#latverian refugee

[tisfan]

To Victor Goes the Spoils

To Victor goes the Spoils | A Stark Reminder | Doom’s Day Scenario| Stark Truth | Doom and Despair | Stark Raving Mad | Victory March

A/N: My goodness, it’s been a while since I’ve worked on this fic... that being said, I have the next 2 chapters pre-planned and I know what’s going to happen. Because chapter nine will end on a bit of a cliffhanger, and I don’t want to leave you guys hanging that long, I’ll get both chapters done before I post. Thanks to all of you for your patience. I do love this pairing so much! (This chapter picks up EXACTLY where chapter seven left off)

Chapter Eight -- Voice of Doom

“You admit this?” That wasn’t even Steve, that was Nat.

For a brief, glorious moment, Tony thought he’d actually shocked Captain Self-righteous into shutting up.

“The evidence seems fairly compelling to me,” Tony said. “And I’ve never claimed to be a hero; that was something fantastical and kinda cool in the beginning label that I got stuck with. I know who I am. Hero’s not one of the words. So… theoretically speaking, I can’t really stop being something I never was.”

Clint crossed his arms over his chest and scoffed. “You’ve been soakin’ up the hero gig since the beginning, Stark. Tell it to someone who wasn’t an assassin.”

Tony didn’t even bother to grace that with a reply. As the Merchant of Death, he’d been responsible for so many more deaths than Legolas could have hoped, even with an army of Gimlis to compete with.

“It doesn’t matter what you call yourself,” Steve said, tapping the page. “This is unacceptable. You’re compromised, Stark.”

“You’re probably right.” Tony took another sip of his coffee.

“All right, then,” Steve said, blinking in surprise. He wasn’t used to Tony agreeing with him. Or even being less than wordy about his agreement. “So, what are we doing about it?”

Tony very placidly drank the last bit of his coffee. Placed the cup on the counter, just so. Blinked. “I don’t know what you’re doing, Captain. I don’t think I’m part of we anymore.” He made a general hand-circling motion, indicating the Avengers. He wasn’t sure he’d ever, really been a part of we, but he’d pretended for a while, and sometimes the rest of them had gone along with it. “As a decent landlord, I’ll have your termination of lease written up, sixty days. That should give you time to find new digs, or negotiate with SI for continued rental of the building. I’m sure the UN will come through with funding for you anytime now.”

“You’re kicking us out?” That was Bruce and Tony felt a pang at that; Bruce had never done anything to him, aside from vanish just when Tony needed the support, and truly, Tony didn’t blame him for that. (Mostly.)

“Well, some of you may have an easier time negotiating use of space than others,” Tony said. He’d make a note in the file.

“You can stop being pedantic any time now, Stark,” Steve said. “What do you plan to do about Von Doom being in the Tower. I assume you invited him here.”

Tony nodded. “I did,” he agreed. “We needed to talk, and this was a convenient neutral ground. Although perhaps less neutral than I’d expected at the time. I was, mistakenly, it seems, under the impression that I could have whatever guests I wanted in my home.”

“I didn’t know villains counted as guests.”

(More below the cut, or read the whole fic at A03 [cha 8])

“This is pointless,” Victor said. He appeared out of nothing. There was no flash or portal or dramatics. One moment he wasn’t there and the next second it was like he had been there since the beginning of the conversation. For all Tony knew, he had been. Invisibility was probably one of the first things a person learned in Magic 101, World Conquering for Beginners. Just because Victor was no longer pursuing a job that utilized his degree, it didn’t mean he couldn’t use the skills he’d developed.

Tony jerked, ready to defend, to protest, to--

What the actual fuck?

Steve was standing, mouth still open like he was arguing. Unmoving.

“The hell?”

“We are between the moments, love,” Victor said. “Time here… is infinite. Were it possible to age here, you could grow old, die, and be dust all before the good captain here could draw another breath.

“Is this how you’re so fast, when you fight?”

“No,” Victor said. “As pretty as it might seem, this ability takes too long to use. And, for most things, it is useless. We cannot interact with anything in the momentary stillness. No door will open, no glass will break. You cannot harm anyone. All it can be used for is time to think, and to move yourself.”

He waved a hand. “They have not seen me. When I break the spell, you will simply vanish in front of Captain Rogers.”

“How’d you know we were arguing?”

Victor chuckled. “I am a very smart man, my love. I did not know. I merely surmised. I came down here, between the moments, that I might not attract attention and saw the way they were all turned on you.”

He drew Tony aside, showing what the scene looked like from the outside; every single one of the Avengers was firm-focused on the spot where Tony had been, expressions everything from mildly concerned (Bruce) to furious (Clint.)

None of them looked like his friend, anymore.

“Huh,” Tony said. He poked at Steve, curiously. The man’s skin was like marble; hard, cold, unyielding.

“They seem a school of sharks that have scented your blood,” Victor said.

Not entirely an inaccurate, although possibly unfair, assessment. “Well, can you blame them? I’m consorting with the enemy.”

“No,” Victor said. “You are becoming the enemy.”

“Iron Man, yes,” Tony murmured. “Tony Stark… not recommended.”

“They are not fools, and I do not blame them,” Victor said, and instantly Tony wanted to put his arms around his lover, because he knew exactly what self-loathing looked like. He saw it most days… in the mirror.

Tony waved a hand around at the group. “So few of them have clean hands. You’d think they’d be more understanding.”

“I have only stated my intentions,” Victor said. “I have much to atone for, and many suspicions to allay before they will begin to trust. And even then, I may never make much headway.”

None of us have.

Steve with his sneer, his conviction that Tony was trying to pull a fast one. Nat, who even now, he couldn’t trust. She might have his back today, but as soon as the wind shifted, her ultimate goal, her loyalty, that was something he hadn’t earned. Clint’s rage… well, he’d probably never burn that down.

Tony sighed.

“Plan B?”

“Plan B.”

Victor took his hand, and Tony followed him out of the room. By the time Steve realized he wasn’t there anymore, they’d be gone.

There was no Avenger badge for Tony to leave on a desk somewhere. No one who would want a snippily worded resignation letter.

Tony Stark. Exit, stage left, without fanfare.

“You know that magic works, my love. You’ve seen mine, from all sides,” Victor said. “Do you not trust the evidence of your senses?”

Tony scoffed. He was perched on a stool in the alchemy lab, his toes resting on the metal bar as if the very floor itself offended him. “Your senses can deceive you, do not trust them.”

Victor raised an eyebrow. “Do you not see the irony in using Star Wars quotes to explain to me why you can’t believe in magic?”

“Magic is just a fancy word for technology that we can’t explain,” Tony said.

“Well,” Victor said, agreeably enough, “that’s quite possible. Magic does have rules, and they’re both very exacting and have particularly dire consequences if you fuck around with them too much.”

“Science does that, too,” Tony said. “I mean, the first people to mess around with x rays found out the hard way, there’s just some stuff you shouldn’t fuck with. Close up, without proper protection.”

Victor nodded. “Well, consider that Newton wasn’t the first scientist, but one of the last magicians. Jumping off from his studies is the base of modern magic. The interesting bit, however, is that magic is so very old, there’s always more to learn. From our own shamans all the way back when we were beating on drums made from wooly mammoth hide and praying to the gods in the storm, all the way to the pinnacle of magical achievement. Strange, myself, a few others…”

“More others,” Tony muttered. Whatever respect -- or lack thereof -- that Tony might have for magic, he was at least mostly restraining himself. He wasn’t picking stuff up randomly and shaking it. (Although Victor had done a thorough inspection to make sure that Tony couldn’t atomize himself in mere milliseconds by poking at something that might take it unkindly before Tony was even allowed in the alchemy lab. There was extending courtesy to his lover, and there was reckless foolishness.)

Not that there weren’t still a half-hundred ways to die, just in arm’s reach, but at least the things that remained Victor could fix, or he could warn, or… well, it was Tony, and if anyone was going to accidentally figure out that the painajainen could be called up by mixing horsehair with the dust of dreams, it would be Tony. (Tony was a good source for that dust, a thing that Victor hadn’t yet told him, but would. Very soon. Once he’d topped off his stores.)

And what Victor would do about a nightmare demon on the loose… well, he had some defenses against it, and given time, he could catch it and banish it again. In the meanwhile, the damn thing would sit on Tony’s chest every time he went to sleep, and Tony had more than enough trouble with sleeplessness without demonic interference. But Tony was being cautious, which meant despite his tone, there were parts of him that believed.

“So, what is it you do, down here, when you’re not trying to convince me that hocus-pocus exists?”

“We can call it pataphysics, if it makes you more comfortable. The science of impossible solutions,” Victor said. “And what I do down here, mostly, is prepare magic. Think of magic as a cookie; I have to mix all the ingredients together before I can have a cookie. There are certain incantations that have only verbal or mental components, but even those require study, strength. A certain mental fortitude. Casting out of nothingness is not possible. Even with magic, you cannot make matter without energy.”

“What happens?”

“Well, if you’re very lucky, mostly nothing happens. You can stand around and yell at a circuit board all day if you like, and end up with nothing but a sore throat, if you don’t have any power, nothing will happen to the circuit board. On the other hand, magic is a little more… molecular than that. Should I, for instance, attempt to lift you from that stool and make you stand inside the casting runes without practice, without proper preparation, I might strain the muscles in my back. I might lose ten pounds in a few seconds, as my body cannibalizes itself for the strength. I may get caught in a feedback loop and unmake myself.” Victor considered that line of thought for a moment, running through all the possible consequences, just from a little bit of unplanned alterological manipulations. “I suppose that’s why there are so few magicians. I would suspect many amateurs of causing their own demise, before they’re able to do damage to another person and thus be made note of.”

“For someone who talks so fancy, and who uses magic to rearrange the world to his liking,” Tony said, “your grammar is shit, Vic.”

Victor laughed. No one ever called him Vic before. He wasn’t entirely sure he liked it, and glancing at Tony sidelong, he was pretty sure Tony was pushing his boundaries, trying to see where the line was at acceptable behavior.

“Criticizing my grammar?” Victor asked. He flipped a few pages through the grimoire -- one of his underlings had discovered it, hidden deep inside a castle in northern Ireland -- to see if there was aught inside worth preserving. “Are we sparring on the internet now, that you resort to childish tactics?”

“Do you practice being annoying, or is it just natural skill?”

Tony wasn’t looking at him, studying, instead, a stoppered bottle full of sunlight. Good defense against vampires and other night creatures, and the easiest thing in the world to harvest, as long as you could get to the arctic circle, and that the day wasn’t cloudy. Seven years previous, they’d had good weather, and Victor had laid out over a thousand bottles. Might have been telling, the sort of company he kept, that he was down to his last dozen or so. He checked the calendar absently. Huh. Less than two weeks until the solstice. “Does your suit keep you warm?”

Tony didn’t even blink; it was one of the nicer things about being in love with someone else who was also a genius. He could track Victor’s change in conversation without a moment’s thought. “Of course,” Tony said. “Thirty-thousand feet isn’t what you’d call super comfortable without some sort of heating system. Some particular reason?”

“I’m reminded that I need to harvest more sunlight and I thought you might like to watch.”

“Harvest sunlight.” Tony’s voice was flat, skeptical. Victor found himself a little giddy at the process of being there when Tony witnessed magic. Real magic, that he couldn’t explain away with science or as mere illusions. The opening of one’s eyes to a larger realm of possibility was always awe-inspiring.

“It works well in battles against vampires.” May as well shock him all at once.

Tony spluttered. “Vampires aren’t real,” he said. Then hesitated. “Are they?”

“‘If there is a well-attested history in the world, it is that of the Vampires. Nothing is missing from it: interrogations, certifications by Notables, Surgeons, Parish Priests, Magistrates. The judicial proof is one of the most complete. And with all that, who believes in Vampires? Will we all be damned for not having believed?’ So spoke Jean-Jaques Rousseau, in 1764.”

“That quote was in Twilight, too,” Tony snapped. “Doesn’t make it any more true now.”

“Again, call them something else if the word offends you, but they are, by all real criteria, vampires. Humanoid, but non-human sentients who feed off hemoglobin. Some of it is hollywood sensationalism, of course, but the fact remains, there are predators who look human enough that will drink your blood.”

“Gross,” Tony declared. “Do they spread it around?”

“No, that’s a movie invention; they’re a whole and separate species of sentient and self-aware organisms. They’re close enough to humans that, theoretically, we could engage in sexual activities with them, but we’d have better luck actually procreating with a daisy,” Victor said. There were some people, he knew, who’d like to fuck a vampire, but really, the vampire was going to eat them, and even vampires were pretty dubious about the whole thing. Well adjusted humans didn’t fuck their cheeseburgers, after all.

“So, like, disgusting aliens?”

Victor shook his head. “No,” he said. “That would imply extra terrestrial or perhaps, transdimensional beings. They’re not. They’re born here, live here. They’re no more alien to us than we are to chickens. They just see us as food. Very, very hostile food, these days. You can communicate with them, sometimes. Some of them keep humans as pets, or cows, of sorts. They’ve been close to hunted to extinction. If they weren’t from here, I imagine they’d leave.”

“If they think of you as a meal, why would you talk to them?”

Victor’s mouth twitched. “They are masters of illusion,” he explained. “Those that live, they walk among us, and most of the time, no one notices. You can bargain with them, for lessons. It’s… exciting.”

Victor could tell, by the faint curl of Tony’s mouth, that he was going to be one of those skeptics for whom everything needed to have a rational explanation. And magic was just one of those things; physics need not apply. Tony would believe, eventually. Or he wouldn’t. Magic, at least, wasn’t shamanism; it required no faith to work, nor to have an effect. His magic would work whether Tony believed in it, or not.

“You want to learn?” Victor asked, suddenly. He remembered an old cantrip his mother had taught him, years before he even knew what he was doing. A fuzzy, comforting thing that even a child could master with time.

Tony scoffed. “I don’t think I have what’s required to learn magic.”

“Nonsense,” Victor said. “It’s a simple working.”

He came up behind Tony, folded Tony into an embrace and rested his chin on Tony’s shoulder. “Here, give me your hands,” he said, tracing his fingers down Tony’s arms. “Hold them like… so, there, no, wrist just a little higher.”

“I feel like I’m at a heavy metal concert,” Tony said.

“Perhaps,” Victor said. It could be true, the metal concerts evoked great emotions in their listeners, perhaps at one time, a spark of magic had danced along those fingers. “How are you feeling?”

“Little bit silly,” Tony confessed.

“Deeper, how do you feel?” He pushed, a little of the command voice. It wouldn’t work on someone as strong-willed as Tony if he fought it, but just a nudge to get him talking.

“Tired,” Tony said. “Always tired, these days, really. Still angry, sad, frustrated with Steve and the others. Worried, what’ll happen.”

“Remember how you feel now,” Victor said. “Now, think about your body. Imagine, for just a moment, that your whole body is limned with light. Close your eyes if you need. Visualize it.”

“Meditation, your pain is a ball of healing light mumbo jumbo,” Tony said, but he closed his eyes. Victor opened his inner eye, watched as the energy of Tony’s vitae pulsed over his skin. Every living, breathing thing was made up of it. Spark of life, soul, manna, whatever name was placed on it; the core power of the living.

“Hmmm,” Victor said. He breathed, slow and steady and Tony followed him into it, without really being aware of what he was doing. Victor scraped the thinnest bit of his vitae off, held it on his fingertip like a dab of sweet from a bowl. “Open your mouth.”

The natural barrier that protected all living things from magic, hostile or otherwise, was thinnest inside the mouth. From this knowledge came the origin of kisses, sharing strength, love, healing. It was also why many magical potions and poisons had to be drunk. Certain sects had taken to sewing their mouths shut, although that was extreme, to protect themselves.  

“Here,” and Victor touched the tip of his finger to Tony’s tongue, depositing the trace amounts of his essence, his very existence, to Tony’s.

Tony’s life energy flickered, absorbing Victor’s. Pure, unadulterated energy.

Tony’s eyes flew open and he licked his lip. “What the hell was that?”

“How do you feel?”

Tony stretched under him, moving his shoulders, twisting his neck. “Amazing,” he said. “Like I woke up from a restful sleep.” His eyes were wide. Victor wondered how long it had been since Tony actually had a dreamless sleep. “What was it?”

“My life energy,” Victor said. “Only a tiny, tiny amount. I have shared it with you. In time, you can learn to do the same.”

“Does that… hurt you?”

“It can,” Victor said. “Like the difference between a drop of blood and a million drops. It is a way of sharing strength, energy. It is… vitae. The course of your life. It is what fuels magic, what makes it possible. And everyone has it.”

Tony was watching him with heavy-lidded eyes. Watching him with intent. “Does something else, does it, aside from sharing strength?” Desire pulsed off him in waves, an almost physical force.

“It amplifies,” Victor said. “When my mother showed it to me, I felt like… my birthday morning, and eating cookie batter raw from the bowl, and listening to her read bedtime stories at night. When you consume my vitae, you feel… what I feel for you.”

Tony’s mouth curled up into an inviting smile. “So… what you feel involved that little sofa over there and you naked on your back?”

“Oh, it certainly could.”

“Pep, no, come on,” Tony said. It was o’fucking dark thirty and Castle Doom was quiet and a little gloomy if Tony was being honest. He walked around on the parapets, because really, that just seemed the thing to do if one was in a castle. He kinda wanted to have a big pointy weapon of some sort, just for the atmosphere. “Look, all these arrangements were made when I thought I was going to die, and there’s no reason why-- yes, I know the company has my name, but it’s okay, if you want to rename it Potts Industries… okay, no, yeah, that sounds like a cooking company or something. Well, I’m sorry about that, you’ll just have to marry Rhodey and put his name on-- kidding, Pepper, oh god.”

Sometimes Tony thought there was no depths of boredom to which business affairs could sink and every time he gave voice to that thought, business had to say challenge accepted! Seriously, Pepper was the CEO, and Tony owned a good deal of stock, and when he was in between Avenger’s missions or handling exceptionally hostile press and corrupt politicians, he was the head of the R&D. A job, he might add, he’d still be able to do in Latveria, because of this nifty little invention called the Internet, some of the assholes on the Board of Directors might have heard of it, maybe, if they got their heads out of their asses once in a while and looked at something more impressive than the bottom line (or their mistress’s bottom, whatever. Did Tony look like he cared?)

Nothing had changed that was important to business, as if clean energy and symbionic prosthetics were utterly dependent upon Tony being both in the United States and presenting information to the Board in the same room on a weekly basis.

Which was just stupid.

Tony could do what he did in the comfort of the workshop that Victor was setting up for him; in fact, he would probably be bothered significantly less, all things considered.

“Look, the United States doesn’t need me, Pep,” Tony said. “And the Avengers need me even less. I’ll still be around if the world decides Iron Man is required, but until then, I think I’ve earned a partial retirement with someone I love.” That was a little painful; Pepper had wanted to him to retire, begged him to, in fact, and he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t do it until all his mistakes were rubbed in his face, and he came to admit it. Iron Man getting involved was the nuclear option. Last resort.

“All right, Tony,” Pepper said. “I reserve the right to call you, though.”

“You’re the best,” Tony told her, and that was true. He was leaving his legacy in her very capable hands.

He disconnected the call and dropped his phone into his sweatshirt’s kangaroo pouch. That was another nice thing about Latveria; no one cared what he wore on a regular basis and so he was getting a lot of wear out of jeans, tees, and hoodies.

Tony was pretty sure that Latveria would wear on him eventually. He’d get bored with it. But right now, in the middle of Victor’s modernization projects, with his lover to keep him warm and the weird feeling of being an actual hero to the Latverians, all of whom knew who he was, and what he’d done… they didn’t treat him like an American hero, either, didn’t expect him to be perfect or have a witty sound byte or endorse certain products.

They… thanked him for his courage. Their lives. Invited him to dinner, and were kind and cheerful on the few occasions that he went. Minimal fuss, maximum hospitality.

It was weird.

And nice.

Sometimes it made him uncomfortable, wondering how much of Victor’s reputation he was leaning on; the man had been a fascist dictator for decades -- according to some sources. Which made him wonder how accurate that assessment had been, but Victor openly admitted he’d made mistakes, carried on traditions. That his people were used to unquestioning obedience.

“Honestly,” Victor had said, “I’m shocked there hasn’t been a rebellion, given that there’s so much more leeway. It would be the perfect opportunity.”

“What will you do?”

“Let them,” Victor had responded. “Don’t fret, love. I won’t let them hurt you, and I’ve a refuge awaiting us. It will not be luxurious, but we will have each other.”

“That’s all I need.”

Which might have been a little bit of a lie, because Tony was pretty sure he needed a cheeseburger once in a while. And coffee. Coffee was stone-cold necessary.

A spill of light illuminated the courtyard below and Tony shifted into the shadows; the staff in Castle Doom were often a little overly solicitous of his comfort and he didn’t feel like being fussed over right now if the baker’s assistant found him wandering the walls at some ungodly hour.

No servant or staff, that. The man who strode out into the courtyard had the same arrogant walk that characterized a person who knew their own value far exceeded others around them. He wore an emerald green cloak that swirled around his boots and he wore a sword strapped to his back. Tony closed his eyes and tried to see, the way Victor had been teaching him. He’d never managed it, but at the same time, lab was always different from field work.

For a long moment, Tony saw nothing but the insides of his eyelids and he felt nothing but the same niggling embarrassment that happened every time Tony tried to work a spell. Like his high school classmates were going to jump out and laugh at him or something. And then--

It wasn’t light, not the soft glow of vitae that Victor had described, but rather a pulsing, pulling darkness that surrounded the shape of a man. Clawing, angry, and cold, so cold. Tony opened his eyes and pulled back into the shadow with a strangled gasp.

The man turned, eyes going immediately to Tony’s hiding spot without hesitation.

“An apprentice, VonDoom? Surely this one is too old,” the man said.

“Are you not left yet, Mordo?” Victor’s voice, and a moment later, the man himself came into the courtyard. He followed Mordo’s gaze and saw Tony. Victor’s eyes widened briefly, then, “No, not an apprentice. He is my pleasure-love, and you would do well to remember not to touch that which is mine. Go, Mordo. We have no more business here this night, or any other.”

“We’ll see,” Mordo said, dismissing Tony with a sniff. “We all fall prey to the weakness of being human in the search for power. You know where to find me, if you change your mind.”

The man spun a hand in a gesture reminiscent of actions Tony’d seen Dr. Strange perform before and he disappeared into one of those swirling purple portals.

Tony waited until he’d descended the stairs into the courtyard and found himself at Victor’s side. “What was that about?”

“The desperate grasping of a man who believes he has the right to rule the world,” Victor said. “It is nothing we need dwell on.”

“Is he looking for your help?”

“In a way,” Victor said. “He fails to understand that the world and the rulership thereof holds no appeal for me. Stay far away from him, love. He will not have your interests in mind, and he is no small talent. I would avenge you, but I’d prefer not to need to.”

“Yeah, I think I’m pretty well done with avenging, myself.”

[misterfantastic]

hey, uh, have a preview of a lil sideblog project im workin on- ocs are very fun

[mcmusing]

Time for a detailed look into Definitive Victor von Doom. If that involves gazing upon Julian McMahon content, that is the sacrifice we have to make in pursuit of geekery, people!

(I have no doubt that Victor remained in the dark through the entire presentation all for this theatrical reveal. Is his excess hamming supposed to balance out all the heart-pulsing handsome?)

(Ben so badly wants to clobber that perfect smile straight off that perfect sculpted face. In due time, All-American Hero. In due time)

Julian's the Definitive Dr. Doom because as I've said before, comic/animated Doom is such a one-dimensional cardboard cutout of a villain. He's like Shredder from Ninja Turtles with the narcissistic personality disorder, except with more annoying monologues. Julian McMahon made him suave, sexy, funny, and legitimately intimidating. Unlike the other versions, I can see how he would cause low self-esteem in Reed.

Many will disagree with me on this- as if that's ever stopped me before- but I love the way the films ground the story into reality. The Fantastic elements are still there, only with genuine humanity and a lack of all-out comic book lunacy. This is a relief because Victor's original backstory is.... ludicrous is putting it way too lightly. Born in the Marvel eastern european country Latveria, his father was the tribe leader and a medicine man. Mrs. Von Doom was a witch- yeah. Victor's father managed to keep her sorcery quiet in order to prevent a lynch mob from attacking their family and all. Victor's mother died because moms are forbidden within Fantastic Four lore. After his father died, Victor combined sorcery and science to make custom gear that grew the attention of colleges. He met and formed a rivalry with Reed. That's all I'm saying because it only gets dumber from there. No clue about Stan Lee's thought process here. The Four got heartbreaking and relatable backstories while Dr. Doom got the same magic insanity origin as Magneto's twins. Must be a Romani thing, I dunno.

The movies and original screenplay confirm Victor to be a Latverian immigrant rocking the American Dream as a billionaire. His English is perfect and dropping an eastern european accent is NO simple task. It's more believable that after his wife died, Victor's father sent him to the US as a refugee child to stay with a host family. With his absolute refusal to show the smallest glint of weakness, his host parents were likely very strict in Americanizing him. It is revealed that Victor, Reed, and possibly Ben, attended MIT together. Only in this version, they had standard college kid issues between them as opposed to Victor hating Reed for believing he tampered with Victor's ouija board device- Stan, what? Just what?

From college onward, Victor had both a resentment and something of an obsession towards Reed. It makes very little sense why, though. Victor is a successful inventor in his own right, gorgeous, has a level of confidence that can outshine the sun, and money enough to just blast the old college crew into space. Reed is considered the more brilliant scientist, but he had to come to Victor because he was bankrupt. With how meticulous Reed gets about his research and creations, he likely burnt through the money his father left him. At the start of the film, he's been struggling financially for years. Even Reed himself initially believes Victor to be the better man for Sue. Still, Victor takes every single opportunity to one-up him.

Due to how one-sided the rivalry is, Victor comes off as obsessed with Reed. When they came to him with the mission proposal, Victor already knew about Reed's bankruptcy, fourth mortgage on the Baxter Building, and that NASA turned them down. The screenplay has Reed and Ben a little creeped out by how much he knows and wonders where he got the info. Remember this was in 2005 before the internet became the prime stalking tool it is today. The screenplay also makes it clear that Victor wants Sue because he sees her as Reed's lady.

While I don't believe Victor to be remotely on the spectrum, he is somewhat similar to Reed with a weird nature towards emotions. Victor plays the part of the perfect, most eligible man masterfully. However, underneath that impenetrable wall he puts up, Victor is still that poor immigrant determined to prove his superiority. Considering he came from poverty, it's believable he would honestly think money and power are the keys to everything. One of his few vulnerable moments is during his space proposal to Sue. He suggests she see it as a promotion. I don't think he intended to be offensive in saying that. In Latveria, a woman being proposed to by a man like Victor is an enormous life goal. Sue wants a deep emotional connection in addition to a strong man, but Victor is incapable of the former.

Reed mentions that when they were in college, they talked about working together. Obviously, Victor did not have the same hostility towards Reed during school that his comic counterpart did. In the screenplay, we see much more of Victor's condescension over him and Reed's struggle to stand up for himself. Ben has not one nice word to say about Victor and constantly urges Reed not to take his insults and patronizing. Similarly, Victor knows Ben is Reed's bodyguard, therefore a nuisance. He's also aware that Ben is the one person who sees right through him and even when asking for a favor, does not pretend to like Victor.

This gives some interesting insight into the dynamic between the three during college. Reed remembers them wanting to work together and does give Victor his fair kudos. Meanwhile, Victor only recalls how the 'Great Reed Richards' made most guys at MIT seem intellectually inferior next to him. With Reed's emotional struggles, he probably did not realize he had that affect on people. When Reed is out of earshot, Victor admits that his former classmate tends to be right about all things scientific. In the sequel, their collaborating looks so natural and Victor seemed proud of Reed going off against the military general.

All of this leads me to believe that there was something of a friendship between them once. Since Victor's attitude towards Reed is more belittling than hateful, perhaps when they first met, Victor did act more or less amicable. With the depth of Reed genius, he probably realized they could do amazing things together. However, Victor had to be the dominant one and with his charm, he easily could have been emotionally manipulative towards someone so socially inept like Reed. But because Ben- another alpha and Reed's childhood friend- was there, Victor only got so far. Ben already had the older brother influence, except he used it to protect Reed instead of exploiting him. It's possible that Victor's fixation on Reed stems from being unable to take control of him back then. With Victor's bullheaded pride, he cannot handle losing any contest of wills. If he couldn't have Reed as a friend under his strict terms, he would make a move on Reed's sole love, take Johnny's favor, and eventually turn his rock solid Ben against him.

Something else I really like is how after the cosmic rays, Victor *slowly* descended into madness. As the Four did not become instant heroes, neither did Victor turn into an overnight villain. The mission was a disaster, four people came back mutated- and eventually Victor himself, his stock crashed, Sue broke up with him, his investors voted him out, and despite the part Reed played in the space failure, suddenly the newly dubbed Mr. Fantastic became a media sensation, completely taking all press attention away from Victor. The Storms even moved in with him, meaning much more personal time with Sue. Without meaning to, Reed became the arch nemesis Victor accused him of being for years.

Like the Four, the cosmic rays created Victor's abilities as a manifestation of his personality. Being able to manipulate electricity came from his lust for power. His metallic skin represented him shedding the remainder of the humanity he considered weak and literally hardened him. Contrary to the others, however, Victor chose the dark path. There's something to be said about how he went from proposing to Sue to murdering her by stabbing her through her heart. Only the Silver Surfer's intervention managed to revive her. Funny how this does not grant Victor some sort of one-on-one brawl with his 'real' enemy Reed.

After acting as the devil on Johnny's shoulder in the first film, the Firestarter despises Victor in the sequel. The last time they defeated Doom, Johnny went straight to Reed and put an arm around him. This indicated his fully restored Team Reed status. After Victor killed his sister, Johnny flew after him and fire-clobbered that fool. On top of that, regular, fleshy, de-powered Ben dealt the crushing blow by using a cherry-picker to hurl Doom clear across Asia. So, even as an ordinary man, Ben won against hyper-powered Victor yet again. Once they got back to the others on ground level, Johnny receives feel-safe hugs from everybody, ending wrapped up in Reed's elastic arms.

Even though Victor commits so many unjustifiable misdeeds, he doesn't cause an Erik Lehnsherr outrage in me. He's well-acted, his motives are believable, and most of all, his horrible actions are treated as such. He and Reed could have accomplished such immense good together if Victor had not let his own irrational ego come between them. Such a sad waste for a man capable of achieving so much. Consequences- what a concept, right?

Hm, maybe Victor would have been given more free passes if we saw his mother being killed, he played the tragic immigrant card harder, and he called Ben's rock form pretty....

Nah, the very notion of even the dumbest superhero film operating by that logic is totally asinine 😏

[smokeybrand]

The Cape and The Cowl

A friend of mine posted a meme questioning who would win a fight between Doctor Doom and Batman. My gut reaction is to say it’s real bad for Bruce but, as i thought about it more and more, i kind of feel like its not so cut-and-dry. There is a lot of nuance that needs to be considered between the two characters rather than just a “smash the action figured together” scenario. Of course, there is the surface stuff like how would they interact generally? What would the catalyst be in order to incite said conflict? Why would Doom even see Bruce as a threat? If you think about it objectively, an all things are even, to Vic, Batman is just a crazy person losing his are on crime in a raggedy ass city. Victor von Doom is a the reagent of an entire country with a GDP that rivals some superpowers in the MCU. Like, the USA has diplomatic relations with a blip in Eastern Europe, because Doom has the military power to wreck he US in open aggression. Latveria will lose in a prolonged conflict, that’s just a question of resources, but that little country would absolutely inflict upon the US in a slow bleed. Imagine the War on Terror but with competent leadership and actual, discipline, military strategy. Why the f*ck would Doom care what the f*ck is going on out in Jersey? More than that. the similarities between the two characters is staggering.

We all know the origin of Batman. We’ve seen that sh*t how many times now? It’s like getting a new Spider-Man joint and having to watch Uncle Ben die all over again. It’s trite at this point but so essential to the character, we need a refresher every time Bats shows up onscreen. That trauma informs everything he is, as it would if you watched your parents gunned down in cold blood as a child, and then laid with their still warm corpses for however long until the police came. What a lot of people don’t know is the origin of Doctor Doom. Being a villain, Doom rarely gets his motivations explored outside of some megalomaniac Dr. No type f*ckery. However, Victor von Doom is a person. He started out life as a happy kid and learned to be Doctor Doom, just like Bruce learned to be Batman. Doom is actually a refugee. True, Doom was born an aristocrat, but Latveria was overthrown when he was still young so he was never able to be raised in that level of opulence. His mom was also murdered before he was ten years old. Just like Bruce, Doom experienced a horrific truth that would color his world perspective for the rest of his life. Doom would eventually find his way to the US as he was brilliant. Like, unheard of intelligent and it would be his exposure to the US lifestyle, after years of conflict and struggle, which would make him realize how easy life could be if someone just did what was necessary. And then Reed happened.

Reed Richards was, is, a fulcrum in Vic’s life. They have a relationship similar to Batman an Superman but the opposite. Whereas Batman values Clark’s perspective because it helps him keep perspective, Vic finds Reed to be absurd. He sees Reed for who e is and doesn’t understand why no one else can. Reed Richards is a reckless, excitable, short-sighted, glory-hog. He is. If you read the character with any semblance of realism, you’d see that. Ho many times has Sue comments on how she and the rest of his family, take a backseat to science? How many times has Reed, himself, sacrificed a relationship or to, in service to the solution of an equation? Doom saw all of that in college. Reed represents the structural issues of the world and it frustrates Vic to no end. In some continuities, the genesis of Vic going full Doom rest on an accident Reed commits because of that shortsightedness. It goes a long way to checking Reeds ego and he does become a better person for it, but it was at the cost of scarring Vic for life, both physically and mentally. Yet another example of the system, ruining Doom’s life.

Bruce, after his trauma, has kept a strong support system. First and foremost, since day one, he had Alfred. Doom had no one. Bruce then built a family, adopting all of the children and surrounding himself with love. Doom’s one true love died and was dragged down to hell. We know this because he punches out Mephisto whenever he can. Also, his mom is down there, too. Bruce eventually met Diana and Kal, becoming fast friends and life long confidants. Outside of Catwoman, I think Diana makes for the perfect romantic partner of Bruce and that is shown in several continuities. Reed just reinforced Doom’s disgust with the machinations of the world, eventually further degrading Doom’s tenuous hold of his ability to trust in others, by psychically maiming him. The negative impact Reed had on Doom’s life is f*cking profound, man. I’m not saying Doom should have taken it as far as he did, but it’s hard to argue against trying to kill a dude who had ruined years of your work, destroyed you reputation, and physically maimed you forever. That doesn’t seem wholly outrageous to me. I think it’s called justifiable homicide? The only reason Doom stopped trying to murder Reed is because Valeria was born. Valeria became the first person Doom felt real affection for, since the death of his wife. I think Morgan le Fay could be another, but that might have just been a time-space booty call. Valeria Richards and her relationship with he Uncle Doom, is what gave Vic the strength to be better. Bruce had that love his entire life, even immediately after his darkest day. Doom went decades without it.

Up until Valeria was born, all Doom had was his time spent as a destitute street rat, struggling to survive, to inform him about life and the world at large. That brazen cruelty for sure emotionally crippled him in a lot of ways, I'm not even going to start to defend his arrogance or superiority complex, but trauma does that. That's why i think Bats would eventually come around. They've both seen the absolute worst of the world and, in a lot of ways, go about righting those wrongs in the same way. If you pay attention, and the writer is worth their salt, you'd see that Latveria is an autocratic socialist paradise. Latverians are among the most literate, healthy, and happy people in the 616. Jobs are plentiful and crime is almost non-existent. Mans even cured cancer, which he made available to the world, if those people choose to make the trip to Latveria for treatment. The world of 616, at large, likes to paint Vic as this evil despot but, if you interview a laymen of Latveria, they’ll sing his praises. Most people forget that, before Doom returned for his birthright, Latveria was a whole ass occupied state. Think the relationship between Israel and Palestine. Latveria was basically falling into doorknobs for Symkaria and pretending that they weren’t in an abusive relationship. Doom showed up and changed all that. It was a bloody f*cking conflict, for sure, and i am certain Vic committed war crimes, but the end result was a free Latveria with a strong international presence. Doom is a hero to those people but a villain to other nations because of how he rose to power and, more importantly, how independent he made hi country from the world system. Doom did what was necessary to free his people, a march too far for Bruce and that’s why Gotham is the way that it is.

People who don’t know the character like to paint Vic as ego-maniacal villain, and that was valid when comics were just "hero smash bad guy", but we've grown beyond that. Every pop culture interpretation of Doom, outside of the comics, has him as this stoic, arrogant, asshole, dictator bu that’s just not an accurate portrayal of how Doom is in a modern capacity. Vic is definitely an autocrat but he’s no dictator. He can be cruel at times to specific individuals but he is generally benevolent to his people. He doesn’t portray himself as a strongman but he does let it be known he’ll nuke anyone or anything if it means furthering his overall goals which, currently, is the safety and security of Latveria. His country isn’t a police state and his people are free to do as they please but their is a line, just like everywhere else in the world. Doom just has a shorter one and enforces that with extreme prejudice. I’m not going to sit here and say everything is great in Latveria, it’s definitely not, but it ain’t so hot in 616 America either. How many Civil Wars have they had? What about that whole  tidbit with Hydra Cap? There is nuance and gray nowadays, areas that both Bats and Doom comfortably call home. Batman is, objectively, not a pure hero. He is, at best, a chivalric anti-hero and similarly, Doom is more of an anti-villain than the mustache twirling, boogeyman, mastermind pop media portrays him to be. Batman and Doom are basically the same person, with the same motivations, only Doom is willing to go much, much, further than Bruce; A difference in method you an attribute to their respective upbringings.

If Doom had the same support system as Bruce, he’d create miracles. We’ve seen glimpses of that throughout the years. Dooms last run culminated with him essentially obliterating an entire universe where he had the support necessary to build a proper utopia. Our Doom couldn’t fathom the choices made by this variant Doom because of how broken he is. If Bruce was alone in his formative years like Victor, he’d commit atrocities. We’ve seen glimpses of that over they years, too. There are various narratives that explore just such a tragic turn of events, explored in the Death Metal series of books. Dawnbreaker immediately comes to mind. Bruce and victor are the same side of the same coins. It's literally a crap shoot as to which side of the alignment chart either leans. And as if to inform my point further, we just recently had Joker War. That book went a long way to exposing the absolute necessity of raw force, in order to properly “save”Gotham. Joker was able to completely dismantle that entire city by attacking the machinery put in lace to make it run. He effectively proved that The Batman was part of the problem and would never be the solution because Bruce doesn’t go far enough. He puts out fires but never address the sparks which start those blazes. He doesn’t go far enough. He never will. His code won’t allow him to. But Doom can. Doom did. Honestly, if you really want to keep it real, what is Bruce's endgame? What does a healthy Gotham City look like? It looks a lot like f*cking Latveria.

So to answer this question outright, i don’t think they even fight. The way this hypothetical was set up had three rounds: the first being a standard donnybrook, the second being prep time, and the last being god mode. To be perfectly honest with you, it wouldn't make it past the first round. If i had to say, with pedestrian or normie level understanding of he characters, Doom sweeps all categories. For Round one, Doom’s armor trumps all of Batman’s gadgets. For Round Two, Doom has more resources at his fingertips for prep. For Round The God Emperor Doom exists. He created several realities and killed a few Beyonders. Batman sat in a chair which gave him access to all the wisdom in the multiverse, and realized there were three Jokers. Doom all the way. My informed opinion as someone who adores both these character more than most would have me think there wouldn’t even be a conflict to begin with. I think they’d investigate the inciting catalyst, meet in person with intent to attack if necessary, size each other up until one of them made the proposal to just talk, they'd converse, and the fight would end with both of them walking away from each other with begrudging respect. Doom would admire Bruce's will and Bruce would understand the necessity of Doom's position in the world because, if you can make it make sense, Bruce will usually agree. Batman, for all of his shortcomings, is not naive to the world. He’s seen the same darkness as Doom. Doom, for all of his pompous arrogance, understands the struggle to maintain faith in those around you, even if that noble aspiration is misplaced. Bruce is one bad day away from Doom and Doom is a decades worth of days from being Bruce. They mirror each other and i think they’d see that, taking each other as cautionary tales before becoming collaborators. I don’t see them ever really becoming friends but i don't think they’d ever be true enemies.

[blog-fthirteen]

The Long Runs--Cap Connection, Chapter 6: “Captain America #312″

#312: “Deface the Nation”

Writer: Mark Gruenwald Pencils: Paul Neary Inks: Dennis Janke

The short version: Steve Rogers receives his accrued back pay from the Army--a million dollars! He plans to open the Captain America emergency hotline with it, but Flag-Smasher crashes the launch to spread his anti-patriotic message!

I started this feature five years ago, because I was fascinated with Mark Gruenwald’s decade-long Captain America run and wanted to talk about it.

Five weeks later, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States.

I didn’t feel like talking much about Captain America after that.

Over the years, I thought back to this blog, and wanted to return to it. For various reasons, I did little more than start, scrap and return to this piece all over again.

But a lot has happened in the last five years, and I guess I’m ready to get back to discussing a fictional symbol of a nation built on a huge lie.

Anyway, let’s talk comics.

Captain America #312 is available to read on Marvel Unlimited, to purchase digitally on Comixology, or as part of the Society of Serpents Epic Collection trade paperback.

“With each flag I smash, the liberation of the world is one step closer!”

In this issue, Captain America fights Flag-Smasher, a terrorist who seeks to destroy the concept of nations altogether. He begins the issue destroying the flags at the United Nations, and ends it trying to attack Captain America at a speaking event the latter hosts.

We don’t learn his name this issue, but he does tell his origin story. Flag-Smasher’s father was a diplomat who truly believed in peace, but ended up trampled to death at a protest outside the Latverian embassy. With his own hero dead, Flag-Smasher adopted a philosophy that peace cannot be achieved unless nations, and their symbols, are abolished.

Flag-Smasher is a bad man doing bad things for what he believes are the right reasons, and if there were any deeper characterization, he’d be a much better villain. As it is, he’s a thought exercise, a debate masquerading as a supervillain.

The event he crashes at issue’s end sees Captain America announcing the creation of a nationwide toll-free number to contact him.

Back in issue #311, editor Mike Carlin happened upon a letter from a fan about something weird in his family’s barn. He gave it to Steve Rogers--if you recall, Steve walked in off the street and became the regular artist for the Marvel Universe’s Captain America comic--and when Cap investigated, he found the Mad Thinker’s Awesome Android.

That confrontation stuck in his mind, making him realize he’d focused too much of his time on New York and become too inaccessible to the American people. So how does he change this?

Well, first, he gets a check for a million dollars.

It turns out Steve was never declared legally dead after he was lost in the Arctic at the end of World War II, so his back pay had accrued since 1941. Steve doesn’t actually want the money, but the government disregarded his wish for them to keep it. So he and his fiancée Bernie Rosenthal decide to use the money to create a Captain America emergency hotline.

All of this leads to a big, splashy fight scene that sees Flag-Smasher threaten to kill audience members at the unveiling if they don’t listen to his ideas. And while Cap can see his earnest desire to make the world a better place, he can’t abide willfully placing lives in danger.

Fortunately, a couple of well-timed distractions from the crowd and the police give Cap the opportunity he needs, and he is able to out-fight Flag-Smasher.

Flag-Smasher would return during this run (and a number of times since), but he never became one of Cap’s really iconic villains. Still, some of Gruenwald’s dialogue here is pretty stirring. He writes Flag-Smasher as a man possessed of his ideas, while his Cap is sympathetic, but stands firm for his own ideals.

This isn’t my favorite issue. Sure, Paul Neary’s art is as good as ever, and the action scene at the end is solid. But the Flag-Smasher was a dumb villain in my book, the first dud in Gru’s tenure. I didn’t think he’d amount to much of anything outside of his sporadic appearances in comics, but then time (and Kevin Feige) went and proved me wrong.

Of course, if you’re reading this, you know Flag-Smasher less as a Space Ghost lookalike and more as the anti-nationalist terrorist group at the center of Marvel Studios’ “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” TV series.

The Flag-Smashers of the MCU have a similar motivation, but with an added complexity necessary for a live-action adaptation. That group believes the world was better when nations loosened their borders and helped others during the five years between “Infinity War” and “Endgame,” and yearns to return the world to that state by stopping the MCU’s Global Repatriation Council from restoring national borders and forcibly relocating refugees.

That’s a much better approach than the 616 Flag-Smasher’s literal flag-smashing. But as the series progresses, the MCU group’s methods become more extreme, and given more to collateral damage. I suppose that’s necessary in order to give the heroes reason to oppose them, but I understand critics who think that trope undercuts their valid arguments.

There’s a bit towards the end of this issue where someone in the crowd calls Flag-Smasher a Communist, and he responds that he hates Communism as much as he hates what America stands for. I thought of that during the intense fan debate over the MCU Flag-Smashers and their methods, about how it’s hard to tackle complex issues in superhero comics. 

That isn’t to say it hasn’t been done before. This was far from the first time. But even as superhero comics grew more sophisticated, the genre still found itself facing the limitations of four-color fiction where good guys in long underwear beat up bad guys in body armor. It still pushes back against those limitations today.

Flag-Smasher isn’t the only character from Gruenwald’s run to make it into “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” We’ll get to a pretty big one down the road.

And we will get to him. The Cap Connection is back, and I’m in it for the long haul.

[infinityknight25]

Avengers Illuminati: Oval Office part 1

"Good evening and welcome to the first presidential debate. I am your host Laura Thompson." She was sitting at a blue desk like table. Her hair was a brunette color. Eyes brown as a piece of milk choclate. She was wearing a red and blue suit, a white shirt and a matching scarf. She appeared to be middle aged. "I'm your co-host Jameson Carlisle. " said a white haired middle aged man in a black suit with a white shirt and American flag tie. " Tonight's debate comes from Baltimore Maryland. Its a very special debate as we do not normally have three canidates debating. While it has happened in the past. Its not a typical thing." Said Thompson. "The canidates are as follows." Began Jameson. "From the republican party, billonaire Brian Hartford. From the democratic party, Monica Williams. Our last candidate is not associated with any party. He is a well known mutant activist. He founded the Xavier School For Gifted Youngsters. Professor Charles Xavier." The three canidates came out to the stage. Charles wheeling out to the middle to greet his opponents, but neither came to greet him or each other. Brian Hartford was a man around the age of 65 with dirty blonde hair that was combed back. Tonight he was wearing a navy blue suit with a red tie. Monica Willaims was a woman who was in her early 70's. She was wearing a pant suit that looked like it belonged on an oreck vacuum cleaner. Charles Xavier a bald man who is confined to a wheel chair was wearing a grey suit with a white shirt and a matching grey tie. "We will begin with opening statements from each of our canidates. We will begin with republican canidate Brian Hartford." Laura said. "Thank you Laura." Hartford said as he walked into the center of the stage. There were people all around. Mostly press. Some few people who came to watch and ask a question if they were lucky. "America is in a period of time where an election is so critical it's not even funny. My democratic opponent is so crooked that a skateboarder couldn't slide his board down her back if it were a rail. And I will expose Mr. Xavier for nothing more than a do nothing activist. I assure I am the man for the job." Brian said as he closed his statement. " Next we will hear from madam representative Monica Williams." "Hartford claims that he is the right man for the job. Claims he will do this or that but he hasn't backed anything up. He is all nonsense. As for "Professor" Xavier he is nothing but a militant power hungry man who stands behind his X-Men and his freakish mutant powers. He will probably use his mind control to get us to answer the questions wrong. That's just like a mutant to manipulate things in they're way." Williams said closing her statement and walking back to her chair that was in between Hartford 's chair and where Xavier was sitting. "To close out the opening statements we will now hear from Professor Charles Xavier." said Laura Thompson. " Thank you Ms. Thompson." Xavier said as he wheeled into the center of the stage. "Yes I have spent my years as an activist fighting for the rights of mutants. However I have done so peacefully whenever it has been an opportunity. This life shouldn't be so violent. Mutants are humans like everyone else. And speaking of the X-Men as of right they are disbanded. They are now just students who have miraculous gifts. In closing. I will not spend my time at any debate slaming my opponent for having a different view. I will simply tell you mine and why I think that way. Like any good teacher would do." There was scattered applause for Xavier as he went back to his assigned spot. "Our first question is for all three canidates." said Jameson. "Our country is on the brink of war with many nations and in the last year we have been attacked by aliens such as Thanos. If elected what is your plan to keep our country safe. Ms. Williams we will begin with you." Said Jameson Carlisle. "My years in public service as a state representative and the several other jobs I have held show that I know when it is time for peace I do what it takes and when it's time for war I'll do what it takes to keep people on the homefront safe. Hartford on the other hand is all talk. He's just a businessman with no political experience who seems to have ties to super villain groups like Hydra who if you remember were the driving force behind World War 2 which we did not know about until after the fact. Now Charles Xavier just said he will seek peaceful steps all the time.Do you really want a President who will cower at the feet of terrorists? At the feet of Thanos? Red Skull? He will just hand over the human population of America as a plea deal to let his mutuants live. " "Thank you. We will now hear from Republican canidate Brian Hartford." said Jameson Alexander."Monica Williams does not have a good track record with military action or even peaceful action for that matter. Do not forget the time she supplied Latverian troops with stark industries technology which Dr. Doom then put his own spin on then and was ahead of our own technology. That's just one time. She is a very very corrupt person and is not very nice. Now Charles Xavier can be linked to the leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants .... Magneto. What's to say that once elected he does not hand the country over to the Brotherhood or some other terrorist organization. I will do what is necessary to protect this nation from threats foreign and domestic." "Finally on this topic we will hear from Professor Xavier." said Laura Thompson. " My intent for this country is to protect it wether it is negotiated peacefully or if force is required. My goal is to add more heroes to the Avengers roster, Enlist more S.H.I.E.L.D agents and use my own security team to free up Secret Service for other more important tasks. My reason for these goals is to save as many young men and women lives from being in the battlefield. Our life is so valuable and it's so fragile why risk more lives that what we have to when we can limit the loss through the use of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as the Avengers. And before it is questioned my task force is still being assembled but the captain of the group is Wolverine and the only other current member is Tyron Owens. Yes the ghost rider has a troubled past but he has proven himself different and a changed person. As for threats like Thanos and my FORMER colleague Erik Lenscher better known as Magneto it would be the last thing I'd ever do to let them harm our great nation. Remember I have stood tall in front of them before.... Yes it's not been on my own but you are at your greatest when you have to rely on another person." The crowd applauded. More and more questions were asked and more of the same type of answers were given throughout the debate. Monica Williams bashed Hartford and Xavier while hiding intentions and Hartford ran in circles with what might have been answers. All the while Xavier stayed the course focusing on telling the audience and viewers at home his intentions as president. "We are down to our last two questions for our canidates." said Jameson Carlisle. "Due to the recent attacks from a radical Muslim terrorist group almost eleven thousand men, women, and children are left homeless. It has been proposed that the U.S. brings them in. What are your views on bringing them in and what screening process would they have to go through?" Carlisle asked. "Mr. Hartford you may begin." "Well Jameson. I don't think we should allow any of them in. It would be a detriment to our people. Monica wants to just let them all in so they can over take our country and enslave us all. Xavier wants to bring in the mutant ones and train them as secret soldiers to take out us humans. Neither of them can be trusted." Hartford said. "Your vice president running mate Jospeh Groening stated in an interview on CNN that he felt we should take in the refugees. That they have no where safe to go and that they need our help." Chimed Thompson. Looking very puzzled Hartford replied. " Groening said that? I must of not seen this interview. I had no clue that's where he stood on this subject." The crowd began to murmur. "Professor Xavier it's your turn." Laura Thompson said. " Thank you Ms. Thompson. I am well aware of the apparent risks that could come from bringing in these refugees. While some could be mutants....some could be your run of the mill terrorists. I would assemble a team combining both humans and mutants with various abilities that would cater to the screening of people before allowing them here. We would build special housing for those who would be accepted in various places throughout the state's. What I have stated so far on this topic would create jobs.We would also set a cap on how many we would take in and the others that pass the screening would reside in our allied countries that have agreed to help. Just to name a few the Wakandan government in Africa has offered to harbor a some families and even Namor the sub mariner the king of Atlantis has offered to help in anyway possible. If the housing in our countries and others fall through we explorer other options which has been discussed between my running mate Dr. Stephen Strange, Namor, Tony Stark, Hank McCoy and T'Chala king of Wakanda a possibility of building a man made island for the refugees. This would not be a kind of exile as the island would provide all the necessary things such as food, shelter safety etc. It would be a province or state of the United States and the refugees would be given the opportunity for American citizenship much like they would on current American soil." "Thank you professor." Thompson said. "Mrs. Williams Its your chance to speak on this topic." she said " These two are fool hardy. This is mostly women and children we are talking about. Hartford bases his facts on his rascism. While Xavier is clearly focused on saving the mutants only. To everyone He plays the caring activist who wants peace for everyone but he will start a genocide and end human life as we know it. I will allow ALL these poor defensless souls into our great country. It used to be called the melting pot lets keep it one." There was scattered applause.