#guess who started reading x-men comics again

[exotic-inquiry]

bamf

[laroserie]

— Various x-men characters dating a non-mutant!reader

— characters ; Scott Summers, Peter Maximoff, Kurt Wagner, Hank McCoy

— version with others characters ; not out yet

— warning ; no particular tw. talk about self estimee and doubt. (as always author has not started reading the comics and their knowledge come from the different xmen cartoon and my hazy memories of the film <3) ( also no cartoon gif for peter because i couldn't find any ... is he even in any of the xmen cartoons ), author decided that Peter has self-confidence issues, also Peter part kinda slide tracked and has more about Peter and his struggle than him dating reader whose a human ... sorry! (his part is also a bit short ...)

— Scott Summers

Scott has no particular qualm around you being a regular human, he loves you just as you are, and nothing can change that. That said, Scott cannot help himself but be, patronising at time. In his mind, you being a human just make you be at risks, you can't defend yourself if you get attacked, by others humans or mutants. He doesn't view you as weak, but, he know how fleeting life is. He isn't the greatest at expressing his feelings, and notably his worry for you.

He will also be more protective than if he was with a mutant. And it show in him being at first very against you befriending any others x-men, he very much care for most of them and he loves you very much, but he doesn't want to have those two part of his life mix up. He doesn't want you to get in dangers because of his job, but he also doesn't want you to possibly endanger one of his mission, he wasn't capable of choosing between you and one of his mission. Not to say, you are as or more important than his mission, but he was responsibilities as a X-Men and he cannot forget about them. But that said, with enough asking and pleading, making him crack and let you meet his friends and fellow X-Men.

Talking about you interacting with mutants, Scott will not let any remarks about you - well not being one - slide. He knows and understand why his friends may feel wary of humans, he get it, but you are different. You are quite literally dating him - a mutant, it couldn't make any sense for you to be against them. Scott may let it slide the first time actually, but anymore than that, and he's making them do extra session in danger room - or they aren't allowed in it, depending on who.

In general, there isn't that much of a different between how he treat his mutant or non-mutant partner, he just will be more protective and worried for them. He doesn't feel particularly insecure in your relationship - because of his mutation or your lack of mutation.

Again, he doesn't have any problems with you not being a mutant - he more so has problem being a mutant, not in general of course, but in your relationship yes. Peter can't really give an answer as to why, but if he had to guess it was probably due to this father, and the fact that he didn't want to do anything like his father did, to you. The worst is, he know damn well he isn't anything like him but he can't help but think that way.

He feels like he's going to mess your relationship up, because of what he is. He try to play it off as if it was nothing, but it's a feeling that lingers in the back of his mind often. He never truly wished to be a regular human before, and he still doesn't, but he just want your relationship to be more normal. Which isn't really possible. Peter knows that, he also knows that you don't care, about that kind of thing.

He can mask his doubts and awful self-confidence with his quirky attitude, he can fool most people pretty easily - expect you. At some point, it get to point, where you have to sit down with Peter and try to have a conversation about it, at first he will just act dumb and pretend he doesn't get what you are talking about, but his facade cracks relatively fast.

You listen, his fears and doubts. You comfort him, and assure him, that everything is fine, you reassure him that weither your relationship is 'normal' or not it's the last of your problem. You love him, he loves you and that all that matter in your eyes.

Now, Kurt could be the one that has the most difficulty dating someone that is not a mutant. He could be scared to hurt you more than anything. He's stressing out about doing or saying the worst thing, that will just break everything. One of the reason why he is friend, with his friends is because they share at least one thing - they can all relate on one crucial part of their identity - them being mutant, it's one thing that link them all together and make it at least a little bit easier to connect. You lacking that, make it hard for him. He still loves you all the same of course, but he feels like not being able to share something so crucial is sad.

So he desperately try to make it up in some way, he looks everything he can about your interests to be able to share that with you, everytime you share something about your interests Kurt will make mental note of it. And he will share a lot about what interest him in return. If you speak an another language that he doesn't know, he'll try to learn it, after all what is better than learning the language of your lover! Kurt can even teach you some german if you want to!

He wants something to link the two of you together even more. It's something he heavily crave. To be linked to you, by more than just, your love for each others.

Kurt may feel insecure at time, that you may leave him for well, a regular human, that isn't blue, has five fingers on each hands - he will try to keep it to himself, but he isn't really good at that. His insecurity just overflow and he end up offhandedly asking you while you are hanging out, if you could prefer to be dating a human rather than him. Obviously, you tell him that you don't, and ask where did this idea came from. He feels reluctant to admit as to why he asked. He feels, ashamed ? After seeing your reaction, he feels a bit silly, and even more when you comfort him and tell him that you very much prefer and could always choose to date him more than anyone else just because they are human.

On a more happy note Kurt loves seeing how amazed you are by his mutation, you never really were around mutants before - there isn't actually a ton of opportunity to meet mutants and to know that they are mutants, even if antis mutant politicians like to make people believe the contrary - most humans he met, weren't exactly thrilled by his, but you are the exactly opposite. Even after being together for a while and getting used to his mutation, there is still this curiosity and shine in your eyes when he teleport for example.

He is by far, the most chill about your relationship and you not being a mutant while he is. Well, that is if we are talking about Hank, after he accepted his entire mutation and all, which we are, Hank pre-self acceptance is different deal.

But once, Hank is settled as a scientific and has member of the X-Men, and has fully accepted his mutation, he doesn't personally really care. But sadly, a lot of people seemingly do and that's one thing that annoy him. The worst is it come from both fellow mutants, even his friends and colleagues sometime! And from regular humans. He doesn't really get why people care about him dating a non-mutant or you dating him - a mutant.

He personally try to not let it get to him, and if it does he will do everything but make you suffer because of it. It most often will result in him shutting himself in his lab for a bit of time, to calm down.

And like others, he feels like he needs to protect you because, you are so ... weak in his eyes, not in a bad way of course ! But in comparison to him you are so small and fragile. This cause Hank to usually like putting his arms around you, around you waist or on your back, to show you that he is there, and to show people around that you are his, and that they shouldn't try to hurt you in anyway.

[stormz369]

☕💖 Can I Get Your Number? ☕💖 Ch 1

Jason Todd x Chubby! Reader (fem) A/N: I don't know what I'm doing here, I'm not even much of a DC fan, but Jason Todd has quickly become my latest hyper fixation character (Harley Quinn too, do I just have a thing for Joker victims???) so ... thank you for giving me a place to put this energy I guess! 😂 I'm not super confident on the characterizations, but I'm going with it because I like it. If it's wildly ooc ... that tracks, given that the only DC comic I've read is Batman: Wayne Family Adventures. Read it, or don't, I just needed to get the thoughts out of my head. The art doesn't belong to me, but the writing does. Please do not post elsewhere!

written with a female reader in mind, first person pov, no use of Y/N, starting out fluffy, will probably get NSFW later so minors DNI, let me know if there's anything else I should tag this with!

word count: 1.7k

Chapter Selection

In a city known for its masked fighters, you learn pretty quickly that everyone and everything is a potential threat. Every approaching stranger on the street, every loud sound behind you, every dark alleyway. Being bigger than me certainly isn't a prerequisite to being a danger, but it does have a way of setting off my mental alarms. I've found that big men are used to getting their way, and they get all sorts of bent out of shape if you deny them their wishes. Especially when they think they're doing you a favor.

It died down a bit after high school; I learned to exist in public with ‘fuck off’ stamped across my face. Headphones on, reading a book, intentionally seated at the table furthest from the other cafe patrons. All the typical signs of someone who wants to be left alone; nothing about me said ‘please come talk to me'. So I was understandably on edge when I noticed someone standing by the chair across from me. I look up just a bit, gesturing to the chair with a nod. Silent consent to take it back to his table and leave me to my book.

No such luck. The man simply smiled and mimed taking headphones off. Putting a bored look on my face, I moved one off my ear. “... Hm?”

“Hi! I'm sorry to bother you, but my brother thinks you're really beautiful and is refusing to come tell you himself.” 

I could feel my expression turning to stone. “... What is this, middle school?”

His cheerful grin faltered ever so slightly; “hey, I know it's a bit silly, but he's awkward around cute girls, so what's a brother to do, ya know?”

I stared him down; “... You're not fooling anyone. Move on.”

“... Sorry, ‘fooling anyone’?”

“It’s not funny, it’s not even hurtful the 20th time, it's just annoying. Go. Away.” It was a lie; it was always painful to be on the receiving end of these pranks. But that was what these guys wanted, so I wasn't going to tell him that. My headphones back in place, the guy slunk away.

Ten minutes later, another person was standing by the chair. I pretended not to see him, continuing to read my book, until he plopped down in the seat. I looked up slowly and he smiled, another oddly warm smile, leaning forward on his elbows.

An incredibly put-out sigh later, I slid the headphones off one ear again. “What?”

“Hi, I'm Tim! I'm not sure what exactly my brother said to you, but I wanted to let you know - we're not trying to prank you or something. Our brother is just way too awkward with girls. It's painful to watch, really, so we figured we'd give him a hand.” He spoke much too fast for me to get a word in. I blinked a bit, raising an eyebrow.

“... You frat boys are really committing to the bit these days, huh?”

“Huh? No, really, I promise!”

My headphones were nearly back into place when a child showed up. His impatient expression matched how I felt about the whole situation. “As usual, Drake, your plans are far too convoluted to be effective. Watch and learn.”

He turned to me, nothing about his demeanor changing; “hello. Todd said we shouldn't bother you because you ‘clearly want to be alone’, but I am convinced the only way to stop their nonsense is if he comes over. May he have a moment of your time?”

Frowning a little, I stared at the kid. He stared right back, neither of us blinking for a solid minute as we sussed each other out. His expression barely changed, but the boredom in his eyes turned into determination. “... Well, you're definitely not a frat boy. So I'll make you a deal; you may report back that he has permission to come say hi. If he doesn't choose to, that's the end of this little charade. And if either of them” I gestured to the one sitting at my table; “comes back over here, I start stabbing. Got it?”

The boy nodded once, and I thought I saw a ghost of a smirk. “You have my word.” He dragged the other man out of the chair by his shirt, pulling him stumbling toward their table. That was when I saw him. The only person at their table who hadn't come over yet. Even hunched over the table he was enormous, probably close to six feet tall; exactly the kind of man I typically avoided. The kid spoke sharply, pointing in my direction, and his head shot up to look in my direction. Even from across the spacious patio, I could see his face turning red. The obnoxious, cocky smirk I was expecting to see was entirely missing; instead he seemed almost confused.

Headphones back on but turned off so I could hear if he approached, I returned to my book. But I only got through a few pages before the first one shouted; “and offer to get her another coffee or something!”

I looked over to see the tall one frozen halfway between our tables, a look on his face like he was considering jumping over the patio fence to get away. His demeanor reminded me of a lost puppy, and I couldn't help the chuckle that rose up out of my throat. I bookmarked my page, set the book aside, and slid my headphones down around my neck. I really thought he was about to bolt until I lifted one hand, curling my fingers to gesture for him to continue toward me.

He stopped short by a good several feet, eyeing the distance between himself and the chair, and took one extra step back. It seemed as if he was hyper aware of just how much he loomed over me; the way he stood was like he was trying to will himself to be smaller, and he kept his hands at his sides. “Um … hi. … Sorry, this is … this is really weird …”

I nodded, watching him. “It is a bit. … Todd, was it?”

“Jay… Jason.”

“Not Todd?”

“Jason Todd. Damian calls me Todd, he thinks using people's last names keeps them at an arm's length…” Jason Todd. The name felt familiar, but I couldn't place why. He continued to ramble about how important tone was in determining whether this Damian kid was referring to you with affection or disdain, and I watched him. He was admittedly very cute; he had a sort of a bad boy aesthetic -leather jacket, dark clothes, a white streak in his hair, some unusual scars on his face and arms-, which juxtaposed interestingly with the gentleness in his voice, bright eyes, and awkward mannerisms. That was actually the thing that made the most sense about this situation; bikers are often secret teddy bears.

“... Jason?”

He looked up at me, one hand sheepishly making its way into his hair. “Yeah, sorry, you want me to go. I'll get them to stop harassing you, so sorry-”

“Actually, I was going to say you don't have to stand the whole time.” I gestured to the chair across from me.

He hesitated, watching me. “... Y- you don't want me to go?”

I smiled softly and shook my head. “Sit?”

He quickly obeyed, a hesitant smile on his face, which was almost immediately hidden by his hand when his brothers whooped from their table. “... God, I'm so sorry … th- they mean well, really, they're not trying to be weird …”

I laughed softly, “it's fine, that's what siblings do, right?”

“... I guess so … I've been sort of … away for a while, but I guess this is pretty standard sibling behavior. … Right?”

“I mean, a little more insistent than mine, but not too far outside the realm of what I’d consider normal.” I shrugged, finishing my chai latte.

He smiled slightly, considering that. “... Hm … um … c- can I get you another?” He gestured to my cup.

“... Sure, I've got time.”

The pleased grin on his face as he looked away to flag down a server surprised me. Then again, everything about him was surprising. Still, no one had ever looked at me quite like that before… 

The server sauntered over, clearly curious about my new companion. Jason smiled brightly; “Hi, can we get another for the lady? And I'll have a medium black coffee, sweet, please.”

Huh. He called me a ‘lady’. Not a girl, or a chick, a lady. That was … also surprising. We chatted for a little while, sipping our coffees, and tried to ignore his staring brothers. He was incredibly awkward, in a sweet, endearing way. I got the impression that he wasn't fully comfortable, but chalked it up to how weirdly this all started. After a while, the first one returned, a small grimace on his face.

I raised an eyebrow; “I'm pretty sure I told the little one that the next one of you to come over was getting stabbed.”

“I know, I know! I'm so sorry, but Jay, we gotta go. Bruce texted…”

That was when it clicked; why I knew the name Jason Todd. He was a Wayne … his death had dominated the news cycle for a week. His miraculous, frankly poorly explained, return was the story for at least two.

He looked, torn, between me and his brother. “Oh … um …”

The man I finally recognized as Dick Grayson leaned forward and fake-whispered, “the words you're looking for are ‘can I have your phone number'?”

Jason swatted him away, blushing bright red; “Seriously, Dick? … well, can I-”

His ears were turning red as I held my hand out for his phone. I added my contact info and, feeling unusually bold, I added ☕💖 after my name while Jason dropped a couple of bills on the table; I smiled a bit, realizing he was leaving enough to cover my first drink for me too. I passed his phone back, enjoying the look of wonder on his face when he checked the screen. The way he whispered my name, like a prayer meant only for god's ears, had my stomach doing backflips.

“thanks … I'll call you?”

“Sounds good. I'm a night owl, so not too early, yeah?”

He nodded eagerly. “Not too early, promise.”

Next ->

[daydaydayrk420]

Shorty

Logan Howlett (Wolverine) X male reader

⚠️size difference, bottom Logan, top reader, Logan is 5'3 like in the comics, outside sex⚠️

🚨 Minors and girls do not interact 🚨

Y/sp/n = superhero name

______________________________________________________________

Logan may not seem like it. But he's 5'3. Yes. 160 cm. You read that correctly. He's the shortest one of the X-men. But he doesn't mind. He's got cool claws that like to cut the flesh of annoying people.

Speaking of annoying. Here's y/n y/l/n. Also know as y/sp/n. Or as Logan calls him. Dick.

Y/n is currently in the large garden of the Xavier mansion. All of the kids and teachers are out in a museum. Besides y/n and Logan. Conveniently.

"Hey, shorty." Y/n smirks as he sees Logan walking up to him. Logan huffs in response. "Don't be like that." The taller man teased and ruffled the smaller man's perfect cat ears hair.

"hey!" Logan smacks the hand away and tries to fix his hair. Y/n chuckles and looks at the ducks on the lake. Logan sits next to him and also watches the ducks.

"It's weird being in school without the kids." The shorter man said. The taller man nods and leans back. "But it's peaceful."

"What should we do? We have the whole school for ourselves." Y/n asked as he looked behind himself at the mansion. Logan shrugs and looks at y/n.

Suddenly the shorter man's mind starts to spin with not so family friendly thoughts. "I might have a few ideas... But they're not really built for school." He mumbled with a hit of a growl in his voice.

The taller man looks at him. "Oh?" He doesn't get a chance to guess what Logan's ideas might be before the smaller man straddles his thighs and catches his lips in a hungry kiss.

Y/n moans In surprise and grips Logan's thighs to hold him in place. Soon, his eyes flutter closed, and his body leans into Logan's.

Their minds race. Partly because of the adrenaline but also because of the size difference. Logan is so small in y/n's lap. Sure, he's hairier and more masculine, but he's so easy to hold. He's not easy to lift. Y/n doesn't even try to move Logan because the way his legs are growing numb under the adamantium weights tells him enough not to bother.

"So small." The taller man breathed out into Logan's neck as he enjoyed the way his arms wrapped around Logan so easily.

"Fuck you," Logan grunts as he reaches for y/n's belt. "You're about to." The taller man said with a smirk. Logan groans in annoyance but lifts to remove his pants. Y/n chuckles and takes himself out of his pants and strokes it. He spreads his precum down the shaft as he watches the shorter man with hunger.

"Look at you. Already leaking and I haven't even touched it yet." Logan scoffed and sat back in the taller man's lap.

Y/n immediately latched onto Logan's neck and used his second hand to stroke the shorter man's dick. Who, by the way, is packing.

The shorter man groans and tangles his fingers in the other man's hair. "So fucking eager aren't you."

Y/n continued to furiously stroke both of them off as he marked Logan's neck, which immediately healed. But he keeps trying anyway. Maybe one will stay. Logan only groans and tugs at the taller man's hair.

Eventually, Logan grows impatient and pushes y/n onto the grass. The taller man grunts with the landing but doesn't complain when Logan lines up with his dick. Instead, he rests his big hands on Logan's thighs. Which are big with muscle but y/n's hand still covers most of it.

The shorter man sinks down. They both groan in pleasure. "holy shit Logan you're tight." Y/n grunts and digs his nails into Logan's thighs.

Logan lets out a deep breath once he is fully seated. He takes some time to relax and get used to being filled after so long. Y/n whines and thrusts up. Which makes Logan lose balance and fall on the taller man's chest. He wanted to scold him and sit up again, but long arms wrapped around him and held him in place.

The taller man buried his face in the shorter man's hair and started thrusting up into him. Logan digs his claws into the dirt on each side of y/n. He kisses and bites the taller man's shoulder to muffle his moans.

Y/n plants his feet into the grass for better leverage to thrust up. With the way y/n's thrusting, it makes Logan's knees weak.

None of them talk, they can barely form a word. The taller man keeps his arms tightly wrapped around the shorter man. While Logan flights the urge to bite into y/n's shoulder, and y/n shamelessly digs his nails into the smaller man.

They both moan into each other's skin and shake with pleasure. "I'm close." Logan whines. And fuck if that didn't want y/n to want to do everything that would let him hear it again. So he tries to angle his hips. Spot on. He finds the right spot that makes Logan whine none stop.

"Fuck fuck fuck." Logan bites down on y/n's shoulder. The taller man screams out and spills deep into Logan. The shorter man whimpered and spilled over their shirts. Y/n hold Logan tighter as they catch their breath.

"We should do this again," y/n murmured. Logan grunts. "In your dreams..."

[nemo-in-wonderland]

Jacob and Dottie - XMen Edition

You're all that I can trust Facing the darkest days Everyone ran away But we're gonna stay here, we're gonna stay here

Ahhhhhh, ahhhhh I know you're scared tonight Ahhhhhh, ahhhhh I'll never leave your side

When it all falls, when it all falls down I'll be your fire when the lights go out When there's no one, no one else around We'll be two souls in a ghosttown

When the world gets cold I'll be your cover Let's just hold Onto each other When it all falls, when it all falls down We'll be two souls in a ghosttown

"GHOSTTOWN" - MADONNA

SO.

A few days ago, I asked on IG how my mutuals would have liked to see me drawing Jacob and Dottie again (since, you know, it has been since March that I last drew them together in any capacity).

And dearest @memoriesofafallen suggested me to draw them as X-MEN.

Needless to say, my brain starting going like crazy, because if there is something that I absolutely adore in this world, it's X-Men.

They were the first comics I ever read (all thanks to my older cousin who was the one to actually introduce me to the fandom with the old game "Children of the Atom") and to be honest, the only Marvel comics I ever read (I much preferred DC when I was younger).

So, when dearest Tofu suggested me to draw them as X-Men, the brain started brainrotting right there and then.

BUT.

I was faced with a dilemma: drawing them as my favourite X-Men pairing OR as the characters that Jacob and Dottie resembled the most?

Because depending on that, I would have to draw them as very different characters (a huge cookie to the one that would guess how I would have drawn them if I went with the similarity road lolol)

And Tofu suggested me to go with my favourite ship.

SO NOW HERE YOU HAVE JACOB AND DOTTIE AS GAMBIT AND ROGUE BECAUSE FML.

Only, of course, I had to change Rogue!Dottie's hair, so I inverted the colours lololol

Baby me was smitten with Mr. LeBeau when I saw it on tv in '94, and absolutely love Rogue for how tough she was (why do you think I have a white streak in my hair lol)and you can BET YOUR HAT THAT I JUMPED TO THE OCCASION AND STARTED TO SHIP ROGUE AND GAMBIT (we will absolutely pretend that AoA never happened. Nah-ah. That is not canon for me. nope.)

Also, I decided to go a different way with colouring this time around, and instead of going with the soft rendering I usually go with, I decided to try my hand at recreating the style that is usually used in the comic, and good Gods, let me tell you, I had an ABSOLUTE blast and I am SO HAPPY WITH HOW THIS TURNED OUT.

SO HAPPY WITH THE COLOURING, SO HAPPY WITH THE POSE (also a little throwback to the very first artwork I did with them lolol

SO HAPPY WITH EVERYTHING.

I gave it a small "80s Retro" vibes because YES.

Honestly, for once I didn't dread colouring and rendering, and I had a HOOT.

I truly need to practice this colouring more often because I loved it! <3

Well, I hope you will like this!

--Nemo

[spaceorphan18]

How an animated series saved Remy LeBeau (again)

It's a bit of a hyperbolic title, but catchy, non?

I was looking over my comic collection as I've decided to reread X-Men's 60 year history over the course of the summer. And it got me thinking about a dead period of 616 canon that I've never actually read. Around the time Rogue hooked up with Magneto and scooted off to the Avengers, I decided I'd be done with comics for a while. And didn't start again until Rogue (and Gambit) came back to the X-books in 2017's Astonishing X-Men. But it made me wonder -- What happened to Gambit in that time??

Well, after his solo ended, he flitted around to X-Factor and hung out with X-23 and then kind of went 'poof' for a good long while.

Why? I can only guess the same reason this is a running motif with Gambit. There's something about him that drives the X-Office crazy. I'm not here to speculate what or how or who of it all. I don't know enough about the back end of Marvel to give concrete answers. But I think what has surprised me (recently) is that he's definitely a fan favorite character.

[Yes, I know he can be a divisive character. Yes, I know elements of his character from the 90s have not aged well. Yes, I know there are those of you who can't stand him. Don't really care - you can get off my lawn, thank you.]

Which got me thinking -- Gambit's original popularity, I believe, stemmed from the original X-Men Animated Series. He had just started showing up in the comics at the time, and had barely any kind of page time. And the X-Men TAS swung and was a hit. And so was Gambit.

I don't really know that Gambit would be around today if TAS hadn't done its thing. Would the X-Office have kept him around? I really have no idea.

But they did try to get rid of him. That was the point of leaving him in Antarctica. And things were just never the same after that. Claremont tried his best in the early 2000s. And then Deathbit happened. Carey's run wasn't bad. But Carey clearly had an agenda for other things... And then, Gambit just kind of faded into the background. (I hear his run as a side character for Laura (X-23) was good - but I haven't read that.)

Bless Kelly Thompson (always) for sparking life back into him with (and his relationship with Rogue). And bless the fact that she actually married him to Rogue. Yes, I understand comics -- my god look what they did to Peter and MJ, no one really gets to be happily married except Sue and Reed. He and Rogue are now really tied together in a way that I don't think is going to be undone any time soon.

Even if the X-Office still isn't thrilled with the guy. Krakoa era has been less than ideal. (I can't comment on it fully - I haven't read much of it, as I'm behind on my comic reading.) But I've heard rumors that one reason Thompson was let go was that she didn't want Gambit killed off. And she didn't like the direction they wanted to take the character.

Which leads me to X-Men 97. Killing him off sucked. Really. As a fan, it really sucked. But - my god, the reaction to it. Gambit was amazing. And all I've heard lately is good things about the character. There's been a Gambit resurgence in the best way. He may have went out -- but he went out with a bang. X-Men 97 made an emotional impact with people. And that changes things.

Gambit is cool again.

And I love it.

What's even more exciting is the fact that the X-Office has changed hands again and Gail Simone on Uncanny who (if her Twitter/X feed is to be believed) is really enjoying writing the character. Which means (hopefully) at least another year or two in the comics of some (hopefully) great Gambit stuff.

And maybe there will be some changing of hearts and minds in the X-Office.

It's actually very exciting.

And, guys, I really (really, really) doubt he'll be completely gone from X-Men 97, too.

Because Remy LeBeau never stays down for long.

But as a fan, it's nice to see him be on top again. And I don't think he's going anywhere anytime soon.

[sparklingelectricblue]

From the Ashes: Marvel Infinity #13

For those who don’t know, Marvel has a subscription service where you can read back issues of comics digitally. This service is called Marvel Unlimited. I really enjoy it. I’s nice to read comics without handling my comics or comics that I have not yet gotten ahold of.

Another part of unlimited is their infinity comics. These are short weekly comics that are online only. They tend to be silly short stories or they explain some missing back story from a main comic book. This week’s issue focuses on Magneto and is meant (I think) to fill in some back story on how Magneto went to young and powerful after being resurrected and fighting Orchis to now old and wheelchair bound.

I know not everyone has access to this so I thought that I would write up a summary about it.

There’s not going to be a lot of screenshots because the comic is meant to be read on a tablet where you scroll down through the story. It makes it so that it’s hard to capture a whole scene. But I’ll try to add some good ones. Plus, I don’t want Disney coming for me. I'm not going beat by beat but I do the major points. Anyways, I talk too much…

We start with this image:

Only to see Max scream “no” as he wakes up. He was having a nightmare. He looks over to the hover chair that he has been using in the new X-Men series. The helmet sits on the chair and seems to be daring him to wear it. “But he is Magneto… …he dares.”

Next scene, Max is hovering around in the chair as Hank is bouncing around him, asking Max if he plans to going Merle. Max confirms, “not that it’s any of your business, but yes”. That’s when Hank asks him if he could not go wearing his helmet and floating chair.

Max has a good response:

Honestly, I just love that Max calls his helmet gaudy. Hank responses that the helmet sends a signal that might be distressing given Max's "checkered" history. “At least try to put our new neighbors at ease.”

Next scene is Max in town in a normal wheelchair sans helmet. He compares the townspeople of Merle who worked or ignored the sentinel factory to the “neighbors” who willingly ignore the concentration camps outside their towns or the trains that passed through during the Holocaust. Honestly, a pretty fair comparison. “And so he will never trust a “neighbor” again.”

At this point someone bumps into Max causing him to drop what he was holding. The person is saying sorry but Max is calling him an idiot. A random girl picks up what Max dropped and gives it to him. Girl: “Here you go Mister Magnet. You dropped your pretty hat.” The art makes the girl look preteen but the dialogue makes her seem younger.

Max responds like this:

The girl’s dad says to her, “Don’t worry about it Anna. That old man’s probably just having a bad day.” Anna responds, “*sniff* he seems so sad, Daddy”. None of that seemed sad to me. Just angry and cranky. Maybe justifiably cranky given how things have changed for both him and mutant kind and he is stuck in a town where people worked towards the eradication of mutants. And it's cold. And someone bumped into him.

Maybe the writer was trying to reference that scene in Son of M where Luna says that Max is not a bad man, just sad.

But look at this face! It just makes me laugh.

Why does Max have a kippah? He’s going to a temple. Maybe the dream made him decide to go to temple.

Once inside, there’s a person who approaches him, “I was wondering when you’d drop by”. Max says he's been busy and that Merle was the last place he expected to find a temple.

The person is Rabbi Rachel Sagan and she offers Max a cup of coffee and to listen to him. She calls him "Mr. Eisenhardt", which I didn't know Max's real name was public knowledge or not. I guess it is now.

Max takes her up on it and over coffee he lists all the various places that he's seen destroyed: "Asteroid M. Utopia. Avalon. Genosha... Oy, Genosha. And now Krakoa."

So Rabbi Sagan asks how this brings Max back to temple.

It's really understandable why he would feel this way and everything he's been through.

"When Genosha fell, I looked out over the ruins and I knew we only had one or two chances left to marshal our factions together in the pursuit of a common dream. That chance will never come again."

Rabbi Sagan compares Max to Moses, leading his tribe though the wilderness. Max states, that was Charles. "The bald schmuck with the eyebrows? No, he never saw himself as an instrument. You can tell. It's you. It's always been you. But there's a problem..."

The show Rabbi Sagan put her hand on Max's, "Moishe was a humble man, Max. Are you?"

Pfft! No! He's the Master of Magnetism!

Max responds. "I... have been humbled. Over and over."

Rabbi Sagan says that's not what was asked, and prompts him to remember his Torah; how Moshe was was commanded to climb and was told him he would not live to cross the River Jordan.

Max: "What are you insinuating, Rabbi?"

Rabbi Sagan: "I'm suggesting that your fear is a consequence of your pride. Do you really fear that there is no promised land for your people, or do you fear that they will not be able to reach it without you?"

Max doesn't respond well to this.

Everyone has probably seen the scene where Max is then zooming out on his wheelchair while stating, "This was a mistake. I should never have come." so I'm not going to include it here.

The next scene is him outside in the street. He's angry about what the Rabbi said. A caption box says, "The Gall! Why if he was still himself, he'd..." . When suddenly, a truck sliding at full speed in the snow with a loud "Skreeeeee". Someone yells, "Billy, get outta the road! It can't stop!" and Max is surprised.

Bam! The truck hits him throwing him from his wheelchair before hitting a telephone pole and bursting into flames.

There is a close up of Max's face with blood on it. A caption box says "Yes, in dreams, he is a founder and feller of nations."

Then we end on this scene.

What's going to happen? We'll find out next week!

[msue0027]

Can i be picky, pricky, mean and bitch a little? Pretty please?

So, I've watched x-men apocalypse (wow, I'm soo early to this party). It was nice, and look, there's my country (so of course I'm gonna have opinions). And well. I've been reading fanfics, and as i skim thru the tags i see Nina Gurzsky, and then again, and hm again, and who tf is Nin... Oh, NINA, as in Erik's daughter. Wait, Gurzsky?

What kind of surname is that? Because it's not Polish. (but we can fix that.)

I know in comics Magda is of Romani ancestry but i don't remember it being mentioned in the movie? So i guess she's polish-polish. And "Gurzsky" looks like she's 4th or 5th generation of emmigrants to america, has let everyone pronounce the name anyhow which led to diff spelling, and doesn't speak polish anymore.

(Really, who came up with that name, I'd like a word. What was your reasoning, your reasearch, the background you came up for Magda? Maybe it makes sense and is justified to be like that? Maybe I'm wrong, don't have all the info, misunderstood something? Then I'm really sorry.)

Nonetheless, let us begin. Gurzsky

So i guess anglophones just skip this surname all together, but let's try to read it. It would be something like goo-zh-ski or goor-zz-ski. Both are bad and hard to pronounce. Why is the "z" there? Why complicate it unnecessarily? Let's drop it (some ppl would do it anyway, even if it being there was justified, it's called simplification and it happens when there's many hard consonats next to each other, or something, i'm half asleep). My brain did it intuitively upon reading this name. It shouldn't be there. There's no reason i could see. So it's Gursky now.

Ehh. How many times? "-ski" is traditional ending of a polish surname, and used to indicate nobility. "-sky" is traditional transliteration from cyrylic alphabet, it's for the russian surnames. (And the ending "-sky" came there from Poland.) (I'm very passionate about that, sorry not sorry. But don't get me started at another polish surname "-cki" bc americans always pronounce it wrong. That “c” is separate letter and not just “k”, and i don't think i can find corresponding sound in english language (so you might be forgiven) and i don't want to bombard you with IPA (never mind, next day me kinda wants, so, it’s like “ts”, or german “z”), especially that it's not main topic of that post. But really, you could put some effort. We know the language is very different from your own, with weird sounds, but please, try. We're gonna love you for that. For one word. Anything really. Well, you already know “kurwa”, so maybe one more. Sorry, i digress.) So, it's "-ski", but not really. This type of surname changes based on gender. "-ski" is masculine, and "-ska" is feminine. Yes, not always, there are women with “-ski” and men with “-ska”, but then it does not flex at all (same form for both genders). You just have to ask. But that's minority. So now it's Gurska.

And surnames don't have to follow general rules of orthography and flexion, they can have their own unique spelling and way of decletion, you need to ask the bearer of the name. But. They still usually do. So looking at that name? It begs to be the deriving from mountains: góry. So it should be Górska. Pronounced: goor-skah. Now it is a Polish name. A good one.

So. I'm gonna use this name for that little family. It's canon for me now. Magda Górska and Nina Górska, and Erik was going under Henryk Górski. (Kinda cute if you ask me.)

Oof, I'm done. That was long. Thanks for coming to my little ted-talk, hope you enjoyed :))

(ps. i have rewatched scenes set in Poland, and Erik actually intrudeces himself as Henryk Górski, which means i was right but also why have a made this long-ass analysis? It was fun tho, and too much of my half asleep brain power went into this not to post it.)

[littleststarfighter]

I love you guys

I first want to say sorry for not replying to everyone individually. I’m honestly overwhelmed by getting so many loving messages. So so many!!! I don't know where to begin. So I wanted to do a mass thank you because this way I don't leave anyone out. I’ve read and cherished them all, every one. I was having such a bad day that day, and really you all made me feel so much better and more welcome. I want those who are going through what I’m going through to know they are not alone either. I’m here for you as much as you are here for me, so please never think you are alone in this. So many of us are going through hell and it makes you feel so adrift. I hope something changes for the better for us all. 

I’m late to say thank you too as I’m with my sister at the moment. She saw I was down and has given me a bit of a holiday away from my neighbours at her place. It’s so quiet at her house. Well apart from my nephew getting me involved in his Spiderman obsession. I can't complain, I love Spidey. I’m feeling so much better. I guess I just needed a break from all the noise and stress. We're also planning a camping holiday come summer so that will be something to look forward to. Also, planning to do my driving lessons this year with her help as that will solve my work problem so much. I’m so nervous about that.

I’m also chuffed to bits to know there are also so many older fans. It’s always been something I loved in knowing that as we grow we never leave things we loved behind. And why should we? I wish I knew what changed in fandom to make so many people so ageist and hateful toward anyone over 30. It didn't used to be so bad, and I do hope that it changes. No one young or old should be made to feel awful for loving things so much they want to create, talk and share. The first person to get me into a fan community and make me feel I had a place as a little geek was an older lady I met at my town's old second hand book shop. We just started chatting over X-men comics (I loved the New Mutant and was a bit of a Rahne & Dani fan) and TSR books. She introduced me to Kirk and Spock shipping when I admitted I saw them as close. And wow was I in love with what she showed me. I even saw my first fanart in Susan Lovetts work and knew that's what I wanted to do. After that I got online in 95 and never looked back. I’ve been in so many fandoms and known people of all ages and called them my friends. So I truly hope that the anti olds things that is gripping some fandoms right now becomes a thing of the past and we can stop being so negative on people for daring to age.

Again thank you from the bottom of my heart for your caring and heartfelt messages. I feel so rubbish for not replying to you all, and I’m sorry, but I hope you all know you helped me. You are all the absolute best. I’ll see about getting some more drawings started when I come home. I’ve got some things that I kind of want to do that I've been promising myself I’d draw for years and feel I should start. I get sad I can't be a pro but at least I can still draw and get to share my joy at creating something with you guys. Thank you for all the sport and love.

Love and many hugs, Lucy

[the-invisible-bunny]

I have this burning desire to write a spideytorch fic where Sue is wholly opposed to the relationship (and effectively prevents Peter from making a move initially) because she thinks he’s too irresponsible for Johnny.

I think it’s partly because that’s kinda hilarious but mostly because I read, back to back, Peter calling Johnny irresponsible (Spider-Man/Human Torch) right after the stretch of Fantastic Four (rereading again because I love it so much) between Heroes Reborn and Civil War where Johnny’s strong sense of responsibility towards his power, family, and everything really I guess keeps coming up. Plus, I’d just read the whole Peter revealing his identity again after One More Day, and while they hug it out, Johnny is quite upset about Peter taking his face away (and Peter doesn’t seem to get how much that must hurt).

And after I had the thought it just kept coming. If Johnny’s had a series of bad relationships then surely Sue would not want him to date a guy who keeps secrets and just generally is the way Peter is. Sure, he’s Spider-Man and he’s great, but Spidey doesn’t come across as the greatest boyfriend ever. He’s a bit too flaky and secretive and quick to lie to everyone.

And I just love the idea of Peter’s reaction when Sue tells him to back off from her brother because he deserves someone more responsible and committed. Oh the angst and suffering and misunderstandings and eventual heart to hearts and shagging.

Downside is, can’t really write that properly until I’ve finished reading all the comics because that gives context to their actions and while I know generally what happens I haven’t read it all yet. I’ve been kind of avoiding the whole Alicia/Ljya story arc for a while because well… poor Johnny… and it’s hard to know where to start pre Heroes Reborn. Now I’m just reading from the beginning but it is a lot and I’m only up to like 1968 with the Fantastic Four and I’m mostly trying to read all the series (think I may drop the X-Men for a while though as they’re a bunch of boring buffoons so far).

[beep3]

So spoilers for X-Men #30 ahead

Talon died as she lived, doing pretty much nothing other than existing to serve Synch’s development as a character.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m almost happy she’s gone, I hated Talon and pretty much everything she stood for. From the very beginning the idea of splitting Laura into two characters is just dumb. The only reasoning I can identify is that Marvel wanted to satisfy the fans that wanted Laura to stay as Wolverine and keep her character development from years of comics, and the ‘fans’ that insist she should go back to being X-23, both in title and personality.

Which of course is inherently dumb, anyone who wants Laura to go back to using that name clearly doesn’t understand the character in the slightest, and probably hasn’t read many of her comics either. It’s beyond easy to say that she would *despise* having to go by X-23 again, it goes against pretty much every aspect of her character arc, anyone who insists she should return to being X-23 almost definitely doesn’t actually care about Laura’s personality or character, they just don’t want her to have the Wolverine mantle, feel free to fill in the blanks for why that is. Although I’m sure they’ll insist they wouldn’t mind if she went by another mantle instead, like talon.

Regardless, Talon always felt like a low-effort way of making Laura act like she did as X-23 again, with the added effect of tying her entirely to a random relationship of one-sided character development.

So I can’t say I’m too choked up that Talon died, but the realisation that this is the ‘original’ Laura Kinney that we watched escape the Facility, make human connections for the first time, progress and learn to be more than a weapon, to learn that she’s a real person who is valued and loved, the character we saw grow for over twenty years of comics in such an insanely well-executed character arc, the idea that *this* is how she died, doing nothing other than serving Synch’s development is just outright sickening. Or at least it is to me, someone who is way too invested in a fictional comic character for their own good lmao.

Not enough people talk about how random their relationship is, Laura and Everett interacted maybe *once* in their entire publication histories before the Vault, and randomly over one issue they end up in a relationship, no setup, no real interaction, they just apparently decided to start dating because they were trapped in the vault for hundreds of years?

I’ve always believed Laura was queer, Craig Kyle has stated a desire to write a story about it, Marjorie Liu even supposedly intended it in Laura’s solo series, I don’t mind if she’s bi, a lesbian, trans, etc, but even outside of a queer relationship there were *countless* other characters Laura has formed bonds with over the years that would of made more sense than just randomly deciding to have her date a completely random character out of nowhere.

Of course this isn’t the first time it’s happened, Laura has a weird history of romance that pretty much constantly caused that to happen. Angel did the same, and even practically abused Laura, mocking her for cutting herself, and generally mistreating her throughout their relationship.

Throughout New X-Men her relationship was pretty similar, focusing a lot more on Julian’s/Hellion’s development more than her own, of course in Marjorie Liu’s X-23 series the tables got turned and the inverse happened, so I guess that evens things out?

Regardless, the relationship with Synch feels especially creepy, trapping Laura in a vault for years and basically forcing a relationship is dodgy enough, but the way it’s phrased in this panel is just even creepier.

Is there really a message to take from all of this? Not one that I can find. Maybe that Laura just has bad luck with the number 30? Pretty sure All-New X-Men #30 is when Laura’s creepy relationship with Angel started. It’s interesting that Talon or Wolvie-Laura didn’t die like how she was foreshadowed to in the Infinity Comics.

I guess the real potential message you can take is that Talon isn’t *really* dead? My best guess is that they’re going to telepathically fuse both Laura’s together again, which I guess is the best case scenario, I can only hope the Synch relationship doesn’t follow…

[wanderingmind867]

I think 1985 was the year when comics completely almost lose themselves to me. Based on reading marvel (and reading about DC) I know that this date has to be the date comics lose interest to me. I'll explain: comics from the 60s to the mid 70s seem okay. 1960 to 1974 or 1975 are the peak years, in my opinion. But then things start to go downhill in the late 70s. Frank Miller ruins Daredevil with his edginess, Chris Claremont kills Jean Grey and messes with the X-Men, The Hulk loses his love interest in Jarella, Denny O'Neill ruins Batman by making him darker again, Gerry Conway kills off Gwen Stacy (for no good reason!) etc. I know the Gerry Conway one was a bit earlier than the mid to late 70s, but it was still a bad decision.

Anyways, things only get worse from here (at least for my sensibilities). If i thought the mid to late 70s were bad, the 80s become a bit of a train wreck. Jim Starlin kills Captain Mar-Vell and Jason Todd, The Hulk has the Professor Hulk saga (something I don't really like), John Byrne messes with the Fantastic Four and Superman, Walt Simonson makes Thor ditch Don Blake (which I hate). Really, Jim Shooter messes with Marvel and sadly oversees a lot of bad stuff (I don't know if that's all his fault, but I get a negative impression of him as editor).

But I have time for one last paragraph, so let's talk more about 80s DC. Alan Moore gets brought in, and he brings his horrible pessimism and darkness over to DC. As someone who's already prone to sadness, I don't need depression in my fiction. But even besides Alan Moore, DC had issues. Like the Crisis on Infinite Earths, which was meant to uncomplicate things (but may have complicated things more). Then DC gets Frank Miller, Jim Starlin and John Byrne, and it all goes downhill. I'm really just repeating slander against certain people, but I guess it's just that I'm always opinionated about these sorts of things.

[marvel-television]

The X-Men: Evolution tie in comics suck, issue 1

I typically talk about the old MCU shows on this blog, but I also really love X-Men: Evolution and finally got around to watching season 4 the other day. It is far and away my favorite X-Men adaptation, and up there with the likes of Agents of Shield, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Cloak & Dagger in terms of my favorite marvel shows.

After I finished the show, I started getting mad that there wasn't more, and that TAS got the revival instead of Evolution. Lo and behold, there was a nine issue long tie in comic series for the show, made during the second season. Of course I decided to read them, you can't go wrong with more X-Men Evolution, right?

Wrong. These comics fucking suck, and I'm gonna show you why. Let's start at the beginning, with Issue 1, "Lines in the Sand".

The first couple of issues take place before the first season of the show, and provide some extra backstory for certain characters. This first issue starts with a couple of guys finding Logan half naked in the middle of the woods, before cutting to Xavier, who just finished a college lecture. A car crashes into a tree nearby, and Storm, who is currently a grad student, uses her powers and rescues the people inside.

This right here shows the first issue with these comics. In the first two seasons of X-Men: Evolution, the public doesn't know that mutants exist. In the first ten minutes of the first episode of the show, the Professor erases a cop's memories when Scott got his glasses knocked off and accidentally blew up a propane tank.

Meanwhile, several times throughout these comics, mutants will use their powers in public, and Charles just does nothing about it. Again, these comics came out during the second season, there is no excuse for the people writing these comics to not know that this is a part of the show's lore. I'll keep bringing up these moments when they happen, but for now, let's move on.

Anyways, later in the night, Professor X comes up to Storm while she's walking home, and tells her that she's a mutant, but what's strange is that he doesn't seem as though he actually knows for sure what mutants are and what causes their powers. I don't think it contradicts the show, and it's kinda interesting, but still, I thought it was worth bringing up.

Cut to the mansion, the Professor and Magneto are discussing Storm, and he reiterates that he didn't know there were any other mutants. This is all pretty standard Charles and Erik mutant philosophy talk. Take note of the maid, she'll be important in a minute.

Erik turns on what I guess is the TV equivalent of LiveLeak, and there's Logan, wrestling a bear and using his claws. Again, nobody is supposed to know about mutants other than the people in this room. I genuinely don't know how this got through to release.

Erik mentions that Wolverine is in police custody, and the Professor says he's gonna go save him. As he leaves, we see the maid revealed to be Mystique, and the Professor had no clue that she was a mutant, somehow. He can literally read minds, how did he not idly sense that? Her being immune to mind reading isn't an argument, since she doesn't unlock those powers until later on, and even if she did have those powers, you'd think Charles would be able to notice that he can't read this random maid's mind.

The Professor locates Wolverine through Cerebro, which Storm supplied the electricity for, and they head off to find him. By the time they get there, Logan's already escaped from jail, and while the cops are sent in the wrong direction by Mystique disguised as a homeless person, Storm gets him to stop running long enough for the Professor to give him his whole pitch for his ideology. But then Magneto shows up, and also starts giving his pitch.

Logan chooses the Professor, obviously, and Magneto pretty much just leaves after that. This next page is literally the last one before a timeskip. No fight, nothing. Come on, man...

Fast forward to a year later, the Professor has an upgraded Cerebro, and locates Scott Summers, who they're gonna recruit in the next issue.

All in all, the first issue isn't great. The issues with mutants just using their powers out in the open really prevent me from seeing this as an actual backstory for how Storm and Logan got recruited, and the climax of the issue was very boring. It's far from the worst issue of the run, but it's sure not great, either. I'll continue this series with the next few issues whenever I feel like it, because the problems with this comic are only getting started.

[sineala]

Superheroes and Aging

Meta time! I was asked (on Patreon) to write meta about how Tony Stark might deal with feelings about aging and being surrounded by The Youth. I am reposting it here.

I have to say this has also been on my mind a lot. I will say it's a weird thing growing up being into comics and being a fan of the teenage X-Men because obviously they were the most relatable and then being as old as all the adult superheroes and now being older than all the adult superheroes, who have all been basically the same age for decades as the rest of us move on past them. At least they finally aged up the original crop of teenage heroes and have been replacing them with new ones.

So the thing about superheroes in Marvel Comics, as you probably know, is that they pretty much don't age. Initially, this wasn't really a thing Marvel worried about. It was the sixties and they'd made comics cool and profitable again and kids loved them and I'm pretty sure they weren't thinking that sixty years later people (grown adults, even!) would still be reading and loving and expanding on the universe they made. Because I think if that had been the case they'd have, say, fewer villains that really sound like someone thought of them in about thirty seconds at 5 pm on a Friday and then went home. Big Wheel, a guy who has a... big wheel. Swarm, a guy (I mean, he's not really... human) who is actually a group of bees. Nazi bees. Paste-Pot Pete. You know what I mean.

Anyway, at first Marvel heroes aged, because why wouldn't they? Despite what you would guess if you only watched adaptations, it only took, I think, a couple years for Peter Parker to grow up and leave high school. The original X-Men all stopped being teenagers. Time moved on. Then after about ten years Marvel figured out it was going to be a problem if their beloved heroes were too old to be superheroes and they more or less halted the aging process. And that's how we get the Marvel Sliding Timescale. Broadly stated, the Sliding Timescale is essentially "don't worry about it." Everything you are reading right now happens right now, the beginning (the FF getting their powers) happened about ten or fifteen years ago (I think right now it's closer to 15 and we're at four RL years = one comics year), and everything else that has ever happened in 616 -- because Marvel also doesn't believe in line-wide reboots -- is wedged in somewhere in the time between. As real time passes, the sliding timescale slides events closer and closer together because more events have now happened.

So the effect of this is that heroes don't age. I think this is actually most notable with child characters -- like, ask yourself how old Franklin and Valeria Richards are. Or don't. I think Dani Cage has been a toddler for about fifteen years now. So the founding Avengers started off in their early 20s, are now in their mid-30s, and are going to continue being in their mid-30s for the foreseeable future because Marvel doesn't want its heroes being over 40. I think there have been a couple IM issues where Tony has had "significant" birthdays that they carefully avoided putting a number on -- I think one was Bendis, and I know he had a surprise party in the Gillen issue with the adoption reveal. I want to say that maybe there was also a Fraction one? I'm not sure.

The time references have occasionally been lampshaded -- the most recent Iron Man issue as I write this (#6) has Tony asserting that he doesn't remember things by what year they happened in, but rather by what armor he had at the time. He goes on to tell a story of something that happened while he wore the Silver Centurion armor, throwing in an aside that the shoulder pads were fashionable then -- and, out of the armor, he is given his usual stylish perm; the artist has definitely been inspired by Bob Layton's later Iron Man work -- which for me has the disconcerting effect of making it sound like this is somehow taking place in the 80s and also not in the 80s at the same time. Because now they've invented an extra time for shoulder pads and perms to be fashionable and it's approximately 2015. Time is fake. No, actually. It is.

And building on that, I think the effect of that is that mostly they don't seem to have characters like Tony dealing with aging. He doesn't really seem to worry about it, probably because there can't be any narrative payoff if he's simply never allowed to age. (Steve gets it even more weirdly, because a lot of times fandom assumes the serum is just going to halt or slow aging -- as it does in people like Natasha who have serum variants -- but then in universes where significant time actually passes, like House of M, Steve is visibly older, and he definitely is meant to have the serum. Or Bullet Points, where Steve, minus the serum, is actually dealing with aging as he comes out of retirement for one last mission. Which kills him, because it turns out he probably was too old to do this safely. But then in 616 we're expected to believe that Steve can lose the serum and also be mostly combat-ready at age 95. Aaanyway.)

So what if Tony did worry about getting older? Based on how he interacts with the kids these days, I think mostly his worry actually wouldn't involve other people.

For all that intelligence in Marvel seems to be a single invariant and quantifiable statistic that can be accurately measured (which isn't the case in reality but work with me here) and that Tony is a genius but not The Smartest Genius in the Universe, he doesn't ever seem to display any ill will toward anyone ranking higher than him on the list -- say, Reed -- and he is in fact definitely willing to take on the younger geniuses, like Riri, as proteges, and he seems happy to mentor them. He doesn't seem to feel at all threatened by the idea that some of these people are definitely smarter than him -- say, Moon Girl -- and will someday succeed him. Or at least will if Marvel ever lets them age out, which again seems unlikely. Theoretically he also ought to be drawing on a lot more lived experience than Riri that he can use to advise her, but one of the bizarre things that Cantwell's run has left us with is Tony believing that giving the Mandarin's Rings to Riri to study with zero oversight is absolutely the right thing to do; Rhodey congratulates him on his great decision-making. I guess we'll see how that turns out.

(This is in contrast to a character like Doctor Doom, who clearly can't stand the idea that Reed might ever be smarter than him.)

Given that Tony is a character who often has execrable self-esteem, it actually seems a little odd that it doesn't bother him that he isn't the smartest, but it really doesn't seem to. He seems fine with that. He's enough of a genius to do what he needs to do, I guess, and that's good enough for him. Even in Cantwell's run, which was, uh, not a run I would call particularly in-character for Tony in many ways, the thing he decides to do with the Power Cosmic is make everyone in New York as smart as he is. I think this was a fairly poor storyline for a large number of reasons, but I think it does actually show that he has good intentions, in a sense -- he wants everyone else to benefit from the intelligence he has, the same way they can benefit from his philanthropy. He wants to give people the advantages he has. So he seems like someone who wouldn't resent the up-and-coming heroes and geniuses; he seems like he'd be honestly happy that there would be more people out there on his level.

I think, really, as long as he knows he's good to go, he knows he's good enough to do the things he wants to do -- even if sometimes he just hates himself as a human being -- and he probably looks around at all the kids and knows they have to train them up, because even if they're going to be good they're not as good as he currently is, just because they don't have the benefits of years of experience. I mean, maybe they could have some kind of superhero Registration or something. The joke he made to Steve at the end of Empyre wasn't entirely wrong.

(I feel like I should probably also read Young Avengers, for more on how the Avengers deal with The Youth, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.)

Since Tony often blames himself for, well, everything he can possibly blame himself for, including the deaths of people he feels he should have been able to save, I feel like his worries about aging would probably involve his ability to continually successfully be a superhero. We haven't really seen much of this worry since his Extremis/Bleeding Edge days but there was definitely a period of time where his main concern seemed to be the ability to compete with the people he's fighting -- and this seems like it might be where he's heading again in his confrontation with Feilong, who, I should point out, does actually attempt to make fun of him for being old. Tony doesn't seem to take it personally, but he does seem very upset that he's not on Feilong's level, technologically. So I think the thing that would bother Tony wouldn't be the idea that he couldn't keep up with the heroes, but rather that he couldn't keep up with the villains.

So, yeah, that's my take.

[at1nys-blog]

Among Us

Pairing: Shadow and Bone cast x actress!reader

Summary: A panel in Japan is nice, if your co-stars let you buy action figures and you keep your mouth shut about one piece

A/N: bold for japanese; light Shadow and Bone season 2 spoilers; I know I am drifting into a more gender specific type of fanfiction but I can't find anything that I like with reader being an actress so here I am indulging in writing those myself. Have fun reading and please leave a feedback, that means a lot.

Masterlist

The venue of the comic fair was one of the biggest compared to the ones you went before starting your career, but once again, you were in Tokyo.

"I think we need a leash for Y/N if we don't wanna lose her." teased Calahan, he was the only one noticing you walking the wrong way and stopped you in your tracks. "We don't have time for this." he said remind you, the seven of you were there for a panel regarding the new season of the show.

"If I come back and is sold out you are a dead man Calahan. You have been warned." he rolled his eyes, receiving a pat on the back from Kit. Not even a second passed that the two men had to run after you, avoiding to be late for the interview because you were taking pictures with the cosplayers all around.

The interview started with someone screaming how much they liked your hoodie, you dried away fake tears and thanked them for having recognized the piece of clothing.

"I swear, she will find a way to subtly cosplay wherever we go." started Danielle on your left. You left an offended 'HEY' but agreed with her.

"Last time I wore Ken Ryuguji's shirt, you know the black one with the black and white diamonds." you answered and the people didn't even need the translation to it that they applauded and whistle at it.

The rest of the interview went on smoothly, questions were asked and answeres where given, now it was time for the fans' questions. Directly from them.

"Hi, my question is for everyone. Who else like anime? And if you do which one is your favourite?" You smiled, their broken english so cute to resist not to smile a little.

"She is our among us." joked Jack taking the chance to answer.

"Jack is right but she is trying to convert me. I watched Death Parade and I love it." said Amita adding that she should like to start Trigun Stamepede since you can't stop suggesting it.

The person thanked you guys and left the spotlight to the next person, asking the seven of you about the most difficult and the aesiest scene to shoot.

"I think the hardest one, for me personally, are every single scene with Y/N. She is a perfectionist, I know it doesn't look like it but trust me, she is, and she would panic in a second if she noticed she didn't said the exact words as in the script." started Freddy, you hid behind him embarassed about his words. "The easiest scene I think it was the introduction of her character " he added.

"Dude you just roosted me that is hard to work with me." you said surprised.

"Here she is not able to take a compliment." said Danielle. "as for me the easiest scenes to shoot are the one where I use my powers. As for the hardest it was 100% the final battle." she added. Melting in the black couch to exaggerate her answer.

Kit choices where: the easiest, the scene when Jesper meets his mother, the hardest every combat sequences; Amita had to agree with the fellow actor on the fact that no matter how well trained she was, fighting scenes where the most hard for her, as for the easiest she went on with every scene she sneaks on the Crows.

"She loves to give us all a heart attack" you commented, cutting off Cahalan that was about to speak. "Sorry man, but after not making me buy the action figure.." you said half offended. Once again that day, the actor rolled his eyes at you.

"I do no appear that much in this season, but I guess I have to pick the scene where Nina and Y/C/N are in Hellgate, but just because the kid over there couldn't stop make me, or anyone else on set, laugh. I don't have a easisest scene to choose honestly" he said.

"As for me I think the hardest scene to shoot was the one on the rooftop in Ravka, I kept falling and falling. The easiest I might think it was the one in Shu Han when Wylan is mad at Jesper" a little ouch was heard coming from Kit, making you all laugh.

You had fun answering some questions, others made you tear up at the thought of your days on set, other were kinda of cringe, some other plain disrespectull to you and your fellow female cast members.

"Hi, my question is again for the entire cast. What will you do after this?" the traslation came in mere seconds, you giggled, knowing damn well you were about to annoy your co-stars with your answser, they, on the other hand scoffed in their mic.

"Who wants to go first?" you asked, just to make sure you could tell everyone what were your plans after the interview. The cast gave you the thumb up and that was enough for you to answer. "After that I need to buy the Zoro action figure" you siad all giggling.

"And we are going to keep an eye on her so she won't buy everything in there" commented Jack. After that the interviewer said their goodbye, and you were free to roam around the convention.

"So who is going to babysit her first?" asked Freddy

"NOT US" screamed in unison Jack and Kit, not ready to hear you babbling about One Piece once more.

"Rock, papper, scissors?" this time was Cahalan to talk and to loose. "If I am noy back she finally killed me." he said moping behind you. Freddy, Amita and Danielle laughed and went to the Shadow and Bone stand.

[foureyes802]

hiiiiii 💕 <- for ask game not just random love

ohhhoho favorite character time to spread the good word about the worst x-man, Angel

I think Angel/Warren is one of the X-Men characters who is chronically squandered. My belief is that when people adapt the Archangel plot they often do it as a last resort because they don't know what else to do with him, and once it's resolved (or even before then) they go back to not knowing what to do with him so the whole thing just fizzles out. But I have thoughts and ideas and I see his potential. This is code for "most of what you are about to read is headcanons, because I have been putting off reading the comics and rely heavily on the X-men cartoons right now." More under the cut :3

The whole thing about Warren is that his character conflicts are almost completely internal. He's got a ton of internalized anti-mutant hangups because his dad in most iterations is the billionaire CEO of a pharmaceutical company that's trying to develop a mutant cure. He's anxious, angry, even severely depressed, but he doesn't let that show to any of his teammates. He feels the need to rely only on himself (something something, child neglect) and by putting on a flirty rich "bad boy" front he is able to get away with it for a long time. That is until he loses his wings.

This is how the Archangel arc starts, usually. Warren gets severely injured in some kind of freak accident and ends up in the hospital, where his wings are amputated without his knowledge or consent. FTR this is not even close to the most extreme case of medical abuse in this soap opera ass series. A villain, usually Apocalypse, promises to be able to get his wings back and coerces him into a contraption that brainwashes him and turns him blue and gives him wings made out of metal blades and it's all very late-80s edgy. The X-Men come to stop him and they knock him out of the brainwashing and he leaves forever because now that he's not evil I guess he's no fun anymore. What I'm doing is standing on the rooftops and screaming ARCHANGEL IS NOT A CHARACTER!!! HE IS A NARRATIVE DEVICE!!!!! Yes his knife-wings are very cool and more fun to write and draw combat scenes with but Archangel is a corrupted version of a character we know who has been overtaken by rage. Archangel is REVENGE, Archangel is GRIEF!! He had an integral part of his identity, a literal piece of his body taken away from him and he turned to a very dark place to try and get that back and it changed him permanently. THAT'S INTERESTING! If you work backwards from that it can also make normal-style Angel really interesting too. Does he snap at people? Is he directing his self-loathing outwards? Does he grow at peace with his mutant identity and reject fully the prejudice of his family, content with the family he has found in other mutants, and THAT'S when you strike and take his wings away? MUCH TO THINK ABOUT!!

Wolverine And The X-Men is not a good cartoon, being especially notable for its sidelining and disempowerment of the women X-Men, but it gets the closest to understanding Warren. He's not super present in the show prior, but in "Guardian Angel" he gets the spotlight and this single episode tackles the becoming Archangel part of the arc so well that it's the reason I'm obsessed with this B-list white man. Weirdly it's Mr. Sinister who turns him and not Apocalypse, which doesn't *not* make sense in context unless you remember that if they got a season 2 they were gonna do Apocalypse. But that's a tangent in itself. Anyway the episode is really really great as a somewhat-standalone. The stuff about a mutant cure is an interesting take on fantasy eugenics and Warren is so queercoded it's insane. He's so queercoded that Storm is his girlfriend for no reason and it never comes up again in any other episode. The show also drops the ball on following through with anything Archangel does; see the aforementioned Apocalypse thing, they were probably going to resolve it in season 2. Honestly it's a tossup whether that would have been satisfying had it gotten to exist. WATX is weird, don't watch it.

That's a lot of my thoughts on Warren. It's not all angst, I also think the moments where he's a prankster bastard are really fun. It's just clear to me that so many writers see him as the guy whose boring power is "having wings" and nothing more and that's really disappointing to me, the world's number one enjoyer of arrogant pricks who secretly hate themselves.