#gwen doesn't really join them in vigilantism

[bee-snail]

So a friend and I were playing around and I felt... Inspired. Vigilantes AU 🙌

Co-written with @davestriderisasimp, it's currently only a vague idea but it's so so fun either way!

YAPPING AHEAD, BEWARE !!!

Oh man. This AU was born because my friend made a funky Daniel in a really cool Epiphet Erased AU, and in turn, I made a David that matched. Then they became arch nemeses, kissed, punched each other, and committed so much dang crime!

In David's defense: he commits crime to stop criminals. Criminals like Daniel, and his team of EVIL MINIONS (they're all petty criminals AT BEST they're the cutest, bestest ever, I LOVE THEM)

Her Daniel was genuinely so fun that he was the first and only Daniel I ever even considering making a Danvid with. The OG Danvid has neat vibes, in a Killing Stalking kinda way, but it just wasn't my vibe, y'know? Good for those who like 'em, tho !!

This David is just... so neat. He's like if Davey's original snarky attitude had never been completely overriden by his love for camping. He blackmails Cameron for favors from time to time, but is pretty fond of the guy because he's not exactly a genius evil mastermind. He loves his friend Gwen and his son Max—who may or may not have been "kidnapped" from his home by some red-headed stranger who distracted his parents by setting their car on fire—and has started to care a little for his roommate, CJ.

He started vigilantism when he was just a teenager with some anger issues, man. And now he just got used to it! But hypocrisy just runs through his veins, as he feels super stressed whenever Max decides to sneak out to go after him and help. He wants to beat up strangers too!

Neither Max or David have "offensive" epiphets either: theirs are "Recover" and "Endure", respectively. A healing and a passively defensive power. Gwen's, though? Hers is "Orgasm". It's perfect for sweeping someone off their feet— if you get what I'm saying, HAH

Daniel's epiphet is "Kool Aid", and he uses it so dang well! He's the silliest villain you'll ever meet and I adore every moment he's "on-screen" (aka, whenever we talk about him, HEHEHE). He's the captain of a team of minions—yes, he does call them his minions. It's a very worthy title, I must say—who perform LOTS OF CRIMES together. Most of them are simple robberies, though, and David is incredibly amused by them.

He does, occasionally, fall on one of their traps. And then they laugh at him. Then they take him hostage to make him gawk at their mighty evil lair (they bring him over) and feel pathetically miserable once he sees that his own personal resting hours are nothing compared to the glory of their favorite entertainment (they watch some movies), and so on...

They're so, so, so so silly. I cannot express enough how much I freaking love them.

Also, Max has a bear motif. It just... It just stuck. I love him too (so does David HEHEHE)

As for Jasper...

His epiphet is "smoke", and he disappeared a long, long time ago. That's all I have for now!

Also this WIP, which I will probably never finish. Hehe.

[rappaccini]

additional meta:

regarding gwen's punk rock personality / aesthetic...

(references from here)

it isn't necessarily linked to getting superpowers. gwen 65a/8 was bitten by her radioactive spider while attending a protest against big oil company roxxon, but more often than not, gwen gets powers or becomes a vigilante through means that have nothing to do with activism, and she doesn't join a rock band or pick up an instrument either before or afterwards.

it isn't even linked to being queer. though most of the punk gwens have at least some queer-coding (though they do tend to date men), plenty of the preppy gwens do too.

the punk gwens appear 5/17 times. they're a minority who are far outnumbered by gwens who are preppy popular girls or unassuming nerds. this minority is growing quickly though, and it's probably going to eclipse the others in the future.

almost every time gwen goes counterculture, it isn't a phase; she never returns to being conventionally feminine or enforcing the status quo. the one exception is earth-8, the supposed future of earth-65 gwen, who surrenders her drumming passion and counterculture politics to become a fabulously wealthy and famous superhero and the silent, supportive wife to miles morales and mother of his kids. (... though, she does reveal a secret allegiance to other spider-gwens when she has gwen-617 work to protect gwen-65 from being forced to become her. protecting a young queer girl from being shoved into patriarchal comphet is very subversive. doing it in secret behind your husband's back is uh... not).

4/5 times, punk gwen's in a band as its drummer. the outlier is 1610, where gwen is a fan of punk and rock in general, but goes to concerts rather than putting them on herself. (she's also the only punk gwen who isn't a spider-gwen [she predates sg's existence], but IS the first gwen to gain a symbiote.) and gwen's tendency to channel her rage into her drumming was one of the ideas behind making her a drummer in the first place, so it doesn't seem coincidental that one of the most violent gwens to date lacks that outlet.

(1610 gwen's design feels largely motivated by the need to contrast her to that world's mj, who is an unassuming girl next door instead of a wild supermodel. thus, gwen also inverts from the preppy beauty queen to the punk.)

her punkness almost always appears as a response to some kind of trauma: either her mother abandoning her* (1610), or the death of her best friend (684, 65a, 65b).

and it always appears whenever her mother isn't in the picture. which implies that her mother would've shut that behavior down, whereas her dad (who seemed to be the less conservative parent) is willing to let gwen engage in a less respectable hobby/style/political mindset.

*which is why i'm extrapolating that 18157, the only punk gwen who never suffers the death of a loved one, but does have an absent mother (and first appears as a reckless, insensitive punk who's prickly with her teammates and has to mellow out), must have had her mother walk out instead of die.

(*very interesting to note then, that when gwen goes on her rebellious bender, the thing that can anchor her again isn't a love interest or friend-- it's getting superpowers. if her mother abandons her, and gwen doesn't get them, nothing can stop her from circling the drain. if she does get them, now she has something to believe in and be responsible for, and a way to control her life again. factor in her usual high-powered career choices, her typical romantic behavior, her tendency to back the status quo, and spider-gwen's rebellion against it, and you get the conclusion that gwen thinks she's motivated by love, but is really driven by access to power. it's how she uses the power that varies, but her hunger for it is constant.)

spiderverse gwen, in addition to having a mother who's absence occurs later in life than gwen 65a (but regardless of whether she left or died, still joined the band before peter's death), is coded as trans. therefore, she's dealing with the pressures of being a trans girl. so even if her mother didn't abandon her, she's far more likely to gravitate towards a subculture with politics and a language of physical expression that embrace her gender identity.

so it seems that as a default, gwen doesn't naturally gravitate towards a rocker aesthetic. without her mom or a female best friend to dress her, she'll just throw on bella swan chic. thanks to her parents' influence, she'll naturally trust authority, distrust vigilantes, want to conform to heteronormative ideals, and seek high-powered science-driven careers at shady megacorporations. but if something breaks that illusion for her-- like her mother, who enforced those ideals on her the most, inexplicably throwing them away and abandoning her (1610) / her father, who she adores and thought was an honorable police officer, manhunting her over a misunderstanding (684) or witnessing firsthand how brutal the tactics of his officers are (65a) / or realizing that her identity makes her the kind of person society will never accept (65b)-- she'll start to embrace alternative aesthetics as a response.

gwen's punk persona begins as a way to release herself from the image of the conventionally feminine, rule-following (heterosexual) girl people in her life (parents, boyfriends) are pressuring her to be. it's also a visual cry for attention, to dare the people in her life who failed her to notice, and come reassure her that she can quit rebelling and return to the status quo. it's only after she realizes that this won't happen that she commits to the ideology.

gwen is not an inherently punk character. even the gwens who commit to the aesthetic still struggle with white feminist, girlbossy behavior and the temptation to give in to comphet. after all, gwen's driven to seek power. it's what she was raised for, it's what she needs at her core. she's only drawn to the subculture seeking an outlet for her personal frustration, anger and disillusionment when she realizes the way things are cannot give it to her.

but she has the capacity to become a counterculture character, once she actually thinks about the bigger causes of her emotional distress. if she comes to the conclusion that structural change is needed to solve this, and especially if she develops empathy for others who are disaffected, she'll decide not to return to the status quo and commit to the politics of the movement.

and if she does, gwen's commitment to reinforcing the status quo flips on its head, and the counterculture gains a highly intelligent, highly driven ally.

[emmym1]

My thoughts on... (Part 1) Spider-Gwen 2015B (#24-29) "Gwenom"

So i have finished the Spider-Gwen Gwenom arc. And MAN is there a lot to talk about. So much stuff happened and the finale they're setting up for this storyline is so good. So it starts where it left off at the end of the predators arc. Harry is cured and Venom has been created. Interestingly Venom does not go for Gwen but for Wolverine first, which kind of surprises Gwen because it was initially believed only she could bond with the symbiote & survive it. But due to Wolverine being near immortal he is able to withstand the radioactivity from the symbiote, however he can't control it causing him to turn into all the darkness he tried so hard to fight off. It really shocks Gwen & Kitty seeing how powerful the symbiote can be. They quickly realize sound is what weakens its connection with the host and try that at first but it doesn't seem to do the full job. So instead they go for Kitty phasing Wolverine through the symbiote to get him out of it which works. After that Gwen tries to defeat it using sound but that's when Murdock shows up and explains that it's only weak to sound when it's bonded with someone. Venom latches onto Gwen as she slowly turns into Gwenom but not before catching Murdock's phone and using the music on it to actually control the symbiote. Murdock also seems to be somewhat surprised by this but it doesn't get in the way of his plan. Murdock points out how Gwen has been focussing on the wrong fight and realizes Murdock must've done something with her dad upon which Murdock opens a portal to the hospital room where a very defeated Captain Stacy is lying (yup, murdock stole Gwen's interdimentional portal watch). Gwen immediatly goes through and absolutely loses it, turning into Gwenom and being super fed up with all the cops who were unable to protect her dad. She decides to go after who did it, Rhino and leaves. We see her turn into a very agressive vigilante who is not stopping at any cost before she gets to Rhino. Interrogating people in ways we haven't seen her do before. It's really interesting to see that despite being able to control Venom, she still gives in. Why? because she has nothing left and no one else to talk her out of it. Usually her dad was her voice of reason that would tell her to do the right thing when things go tough, to remind her of her morals and who she is. Without that her fears, anxieties & anger is getting louder and louder with no one to turn to or to talk to. She's really lost and Venom leans in to that. You slowly see Venom join in as a second inner monologue, the only other voice in her life that's telling her what she should or shouldn't do. And it turns her into this very agressive angsty vigilante known as Gwenom. Her tirade in the hospital with the cops has also caused the public opinion on her to decline even further. She's finally giving them reasons and something substantial to question her as a hero beyond what the police was putting out. The way MJ reacts all to this is super interesting and kinda a big character moment for her. For anyone who knows Gwen but not her Spider-Woman side it looks like as if she's been missing, Gwen has completely shut herself off from anyone out of her life as Gwen to try and track down Rhino. Despite almost 100% being sure Gwen is Spider-Woman MJ decides to put up posters asking if anyone has seen Gwen. Some guy also points out to her that Gwen is probably Spider-Woman and she gets like super defensive about it. The mary Janes are also really shocked about it because MJ has been saying that Gwen is Spider-Woman for weeks now, so they ask that why all of a sudden she gets so mad when someone else thinks the same. She points out that a lot of people hated Spider-Woman back when she was all clean and bright and trying to do right thing. So now, when they start thinking that's she's this Venom thing she can't imagine what would happen. It's a super big moment for MJ as she realizes the weight Gwen is carrying and why her identity should be protected.