D., libertando os recrutas restantes das garras da Sala Escura, levando-os a um caminho de recuperação, e limpando o nome dela no processo.

Quando Hydra conquistou abruptamente os Estados Unidos guiada pela mão do Capitão América, ou melhor, uma versão fascista distorcida dele que havia secretamente tomado seu lugar devido a um Cubo Cósmico, a Viúva Negra se juntou à última linha de resistência, o Underground. Tendo se cansado da relutância do Underground em adotar uma abordagem extrema para acabar com o Capitão América, mesmo depois que seu regime nivelou Las Vegas, Natasha se virou sozinha para matar Rogers. Ela foi seguida pelos Campeões, que se juntaram a seu empreendimento na tentativa de convencê-la a não assassinar o Capitão América.

Semanas depois, a Viúva Negra mergulhou nos segredos da Sala Vermelha e descobriu sobre seu programa de clonagem e descobriu no processo que ela mesma era um clone. Natasha foi instada pela Ursa Maior a destruir a Sala Vermelha, então ela começou a trabalhar nos bastidores contra seus manipuladores. Quando Natasha recebeu a ordem de matar a ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. a agente Sally Blevins, ela usou um clone amnésico de Yelena Belova para fingir a morte de Blevins.

Com o mundo ainda sem saber de sua existência, a Viúva Negra passou algumas semanas viajando de cargueiro para chegar a Madripoor fora da rede. Ao chegar, ela foi checar sua queda devido a um sinal, secretamente deixado por um misterioso Logan, apenas para descobrir que ele havia deixado a Joia do Espaço sob seus cuidados. Como a Viúva Negra só poderia usar a pedra para se teletransportar dentro de sua linha de visão, ela não poderia se teletransportar diretamente para Nova York, onde pretendia buscar a ajuda do Doutor Strange. Natasha começou a dar pequenos saltos e, ao chegar a Londres, foi alvo de Jamie Braddock. Apesar de escapar de seu perseguidor sem problemas, Natasha decidiu derrubá-lo, pois ele havia encantado várias crianças para usar como cães de caça. Após derrubar Jamie, Natasha foi abordada por Merlin, que emprestou a ela uma parte de seu poder para que ela pudesse se teletransportar diretamente para Manhattan.

Uma noite, ao voltar para casa, Natasha notou que seu apartamento havia sido invadido. Ao entrar pela janela, ela foi abatida por tranquilizantes e sequestrada pelas forças da Hidra lideradas por Madame Hydra. Sob sua custódia, seu DNA foi misturado com o DNA de um estranho, um homem chamado James Grey, para criar um filho genético. As mentes de Natasha e James foram então manipuladas para formar memórias fabricadas e fazê-los acreditar que estavam apaixonados e noivos. Após três meses levando uma vida falsa com seu "noivo", Natasha foi vista no fundo de uma reportagem de Clint Barton e Bucky Barnes, e eles vieram procurá-la. Enquanto isso, Yelena Belova começou a se passar por sua babá, Helen.

Depois que alguns associados da Hydra invadiram sua casa, Natasha inconscientemente usou suas décadas de treinamento para derrotá-los. Durante o ataque, ela recuperou todas as suas memórias e (com a ajuda de Clint, Bucky e Yelena) levou James e seu filho, Stevie, para uma casa segura. O grupo que a sequestrou, incluindo Madame Hydra e alguns outros, partiu para a ofensiva, com o objetivo de matá-la, já que seus planos de manipulação da mente saíram pela culatra. Depois que Bucky ajudou Natasha a fingir a morte de James e Stevie, o grupo de heróis finalmente enfrentou Madame Hydra e os outros mentores, derrotando-os com sucesso, embora Madame Hydra tenha conseguido escapar.

Natasha é uma agente profissional e astuta que fará qualquer trabalho, independentemente da dificuldade. Ela deixou de ser uma das melhores agentes da S.H.I.E.L.D. para agir como uma super-herói. Ela se manteve como parte dos Vingadores por anos, até mesmo liderando-os por um tempo. No entanto, ela não pertence ao conjunto de super-heróis devido a sua ajuda com a S.H.I.E.L.D. Apesar de Natasha ser uma super-heroína, ela sempre retomará sua missão de espiã. Nick Fury comentou sobre Natasha que "correr nas sombras é o que ela nasceu para fazer".

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