#but there IS also the chance of Betty becoming a hulk

[getreadytosmash]

The funniest thing about that one ep where Hulk had to team up with literal children is the fact that, if we're going off Betts and Thad being Betty/Hulk kids, this means that out of all four future Smashers, Hulk is literally the father of half the team.

[kingofdersecest-2]

Its crazy. Sure, in the comics, Sam does become Cap for awhile, because I think Steve is dead or whatever. But in the comics, you had decades of comic lore to rely on, Sam is only in a few movies and even then, he's a side character. He has a few cool scenes, but he doesnt have the sauce to be in the limelight. Also, in the comics, you knew Steve would eventually come back and Sam would go back to being Falcon. Which obviously did happen. Captain Falcon is like supposed to be permanent, but we'll see how long that lasts. Its been fucking years since Endgame, and no one watched Falcon and the Winter Soldier, its been 4 years since then anyway, so people have forgotten about it, and most people wanted Bucky to take up the mantle anyway. Plus he's fighting Red Hulk for some god forsaken reason? Like what the fuck? There isnt even a Hulk mainline movie in the MCU, Not since Edward Nortin's Hulk. How the fuck do you make a villain that is tied together so intricately with Bruce Banner and Betty Ross, and have him fucking fight Sam goddamn Wilson? I actually know who and what Red Hulk is, and I remember when he premiered in the comics, everyone was confused because suddenly the Hulk was Red with no explanation and his identity as Ross wasnt revealed until much later, it was actually a pretty interesting mystery that sent the comic fandom buzzing. But your average normie? Which takes up the vast audience for this shit? They arent going to know who Red Hulk is, fuck, they probably barely remember who Falcon is, and seeing this random dude with wings called "Captain America" they'll go "Thats not Captain America" and not watch the movie. They need Phase 3, level audience hype for this movie for it to even have a slim chance of making money, and we just aint there anymore.

Its perhaps a bit of a bold prediction, but Captain America: Brave New World will be the death blow to the mcu.

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Quickly Thought About Episodes Three and Four of Marvel Studios' What If...

How does Marvel Studios' What If... keep getting better and better with each week? Just look at episodes Three and Four, which are both excellent in their own ways.

(Also, explaining why involves spoilers, so be wary as you continue reading)

"What If...Earth Lost its Mightiest Heroes?" is an episode that gets really dark, really fast. Did your heart break at the sight of Iron Man and Black Widow dying in Avengers: Endgame? Well, how about seeing Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, Hulk, and Black Widow dying? Yeah, something tells me it is downright shattered with that, as we get to see a murder mystery over watching our favorite heroes die brutally, with Hulk winning the most brutal death in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

(Speaking of which, what the f**k did they put in Hulk's coffin? Seriously, did Fury and Coulson just shovel some Hulk gloop and plopped it right in? Jeez...)

It all comes to a head when we find out it was Hank Pym behind everything, showing fans that he wasn't kidding about Pym Particles messing with the mind if relying on them for too long. Plus, it's somewhat fun hearing Micheal Douglass go full ham and psychotic in the finale.

The episode was fascinating to watch, as equally as it was painful. However, that doesn't mean it's without complaints. For instance, the second Betty said that Tony Stark was killed with nanotech, I knew who it was instantly. A thing about mystery stories is that you can't make the clues too obvious until near the end when the case is almost solved. And, while I loved how Marvel tries to keep things light, even in their darker stories, I could have gone without certain jokes in this episode. Some weren't bad such as Coulson initially calling Thor gorgeous when seeing him, but having Coulson sniff Thor's hair was not only uncomfortable, but it was also not all that funny. Regardless, this episode was really well-made, intense, and professionally performed by all actors, whether they're from the movies or not.

(I mean it. Round of applause to Lake Bell, who had done such a fantastic Scarlette Johanson impression that I didn't even know it was her until seeing the credits.)

But as great as last week's episode was, "What If...Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?" is better. Way better. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that this episode is up there as one of the best stories in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I'm not even kidding. And again, explaining why involves spoilers. So this is your last chance to scroll past.

Because this episode was tragic. It involves Doctor Strange doing everything and anything he can to save Dr. Palmer (who's still somewhat bland, but I'll get over it). You see the desperation he goes through, wanting so badly to have his true love by his side again, and it quickly turns to tragedy when you realize the consequences of his actions. It becomes pretty clear that Agatha wasn't exaggerating by how Wanda's existence could spell out the end of the world, as Strange proves just how dangerous one's own selfish desires for love can result in the absolute worst-case scenario. And it ends with Strange himself, finally realizing what he's done is wrong, begging and pleading with the Watcher to interfere and save the world that Strange has destroyed. But the Watcher refuses. And Strange, desperate to gain back everything, ends up all alone with nothing. Nothing but his own thoughts and guilt, which will remain with him for all of eternity.

It truly is tragic, and it left me with a different type of speechless than the ending of Avengers: Infinity War. There, a part of me always knew that Thanos' victory wasn't the end. The heroes will come back, and they will make him pay for everything he's done. But here, in this episode? It is the end. An end that can never be reversed or fixed.

Marvel Studios' What If... was already a series I was incredibly excited for, as I was pumped up to watch all these hypothetical scenarios and what changes they would lead to the overall canon in the MCU. And if these last two episodes prove anything, the wait was more than worth it.

(By the way, this might have to be how I review the series going forward. Writing an in-depth review a week for a series like The Owl House has left me burnt out on creativity, and doing the same for What If... would only make things worse. Sorry.)

[my-brodie999-fan]

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Season 2(Revamped)

This are my predictions on what would’ve happened if Christopher Yost and Joshua Fine remained onboard for all of Season 2 without the interference from Jeph Loeb and Man of Action.

Along Came a Spider..: The whole city has turned against Captain America while he tries to regain his tarnished reputation. But when the Serpent Society attempts to rescue  Viper, New York is put in the crossfire with only Captain America and the equally mistrusted Spider-Man to save them. -Introducing Characters: Spider-Man(Josh Keaton), J. Jonah Jameson(Darren Norris), Robbie Robertson(Phil LaMarr) and Betty Brant(Grey DeLise) Yellowjacket: Iron Man and Wasp try to persuade Hank to rejoin the team, but he is far too obsessed with his experiments and driven by guilt over Ultron. Meanwhile, a mysterious new vigilante called "Yellowjacket" appears at Avengers Mansion to convince The Avengers to give him membership and starts taking out super-villains, starting with AIM. The Avengers attempt to find out about this new vilgilante's true identity with the help of Ant-Man(Scott Lang). This results in AIM unleashing their newest weapon, Doomsday Man. Yellowjacket is eventually revealed to  be Hank Pym(who is suffering an personality crisis as a result of his depression and exposing himself to chemicals in one of his experiments, leading him to believe he "killed" Hank Pym by causing the explosion he used to fake his death.)tAt the end of the episode, Yellowjacket decides to leave the statue of himself as Ant-Man and tells the Avengers that he will save the world alongside them. Introducing Characters: Roxxon Energy Corporation, Doomsday Man, Crimson Cowl(Tom Kane) Additional Sub-Plots: Hawkeye and Iron Man clash over the leadership of the Avengers, but they later come to terms that Tony is better suited as leader. The Serpent Society  and Madame Viper appear as a sub-plot where Yellowjacket stops them from delivering weapons to  the Roxxon Enegy Corporation. Scott Lang still struggles to accept his new life as a superhero  while juggling with taking care of his daugther, Cassie. After he helps the Avengers destroy Doomsday Man, he gladly embraces his new identity as the new Ant-Man while Hank Pym rejoins the Avengers as Yellowjacket. Ultron-6(under the disguise of Crimson Cowl) takes control of the Doomsday Man and set him on a rampage to destroy all of humanity, starting with New York City. In the end, Vision overcomes his master's programming due to the Avengers convincing him to rebel against him and joins the team, although he is damaged by the Crimson Cowl's laser beams in the process as the Avengers promise to repair him. Moon Knight and Cross Technologies are referenced in this episode. Assault On Prison 42: Stranded in the Negative Zone, the Avengers must join forces with their enemies - including former members of the Masters of Evil - to fight off an army of strange insectoid creatures that are laying siege to 42. In the end, Galactus consumes another planet and a silver streak soars in space into the unknown cosmos. Introducing Characters: Sentry(Nolan North), Annihilus(Corey Burton), Lorelei(Kari Wahlgren) Sub-Plots: Spider-Man helps the Avengers capture Whirlwind and wonders if he'll join the Avengers one day. Captain America assures him that it can wait, foreshadowing "New Avengers" Annihilus mentions a "Devourer of Worlds" that will consume Earth. Later in the episode, Captain America remembers what the Skrull told him about Galactus and realises that this must be the same being. Wasp attempts to call Hank Pym who has completely withdrawn from society as a result from his guilt over Ultron and starts to become worried about his health and speaks to Iron Man about helping him by convincing him to rejoin the Avengers. Mentioned Characters: Alicia Masters and Hate-Monger. The Suit: The Avengers encounter Bob Reynolds(who first appeared in Assault in 42) who   unknowingly has a spilt personality known as  the superhumanly powerful Sentry who also works for SHIELD. As the Avengers and Sentry bond with each other , a mysteriously entity known as the Void comes to Earth to possess him. In the end, The Avengers offer Sentry to join the Avengers, which he declines. Sub-Plots: Black Panther is reluctant to reopen Wakanda's borders to the world. In the end, he realises the world can trust the Avengers again after they capture all the Skrulls and announces that Wakanda will once again allow outsiders to work together with Wakanda. Iron Man tries to talk General Thunderbolt Ross and the Hulkbusters into releasing the Hulk, to no Avril. Attilan is mentioned in this episode. Introducing Characters: The Void(Nolan North), Lindy-Lee Reynolds(Martina Sirtis), Normie The Watchdog,   Powerless: The Enchantress offers Loki a chance to exact revenge on The Avengers for ruining his plan to conquer The Nine Realms and strips Ms. Marvel, Captain America and Thor of their powers, forcing them to find themselves trying to learn to fight villains without their superhuman abilities. Thor learns how what feels to be human, loses his arrogance completely and restores Ms. Marvel and Captain America's powers. The Avengers defeat  the Destroyer by damaging the suit's power, damaging it beyond its ability to function. In the end, The Avengers rebuild their trust with each other, stating they will stop the war together and Odin loses his eye and becomes replaced by Kurse. Introducing Characters: Destroyer Armor, Kurse(Keith Fergueon), Ten Rings(organisation), Lorelei(Kari Wahlgren). Additional Sub-Plots: Wasp talks about her feelings for Yellowjacket/Hank Pym with Iron Man and becomes worried about his mental state. At the end of the episode, she begins to have  hope that he will eventually recover from the chemicals and accept that he truely is Hank Pym. Iron Man resumes his former objective to destroy the remainder of his stolen Stark Industries inventions and he and Maria Hill argue more about the Avengers registering with S.H.I.E.L.D. Dr. Doom decides that the best way to conquer the world is to control the world's superheroes and begins to build the Psycho-Prism. As a inspired plot point from the final battle of the 2011 Thor movie, Loki attempts to use energy from the Bifrost Bridge to destroy Earth as revenge against the Avengers. Frigga, The Mandarin and Ho Yinsen are mentioned in this episode. Emperor Doom: Wonder Man returns from the dead and is shocked to find out that the world is ruled by Doctor Doom and The Avengers, forcing him to team-up with the Vision who is the only Avenger being unaffected by the Power Prism as a result of being  repaired for a month prior to the events of the episode As they  get to the bottom of this plot, he finds out that he has been amplifying The Purple Man's power through a prism-like device, enabling him to enslave the world's population. In the end, Doctor Doom is revoked of his diplomatic immunity and Wonder Man declines to join The Avengers as he wishes to atone for his villainous actions. In custody, Doctor Doom reveals to Nick Fury that he knows about Surtur planning to destroy the Nine Realms. Introducing Characters: Purple Man(Brent Spiner) Additional Sub-Plots: Pepper Potts urges Tony to consider building a new suit for her, so she can join him and Rhodey when they're out saving the world as Iron Man and War Machine, foreshadowing her future superhero identity as Rescue. Vision tries to adapt a human identity for himself to no success. In the end, he takes up the name "Victor Shade" with the help of Iron Man and Captain America. While restoring the world to normal, Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic discusses the idea of the Avengers and the superhero community as a whole going to war with one another should any hero oppose the idea of working with S.H.I.E.L.D and how it may lead to conflict with Invisible Woman who may disagree with their methods. Jessica Jones, Shang-Chi, the Big Hero 6,Cloak & Dagger  and Human Torch(Android)are mentioned in this episode The Coming of Nova: The Skrulls break out of Prison 42 with the help of Paibok and Titannus and plan to conquer Earth once again. Meanwhile, the Avengers must help a new hero known as Nova realise that he must use the power for good and stop the Skrulls from taking control of the planet once more. In the end, Nova decides he can't save the world alone and calls Night Thrasher(although not in person) to form "a super-hero team" on a reality TV show. And Galactus shows his eyes open in space, foreshadowing the 3-part Season Two finale. Introducing Characters: Nova(Richard Rider)(Troy Baker), Sam Alexander(James Arnold Taylor), Paibok(Danny Jacobs), Titannus(J.K Simmons), , Rhomann Dey(Edward Asner), Irani Rael(Elisa Gabrielli) Additional Sub-Plots: Iron Man and Captain America discuss the idea of forming a new Avengers team should the main team deal with other threats or disappear from the face of the Earth. Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel talk about how the war between the Kree and the Skrulls will destroy Earth and all of humanity. Mar-Vell also warns her that the Mad Titan Thanos will seek out the Infinity Stones to erase half of all life in the universe. The Eternals, Happy Hogan and Norman Osborn are referenced in this episode. Red Zone and Code Red: A breakout in the Bio Weapons Lab leads the Avengers to investigate who was responsible for this deadly outbreak. In the end, Captain America becomes infected and Iron Man rallies the remaining Avengers to cure their friend and everyone who became infected. After half the Avengers became infected,  the remaining members must come together and find a cure to prevent this deadly outbreak from spreading further. In the end, Hulk leaves the Avengers and Captain America reassures Winter Soldier that he will always be his partner. Sub-Plots: Red Hulk and Thor have a devastating battle throughout New York City while the rest of the remaining Avengers attempt to find a cure for the outbreak. Hulk wakes up in a prison and sees the outbreak infecting his friends. Incredibly, angered by this, he breaks out and helps the Avengers fight Red Hulk. The X-Men are mentioned in the newspaper. Department H, Richard and Mary Parker, Aleksander Lukin, Atlantis, Rick Jones, Betty Ross and Jennifer Walters are also mentioned in this episode. New Avengers: Taking place shortly after Operation: Galactic Storm, Kang escapes Prison 42 with the help of The Council Of Kangs and attempts to conquer the world. Now a new team of heroes (consisting of Spider-Man, War Machine, Wolverine, Thing, Iron Fist and Luke Cage) with the help of Yellowjacket(who has stayed behind while the other Avengers are dealing with the Kree-Skrull War) and Sentry must band together to stop the cross-temporal onslaught.In the end, while as they celebrate the defeat of Kang, the New Avengers agree to come together again whenever they're needed, Kang is sent to the Jurassic Age where he is chased by a Tyrannosaurus and the other New Avengers are annoyed when Spider-Man asks Iron Man about the discount. Sub-Plots: James Rhodes struggles to adapt to his life as a superhero, but when Kang the Conqueror begins his next invasion of Earth, he is forced to don the War Machine armor again. In the end, he embraces his new life as a superhero and Iron Man's partner. Spider-Man, heeding Captain America's advice, tries to make people see that he is not a criminal. In the end, the people of the city finally begin to realise that he is truely a hero. Yellowjacket still does not believe that he is Hank Pym as he is still suffering from the identity crisis from the chemicals in Yellowjacket. In the end, as he looks at a photo of him and Janet Van Dyne, he starts to suspect that Wasp is right about who he really was. As the Fantastic Four leave Earth to explore the Mircoverse, Kang steals Princess Ravonna from the Baxter Building in a desperate attempt to try and revive her from her comatose state. In the end, her body is recovered by the New Avengers and returned to Reed Richards for further study. Introducing Characters: Wolverine(Steve Blum), Council of Kangs(Iron Lad(Mikey Kelley), Immortus(Jonathan Adams), Rama-Tut(Wally Wingert), Victor Timely(Josh Keaton) and Scarlet Centurion(Rick D.Wasserman)), Eson the Searcher Josh Keaton also returns as Spider-Man in this episode. Terminus, Psycho-Man and the Celestials are mentioned/referenced in this episode. Operation: Galactic Storm, Live Kree or Die and When Calls Galactus: The Kree and The Skrulls head to war with each other, as Kang predicted, the sun will be destroyed in the war. The Avengers and Captain Marvel must bring the war to a halt and save the Earth from destruction. In the end, The Avengers destroy the wormhole,threatening the sun at the apparent cost of Black Panther's life. Then The Kree and Skrulls arrive on Hala to finish each other off once and for all as Galactus's shadows looms upon the planet. The Kree's home planet Hala is about to be devoured by the world-eater known as Galactus. The Avengers must convince the only herald against his desire, the Silver Surfer to help them save the planet. In the end, the Avengers realise in order to stop the war, they must save Hala from Galactus. The Avengers face their greatest challenge when they attempt to stop Galactus from devouring Hala, the Kree's home planet.  Meanwhile, Captain America and Iron Man discuss a membership drive to expand The Avengers. In the end, when The Avengers defeat Galactus by sending him to the Negative Zone, The Kree and The Skrulls come to peace with one another and Iron Man gives Captain America leadership of the Avengers while Surtur orders Amora to claim the Infernal Sconce, proclaiming Asgard and The Nine Realms will fall before his power during Ragnarok. Introducing Characters: Peter Corbeau(Chris Cox), Korath the Pursuer(Doran Harewood), Princess Anelle(Alexandra Krosney), Supreme Intelligence(David Kaye),Galactus(Jonathan Adams), Silver Surfer(Yuri Lowenthal), Heralds of Galactus(Terrax(Kevin Grevioux),Stardust(Jason Spisak),Firelord(Travis Willingham), Air-Walker(Dee Bradley Baker) and Tyrant(Peter Cullen)), Punishers(Galactus' Robots) Additional Sub-Plots: Hawkeye speaks with  Iron Man about forming a new Avengers team on the West Coast. In the end, when Galactus is defeated, they decide to put those plans into initiation, wishing to expand the Avengers' influence. While the other Avengers are fighting Galactus, Wasp attempts to convince Silver Surfer to rebel against Galactus, arguing all beings deserve to live, even if they're intelligible. Elektra, Spider-Woman, Black Bolt and Angel are on the computer screen as Iron Man debriefs the Avengers on the failed Kree-Skrull invasion and the war with the Kree. The Shi'ar, Daimon Hellstrom and Starjammers are referenced in this episode. I would also revamp the Season 2 intro to fit the seasons's storyline: It starts out in space just when the Skrulls and Kree begin war on one another as Tony Stark watches on one of the computer screens in space. The computer screens include Bruce Banner emerging out of the ground as the Hulk and roaring, ready for battle, Captain America fighting in World War II and throwing his shield as the time era shifts to present day with him wearing his Ultimate Costume, reminiscent of a scene from Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor(in his Season 2 costume) fighting Frost Giants as he slams his hammer to the ground and teleports back to Earth as a callback to A Day Unlike Any Other. Then the scene shifts to Tony Stark once again watching the Avengers on the computer screens(this time showing Ms. Marvel, Vision, Falcon and Mockingbird) as he grabs the Mark IX armor in a suitcase and suits up referencing the scene  where Tony Stark dons the Mark V armor to fight Whiplash(Ivan Vanko). And then files into space with the Avengers in their space armors to stop the war. Scenes include Vision using his solar beam to destroy some Kree motherships and Falcon's projectile wings flying in the air until it destroys Sentries. The ending scene depicts all of the Avengers fighting the Skrulls and Kree side by side as Yellowjacket, Thor, Iron Man  and Falcon soar into the air.

[littlemeangreen]

Since you like my alt-Marauders (WHICH IM SO HAPPY FOR) how about challenge for headcanons of them interacting with the Smashers, as allies or foes or just a chance encounter? No need to, I just thought it might be something you'd have fun with!

@thecorteztwins k I'm suddenly in a big writing mood so!! FINALLY getting around to this I'm so sorry sksksk

For anyone who doesn't know: Thecorteztwins has an amazing au where she's collected Haven (thicc angel lady who was possessed by a demon disguised as a baby), Claudine (Miss Sinister),Madelyne (clone of Jean Grey), Pyro, Sebastian Shaw, Shinobi Shaw and sometimes Alice (a clone being tested by Claudine)!

I feel like the first few days are really testy. Everyone's got some bone to pick, the usual. But the biggest thing? The name. A brief encounter with paparazzi ends with their name and the reactions go from Pyro and Claudine scoffing at how silly it sounds and what a rip off it is (Pyro being a writer?? U KNOW he wouldn't stand for Alt Marauders) to Shaw sighing about the fact that he's been stuck on a team with a cliche super nickname.

Then there's personal names because once again, Pryo and Shinobi both agree that everyone needs a name to reapply make them unique! Hardly anyone goes for it, ranging from Haven's soft "no thank you" to Shaw punting Pyro into a wall. Madelyne is slightly soft for Pyro's RPG themed alias ideas for her and less than impressed for Shinobi's idea of "Mad Milf".

Alice....I'm definitely thinking she gets nicknamed "White Rabbit" or "Wonderland" because; 1) no one can leave her out of getting a name. 2) Pyro 100% would give a cheesy media related name and 3) I like the very small connections of white rabbit to the white and red queens in Alice in Wonderland (and 4) rabbits always get experimented on :).

Gamma Gals having amazing duos with the ladies of the Marauders? Absolutely!!

Jen and Haven, being an amazing duo and I feel like they'd be the two who would have that issue where they're the only ones who can save the day and end up learning a lot from each other? Haven is probably thanking her stars that she finally gets to meet a hero who believes in her kindness just as much as she does (S H A W).

Just....Haven being able to meet an even bigger woman and trading stories and being GalPals(TM). Its a really interesting concept to me that Haven is someone who was deliberately used to destroy and Jen is someone who's entire identity is formed around smashing and destruction. It's probably rather cathartic to be working with someone who purely doesn't want to resort to violence immediately and who has been used (Haven by her demon and Jen by different people).

But also learning something from each other? Haven being able to see that sometimes you do need to fight for what you love and Haven proves to Jen that even after all this time, it isn't the muscle or power that can save everything, it's her and her drive and will alone. Catch Red and Shaw scoffing about it.

Speaking of, those two could either REALLY clash or really get along, no imbetweens. Have we found another old man for Shaw to wrestle with, Roman style??? (Ngl that would be hot in a sick way)

Skaar and Shinobi? Both long haired, beautiful, sons of big figures, grew up in abusive environments,,,,its a duo. Just put Shinobi into a mini team with Skaar and Daken and we have the "Black haired brood squad"

Rick and Pyro working together to have a joint production??? FIrebomb productions baby!! My podcast ideas? Absolutely would happen when you combine these two and its hell. Aka; Rick and Pyro gossip on their podcast and give advice to starting heroes as immortals and smack talk. But also outside of that I imagine they can get along a lot in the "had a hard time accepting stuff" and "we were heroes who often did a lot for others and got disregarded and hurt for it".

Pyro: Hey if I set you on fire can you become a flaming bowling ball

Rick: well let's fine out!!

Red and Shaw....there's a lot there. Both are old men who have been pressed on in their lives and affected by masculine presences in their lives...both are regarded as awful shitbags but they're both MUCH more complex and driven by a need for power and stability...lots of thoughts here.

Shaw and Red are one team you do NOT wanna mess with because two old men who are perfectly willing to do what's needed? Red can respect a man willing to get his hands dirty with clear means and Shaw can probably like a guy who has the drive to do what he believes is the better good. Also big hulk man who can give you endless power.

But also differences in them because Shaw abused and continues to abuse Shinobi while Red neglected and most likely emotionally abused Betty but it seemingly trying to make a difference in it now that she's come back? I feel like these two probably have a SUPER in depth conversation when forced to or alone and then never speak about it again.

Spending of Betty! Her and Madelyne?? What a DUO they're litreally a great mix because Maddie is a clone of Jean, Betty was assumed to be a clone at first and often has to suffer being the "domintrix" she hulk. Both have serious issues with their mental health and identities as well as dealing with their lives being ruled or devoted to men who ruin them. Both want freedom and have such passion! I just....so much to say about these two and the similarities. They're both red.

But yeah Phoenix and Harpy?? Skksks Maddie voice: I'm FIRE HARPY nOW

Am I still yelling for her hero name to be Griffin because of how mystical they are and being a bird and lion??? Yeah.

Also sad thoughts but,,,gals talking about their lost kids (Maddie with Nate and Betty suffered a miscarriage induced from stress), the stress of their lovers and who they've lost to (Jean, Emma, Caiera, Jarella,,,) and being manipulated by men for their power (Maddie by Sinister into Goblyn queen and Betty by Leader into Red She-hulk, Harpy, both died).

Anyway point is I can fully see them two just CLICKING or fighting a lot at first until someone points out just how similar they are. Then? Maddie and Betty out here being the brand new Thelma and Louise. Red and Black styles, willing to use force but protect the innocent, both take Alice and this cute kid that Betty absolutely mother henned in her run and,,,two moms and their talented daughters pls step out the way sir.

Tbh I don't think I have much for Samuel apart form him having a small crush on Claudine (and like,,,,not in That Sense, but Samuel does have a big history of falling for smart women or just...OP women). And then a series of gags where Haven wants to know him because he's like Shaw but also incredibly different in thinking and everytime she walks into the room,,,,Samuel is doing some horrific experiment and she just NOPES OUT. Shaw wants to make use of this but it goes horribly wrong oh God why did he try.

Lyra! I just....feel like there could be a lot for her and Claudine and Alice. Lyra was genetically engineered to be used in a war and was bullied relentlessly for being "half man" which...is rather transphobic and sexist but that's her storyline and it's too deeply embedded for me to headcanon over it so...sighs.

But yeah!!! Lyra taking Alice and giving her a night of being able to just....be whoever that night, not being pressured to have an identity of the sorts from anyone and just being able to fight people with a giant green woman. Probably has a lot of deep talks later that night with Lyra, sitting over a building and eating ice cream because it was one of the first things Bruce shared with her and a first realisation that Lyra could be more than someone's daughter.

100% would picture this with Carmilla (Lyra's sister and...also messy kinda clone) or Laura Kinney hopping along and!! Clone weapon woman team!! I could GET INTO this!!! Just...pls marvel give me a team of women overcoming abuse and forming identities among each other and cool women,,,,

But also Lyra admittedly would respect Claudine for her skills and her...tenacity? Yeah, that. She has strength and guts and Lyra probably actually tells her that she'd rather get experimented on by Miss Sinister than some pig of a man and Claudine just "thhhanks?"

Hulk,,,,funny enough I don't think I have many ideas for him yet? Probably gets into a fair few fights with Shaw and Haven over different stuff, Maddie has a bome to pick for Betty,,,I am,,,blank.

I feel like a lot of things for him would be Haven trying to break through into him, maybe each of the Marauders dealing with different parts of the system? I can imagine Shinobi and Pyro don't have a high opinion of the oversized dad until Bruce turns super ashen pale and immediately Joe starts yelling for some whisky and GIRLS....and a fella or two for matchstick and ghost baby here.

Maddie thinking that he's another Scott and then finding out that Hulk's thing is more complicated than Scott simply looking for Jean again. Also Maddie demands that she will forcefully adopt Hulk's kids and these two bonding over abusive dads???

But uh,,,that's about it!! Hope you liked it!!! I probably could easily delve into more thoughts if there's anything specific for me to set my mind on.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

So let’s say you’re now in charge of creating a Spider-Man TV Series, as many seasons and episodes you want, as long as it remains genuinely faithful to the comics; Peter gets his powers when he’s 17, only Flash and Liz are with him in high school, ect, and ending it all with a Revelations like series finale. You’re allowed to streamline some things now that there’s the benefit of hindsight. You’re also allowed to be as faithful to the comics as possible. What do you create?

Lol I’ve been planning this for like 15 years. Currently I’d do this. 12 seasons 26 episodes each, and 3 movies.

 I’d play it as a biography of Peter’s life from the day he became Spidey to the day he stopped, with a mind of making a version of the MC2 universe the canonical future for this version of Spidey. I’d set it in the 1960s as depicted by Ditko but have the technology and fashions change to broadly speaking reflect the time periods that Peter spent parts of his life in. In other words his high school episodes will be set in what looks like the 1960s, Gwen would die in what would look like the early 1970s and he’d get married in what would look like the late 1980s. But cultural references would be kept to a minimal. Effentivly it’d be set in a world where fashions and technology happened to occur way more quickly thanin the real life, so 1962-1998’s fashions and technologies all happened but across like 12 years.

 Also I’d have Peter’s look change. He’d start out with the Coke bottle glasses and keep them throughout season 1, and he’d have a black and red costume, complete with a big blue spider on his back and web pits. The idea being this is a rookie spidey who’s awkward and not yet become the Spidey we perhaps recognize. He’d sell his glasses in the final episodes and get his costume wrecked in the finale, requiring him to make a new one, the classic Romita Senior outfit minus the web pits. He’d keep that until he got his black suit which would be modelled on Frenz’ take upon it. the cloth Black suit would have more of a McFarlane influence with huge eyes. MJ would make him a new red+blue costume before his first big showdown with Venom which would resemble the McFarlane/Bagley 90s look. Obviously Scarlet Spider’s look would be modelled on Bagley’s design, Spider-Ben on Romita Jr’s and his final outfit would be modelled on Romita Jr’s too. And Sal Buscema’s take would be the outfit worn by Flash when he pretends to be Spider-Man.

 Movie 1: Amazing Fantasy: The Birth of Spider-Man: The origin, MAYBE rounded off with ASM #1’s plot.

 Season 1: Basically everything up to when he graduated with every issue serving as an episode. I’d omit guest appearances like the F4, the Torch, DD, the Circus of Crime. I’d supplant the ASM #5’s plot with one about Jason Macendale armed with tech abducting Flash when he’s dressed as Spidey. He’d be a stand in for the Headman from Untold Tales and the episode would end with his mysterious boss speaking to Spidey remotely through a camera. This would of course be the Goblin who I’d have debut in what was his second appearance hijacking the Spidey fan club. I’d have Doc Ock unmasking Spidey end that episode and have most of it dedicated to Betty Brant’s origin told in flashbacks as she’s abducted. I’d do Spider-Man No More here, combining it with ASM #18’s plot line as it’d redundant to have him quit in big ways twice. So one episode would be ASM #18’s plot with bits of ASM #50 mixed in, ending with him throwing away his suit. Then the next episode would be about his Spidey free life before he triumphantly returns. The Molten man episodie would end with Aunt May collapsing rather than Spidey graduating.

This would lead directly into the MP Trilogy’s main storyline but to spice things up the Master Planner would hire some of Spider-Man’s villains as extra obstacles in his way, thus we’d adapt the original Sinister Six story too. The last episode would end with Peter graduating and then sitting alone to make a new suit. Also Betty would leave town.

 Season 2: It’d kick off with a recovered Peter starting college and someone hiring Kraven to go after Spidey like in ASM #34. The key difference here being that Kraven dons Spider-man’s old costume and when Spidey finally shows up to deal with him he’s sporting his new red and blue Romita Sr threads. Then we’d get the Robot Master stuff, the first Rhino story and a few other stories before around episode 6 or 7 getting to the Goblin unmasking Spider-Man and revealing himself as Norman. I’d have Norman seriously injured to the point where Spider-Man has to save him or else he’d die. He’d sweat about Norman knowing the truth like in Spider-Man: Blue before finding out Norman has amnesia and that most people don’t recover their memories. Seeing how happy Harry is, he decided to let it go and give Norman a chance. The rest of the season is basically adapting the big Romita era stories (sans Spider-Man No More of course), with an emphasis on Kingpin and fewer Doc Ock stories. POSSIBLY I might do Doc Ock’s origin from Unlimited #3 here, I dunno. It’d either be here or next season though. The season would wrap up with George Stacy’s death and with Gwen leaving.

 Also I’d foreshadow a little that Norman has a healing factor via his speedy recovery.

 Also, also, rather than space spores creating Colonel Jupiter, I’d have it be the Moon Gem that actually turned him into man-Wolf. It’d be an artefact he’d bring back from the moon and it’d increase his strength and affect his mind so that he’d desire to have the gem for some unknown reason (we’ll find out later).

 Season 3: This would be half a team up season, introducing characters from the Marvel Universe who’re relevant to Spider-Girls’ stories, so the F4, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Doctor Strange, Spider Woman, Arana, Julia Carpenter, the Avengers, the X-Men, etc. It’d begin with Peter heading to London to find Gwen and inadvertently winding up in a team up, I’ve not figured out with whom yet (maybe Ice Man and Firestar for funsies, MAYBE Excalibur so we’d get Spider Phoenix????), anyway it’d adapt ASM #95 in any case. Then we’d go to the drug trilogy but I’ve not yet decided how to handle this. On the one hand it’s iconic. On the other it’s questionable by modern standards to have Peter see Norman remember the truth and then just let him go on, hoping he doesn’t remember. Maybe you could play it as him being worried that turning Norman in could trigger his memory, I dunno. I feel you could swap out the action part of the story with something else, provided you kept all the Harry drug stuff the same, and maybe had the story be about Norman STARTING to remember and unravel. When peter goes to him for a job though he’d catch a glimpse of a weird painting, depicting the Scriers and Norman would give a little background on their alleged history.

I’d also have the Six Arm Saga and debut of Morbius happen here, but link it in with some illegal genetic experiments someone within ESU is doing on the side for the mob. These experiments would lead to the creation of Vermin who owns Spidey’s ass until he’s saved by someone at the end of the episode. After Vermin beats a retreat, that someone helps Spidey up and it’s Captain America! Cue an ep of Spidey and Cap on the helicarrier with Chameleon using Artificial Life similicra to infiltrate it. Cap is abducted at the end of this episode and the Avengers show up accusing Spider-Man of it. Cue the next 2 episodes where Spider-Man teams up with the Avengers to take on the Hulk in Canada and Seth, the Serpent God of Death. This would then lead into the final 2 episodes which I’ll get to in a moment.

Also in this season I’d have a two part team up with Spidey and Spider Woman. Madame Web would summon them and reveal she is a member of the Spider Clan. Her granddaughter Anya Corazon, has been abducted by the Tarantula clan and Peter and Jess need to rescue her. This would allow Spidey to meet Madame Web, Jessica Drew and Anya of course and foreshadow the Black Tarantula. The Tarantula Clan’s outfits would resemble Julia Carpenter’s Spider Woman and Arachne outfits. This would lead to a ‘filler’ ep about Spider-Man fixing his suit and daydreaming about other costumes and powers he could have. This would be an excuse to pay homage to the Spider Armour, Captain Universe and a few other classic outfits for Spider-Man. the episode would end with him tossing away a doodle of the black costume inspired by his previous adventure. Later we’d get Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut but the story would end with the X-Men showing up. The episode after that would be a Spidey/X-Men team up but Mastermind would mind control them into fighting, thus we’d get Spider-Man vs. the X-Men like Secret Wars #3

 The final 2 eps would be the Death of Gwen Stacy. I’d keep this pretty much the same but with the exception of having Gwen awake and trying to escape. The moments just before she’s knocked off the bridge Peter would try to earn her trust by starting to unmask.

 Season 4: It’d kick off with the Jackal hiring Punisher to take out Spider-Man. Apart from that it’d be basically ASM #123-149, all about Peter grieving Gwen, falling in love with MJ, etc. I would cut some of the dumber stuff out though and condense some multi-parters into single stories. I’d whack in some team ups for good measure too as MTU was around at this time. One major change I’d make is that I’d have Man-Wolf show up as a result of similar experiments that created Vermin and ditch the moon gem stuff. However, Man-Wolf would eventually go after the Moon gem but it’s energies would in fact revert him to normal. The clprit behind Man-wolf and Vermin would be revealed as Miles Warren.

 One smaller change I’d make would be to omit ASM #150. It’s a great issue but it’s not a great season finale like ASM #149 would be. BUT I’d keep the MJ scene from it by simply moving it to the events of ASM #149. The idea is that when the bomb hits zero, everything fades to white, Peter would wake up amidst debris, when Gwen asks how he knows he’s the real one, he’d respond that ‘he just knows’. Later as he’d be approaching his apartment we’d get a flashback revealing that he was thinking of MJ as the bomb hit zero and so he couldn’t be the clone. Cue him finding MJ in the apartment, end season.

Season 5: Basically the Len Wein run with a dash of Marv Wolfman. It’d wrap up with a combination of 3 Wolfman era stories. MJ proposing to MJ, Spidey vs. the Burglar from ASM #200 and finally Peter graduating. A major change would be that MJ would literally leave town immediately after rejecting Peter, and it’d be a break up not just a rejection. But we the audience would see a private moment with MJ where we can tell she wasn’t nearly as casual about it as she let on.

 Movie 2: Mayhem in Manhattan: Mid way through the season I’d adapt this Spider-Man novel into another animated film.

 Season 6: It’d kick off with Spider-Man meeting Black Cat. The season really would be about Peter dating different people casually and more seriously. Deb Whitman, Cissy Ironwood, etc. He’s work for the Daily Globe and start Grad school. The season finale would be the Owl/Octopus War ending with Felicia seriously injured and Peter ripping out Otto’s arms as a result. The season would end with Spider-Man and Black Cat now an item. But I’d omit the events of Spec #77-79. Also at the Daily Globe Peter would meet and work with Eddie Brock.

 Season 7: It’d start with the debut of the Hobgoblin, cover Felcia’s recovery, gaining new powers (from other people continuing Warren’s experiments with animal DNA), MJ’s return, Peter dropping out of Grad school, MJ’s big reveal and origin, and culminate in Peter and Black Cat breaking up and Kingpin leaving NYC. The Kingpin battle would be taken from Wolfman’s run moreso than Spec #100 because that’s just a better fight.

Of course the Alien Costume Saga would happen. I’d keep the canon stuff but add in the elements of it corrupting him, with the extra spice of Felicia actually preferring this darker Spider-Man.

Peter would get the costume differently though. Instead of Secret Wars, criminals would try and obtain the Moon Gem, which was being hosted as ESU. The fight would culminate in a Kinglsey clothing factory and as a last resort Spidy would smash the gem by throwing it into one of the machines in the factory.

Licking his wounds afterwards he’d be leaning against the conveyer belt when a tiny black ball would emerge from the shards of the Moon Gem, enlarge and when Spidey noticed it we’d recreate Secret Wars #8.

BTW, to give readers clues to the Hobgoblin’s identity I’d have him record a voice journal but with a voice changer so we get his inner thoughts sorta.

Also Jason Macendale would show back up but not as jack O’lantern.

 Season 8: It’d start with ASM #260-261, the Rose/Hobgoblin story where they abduct a pregnant Liz Allan. The season would omit a lot of irrelevant stuff like the golden notebook subplot, the Beyonder, etc. But it’d keep stuff like Crusher Hogan, When Commeth the Commuter, Web #13 and other classic stories. The three central subplots of this season would be the Ned/Flash/Betty love triangle, Peter and MJ’s ‘will they won’t they’ romance and the Hobgoblin mystery. However instead of Lance Bannon, Eddie Brock would be one of the suspects. Brock would be threatened directly by Spider-Man when he starts writing Sin Eater articles and that’s just about the only thing I’d change from the Death of Jean DeWolff storyline. Most of the real important stuff from this era (sans Doc Ocks mental breakdown) I’d keep the same with the exception of not making Jason Macendale the new Hobgoblin. After Peter and Felicia break up I’d have Betty go all Cult of Love from later in the comics before the finale being yet another way later story: Hobgoblin Lives. It’s just more logical to wrap up the Hobgoblin mystery here rather than end it badly and wait years to fix it.

 Season 9: This is kind of the least accurate season but hear me out. Okay so we start off with Peter proposing to MJ, her rejecting him, then her agreeing, just like in the comics. BUT...we don’t have them then get married. Something as huge as your protagonist’s wedding should be the first or final episode of a season, not episode 3 or 4 or even the mid-season finale. So I’d grab a load of post-wedding stories and tweak them to be about Peter and MJ as an engaged couple. The stories would be selected to somehow tie-in with their relationship. The idea is to have the couple gradually develop doubts. So we’d have Jonathan Caesar. We’d have the Drunk Spider-Man issue but with Jason Macendale now the Demogoblin (it’s just a costume no demonic stuff) instead of the Hobgoblin. MAYBE we’d even have a heavily rewritten Jason Jerome subplot. We’d have Felicia turning back up to stir up trouble as she did in the 1990s. You get the picture. Because the finale is the wedding, which is obviously light on action, the episodes before the wedding I’d finally do Venom. Venom is great at generating dynamic action set pieces so he’d kind of compensate for no action in the actual finale. Venom is also an ideal choice because this whole season is about a romantic relationship, and Venom is in a sense an ‘unholy union’ between two entities. We’d draw upon the fact that Brock’s wife left him and ASM #300’s climax happening in a church bell tower is just too perfect for the wedding theme of this season. One element I’d throw in though would be for Spidey to have his ass handed to him by Venom once only to get away. MJ makes Spidey a new red and blue costume. The idea being that in wearing Venom’s colours the colours Felicia preferred him in, the colours that don’t represent his true self, he won’t win against this dark version of himself. But the red+blues are Mj’s preferred suit, MJ’s colours and reflective of who he really is.

The season finale would be the wedding but split over 2 episodes. The first ep would end with Peter going to see Felicia the night before his wedding and MJ going off with Bruce (or maybe Jason Jerome).

The actual final episode would be them vocing their doubts and insecurities to Felicia and Jason/Bruce and through talking with them, and reflecting on the events of the season and their lives in general they realise they’re just getting jitters. If they weren’t going to go through with this they would’ve walked away a long time ago. In fact their hardships this season prove they can handle it and make it work. So they get married but in typical Parker luck fashion their ride gets caught in traffic en route to the honey moon, so they gotta web swing their way there into the sunset.

 Movie 3: Fearful Symmetry: Kraven’s Last Hunt: I briefly considered making this the opening of the next season, the season finale of the last season or the mid-season finale of the last season but it just didn’t work. It’s too iconic to change up like that it HAS to happen shortly after the wedding. Making it a movie would help sell the fact that for the first time ever we’re suddenly hearing Kraven and Vermin’s inner thoughts which would be weird to happen randomly in the middle of a season. A movie though can sort of be it’s own thing.

I wouldn’t change anything beyond adding a kind of prologue chronicling Kraven’s history up until now, who Vermin is, Peter and MJ’s marriage, Ned’s death, just some stuff that’s a small story unto itself and can allow the movie to stand on it’s own a bit more.

 Season 10: Basically this is the Harry Osborn Saga from DeMatteis’ run. I’d cut down on the Vermin stuff. Maybe I’d cut out Peter’s parents from Child Within. I dunno because I would totally do a rewritten Robot Parents story arc in this season because I think that story could be compelling if done properly. I’d just have it happen BEFORE Harry dies, which naturally would be the season finale. Also in this season we’d introduce Carnage, Tombstone, the Joe Robertson/Tombstone subplot and the Return of the Sinister Six. One thing I’d add into the latter story would be the character of Carolyn Trainer who’s quite taken with Doc Ock. Spidey and Ock would have a huge showdown adapting their battle from Spec #79 since that’s probably the best Spidey/Ock fight ever. I might also do an adaptation of Soul of the Hunter and/or Torment, both because it’s a famous Lizard story and because it’d set up Kraven’s death withint he context of the show and thus give Chameleon motivation for the Robot Parents stuff.

 Season 11: A heavily abridged and rewritten version of...the Clone Saga!

I’ve actually plotted this episode by episode. The gist is Aunt May has a stroke, Ben shows up, we introduce Carrion who busts out Carnage in exchange for some of his symbiote. Spidey fights Carnage but when they’re both affected by a poison Carrion tests out, Ben steps in to help. Venom also escapes, leading to Ben becoming Scarlet Spider. Peter is dying of the poison leading into the Web of Death story where Doc Ock cures him and Kaine then kills Otto. Web of Death could’ve been the ultimate end for Doc Ock so in a show that’s finite it makes sense to end him with that.

Anyway, Peter learns MJ is pregnant, he and Ben reunite with the Jackal, Carrion and the Gwen clone. They learn Carrion is a clone of Warren and was in fact the Warren from Shea stadium, he’s got telepathic powers and is using them to keep Gwen’s clone (Joyce Delany) under Warren’s control. Warren sows doubt as to who the real guy is.

Aunt May dies, Peter goes to jail, a third Peter Parker shows up. But instead of being Spidercide I’d make him a human/symbiote hybrid, and he’d be this show’s version of Toxin.

Peter becomes Scarlet Spider to clear his own name, learns who Kaine is, finds out he’s a clone, DOESN’T hit MJ but he does run away distraught, etc.

I’d have Maximum Clonage happen but very, very differently. No army of spider clones, no Punisher, no nonsense like that. Warren is going to unleash his virus but wants to keep MJ safe as her baby could be interesting to study. So he abducts her and gives inoculations to the virus to everyone. MJ refuses so he asks Gwen to do it as she’s MJ’s friend. Gwen’s clone is kind of not all there due to the mind control so when MJ breaks her own dose of the inoculation, Gwen simply administers her dose to MJ. Ben shows up to save MJ and knocks out Carrion. Carrion as it turns out was keeping Toxin under control so he freaks out, grabs MJ and Gwen, asks Ben to choose between them and tosses them both off the roof, but then he pins Ben so he can’t save either. Peter shows up to save MJ, Warren instinctively jumps after Gwen to save her but out of nowhere, a new Green Goblin shows up to save her and Warren dies. The Goblin, Kaine, Ben and Peter fight Toxin who’s gonna be losing until he bonds with Carrion and is now too much for everyone else. Gwen meanwhile would be trying to defuse the device that’d be administering the virus, but starting to degenerate due to the stress.

Her last ditch effort would be to implore Carrion/Toxin to save them all. He’s a clone of Peter and Miles Warren so he loves her and since she’s not inoculated she’s gonna die. Carrion/Toxin smother the virus and absorb the poison into themselves, dying.

Kaine takes Gwen’s clone away as he understands the pain of degeneration and Peter retires, making Ben the new Spider-Man.

The second half of the season is a condensed Spider-Ben era but with Lady Ock, Spider-Carnage, Green Goblin V and Blood Brothers as the central storylines. We’d do some flashbacks to Lost Years and wrap up with Revelations. As a final little change I’d have Peter’s new Spider-Man costume be one created by Ben before he decided to make his own one.

Season 12: Basically the post-Clone Saga era. This final season would be wrapping stuff up, giving a lot of characters their swan songs, but the focus would be on Peter and Norman’s rivalry, Norman owning the Bugle, etc.

We’d introduce Black Tarantula, have a final gang war storyline in which Kaine is hired as a mercenary, Daredevil and Richard Fisk would die, and Kingpin would finally go to jail for good.

I’d also sort of adapt the Revenge of the Green Goblin storyline. I’d have Mysterio on Norman’s orders create a ‘dream’ for Peter Parker where he imagines MJ dies in a plane crash and everything goes wrong, Norman would torment him and try and tempt him into becoming his son and heir. Peter resists and escapes the nightmare.

The season/show would wrap up with Peter reclaiming baby May and a final showdown with the Green Goblin. Norman would be rocking his Marvel Knights armour and be juiced up with Phil Urich’s strength enhancing Goblin mask. Also Phil Urich will have been black mailed into becoming the Goblin on Norman’s behalf so he could clear his own name.

I’ll spare you the details, but essentially Norman’s plan involves murdering billions of people, taking control of the world and potentially endangering the life of baby May. He’s ultimately killed when his identity is revealed to the press, his glider decapitates him and triggers a gagillion explosions. Said explosions would wreck the Bugle leading to Spidey lifting it up like in the Final Chapter. Before he died though, Norman would try to beat Spidey by administering an antidote to his powers that he would’ve tested on Scorpion. He’d not give Peter the full dose though.

When all is said and done, Peter’s got an injured leg (but he’s not lost either of them) and his spider powers are gone, maybe forever, so he retires to be a family man.

This then leads into Spider-Girl where we learn over time he regained some of his old powers but they amount to allowing him to crawl on walls, have a vague reading from his spider sense and render him fit for his age. His leg injury still plays up though. Basically he’s got power but not so much that it’d be reasonable for him to go back to heroism.

[mafiamamaj]

Here's an Endgame fix-it I would love but don't have the patience to write.

So, Steve goes back in time. Everybody's all pissed because its so out of character, and why is Peggy worth more than Tony or Bucky, all that. But, hear me out.

Steve goes back and the first thing he does is find Peggy and Howard. Convince them its really him, somehow get them to believe the time travel nonsense, all that. They play it up like he survived the crash and found his way home because it's only been like, a week, if that, since the Valkryie went down.

Steve gets Howard and Peggy to help him look for Bucky. He has a vague idea of where he should be at this point, but no solid details, so it takes a little while. This derails any interest Howard had in the Manhattan Project, especially since Steve is Very Vocal about his hatred of the idea.

(Now, I dont have the knowledge to even begin to theorize what would have happened in a reality where Steve Rogers was around to Loudly and Publicly as Captain America declare his disapproval of something as huge and significant as the Manhattan Project. For the sake of my brain, we are going to say that they met a lot more resistance than they otherwise would have, but it still happened because the American Government is awful.)

They find Bucky within a few years of Steve's crash and survival. Obviously he's still all kinds of fucked up because of torture, experimentation, cryo, etc. But 5-6 years is a whole he'll of a lot different than 70+. Shield still gets built, honestly Steve couldn't imagine it with any other name, but Bucky's return reveals that Hydra is still around and that Operation Paperclip was a bad idea (Zola). So they clean house early. Peggy becomes Director because Howard is to busy with his tech, and Steve and Bucky both said no. They do work for the newly built Shield though, running ops and hunting Hydra. They also might as well be married. Its still illegal for the time, so they're careful, but all the people who matter to them know and none of them care that the Captain and his Sargeant are doing the horizontal mambo.

Steve was friends with Tony, even if it didn't work out that well. And for all their differences, well earned and understandable, Tony and Howard had a lot more in common than Tony would ever want to admit. So Steve learns from the mistakes he made with Tony, and keeps Howard from turning into the monster he was in Tony's memories.

He mother hen's Howard into drinking less, drags him out to socialize more(Bucky is a huge help with that), calls him out when he's being a dick, and puts him in his place when his ego, or his head, gets too big for his britches.

Howard gets Steve to actually sell his art, builds him neat gadgets and armor, teases him to no end about Bucky, and is consistently endangering both of their lives on his never ending quest to get Steve drunk. (Bucky might have more sense than both of them, but he's also an adrenaline junkie with a hard-on for mechanical anything, so he is no help whatsoever and Peggy constantly despaired that the fate of the world lies with these overgrown children.)

When Howard marries Maria, Steve stands up for him at the wedding. The first time Howard made Maria cry because he ignored her/forgot something important/said something mean without meaning too, Steve beat him over the head and gave him a Captain America lecture, made Howard bake an apology cake himself, then dragged Howard back to Stark manner to apologize. The second time it happened, Bucky showed up in whatever place Howard had fallen asleep, dressed in full combat gear, cussed him out in Russian and threatened to shoot him. The third and last time it happened, Peggy showed up in Howard's lab, had him tied up before he even new she was there, and calmly informed him of exactly how she would torture him into a slow and agonizing death, as well as how exactly, she would get away with it.

Howard still forgot things, and could be careless with his time, but they never let him get bad, never let him forget how much he Did Not deserve Maria. And when Tony was born they were there for him. Steve refused to let Howard ignore his son, dragged him (figuratively) the first time Howard showed any sign of jealousy towards Tony. It wasn't perfect, nothing could be. But this Tony would grow up with a bumbling inventor of a father who was only forgetful and easily distracted, rather than an alcholic with a mean streak. He would have a mother who wasn't afraid of her husband and would love him even if she didn't always understand him.

He would have a godfather, his Uncle Steve, who would teach him to fight, to stand up for what was right no matter what, who would play games with him, paint with him, love him.

He would have his Uncle Bucky, who would share his interest in all things mechanical, would listen to music with him, take apart and build machines with him, teach him dirty jokes and play pranks on his Dad or Uncle Steve, who would listen to all of his ideas and tell him he could do anything.

He would have his godmother, Aunt Peggy, who would teach him how to play the game that is high society, would teach him how to charm the socks (rather pants) off of anyone, male, female, or otherwise, who would help him when emotions got to difficult, or people didn't make sense the way he thought they should.

Steve would find the others too. Phil did alright on his own, but everyone else...

Shield would be looking for the Red Room from the start. Maybe they find Natasha as a child, or a teenager, but they would find her, because Steve would want to save her after all the times she saved him. She would get placed with a loving family, probably a shield agent and their spouse. She would have therapy, but even a couple of years with the Red Room would mess her up. She would eventually end up an agent herself, still the Black Widow, just a little less damaged. A hero because she wants to be, knows what it means to be saved by one, rather than a way to repent and repay the lives that she took.

They would find Clint probably around the time Barney and Trickshot turned on him, before he had a chance to start on his mercenary career. Therapy, maybe a shield agent foster parent for a year or two depending on his age. They would make no secret about recruiting him, but he would jump at it. Nat would probably already be there, and nothing would stop that friendship. Coulson is probably a few years ahead of them, though not many, and if there is anyone who could reign in Hawkeye, even a slightly less damaged version, it would be Phil Coulson.

Tony meets Bruce. Howard takes Steve's admittedly limited knowledge of Bruce's past and tracks down the kid. Creates a scholarship to get him to a private school and away from his dad. They meet at a Stark expo in their early teens and immediately hit it off. Bruce is one of the only people who can keep up with Tony's genius. When Tony ends up at MIT (sometime between the ages of 14-16) Bruce ends up at Harvard. They share an apartment, because the dorms would have been a disastrous idea. Steve and Bucky live with them because they might be super geniuses but you can't send two teenagers to live alone in another city Howard! Especially not when they have access to dangerous and/or explosive chemicals/tech!

Likely, Howard will still die at some point, probably from all the liquor. Fury will probably still end up as Shield's director because neither Steve or Bucky will want the responsibility. Tony will take over SI, but will still eventually hire Pepper, and eventually promote her, because running a company is never going to be his thing.

Bruce will probably still end up at Culver with Betty, if only because he's actually halfway decent at the whole teacher thing, and the Hulk incident will likely still happen one way or another. Having Steve Rogers alive would not stop men like Ross from wanting the serum. Instead of disappearing for years on end, He'll end up in Tony's tower in NYC. Tony will likely still be kidnapped, though he probably would not have the Obadiah Stane factor involved, and would still end up as Iron Man.

They would "find" the Steve still frozen and thaw him out around that time. Play it off like they found someone for Old Steve to pass the mantle onto. Give Young Steve a new identity, and a family in Old Steve and Bucky.

Young Steve would make friends with Tony, would have time to grieve his lost world without an alien invasion. Would move into the tower and mother hen Tony the way Old Steve used to do to Howard. Tony would not have all the Cap resentment he did in the original timeline, so he would get to know Young Steve as just Steve. Would be able to see him as an entirely seperate person from his godfather, because they are two separate people. Young Steve and Tony would fall in love.

Even if they weren't running it Old Steve and Bucky would still have a hand in Shiled. Would keep an eye on Natasha and Clint. They would have likely met Tony, Bruce, and Young Steve. So when the Chitauri roll in, the only one that wouldn't already be a part of the group is Thor and he fits in seamlessly. Coulson might still get hurt, but Fury wouldn't have to fake his death, because the Avengers would have been a team years before they were needed.

And when the time came to face Thanos again, they would do it as a united front, and they would win. Because together, they are unstoppable.

[watcher-of-worlds]

bruce banner fic recs

26/08/19 - i’m pulling these from my ao3 bookmarks - i dont use ff.net or read much fic on tumblr, so i may have missed some good ones! these are all pretty bruce-centric, though some have more focus on his relationships than others. they’re all also about mcu bruce.

[the ones in bold are just ones i’m pretty sure i lifted from other rec lists, so i think they’re pretty popular (fan favourites?)]

Sorry If You're Starstruck by heyjupiter (complete, 60k)

bruce banner/tony stark

“While recovering from an on-set injury (and the resultant problem with painkillers), billionaire playboy genius filmmaker Tony Stark sets his eyes on his next project--an adaptation of the Gamma Garcia books, a widely beloved young adult sci-fi series. The books' notoriously reclusive author, Bruce Banner, rejects all film offers, but he reluctantly accepts Tony's friendship. Their bond deepens into something more, even as personal and professional setbacks threaten their chance at a Hollywood happy ending.”

Multicolored by Trumpeteer34 (complete, 54k)

background pepper potts/tony stark; background thor/jane foster

“As the Avengers slowly grow closer to each other, they begin to notice some oddities about their resident gamma expert, oddities that he is not even aware of.

Prompt from tumblr user pushingcrazies: What if Bruce also had some of the more traditional (if there is any such thing) DID personality types/archetypes.  Obviously the Hulk is the Protector Archetype.  What if Bruce also had a child personality, or a punk personality, or….I dunno, I’m trying to think back to my psychology class and when I used to watch United States of Tara, but I’m coming up blank on some of the more common personality archetypes.  But you know what I mean.

 And, like, thanks to the Gamma radiation, each personality type would manifest itself in a physical variation of Bruce.”

Irreconcilable Differences by determamfidd (complete, 133k)

bruce banner/tony stark

“Bruce has been searching for a cure again, but Tony doesn't think the green guy is a disease. Abruptly, he's given everything he's ever wanted, and... well, it seems it's all more complicated than that.

FEATURING: Hulk -  Amateur Psychology Hour with Tony Stark -  Clint as a troll  - more Hulk -  Bruce as an angry introspective mess -  Hulk again -  Steve as Team Dad  -  Nick Fury as Nick Fury  - Hulk smash!  - Tony as a caped crusader for Hulk Rights  -  Rules, Rules, Rules  -  Natasha as the boss of everything  -  the Experimental Method (by T. Hulk) -   Thor as the God of Thunder and Frustration -   Tony as the king of the oblivious idiots - Stealth Sass Master Banner ...

...and a lot of figuring out who you really are.

And Hulk.“

by the light of all your bridges burning by branwyn (complete, 39k)

bruce banner/tony stark

“Bruce Banner is twelve years old. It's not an easy age. For anyone.”

Diminuendo by CrumblingAsh (complete, 4.3k)

bruce banner/tony stark; background bucky barnes/steve rogers; background natasha romanoff/steve rogers

“When there is just under a week left until the world is set to end, Bruce finds a man sitting on a sidewalk, shivering in the pouring rain.

And takes him home.“

These Walls Are Paper Thin by IamShadow21 (complete, 13k)

bruce banner & avengers team; bruce banner & hulk; hulk & avengers team

”When most people think of Bruce Banner and The Hulk, they think of it as an either/or situation and assume that it's easy to tell who they're face to face with.

Most people are wrong.”

Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be (series, 3 works) by Ravenspear (incomplete, 3.6k total)

bruce banner/tony stark; bruce banner & tony stark

“In a world that is a little bit darker, a little bit bleaker, Tony Stark is much less of a nice man. But he doesn't like bullies, and especially not ones who keep other people hostage to make weapons.

And that is how he meets Bruce Banner for the first time.“

In These Rough Hands by icarus_chained (complete, 1.3k)

bruce banner & steve rogers

“Bruce & Steve, and the fear of always being the last one standing.“

Your Mind's a Steel Trap (series, 3 works) by 44TayLo (incomplete, 62k total)

bruce banner & tony stark; bruce banner & steve rogers; past bruce banner/betty ross; past bruce banner/monica rappaccini; bruce banner/tony stark

“Bruce has an incredible mind. He's able to pick things apart and analyze something over and over again until he's examined it thoroughly. That's an extraordinarily convenient thought process for a scientist. Unfortunately, it's a horrible thought process for a man. Especially if that man is a monster.“

Perspective by MusicalLuna (complete, 1.6k)

bruce banner & himself; bruce banner & avengers team

“Tony shakes out the piece of paper inside and clears his throat. “Dear Hulk,” he reads, “You’re green. Green is my favorite color. I love you. Love, Gina.”

The fullness in Bruce’s throat only gets worse when Tony gives him a look over the top of the letter as if to say, How do you like them apples?”

Injection by sciencebutch (complete, 1.1k)

"Good becomes great, bad becomes worse."

take a step back and breathe by angelheartbeat (complete, 1.1k)

past thor/bruce banner

“Bruce Banner is the last person on earth.He'd always craved alone time. He never thought it would be so exhausting.“

The Marvel Fractions (series, 4 works) by Nonymos (complete, 175k total)

bruce banner/clint barton; clint barton & kate bishop

“Being a hero with no superpowers kind of sucks. Clint Barton feels out of place in the Avenger Tower; Hawkeye feels out of place in his Brooklyn apartment. It's not hell though. He's got friends on both sides of his life, and he never gets bored. Still – there's this deep loneliness inside him that nothing can seem to cure.”

After the whole Loki business, both sides of Clint feel a little out of step, and he tries to avoid aliens and giant monsters and world crisis in a whole. Problem is, he's not the only one to exist on several scales.

And who better than Bruce Banner to teach someone about dual nature.”

Sunrise over Manhattan by CharityLambkin (complete, 1.5k)

bruce banner & steve rogers; bruce banner & tony stark

“The morning after a long battle, Steve comes across a lump of post-Hulk Banner on the couch.  Comfort ensues.  Oh, and Tony wants in because, hey, can't forget about Tony.”

Resilient by CharityLambkin (complete, 37k)

bruce banner/tony stark; past bruce banner/betty ross

“Tony and Aldrich have built AIM from the ground up, but Extremis is proving tougher than either man expected.  Then, one day, Aldrich buys a new test subject from the U.S. Army, and Tony's day gets a lot more interesting.“

His True Colors by Nonymos (complete, 103k)

bruce banner/clint barton

“The battle of New York was a turning point for the entire planet – but especially so for Bruce Banner. This is a unique chance for him to find the Hulk a place in this world. It is a staggering hope, but unrealistic as it sounds, it might just come true.

And then his hesitant plan turns out to be too successful. Everyone including the Avengers apparently expect the Hulk to take his turn in the spotlight. But the more Hulk thrives, the more Bruce withers, and nobody seems to notice or care. When Loki extends a hand to him, he is fully aware it is a trick – but he has got nothing else to hold onto.

The Avengers realize just a bit too late how royally they screwed up. The sharp-sighted, ever-watching Hawkeye cannot blame himself enough for not having seen this disaster coming. Can they still be saved from Banner ?

Do they even deserve it ?

(The story is set right after the 2012 Avengers movie with slight EMH dynamics thrown in the middle.)“

[emeraldspiral]

Endgame thoughts

My initial reaction was that it’s surprisingly really slow paced and has very few action scenes. I was going to say it was all ultimately worth it for the big climactic battle at the end. But then it really lost me on almost all the endings for our heroes.

Pretty much everything I dreaded came to pass. Tony had five years with his wife and kid, but he had to live those years in a super-depressed world where he felt like a failure, then when he had the chance to fix everything and settle down and finally enjoy life, they ripped it away from him. Also, kinda selfish of him to insist that they don’t erase the last five years on the off chance that it causes Tony to not get married and have a kid with Pepper. Like, fuck all the people who didn’t get dusted but died as a result of pilots and drivers and doctors suddenly disappearing or who became depressed and were driven to suicide and fuck Loki, Heimdall, Vision, Gamora, and half of Asgard I guess?

Similar to how they ended Tony’s story about PTSD, survivor’s guilt, and the overbearing burden of feeling like he has to be responsible for everything in the worst way possible, I feel like Steve’s ending was also antithetical to his entire arc. He spent the whole series trying to acclimate to life in the future and he was doing a pretty good job of it. He got caught up on tech, pop culture, and even found a new love, bland and underdeveloped as she was. Then he just goes back in time to live in the past? Also, the whole point of sending Steve back to return all the stones was to ensure the timeline didn’t get fucked and things would play out as they had originally, so Tony’s daughter wouldn’t be unborn. But then Steve goes and hooks up with Peggy, who got married to someone else in the original timeline. Also, no one noticed Captain America returning after being presumed dead in a time where memories of him and what he looked like would still be fresh? Also, also Peggy founded SHIELD. Did she have to hide Steve’s existence from everyone who knew him every day that she worked with them? Did Steve not warn her about HYDRA infiltrating her organization? What about in the future when those HYDRA agents were tricked into thinking Steve was one of them? Any consequences to that?

I think the biggest tragedy of Steve’s ending is that it could’ve been the most beautiful, perfect, satisfying, sentimental ending to another story. Like, if they’d done this at the end of Avengers 1, or even Winter Soldier, I could get on board with the idea that Peggy was Steve’s one true love that he could never move on from. But after so many movies showing Steve acclimating to living in the future, making new friends and getting an old one back, (He seriously didn’t get to spend any time with Bucky outside the battlefield after they finally fixed his brainwashing. How bullshit is that?) establishing himself as the leader and moral center of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and making out with Peggy’s grandniece it feels like character regression to have him throw all that away to literally live in the past.

Also, he passes on the mantle of Captain America to Falcon, who already has a perfectly good superhero identity, instead of Bucky, who could actually use a new identity to start over with.

I felt cheated by the fact that they emphasized Loki being important to Thor in the marketing, but then Thor just walks right past him in his cell. Present Thor never interacts with or even mentions Loki and all of his emotional moments are with his mom, who I never cared about, in a callback to one of the worst movies in the franchise. Which isn’t to say those scenes weren’t well-done. Well, I mean, except for the fact that Thor’s fake hair and beard and beer-belly were terrible and distracting and took me out of the moment, though props to the actress playing Frigga for managing to be so sincere acting opposite Chris Hemsworth in that getup. I really don’t know what they were thinking with that. Like, they could’ve written the movie’s timeline so that they went to see Thor when he’s sad and fat to get their cheap laughs and then have them take another year or so to put together their time-travel setup so Thor could get back into shape. But no, they really decided to commit to that bit and have him spend the entire movie, his character’s swan song, as a damn clown. Like, they couldn’t have at least switched out the cheap ugly unkempt hair and beard for a better set that looks more realistic so he could look just a smidge more dignified in the finale battle?

And that’s not even getting into Thor’s ending. I was already peeved by Infinity War giving Thor his eye back immediately after he lost it but I think the ending they gave him somehow managed to be even more insulting than Tony’s. Like, his dad dies and he finally ascends the throne and takes on the responsibility of being a king and then he just gets fat and drunk and then abdicates and puts Valkyrie in charge so he can run off aimlessly looking for a new purpose with the GotG? Like, what sense does that make? Also, he justifies putting Valkyrie in charge by saying she’s got leadership qualities, but when did she ever demonstrate any? Ragnarok was all about Thor demonstrating HIS leadership abilities by recruiting Valkyrie, Hulk, Loki, and the Sakaar rebels to fight for his cause. Valkyrie didn’t do any leading in that film, she just learned to start giving a shit and be a team player again. In Endgame, all she does is point Rocket and Hulk in Thor’s direction and then show up on the battlefield. They don’t even imply that Valkyrie was taking charge while Thor was wasting away.

She looked fucking great on her horse though. But where did she get it? I don’t remember seeing her herding one onto the refugee ship at the end of Ragnarok. I’d say I’m surprised that Thor and Valkyrie didn’t become an official couple offscreen like Peter and Gamora did, but after they threw away Jane, Sharon, and Betty and aborted Nat and Bruce’s romance, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that Thorkyrie went nowhere. If they hadn’t gone with making Thor a joke for the whole movie though, it could’ve worked really well since in their last film together, Thor was the one who pulled Valkyrie out of a funk where she was drinking and wasting her life on Sakaar to cope with her trauma and she had the opportunity to do the same here. Oh well. Maybe with Thor out of the picture and Loki possibly alive the ship I really wanted to see take off might actually stand a chance.

The big girl ensemble scene kinda made me laugh because they really wanted all the girls (sans Nat) together and it was already kinda forced and corny when they did it in Infinity War when there were only three, but when you’ve got a huge battlefield full of mostly male heroes and random male soldiers and grunts it stops being a believable coincidence that all the women and only the women would end up in the same spot and just becomes transparently “we deliberately flocked together just for the sake of forming a girl group with no regard for strategy”. But that’s not even what made it funny. What made it funny was that they stuck Mantis in there and then as soon as everyone charged she disappears because Mantis isn’t a fighter, so there was no reason for her to join that group, which makes the whole thing even more transparently like, not a thing that would happen organically in real life.

I totally didn’t even notice that Lady Sif didn’t appear because the actress had left the franchise long ago, so I just never expected her to show up, anymore than I expected Jane to. In fact, I was so sure that Natalie Portman was only going to appear in archive footage or in faraway shots with a body double that it shocked me when they had like, a whole five seconds of her waking up and then Rocket walking into the room and it didn’t look like it could’ve been from the original movie because they never would’ve shot the scene to linger after Natalie walked off with the camera angled to frame a two-foot tall character. So I guess they got Natalie back just for that.

I’ve expressed before that I’m not a fan of dealing with story and character problems by throwing them away instead of fixing them, and Jane’s a pretty good example of why. The first two Thor movies feel like a complete waste now since they spent so much time developing her and Thor’s relationship and Thor having to choose between his obligations to Asgard and his love for her. Her dumping him in Ragnarok doesn’t inform his character at all, unlike Tony and Pepper’s break-up in Civil War. It’s just an excuse to make him single so they can set up Valkyrie as his new love interest. But then Thor and Valkyrie don’t get together, nor does he reconcile with Jane. The movie indicated he was still heartbroken over Jane, and they had the perfect setup for a reconciliation. Thor lost his both his parents, his siblings, his best friend, his eye, his hammer, his home planet, and half his people, but Jane was snapped by Thanos, which means she came back to life at the end. It was such a blatant missed opportunity to not have him either get pulled out of his funk by Valkyrie or reconcile with Jane in the end it almost feels like maybe they were going to in an earlier draft but then decided it was too similar to Steve's happy ending so they just decided fuck anything respectful or satisfying for Thor and just dumped him on the GotG for no other reason than to make his different.

When Valkyrie said she liked either Bruce or Hulk apart better than both of them together I was like “hard same”. Like, the CGI on Hulk was never that convincing, but it gets really deep into the uncanny valley in this film. It just feels wrong to see the big green guy emoting and gesturing like Bruce and hearing Bruce’s normal soft-spoken voice coming out of Hulk’s mouth. Nothing about it is okay. I would’ve liked it better if they hadn’t skipped over the character arc too. Like, instead of just “Oh, we reconciled our differences and merged into one during the timeskip” Bruce was still unable to Hulk out for five years and didn’t know why and then finally figured it out for the final battle in a big triumphant moment.

I was hoping there’d be some kind of a twist to the soul stone get scene. Like, because Nat sacrificed herself instead of being pushed in, she’d get the stone instead of Clint and then they’d both live, or they’d both fall and be resurrected. Kinda like in Yu Yu Hakusho when Yusuke and Kurama both tried to sacrifice themselves to the magic mirror to save Kurama’s mom so it let them both live.

They should’ve just cut Clint’s storyline and swapped it for Hulk’s story. Cause like, the whole Ronin thing doesn’t really impact the plot in any way. The only purpose it serves is to give him a reason to fight with Nat over who should sacrifice themselves despite Nat being the obvious choice since Clint has a wife and kids he’s trying to get back. The scene at the beginning where he loses them is all we really need to be emotionally invested in him. Scott only had the one scene with his daughter and that was enough for him.

If they’d had Hulk’s reconciliation happen over the course of the movie instead of during the timeskip then they could’ve sent Clint to New York and Bruce to Vormir, since an active battlefield wouldn’t have been a good place for Bruce to be while unable to Hulk out. It could’ve been Bruce and Nat fighting over who should sacrifice themselves as a resolution to the feelings of guilt and self-loathing they discussed in Age of Ultron. Nat could’ve sacrificed herself, not out of shame for her past or the future she doesn’t think she can have, but out of love for Bruce. Her sacrifice could’ve been the key to unlocking Bruce’s ability to reconcile the two halves of himself, which would've been a nice payoff to her being able to snap Bruce out of Hulk mode in AoU and Ragnarok instead of just a thing that happens to make you sad for no reason.

I thought Captain Marvel in her solo movie was just okay. Not unlikable by any stretch, but not particularly funny or charming or otherwise possessing any kind of engaging character traits strongly enough to give me something to latch onto. But I found her quite unlikable in this film. She’s barely in it and every time she is, she’s copping a real attitude. Like, everyone else is grieving and wracked with guilt because they’re actual empathetic characters who’s natural reaction is to feel bad about the situation even though they tried their hardest, and many of them couldn’t have done much anyway. But Carol just seems really defensive. Like, if this were any other hero, she’d be sorry she wasn’t around to stop Thanos. She’d be haunted by all the people who suddenly, inexplicably turned to dust, knowing she was the one hero powerful enough to stop him, but she wasn’t where she needed to be. Instead, she comes across as being more bothered by the idea that other people might blame her for not stopping Thanos than by what Thanos did.

I kept thinking that maybe since Loki got the the space stone the timeline was messed up and he was going to pop up in the final battle and I actually played myself into thinking it was him moving Mjolnir for a sec before it turned out to be Steve and then I was disappointed he didn’t show up later when everyone else did.

Nebula at the start of GotG 1 was already hoping that Ronan would help her kill Thanos, so it’s OoC for past Nebula to be his loyal servant in this movie.

How did Clint and Natasha go to Vormir not knowing about the sacrifice? Nebula was able to figure out what happened to Gamora in Infinity War, so why didn’t she warn them?

Loki disappeared with the space stone in Avengers 1 but he was still in his cell during the events of TDW, but then they went further back in time to get the space stone in the 70s. But when did Steve return the space stone? If he sent it back to the 70s, does Loki still get it in 2012, or did Steve stop him from getting it?

Also, why did they even need to go to the 70s to get more Pym particles? Bruce already had the time stone. They could’ve just used it to fix their flub with Loki.

I can’t believe they finally put explicit gay rep in the movies but like, in the weirdest way. Like, it wasn’t like they hyped it up and then only vaguely implied it with stereotyping, like some other movies. They did have like, an outright unmistakable declaration of a character’s sexuality, and it wasn’t even saved for the very end. It’s in like, the first half-hour. But, they did it with a random no-name extra. So it’s like, they now acknowledge that gay people exist in these movies, but there’s still no explicit unambiguous LGBT representation among the heroes, or even the supporting cast.

I remember in Tony’s funeral scene, seeing a teenage boy and thinking “Who the hell is that? That’s not Peter, and that’s not one of Clint’s kids”. Like, I’m not great with faces, especially when they’ve drastically changed due to puberty, so of course I wasn’t going to recognize the kid from Iron Man 3. Now that I know that that’s who that is, I think it’s a pretty nice touch, even though it’s still bullshit that Tony died.

Kinda confused about Gamora. We’re never shown that she goes back to her time, but I guess we have to infer that she did because she’s not with the other Guardians at the end and Peter has an image of her on a screen implying that he plans to somehow find her and bring her back to life in his time. Also, how is Nebula alive if her past self died?

Everyone who got snapped was brought back to life, but the five years they were gone wasn’t erased. So Peter is still 15, even though he’d be 20 if he hadn’t died, unlike Cassie who is now a 13 instead of 8 (I think that’s her age, don’t quote me on that). But we see Peter hug Ned, who looks the same age, and Flash and MJ also appear to be the same age in the Far From Home trailer. So, I guess it’s a coincidence that everyone in Peter’s circle just happened to also get snapped so there’s no awkwardness with Peter being in high school while all of his friends are college-aged now.

[animatormon]

My Problem with Hulk in Ragnarok

The Hulk in Thor: Ragnarok is not the same character from the previous MCU films. The Hulk (I think it’s important to stress that Bruce and Hulk are separate characters, and I will be focusing solely on the Hulk here) has had a consistent characterization from The Incredible Hulk to The Avengers: Age of Ultron. This is completely thrown away in Thor: Ragnarok, and I have a serious problem with that.

First, I’ll describe what the Hulk’s character actually was. When Bruce first turns into the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk (after the montage at the start), he speaks his first ever line of dialogue in the MCU; and it says a lot about him. “Leave me alone.” There are a few obvious things you can deduce from this line.

The Hulk does not want to fight. As the scene continues, Hulk beats the soldiers easily, so it isn’t that he’s scared or worried he’ll get hurt. This desire to avoid a fight might be because he doesn’t actually like violence, or it might be because he doesn’t deem them worthy of a fight. We’ll return to this later for clarification.

Hulk isn’t as stupid as one might assume. His first line of dialogue EVER is a complete sentence spoken in 1st person. He is clearly capable of clear, grammatical speech all the way back in 2008.

Hulk isn’t just a monster of blind rage. Sure he’s angry, but he’s got a clear enough head to give his opponents the opportunity of avoiding a fight altogether.

The main take away is that Hulk isn’t a mindless monster.

The Incredible Hulk makes it clear that Hulk isn’t stupid. It’s the opposite in fact. He’s quite smart; he just doesn’t understand how the world works, at least not fully. Basically, he’s high in INT and low in WIS. 

Now, why do I claim Hulk is smart? Multiple times throughout the film he is able to come up with intelligent solutions to problems he’s presented with. When Hulk is being bombarded by the sound cannons, he’s clever enough to use one piece of scrap metal as a shield against the cannon, allowing him to aim and throw the other piece of scrap metal at said cannon to destroy it. When fighting Abomination, he’s clever enough to turn a car into makeshift brass knuckles. When the helicopter is about to burst into flames, Hulk is clever enough (and quick-thinking enough) to use a sonic clap to snuff out the fire. These aren’t the actions of an idiot.

Now, to be fair, Hulk doesn’t do anything all that clever in The Avengers and The Avengers: Age of Ultron. However, he’s never faced with an opponent too strong for a single punch to deal with (aside from Thor and Iron Man, but Hulk clearly isn’t in his right mind during either of those fights), so he doesn’t need to.

So what do I mean when I say that Hulk doesn’t understand how the world works? Well, in The Incredible Hulk, he believes that the thunder storm is an actual enemy that might hurt Betty. He doesn’t understand what a thunder storm is.

Let me return to something I briefly mentioned earlier. Hulk’s first line is “Leave me alone.” If you pay attention to Hulk’s actions in each film, it becomes clear that Hulk doesn’t actually like to fight. He only fights in self-defense or in the defense of others. The only exception being his first appearance in The Avengers and the fight in Africa in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and like I said before, Hulk isn’t in his right mind for either fight. For the former, he’s being influenced by the scepter, and for the latter, he’s under the control of Scarlet Witch.

Speaking of the Scarlet Witch, once the effects of her spell wear off, Hulk is clearly not pleased to find that he’s hurt innocent people. At the end of the film, he leaves a potential relationship with Black Widow out of fear of hurting her. How do I conclude this? Well, Joss Whedon clearly states this in his commentary for the film. Besides that, it’s the simplest conclusion you can make when you look at the evidence. Hulk is upset to find that he’s lost control and hurt innocent people. Then, he purposefully disobeys Black Widow’s instructions on how to return to her, opting instead to fly far away from all the people he cares about. He leaves because he doesn’t want to hurt the people he cares about.

In The Avengers, Hulk smiles when Captain America instructs him to “smash.” One might try to argue that he’s happy because he likes violence, but I’d argue that evidence points to a different conclusion. Hulk is happy because not only does he get the chance to defend innocent people, he also (for the first time ever) gets to fight side-by-side with people that trust and respect him. He gets to fight against the bad guys, which we see again at the start of The Avengers: Age of Ultron.

To summarize: The Hulk from The Incredible Hulk to The Avengers: Age of Ultron is an intelligent character who tries to avoid fights, only engaging in them when he needs to defend himself, to defend someone he cares about, or to defend general innocents.

Is this the same character we see in Thor: Ragnarok?

No.

In Thor: Ragnarok, Hulk’s INT and WIS stats seem to have swapped. He more accurately understands how the world works, but he’s dumber. He understands what a QuinJet is, but he’s mentally a child. Sure he talks more, but since when does talking a lot indicate intelligence? Even though he showed signs of proper speech in The Incredible Hulk, he’s still stuck with broken grammar and 3rd person. His personality is drastically more childish and immature than the previous films. Hulk doesn’t display any ingenuity in fighting, other than PUNCH HARDER. 

And now Hulk doesn’t seem to care about his friends. He worked side-by-side with Thor during The Avengers to protect the people of New York. Sure, he punches him after defeating a leviathan, but its clearly just a joke, and he doesn’t mean any real harm by it. In Thor: Ragnarok, he attempts to kill Thor in the arena even when Thor makes it clear that he doesn’t want to fight (and yes, I mean kill. As far as I can tell, these fights are supposed to be to the death, and Hulk’s final move was clearly meant to kill). Hulk also shows no sympathy to the potential extinction of Thor’s people and actually laughs at his suffering.

Also, I find it rather insulting when the film implies Hulk has had no problem murdering innocent people for two years. Remember that Hulk is battling against slaves forced to fight him. Doug, while just a silly joke on the surface, was a real person (a slave forced into the arena) that the Hulk killed.

Does this really seem like the same character who left Black Widow out of fear of hurting her?

Tangent: AND DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HOW NERFED HULK IS IN THE THOR FIGHT. Hulk should win that fight easily. Why? Hulk was shown to be capable of killing a leviathan with a single punch. Thor has never demonstrated an equivalent feat WITH HIS HAMMER. And you’re telling me that Thor can win a fight against the Hulk with no hammer? A HULK THAT HAS SPENT THE LAST 2 YEARS DOING NOTHING BUT FIGHTING. I call foul on that.

In conclusion: The Hulk in Thor: Ragnarok is not the same character from the previous Marvel films. He’s been completely rewritten for the purposes of the movie without any consideration of consistency. Hulk is written to be who the general public thinks he is, not who he actually is.

[pendragonfics]

Crackers, Wine, and Good Company

Paring: Natasha Romanov/Reader

Tags: female reader, bisexuality, new years eve, kissing.

Summary: A shy scientist who works with Bruce Banner falls hard for Natasha Romanov. Natasha Romanov, bad-ass Avenger and kick-ass agent, also falls for the other woman. Sick of them not doing a thing about it, the team does something about it.

Word Count: 1,991

Current Date: 2017-12-31

The best part of working in a lab, was not the fact that you could work also on your own scientific things. Well, it’s a great fact, and you did that, quite often. But no. The best part of working in a lab was that you could do your job, and not talk to anyone else. In your high school yearbook, you’d been voted most likely to live alone (as a joke), and best introvert (for real). It was a miracle that you’d even been selected from the graduating class to work alongside the Avengers themselves, but still, it happened, and as a scientist, and as a very shy person, it was amazing.

You worked alongside Dr Banner, and Dr Cho, and on the odd occasion when she breezed into town, Thor’s ex-girlfriend Dr Foster. But three people who talked to you were enough for your quota, and you did your best to keep to yourself and do the best work to aid the Avengers in their quest to better humanity.

That was until you saw Natasha Romanov.

You’d seen girls before, oh boy, yes, you’ve seen girls before. Girls with perfect hair and rude tendencies. Girls with long legs and sarcastic comebacks. Girls flirting the bi-curious line and running back to boys after a kiss. But when you saw the ex-Agent, your eyes grew wide, pulse grew fast, and you turned heel and walked the way she was not. In that zero point zero two second lapse, you saw how incredibly gorgeous she was. Hair so straight, could give a paper cut. Smile so perfect, it could kill a man. Eyes that could probably do that too.

You ran back off to your lab, the results for Mr. Stark still in hand, and heart racing faster than ever before in your life. If she was the Black Widow, then, well, you’d be a caterpillar. Prey. Your experience of dating girls in your life made you practically vowed off love, and as a woman whose heart went to men and women, that meant something. Being publicly dumped and humiliated one too many times did that.

But Dr Banner caught on to it.

“Tony said he didn’t get the atom-based Vibranium blaster theory paper last month,” He said, pushing a scuffed pink mug of terrible coffee toward you. “And the report on the improved arrows for Barton yesterday.” You cup the mug in your hands, unable to look at your co-worker and friend. “I thought I gave them to you to pass on.”

You mumble something, and then, realising it was too inaudible, say, “I got distracted. Sorry.”

Bruce pulls up a stool beside you. “Distracted? You’re the best scientist I have here – you helped me calculate the differentiation between the X-Gene and that of an Inhuman.” He places a hand near your own, and says, “Is everything okay?”

You nod. “Y-yeah. Just…I don’t want to be a runner anymore. If that’s okay with you.”

He cracks a smile. “Sure, ________. You don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with, I’m not a monster,” he chuckles, and taking a sip of his mug, pats you softly on the shoulder. “I got results back from the forensics, and you wouldn’t believe what the alien material found has traces of…”

---

Natasha Romanov was not an idiot. She also was not the brilliant scientist who worked with Banner, who she was curiously intrigued about. Every time she saw her (h/c) hair tied back to satisfy the lab rules, her bright (e/c) eyes behind the safety goggles, Nat wanted to ask her to coffee. It had been a while since she found herself falling for a woman, not since her childhood friend Marina. But when she saw her fleeing every time they locked gaze, Natasha decided to ask about it. She was a former agent, a former assassin, and if she could not have a chance at the person who made her heart go pitter-patter, then it was not worth it.

While training, she asked Clint. He said he didn’t know a thing about her, and then after she finished him off with a roundhouse kick and pinned him down with his arms behind him, gave up and said to try asking Tony for more information, since he was the guy who hired people.

So, she did. But when Nat rounded the corner to Tony’s suite, she was met with the sight of him and his fiancé Pepper in a compromising position. She turned heel, and decided to ask Steve instead…only to remember he’d taken Bucky and himself to someplace in the wilderness to escape the fireworks and whole shebang with New Years Eve. She understood. PTSD was a bitch.

Tired of walking around the facility like a moron, Nat decided to take the fight to where the source was – she was no Sherlock Holmes, but she was smart. If her mystery girl was a scientist, worked with Dr Banner, and wore one of those insufferable yet adorable lab coats, she’d be in the science wing of the facility. She met gaze with Bruce rounding the corner, and stopped him from going any further.

“Hey,” she said.

He nodded. “Hi.”

Nat chewed the inside of her cheek. “I heard you have a lab assistant.” She muttered, scuffing the sole of her boots upon the floor. “Came to welcome her.”

Bruce raised an eyebrow. “________’s been here for almost two months, Natasha…” he scoured her face for evidence of any ulterior motive, and found he couldn’t read her. “and since when do you just drop into the labs?”

She shook her head, hating the fact that two years ago she had a fling with the guy, and still had to work with him even though it was most certainly over. “Ugh. Never mind.” She turned heel, and walked off, the echo of her heeled-boots clip-clopping away.

---

Bruce rounded on you after he talked to Natasha, interrupting your mid-afternoon meditation. You’d almost finished, but he pressed pause on your phone. Now you’d have to start all over again. Opening your eyes, you were met with the familiar head of curls, and an unfamiliar look on his face that looked like he knew something you didn’t know. Well, he was in his late forties, he defiantly did know some things you didn’t know.

“I know why you didn’t deliver those files to Tony,” he said, sitting before you on the floor. He wasn’t barefooted, like you, his shoes were on your yoga mat. You winced internally. “You have a crush.”

Your eyes grew wide. “What? How? No. No!” you gave it all away just like that, and to prove it, your face grew red. You hung your head. “Dr Banner, I’m – I tried to be professional, but I’m just not good around people, and Mr. Stark’s office is all the way around the other –,”

He chuckled. “I know you’re shy, ________, but Natasha is only human too.”

If it were possible, your face grew even redder, and hotter. “Please, please don’t tell her.”

Bruce frowned. “Tell her? Geez, I’m trying to help you here, not be cruel.” He places a hand in yours, and says, “She all but told me she likes you too, ________. Caught her walking in here, and she gave it all away.”

You look up. “She’s just so pretty, I can’t even get words to come out when I see her,” you tell him. “I’m twenty-nine, not nine, and this isn’t Elementary school and she isn’t one of the girls in grade ten who outed me for being bi.” You blurt out. “I’m an adult! I should be better at this!”

Bruce nods. “If it’s any consolation, I too am terrible at relationship stuff. I didn’t get a real chance with Betty until after I became the Hulk. Sometimes it takes a while for people to get to the right place.” He consoles you, and withdrawing his hand, goes to stand. “I mean, not everyone is a Tony.”

You laugh at that, but really, you’re just sad that it isn’t true.

---

Natasha is a very, very intelligent woman. She can calculate where a man will be by his gait, even if she’s outside a building. She can shoot a gun with her foot. She can also, apparently, be lured not by the evils of her past, but a co-worker, and that is where she is right now. A very smart woman, stuck outside the facility on a balcony, wearing less clothes than what one requires for the middle of winter.

She watches as Clint walks away through the glass of the door. She calculates how much force it would take to kick down the door, but does not attempt it. It’s the Avengers facility, everything is reinforced. Nat huffs, and turns to see the view from the balcony.

“Oh – hi. Hey.” Her eyes turn to the person who spoke. It’s ________. Her hair is loose, and she’s wearing clothes ill-suited to the outdoors. Her face is red, like every other time it is that Nat sees ________, except, this time, it’s so cold out that it does not quite show. “I would have thought the person to come rescue me from out here wouldn’t end up being locked out too.”

Nat raises an eyebrow. “You got locked out? Barton?”

________ shakes her head, rubbing her arms for warmth. “No, Dr Banner. Said he left data out here for our experiment…I’m an idiot.”

Nat harrumphs. “I’m an idiot too. Clint said he parked the Quinjet on stealth-mode, and couldn’t remember where.”

________ laughs at that. It’s a small laugh, like a chuckle, but to Nat, it’s the most beautiful thing she’s heard, and she has also heard people pardon her for her terrible past before becoming an Avenger. But then ________’s laugh ends, and instead, she speaks with a solemn tone, “I – I’m sorry for running away from you every time I saw you.” She apologises, voice small. “I’m not that great at people skills, and, new people, and you’re really pretty –,” she claps a hand over her mouth, and groans, “sorry…”

Nat smiles. “Well, I think you’re really pretty.”

The door opens, and stepping through, Wanda Maximoff holds a platter of assorted nibble foods. Literally stepping through the metal of the door, Vision holds a bottle of sparkling juice in one hand, and champagne in the other. They place the items on the table, and Nat and ________ watch in silence, amazed that all it took was that confession to get someone to come out. But then, instead of letting them go, Vision pulls out a couple of heated blankets, and glasses, and takes his leave.

“Hey!” ________ cries out, seeing those two locking the door behind them. “What –,”

The watch on Nat’s wrist read four digits. 23:58.

“________, I don’t know about you, but I have no New Years Eve plans, got given a whole lot of food, a warm blanket, and are hanging out with a cute girl,” Nat says, sitting at the table, looking out over the expansive grounds of the Avengers facility, the beautiful forest, “I’m staying out here.”

________’s eyes widen. “It’s new years’?”

Nat laughs at that, and tugs the wrist of the scientist who had earned a place in her heart. “Yeah, it is. C’mon, sit, let’s eat crackers and drink wine and watch terrible fireworks.” ________ yields, and sitting beside Nat, they share a blanket, and both nurse a glass of bubbles. “Have anyone in mind for a new year’s kiss?”

The loud bang! of a firework hisses to life, spraying the stars above with patterns of golden and red lights. ________’s breath hitches, amazed at the sight, and turning to Nat, cradling her face with her hand, she says, “I think I do.”

Nat believes the year ahead will be the greatest. ________ knows it will be.

[aion-rsa]

What If…? Episode 3 Review: The Avengers Initiative Is DOA

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This review contains spoilers for What If…? episode 3.

Episode 3 of Marvel Studios’ What If…? animated series is an enjoyably ridiculous, twisty whodunnit revolving around SHIELD boss Nick Fury as he tries to work out who exactly is taking out his Avengers Initiative candidates before they’ve had a chance to join the team.

At first, the episode seems to be pondering what would have happened if most of the OG Avengers (minus Captain America) were murdered pre-Battle of New York, but we later find out that the actual “what if?” here is “what would have happened if Hope van Dyne had joined SHIELD and died in the line of duty?”

If you’re a regular Den of Geek reader, you’ll probably know by now that our What If…? reviews are adopting a different format. More of a breakdown that we hope will satisfy die-hard Marvel fans but also help younger viewers and those less familiar with the MCU keep up.

With that in mind, let’s dig into ‘What If…? The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?’…

Required viewing

You’ll likely need to have seen pretty much all of the Phase 1 Marvel Cinematic Universe to fully understand this episode. And Ant-Man. Oh, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but I’ll get to that.

Voice cast

Jeffrey Wright is of course Uatu The Watcher. Returning to reprise their MCU characters are Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, Frank Grillo as Crossbones, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner and Jaimie Alexander as Lady Sif.

Stepping in for Scarlett Johansson is Lake Bell, who voices Poison Ivy in the spectacular DC animated series, Harley Quinn. Replacing Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark is Mike Wingert, and it’s not the first time – he played Iron Man in Avengers Assemble, Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel Future Avengers. Stephanie Panisello (Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness) is Betty Ross, and General Ross is Mike McGill and not William Hurt.

What’s different?

Circa Iron Man 2, Nick Fury and Natasha Romanoff begin their attempts to bring Tony Stark into the SHIELD fold, but instead of helping him fight the poisoning symptoms of the palladium core in his arc reactor, they appear to accidentally kill him with the same injection. Natasha is arrested by Brock Rumlow and his henchmen, but easily escapes.

Out in the desert, Agent Coulson finds Mjolnir, but as Hawkeye trains his bow on an approaching Thor his finger “slips” and he kills the God of Thunder dead with a single arrow. Hawkeye dies soon after.

Meanwhile, Natasha tracks Betty Ross for help with Tony’s suspicious death. Betty examines the antidote and the syringe, but Bruce Banner is hiding in her lab and Natasha uncovers him. Bruce Hulks out …and suddenly explodes in the midst of a General Ross-led ambush.

Thor’s death has attracted Loki and an Asgardian army, who threaten to invade Earth. Fury strikes a bargain with Loki, hoping to uncover the person responsible for all the murders before Loki proceeds with his evil plans.

In partnership with Loki and with a crucial tip from a dying Natasha, Fury goes to the grave of Hope van Dyne aka Wasp, who became a SHIELD agent in this timeline and died. We can conclude that it was Hope who went to Odessa here instead of Natasha on a deadly mission that she described in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Natasha had been tasked with escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran during the mission, but when she got to Odessa she was attacked by Bucky Barnes, and he shot her through the stomach and killed the engineer she was with.

Fury (and Loki disguised as Fury) confront the murderer at Hope’s grave – it’s Hank Pym! He’s become consumed by vengeance after losing both Hope and Janet on SHIELD missions. Hank’s not in his Ant-Man suit here, but has gone Full. Yellow. Jacket; he murdered the would-be Avengers after going mad with grief.

How does it work out?

Mmm, not great! This is more of a classic What If…? tale because it utilizes a very silly twist to showcase just how bad everything could have been given the right alteration. Loki betrays Fury and still invades Earth, playing out his “glorious purpose”, and Fury slams his Captain Marvel beeper in a last ditch attempt to turn the situation around. The episode concludes as he and Carol Danvers explore the area where Steve Rogers has been buried in the ice for centuries.

Standout moments

There were loads of great little moments in this episode. The sudden deaths of the Avengers were all equally shocking, but Natasha’s death hit the hardest emotionally. Probably because she was present throughout most of the episode as Fury’s most trusted Agent of SHIELD, but also because she’s dead in the Sacred Timeline and this wasn’t on her own terms. Natasha went out fighting of course, but it feels like we’ve lost her three times now thanks to her recent swan song in Black Widow.

Coulson’s dialogue in the episode was terrific! Clark Gregg always nails the delivery, so it’s hard to pick between his description of Thor – “sir, he’s gorgeous” – and his password confession – “Hashtag-Steve-Steve-Steve-i-Heart-Steve-0704”. In any given timeline, Coulson will completely geek out for the Avengers. Some things never change.

I also loved the reveal of Hank as Yellowjacket. I know some viewers are going to find the possibility of Hank murdering all those people unbelievable but, hey, “unbelievable” is often the name of the game with What If…?, and Hank was always a belligerent hardass. Hope seemed to be the only thing left in the world he was truly invested in after resigning from SHIELD, so it’s fairly easy to believe that his beef with the organization would have escalated in the wake of Hope’s death.

I’m on vacation next week, but I’ll see you back here for another episode soon! Take care.

Marvel’s What If…? is now streaming weekly on Disney+.

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from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3sOTUWq

[patrioticarcreactor]

Christmas Miracle

This is a gift for my lovely StarkQuill family. I love you guys, and I hope you’re having a Merry Christmas!

@imaginestarkquill , @hazelestelle , @atreatiseonlaughing , @auradonfairy , @andysanime , @dammitdain , I love you guys!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Oh the weather outside is frightful

But inside it’s so...”

Who am I kidding? Inside was pretty frightful as well.

While outside was bitter, wet, and cold, the Avenger’s compound was toasty warm. However, the warm air did not translate into a warm feelings amongst the beings inside.

Rocket was arguing with Rhodey and Gamora, insisting that gravity mines would make great ornaments on the tree, and very practical in case of a surprise attack. He also was eyeing up Rhodey’s leg braces, but that was a plan for later.

Meanwhile, Drax was watching “Grandma Got Run-over by a Reindeer” with Mantis, and was trying to understand how Santa was the one in trouble, and why they did not just kill the reindeer for getting out of control. Not that Mantis fully understood either; however, she was preventing Drax from becoming frustrated and attempting to find and slaughter a reindeer.

Our lovely treenager Groot was sulking in the corner because seeing so many fellow trees cut down before they could even reach maturity hurt him. (Tony’s tree was a high quality artificial; however, they had driven by a man selling trees by the side of the road and were forced to explain it to him.)

Pepper was frantically trying to finish the decorating around the rest of the compound with Peter Parker’s help, as the decorating company had been scared off by the Guardians, and Peter could reach the higher areas.

Harley was in the kitchen, quietly eating the cookies that were meant for the following day, hoping no one saw him do it and he could blame it on Rocket. He’d already gotten FRIDAY on his side.

Of course, though the old avengers were in the compound, none of them would lift a finger to help with the Guardians there.

Peter Quill was out actually, and no one knew where. He didn’t say, just borrowed a car and left.

And Tony?

Tony was in his workshop, where he’d been for the last couple days for most of the day. Doing what? No one but JARVIS knew.

What everyone knew, but no one except Pepper cared to admit was that tomorrow was Christmas. The Guardian’s first Christmas on Earth, and the Avenger’s first Christmas back. How they acted would influence the public’s opinion of them for the next year.

Pepper already announced they would be releasing a “Happy Holidays” video (the plan was to release it at the beginning of December; however, Thanos kinda set that timeframe back), and they had to play nice.

Right now, that didn’t look possible.

And JARVIS, who Tony had managed to salvage slowly (though he was far from fully operational, as Tony hadn’t backed him up in a while, and the last backup was damaged from the Mandarin attack, thus he was running in the background as someone for Friday to consult and work with than a managerial AI), was horrified by the current state of affairs. He couldn’t quietly sit in the background and do nothing. He took to the compound speakers(with the exception of the workshop)and said in an firm tone, “I’m sorry, the current state of affairs cannot continue. With the exception of Miss. Potts and Mr. Parker, you will all return to your apartments, and will not be allowed out until tomorrow, when hopefully you will have considered your actions, and thus have the capability to behave appropriately. You are all fully mature beings, with the exception of Groot. You need to act in accordance with this.” And before anyone could protest, the entire compound went dark except for small navigational lights. There were still several protests, however FRIDAY said she couldn’t turn anything back on. Thus, most everyone slowly made their way to their apartments(though some had more trouble than others).

Star Lord returned home an hour later to Pepper and Peter still decorating, and was confused as to where everyone else had went, however he figured they had just decided to go work on the Milano or something. He helped Pepper decorate for a bit since they still had so much left, before heading to bed himself.

The next morning, the Avengers and the Guardians came into the communal living room to see...

How do I put this?

Beautiful chaos is the only way to describe it.

It was far from Pepper’s dream of a pristine, elaborate set up. However, what could be clearly seen was that everyone had contributed, and that made it feel more at home than anything else could.

Bucky had made paper garlands for the tree, Clint had shot festive pine garland up into the ceiling, Natasha had made some kind of fancy Russian cookie, Steve had made elaborate paper snowflakes which hung everywhere, and Sam had made some of those fruit ornaments that you put a million cloves into.

Harley had clearly gotten some help from the bots, and decorated the walls, doorways, and mantles with lights, and Rhodey had called his momma up for her cinnamon roll recipe.

With Drax and Mantis’s help, Rocket got the tree decorated and looking somewhat less violent. Gamora and Groot made a few decorative...Reindeer...out of sticks they found outside(well, Groot had found them, Gamora refused to go outside in that weather).

And there seemed to have been a silent agreement that no one touched the angel tree topper that Peter had come home with and placed on the tree the night before.

“It’s So...” Rhodey started.

“Fitting.” Steve finished, looking around at the chaos of half professional, half homemade decoration. The homemade decorations brought back memories of first Christmas out of the ice, in the tower...Steve shook his head. Those days may be gone; however, maybe they can start to move on now.

All of a sudden, everyone’s attention was drawn to the muffled yelling outside, and they all gathered at the windows, looking out to see Tony in the wet, cold grass, next to a medium sized machine. Once he saw he had the group’s attention, he pressed a button, and a beam shot into the air, and slowly, clouds started coming together, and snow started falling.

While most of Guardians didn’t understand the whole idea behind Christmas, they could still appreciate the unity of the celebration.

The Avengers decided to put aside their differences for the holiday.

The scene was very peaceful and unifying, until there was an abnormally loud clap of thunder, and a flash, and Thor and Loki were suddenly on the lawn. No longer traveling by Rainbow bridge, they seemed to have found their way around that challenge. Thor seemed to be carrying...Some sort of large, pig like creature, meanwhile Loki appeared to be empty handed, however that may not be the case considering his magic. They came inside to join the others, and Thor set the big on the counter.

“MY BRETHREN! I have brought

Sæhrímnir for us to enjoy this fine Christmas!” Thor bellowed with a wide grin. He may have mellowed out after the destruction of Asgard, but he was still a generally cheerful fellow.

“And I brought mead, because no one can sit through hours of war stories without it.” Loki deadpanned.

Drax looked at Mantis to see if it was sarcasm, before saying “I could! I love stories of great battles and wars!”

Rocket rolled his eyes, before looking at the pig thing, “Can I get it’s tusks?”

“But of course, my fearsome, furry friend!” Thor said with a smile.

Steve and Clint began to help Thor prepare the hog, meanwhile Loki conjured up glasses and barrels of mead, and took one for himself, before letting the others take what they wanted as they wished.

Pepper nearly had an aneurism when she saw the state of the living room; however, when she saw how well everyone was getting along, she realized that was better than anything she could set up. JARVIS also compiled clips of everyone decorating the living room, and of them enjoying the holiday season.

By the way, if you’re wondering where Bruce has been this whole time, Tony had flown him and Betty to a private island. They both needed a relaxing break from everyone, and Bruce needed some time to be Bruce with no chance of Hulk making a visit. They were on good terms, but after two years, you kinda need a break from the guy.

Quill sat on the couch in a stupid Christmas sweater beside Tony, who was wrapped in a fuzzy blanket. The couple had come out a while ago, but they didn’t always act like it around the others. However, right now, Tony just curled up against his boyfriend, not caring what anyone thought. Star Lord smiled and held him close, kissed the top of his head. He watched as as Peter Parker attempts to sneak a glass of the mead from the table, but it moves just out of his reach every time, meanwhile Harley does the smart thing, and steals Clint’s when he turns away.

Everyone was happy and peaceful, and despite the earlier chaos, this turned out to be a rather delightful Christmas.

[doctorbrycebanner]

Meta Topic: Family

Okay but like, Banner and Hulk barely know what it’s like to have a true family. Much as they loved their mother, their father spoiled and then completely destroyed any semblance they had of what it should have been. 

After Brian was locked up, they found the closest thing to a biological family living with Aunt Susan and visiting Aunt Elaine and Cousin Jen and it was probably a beautiful thing until Aunt Susan passed and an emotional fucked up Bryce began to drift apart from the rest of her family, not to fully reconnect for a long time.

And then Bryce meets Betty, brilliant kind beautiful Betty and some of the pieces begin to come together again only for the Accident and Ross to blow it all apart and Bryce is on the run and terrifying of growing close to anyone, of letting her own poisonous touch rot anything beautiful she comes into contact with because nothing she’s become a part of has ever lasted. 

(She’s tells herself its fine, she’s used to being alone, prefers it even, but stares longly at baby cribs and lingers in the park to watch couples hold hands and stroll and children play)

SHIELD comes into her life and everything changes and it’s unquestionably ridiculous to be working with spies and Captain America and Tony Stark and a Norse fucking god of all things but there’s a lack of judgement among them she’s never quite experienced before. Stark especially has a knack for prodding at her walls and much to her surprise she can’t help feeling something akin to affection and even through the discord shortly after, Stark’s jokes and smirks and surprisingly heartfelt words stick even after she transforms to Hulk and back. Stark is an arrogant bastard but just maybe he’s right, maybe she should stop running and start using what she has to build something.

So they stays and fights with the Avengers and something grows between all of them. For the second time in their life, they understands what it means to have a home, a place where you feel safe and surrounded by people that you fight with from time to time but that also make you happy and feel like a part of something larger.

But doesn’t last. They’d known deep down it couldn’t and Banner’s own creation (it may be Tony’s too, but for all that Ultron has Tony’s flair for the dramatics, that’s Banner’s anger simmering underneath) is tearing her family apart and she’s the root of it all and the rampage during the mission to find Klaue only proves how monstrous she was all along and so at the first chance once Hulk knows the battle is won they flee before they can make it all crumble.

But even in space family finds them in Angry Girl and Thor and hurts so good to have them and even Loki together for a short time before Thanos rips it all to pieces and by then...

by then even Hulk has abandoned Banner and she knows without a doubt that she was never meant to have a family.

[getreadytosmash]

Ah, it wasn't too bad then and wouldn't take him too long to learn everyone in the family.

"Well, Ross tends to go by Red now, so if you hear anyone get called that, then we're all referring to him," Hulk started off. He wasn't too sure why Red preferred his nickname but Hulk knew better than anyone about the importance of choosing names for yourself. "Jen's actually my cousin, I'm- well, Banner was the reason she got mutated. To save her life."

Though, they had both always seen each other more as siblings when she comforted him for everything they - Hulk and Bruce - had gone through over the years and they had supported her just as much with her transition, Elaine's death and becoming a hulk.

"The blue guy's Rick, he's the one who runs the webshow and he's probably gonna wanna chat with you to get you introduced onto the show, and the grey one is Skaar. He was against us for a while before he changed sides, but he's a really good kid. Just..." He sighed and shrugged, "Hasn't been given that many good chances in life, can't remember anything about his past or who he is."

There was...also a few others, those ones made Hulk pause and rub the back of his neck sheepishly with a small smile towards Benny, "We also have Sam and Emil, they used to be villains as well before the Shadow Base incident, but they're good now too. Betty is..." well, she was complicated, but Hulk decided to settle for something more...simple. Benny didn't need to know everything after all.

"Betty's Red's daughter. There's also my own daughters running around here that you'll probably meet; Carmilla, Lyra and Gwen."

💚 - Hulk (for green-army-soldier)

@green-army-soldier

He could sense gamma out here and this time, it wasn’t coming from his family.

Time had passed for them all, it had been months since enemies became allies and even longer since the days of sharing the body with the many personalities of Banner as well as being on the run from the army. New hulks had been appearing for years so it had become easy to forget old ones. To forget old faces.

Except now certain faces had seemingly made an appearance again. Hulk had been following the sense of the radiation for about an hour now, trying to keep track of it and not realising that he had wandered far enough from the base that it would take some time for anyone to reach him. But that wasn’t really on Hulk’s mind at the moment, he was more concerned with whoever may have been out in the desert all alone and what might have turned them into a gamma mutate. Were they completely alone? Did tbeh have people waiting and scared for them? He needed to find out, so he could prevent any pain (and maybe Hulk had fully accepted the fact that he was a bleeding heart).

And so far? He hadn’t found them. Whoever this new gamma mutant was, they knew how to cover their tracks. Hm…

“You know,” Hulk sighed loudly, hoping that the mystery gamma mutate could possibly hear him and maybe not be so afraid to hide. “I can’t exactly help you if you stay hidden!” And he thought Rick was bad with the disappearing act…