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maxwell-grant · 4 years ago

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If someone were trying to make a new character inspired by pulp heroes, but the new character had to be a teenager, what existing pulps heroes should they look to for inspiration?

I'm not exactly in touch with the yoof so I could be off the mark here, but let's talk about teenager characters for a bit.

Now, I could just tell you to look for characters that appeal to you and use them as a baseline and that's probably the best advice here, but if you want the essay and history lesson: American pulp fiction didn't used to market much to teenagers. Teenagers as a consuming market haven't always been the all-encompassing force they are considered today, and the pulps were largely marketed either towards young boys, or for working class men, mostly the latter. This is part of why teenagers tend to show up in these stories largely as sidekicks, which was something carried over to comic superheroes, and part of why Spider-Man was such a breakout hit, because he was a teenage superhero who was not a sidekick.

The biggest pre-1950s traditional pulp hero I can of who was a teenager would be Jack Harkaway, an 1871 penny dreadful adventurer who would go on to be published overseas, one of those characters who was big enough in his day to inspire imitators a plenty but didn't quite make it past a specific time period. Comic strips had plenty of kid or teenage protagonists who are a bit closer to pulp heroes, like Tintin or Terry Lee, one in particular I'm highlighting above is Ledger Syndicate's Connie Kurridge, arguably the first female adventure hero of American comics. Overseas you can find a couple of prominent examples of teenage adventurers published in what we call the pulp era, the biggest and most influential of which being The Famous Five, but as I stated in answering whether Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys were pulp heroes, these were not published in pulp magazines, instead their direct opposites in glossy and reputable paperbacks.

There are other examples of pulp heroes who were teenagers and not sidekicks, but nearly all of them are very obscure and you will probably not find much material for them. And the thing is, these characters were not made for teenagers. They were made, for the most part, by grown-ups, and for grown-ups, and I can't say any of them ever really grabbed a teenage audience. Usually, it's the 60s as an era that really starts to pander to and include teenagers at the forefront of storytelling, so a good start for you might be to look at what was going on in the 60s-onwards worldwide in the realms of pulp and pulp-inspired works, which probably means you're going to have to look outside of the US.

Another word of advice would be to look up characters that are beloved by teenagers. I don't think "teenager" is a great baseline trait to start building a character, but if that's the number one priority to you, then ideally you should look for a good baseline of what appeals to that demographic, what appealed to you at that age and why. You're probably going to wind up with a lot of anime anti-heroes in your research though, because teenagers are deeply miserable creatures and few things appeal more to them than characters who are miserable but they act cool and badass and edgy about it. Teenagers are forced to live with the miserable reality of being teenagers with little to no upsides, so I think teenage characters could benefit more from being based on the kinds of characters teenagers would ideally want to read about.

So, "cool, badass and tortured character super popular with angsty teenagers", "rooted in and subverting older storytelling traditions for a fresh new audience", and "60s pulp hero". I think Elric is probably as good of a place as any for you to start.

Elric wasn't just popular, he wasn't even just popular with teenagers (boys and girls alike, which is also quite the feat), he was "cool". He was avant-garde, he was the hip new thing on the block. He wasn't Conan or Bond or Batman, and you'd hardly mistake him for a hero. He got the rock albums and fans tattooing him. He was penned by the guy who was openly called the "anti-Tolkien". Elric was Loki before Loki, the edgy anti-hero before them all. The emaciated warrior with white hair and black clothes and a demonic sword who suffered in a cool way, cool in his uncoolness. When I think of pulp heroes who achieved a substantial popularity among teenage audiences, Elric is definitely the first that comes to mind.

Another good example might be Captain Harlock, easily one of the premier Pulp Heroes among manga and anime due to how heavily Leiji Matsumoto incorporates pulp space opera into everything he does. Not only directly influenced by it, Matsumoto even has actual pulp credentials as an illustrator for C.L Moore's Shambleau, Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry. The space pirate, while not created in manga and anime, is one of Japan's premier pulp hero archetypes, and Harlock's as good of a baseline to work with as any.

The most popular pulp-inspired works nowadays among teenage or younger audiences are definitely the ones derived from pulp horror, several creators have been getting a lot of mileage these past decades out of plundering and remixing stuff from it. The big ones are Lovecraft and related works like The King in Yellow, but because they soak up all the attention, it also means that people are sleeping on authors like John W. Campbell, William Hope Hogdson, Clark Ashton Smith and Karl Edward Wagner, Nictzin Dyalhis and Olaf Stapledon, and many, many more, which gives you a lot of narrative real estate to work with should you take this direction.

Additionally, one thing that you could consider is that, for a very large portion of the history of pulp fiction, a significant amount of the most popular stories and characters were those that were based on celebrities and real life figures. The biggest of dime novel protagonists was Buffalo Bill, and following him was Nick Carter, a literary equivalent to Eugen Sandow (the Schwarzenegger of his day). Thomas Edison inspired an entire subgenre of dime novel fiction, even Jack the Ripper was a pulp protagonist in Dutch magazines, because sometimes the term "pulp hero" doesn't take the "hero" part much into account.

The precedent for celebrity stories is older than pulp fiction itself, but it was in the dime novels and novelettes and pulps that the idea really found it's footing. The Shadow's exploits took a lot from Gibson's own experiences with Houdini (who himself starred in fictional stories, one famously penned by Lovecraft). Doc Savage was visually modeled after Clark Gable and supposedly inspired on Richard Henry Savage. Eddy Polo, Charlie Chaplin and Tom Mix were the protagonists of several pulps and comic strips across the world, as well as Al Capone (who starred in pulp magazines in Germany and Spain), who fought Nick Carter in a Brazilian story guest-starring Fu Manchu (reportedly based on real figures Sax Rohmer claimed to have met) and Fantomas. Today obviously there are much greater restrictions at play concerning celebrity images, but if dime/pulp magazines were around today, we would have quite possibly seen figures like Keanu Reeves, Tilda Swinton and Lil Nas X either star in their own magazines or be used as models for rising protagonists.

So I guess one other way you could go on about creating a pulp hero, who's either a teenager or appeals to teenagers, would be the route of taking a look at some celebrities that either are, or appeal to those demographics, because if pulp magazines had stayed around unchanged past the 60s and 80s and whatnot you definitely would have seen the likes of David Bowie, Will Smith and Dwayne Johnson get their own magazines. I don't know much about what celebrities are popular with teenagers these days and I'm not about to start caring now, but you could take a look at some icons you like, or liked when you were younger, and think about what made them appealing to think about as characters, and how you could apply that to something closer to a pulp story.

A word of advice would also be that, if you want to make a character inspired by pulp heroes, if you want to create a convincing modern pulp hero, you might want to look less at the pulp heroes themselves and instead those that they were inspired by or working to defy and stand out when compared to. You take the building blocks and rearrange them in a different way. If you have a specific character you want to design yours in reference to, you can send me an ask or a DM about them and I'll dig into my files to give you a few pointers, and what kind of history or cultural predecessors they have that you could take a look at to make something more genuine.

#replies tag #pulp heroes #pulp fiction #jack harkaway #captain harlock #elric of melnibone #bloodborne #darkest dungeon

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heliads · 4 years ago

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Of Sorcerers and Spiderwebs Chapter Four: Hopeless

Y/N L/N is a Master of the Mystic Arts, trained by Doctor Strange himself. When she first meets Peter Parker as they fight side by side against Thanos, she isn’t expecting for their brief partnership to blossom into a love that could last a lifetime.

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After realizing that you’re in love with Peter Parker, it feels even harder to drag yourself out of bed to head to school the next morning. Even the sight of him walking towards you from across the crowded hallways of Midtown hurts- you know that no matter how close the two of you become, he’ll never see you as anything more than a friend.

In fact, just the simple act of seeing him confirms that you truly love him. You’re not sure how you didn’t realize it before, but it’s glaringly obvious now. When the two of you are paired together for some partner activity in class, you’re able to laugh and smile with him as if you’ve known him your entire life.

That’s the easiest thing about Peter- with him, you’re able to just live and be whoever you want to be. There aren’t any expectations with him- no rules or assumptions or anything. He doesn’t presume you to be anything more than yourself. You’re not sure anyone’s made you feel like that in a long time.

However, things aren’t exactly perfect. Now that you’re actually paying attention to how you feel about Peter, you’re also noticing how Peter feels about other people. Specifically, how he feels about one of his closest friends, MJ. Case in point: whatever’s going on with them during this exact lunch one sunny afternoon at Midtown.

Although technically there are four of you at the lunch table, Peter’s clearly centered around MJ and MJ alone. He’s sitting next to her, leaning over to face her in a way that shuts out everything else around him. They’re engaged in some deep conversation about the ethics of neuroscience, something that you happen to know a lot about thanks to Stephen and that you could easily debate along with them. However, you already tried to enter the conversation and were talked over more than a few times, so you’ve given that up.

You can’t exactly blame Peter for being wrapped up in MJ. She’s practically perfect for him- she supports him being Spider-Man, she knows enough about his favorite topics to have discussions like the one they’re having now, and they both have the perfect blend of shy and talkative that makes them equals. The only problem is that she’s not you.

The worst part is that Peter is clearly in love with her. Here’s the thing- nobody looks at a girl the way Peter is looking at MJ right now, with that stupid soft smile on his face as she talks and that unnameable expression his eyes, without being in love. You suppose that’s why it hurts you so much to see him. It shouldn’t, of course, Peter’s known MJ for far longer than he’s known you and you just arrived at Midtown a few months ago. Yet your heart still feels a painful twinge every time you glance their way.

“You good, Y/N?”

You’re broken out of your trance when Ned speaks to you. Blinking once to clear your head, you turn to him. “Yeah, I’m just, uh, considering my plans for the future. I’ve heard about this really cool opportunity within the different international Sanctums to go out in search of people who could potentially become Masters of the Mystic Arts to monitor them and offer aid if they need it.”

What you’re talking about isn’t a lie- you have heard about this program, and it’s been simmering away in the back of your mind for quite some time. You had assumed that you weren’t going to act on it, as your life was going very well over in New York, but for once you might be convinced to move away as a nomad for the sorcerers.

Ned looks impressed. “That does sound cool. So you’d basically get to vacation around the world in the name of the Sanctums?” You incline your head, confirming his words. “That’s the thing- it sounds amazing. The only thing is, I’d have to apply and I don’t know if they’ll let me in or not. And, even if they do let me in, I’m just wondering if I would be able to leave all of this behind. It feels like I just got here.”

Ned nods. “I mean, I don’t really know what to tell you. Wizards-I mean, sorcerers, kind of have a priority of coolness over everything else. I guess you just have to ask yourself what you’d be giving up by leaving, and if you think the pros of the trip would outweigh the cons.”

You look at him, somewhat surprised. “That’s actually really good advice. Thanks, Ned.” The boy smiles. “Hey, if I can’t be a superhero I can at least give out super-good talks.” The two of you dissolve in laughter, but your smile fades slightly when you realize Peter hasn’t even heard you at all. Would he care if you left?

The next day, you slump down into your seat at the lunch table with a glower that could rival the stormy weather outside. Ned raises his eyebrows at the sight of you. “Well, I didn’t think you could look even more depressed than yesterday, but I guess I was wrong. What, did Sorcerers Worldwide not let you into their program?”

You point a finger at him in agreement. “I showed up and asked if I could go through with their program. I showed them everything I could do, which is more than the average adult at the Sanctum. Even with that, they still won’t let me go. They kept saying something about how I should be finishing school before I go traipsing around the globe. That doesn’t even make sense- they pulled me out of my freshman and sophomore years so they could train me at Kamar-Taj, why is it not okay now?”

Across the table from you, Peter looks stunned. “Wait, what do you mean? You were going to leave Midtown for some errand of the sorcerers?” You nod, staring up at the ceiling bleakly. “It was going to be so cool, too. But no, I have to wait until I’m out of high school or college or whenever they run out of excuses.”

Peter leans forward, and you realize for the first time that he actually seems cross, almost hurt. “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought you liked it here.” You can’t help but feel defensive at his questioning. “I did. Yesterday, at lunch. I talked about it right here. I guess you weren't paying attention. Besides, I do like Midtown, but are you telling me you’d rather go to high school than travel the world?”

Peter scoffs. “Yeah, it would be fun to leave for a vacation or a weekend trip. You just got here, do you really not care about all of us enough to leave it all behind for some jaunt around the world?” You raise your eyebrows. “Why are you so upset? I just said that I wouldn’t be going anyway. And besides, I do care about everyone here, which is why I talked about the possibility of me going on this trip yesterday to all of you. I suppose you just weren’t listening.”

Peter’s opening his mouth, presumably to deliver a no doubt intense remark, but Ned places his hands in between the two of you, interrupting him. “You know what, I think what Peter means is that we’d all be sad to see you go, Y/N. We’re sorry that you didn’t get into your program, but at least you still have us, right?”

You tilt your head towards Ned, pointedly ignoring Peter. “Thank you, Ned. I absolutely agree. Midtown is, and will always be, an amazing school with amazing people and I wouldn’t want to miss it for the world.” You and Ned continue to have a conversation in the same forced calm voices, and eventually Peter joins in. MJ arrives later, and joins in the chatter as well, although she does raise her eyebrows at the tension clearly brewing between you and Peter.

When lunch ends, the four of you are heading back to your classroom when you suddenly stop moving. Your friends stop as well, looking back at you in confusion. “Everything alright, Y/N?” MJ asks, but you just shake your head fervently. “Everything is very much not alright. It’s like I can sense something strange in the school. I don’t know what it is, but it isn’t human and it isn’t going away.”

Your friends walk back up to you. “Can you tell us anything else about it?” Ned questions. You try and latch onto the sudden feeling, but you can’t sense anything else. “I think I’m going to have to use my astral form to check it out. Can you make sure nobody notices what I’m doing?” Your friends nod their assent, and huddle up around you to hide you from view. If anyone happens to walk by, they’ll just see a group of students clustered around a locker.

You fling your shoulders back, closing your eyes and opening them once more to find yourself in your astral form, glowing and weightless just like normal. As you head off down the hallway in search of whatever malevolent entity is creeping around the school, you glance once over your shoulder and can’t help but feel slightly better when you notice that Peter is the first one to reach out and catch you, despite everything that just happened.

Brushing away thoughts of Peter and the concern clearly written across his face at the thought of you heading into danger, you continue on down the hallways. You quickly check classrooms and halls of lockers, and you notice that the strange feeling of darkness is emanating from a room down a few flights of stairs. The basement.

Of course it had to be the basement, the darkest, coldest, most formidable place in the whole school. Why couldn’t creepy things just hide in plain sight for once? Why the basement? You shudder briefly, then force yourself down through the floor until you’re standing just outside the basement door. You step forward, walking through the door, and suppress a silent scream when you see what’s inside.

When you suddenly jerk back to life in Peter’s arms, your friends look at you with startled eyes. “What is it? What did you see?” All you can do is clasp on to Peter, who’s still holding you tight. “Something is coming. Something bad.”

tag list: @dude-were-getting-the-band-back @xroselights @idiotic--punk

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ask-spider-man-61610 · 4 years ago

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So I think you’ve talked about your Doc Ock a bit on here... but have you ever encountered any other Ocks in other dimensions? How do they match up to yours?

Yes, I have. Doctor Octopus might not be exactly a universal constant, but it's certainly a common enough title that I've crossed paths with a fair number of them. I'm going to give a short little rundown of each of them, and why they should go to hell. This is gonna be a salty list. If you didn't want that, you should've come to someone else.

The Otto Octavius of Earth-1512 was the first alternate Ock I ever encountered. Unlike most of the Ocks on this list, I don't know or care what his deal is--I just spent an hour in my first ever alternate universe before I saw a man in armored green and yellow throwing cars around with mechanical tentacles. He was also working with the Green Goblin and holding civilians hostage at the time, which in my opinion is reason enough to put him in the ICU like I did. I've never been back to this universe and never will, but presumably he's just doing the same shit every month or so.

The Otto Octavius of Earth-8363, colloquially called God Ock because I guess we can't fucking help but stroke his ego, was the Ock I met during my first outing with what'd eventually be the Cluster. He's a weird edge case. First we fought a robotic duplicate of him, then his actual self after he'd done the dumbest thing I've ever seen an Ock do and integrated an extradimensional energy source into his fucking body in a bid for omnipotence. I suspect he was already basically dead when Gwen ripped the Shard out, but he had a backup personality on a secret hard drive and so we've met his AI self. He agrees it wasn't his smartest move. Still, fuck this guy. He apparently stabbed my alternate self in the back so he deserves what he got.

Oliver Octavius, of Earth-42711a, isn't a doctor. I refuse to call him Doctor Octopus, but he's calling himself that because he claims to be the son of Otto Octavius. Knowing Otto, I'm more than a little skeptical of that claim, but that doesn't change the fact that in a bid to be just like Daddy he dropped out of college to become a supervillain. When Melly noted that this plan was less than stellar he interpreted that as a personal betrayal and has sworn revenge on her. He's temperamental, idolizing of a man he's never met, and has an ego more fragile than sugar glass--and he's not even good at villainy. I walked into his lair, kicked his ass, and walked out again in less than five minutes. Oliver's pathetic. And he knows it, because he's scrambling to compensate with a desperation that anyone with half a brain can see is going to kill him very, very soon.

The Otto Octavius of Earth-22701 needs to fucking leave Morgan alone. The Peter Parker of that universe died like a century ago, and that Otto's engineered a way to stop aging so he doesn't even need to fight superheroes anymore. But no, he reads about a kid in New Orleans with my powers and decides that that's obviously his dead enemy having, I dunno, reincarnated or something. Instead of being the result of the spider-related experiments that he funded. I don't have a lot of respect for this Otto's intelligence. I've only met him in-person once, when I was going on the warpath and beating up everyone who's ever tried to kill Morgan, but for some reason having an actual Peter Parker knock two of his teeth out wasn't enough to deter him from his theory about Morgan being me. I'll try again as soon as I get a chance.

Odyssia Octavius, the Ock of Earth-777, is probably the least scientist and most mad of all the mad scientists here. Also the one who leans the hardest into the Octopus aesthetic, because alone among the Ocks she's a marine biologist. Now, unlike certain counterparts of mine I could mention, I actually don't give a fuck about her decision to serve an eldritch sea monster for power. Nor am I opposed to her overall goal--obviously we gotta save the environment, and obviously we're gonna have to fuck up some industries to make that happen. That's fine. My problems with her are more related to her habit of painfully twisting people she's got a grudge on into horrific monsters and then siccing said monsters on the populace. Even if that wasn't fucking abominable and evil beyond all recompense, it doesn't exactly convey the green message she's trying to go for. Maybe the Writhing One is modifying her logic to suit its own ends, using her as a puppet to get what it wants. Maybe she just fucking sucks. I've only ever spoken to her through the Internet, but if we ever meet face to face I'll be sure to ask which one it is right after I kick her ass and rip off big handfuls of that magic tattoo.

October Otto, the Doctor Octopus of Earth-2, is the only person in this list who I'm not inclined to attack on sight. It took me a little while to get to that point--when the me of Earth-2, Pax, introduced us I was pretty suspicious. But out of all the Ocks I've ever met, this is the only one who's not...nefarious. They're a little eccentric, more than a little shy, but overall a very well-meaning and selfless biologist. I'm glad I met them, even if their tentacles make me a little nauseous to think about. They and I still communicate occasionally, and after what happened to Pax I've been checking in with them to ask about their progress on a cure. This is one of the few people with whom I've ever felt the need to share my files on the Oz virus. I hope it does them good.

With the exception of October, all of these people are fucking awful. But none of them are as dangerous or as detestable as the Otto Octavius of Earth-61610.

The Otto I know is an unrivalled genius. His entire existence is devoted to biorobotics, and over the years he's integrated man and machine on a level that makes the Iron Man armor look like a remote-controlled action figure. He's modified his tentacles to counter my super speed, he's designed and redesigned a zillion different personal helpers, he's made himself the center of a technological superpower controlled solely by his mind. And unlike a lot of Ocks, he's not being manipulated by his tentacles. Nor was he driven insane by the accident that fused them to his body. No, this is a perfectly sane, rational prosthesis engineer who got so frustrated with the bounds of the law that he decided he had the right to start snapping necks.

He's a futurist, is the thing. A man with a grand vision of the technological utopia he could turn the world into, who thinks without a shadow of doubt that he knows what's best for the world and everyone in it, and who's decided that if you try to stop him from realizing that vision that the best thing to do is Remove you from the equation. Worse, he's written off massive swaths of the human race off as expendable--as little people whose lives are a perfectly acceptable sacrifice to bring about his future, who maybe even should be thanking him for the chance to finally mean something.

Every Octobot contains at least a few pieces of human brain. He kidnaps people, lobotomizes them, and integrates parts of their central nervous system into his systems to make his robots more adaptable and independent than purely mechanical systems could be. He's seeded mass-produced medicine with nanotech that hijacked the nervous system of the people who took it and turned them into unconscious parts of a worldwide neural network. On more than one occasion, he's tried to turn entire cities into his own personal laboratories, and everyone inside into lab rats.

Otto Octavius is a monster. No other Ock I've ever met even comes close.

#spider-man #specs #peter parker #ask #spidersona #earth-61610 #Otto Octavius #Doctor Octopus

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hale-13 · 3 years ago

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The Trouble with Tabloids

By Hale13 for @jenniboo311

“Oh look at this, this is a good one: ‘Some suggest that Parker’s powers include the male spider’s ability to hypnotize females.”

“Stop, c’mon,” Peter says back, slightly irritated at her teasing.

“Yes my Spider-Lord,” MJ says, dropping her voice in pitch and, against his will he starts chuckling. It makes him feel lighter and calmer and warm.

“Can we just like sit up here all day? It is so crazy down there.”

MJ hums and flicks over to the next page, still skimming. “I mean we could,” she says, neutral. “But would it really help anything?”

MJ reads the Daily Bugle and Peter is an nervous mess about returning to school after his identity is reveled to the world.

Words: 5313, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandom: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)

Relationships: Peter Parker/Michelle Jones, Peter & May, Peter & Ned

Read on AO3 or below line break

“Does any part of you feel relieved about all this?” Michelle is curled up on her side, the half priced Christmas twinkle lights she picked up off a dusty shelf when they went thrift shopping a few months ago hung up haphazardly behind her. They make the edges of her hair glow red and throw strange and beautiful shadows across her face. Peter is almost too distracted looking at her to register her question.

“What do you mean?” His voice quiet and questioning. His living room is completely dark – his face lit only by his phone screen where he holds is just above his chest.

MJ’s face scrunches a little and she readjusts her head on the pillow, a few stray fractals of light bouncing off the broken black dahlia necklace and painting rainbows onto the wall and ceiling. “Now that everybody knows you don’t really have to hide or lie to people.”

Peter feels his hackles rise just a little at that comment but he’s too tired and burnt out to really be upset. He feels like he’s been fighting for years even though its only been a few weeks since Beck outed him to the world. His head pulsates with the starts of a headache and he just sighs. “For the record,” despite his desire to sound neutral his voice has a bit of an edge, “I never wanted to lie to you. But how do you tell someone that you’re Spider-Man?”

MJ hums noncommittally, it’s the sound she makes when she disagrees or has strong feelings about something in particular but doesn’t feel like arguing – he’s sure it will come up later and that her opinion will probably be correct. It makes him feel thankful and pissed simultaneously but he takes a deep breath and tries to let it go. Anger seems to be his default emotion these days. Anger and frustration and a dash of hopelessness. “Are you ready for tomorrow?” MJ asks, changing the subject abruptly and Peter settles a little more firmly into the ancient couch that May picked up from one of their neighbors. It groans under him.

“Sure,” he replies with a bit of a crooked smile that he can tell doesn’t reach his eyes – the little image in the bottom of his screen that shows his reflection makes him look pale and washed out and so so tired. No wonder May had been hovering so much recently. “I’ve always wanted to try and balance being a well known vigilante while going to high school.”

MJ chuckles and gives him a fond smile. The school year technically started a few weeks ago but Peter has been on unofficial home arrest while the NYPD and FBI and the freaking UN sorted out what to do with him. The unaltered footage from EDITH along with the character witness statements and testimonials from Happy and the newly returned to Earth Nick Fury (shape-shifting aliens what the fuck?) made it clear quickly that he was innocent but just opened the door for a whole host of other problems.

Like a large portion of conspiracy theorists still saying he killed Beck and that the government was covering it up. Or the fact that his address had gotten leaked and people had camped outside with signs or support or hatred and he and May had needed to move somewhere new. Or how Ned had been accosted by a crazy Fox News journalist on his way home from school one day.

That had made Peter see red and it was only May and Happy taking his web-shooters and phone and nearly restraining him that kept him from leaving to do something he would probably (maybe) regret later.

Jimmy Woo, the FBI agent over his case, had advised him to just lay low while the local and worldwide organizations hashed everything out. Peter was still too young to sign the Sokovia Accords but they couldn’t have him running around and ‘causing untold destruction’ in other countries. And, well, the NYPD still wasn’t his biggest fan when it came to the low-to-the-ground and neighborhood problems he liked to deal with.

As it was, he was now allowed to continue being Spider-Man in New York City but he would need special permission from local governments to act anywhere else. This suited Peter just fine; he would rather not leave home anytime soon after his last ‘vacation’ and Spider-Man was a Queens hero anyway. The clock on his phone ticked over to one in the morning just as his battery bar turned red.

“Hey,” Michelle said, pulling his attention back to her. She gave him a tired smile and pulled her blanket up higher on her shoulder. “We’ll be there with you the whole time.”

“I know,” Peter whispered, fingering the stitching of the t-shirt he had stolen from his girlfriend and was wearing. It still had just a bit of her scent that he could probably only pick up due to his enhanced senses and it made his chest feel a little full. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“You will,” MJ said, ending the call and leaving Peter alone. The shadows that stretched across the walls from his dim phone light looked foreboding and he stared at them until his screen went dim. He really should get up and go to bed. He should pack his book bag. He should definitely charge his phone.

Instead, Peter creeps to his room and shimmies into his suit, jumping out his window into the cool night. ———————————————

Peter crawled back through his window just before his alarm goes off at six, tired and sweaty and still freaking out a little but feeling marginally better now that some of his nervous energy was gone. May is sitting at their little kitchen table nursing a cup of coffee in her robe and looking just as exhausted as he feels. He can tell she knows that he’s been out all night but he’s thankful she chooses not to say anything as he makes his walk of shame to their cramped single bathroom to shower.

When he emerges about twenty minutes later with damp hair and layered up in his favorite flannel shirt and a plain white t-shirt May has brewed another pot of coffee and has a stack of toast and jam on the table and his heart clenches. Toast and jam has always been his go-to for mornings where his anxiety is at an all time high and his stomach is twisting and he wraps his arms around May’s shoulders from behind in a fierce hug and tucks his face into her neck like he’s a little kid again. May gives him a kiss on the temple and lets him soak in some comfort from her before she shoos him over to his seat to eat.

They both sit in silence; Peter munching on his toast and drinking black coffee full of sugar to perk him up and May nursing her own cup and staring at the wall. May’s knee bumps against his when she scoots a little closer and he can feel a little bit more of the tension leak out of him – as long as he still has her he’s okay. No matter what happens with school and Spider-Man and the Avengers he has May.

“I’m so proud of you,” May tells him a few minutes later as he’s chewing on his last piece of toast and Peter can feel the tears pooling in the corners of his eyes but he refuses to cry. He sniffs and coughs, choking on emotion and May scoots her chair over more to pull him into a hug and he just lets himself be held for a minute.

“I love you,” he tells her, leaning into the hug for just another second before pulling away. May smiles, her own eyes watery and she fidgets with his hair, smoothing out the wild curls and fixing his collar. He knows she hears everything else he’s trying to say: I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I didn’t want this.

“I love you too,” she says; It’s okay, its not your fault. “I have the next week off so if you need me for anything – and I mean anything – I want you to call me okay? I’ll come get you.”

Peter nods even though he would never call her to come bail him out and goes to the sink to rinse his cup and brush the crumbs off his plate. “I know May and I will, I promise.” Liar. The knock at the door interrupts them and Peter glances at the clock; its later than he thought. May bites her lip like she’s waffling on saying more but relents and goes to answer it. He can hear her greeting MJ and Ned, can hear the brushing of clothes as she hugs them both and Peter takes just a moment for himself. He closes his eyes and takes a fortifying breath – in through his nose and out through his mouth – and straightens his spine, squares his shoulders.

He can do this.

And he’s does. He’s fine as he slinks out of his building (the first time leaving as Peter Parker since his arrest and meeting with multiple government organizations and moving) and down the steps to slide into Happy’s car with Ned and MJ on either side of him. Ned is wearing the ridiculous letterman jacket from Acadec that he spent way too much money on and MJ is wearing a dark blazer he’s never seen before but instantly loves. He would probably love everything she wore to be honest.

“Hey kid,” Happy says. He looks completely unruffled in his usual dark suit and tie but Peter can hear his heart beating faster than usual as he double and triple checks his mirrors before pulling away from the curb. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Peter says but his voice is all wrong and he clears his throat to try to get rid of the lump that’s formed there unsuccessfully. Michelle slips her hand in his and squeezes tightly and Ned presses their sides together in a quick moment of support on his other side.

Ned’s phone buzzes against Peter’s leg and he fishes it out, unlocking it and reading through the message before typing a short reply. “Flash is meeting us out front,” he says. And that, probably, had been the biggest surprise from this whole identity reveal mess but it probably shouldn’t have been. When they had come back from the blip, fifteen kids out of their class of forty-three, they had come to an understanding.

The apology and forgiveness had gone unsaid between them but, suddenly, Flash wasn’t as terrible to be around. There was still some ribbing and snarky commentary but nothing to the intensity of before. No more ‘Penis Parker’ no tripping him in the halls or pushing him into lockers like before.

If the Blip had done one thing it was reset everyone’s preconceived notions and priorities.

After Beck had released his heavily doctored video, Flash had practically beat down Ned’s door and asked how he could help. With his large Twitter, Instagram and TikTok following, he had been able to help get the word out about local protests and had been the person behind #NY❤️sSpidey and #PeterParkerisInnocent trending on twitter for multiple days.

Peter had uninstalled all social media from his phone weeks ago to protect his sanity and had basically only been texting May, MJ, Ned and Happy but he really appreciated the sentiment and had dropped in on Flash when he was in the park the other day as Spider-Man to say a quick ‘thank you’ as he patrolled. Flash had looked stunned and excited in equal measure but had offered a scoff and a fist bump that Peter gladly returned before swinging off.

“Well shit,” Happy muttered as he turned into Midtown drawing Peter out of his thoughts.

The school was a madhouse – news trucks were lining the perimeter, their cameras and newscasters being careful to not step onto school property and under close watch from the scattering of NYPD and SRO on the scene. That was fine, they had expected that.

What Peter had not expected, what no one had prepared for, was the literal mob of protestors with signs and banners and t-shirts screaming and chanting behind a series of guardrails that fringed the path up to the school. His classmates were walking up the path mostly unmolested and filming and taking pictures, some of them lingering around the front entrance or on the steps or surrounding lawn as they watched in fascination. A couple were enthusiastically talking to a cluster of cameras and reporters near the subway entrance.

“How did they know I was coming back to school today?” Peter asks, mouth and throat dry and making his voice croak.

“Someone must have slipped it,” MJ says, not sounding surprised. There had been a school wide assembly the Friday before where Principal Morita had announced Peter’s imminent return and had put some ground rules in place – don’t treat him like a zoo animal, no crowding the halls, no harassment – but Peter didn’t really expect anyone to listen. He’d had his own meeting with May and Morita via Zoom a couple weeks before to hammer out the details of his continued education at Midtown and his tardy and absence policy. The man has assured him that he would do everything he could to keep Peter’s school experience as normal as possible which had bolstered May’s confidence but Peter had known it was more of an empty promise than anything else.

“It’s fine Pete,” Ned said. “They can’t do anything to us.”

Happy met his eyes in the rear view mirror and raised a questioning brow and Peter gave a shake of his head. He wasn’t going to back out now, besides, the car had been spotted and multiple cameras were pointed in his direction and the mob was screaming and waving their signs even more aggressively now.

Happy pulled to a slow stop in front of the path and put the car in park. “I can have them removed if you want,” he offered. “Or find a back entrance? You don’t have to deal with them Pete.”

Peter looked at the crowd again and gnawed at his already ragged lip. “It’s okay. It’ll just make it worse if I try to avoid them.”

Happy muttered something about self-flagellation under his breath with a fond eye roll but didn’t fight him. “Just don’t say anything,” he advises. “Don’t look at them and don’t say anything. Just keep walking until you’re in the school okay? I’ll be here right at four-thirty to pick you up after decathlon.”

“Thanks Happy,” Peter says, trading seats with Michelle so that he’ll be the first to emerge from the car and tightening his backpack straps. He wishes he had his red and black suit with him instead of the Iron Spider in its housing units on his wrists – the weight, minuscule as it is, is always comforting on his back. He wishes he was wearing his mask. He wishes he could just be plain Peter Parker again. He takes a deep, fortifying breath and opens the door.

The angry roar of the crowd when they see him nearly deafens him and he fights the urge to cover his ears and protect his sensitive hearing. Flash materializes out of nowhere to stand staunchly at his side as MJ slips out of the car, clearly nervous but ignoring the mass of people and grabbing his hand. “Nice hair Eugene,” she teases as Ned joins them and closes the door. Flash rolls his eyes at her and pushes his shockingly blonde fringe out of his eyes.

“You wish you could pull this off,” he offers in response and her smile becomes more genuine at the ribbing.

“Maybe red,” she muses, adjusting her own bag on her shoulder before she starts to walk up the sidewalk.

The path is only wide enough for them to walk two by two and MJ pulls him closer and holds his hand tighter as they face the school. Peter tries to ignore the signs and screams as he walks resolutely toward the door but he can’t completely block them out, especially after seeing a blown up copy of his year book photo with devil horns calling him a murderer. The woman holding it, wearing a t-shirt with a similar message and a button with Mysterio’s helmet on it, spews even more vitriol when she sees him look her direction. Her face is red and angry and Peter redirects his attention back to the school.

His classmates crowd the stairs and most of them have their phones out to livestream him coming to school. He feels like a bug pinned under glass and he can feel his breath speed up in his chest but he tries not to show it. Ben had always told him that he was an open book and that anyone could read his every thought on his face. It had been funny back then but now Peter just wishes that it was anything but true.

It, unfortunately, doesn’t get any better inside. The halls are lined with curious teenagers and teachers alike who all watch him walk down the hall and film him and get way too close for comfort. Morita had told him that he can’t, technically, enforce the no phone rule before school officially starts for the day and after it ends so Peter will have to deal with it.

His locker is also, unfortunately, down a completely different hall than Ned, MJ and Flash’s so they have to separate if they plan on being on time for home room. He’ll meet Ned there but he won’t see the other two until second period and he has first period, APUSH, completely alone. It’s almost enough to send him over the edge.

“I can walk with you,” Ned offers, adjusting his bag but Peter just shakes his head. He can do this. He has to do this.

The heckling gets worse once the others leave and his classmates get bolder – pushing into his space and taking selfies with him and asking invasive questions. He’s never been popular and he’s always been ignored and its just getting to be too much but at least he understands why some celebrities go off the deep end and straight up punch paparazzi now.

He makes quick work of getting his locker open and stowing his extra notebooks and gym bag before hassling in the direction of his home room. Ned meets up with him halfway there, a little out of breath from clearly rushing to meet him and pushing through the crowd, and the groupies back off a little once he’s around and forming a barrier between them and Peter. Ms. Warren glances at them from her desk when they enter and her eyes linger on Peter a little longer than normal but she otherwise ignores them and Peter feels honestly faint in relief.

“Dude,” Ned tells him as he slips into the seat to Peter’s right at the scratched up black lab table. Peter groans and drops his head onto his crossed arms, not really knowing how to respond. “At least you have Dell for APUSH – he won’t put up with any shit in his class.”

“Yeah,” Peter responds. “Lucky.”

Ned winces and goes to say something else but the bell rings and the school morning newscast starts playing on the TV. Ms. Warren turns it up just as Betty Brant says “This morning our very own Midtown Avenger joined us back in classes. In case you missed it, Jason and I were live on the scene for his-,”

Peter crammed his headphones in and turned on the white noise to drown out the sound of the newscast and pointedly ignored Ned’s sympathetic looks and Ms. Warren who looked at his headphones in blatant disapproval but didn’t ask him to take them out. Thank God.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he peeked at the message coming through – a single eye rolling emoji from MJ followed by Must be a slow news day. He smiled despite himself and tucked the phone back away just as the bell rang.

His first class alone was a nightmare – Mr. Dell had assigned them all seats and had put Peter front and center in what was, probably, an effort to keep his classmates for hassling him too much and keep everyone’s attention on what he was teaching and not on Peter. It didn’t really work since people kept taking sneaky Snapchat pictures and videos of him under their desks when Mr. Dell’s back was turned. Peter set his jaw and tried to ignore it but he knew he would have to borrow Ned’s notes if he even hoped at passing the class.

His AP English class was a little better since he had both Ned and MJ with him but Mr. Harrington who was, arguably, his favorite teacher and one that had, apparently, really gone to bat for him against the PTO and school board so that he could keep his scholarship and go to school, was a little oblivious. His classmates were even more bold and blatant and he was clenching his jaw so much he thought his teeth might break.

“Come with me,” MJ said, pulling him out of his desk right as the bell rang and rushing out the door.

“Where are we going?” Peter asked, stumbling after her as she pulled him toward one of the stock rooms, pushing him in and closing and locking the door behind them.

“To the roof,” she answered, standing on an overturned bucket to open up the small window. Peter blinked in surprise.

“But you have art this hour.”

“And you have a free period,” MJ said like it was obvious, hopping off the bucket and herding him to the window. “Ms. Goode loves me anyway so she won’t care if I miss a class. Hurry up and get sticky.”

Peter let out a bark of a laugh and climbed up the wall, pulling Michelle through the window after him and carefully avoiding the classrooms and front of the building until they reached the roof. The sun was bright and warm on his skin and he laid on his back just reveling in the silence. “This is nice,” he said, catching the book MJ dropped before it hit his stomach without opening his eyes and positioning it behind his head as a pillow. She settled in next to him, rustling with some paper and he cracked open one eye to glance at her. “What is that?”

“The Daily Bugle,” she answered, flicking through a couple pages and skimming the words, ignoring as Peter choked on his own saliva and fell into a coughing fit.

“You’re actually reading that garbage? You know what they’re saying about me right? Jameson keeps calling me a ‘Spider-Menace like that even makes sense-.”

“It’s actually pretty hilarious,” she said interrupting his tirade and stopping her flicking to read through a page. “Oh look at this, this is a good one: ‘Some suggest that Parker’s powers include the male spider’s ability to hypnotize females.”

“Stop, c’mon,” Peter says back, slightly irritated at her teasing.

“Yes my Spider-Lord,” MJ says, dropping her voice in pitch and, against his will he starts chuckling. It makes him feel lighter and calmer and warm.

“Can we just like sit up here all day? It is so crazy down there.”

MJ hums and flicks over to the next page, still skimming. “I mean we could,” she says, neutral. “But would it really help anything?”

Peter sighs and flops over on his stomach to beat his head gently into the book. “Probably not.” His stomach growls and he sighs – at least lunch is next. MJ’s hand skims down his neck to sit in the small of his back.

“I can think of something that could take your mind off it,” she says lightly and Peter feels his cheeks heat just a little but rolls his head over to smirk at her.

“Do tell.”

She gives him a little smile of her own before poking him until he moves enough for her to perch on his lap. He curls block out the sun and she’s at just the perfect height for him to lean forward and pull her into kiss.

They slip back into the window of the stock room just before the bell rings to end third period with their lips swollen and their hair a little more messy than it was before but with bright smiles and less tense muscles. Peter keeps his ear to the door and waits for the hallway to clear before they slip out and make their way to the lunch room.

Both of them had brought lunch so it was easier to creep in unnoticed through the side door and join Ned and Flash in the back corner of the cafeteria. It didn’t take too long before their classmates started murmuring and pointing and, despite the numerous warnings from various administrators and the fact that five of the sophomore level teachers were seated at their own table near the front of the room, many of the students took notice of their sudden appearance and were attempting to take surreptitious pictures and videos of them on phones hidden under tables and halfway in hoodie pockets. Peter felt his ears turn red as he ducked his head closer to the table and nearly into his sandwich. MJ glared at the table closest to them and the few girls seated there at least had the decency to look ashamed though they didn’t tuck their phones away.

“So this is fun,” Flash muttered as he picked at the flavorless and congealed school spaghetti on his tray. His normal table of friends and groupies were seated a few tables away and looking at him with jealously. Awkward silence followed his deadpan grumbling and Peter shifted uncomfortably.

Michelle rolled her eyes and snorted indelicately before glancing at Peter with clear mischief in her eyes and slapping her copy of the Daily Bugle on the table before flipping it open to a page she had earmarked. Peter groaned and dropped his head to thunk on the table dramatically as MJ said “ Did you know that Peter can hypnotize females with his spider powers?”

Ned snorted so abruptly some of the water he was drinking dribbled out his nose causing him to cough and gag and Flash to thump him on the back. “Oh my God,” Ned said reverently, touching the gossip rag and cradling it like it was special as his eyes darted across the page. “This is the best thing I’ve ever seen. I need to get this framed!”

Peter whined and thumped his head on the table a few more times. “Yo Parker, this says you lay eggs,” Flash pointed out, skimming the edge of the page where a bullet pointed lists of ‘Fun Facts!’ were.

“I don’t lay eggs!” Peter groaned out in dismay, giving MJ his best betrayed look. She ignored his misery as she gleefully looked at the paper upside down to read the other inaccurate facts listed about him. “This is abuse,” he muttered, trying to pull the paper away from Ned but failing as his friend dodged and Flash batted his hands away.

“Does your ability to hypnotize only work on females? What exactly is the process?” Ned teased, voice shaking in mirth. “Wait! Wait what do you make them call you? Master of the Spiders? Arachnid King?”

“Spider Lord,” MJ provided with a shit-eating grin that had Flash and Ned sputtering with laughter and drawing even more attention their way.

“Oh come on,” Peter begged. “Don’t let anyone hear you or they’ll believe it!”

“Of course Spider Lord,” Flash intoned with barely concealed glee causing Ned and MJ to cackle more.

“You’re all the worst,” Peter told them without heat. To be honest this was the best he had felt all day – he hardly noticed the extra stares and muttering anymore. The bell announcing the end of their lunch rang and he hurried to cram the rest of his sandwich in his mouth as quickly as possible; they all had to hurry since they had gym and had to change before the tardy bell rang in ten minutes.

The heckling continued up until they split off to enter different locker rooms and Peter abruptly clenched his jaw as he realized the majority of his class was not only early to class to change but also waiting in the locker room and looking busy while they waited for him. Ned shot him a wince as he ducked into one of the stalls to change. Peter could feel the eyes following him as he did the same.

“Come on Parker,” he told himself as he took a few moments to center himself. “It’s just gym. You’ve done it a hundred times. This time’s no different.” He took as much time as possible to change, only sneaking out just before the bell rang and the majority of the room emptied.

MJ had saved them seats a bit away from the rest of the class and Peter squeezed between her and Ned, taking her hand and giving it a soft squeeze. Coach Wilson, looking particularly bored, was lugging a couple bags of foam balls from the locked equipment closet and Peter felt his stomach turn with dread. He detested dodgeball.

“You know the drill,” Coach Wilson drowned from the middle of the court. “Split in half, game starts on my whistle. Not you Parker,” he called over the din of talking and scuffing tennis shoes. “New PTA rules – you can watch and do individual work but no more team or contact sports.”

Peter felt his face flush again as he lowered himself back into his seat as the class broke out into louder conversations around him. Ned clapped him on the shoulder and said “Don’t worry about it man,” and Peter opened his mouth with the intent to thank or reassure his friend that he was okay but Ned, taking advantage and wearing a smirk, loudly went directly for the kill. “Besides, its unbecoming of a Spider Lord to comport himself like one of us mere plebes.”

Flash promptly tripped down the stairs and barely caught himself from falling on his face and breaking his nose on the floor, MJ had to sit back down to get herself under control as the rest of their class just stared at them with confused looks on their faces.

“I can’t believe you’ve done this,” Peter told Ned seriously causing his friends to break out into laughter again. If you can’t beat ‘em right?

“You’ve been an awfully good sport about this,” MJ told him later, leaning against a neighboring locker as he packed his bag and grabbed his decathlon binder. He shot her a questioning glance as he zipped up his bag. “The Spider Lord thing. It doesn’t actually bother you right? Because Ned already changed your name in the group chat and I’d hate to hurt his feelings by changing it again.”

“No its fine,” Peter reassured her. “It’s a little funny.” He slammed his locker shut and took her hand, “We’re going to be late Captain,” he told her, walking in the direction of the library. And maybe it didn’t bother him but it didn’t stop the wheels from turning. The attention rankled and he just wanted to go back to being Peter Parker again, to be completely anonymous.

He may know a guy who could help with that – it would only take a quick trip to Bleeker Street.

#spiderman #identityrevealbingo2021 #no way home #nwh spoilers #writing prompt #spideychelle #spider lord #that feel when your friends roast you #but in a good way

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lovelyparkers · 4 years ago

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heartless {teaser}

coming soon and it’s a looong one so i’m giving y’all a teaser!!! it’s pretty much all introductory stuff so anyways...

super!reader / ex-avenger!reader

summary: leaving the avengers was one of the greatest decisions you ever made. now you can fight recklessly and put away bad guys your way. you don’t play around when it comes to assholes or criminals, zero sympathy, and sometimes it lands you in the worst of places. queue your best friend peter parker, who constantly bails you out and misses you dearly. he worries about you constantly and thinks you are far too extreme. but you can’t help it, you’re heartless.

warnings: *inhales* fighting/mentions of agression, crime, arrests, cursing, blood, police, concerned!peter, angst and fluff if u squint (also i have no idea how bail actually works besides in movies so don't come 4 me)

after being with the avengers for several years, you said your goodbyes on your eighteenth birthday, securing an apartment of your own while floating between two jobs. one as an early morning waitress at a diner, and the other catching criminals, skips, and general grade-A new york city assholes. the avengers were too soft for you, sure they fought dirty but only with the famous guys. you knew there were stragglers out there doing much more damage on the daily. you enjoyed small picture city-wide criminal catching things and not so much worldwide disagreements with the government. so now that you were an adult, you could live on your own and protect more people in a day than the avengers might in months.

it wasn't like you completely ghosted the team, you were still in contact with them. natasha came to visit often and there were phone calls every other day along with text messages from the beloved spider-man, the awkward peter parker. everyday, at least once in the morning and once in the evening, you received a text from him, wanting to see how you were doing and just to talk to you. it's been months since you moved out and he does not let up. and you couldn't deny that you liked it.

you've known the boy since you were sixteen, worked with him every so often, got to know him well...needless to say, he was a great guy. you enjoyed his company too, only tolerating the rest of the avengers, well, besides nat. he was clingy. when he first arrived you showed him the ropes of all happenings at the compound and most of the time he just followed you around, talked to you, and sometimes just watched you train. he thought you were an incredibly interesting person. overly strong, precise, and skilled in literally any type of combat. you had flawless coordination and adoptive muscle memory; you could copy anyone's movements perfectly and you were always one step ahead.

so watching you fight and take note of your opponents moves made you a literal machine, they were basically fighting themselves. you have taken down steve rogers several times, amazing peter. though peter has never once fought you or trained alongside you, he doesn't know your full potential. peter thinks he is good, but you're better.

when you left, peter was shocked and kind of hurt. he thought the two of you got along well and was surprised to see you just up and leave like that. but he respected you and your decision, though it sucked that he couldn't see you often. you lived on the other side of the city and most of the contact you two had was texting or an occasional facetime. and the one or seven times that peter came to 'visit' with natasha. and by visit, they came to bail you out of jail.

yes, jail. you were not a known avenger like everyone else, again, unsung hero! so you couldn't just get off the hook with the goddamn police like tony could. it wasn't like you were doing anything 'bad' of the sorts, you were just catching bad guys to protect people and to just have fun and fight without hold back from the avengers. you fought rough and didn't let down ever, you had zero sympathy. it was a great life honestly, but you hated the police. you would catch a bad guy, beat them up a whole lot, some bystander would call the cops and the both of you would be arrested. usually the bad guy is charged and stays locked up and you call bail right away and can be out of there in at least two hours. you're known at the local station and get left off pretty easily, but you still get arrested for minor misdemeanors every so often.

natasha and peter would bail you out every single time too. and she would give you a small thirty second lecture about being smarter in fighting and getting away while peter just asks you many questions and is concerned. then the two of them will go back with you to your place, chat, complain, and hug it all out until the next time you need them to bail you out.

currently, you were on a great no-arrest streak. it's been a good few weeks since your last bail for a fight in a candle shop that did not go very well but we won't go into that right now. your days consisted of waking up to go to work from 7 am to 5 pm and from then on you would go out and roam the streets, looking for skips and a good fight.

you were walking into work at the diner this morning while talking on the phone with peter, catching up. it was very early and you had a no idea why he would be up and full of energy to talk to you, but you talked. he knew why. he missed you.

#peter parker imagine #peter parker #peter parker x reader #peter parker imagines #avenger!reader #avenger!reader x peter parker

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lilacmoon83 · 4 years ago

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Finding You Always

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

Chapter 236: Fireflies

The fire could be seen reflecting in Jekyll's eyes, as he was just a few feet from escape, but he lurched and looked down to find Charming's blade protruding from his chest. He landed on his feet, just at the edge and turned around, looking at him in shock. He saw the blackness slowly spider webbing from his wound and started to see the ash flaking from his body.

"No...this can't be! You can't defeat me!" Jekyll cried, as he lurched again and the blade returned to David's hand.

"I just did," the Prince stated.

"You're done...and you're never going to hurt my wife again, let alone haunt her," David assured him.

"The Chalice absorbed the Olympian crystal long ago. No Underworld, no afterlife, nothing...you just stop existing and we rest easy, knowing that not even your soul can cause harm to anyone ever again," he continued. Jekyll tried to charge at the Prince again, but the white fire from the Chalice sword consumed him in a brilliant flash. He screamed briefly, as he was destroyed and his cries were swiftly squelched, as was his existence.

"And that is the end of the video that has more than fifty million views, worldwide. That tiny clip alone has double that, worldwide. It's action packed, it gets the heart racing, in more ways than one, and people seem enthralled by it to the point of obsession," Goldie said into her mic, as she conducted her latest live podcast. They had spent a pretty penny in the last year on the best equipment, including a high end VPN, to hide their location. They weren't wanted in the Land Without Magic, per say, but it was no secret that they were and they knew some idiot fans would only be too happy to make a citizen arrest if they might get the attention of the Charming family, who had gone mostly dark since the namesake of their family had killed the insane monster known as Dr. Jekyll.

On her show though, she was not playing the clip to celebrate it. But instead, she was playing it to continue to push her fear narrative. Her numbers were significant, as some out there did see the danger of a family with so much power.

"But if this one man, combined with his wife, has this much power...how can any of us truly ever feel safe? He could wipe us out even more easily than he did Dr. Jekyll. And he has sired five children that are potentially even stronger than him," she continued.

"Five children that can control the weather...and lay waste to an entire city with one conjured storm," she added.

"And I'm sure some might argue that the beloved Charmings would never do that...because they're good. But most of those same people have read the book and know that Snow and Charming have gone dark before. What is preventing that from happening again? Or preventing one of their kids from turning evil as well?" she said.

"If tragedy struck any one of them...what would stop them from lashing out with vengeance in their pain? If you've read the book...then you know that's what happened to the Evil Queen. She didn't just wake up and decide to be evil. She lost the man she loved and thousands died for it," she continued.

"What would stop Charming from doing the same if he lost his beloved Snow or Snow if she lost her Charming?" she asked, as she read the chat and smirked.

"I see many agree with me...but none of us know what exactly we can do about it. However, you'll be happy to know that there are those out there that are trying to see to our safety," she said.

"They are trying to develop a solution to this problem, but can only do so with the help of the people. And it's being done with your donations. With your donations, we can fight this fight," Goldie said.

"So donate today, share this podcast far and wide, and know that you're doing something to secure our future. Until next time," she said, ending the stream and taking off her headphones.

While it was true that they had spent most of what they had to get set up and lived the first few weeks in a crappy motel, it wasn't long before they were approached by an investor.

Amelia Blaine, owner of several billion dollar retail chains nation and worldwide, offered to fund them if they continued to push their fear narrative, with the stipulation that there was a solution. A vague, yet plausible one and help them build a citizen militia, without the citizens even realizing they were being radicalized. It was a common military tactic, so they weren't too surprised to learn that Ms. Blaine answered to a man named General Mendoza. They hadn't met him yet, but knew he was the man that Major Patricia Donovan had once worked for and then betrayed in favor of the Charmings.

Mendoza had gone almost as dark as the Charmings had in the last year and was working on ways to bring them down. This one was just one plan and Ms. Blaine even let it slip that they were working on ways to combat or even destroy magic. Goldie didn't know if that was possible, but she and Grimm were all in and used her podcast and his blog as a megaphone to put fear into people about the Charmings, the United Realms, and magic in general. In return, they were paid incredibly well and their equipment was upgraded to state of the art. They now lived in an expensive New York penthouse apartment and enjoyed all the luxuries.

"You really think General Mendoza and his team can find a way to destroy magic?" Grimm asked. She smirked.

"I don't know...but if they can, I'm going to enjoy watching the United Realms burn and the Charmings suffering," she replied. He smirked back.

"I'd bring marshmallows to that bonfire," he agreed.

"How are the numbers tonight?" she asked.

"About four thousand live on the biggest platform. Less, but significant on the smaller ones and we always get good numbers on replays," he replied.

"And the Truest podcast?" she asked, knowing that Eva Charming had streamed earlier that night.

"Let's not do that to ourselves," he replied.

"I want to know her numbers," Goldie demanded. He winced.

"On the largest platform...she had twenty-thousand live and her replay numbers are already climbing past our live count," he revealed, ready for the coming tirade, as Goldie let out a frustrated yell.

"Why!? Why is everyone so enamored with that prissy little upstart!?" she raged.

"She's not even a real journalist!" Goldie complained.

"Yeah...but she's their daughter. You shouldn't be surprised," he said.

"We have to get our numbers up…" Goldie said.

"I agree," Amelia Blaine said, as she arrived with her bodyguards.

"You can't just barge in here whenever you want," Goldie said.

"Oh, but I can since I pay the mortgage on this place," Amelia replied.

"Your live numbers tonight are dismal, at best," she added.

"What do you expect? Most people salivate over that damned family. Not many want to tune in and hear us talk crap about them," Grimm reminded her.

"I'm aware, Mr. Grimm. Even less people read your pitiful blog," she said. He glared at her, but was silent.

"What do you want us to do?" Goldie asked in frustration.

"You're hyper focused on the parents. Start going after the kids. Stoke fear about the children," she suggested.

"Snow and Charming are ignoring you. They're seasoned at this and don't care what people say or think about them. The children on the other hand will elicit a reaction and one we might be able to exploit if done right," she said. Goldie smirked.

"That I can do...and I'll enjoy it," the blonde agreed.

"Let's hope you do well...the General isn't impressed by your numbers at all. If you don't improve, this posh little lifestyle goes away and you're on the street," Amelia warned, as she left with her goons.

"So...who are you going to focus on first?" Grimm asked. Goldie smirked.

"Who else? Emma has interacted in this world more than any of their kids. She's got plenty to exploit and it will drive mommy and daddy Charming crazy," she said. He smirked.

"Indeed it will," he agreed.

"But we won't stop there. The twins will be next, then the youngest ones. By the end, Mama Snow will be at our door ready to rip my head off and I'll get it all on tape,"

"And the General will be ready to trap them both when they come," he agreed.

~*~

Rose and Fandral turned on the inter realm communication system that Sif had provided for them. Rose and Sif actually communicated on a regular basis, but it had been a while and she hadn't seen the twins yet.

"Good morning Sif," Rose greeted. She smiled.

"Good morning to both of you...I apologize for being out of communication for a while, but much has happened here recently," she said.

"Really?" Fandral asked. She nodded.

"It's a lot though and there have been many developments. Thor is leaving Earth soon...but not before the funeral," she replied.

"Funeral? Who has passed?" Rose asked.

"Well, I'm afraid Natasha is gone...but so is Mr. Stark," she replied, stunning them.

"Like I said, much has happened, though some of it is very good. Natasha and Tony are the reason that much of it is wonderful news. But I would rather explain everything in person," she said.

"Things are safe here now. I was hoping you could visit and so was Thor...before he leaves," she added. Rose smiled.

"Things are quiet here...I don't see why not and the kids would love it," she said. Fandral smiled and nodded.

"We'll contact Hermes and make all the necessary arrangements to be away. Zorro can more than handle things around here for a few days," Fandral said. Sif smiled.

"That's wonderful...and I can't wait to meet these two in person," she replied, as she spotted the twin babies in their arms.

"And Astrid and Gunnar can't wait to meet their Aunty Sif and Uncle Thor either," Rose replied.

"Strong Asgardian names...I will see you all soon," Sif said, as the transmission winked out.

"Poor Natasha…" Rose said sadly.

"I know...she helped us much when Seth banished us. I am glad we are going to honor her," Fandral replied. She nodded.

"Well, we should go tell the kids and pack. We have a lot to do in just a couple hours," she replied. He nodded, as they took the babies back upstairs to prepare.

~*~

Bobby closed his locker and slung his backpack over his shoulder, before meandering toward the direction of his first class of the day. Being normal definitely had its advantages and being back in school on a regular basis was nice. He would never be normal, even in a place like Storybrooke, but he had plenty of friends and was definitely enjoying the peace.

"Morning Bobby," Zia said, as she and Olivia rounded the corner to meet him.

"Morning," he said, as he joined hands with the dark haired girl. He was aware that both had a crush on him, shortly after he resumed his freshman year last year, but any romantic feelings he had were for Zia. Olivia understood and she was still good friends with them both. He saw the banner being hung up for Winter Formal that weekend and looked at her. Olivia smiled at them and went into the classroom.

"I'll make myself scarce," the blonde said.

"Well...that was subtle," Zia mentioned. He chuckled.

"I'm not sure I could be subtle myself even...tact is not something Charmings are known for, so you wanna go to the dance?" he asked. She smiled and nodded.

"I'd love to," she agreed.

"Okay...but I have to warn you that my Mom is going to go all out and take like a gazillion photos, so just prepare for being blinded by camera flashes," he joked. She giggled.

"I love your Mom and I'm prepared for our upcoming photo shoot," she teased back, as they went into the classroom and the bell rang.

~*~

After morning training with James and his father, David did a quick patrol around Storybrooke since Emma had taken the morning off and then stopped at Granny's for takeout. He arrived at Snow's office and nodded politely to her receptionist, who still got a little awestruck and blushed every time she saw him. He winced though, as he heard his wife raise her voice through the door.

"Meeting with the heads of state?" he asked. Chloe, the receptionist, nodded.

"Midas insists on arguing with her...I don't know why, because he never wins," she replied. He smirked.

"Because he's no match," David said, as he quietly went in and closed the door, waiting off to the side. Hyde and Hiram had unveiled a host of new inventions in the last year that they had rolled out. One was the hologram system of communication, allowing the heads of state to meet from their own castles or offices on most occasions. They got together in person from time to time, but this eliminated the need for neutral locations and saved a lot of time most days. It was probably the only reason Midas was still alive too, because by the look on his wife's face, he could tell she was ready to put an arrow in his eye.

"King Midas...we are only days away from the grand opening of the Pleasure Island resort. Our teams and crews have worked tirelessly to transform a once haven of crime and filth into a luxurious vacation resort for all ages and classes to enjoy," Snow said in a measured tone.

"I agreed to let you have the Casino wing, as I agreed that adults are free to make their own decisions on what to do with their money...but I draw the line at any kind of unsavory club as you're suggesting. I want this to be a family friendly place and not become an eyesore like Iago's," Snow said.

"Queen Snow...there is nothing wrong with the addition of a gentleman's club. There will be security and an age requirement, of course," Midas replied.

"No…" Snow refuted.

"This has to be put to a vote!" Midas insisted.

"Normally yes and most of the time, I would be reluctant to do anything without diplomacy, but this is one time I am going to use my executive powers. And gentleman's club is putting this nicely," she said, as she held up a folder that had his proposal in it.

"This is nothing more than a strip club and a brothel and I won't have it. Your motion is denied by executive decision," she said.

"You can't do that, your prissy little wench!" Midas said, as his anger exploded. David clenched his fist and rooted his feet into the floor. It was taking him every ounce of control he could muster not to tell him off himself, but he knew Snow could handle him.

"King Midas...if you're going to continue this kind of behavior, then you will be removed from this project. Am I clear?" Snow snapped. He shrank back a little.

"Very well, Your Majesty," he spat.

"It's clear we all need some time to cool off, some of us more than others. We'll take a long lunch and reconvene in two hours," she said, as she pressed a button on her computer and their holograms disappeared.

"It must have taken you every ounce of control you have not to intervene and rip his head off," she mused. He smirked.

"I know you can handle it, but you're right...I'd like to make him smack himself and turn himself into a gold statue," he replied. She giggled.

"I think we would all enjoy that, a little too much," she said, as he set the food down on her desk and then took her in his arms.

"So...long lunch?" he asked. She smirked.

"Mmm…I could definitely use it," she replied.

"And here I thought I was going to have to be quick," he mused, as they swayed together. She bit her bottom lip.

"Well, at the risk of inflating your ego...you're never quick," she said. He smirked.

"Good to know," he replied, as she looked in the sack, finding all her favorites.

"Two different kinds of dessert?" she asked. He shrugged.

"I figured we'd work it off," he replied. She bit her bottom lip again, as they moved to the sofa in her office. Maybe she should have made it a three hour lunch…

~*~

Leo hopped off Pegasus and petted his mane, before leading him to the trough for a drink and something to eat. He and Pegasus, along with Firestorm, also did an aerial patrol of the reserve in the morning and checked on all the animals. He and Elsa had hired staff that they trusted and vetted to help run the reserve to help out. Everything was running smoothly and Firestorm cawed, as he sat on his perch and watched Leo.

"I didn't forget you, buddy," he promised, as he grabbed a handful of seeds and held out his hand so the Phoenix could eat too. After he finished, Leo ruffled his feathers affectionately and checked over the inventory of food and supplies that had just been delivered.

"Leo...I think that mother Unicorn is about to give birth!" one of his young workers said, as he rushed in.

"Okay...did you call the equestrian vet?" Leo asked.

"That's the thing...he's in surgery. I guess one of the horse's at the stables needed emergency surgery this morning," the kid said, as he was nearly panicked.

"Okay...relax, I've gone this before and so has my sister," he said, as he dialed Eva.

"Hey...the vet is unavailable and we have a unicorn ready to give birth. Can you pop over here?" he asked, as he listened.

"Thanks Eva," he said, as he hung up.

"She's on her way," he said, as he started gathering some supplies.

"Need some help?" Kristoff asked, as he arrived with Sven. Kristoff and Sven were frequent visitors and helpers at the reserve too.

"Yeah, the vet is busy and we have a mama unicorn ready to go. Eva's on her way," Leo said.

"Okay...baby Unicorn time. Looks like Hope might get that Unicorn for her birthday," he teased.

"Yeah…Emma keeps telling my parents not to, but you know they're going to," Leo said, as they headed out to the stables, just as Eva arrived to help with the birthing.

"Thanks for coming," he said. She smiled.

"You know that I love this and it's a pretty slow day at the hospital. Plus, my audience will love hearing about the birth of a baby unicorn," she replied.

"You know...I wasn't sure your podcast was a good idea at first, but you're really good at it," Kristoff said.

"Thanks," she replied.

"Yeah...and it helps that you make Goldie's podcast look like a joke," Leo added.

"That is a bonus...I wouldn't usually wish misfortune on anyone, but she's the exception," she agreed, as they arrived at the stables.

~*~

Summer concentrated, as she went through her dance routine for the school's upcoming recital. Upon returning to dance, her instructor expressed a suggestion that Summer would excel in rhythmic gymnastics. Summer loved both dance and gymnastics and it seemed like the perfect blend of both. So she had begun training and her instructor had been right about it being her niche. She finished her routine with an impressive backflip and caught her baton, as her music ended. Her instructor gave her a hug.

"You are going to be the star of the recital," she assured. Summer blushed slightly.

"Thanks…" she said.

"Your parents must be bursting at the seams with pride," she mentioned. She grinned.

"My Dad was just showing me the new camera he bought last night for the recital and Mom has already bought new albums. It's a little embarrassing," she joked.

"I think it's sweet," she said, as then pointed off to the side.

"And you have another admirer," she said, as Summer spotted JJ watching and waiting for her, still in his uniform from working as a paramedic. She grabbed her towel and her bag, before hurrying over to greet him.

"Hey...you busy for lunch?" he asked.

"Not at all...Granny's?" she asked.

"They do have the best crinkle cut fries," he replied, with a smile.

"Definitely...it's a date," she agreed, as they joined hands and headed out to his car.

"How was work?" she asked.

"Slow day...but I guess that's good when you're a paramedic," he replied. They had been dating a little over a year now and things were getting serious between them. She hadn't told him that she loved him yet and he hadn't said it either...but she knew what she was feeling and was wondering if he felt the same. She thought about talking to Emma about it to see if she should tell him before he said it to her. She loved her Mom, but since her parents fell in love fighting trolls and her mom lost her memory, and her dad nearly died multiple times, and her mother was cursed before they could be together, Summer felt that her mother's experience in this matter was so different than the norm that Emma might be the better advisor in this aspect.

Her parents had this true, all encompassing love that was amazing, but could be intimidating at the same time. JJ was from the Land Without Magic, so she didn't want to scare him with all these expectations that she had about love. Emma had experience in his world as well and probably would have the best advice in this respect.

After an enjoyable lunch, they exited the diner, hand in hand and he looked over at her.

"You look like you have something to say," she mentioned. He smiled.

"Yeah…I'm just not sure how to say it," he replied.

"You can tell me anything," she assured him.

"So…I want to take you somewhere special tonight, for our date. But then I realized that I have no idea where," he said.

"Why don't we just take a walk? There's a lot of trails in the woods down by the Toll bridge," she replied. He smiled.

"Okay…I'll pick you up at seven," he said, as he leaned in and kissed her tenderly. Her heart fluttered, as she watched him go and then she turned to hurry in the other direction.

"Whoa...where the fire?" Emma asked.

"Emma...thank God, I have to talk to you," Summer replied. The blonde smirked.

"Okay...you can talk while I eat through these onion rings," she said, as they found an outdoor table at Granny's.

"So…JJ said he wanted to go somewhere special tonight and he didn't know where and stupid me just suggested that we take a walk on the trails down by the Toll bridge," Summer said. Emma shrugged.

"What's wrong with that?" she asked.

"Emma...it's the Toll bridge! I mean, the Toll bridge, as in the infamous Troll bridge where the greatest love story of all time was freaking born!" she replied.

"What if JJ thinks I have some expectations from him and he bails?" she fretted. Emma smirked.

"What if he doesn't and slaps the big L on you?" the blonde asked, enjoying her baby sister's tiny little freak out. Summer sat there, thinking that over for a minute.

"This stuff is so...hard!" she complained, making her older sister chuckle.

"Oh I know...believe me," she said.

"Maybe Mom and Dad have it right. Maybe fighting trolls and dodging Black Knights was easier than this," Summer said.

"Nah…Mom and Dad are just weird. In the best way, but weird. Love usually doesn't blossom from assault with a rock and entrapment by net," Emma replied, as they shared a chuckle.

"Or fighting smelly trolls," Summer added with a giggle.

"Seriously though...if he's thinking about taking you somewhere special, then he certainly wasn't planning on bailing in the first place, cause he would have already done that," Emma said. Summer nodded.

"Yeah…I guess you're right," she agreed.

"And he's not from here so if he's not running away after everything he's seen...then I don't think he's going to," she said. Summer nodded, instantly feeling better.

"Thanks…I was right to talk to you," Summer said.

"Anytime," Emma said, as they hugged.

"I have to get back to campus...I'll see you later," she called.

"Good luck!" Emma called back, as she finished lunch and headed back to the station.

~*~

Snow kissed him passionately, as they got dressed and he was trying to button his shirt.

"Mmm…I should have called for a three hour lunch," she mewled, as he kissed her intensely.

"I know...but we can always have an encore later tonight," he promised, as he kissed her forehead and finished buttoning his shirt.

"I am going to hold you to that, handsome," she purred, as they held each other close.

"Summer will be out with JJ and Bobby is going over to hang out with Gideon at Belle and Gold's. That leaves us to our own devices," he said. She smiled.

"I can't wait for that then," she replied, as he kissed her again, before leaving her office. She turned back to her desk and pulled up the model of the upcoming resort that was opening imminently on her computer. It was going to be a beautiful vacation spot, but there was still much to do.

"You're late," Regina said, as Snow logged back onto the meeting.

"Sorry…" Snow replied.

"That's okay...we're all late. No one wants to spend another three hours with Midas, even virtually," she said.

"True, but it's better than being in the same room as him and this whole virtual thing solves the problem of finding agreeable neutral locations for our meetings," Snow said, with a sigh.

"Why are all these stuffed shirts so concerned by where we have the meeting?" she complained. Regina smirked.

"Men, especially men stuck in their old ways, tend to be territorial," Jasmine chimed in, as she logged in.

"Midas must be losing his mind since you haven't admitted him to the meeting yet," Phillip said, as he logged on.

"No one can stand the windbag and this is coming from me, who has a windbag for a father-in-law," Eric agreed.

"At least Triton refuses to attend, because he can't be bothered with matters of the "filthy human world," as he puts it," Glinda said.

"Yeah...why hasn't Abigail and Frederick taken over at least some of his duties yet. He's no spring chicken," Zorro said. Usually, it was Rose or Fandral attending, but since they had gone to visit Thor, Zorro was standing in for them.

"That's easy...control issues. My mother was only too happy to hand these duties over to me," Tiana chimed in.

"You know, we could just forget to let him into the meeting," Elsa said.

"I'm with her," Guinevere agreed.

"I'm all for that. Dad warned me plenty about Midas," Thomas said.

"I still can't believe he suggested we allow a strip club," Snow complained. Regina snorted.

"I can," she said. Snow sighed.

"I think we need to utilize the mute button a bit more or I'm going to permanently mute him this time," Aphrodite said, making them chuckle.

"Let's get this over with," she said, as she admitted him to the meeting.

"You are ten minutes late, Queen Snow. Again. If you cannot conduct these meetings on time, then perhaps someone else should organize them," he replied. Snow rolled her eyes.

"Or maybe you shouldn't attend at all," she retorted. He snorted.

"Oh, you would love that, but this is as much my project as it is anyone's and I have many more proposals to be considered. Neverland, after all, is a territory and we agreed that it and Pleasure Island should not be acquisitioned by any one Kingdom," he said.

"You only agreed to that, because we would never let you use military force to take that territory," Phillip said, but Midas ignored him.

"Fine, Your Majesty, you have the floor for a final time. But I warn you, if anything proposed involves the exploitation of young people, it gets an immediate veto," Snow said, as the meeting continued. It was going to be a long afternoon.

~*~

"Yes...that's all of it," Henry said, as he talked to his publisher in the Land Without Magic and listened to him on the other end.

"I know that you're used to a bit more calamity going on around here, but believe me, the rest of us are enjoying the peaceful times. I think my readers can appreciate that," Henry said, rolling his eyes. This guy wanted drama and battle all the time.

"I agree...the politics here are pretty much the same. Believe me, it's my grandmother's least favorite part of her job," Henry said, before listening again.

"Yes, you'll have a detailed exclusive of the resort opening next week. I'll be covering it all," he said, as he listened to his publisher again.

"Thanks," Henry said, as he hung up, just as Ella carried a box into the kitchen.

"Not enough drama in Storybrooke this week for him?" she joked. He snickered.

"Yeah...he didn't say it's been boring lately, but I'm sure he's thinking it," he replied, as he looked at the box.

"What's this?" he asked.

"It was in the closet," she replied.

"Oh yeah...this is the box of manuscripts that Grimm left behind. Great grandpa Xander gave it to me to sort through. Guess I forgot about it," he muttered, as he leafed through the notebooks and wrinkled his nose.

"Yeah...this guy writes some dark stuff," he said.

"Wasn't he writing these so he could get your grandparents blood and use it as ink?" she asked. He nodded.

"Yeah…I think that was their plan," he said, as he tossed it back in the box with disgust.

"And he was pretty intent on torturing my grandparents," he said.

"We should burn these," Ella said.

"You're right…" he agreed, as they took the box into the backyard and emptied the contents into the fire pit. She handed the lighter and he lit the notebooks on fire.

"No gruesome, horrible futures for our family. Only happiness," Henry said, as he put his arm around her. She smiled and they watched the fire together.

~*~

"This was a great place to come...I knew I could count on you to pick the perfect place," JJ said, as they walked along the trail through the woods. They were well past the Toll Bridge now and the winter foliage and dusting of snow was gorgeous.

"I think it's a Charming thing...we all seem to love the woods. Except Emma," she joked. He chuckled.

"Did you have special places you liked to go back in Boston?" she asked.

"A few. There were a couple of nice parks and bike trails. The city is so busy though...it's nothing like here," he said, as he smiled at her.

"In a good way," he added, as they stopped by the babbling stream.

"This place is unique...is that what keeps you here?" she asked. He smiled and brushed her hair away from her face.

"No...you keep me here," he replied and she bit her bottom lip, as she blushed.

"I'm really not good at any of this," Summer confessed. He chuckled.

"You're you...and that's what I love," he confessed, as their eyes met.

"Love?" she squeaked. He smiled.

"Yeah…I love you. I was kind of nervous about how to tell you. I mean, you're the daughter of two people that have this amazing love story and I'm just a normal guy," he replied.

"You're not just normal. Believe me, if you were, my family or this place would have scared you away long ago," she joked. He chuckled.

"Guess so…" he said.

"I love you too, JJ," she replied and they shared a kiss at that. They joined hands then and started back toward town.

~*~

"Well...what do you think?" Natalie asked, as she finished her latest exhibit. Xander held his grandson and smiled.

"I think it looks great...just like what Snow and David described," he said, admiring the Cibola exhibit, particularly the new addition of the tallest tower display. Anyone was allowed to tour Cibola, but it was known now that not everyone was allowed to venture to the top of the tallest tower. They weren't sure what would happen if someone did, but Zia had been clear that the texts she had read forbade the wrong people from going there.

"Thanks," she said, as she stood back to admire her work and he put his hand on her shoulder.

"This combined with the new Northuldra display should draw a few classrooms," she said.

"It will do more than that," Xander said.

"He's right, sweetie," her mother agreed, as Thalia sided up to Xander and smiled, as she took their grandson from him.

"Thanks Mom," Natalie replied.

"Are you considering doing the digital tours?" Thalia asked.

"I am...I mean, this stuff is so amazing and the world should see it all. I just don't want to do anything to endanger our family," Natalie replied.

"And Snow and David seem to think there is no harm in virtual tours. They said that there are good people out there that deserve to see all this and since we can't let them in...virtually is a safe way to do it," Xander said.

"He's right...this is always what you wanted. To present the discoveries and wonders like this to the world," Thalia agreed. She nodded.

"We agree," David said, as he and Snow arrived, hand in hand.

"Yeah, we don't see how sharing the Atlantis museum with the world, at least virtually, will hurt. As much bad as we've seen…" Snow said, as she looked at her husband fondly.

"We know there is more good in the world than bad," she finished. He gently lifted her chin with his hand, as he caressed her cheek.

"There is...even if it doesn't always seem that way," he agreed.

"And the exhibit looks great. You recreated it down to the last detail," he added, as they came closer. Levi cooed and Snow couldn't help herself.

"Come see Aunty Snow," she said, as Thalia handed him to her and she cuddled him.

"Oh...you're getting so big," Snow cooed.

"Yeah...you'll be ready for those wooden swords before we know it, won't you, big guy?" David cooed to him, as he peered down.

"You're really insistent on the sword thing, huh?" Natalie asked.

"Of course...it's a Charming tradition," he replied.

"Well…I was going to ask who wants to babysit tonight so I could get a drink with Diego," she said, calling Zorro by his first name.

"But I sense that I don't need to," she replied.

"Yeah, we'll watch him. I think it's our turn anyway," David said.

"It's not...but sure," Xander replied.

"It is kind of their turn," Natalie told him.

"Okay...well, we get next time," Snow said, as she kissed his head and handed him back to Thalia.

"Okay...well, you have fun with grandma and grandpa, sweetie," Natalie said, as she kissed her son and gathered her stuff.

"Granny's?" Xander asked all of them. Snow and David smiled.

"Yeah, we'll join you," he said.

"Sounds like the perfect evening," Snow agreed.

~*~

King Runeard emerged from the desert that evening and loomed around the Agrabah marketplace. He had found the desert surrounding Agrabah to be ideal in the past year. It was vast and rarely traversed and thanks to his powers, he took shelter in the cave of wonders without incident. Thanks to his unique powers, he went undetected by the magic guarding the treasures inside. He had to be careful where he went, lest he wished to reveal himself. When he was too close to a Charming, the elements seemed to go wild, as if to warn their chosen. It infuriated him. He was being denied his Throne and magic had grown to be a very great nuisance. When he exterminated the Northuldra, this had been his reason for doing so. Magic was a disease and only when it was eliminated could the balance be restored. And he was going to find a way to do that.

He disappeared from the Agrabah marketplace and outside Iago's in the rundown east part of Storybrooke. It seemed to be the only portion of the town that was resistant to the Charmings and refused to be bettered by their interference. The only reason they were probably still allowed to exist was because the Charmings were not dictators. He found it absurd though. It was rot like this that he would be their undoing. They refused to crush their opposition, but that opposition would not hesitate to crush them in return, given the opportunity. He took advantage of this little spot though and walked into the Tavern. No one there would tell anyone if they happened to recognize him and most probably wouldn't anyway. He signaled the bartender and he gave him a skeptical look, before coming over to him.

"Your strongest ale," he requested.

"This ain't that fancy artisan place like they have on the west side. You want something hard in here, you should go with brandy or whiskey," the bartender said.

"Fine then...brandy," he replied. The bartender poured it for him and he took a drink.

"I don't want any trouble. I see one badge or one freaking Charming poke their head in this bar…" Iago said.

"And you'll do what against my power or theirs for that matter?" Runeard challenged. Iago closed his mouth and continued to glare at the man.

"Not to worry, my friend...I am not ready for any confrontation either and they barely patrol this end, am I correct?" Runeard asked.

"Here and there...but generally no. Charming sends someone to check on me once a while to see if he can find any violations or reasons to shut me down...but I'm careful," Iago replied.

"Good man...use their rules of good conduct against them," Runeard complimented.

"Yeah…I miss the days under Seth. Those days were lawless and he had Charming on a leash. He didn't bother me for two years and we were like the Pleasure Island of the Mainland," Iago replied.

"Yes...they have taken quite a bite out of the crime, so to speak, in the last year when they took down the island," Runeard agreed.

"Is that what you and all your patrons do? Lament the good 'ole days when you could thieve and pillage without check?" Runeard asked derisively.

"It's better than what you do...lurking in the shadows and pretending you have real power," Iago spat. Runeard touched the man and he was stricken. He started to turn gray, but Runeard pulled away. He gasped and fell back against the counter, as he looked at the man with wide eyes.

"I am not pretending I have power...I could kill everyone in this town with a simple touch. But as you can imagine, that power is not always feasible or easily weaponized. But when I figure out how to do it...then I will shred all the realms down to nothing and begin anew under my rule!" he said, as he stood up.

"I trust my drink is on the house," he said.

"Whatever...just get out!" Iago stammered. Runeard started to leave when a man at a table he passed called out.

"You might want to contact this man...he may be able to help you find what you need," the burly man said. Runeard looked at him and took the card.

"General Mendoza?" he asked. The man nodded.

"And how can someone from outside the United Realms help me?" Runeard asked.

"He wants to take the Charmings down as much as you and has vast resources, plus information or so he says," the man said.

"And why would he use you to tell me, Mr.?" Runeard asked.

"Rourke...and he hired me, because I'm a mercenary for hire and he pays very well. Do with that information what you will," Rourke replied, as he finished his drink.

"He sent this too, since he figured you wouldn't have one of these," Rourke continued, as he handed him a flip style cell phone.

"You'll have to figure out the rest, but it's what's called a burner phone and can't be traced," he added, before getting up and leaving the bar. Runeard left to and returned to his solace in the desert to contemplate this new development.

#Snowing #SnowxCharming #Charming family #OC Charmings #AU #original season 9 storyline #Rose Red #Fandral the Dashing #Dashing Rose #romance #adventure #family #Finding You Always #the epic continues

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that-shamrock-vibe · 4 years ago

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Movie Review: Mulan (2020, Spoilers)

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review the week following the movie’s release on Disney+ worldwide, so if you haven’t yet seen the 2020 live-action Mulan do not read on until you have.

General Reaction:

I had a very hard time deciding what I thought about this movie. I firstly had time to wait to see the movie as I didn’t watch it on Disney+ on the Friday it was released but instead got to see it for free the following Sunday night. But in that time all the reviews were coming out and while some of them were positive, a lot of them were negative.

I guess my feelings can be categorised into three pillars just as the oath sworn by the imperial army...loyal, brave and true, the first pillar is loyalty as in my thoughts on the original animated Mulan and how this movie holds up.

I will say, had I not seen the original I would probably just like this live-action remake fine enough but because I have not only seen the original 1996 animated version but have a strong connection to that version with it being the first movie I ever saw in theatres but also one of my favoured soundtracks of all Disney movies growing up, it’s difficult as we are literally comparing new for old.

That being said, a lot of what made the original so good for me has been completely gutted in this version. No Mushu, Cri-Kee or even Little Brother. It would be so easy to simply have a Shar Pei or a Shih Tzu roaming around Mulan’s home because they already had a spider taking the place of Cri-Kee in that matchmaker scene but no...we get the horse who isn’t even called Khan in this movie because the main villain’s surname is instead Khan rather than Shan Yu like the original, and a phoenix that...despite all the exposition and my movie trivia knowledge of what a phoenix can do...simply just flies around almost like one of those box kites and acts more like a drone than an ancestral family protector.

Also the grandmother from the original, who I loved because Disney has a habit of doing these elderly cooky women traditionally for comedy but also with some heart, is omitted from this version and instead seemingly replaced with a younger sister for Mulan. Now it’s not like the grandmother was integral to the original story other than giving Cri-Kee to Mulan and without Cri-Kee there is no need for her but if you’re going to replace her replace her with something interesting...this sister does absolutely nothing.

As for the songs, Everyone knew right from the off that this wouldn’t be a musical and so all those great songs from that soundtrack that I said at the time was one of my favourite Disney soundtracks were obviously out...but the way in which the score incorporated the main song “Reflection” is something we’ve already heard in the trailers and used very well played out here, then also two of the other songs “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” and “A Girl Worth Fighting For”, while not scored are referenced as lines from the songs are spoken by the Imperial Army soldiers at times.

Then speaking of ditching characters, Shang who is the main male lead of the 1998 animated Mulan is here split into two different characters. The commander of the Imperial Army played by Donnie Yen and then a soldier recruit in said army who acts as Mulan’s love interest...I think. I get the fact that these were the two sides of Shang’s character in the original...with the addition of dealing with the murder of his father...but it would have made more sense maybe to have the commander be “Shang’s” father rather than literally having Shang A and Shang B.

But while other fan-favourites were omitted, one new addition stole the show for me and that was Gong Li as Xian Lung aka The Witch as she’s referred to throughout in this movie. I thought the addition of magic to this adaptation was an interesting take because the original stands out for not relying so heavily on the fairytale aspects. I mean yes we have a talking dragon and ghostly ancestors, who also aren’t in this movie but are referenced a lot and responsible for the box kite phoenix, but the movie didn’t need magic per-say...here it is almost like the secret sauce for how the major players thrive.

This brings me onto my second pillar, brave...as in this movie takes some big old swings in the dark to not only try and stand out from the original but also be mature. Going back to the magic angle, chi is a massive part of this movie and it seems to be that if you’re an important fighter, you have it man or woman.

The only issue with that being the 1998 animated version of Mulan, despite being Disney, was one of the more grounded Renaissance movies as it didn’t rely heavily on the fantasy angle other than the talking dragon and ancestors.

So when you flip that around and tell me that not only does Mulan effectively have superpowers but also there is a major antagonist in this movie who can not only shapeshift but perform matrix-style Wire-Fu action which she somehow teaches the Rouran army, then it loses what made the original version special in that it didn’t rely so heavily on those fantastical elements.

That being said, despite a major problem with other Disney Live-Action remakes like The Lion King being that they rely too heavily on the source material, this remake is practically a different movie to the original 1998 version.

However, while a lot of the beats of the first half of this movie, and even the second half are met such as the Matchmaker scene, joining the Imperial Army, the avalanche battle and the Emperor being captured, the true emotional moments of the animated movie are completely gone.

That incredibly powerful scene after Mulan and her father argue and she is next seen crying at the Great Stone Dragon statue while watching her ailing father before deciding she must take his place and cuts her hair, disguises herself and leaves home in the middle of the night in the rain...here replaced with Mulan wielding her father’s sword, next she’s in the armor, then she’s travelling to the army camp...no powerful music, no visible emotion at how she comes to the resolve of leaving her family, nothing.

Even though there are no songs sung in this movie, the scene “Reflection” is originally sung in makes the song one of my favourite Disney Princess songs because of the fact it lyrically and visibly shows Mulan’s inner torment at being the outsider within her family and longing to be able to truly express herself. Here you have any resemblance of that scene taken out and instead go straight from the Matchmaker scene to the Imperial Army drafting scene.

As for the comedy, I understand the original animated version was more of a comedy-action movie as opposed to this one which is action-drama, but I don’t think I laughed once while watching this movie.

Yes, the original had Eddie Murphy as Mushu and that’s taken out here, but it also had the likeable funny trio of soldiers in the army. Here there are 5 of them, Shang-lite included, Yao and Chien-Po I think try to be despite not spending enough time on any of them to know who is who. There’s this newish character called Cricket who is supposed to be the substitute for Cri-Kee...but is a recruit in the Imperial Army instead of an insect and I had to look up to make sure it wasn’t Ned from the Spider-Man movies because they look so similar and try to force comedy despite not being particularly funny. Even the river shower scene from the original which was rather funny due to Mulan trying to hide the fact she’s a woman from the three guys, here it’s just Mulan and Shang-lite (Chen Honghui) and is played off more as some weird and awkward romance scene.

It is truly brave of Disney to try and appeal more to China than to Western audiences who loved the original movie and the comedy etc and this brings me on to the third pillar which is True, as in Disney trying to be true to China, it’s culture and respecting Mulan as a legend of China rather than a Disney Princess.

That being said, we definitely got more Chinese culture in this version than the original. Obviously you see a lot of China in the animated movie as the Imperial Army moves around a lot like they do here, but it’s never quite as cinematic as it is here. The 2020 live-action Mulan demands the attention of the big screen because for me watching it on my laptop, you can tell a lot of the establishing shots and landscape scenes were intended to be viewed on the silver screen.

Particularly the shots of people running up and down that vast staircase leading up to the Emperor’s palace, just imagining that in theatres impresses me.

Even shots like when you see wide views with either the phoenix or the witch in bird form soaring across the sky, you can tell it was meant to be viewed first on the big screen just to get that feeling of wonder because on a smaller screen it isn’t that impressive.

However, on the subject of “True” I do not understand how in-keeping with the original Chinese legend involved Chi being utilized as some sort of superpower equivelent to Avatar: The Last Airbender whereas in the original animated Disney version, which should really be the one emphasising the fantasy element, you’re either a good fighter or, in Mulan’s case for that movie, you’re not and have to train.

I understand how legends and mythologies can include fantastical elements because that’s what makes them as such, but if Disney want to tell me that in this movie Mulan is practically Wonder Woman because that’s how she is said to be in the legend then where the hell was that in the 1998 animated version because that Mulan is classed officially as a Disney Princess despite not being royalty or marrying royalty and having this type of power would at least qualify her to stand alongside the likes of Pocahontas and Moana.

Getting off the rant and moving to a compliment for a moment, I did appreciate the movie staying true to Chinese fashion because that really puzzled me about the original movie, how every man, woman and child effectively looked like they were wearing the same robes just in a different colour with maybe some different styling depending on if they were royalty or officials in some way.

But here, the Emperor definitely looked regal, the Witch looked regal but in that nomadic styling which was true to her character, and even though all the soldiers were wearing the same uniform, they all had something different enough about it.

Characters:

Alright so I’ve gone on enough generally, now I’m going to be more specific in terms of character, but because most of these characters aren’t fleshed out enough to warrant their own section, I’m listing who I feel are my three stand-out characters and then grouping the rest.

Mulan:

Obviously the movie is about Mulan so I have to start with her, and despite all the negative stuff which to be perfectly honest with you doesn’t overly concern me in regards to how Yifei Liu has been so adamantly in support of the Hong Kong Police drama, I’m judging her solely on how she plays the character here.

She was okay.

I mean this in the best way possible but, in a similar way to last year’s The Lion King remake, Yifei Liu was practically stone-faced the entirety of this movie. Good things happened, no expression, bad things happened, no expression, sad things happened, no expression. Especially when she was pretending to be a guy in the army camp it felt like her acting choice was “If Mulan was to show expression, it may give the game up”, it was just so rigid it made it hard to like her.

Speaking of her “undercover guise”, I know the original movie was animated and therefore the animators can get away with slightly altering the look of the character to make it believable and voices can even be changed as evidenced here with Jet Li...but I did not believe for a single second that Mulan could actually pass as a guy looking like how she looked. She didn’t cut her hair, her clothes weren’t particularly masculine, barely changed her voice and aside from having that leather brace/corsit to hide her chest there was no evidence as to how an entire army camp could not tell the second they saw her...maybe with the exception of Chen but I’ll get to that when I get to him.

Also, I touched on the Chi power thing beforehand, why was she was born with it? Why was it so powerful in her from an early age? None of this was explained, they hammered home the dangers of her having such strong Chi and that was also personified beautifully with Xian Lang aka The Witch as a kind of Ghost of Christmas Future visage, but the reason the original animated version worked so well was because she was flawed, clumsy and awkward yet also caring, strong-willed and outspoken. Really all they did here was take away all of those qualities that made her...you know...human and added the Chi power thing from the start so she didn’t have to learn to fight, she didn’t have to make this massive sacrifice as you know she’s probably going to prevail and again it made her unlikeable because there was no growth or real character development.

All except for the very end when the Emperor offers her a position on the royal guard rather than as an adviser like he does originally, and she rejects it here like she did then as well...but then she is asked again maybe two days later and we don’t get an answer but she probably says yes.

It’s quite clear they’re trying to tee up a sequel by the end of this movie, but there is so much negativity both to the movie and specifically the leading actress that I really don’t see this happening.

If a sequel was to happen it would most likely be Mulan’s struggles with being a female member in the emperor’s guard or even leading the team, but we saw her do that for the second half of this movie.

Literally the halfway point in this movie after a confrontation with Xian Lang, when Mulan’s father narrates how Mulan’s lie died but she herself lived and so she then decided to appear in front of the Imperial Army as a woman despite the obvious consequences I found stupid.

In the original it’s a mistake that she’s found out, it’s towards the end of the movie and she has to fight just for acceptance. Here she pretty much states the obvious in what she knows the villains are doing, suddenly she’s leading the fecking army...despite being told that if she shows her face again she will die...no death but just a promotion.

Finally while talking about Mulan, I can’t really not talk about that fantastic Ming-Na Wen cameo at the end of the movie. It was so great, I had heard prior to seeing the movie that she was going to be in it and so my eyes were peeled throughout the movie.

I love Ming-Na Wen and I do think she is one of very few to hit a Disney trifecta with being a Disney Princess, an MCU hero of sorts and a Star Wars character, though having recently finally seen The Mandalorian I have to say her part was exaggerated a bit considering the one episode she’s in.

It never dawned on me until it was brought up that I even needed Ming-Na to appear in this movie but having seen her I have to say I would be disappointed if she didn;t. Originally I would have suggested she maybe play Mulan’s mother as a type of passing on the torch, but the very fact that her one line and duty in the movie is to introduce Mulan to the emperor it does seem to have the same effect.

Xian Lang:

As I say, the Witch was my favourite character in this movie. Everything about her from when I first saw her in the trailers just worked for me. Her look was stunning, Gong-Li’s acting was on point, her story despite being a secondary antagonist based on the villain’s pet bird from the original movie was very compelling. The parallels between Mulan and Xian Lang were fascinating to see particularly with Xian Lang being a potential future cautionary tale for Mulan.

The first major scene when we see her use her powers was my favourite scene in the movie. I love a great power-set piece and we got to see a lot of the different fascets of Xian Lang’s power. From that gorgeous blend of coloured powders to act as a smokescreen for her shapeshifting, the weapon manifestation, using her sleeves as whips. It all worked so well and Mulan wasn’t even in the scene.

That being said, my next favourite scene is that confrontation between her and Mulan where Xian Lang is trying to get Mulan to admit who she is but she’s insistent on stating she’s her male name, so Xian Lang says “then you will die a lie” and knocks her into a rock which Mulan’s father then narrates “Mulan’s lie did die but Mulan lived”, it’s such powerful stuff and I wish the rest of the movie was as clever as that.

The Emperor:

The only other character I can really single out is Jet Li’s Emperor of China. I’m not a massive Jet Li fan, but I have seen him in a couple other movies and to my knowledge always in non-English speaking roles. However, I have also seen him in interviews so know the voice he has...this wasn’t it.

It was really distracting all the way through this movie because he looked regal, everything around him looked regal and powerful, but then he spoke and I was sat there pondering “Why is that not his voice?”. I mean I know how Hollywood likes to dub voices if the actors they hire don’t fit the roles vocally but do physically, but doing this not only to Jet Li who is one of the more famous Asian actors in Hollywood but any Asian actor in an entirely Asian cast does seem like a huge step backwards in representation particularly after Aladdin.

It reminded me a lot of Ray Park who is one of my favourite underrated actors. In some roles you see him and hear his voice like Toad in the first X-Men movie, however famously you only see him physically as Darth Maul in the Star Wars movies but have his voice dubbed by other actors.

All that aside, the actual character was a lot more fleshed out than in the original movie. I mean all you really need to know about him is that he’s the Emperor of China but here, because he’s Jet Li apparently in body only, he also has some kick-ass martial arts scenes.

Although, similar to the TV series Arrow, I do not understand how magic allows people to catch arrows fired at them, yet somehow Jet Li does and to be fair redirects it in a rather bad-ass way with Mulan doing a flip kick sending it straight into the chest of the main villain guy.

Hua Family:

As for Mulan’s family, I thought they were okay. Again I got more emotional from the original movie and I did miss the grandmother this time around and do not understand how the younger sister was a worthy substitute, but the actual parents were at least acted well.

It was great seeing Constance Wu in a dramatic role after seeing her in Freaky Friday, Tzi Ma was a surprisingly central role this time around as Mulan’s father with a lot more drama put on his character, in the original version you know Fa Zhou is injured from war so when he’s drafted again you can guess he may not survive. Here, Constance Wu states “Be brave for he won’t return this time”.

Imperial Army:

I didn’t like any of these guys, we spend little time getting to know any of them as individuals, maybe with the exception of Donnie Yen’s general character. Having said that, Chen either had to know that Mulan was a girl or simply be attracted to Mulan as a boy. But there were so many looks and so many times where you could tell that he knew but maybe wanted to protect her so didn’t let on.

Rourans:

I didn’t like the Huns in the original movie but at least they had individuality about them, the Rourans had nothing. Jason Scott Lee was obviously the Shan Yu of this movie but he did not have the intimidation factor that he had and really didn’t have a lot else to him.

The one plus about the Rourans is they seemed to take lessons from the Dothraki in Game of Thrones in how to not only ride into battle but battle while riding. It was very cool visually.

Recommendation:

By the time this review posts if you haven’t seen the movie yet you may not be inclined to and I don’t know if this review is really a promotion for it, but when someone asked me for my recommendation I did say it’s worth at least one viewing.

However, I would not pay the excess fee for it. I watched it for free and I feel $30 or however much it is here in the U.K. would feel a bit of a rip off despite the fact Disney+ allows for multiple users and so multiple viewings.

Overall I rate the movie a 6/10, it’s visually gorgeous, Gong-Li is the best thing about the movie and it is interesting to see what is different between versions. I just wouldn’t rank it up there as one of the best Disney Live-Action remakes, too much doesn’t make sense.

So that’s my review of Disney’s Live-Action Mulan, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Disney Movie Reviews as well as other Movie Reviews and posts.

#disney #disney live-action #mulan #mulan 2020 #gong li #liu yifei #jet li #xian lang #li shang #mushu #shan yu

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orbemnews · 4 years ago

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Scrounging for Hits, Hollywood Goes Back to the Video Game Well LOS ANGELES — For 28 years, ever since “Super Mario Bros.” arrived in cinemas with the tagline “This Ain’t No Game,” Hollywood has been trying and mostly failing — epically, famously — to turn hit video games into hit movies. For every “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” (2001), which turned Angelina Jolie into an A-list action star, there has been a nonsensical “Max Payne” (2008), an abominable “Prince of Persia” (2010) and a wince-inducing “Warcraft” (2016). If video games are the comic books of our time, why can’t Hollywood figure out how to mine them accordingly? It may finally be happening, powered in part by the proliferation of streaming services and their need for intellectual property to exploit. “The need for established, globally appealing I.P. has naturally led to gaming,” Matthew Ball, a venture investor and the former head of strategy for Amazon Studios, wrote last year in an essay titled “7 Reasons Why Gaming I.P. Is Finally Taking Off in Film/TV.” After years of inaction and false starts, for instance, Sony Pictures Entertainment and its PlayStation-powered sibling, Sony Interactive, are finally working together to turn PlayStation games into mass-appeal movies and television shows. There are 10 game adaptations in the Sony Pictures pipeline, a big leap from practically none in 2018. They include “Uncharted,” a $120 million adventure based on a 14-year-old PlayStation property (more than 40 million copies sold). “Uncharted” stars Tom Holland, the reigning Spider-Man, as Nathan Drake, the treasure hunter at the center of the game franchise. It is scheduled for release in theaters on Feb. 18. Sony is starting production on “The Last of Us,” a series headed to HBO and based on the post-apocalyptic game of the same title. Pedro Pascal, “The Mandalorian” himself, is the star, and Craig Mazin, who created the Emmy-winning mini-series “Chernobyl,” is the showrunner. Executive producers include Carolyn Strauss, one of the forces behind “Game of Thrones,” and Neil Druckmann, who led the creation of the Last of Us game. Sony games like Twisted Metal and Ghost of Tsushima are also getting the TV and film treatment. (Contrary to speculation, one that is not, at least not anytime soon, according to a Sony spokesman: God of War.) In the past, Sony Pictures and Sony Interactive operated as fiefs, with creative control — it’s mine; no, it’s mine — impeding adaptation efforts. When he took over as Sony’s chief executive in 2018, Kenichiro Yoshida demanded cooperation. The ultimate goal is to make better use of Sony’s online PlayStation Network to bring Sony movies, shows and music directly to consumers. PlayStation Network, introduced in 2006, has more than 114 million monthly active users. “I have witnessed a radical shift in the nature of cooperation between different parts of the company,” said Sanford Panitch, Sony’s movie president. The game adaptation boom extends far beyond Sony. “Halo,” a series based on the Xbox franchise about a war between humans and an alliance of aliens (more than 80 million copies sold), will arrive on the Paramount+ streaming service early next year; Steven Spielberg is an executive producer. Lionsgate is adapting the Borderlands games (roughly 60 million sold) into a science fiction film starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart and Jamie Lee Curtis. Buoyed by its success with “The Witcher,” a fantasy series adapted from games and novels, Netflix has shows based on the “Assassin’s Creed,” “Resident Evil,” “Splinter Cell” and “Cuphead” games on the way. Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, the duo behind HBO’s “Westworld,” are developing a science-fiction show for Amazon that is based on the Fallout video game franchise. And Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment, the Universal Pictures studio responsible for the “Despicable Me” franchise, have an animated Mario movie headed to theaters next year — another new collaboration between a game publisher and a film company. Today in Business Updated May 21, 2021, 3:55 p.m. ET Still, Hollywood’s game adaptation track record is terrible. Why should the coming projects be any different? For a start, the games themselves have evolved, becoming more intricate and cinematic. “Games have stories that are so much more developed and advanced than they used to be,” Mr. Panitch said. There are also signs that Hollywood has figured out how to make game-based films that satisfy both audiences and critics. “Pokémon Detective Pikachu,” which paired animated creatures with live actors, collected $433 million worldwide in 2019 for Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment — and was the first major game adaptation in three decades to receive a “fresh” designation on Rotten Tomatoes, the review-aggregation site. Since then, two more adaptations, “Sonic the Hedgehog” (Paramount) and “The Angry Birds Movie 2” (Sony) have been critical and commercial successes. “Quality has definitely been improving,” said Geoff Keighley, creator of the Game Awards, an Oscars-like ceremony for the industry. The most recent game-to-film entry, “Mortal Kombat” (Warner Bros.), received mixed reviews but has taken in $41.2 million in the United States since its release last month, a surprisingly large total considering it was released simultaneously on HBO Max and theaters were still operating with strict coronavirus safety protocols. Mr. Panitch acknowledged that “video game movies have a checkered history.” But he added, “Failure is the mother of invention.” Game adaptations, for instance, have often faltered by trying to rigidly replicate the action and story lines that fans know and love. That approach invites comparison, and movies (even with sophisticated visual effects) almost always fail to measure up. At the same time, such “fan service” turns off nongamers, resulting in films that don’t connect with any particular audience. “It’s not just about adapting the story,” said Michael Jonathan Smith, who is leading Sony’s effort to turn Twisted Metal, a 1995 vehicular combat game, into a television series. “It’s about adapting how you feel when you play the game. It has to be about characters you care about. And then you can slide in the Easter eggs and story points that get fans absolutely pumped.” “Uncharted” is a prequel that, for the first time, creates origin stories for the characters in the game. With any luck, such storytelling will satisfy fans by giving them something new — while also inviting nongamers, who may otherwise worry about not knowing what is going on, to buy tickets. (The producers of “Uncharted” include Charles Roven, who is known for the “Dark Knight” trilogy.) “It’s a question of balance,” said Asad Qizilbash, a senior Sony Interactive executive who also runs PlayStation Productions, an entity started in 2019 and based on Sony’s movie lot in Culver City, Calif. Unlike in the past, when Sony Pictures and Sony Interactive pledged to work together and ultimately did not, the current collaboration “has weight because there is a win for everyone,” Mr. Qizilbash added. “We have three objectives. Grow audience size for games. Bring product to Sony Pictures. Showcase collaboration.” The stakes are high. A cinematic flop could hurt the game franchise. “It’s risky,” Mr. Qizilbash allowed. “But I think we can do it.” Source link Orbem News #Game #hits #Hollywood #Scrounging #video

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corkcitylibraries · 4 years ago

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Ireland Reads | 10 BorrowBox Picks for Children and Young Adult Readers

by Jordan McCarthy

The Ireland Reads day offers the perfect opportunity for every kind of reader to celebrate the magical gift of reading. Regular readers, new readers and those who are about to rediscover the wonders and joys of reading, can enrich their lives during a time when our daily routines need it more than ever.

While our libraries may be closed, the online resource, BorrowBox, is one of the real gems being offered by libraries during lockdown. More and more readers are using the platform which has thousands upon thousands of wonderful eAudiobooks and eBooks.

And better yet, this online service, like all the others offered by Cork City Libraries, is free to all library members. If you haven’t yet joined, you can do this for free at www.librariesireland.ie/join-your-library.

Whatever we choose to read or listen to this month, we know that we are nourishing our health and wellbeing in doing so. The possibilities a good book – or magazine, comic, newspaper or whatever you choose to read - can bring to our lives are endless.

“If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.” – J.K. Rowling’

Below are ten of the top picks currently available on the Children’s and Young Adult section of BorrowBox. Like all great kids’ books, they will prove gripping and engaging for many adult readers, too.

So, squeeze in a read this month. You can find out more about the Ireland Reads initiative by visiting irelandreads.ie. And don’t forget to pledge your reading time!

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds - Young Adult

(Available on eBook and eAudiobook)

‘‘Now

I’m wishing I would’ve

laughed more

at his dumb jokes

because the day

before yesterday,

Shawn was shot

and killed.’’

This remarkable Y.A. thriller is set over the course of 60 seconds. Written in lyrical, verse-like prose, it tells the tale of a revenge-seeking William, whose brother has been shot dead.

But when Will sets out to get his revenge, some ghosts from his past appear in the elevator on his way down to the ground floor. Will he go ahead with his murderous plan?

There’s a sense of urgency in this fast-paced novel, though he soon realises; it is a ‘long way down’ from the 8th to the ground floor.

Hero On A Bicycle by Shirley Hughes – Children (10+)

(Available on eBook and eAudiobook)

‘‘He stopped and slung his bicycle against a nearby wall to get his breath back and consider the situation. At that moment someone came up silently behind him and clapped a strong hand over his mouth.’’

Set in Florence, Italy during World War II, this is historical fiction at its finest. The Allies are closing in on Nazi-occupied Florence and 14 year-old Paolo has been taking secret bike rides late every night to beat the boredom of life under curfew. He misses his dad – an anti-Fascist who is in hiding - and rues the fact that he is too young to join the military.

However, when Paolo receives a frightening message on his way home from one of his late-night treks, he suddenly becomes involved in the thick of the action. Can he become the hero during his hometown’s greatest time of need?

This is an excellent novel, which captures one family’s struggles during war.

Not suitable for younger children, some upsetting themes.

Zom-B; Underground by Darren Shan – Young Adult

(eAudiobook)

‘‘Can you hold on to your humanity when you're a monster....’’

This fantasy-horror, dystopian novel by the ‘Master of Horror’ is book two in the Zom-B series.

B Smith is the main protagonist in this story, which is set during a zombie apocalypse. When she wakes up in a laboratory-style military camp, ‘B’ learns that she has become ‘Zom-B’.

Can she meet the demands of her captors or is she doomed?

Will she be a monster forever?

The Dog Who Lost His Bark by Eoin Colfer – Children

(eAudiobook)

‘‘In his short doggy life, Oz has suffered at the hands of BAD PEOPLE. Somewhere out there, he believes, is an AWESOME BOY – his BOY. Maybe when they find each other he will learn to BARK again ...’’

Patrick comes from a very musical family and he has wanted a pet dog for a very long time. When he rescues an abandoned puppy on his summer holidays, he calls him Oz, and so begins a strong friendship between a boy and a dog – at least that’s what we hope!

Oz is a nervous little creature and he can’t bark, or at least he doesn’t bark when he moves to his new home. Will he ever bark again? Maybe the musical family will be able to get him barking again!

This heart-warming children’s tale, from the creator of the Artemis Fowl series, shows how important music can be in the healing process.

Rugby Spirit by Gerard Siggins - Children

(eAudiobook)

‘‘A new school, a new sport, an old mystery ... the first instalment in Gerard Siggins’ beloved and bestselling Rugby Spirit series.’’

Eoin Madden is the grandson of a legendary Irish rugby player. When he starts a new school in Dublin, leaving behind his GAA playing days in Tipperary, his rugby adventure begins.

In Casterock College, rugby is everything! But Eoin has never even held a rugby ball before. And the bully, Richie Duffy, is making his life even more difficult. Can Eoin make an impact in his very first season on a school rugby team?

This is one for fans of sport and fiction. It provides lots of insight into the game of rugby, too.

Once by Morris Gleitzman – Children

(Available on eBook and eAudiobook)

‘‘Once I saved a girl called Zelda from a burning house.

Once I made a Nazi with toothache laugh.

My name is Felix.

This is my story.’’

Once is the first book in Morris Gleitzman’s Felix and Zelda series. Set during the Second World War, this novel is a tale of hope, friendship and survival.

Felix is in a Catholic orphanage in Poland in 1942. The son of Jewish booksellers, he fears that the Nazi’s are burning Jewish books and believes that his parents’ store could be next.

The young Jewish boy departs the orphanage, longing to find his mum and dad, and to warn them about the Nazis. Felix soon discovers that his hometown has changed utterly. A race for survival ensues.

Not suitable for younger, some upsetting themes

Sabrina; Season Of the Witch by Sarah Rees-Brennan – Young Adult

(eAudiobook)

‘‘To be a witch is to kiss the moon.’’

Inspired by the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, this fantasy novel is a prequel to that Netflix series. It is the story of what went before the "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" show.

Sabrina is half-mortal, half-witch. Before she turns 16, and becomes full-powered, she realises how scared she is of joining the dark side and leaving her mortal life behind.

Can she discard her boyfriend Harvey, and her other mortal friends? This is her origin story; a spooky adventure for fans of the Sabrina series.

Ultimate Football Heroes; Rashford by M & T Oldfield - Children

(Available on eBook and eAudiobook)

‘‘When the referee blew his whistle, Marcus started his well-practiced penalty routine:

Four little shuffles to the left,

then short steps forward to try to fool the keeper, and then BANG!’’

The Ultimate Football Heroes series is a biographical story of the life of a star footballer. It charts the rise of some of world football’s biggest names, from the playground to the pitch.

Marcus Rashford is one of the most exciting players in the English Premier League. The Manchester United star has been one of the standout stories over the last year, with his campaign to keep free school meals available for children in the UK.

In Rashford, we learn about the life of Marcus – from when he would watch Man Utd playing on TV as a baby, to scoring important Champions League goals for the Red Devils.

A fast-paced story, full of action, it is one for all the family to enjoy. Others in the series include Kane and Delli Alli, which are available on BorrowBox.

Slam! You’re Gonna Wanna Hear This by Nikita Gill – Young Adult

(eBook)

‘‘Poetry is the language of Fire, Fury and Freedom,’’ says Nikita Gill.

Slam! is a collection of poems performed at ‘slams’, or spoken word competitions. It features established and emerging voices, with themes such as home, kin, protest and desire among those in the collection.

Slam! highlights the importance of poetry for the times we live in. It provides an ideal introduction into modern poetry and is a terrific publication.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien – Children

(Available on eBook and eAudiobook)

‘‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.’’

J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy novel is the prequel to his Lord of the Rings saga. Tolkien wrote the story for his own children before it was published into a worldwide bestseller. First published over 80 years ago, it continues to be enjoyed by young and old.

This otherworldly tale features the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who has been recruited as a burglar by Gandalf for an epic quest. Expect trolls, goblins, dwarves, elves, giant spiders, and the dragon, Smaug, as Bilbo and the gang make their way across Middle Earth in search of treasure.

#corkcitylibraries #irelandreads #squeezeinaread

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irondad-defensesquad · 5 years ago

Text

The time Miles met Tony Stark and made a discovery

Fandom: MCU

Rating: G

Relationships: Miles & Peter, Tony & Peter

Characters: Miles Morales, Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Aaron Davis

Summary: In which little Miles Morales tries to help a wounded, stubborn Spider-Man until Iron Man arrives trying not to freak out. Part 2 of the Miles in the MCU series.

Word count: 2,818

Read Part 1 of the series

Also on AO3!

WARNINGS: character injury

Sometimes, Miles thinks his parents worry over him too much. In fact, he should emphasize his father in that statement – Jefferson is a police officer and so demands safety at all costs, to the point of not trusting Aaron or some kids that Miles has befriended, either at school or in his neighborhood. The boy may understand given the mess that Brooklyn (or New York as a whole) can be, but it’s not like he’s stupid or unaware of his surroundings. He may be young, but he has become more familiar with walking around, thanks to his uncle and those boys Jefferson disapproves of. Miles is not careless, unlike what his father appears to believe.

After another school day, Miles heads to Aaron’s with his friends as his parents are working. It’s a good thing his school is near where he and his uncle live; and the other boys are great companions, as they laugh together in the street. The group is pretty diverse, Miles being one of the youngest while others are older, which makes it a more welcoming environment, makes him feel included. He just wishes his father could understand this…

When they’re closer to Aaron’s apartment, the kids disperse to their own destinations and thus Miles is on his own. The past days have been relatively peaceful since… since the night his uncle was shot. It took him some time to recover and he has been staying in more often due to that, too. Miles reminded to buy him a snack, which was actually provided by his dad out of anyone else. That doesn’t mean they’re in good terms, though.

Regardless, it has been a good day; and now he’s going to hang out with Aaron for the rest of the afternoon. The boy is smiling, relaxed. Hopefully nothing unusual would ruin it for him.

… that’s what he thought before he hears loud noises coming from the alley he was passing by. It sounds like something crashed the several trash cans. It might have been a dog or cat, or anything else, except he also catches on a pained groan in there.

Maybe Miles should’ve headed home, his uncle is waiting for him. Instead, however, he ends up entering the dark alley to get a closer look.

Some of the cans have fallen, so he smells the horrible garbage, yet remains quiet to not be noticed by whoever is there. Other bins are still standing, so he hides behind them and raises his head until he’s able to see a tall figure tripping again. It may be dark but the first things he notices are the familiar red and blue tones he himself wears as a hoodie. And, just like that, Miles meets Spider-Man close again.

He would’ve been happy to see his hero again, weren’t it for the fact that the other can barely stand on his feet. Spider-Man leans against the wall until he’s sitting on the dirty ground. Miles notices his suit is ripped in some parts, revealing… dark bruises smudging his skin. The boy gasps without making a sound and, before he can do anything, he freezes. Spider-Man is… he’s taking his mask off!

Miles covers his mouth with a hand when he… he discovers the hero’s true appearance. Without a mask, an… actual teenager is exposed, revealing messy and sweaty, brown hair and round face features. There’s a small amount of blood staining his cheek as well.

Miles should have suspected. His voice really is higher than he expected but never thought too much about it before. Now, he knows Spider-Man is a young boy who looks after the people from Queens (and Brooklyn as well, he supposes). Which isn’t a bad thing, actually.

But it doesn’t matter now – Spider-Man is hurt right in front of him and Miles is just standing there! He should do something!

Except the boy doesn’t know what to do. Heck, he hated to imagine what could have happened to his uncle if Spider-Man hadn’t shown up. Now the hero needs his help.

Miles realizes he has no phone; but hey, Aaron’s apartment is not too far, maybe the adult can call an ambulance or do anything as long as he’s safe. Well, he can’t waste time!

The younger steps forward. Spider-Man hasn’t even realized he’s right there; the teenager is looking at… at nowhere, wincing in pain at the same time. His chest is moving slowly, as if breathing is too much of an effort. Miles decides to reveal himself for once, hoping he doesn’t scare him.

“Uh… Spider-Man?” He calls him.

As soon as he said it, the teen jumps and gasps, searches for his mask and tries to put it back; yet he’s panicking so he fails at hiding his face.

“Hey, hey.” Miles sounds calm, trying to soothe him. “It’s okay. I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”

The brown-haired boy appears to calm down after that, but he moans in pain again and stiffens his body. Miles tries not to stare at his wounds and instead aims to focus on helping him.

“Wait… Miles?” Spider-Man says, his voice higher.

Part of him feels a bit flustered that the hero remembers his name but reminds himself that’s not the point.

“What happened to you?” Miles asks.

The hero groans and replies, “I sorta... fell after stopping some bad guys selling weapons. My web shooters… kinda got busted, ugh.”

Spider-Man pats his own hands in his right pulse, the black part of his suit. He frowns as he can’t get it to work, and mutters, “Sh- Shoot.”

“Do you think you can stand up? I could take you to my uncle’s, it’s not far,” Miles suggests. “He can help you with those wounds—”

“What? No, no, no, you don’t have to! I’ll just- figure out what’s wrong with these and then I can get out just fine!”

“But- you’re hurt!” Miles protests.

“Really, it’s not a big deal. My spider powers give me super healing, these will be gone within the blink of an eye. Easy peasy.”

The black-haired boy wants to believe him, but it doesn’t… appear the “super healing” is having any effect. Besides, he can just tell how in pain Spider-Man is with every movement he makes.

“Let me help you,” The younger pleads. “I don’t think you should go out there like that—”

“Relax, buddy, I’m gonna be just fine. Just let me get this right…”

The black thing in the teenager’s pulse projects what appears to be… the settings of said web shooters? Miles has never thought just how advanced his suit is. It doesn’t even take long for the older to figure out what is wrong.

“Welp, looks like they were turned off somehow… those stupid alien weapons almost did a number out of it,” Spider-Man mumbles to himself.

Finally, the projection thing is gone. Spider-Man sighs and says, “It’s all settled, I’d better get going.”

Miles’ eyes widen. “Wha- but you can barely get on your feet!”

“Hey, remember I have super healing; I already feel fine!”

Except he doesn’t. The hero is only able to stand up since he uses the wall behind him as support. Miles is looking at him in disbelief.

“Come on, don’t do this,” The younger begs. “Your healing isn’t working, man! You’ve gotta get help!”

“Even if I needed, I can’t let anyone discover my identity, Miles,” Spider-Man argues. “It’s dangerous.”

“But what if you get hurt again?”’

“I can handle it, I’m Spider-Man!”

Miles groans. Good god, he really is a teenager. Too stubborn! Before he can try and stop him again, Spider-Man puts on his mask and says, “Karen, trace the fastest route back to Queens.”

“Hey, wait-!” The kid stands in front of him, so he doesn’t walk.

Yet Miles realizes that Spider-Man continues, “What- Karen, I’m fine, I have enhanced healing, remember? I fixed my web shooters, too!” It… seems as though he’s talking to this Karen Miles has no idea who it is. The hero even awaits before protesting, “No, it’s gonna be okay! You- You don’t need to call him, okay? He’s- He’s busy, I—Karen, NO, don’t call-!”

Whatever it was, Spider-Man isn’t amused. He lets out a defeated groan and falls back to the ground as he takes his mask off again, wincing again but quieter. Miles blinks in confusion.

“Uh, who’s Karen?” He asks, finally.

Spider-Man snaps his head at his direction. “She’s like… y’know… a computer my suit has. Artificial intelligence.”

“Oh. She talks to you and everything?”

“Yeah. She’s a big help; she shows me what I can do to do a better job, like track criminals or weapons, fastest routes to anywhere you can imagine, call the emergencies and so on… she’s also a good listener when I have no one to talk to.”

Miles can’t help smirking as he asks, “So she’s like your computer wife? Like Plankton’s?”

“You could say that,” The teenager laughs, weak. “She worries about me, too…”

The environment is less tense, except Miles won’t stop feeling bad about his hero’s wounds. Though he remembers how Spider-Man and Karen argued just then, noting that the former did mention a ‘he’, not a hospital, as far as the younger boy is concerned.

“She called for help, right?" Miles asks, Spider-Man nods in response. "Then… who did she call?”

“Um… you see…”

His voice dies out as he snaps his head toward a certain direction. Miles follows his lead, taking notice of a bright, yellow light coming from the sky approaching at a surprising speed.

“What is that?!” Miles yells, terrified. Before he can get Spider-Man out of there, the teenager already soothes him.

“It’s not a threat, it’s okay.”

And he’s… he’s right. When the flying object is close enough, Miles recognizes the… metallic red and yellow.

No way.

There’s no freaking way it’s Iron Man flying all the way there!

Once the metal hits the ground, Miles refrains himself from screaming. It really is the suit of armor that is so well-known worldwide. It’s so much brighter… and way more breathtaking in person!

He keeps his excitement to himself, though, when Iron Man takes no less than a second to step towards Spider-Man and ignoring Miles.

“Holy crap, kid, what the hell happened to you?!” His somewhat robotic voice is filled with concern and certain desperation. “Your A.I. said you have broken ribs and several wounds from beatings, and you fell from a height of six meters-!”

“It’s fine, Mister Stark, I’m okay—”

“Alright, cut the bullshit, kid—”

“Hey! Shh!”

“Wh- don’t you FUCKING SHUSH ME, YOUNG MAN!”

“Mister Stark, there are children present!” The teen whispers angrily and leans his head towards Miles, who’s watching the scene in utter silence; which worsens once Iron Man turns to him as well.

“Oh, forgot you were here. My bad.” He sounds a little indifferent, when he looks back at the teen. “Wait, your mask—"

“It’s fine! M-Mister Stark, this is my friend Miles, I uh- I saved his uncle. Twice.” Spider-Man introduces them to one another (and Miles won’t contain the little smile as he’s referred as Spider-Man’s friend) “Miles, Mister Stark- wait, are you… like, actually here?”

“Yes, I am actually here.” Iron Man’s faceplate reveals the unforgettable face of Tony Stark, showing a displeased, worried expression as he turns back to Spider-Man. “This is important.”

The spider-teen sighs. “Sir, really, I’m fine.”

“I swear to Thor’s beard if you say that one more time—”

“You really didn’t have to—”

“Of course I had to! I can’t just let you go around and hurt yourself!”

“I have enhanced healing!”

“Which has been compromised because you have been skipping lunch and sleep in days!”

“What, you’re monitoring even that now? I’m not a baby!”

“Yes, because you don’t take care of yourself!”

“Oh, look who’s talking,” Spider-Man mocks.

“That is not the point!”

“I could totally handle this! You won’t let me do anything!”

“No, you couldn’t! What if you fell even higher and got yourself hurt more?!”

“Ugh, you’re overreacting!”

“I am overreacting?!”

The argument goes on for a while and Miles is just… there, staring. He has so many questions and yet can’t believe he’s standing right beside Iron Man and Spider-Man. And yet… the entire situation is so... he can't even describe it.

Before he can think it through, he ends up listening to their fight again.

“No, that’s enough,” Iron Man says, interrupting the teen. “I’m taking you to the Tower right now. No more Spider-Manning for the next two weeks.”

“What?! That’s ridiculous!”

“Don’t make that months,” The older man warns.

Spider-Man actually pouts. Miles can’t believe this is happening.

“Kid, I’m just trying to protect you, alright.” Iron Man softens his voice a great deal. “You did a great job taking out those alien weapons back there, I saw it. But you’re not taking care of yourself. You’re starving, you’re sleep deprived and Spider-Man can’t help the little guy when he can’t do the same for himself.

“When you’re wounded like this, the first thing you should do is call me and not rely on your healing. What if your bones heal wrong, have you thought of that? And you could get an infection, too. Spider-kids aren’t invincible.”

The frown in the vigilante’s face is gone and he mutters, ashamed, “I didn’t want to bother you.”

“You could never bother me, kiddo. That’s what I’m here for, to look after you. Don’t think you’re a nuisance, because you’re not. Got it?”

Spider-Man sighs in defeat and nods in understanding. Miles swears he’s never seen Iron Man giving him such a… a soft look. He has read one thing or another describing Tony Stark as this cold, egocentric figure… not that Miles fully believes in the media, but he admits he sort of shared the same impression.

“Hold still,” The man says as his arms reach for Spider-Man. “I’m gonna carry you and we’ll fly there.”

“Hey, come on!”

“Not gonna stop me.”

“Nooo, stop, this is so embarrassing—”

“Yeah, serves you right. That makes you learn not to do this again.” Iron Man puts the mask back on the older boy’s face.

For once, Miles finally steps in.

“Um, w-where are you taking him?” He asks.

“To the Aven- Stark Tower. A med team that will make sure his identity isn’t revealed to the public.”

Miles nods, sighs in relief. “Oh, okay... that's good.”

He expects Iron Man to fly away from there immediately but he… actually talks to Miles.

“Hey, uh… thanks for keeping him company, squirt,” The man tells him. “Who knows what could’ve happened if you didn’t keep an eye on him.”

Spider-Man groans but adds, in a softer voice, “Yeah… he’s really good. Thanks, Miles.”

Miles swears his cheeks are heating up. “O-Oh, no problem!”

Iron Man smiles at him. He’s never washing his eyes again.

“I’ll see you around, bud,” Spider-Man says.

“Yeah, I’ll… I'll see you!”

Finally, the two heroes take off. Miles watches them as they go, until they are no longer seen in his radius. He realizes he has a huge grin on his face, and he can’t wait to tell Aaron—

Oh, right! He was supposed to be there! How long has it been?

Even then, Miles sprints to his uncle’s apartment, bouncing in excitement like never before.

“Miles, where were you? I was almost leaving to find you, were you with those kids-?”

“You won’t believe what just happened, Uncle Aaron! I saw Spider-Man again! And I met Iron Man, too!!”

“Woah, what?” Aaron’s eyes widen in surprise. “Alright, start from the beginning. I wanna know how my nephew has become famous with the heroes.”

Miles rolls his eyes but is still smiling. “So, I found Spider-Man not too far from here because I think his webs were busted? I tried to help him, but he insisted he was fine…” He decides he wouldn’t be telling his uncle about the hero’s identity. He did make a promise to Spider-Man, even if he trusts Aaron more than anyone else.

“… so, his suit called someone and suddenly Iron Man arrived to help! And he thanked me for watching Spider-Man!”

“Wow, that’s amazing, Miles,” Aaron smiles, ruffles his dark hair. “You really are a hero.”

Miles giggles, flustered. Then, his smile falls a bit.

“It’s funny, though… Iron Man wasn’t who I was expecting at all. The things I read about him are pretty different,” He comments.

“Oh yeah? What did you think of him, then?”

“He’s- He’s cool, y’know. But…”

Miles remembers Spider-Man and Iron Man arguing as if it’s the most familiar, common thing in the world. The way the two spoke to one another… Iron Man's scolding... Miles shakes his head and snorts.

“… he's a huge dad."

#fanfiction #marvel fanfiction #miles morales #peter parker #tony stark #irondad #aaron davis #writing #fics #my fics #injury tw #mcu #marvel cinematic universe

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claritalunaluna76 · 6 years ago

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MBW’s World’s Greatest Managers series profiles the best artist managers in the global business. This time, we speak to Mark Gillespie, founder of Three Six Zero and manager to huge artists like Calvin Harris. The World’s Greatest Managers is supported by Centtrip Music, a specialist in intelligent treasury, payments and foreign exchange – created with the music industry and its needs in mind.

Mark Gillespie grew up in Redditch, just south of Birmingham, England – where, as a teenager in the mid-’90s, he developed his passion for electronic music as a record collector and amateur DJ.

From there, he met local promoter Eddie Boulton, who gave him a job handing out flyers for Birmingham’s soon-to-launch legendary superclub Godskitchen.

Within a couple of years, Gillespie – deemed something of an internet-age whizkid within Godskitchen – was becoming an increasingly influential figure within the club, helping pick out emerging DJ talent, while also building websites, launching digital marketing campaigns and acting as a talent liaison.

This was a heady lifestyle for an 18-year-old dance music fanatic, which, by Gillespie’s own admission, invited “all kinds of crazy shit” into his life. Including the fact that local gangs – particularly the notoriously violent Birmingham Zulus – liked to frequent the club.

“For quite a while, I wore a bulletproof vest to work,” says Gillespie, matter-of-factly. “That was just being sensible; there’d always be standoffs between various gangs over who was and wasn’t allowed in the club. And then one night, this guy pulled a gun out and waved it right in my face.”

Funny thing is, Gillespie (pictured) doesn’t actually count this incident as his worst ever day at work. That came a couple of years before, when he considered turning his back on the music game for a ‘proper job’, by starting an engineering apprenticeship (similar to an internship) at UK car maker Rover.

“They were good people, but I hated it,” he says. “One day, I just stood up and walked out; I realized I had to make my music stuff work, otherwise I’d be at Rover for the rest of my days.”

Getting a gun thrust in his mush for Gillespie was, relatively speaking, still living the dream.

By 2003, Gillespie had progressed to booking the DJ’s at Godskitchen and its related festivals, as well as processing payments for talent and managing project budgets.

If anyone ever tells you that learning on the job is somehow bested by an academic education, let’s just run through the skills that Gillespie acquired within a few years of joining a nightclub as the flyer kid, aged 16: promotion, artist liaison, accounting, digital marketing, coding, talent booking, self-preservation – not to mention one of the best contacts books in the world of electronic music.

The next step was inevitable, wasn’t it? Godskitchen began releasing compilation albums through Sony Music, giving Gillespie a taste of how the wider record business worked.

Inspired by the likes of UK indie labels Defected, FFRR, and Toolroom, he hatched a plan to launch his own part-time record company – while still working at Godskitchen – and began scanning MySpace “for hours and hours most days, just trying to find new music played by interesting people”.

Eventually, Gillespie landed on the MySpace page of Scottish producer/DJ, Calvin Harris, and hotfooted it up to Glasgow to meet him. Leaving the city deeply impressed, Gillespie made a life-changing decision. “I pivoted,” he says. “I decided I didn’t want to be Calvin’s label – I wanted to be his manager.”

This was the beginning of what would become globe-straddling artist management powerhouse, Three Six Zero. Via his role at Godskitchen, Gillespie had become friendly with influential UK DJ and broadcaster Pete Tong and, in mid-2006, Gillespie passed Tong a CD with a bunch of Harris’s music on it. Tong played his track, The Girls, on his Friday night show on BBC Radio 1, and Gillespie’s cell phone began lighting up.

“I made the decision, right then, to quit my job and become a manager full time,” says Gillespie. “Calvin said to me, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ Looking back now, leaving [Godskitchen] probably was a real leap of faith, but it didn’t feel like it at that moment.”

Before we come on to the status of Three Six Zero in 2019, it’s worth reiterating the enormity of Calvin Harris’s worldwide success. He has sold 12 million records globally to date, including 44 million singles, and has had 14 UK No.1s. He has also amassed over 16 billion audio and video streams.

Originally signed by Mike Pickering at Columbia in the UK, Harris is one of Sony’s bestselling, and perennially prioritized, global artists. He’s worked with everyone from Rihanna to Dua Lipa, Florence + The Machine, Sam Smith, Khalid, Pharrell Williams, Ariana Grande and Migos.

In tandem with Harris’s rise, Gillespie, alongside his former business partner Dean Wilson, has built Three Six Zero into a truly blockbuster player in the global music industry. Based in Los Angeles, TSZ has one of the strongest rosters in dance music globally – with Harris, Tiësto and Disciples on its books, amongst others. It also reps leading lights in other genres like Louis Tomlinson, Kacy Hill and Grammy Award-winning producer Noah Goldstein.

Gillespie has an excellent story about his first foray into the United States with Three Six Zero: A major record label was interested in hiring the British exec to run a dance music-focused subsidiary. He took the meetings, and the paid flights to New York, gladly – but while in town, he was also meeting with Roc Nation’s Jay Brown, with whom Gillespie and Three Six Zero ended up going into business with for almost a decade.

Today, after a transformational year, Three Six Zero is fully independent, and fully-owned by Gillespie. TSZ recently launched a new office in London, headed up by long-term friend of the company, Phil Sales.

Gillespie, a major movie buff, has also quietly made a name for Three Six Zero in the film world, managing the likes of feature-maker Brady Corbet, Shameik Moore – the lead actor in Academy Award-winning animated movie, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse – and bestselling author/ scriptwriter Bret Easton Ellis.

Three Six Zero’s ambitions in Hollywood moved up a couple of leagues earlier this year, when Music Business Worldwide broke the news that the firm had acquired Westbrook Entertainment. That firm’s on-screen talent – including Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jaden Smith, Willow Smith, Kenna and Crespo – are all now integrated into the TSZ family.

What’s more, Three Six Zero launched its own first feature film – the acclaimed Vox Lux, starring Natalie Portman and Jude Law – at the end of last year. The soundtrack to the movie was released on Three Six Zero’s in-house record label, headed up by Pete Tong, which Gillespie runs as a JV with Sony Music Entertainment.

MBW recently sat down with Gillespie over dinner in Los Angeles to map out Three Six Zero’s history, and to learn what the British entrepreneur has up his sleeve for the future…

YOU’RE NOW FLYING SOLO AS THE HEAD OF AN INDEPENDENT THREE SIX ZERO – HAVING ALWAYS HAD BUSINESS PARTNERS SINCE YOU LAUNCHED THE COMPANY IN 2007. WHAT’S THAT LIKE?

The idea of running this company solo used to terrify me. But now it’s different: I like the autonomy, and I like that you can craft decisions that are entirely yours.

There isn’t any interruption in what you’re doing. In some ways, it’s more difficult, but in other ways it’s more enjoyable.

WHAT ARE THE BEST THINGS ABOUT THE MUSIC BUSINESS IN THE US?

I love the professionalism; people really take pride in what they do and that resonates with me. The level of execution that you see in the US business is very impressive – some of the festivals and the live touring setups in particular. You regularly come across people that are prepared to push the envelope [in order] to be able to ensure that really great and interesting things happen.

The potential scale in America is fascinating – the business here really thinks about things on a global basis. I’m really proud of the fact that we’ve managed to handle our business over here, and I’m really grateful that we’ve been enabled to do that.

We all know that some people [from international territories] come to the US with an attitude that they’re going to tell people what to do – to me, that suggests those people believe it’s somehow easy to conduct business over here, and it’s really not.

The flow of business and the way that things are done is totally different to the UK but I love it, and I’m hugely passionate about it.

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE TRANSITION FROM CALVIN HARRIS THE FRONTMAN TO CALVIN HARRIS THE SUPERSTAR DJ? SOME PEOPLE IN THE STATES MIGHT NOT KNOW THAT HE STARTED OUT AS A SINGER, VERY MUCH IN FRONT OF THE DECKS – BEFORE EMBRACING HIS KINGMAKING ROLE AS THE ARCHITECT BEHIND THE SCENES….

It’s one of the smartest decisions that he made in his career – and it was all him. He used the live touring circuit in the early stages of his career to help establish his business and hone his identity.

At that moment in time [indie/dance crossover acts with ‘frontmen’] was what was happening in the UK, but he saw what was coming and very intelligently saw that the world was turning in a slightly different direction. He also happened to write some of the greatest records ever released at the right time. That always helps.

HOW GOOD IS CALVIN?

His successes broadly speak for themselves. I may seem biased but I think he’s the best writer/producer of his generation.

I love him as an artist and a person. He’s ridiculously hard working, always has been, and he’s a huge a supporter of mine. His drive has definitely helped pushed me along over the years.

OTHER THAN JAY BROWN AND ROC NATION, WHO ELSE HAS BEEN MENTOR FIGURES IN THE US FOR YOU?

Rob Stringer. He’s really perceptive, and gave me some of the soundest advice in the early stages of my career. He’s also helped guide me, on more than one occasion, through what can sometimes be quite a complicated and political business.

Then there’s Michael Rapino – one of the smartest guys in the industry. He has a very direct, knowledge-based approach, which I respect him for. [That approach] is why, above anything else, I think he’s so tremendously successful.

On the subject of mentors, no-one comes close to my mum. She was an entrepreneur and raised three kids on her own. We didn’t have a lot, but she managed to get us into a place where we all had enough.

Redditch is a very ‘normal’ place; part of it’s really nice, part of it’s shitty, and the town center is ‘burger, fries and two black eyes’. It’s not South Central, but it’s not Kensington either. She’s been an incredibly good example to me that if you work really hard, you can achieve important things.

WHY HAVE YOU GOT SUCH A HUNGER TO MAKE MOTION PICTURES OR AUDIO/VISUAL CONTENT?

Partly because I think that the world that we live in now requires the ability to work across multiple disciplines. And partly because I love film, and always have.

Film, TV, short-form digital content, music and socials all used to be very separate, different disciplines. But over the past few years, with the massive growth in streaming, they’ve all moved closer together – and I think they’ll continue to move closer together.

A lot of people ask me whether I’m moving more towards film [at the expense of music] and I’m not. I work pretty much every moment that my eyes are open, and the film thing began as a hobby. I decided to do a few things that made us a bit more of a [Hollywood] entity, and which showed that we have reasonably good taste.

We’ve had a few successes now, and I think that all of the practical lessons that we learn from the [film] business will be hugely beneficial to the music side of our business. But, by no means, am I getting out of the music business. If anything, I’m more focused on music than I ever have been for my entire career; I think this is the most exciting time that the music business has ever seen.

WHY?

There are fewer barriers. There is opportunity for all different types of music to be able to break through.

Also, streaming is working, so there’s the revenue there, if distributed correctly, for the industry to develop and build big artists.

Interesting things are happening in the music business on a daily basis. Since the start of my career, I’ve been hugely into technology, and hugely into music, and I feel like at this moment in time, I get to do a bit of both every single day.

WHY DID YOU START A LABEL WITH SONY?

Three Six Zero has always run labels since the beginning of our business. [The company previously released albums from the likes of The Prodigy in the US via a JV deal with Warner Music Group and label-managed Mau5trap, Rising and Fly Eye Records.]

Running a label helps define your level of taste as a company. It also means you can have different levels of involvement in the careers of talent. The most enjoyable part of that is the ability to work with other managers, actually.

As for why Sony, part of it is because [via Calvin] I’ve spent eleven years getting to know everyone in that system; if I need to ask a question of somebody in Mexico, I know who to pick the phone up to. I know all the label heads in all the major markets, and there’s some really great people there.

Sony’s a really good company at the moment with a great perspective.

YOU’VE HAD SOME BIG CHARACTERS AS CLIENTS DOWN THE YEARS, INCLUDING TRAVIS SCOTT, MORRISSEY AND FRANK OCEAN. ONE OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS MOMENTS INVOLVED FRANK AND THE RELEASE OF BLONDE, WHERE HE COMPLETED HIS ALBUM DEAL WITH UNIVERSAL WITH A VIDEO-LP, ENDLESS, THEN INDEPENDENTLY RELEASED WHAT APPEARED TO BE HIS ‘REAL’ ALBUM WITHIN DAYS. HOW DID THAT SITUATION COME ABOUT?

Frank is a private guy, and that’s part of what makes him so great. So if that story is ever to be told, he should be the one telling it.

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO BE THE NEXT MAJOR TECHNOLOGICAL SEA CHANGE IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY?

The business needs to find a new format, in order to protect itself.

The biggest threat to the music business right now is decentralized networks. Thanks to Daniel [Ek] and Spotify, a new economy has been created in the business from streaming, but decentralization is a potential threat to that. Decentralization [i.e. blockchain technology] is something that was super buzzy for a year or two, and has gone away a bit, but I think it will swing back around at great pace in the next five years, and could be potentially devastating for the entire entertainment content business.

What happens after streaming is something that we need to focus on. The good news is that there are people within the major record companies and major publishers that are a hell of a lot more technologically savvy than they were when Napster hit.

One other thing is that I think other streaming platforms, from outside music, will want to get into music. That’s going to make things interesting but it’s potentially a threat as well – making sure that music is valued at the correct amount when that happens.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THREE SIX ZERO?

We’re in a place where we can largely do what we want, which is interesting. Over the last eighteen months, I’ve spent a lot of time reconnecting with my British roots, and I’ve come to the conclusion that, if everything came to an end tomorrow, I’d like to be seen as the guy who took some good British stuff to America and made it successful.

I hope for us to do more of that, which means spending a bit more time back in London, re-establishing the business there. I love seeing some of the new, young managers from the UK having a go at moving out [to L.A] and getting stuck in.

And obviously I’m really excited to see what we can achieve with Will [Smith], Miguel [Melendez] and the Westbrook guys. I’ve known them for seven or eight years, we all share a similar philosophy, and they’re very smart and innovative people. There is a real opportunity to work with them to grow our intellectual property [portfolio] while expanding our entertainment management business.

WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH THREE SIX ZERO UK? LAST WE HEARD IT WAS BEING CLOSED BUT NOW IT’S BACK.

It would be impossible for us to be champions of British talent and not have an office in London. Phil [Sales] is our head in London; we’re partners in the UK business and we’re building it around him.

He’s very direct, he’s honest, he truly loves music, and he’s incredibly passionate about what he does. I’m seeing lots of great things happening in the UK, musically.

The British business seemed to get very locked off [outside the US] for about a year and a half, but that seems to be changing now.

WHAT SIZE DO YOU WANT THREE SIX ZERO TO BECOME AS AN INDEPENDENT COMPANY?

I’m definitely not looking for mass scale – I’m not trying to be the biggest anything ever again. That’s one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my career so far; being the biggest is not necessarily being the best.

Continually re-assessing what success means to you – especially after you have prolonged success – is the most difficult bit of running a business, but it’s essential.

A specialist in intelligent treasury, payments and foreign exchange, Centtrip Music works with over 450 global artists helping them and their crew maximise their income and reduce touring costs with its award-winning multi-currency card and live foreign exchange rates. Centtrip Music also offers record labels, promoters, collection societies and publishers a more cost-effective way to send payments across the globe.

Music Business Worldwide - July 10, 2019

#“sony’s a really good company at the moment with a great perspective.”#rob stringer is one of his mentors #mark gillespie #three six zero #louis management #music business worldwide #music industry #for context #for the record

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cloudninetonine · 6 years ago

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A Favour for a Favour (Part 2)

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Summary: After the events of the Clash of the Avengers at the airport, Peter finds himself bored with his every day friendly neighbourhood Spider-man life. Then someone shows up who might be able to give him a little more than he wished for

A/N: Someone suggested I continue this because it would make a good series and well, who am I to refuse?

Tumblr also took the fucking chapter separation bar so it’s just lines between different points in time

Warnings: The usual bad language, still some sexual tension, slight mentions/hints of abuse (Not really but this is just in case)

“So, want to come over and work on that Lego Death Star?”

It was the end of the day at Midtown School of Science and Technology. Peter and Ned were just exiting the school perimeter, chatting to one another peacefully after an exhausting few hours of classes and enjoying each others company as per usual.

It had been about 3 months after the airport incident, fortunately for Peter, Mr Stark had let the kid keep the new suit permanently, releasing the boy back to his every day with some confusing advice and...that was it. He hadn’t heard from the man since, or from Happy either, no matter how many times Peter texted them, called them- they left him with nothing.

He was bored with everyday crime fighting, he wanted more, he needed a rush, he needed something.

Every time those kinds of thoughts rushed into his head, he thought back to (Name). He didn’t know why exactly, but one thing he did know for sure was that (Name)’s attitude screamed adventure, vigour, excitement. He told himself that was the reason why that he wanted something more and (Name) was most likely the one who would give him more, it was no other reason.

Yet, his mind also wandered to other thoughts about her. Where was she now? He was still being sent those...packages, so there was no way she was captured, right? So what was she doing?... Did she miss him? Did she, maybe...miss his scent? He missed hers, though he would never admit it, that sweet, sweet scent. God, he wished that he could smell it now-

“Peter? Are you even listening?”

Peter jumped, blinking his eyes hard and sending a smile- well more of a grimace- towards Ned. “Uh, sorry I was...thinking about the Stark Internship”

Ned’s face dropped “Does this mean you can’t come over and help me build the Lego Death Star?”

“What?- No! No, no, no, I can come over today” I need a break from Spider-man anyway “What time? Do you want me to come now-”

Freshly baked pastries: danishes, croissants, cupcakes, cake, doughnuts. The scent was so incredibly sweet, it hit him hard and when he said hard, he meant hard, like he had been punched right in the face by it, the boy had even stopped dead in his tracks.

He knew that smell but, she couldn’t be...the Accords made her a fugitive of the country and if she was here she would be arrested, she wouldn’t risk her freedom to come here, right-

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Mr Parker himself”

Peter went rigid; Ned glanced over his shoulder.

“And his friend, by the looks of it”

Peter turned slowly, watching as a casual dressed (Name) strolled past him while offering her hand towards Ned. “The name’s (Name), Ned, right?”

Ned smiled kindly towards the girl in return before taking her hand and giving it a firm shake “Yeah, that’s me, nice to meet you, although-”

Peter tried to ignore the look that his best friend sent him “Peter hasn’t told me about you”

(Name) let out a simple laugh as she threw her arm over Peter’s shoulders, tugging him closer to her own frame and patting his chest with her free hand. “Ah, well, Parker, he likes to keep little secrets here and there, you know?”

Ned nodded in agreement; Peter sent her a warning glare.

“Anyhow- I saw you two walking and I was like ‘Parker!? Is that really him!?’ and I just had to see! Say ‘hi’ if you will! And, well, now I think lunch would be appropriate for this sudden meeting, the three of us, I’ll pay, how does that sound, Parker?” (Name) shook the boy playfully, mischief dancing in her eyes as the two shared eye contact for a moment.

Peter’s lip curled “Great”

“Awesome!” Removing her arm from Peter, (Name) strolled up to Ned and they walked ahead, Peter sulking behind them with his eyes trained hard onto (Name).

“So how’d you meet Peter?”

“Oh, a great story, It was during the Stark Internship retreat in Germany, the company I interned for was invited for a conference-”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Ah shit” Ned whined, glancing at his phone with a grimace “My mom’s calling, I’ve gotta go”

“Oh! Do you want me to come with you? We can work on the Lego Death Star!” Peter offered, beginning to stand from his seat, only for Ned to wave him off with a smile.

“It’s cool, you hang with (Name) and we can do it later”

(Name) smiled towards Ned “It was really nice to officially meet you, Ned”

“It was nice to meet you too, (Name), I’ll see you guys later!”

Sharing mutual farewells, Ned stood from his seat and exited the cafe, waving at them when he passed the window their booth had been seated next to before disappearing from sight in the concrete jungle. Peter’s smile dropped once his friend had disappeared while (Name)’s own smile morphed into a mischievous smirk, head coming to rest on her intertwined hands as Peter leaned forward.

“What are you doing here?!” He whispered desperately, eyes wandering all over the cafe and to the street outside “Is Captain America here too? That guy with the metal arm-”

“Pause it, Parker, I’ve only got one mouth” (Name) laughed, sending him a wink “And no, Steve and Bucky aren’t with me, they’re at a classified location”

Peter let out a hard breath and collapsed back into his seat, eyeing the girl warily “Why are you here, (Name)?”

“Ooohhh, he’s using the hero voice”

“(Name)-”

“Okay, okay” With a laugh, she sat back up and her hand dived into her jacket pocket “I’m setting up a base here, well, nearby and I was scoping out the area”

She pulled out a thick envelope and tossed it over, watching in amusement as the boy quickly snatched it before shoving it into his backpack “I also came to drop that off personally, seeing as I was here already”

“Why do you keep giving me this money?” He asked, glancing over to his bag nervously.

“Why do you think?” She sent back, giving him a look. “You saved my life, Parker, least I could do”

“You don’t have to-”

“I want to” (Name) gestured for a waitress to come over, “End of discussion”

Peter sat silently for the next few moments as (Name) ordered another drink, exchanging polite chat with the waitress before turning back to Peter with a sheepish expression.

“What? What is it?”

“Well,” She started with a laugh “You see, my new base is gonna take a while to set up and, you see, I need a place to stay while that happens, so, I was wondering…”

Peter’s eyes widened “Wait, what!? No! You can’t stay at my place!”

“Awh, come on Parker!” (Name) pouted, “It’ll only be for a short while, three months tops!”

“Three months-” The waitress appeared with (Name)’s drink, the both of them immediately silencing themselves and watching her walk away awkwardly before turning back to one another “(Name), I can’t let you stay at my home!”

“Why? Is it because of the rent? ‘Cause I can pay, you know I can-”

Peter groaned, hands flying up to hold his face. “No it’s not that- it’s just- what would I say to my aunt? ‘Hey Aunt May, this is (Name), she’s a national fugitive who I saved a few months back- Oh, hey, can she stay with us!?’”

“I can come up with something” (Name) reassured, grabbing his hands and pulling them away to look him in the eye “Come on, Parker- Parker look at me- you can trust me, as soon as it’s over, I’ll be out of your hair, I promise, you’ll never have to see me again”

“...never…?” The boy asked, his expression dropping.

“Okay, maybe not never, I’ll probably be living a few blocks away or something- just-...please?” (Name) sent him a genuine pleading look “This is probably the only place that my old-...employer, won’t look, I just need a few months”

Peter’s expression softened and he bit the inside of his cheek. He couldn’t do this, he shouldn’t do this, (Name) was a national criminal, hell, she was basically a worldwide criminal. If he did this, he would get in so much trouble, he could drag May into this mess if he wasn’t careful and it would all end in disaster.

This was a bad idea.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fuck, this was such a bad idea.

“Hey, May?” Peter called into the apartment, pushing open the front door and allowing (Name) to trail behind him into the front room. “Are you here?”

“Yeah!” The sound of footsteps approached them and May turned the corner with her usual warm smile plastered on her face. “How was- Oh! Hello!”

(Name) recuperated the woman’s smile, though it resembled more of a wince than anything, part of the plan. The story was that (Name) had been kicked out from her abusive home a few weeks ago and was looking for a place to stay, Peter, being the sweetheart he was, had offered that they could stay with them for a while until she eventually saved enough money to get a place of her own.

It was a good idea but it had put a bad taste in his mouth. May was a bleeding heart, if she saw that someone was in trouble she would always try to help that someone out and at the moment, the two were using that to their advantage. Peter didn’t like lying to her, hell, not telling her that he was Spiderman was hard enough, but not telling her that he wanted to harbour a fugitive in their home? That was way worse than hiding any secret identity.

“Um- Hi- Hi!” (Name) stuttered, rubbing her arm awkwardly “You mu-..must be Miss-..Miss Parker! It’s- well I- um…”

Was...was she shaking?

Damn, she was good.

“Hey, it’s okay, (Name)” Peter squeezed the girl affectionately, feeling her melt under his touch and place her head on his shoulder, nuzzling into his neck softly. “Sorry, May, she’s just really shy”

May smiled in understanding and nodded her head. God, why was he doing this again? “That’s okay, sweetie, why don’t you sit down, I’ll get you something to drink”

“Th- um, Thank you” (Name) whispered, plopping down on the sofa as May walked off to the kitchen, Peter following behind with a heavy weight of guilt slowly beginning to form on his shoulders.

Well, here goes nothing.

“So, who is she?” His aunt purred playfully, looking through their assortment of drinks within the refrigerator “She smells like an omega, is she your mate?”

She wiggled her eyebrows towards him and a bright blush painted itself onto his face.

“What? No! No, no no, she’s just a friend from around, her family moved here a few months ago” May let out a hum that displayed her disbelief, turning back to the fridge “May, I’m being serious!”

“I’m sure you are, Petey”

“Seriously! I- Ugh! Nevermind, I needed to ask you something important”

“Go ahead, sweetie”

“Well, you see, I was wondering-” Peter glanced back into the living room, seeing (Name) look around the place before leaning closer to his aunt to whisper “Would it be okay if (Name) stayed here for a while?”

“What?” His aunt stared at him oddly “Why?”

Peter swallowed the saliva that was bundling in his throat. May didn’t seem mad or annoyed, more confused with his request than anything and he begged the Gods that it would stay that way.

“Well, uh…” The boy gestured for his aunt to move a little further away from their guest, continuing to speak in hushed voices as they addressed one another “(Name) hasn't been around for a while and I, well, I found out today that her father kicked her out”

A look of utter horror flashed over his aunt’s face and his chest squeezed painfully.

“He did what?” May took a glance towards the girl “How could he do that?”

Oh God this was harder than he thought.

“I-I...I convinced her to stand up to him” He replied quietly, his voice close to a whimper “She told me that he was hurting her and I told her that she shouldn’t take that from him and she stood up for herself and I-”

“Peter” The older woman placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, her other pushing some stray strands of hair behind his ear “This isn’t your fault”

A little voice in the back of his head told him otherwise.

“But-”

“No buts” May argued, pushing him towards the living room to where (Name) was seated “Go and comfort her, I’ll get her a drink”

“O-Okay”

‘God, I’m so sorry, May’

Peter trudged back over towards the sofa, letting himself collapse next to the girl with an exhausted huff. (Name), once she had seen that the boy’s aunt was distracted, leaned against the boy with a similar huff.

“Come on, sour puss” She whined “Don’t pout, it’s only for a short while”

“It’s not that” (Name) looked at him dubiously, “It just doesn’t feel right lying to her like this”

“Even though you lie to her every day about your whereabouts after school and how you’re Spiderman”

The boy deflated into his seat with a noise of distress and (Name) rolled her eyes.

What was the point of hiding the other you in front of loved ones? The real you? (Name) never really understood. I mean, if you had told the people you loved that you were X, Y, Z, wouldn’t it be better for them to prepare themselves for oncoming threats?

It happened all the damn time in movies. The hero’s family, friends, lover, etc. were kept in the dark and they were kidnapped or held hostage, or some other stupid occurrence that could have been avoided if the hero had been smart and just told the truth.

It really pissed her off.

But she’d keep up with the damn act.

If that was what Peter really wanted.

“Listen” (Name) whispered into his ear, Peter’s form going rigid under her touch “How about I let you in on a little secret, Mr Spidey”

“(Name)-”

The girl hushed him softly and raked her hand through his brown locks.

God, she loved to tease the poor boy, any little touch, a slight change in tone, a little saucy word or two sent his heartbeat into a frenzy and turned the colour of his skin from that cute tan to a beautiful shade of rosy red. Oh, he was just so adorable!

With a soft giggle, she grinned against the shell of his ear “What you said wasn’t a complete lie”

Then she had pulled away, a nervous smile once again tugging at her lips as May sauntered back into the room “I hope you’re okay with orange juice, it’s all we really had”

“Th-..That’s fine! Thank you Miss Park-..Parker”

“Please, call me, May, (Name)”

“Oh, of-..of course”

“...Peter are you okay, you look a little upset?”

The boy waved off his aunt, sending her an apologetic smile, even when thoughts stormed through his head.

What did (Name) mean by that?

#peter parker imagine #peter parker x reader #spiderman imagine #spiderman x reader #peter parker #spiderman #A Favour For A Favour #avengers imagine #marvel imagine

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elizas-writing · 5 years ago

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Of the latest “controversial” opinions to rock social media, renowned director Martin Scorsese voiced his dislike of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). To Scorsese, MCU films are more like an amusement park than cinema which is meant to “convey emotional, psychological experiences.” As you do, this sparked some outrage among fans and even a few filmmakers from MCU. Scorsese himself even wrote an op-ed for The New York Times to further explain himself when the backlash got out of control and specified he meant the whole comic book film genre.

On one hand, I understand not wanting to give in to an elitist ideal of what “cinema” is, and comic book films deserve to be on equal footing as any other genre. Not every film needs to be a grand masterpiece, and art is subjective and can come from anywhere, even in the MCU. Black Panther is an expertly crafted film of Afrofuturism and deserved all its awards nominations. Guardians of the Galaxy, despite being an inherently goofy franchise, delivers a strong, emotional, complex narrative of found family and overcoming trauma from a lifetime of abuse. MCU also gave a ton of publicity for more unknown actors and directors. And audiences steadily flocked to the rest of their work, and they look forward to what else they have to give besides superhero films; it’s one of the reasons why Taika Waititi is now a favorite director in my book. And give credit where it’s due, Marvel is the only successful cinematic universe so far to stay in the long run where others spectacularly failed. It’s not perfect, but all things considered on what could’ve gone wrong, it’s surprising to see the hard work pay off.

At the same time, despite being a longtime fan of MCU, I’m starting to feel fatigued with the superhero genre. And this began way before Scorsese said anything. With the release of Disney+, fans are expected to subscribe and watch these new shows which apparently will tie into future movies scheduled out until 2022. It’s also not much of a secret that Disney is morphing into a corporate monster and consuming all media it can grabs its hands on. And with more time to further reflect on some of these movies without the excess hype, I admit I was probably far too kind on my initial reviews. There are a lot of MCU films I can discuss in these regards, but as I drafted this up, I had far more to say on Spider-Man. So that will be my primary focus for this piece.

At the end of the day, Scorsese’s opinions are mainly on his personal film tastes— also, c’mon, the guy agreed to voice act in fucking Shark Tale of all things; no one’s twisting your arm to take his word as gospel—, and not everyone is gonna automatically like the superhero genre. I respect that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and I agree it feels like the film market is oversaturated with them. And there is still a lot to be said on recent filmmaking trends and if MCU can keep a steady momentum in the long run. It is possible to have too much of a good thing. After a while, you’ll want to leave the amusement park, but when will that point be? Well, I’m here to break down my biggest frustrations with MCU through Scorsese’s lens and a reevaluation of Spider-Man, both the character and the movie franchise.

I. Too Many Damn Franchises

In his op-ed, Scorsese worried about “franchise films [which] are now your primary choice” in major theaters, leaving little room for everyone else. It isn’t much of a stretch that we don’t see a lot of original content which stands on its own between all the sequels and reboots which expect prior knowledge of its predecessors to understand what is going on. And of course, Disney is the largest perpetrator of this with all the properties they own and all the live action remakes/reimaginings of their original content which no one asked for (no, trust me, you didn’t ask for an origin story of Cruella de Vil; turn off the nostalgia goggles).

Yeah, there’s only like, one of these I want to see

Some of MCU’s individual franchises, particularly the earlier films, work well on their own without necessarily needing to watch every other film in the universe. Some are only connected with super minor details which can be picked up from context clues or dialogue referencing events of the previous films. Guardians of the Galaxy is the best example of this as their adventures are self-contained up until Avengers: Infinity War. But then you have Tom Holland’s Spider-Man which completely relies on fully understanding what’s happening in the universe as whole; what happens to him in Captain America: Civil War and the last two Avengers movies influences the plots of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Far from Home. It’s impossible for this iteration of Spider-Man to stand on its own without MCU context. And they can only spend so much time to recap the previous movies because they assume you already watched them; the recaps are just bare bones refreshers. Each new MCU film is further tied into the entire franchise, so now you have to watch a decade’s worth of movies to understand the individual franchises.

MCU is also one of many franchises dominating movie theaters, averaging at about 2-3 releases per year. It may not sound like a lot, but it’s overwhelming when they’re sandwiched between other franchises from D.C. Comics to Harry Potter to Star Wars and whatever 80s or 90s properties Hollywood finds worthy of a reboot/sequel. Movies are still pretty expensive, and we can’t be expected to see every movie as they release. So we end up having to pick and choose what to immediately see in theaters. And if you’re seeing a franchise film, chances are you’ll also have to backtrack on whatever predecessors are available to get the context of a new movie. When other movies, especially non-franchise films, don’t perform as well upon opening weekend, their showings are reduced, and you’ll be lucky if they’re still there a month later. And this is part of why directors like Scorsese turn to streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime to release their movies to not panic on box office numbers, “the primary delivery system” as he calls it.

While streaming services are convenient and far less expensive than movie tickets, viewers are still subject to content overload. With fluctuating availability of certain titles, you still have to pick and choose what you want to see first before it disappears for months or years. Do you want to watch this new Netflix original film that’s gonna be there forever, or do you want to watch re-runs of The Office before its contract expires? Sometimes if a service doesn’t see an immediate high viewership of certain original shows, they get cancelled and fade into obscurity. Now everyone and their mother wants to hop on the streaming bandwagon, and spread out their exclusive shows as thinly as possible, including Disney. The overall costs come close to cable or satellite television which goes against the whole point of streaming services.

Expanding the MCU to television isn’t a new concept. We still have Daredevil and Jessica Jones on Netflix, just to name a couple shows. Although they referenced the MCU films, their worlds were separated far enough that you could watch the shows without needing to see any movies. But then you also have something like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D which is more dependent on seeing the movies to understand the show’s plot. If you didn’t see the latest MCU movie that weekend before the next episode, you’ll probably miss out on the context and be barraged with spoilers. Although the events of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D weren’t referenced in the MCU films, the fans still have a lot of work to keep up with the show’s story.

Also, I know y’all are worried about brand integrity, but you already own Hulu…??

Not only were all the Netflix shows cancelled in favor of Disney+, but the shows on the new platform are said to affect future films, including all the new characters to be introduced. We still don’t know to what extent the shows and films will tie in together, but it already sounds demanding to keep up with. And let’s be real, who asked for WandaVision, a show with two of the most boring MCU characters? Or Hawkeye after Jeremy Renner decided to make a raging asshole of himself? Do I really need to watch these shows to understand the movies going forward?

Again, it’s still too early to determine how much the shows will coincide with the movies. And given the success of a show like The Mandalorian, I hope I’m wrong on the quality of future Disney+ projects. But I can’t help notice that MCU started favoring quantity over quality since they know they can make bank regardless of the project. It aaaaalllllll comes back to money which brings me to the next big issue of MCU.

II. Business Over Art

Business and art is always at odds with each other in filmmaking, especially if you’re going into Hollywood, and it’s never easy to compromise on the two. You need to find a balance between getting a finished movie out to theaters and not wasting the production’s time and money. According to Scorsese, this used to be “a productive tension that gave us some of the greatest films ever made.” However, in recent years, this balance tipped in business’s favor “with absolute indifference to the very question of art.” As a result, we don’t get the full “unifying vision of an individual artist.” We just have “worldwide audiovisual entertainment” and cinema. “They still overlap from time to time, but that’s becoming increasingly rare. And [he] fear[s] that the financial dominance of one is being used to marginalize and even belittle the existence of the other.”

Okay, this is still fun no matter how many times I see it

Sadly, we see this financial dominance with Disney grabbing on as many properties as possible and launching their own streaming service with exclusive shows and films. This became most heated with the Spider-Man character rights debacle with Sony. Back in August 2019, Sony disagreed on Disney’s proposed 50-50 split of MCU Spider-Man movie profits. If a deal wasn’t made, Disney would lose the rights to Spider-Man, and the MCU wouldn’t get a third film for the character. And it took a month for the companies to reach a deal to keep Spider-Man in the MCU with the third film scheduled for July 2021, but the details of the new deal weren’t publicly disclosed. Fans were divided as to which company was in the right, and it’s a little bit of Column A and B.

On one hand, it’s annoying when studio executives get in the way of the art and think they know what will guarantee box office and critical success. And it’s especially irritating in this case when character rights bounce around and determine who will make the next movies and what stories to tell. Spider-Man already has not one, but two previous franchises cancelled before their full potentials were realized. Yeah, Sony kinda shot themselves in the foot with the crap quality of Spider–Man 3 and The Amazing Spider–Man 2, but I can’t help wonder how these stories could’ve gone if they were allowed to continue.

Still the superior Spider-Man movie, by the by

On the other hand, Sony was right to refuse Disney’s initial offer. You think after the tremendous success they had with Into the Spiderverse that they would settle on only half of the profits? Disney has more than enough monopoly on Hollywood that they’re nowhere near in danger of bankruptcy like they used to be. We still need studios which will put their foot down to greedy demands and will better unleash creativity in ways which even Disney is still too chicken to pursue. I’m still so glad we waited on Sony to make Miles Morales the star of his own movie, because MCU has a bad track record of keeping up with diverse representation that only within the past 2 years of a 12-year-old franchise did we finally get movies not led by cisgender white men. And there was a lot more genuine love to do this story and these characters right to show anyone can be a hero.

Between the tug-of-war on character rights and franchise overload, these business decisions greatly affect the movies, and some of these stories may not live up to their full potential (not to mention the actors’ contracts which dictate how much screentime their characters get). As this is Disney we’re talking about, we also run into my final major issue with their control on MCU.

III. Cultural Authority on Stories

I knew saving my books from the UC: Santa Cruz Walt Disney class would come in handy some day!

In her essay “Fantasia: Cultural Constructions of Disney’s ‘Masterpiece'”, media historian Moya Luckett discusses the concerns of Disney holding “cultural authority” on the images of famous stories. As Disney is a formidable part of most everyone’s childhood, they are usually the go-to images when we think of Cinderella, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, and dozens more. Disney is clearly doing something right if these films are enjoyed decades later. I still go to Disney when I first think of Robin Hood, and it’s just as great as when I watched it as a kid. Unfortunately, with Disney dominating family and children’s media, they don’t allow much room for other interpretations to shine.

For example, with Luckett’s focus on the 1940 film, Fantasia, music critics worried “that the power of Disney’s images would anchor the music,” so some audiences may immediately associate “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” with Mickey Mouse or “Pastoral Symphony” with centaurettes instead making their own interpretations¹. And those critics were definitely right to worry, and the concerns expanded beyond classical music. To this day, folks still react with shock when they read the original books or darker iterations of fairytales which these movies are based on. In some extreme cases, Disney’s images contribute to racial stereotypes and distorted perceptions of histories and cultures, and the company still hasn’t figured out how to properly express that while they were products of their time, they weren’t okay then and they’re certainly not okay now.

But anyway, what the fuck does this all have to do with MCU? Sadly, Disney’s cultural authority leaked into MCU too.

With an indefinite future and the inevitable MCU reboots of characters and groups like the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, it is probably going to be literal years before we see new versions of characters like Tony Stark or Steve Rogers, at least as far as live-action movies are concerned. We’ll always have the numerous cartoons and, of course, the original comics, but the live-action films are stuck until Disney reboots these franchises themselves, or they pass the rights along to another studio to do so. For some viewers, MCU may be the first go-to images of these heroes, and not every fan will be dedicated enough to seek out other adaptations on their own. And that’s not a good thing if a comic arc or character gets a shitty adaptation. One such example, which also ties into Spider-Man, is the Civil War storyline which was adapted to film with Captain America: Civil War in 2016.

The original comic, published from July 2006 to January 2007, was a mega Marvel crossover event in which after a superheroes and villains battle ended in over 600 civilian deaths, the U.S government quickly passed the Superhuman Registration Act. Any superpowered person— regardless how they obtained their abilities— was required to register with the government, publicly reveal their identities, and enlist with S.H.I.E.L.D. for training to serve as a hero. Many heroes split up into two factions: one led by Tony Stark, who helped pass the law, and Steve Rogers, who went rogue to create the Secret Avengers because he found the law violated civil liberties of freedom and privacy. Families and friendships were torn apart, and the fighting escalated so badly that it was no longer even about the law but about Tony and Steve’s massive egos on who was right, resulting in more damage than any villain could’ve done (I recommend watching Comicstorian’s overview of the story for more details since it there’s so much going on, and his video is nice and succinct).

MCU already put themselves in pickle trying to adapt one of the biggest comic stories ever as they couldn’t portray the same scale of conflict, emotional zeitgeist, or the multiple sideplots weaved in. Film is already an inherently limited medium of entertainment for time, so cuts are inevitable. And what do you do when you can’t bring in major players like the Fantastic Four or the X-men? Well, for Captain America: Civil War, the conflict was scaled down to the Sokovia Accords which gave control of Avengers activity to the United Nations since their more recent missions often did more damage than good. In theory, this isn’t necessarily a bad idea since it still ties into the themes of government control versus civil liberties and when heroes need to be accountable. And the two sides still align similarly to the original comic with Tony Stark in favor of the law after his screw-up with Ultron and Steve Rogers against it after S.H.E.I.L.D. turned out to be front for HYDRA just a couple years before.

Unfortunately, the conflict over the Sokovia Accords is too quickly sidelined over Bucky Barnes being framed for a terrorist attack and a severe misunderstanding of his brainwashing when he was the Winter Soldier. The characters’ motivations— most of which have nothing to do with the Accords at all— jump all over the place on why they side with Tony or Steve. The ultimate battle boils down to a bromance love triangle, and I don’t feel like the MCU Avengers are a cohesive enough unit to feel any emotional drama when they split apart. In the long run, the worst consequences that anyone faces for violating the Sokovia Accords are either going into hiding or being placed under house arrest. And the law really stops mattering to anyone once Thanos snaps half of the universe’s population out of existence, making most of the film inconsequential. And for all of MCU’s best efforts to cut and edit the story to fit to film language, it’s still underwhelming to not have the massive scale the comic had. I don’t know if Civil War could ever have a proper live-action film adaptation without splitting it into multiple parts, and let’s be honest, audiences only have so much attention spans before they want something new.

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One of the major sideplots of Civil War was, of course, Spider-Man’s involvement, which became a huge selling point in the film’s trailers. In the comic, Peter Parker was ambivalent towards the Superhuman Registration Act, because villains could use the heroes’ public identities to attack their friends and family. But he still had faith that Tony Stark had everything under control, and revealed his identity in a press event to publicly voice his support for the Act. However, after a fight against the Secret Avengers resulted in the gruesome death of Goliath, Peter questioned Tony’s motivations and switched over to Steve Rogers’s side in hopes to de-escalate the fighting so no more heroes would die. At this point, Tony and Peter were well-acquainted that the former supplied him with his own tech, particularly the Iron Spider suit, so the side-switching (including a one-on-one fight between the two) was a hell of a surprise for readers. And I was really looking forward to that dynamic to play out in MCU, especially with a younger version of Peter Parker.

“So, cool if I just dip out for like 3 months without explanation?”

But MCU decided to throw out that conflict in favor of Peter Parker giving unquestioning veneration to Tony Stark as his mentor when he honestly doesn’t deserve it– I covered some of this briefly in a previous post on Tony Stark’s character stagnation, so there is some repeat but also some update with Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home in mind. Anyway, let’s break down Tony’s wonderful career as a mentor: manipulating Peter to join a fight against Captain America without the full details when it was already a huge misunderstanding; putting him on radio silence when black market weapons dealers were ready to steal his tech and just said he had it under control (spoiler: he didn’t, and Peter had to save the day himself and was nearly crushed by a whole building in the process); and trusting him with a pair of hi-tech glasses without instructions on how to not accidentally set off drones against his classmates.

This scene from Homecoming will always annoy the piss out of me. You can’t change my mind.

There’s a lot of confused framing and intentions to unpack here. Tony clearly doesn’t have certain situations under control, constantly struggles to come to terms with the fact he can’t save everyone, and lets anxiety overwhelm his better judgement in his deluded ideas to protect people. Despite his paranoia of saving everyone, Tony somehow doesn’t seem the least bit concerned with all the dangerous situations Peter, a 16-year-old, throws himself into while he’s on vacation. And Tony is still framed in the right on how he handles his problems, including punishing Peter for questioning his poor communication skills. Yeah, bold flex from a guy who waited until the last second to help save a boat full of civilians. Yes, we have to go through “with great power comes great responsibility” in a Spider-Man story, but Tony was well-aware how eager Peter was to prove himself, especially when he’s much more inexperienced and at a much younger age where he seeks validation from adult role models. Aside from giving Peter some nice tech, Tony didn’t actually teach him anything about heroism, and he certainly didn’t care to get to know him personally when he’s out of the suit which severely undermines the mentor-student route they attempted with these two characters. Tony gave Peter a lot of power, but didn’t guide him how to responsibly use it.

Sweet moment; you gonna apologize for the part where you sat off to the side while he was almost crushed by a building?

I wanted to see that conflict between Peter and Tony like in the comics. It would’ve been fascinating to see the perspective of a teenager roped into the adult world of heroes. Perhaps he’d look back on his involvement in Civil War and wonder why the hell he was a part of that and what being a hero means to him. I didn’t want Peter to be punished for rightfully questioning Tony’s methods, and maybe, just once, Tony would get a come-to-Jesus moment and stop being a perpetual douchebag. The closest we get to those moments of actual love and mutual respect are the last two Avengers movies when Peter is snapped out of existence and Tony sacrifices himself to stop Thanos. The payoff is in the right mind, but MCU forgot the proper build-up to establish any genuine connection between Peter and Tony, let alone hold the latter accountable for his constant fuck-ups and neglectful mentoring. The lost potential in that bond and the Civil War arc only scratches at the surface in regards to why this adaptation of Spider-Man falls short.

Another gripe diehard MCU fans had on the character rights debacle was if Sony got back Spider-Man, how would they do the next movie without referencing Tony Stark? And this ties back again to the fact MCU Spider-Man cannot work as a standalone franchise. Peter Parker’s growth revolves too much on other MCU events and characters, especially Tony, and you don’t know who he is without those outside influences. Even the villains’ motivations are framed around Tony doing them wrong in some way. Yes, most viewers are familiar enough with Spider-Man that it’s redundant to show the origin story again; we know Uncle Ben is gonna die no matter what. But personal tragedy and family love were always Peter’s primary motivations to becoming a hero, and MCU barely references them. They can’t even get the dynamic between Peter and Aunt May right; their love is so lifeless and dull.

Iron Man Jr? Spider-Man? I don’t know anymore…

What makes Peter’s arc fascinating to watch isn’t him proving himself to Tony or some other surrogate father figure. It’s his relationship with what little family he has left, sacrificing his emotional needs to protect them, using his resourcefulness to build himself up as a hero, looking out for the underrepresented of New York City so they don’t have to go through what he did, and accepting that he can’t save everyone, even with all his best efforts. MCU shows snippets of that arc, but the development is still too focused on Tony to the point where Spider-Man feels more like an Iron Man Jr. It works well enough for the overall MCU, but not so much as an individual franchise when you compare the story and character relationships to the films made by Sam Raimi, Marc Webb or even Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman. Thank God that Spider-Man has so many adaptations for people to flock to, because if this was someone’s first and only introduction of the character in live-action film, they’d be hopelessly confused.

Sadly, that ends up being the case for so many MCU characters whose stories are also stuck with too much outside influences instead of being allowed to develop on their own. If I tried to cover every character potential wasted in MCU so far, we’d be here forever. As of late, MCU focuses on tying every event and character arc together and overloading on Easter eggs to build up to the next major plot conversion instead of creating stories with organic world-building which can stand on their own. This isn’t the case for every MCU movie, but it is the most common trend in their latest projects which will most likely continue to that next crossover event, whenever and whatever it is. The allusions to other films in the universe should be embellishments, not the entire story’s foundation.

Although I’m curious where they’ll take Peter Parker given the midcredits scene of Far From Home, I also wonder if they’ll tell his story with him front-and-center and without referencing Tony Stark every five minutes. But what’s done is done, and MCU’s Spider-Man relied too much on those allusions to the point where some fans forgot what made him a great hero to begin with. When you strip away his involvement with the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D., his arc is feeble compared to other adaptations. Sure, Tobey Maguire got goofy at times, and Andrew Garfiled’s drama was maybe too heavy-handed, but their Peter Parkers are at least well-rounded characters who figure out what being a hero means to their personal growth. Tom Holland does well with what he’s given, and I love seeing his emotional vulnerability, but I don’t know who his Peter Parker is without Avengers shenanigans.

I want to continue enjoying MCU as much as anyone else, but it’s hard to not see Scorsese’s point that most of these movies are mindless like amusement parks. At some point, we gotta turn off the hype goggles and see what else these stories have to offer besides how they relate to larger events in the cinematic universe. It’s not bad to indulge in mindless fun every now and then, and we still get fantastic movies out of MCU, but audiences will get tired of the obligation to watch dozens of shows and movies to keep up with the story. And with Disney controlling almost all of entertainment, we need to re-evaluate if they’re interested in telling engaging stories or in shooting out franchise after franchise to maintain steady profits and if these are even good-enough adaptations of such beloved comic characters we want to automatically go to when we think of them. As I said before, it is possible to have too much of a good thing, and you need to leave the amusement park eventually. Since we know so little of their next crossover events, I hope MCU finds the point where they can satisfyingly wrap up the story of this universe before we get exhausted by it all.

Luckett, M. “Fantasia: Cultural Constructions of Disney’s ‘Masterpiece.'” Disney Discourse, ed. E. Smoodin (New York City, NY: Routledge, 1994), 227.

Shout out to my darling friend, Kayla, who helped me through one of my rough drafts to help focus this piece!

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Martin Scorsese Isn't Totally Wrong: The Marvel Cinematic Universe, Overindulgence, and Re-evaluating Spider-Man's Arc #martinscorsese #mcu #marvel #spiderman Of the latest "controversial" opinions to rock social media, renowned director Martin Scorsese voiced his dislike of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)

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