#tony's death IS so tragic. because it's so early in canon. he's so *young*

[the-faultofdaedalus]

Wait, WAS Tony even trying to make Iron Man anything like him? Like yes in the “the best parts of me are in Iron Man” kinda way, but he’s so focused on making him GOOD, would he even expected for there to be any identity crisis' from either the Robot or his friends? His friends who feel like they know Iron Man somehow? Like, we know can make (when he has the tech) basically a 1:1 version of himself he makes an alcoholic and everything, but that wasn’t the goal here but he left some of his soul behind

Like how sometimes a writer or artists pours so much of their heart and soul into a work and people see it and are like, oh it’s you! And no, the poem/painting/character/song is not about/is them, it’s a universal thing! But no it's them oops. Like the artist thinks, no I would know if it’s a self portrait, but the face you know best is usually your own and oops you gave every character your own nose.

i think he was intending for iron man to be like... enough of him to continue doing his work. like building things. to keep the suit in repair, to keep upgrading it. i think he'd want him to be close to him, just so that he knows that like... iron man is going to have the same drive to keep being iron man that tony did.

i also think that like, you need to start from something, and the something he has on hand is... himself.

i dont think a lot of it is intentional, in that i do not think tony would've made the AI exactly like him, or tried to make it too much like him (see: not putting in the alcoholism like he does when he is Just making an AI of himself) i think he can't help but put in enough of his own values that... it does turn out like him. he's the one making it. of course it turns out like him.

i think.... honestly i think a lot of the consequences that the AI faces due to being what he is are things that tony just. did not have the time or bandwidth to consider. he was dying. he did die. he had the time to make sure that the thing he considered most important could continue on.

but yeah!!! there is definitely Something his friends notice, about him being similar to tony. i don't think it ever crosses their minds that, like, they're the same person (kind of, again, not really) because, like, iron man was at tony's funeral. but there is this kind of quite... awkwardness. about this man who maybe knew their friend better than they ever did. who knows things about him that no one else does.

and yeah!!! there are issues about it, but it isn't like tony intended any of it. which is almost worst, in a way. there isn't anyone to blame. it's no one's fault. no one intended for this ai to turn out like how he did. the way he is isn't anyone's fault.

it's just how he is.

[cap-ironman]

Cap-IM Big Bang 2019: Jumping Into Comic Universes

Huge fan of Stevetony but not sure where to start when it comes to a comic-based fic? You love the MCU but are now looking to branch out? Want to try out some self-contained comic runs before going full-speed into the 616 continuity?

Here's our short primer for 5 different Marvel comic universes which won't take long to read and stand on their own! Arranged by length, there might just be one that sparks a fic idea for you!

3490

Earth-3490 | One panel | Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #2

This universe is basically a colouring book page, ready to be filled in with all the details and backstory you like! All of one panel, Earth-3490 is one of the universes Reed Richards comes across while searching for alternate realities in which the Superhero Civil War ended differently. It's popular with Stevetony fans because in this universe, the entirety of Civil War was averted because Natasha Stark (this universe's version of Anthony Stark) and Steve Rogers got married. Canonical genderbending ahoy!

Marvel Noir

Earth-90214 | Four issues | Iron Man Noir #1-4

Set in the 1930s, this universe takes its name after the noir pulp fiction style that it imitates. Tony Stark, avid adventurer and pilot of the Iron Man armour that he built, goes on expeditions seeking lost treasure alongside his chronicler and trusted friends. He faces betrayal, deceit and Nazis as he battles a weak heart to keep providing Marvels: A Magazine of Men's Adventure with new stories of valour, as well as eliminate the looming threat of evil Baron Zemo. At the end of the run, Tony decides to abandon adventuring and focus on making the world safer.

With complex daddy issues and hurt/comfort opportunity galore, playing in this universe also gives you the advantage of making up your own Steve Rogers! You can easily lift Steve's backstory of becoming Captain America against the backdrop of WWII, or you can imagine an entirely different past for him as you prefer.

Marvel 1872

Earth-616 | Four Issues | 1872 #1-4 (part of Secret Wars 2015 event)

Set in the Wild West of America in the year 1872, this comic run is an offshoot of a larger Marvel-616 comic event, but it can easily be read with no prior knowledge of comics. Here, the honourable Sheriff Steve Rogers faces down corruption and fear in the small town of Timely. Blacksmith Anthony Stark lends a hand when it's not being used to pull corks and tip booze down his gullet, and the rest of the Marvel cast is reimagined with different roles and origin stories befitting the era. It's time to take back Timely from mayor Fisk's greedy grasp, and get vengeance!

This comic run ends a bit tragically (CW: MCD), so this is a chance for either a fix-it or some delicious angst (or both)! You can go further back in time and think about how Steve and Tony ended up in Timely, or alternatively you might choose to forge into the future and render their lives after the comic run ends.

(Previously, the 1872 image was from a fancomic by @nim-lock -- you can find it here. Our sincerest apologies for accidentally re-posting a fanwork without permission!)

Bullet Points

Earth-70105 | Five issues | Bullet Points #1-5

Bullet Points traverses WWII and the Cold War period, diverging from the usual Captain America origin story and combining it with Iron Man's in an angsty, pain-ridden mash-up. In this universe, Erskine, the scientist in charge of souping Steve Rogers up with the super soldier serum, is killed before this can happen, and instead pre-serum Steve is recruited into Project Iron Man at SHIELD. He undergoes surgery to have the chestplate of a weaponized suit of armor physically wired to his heart—it cannot be removed, which also prevents America's enemies from gaining control to the suit. Steve becomes Iron Man at great expense to himself, and survives WWII.. but he doesn't make it to the end of the story. The industrialist Tony Stark, who coincidentally has a weak heart, picks up the mantle of Iron Man at the end of the comic run after coming to SHIELD to investigate the possibility of creating an army of Iron Men.

You can stick to the script and consider Tony's relationship to Steve's legacy as Iron Man. But in a universe where Iron Man was there from the beginning, there's also a lot of scope further canon divergence! You can push forward Tony's meeting with SHIELD and have Steve and Tony meet while the original Iron Man is still in action, you can retcon Steve's death and write a love story that begins with a show of heroism; you can do whatever you like!

Marvel 1602

Earth-311 | Eight issues | Marvel 1602 #1-8

This comic run is of a pocket universe that was created when the Steve Rogers of Earth-460 was sent into the past of Earth-616 and the resultant alternate history was separated from the original timeline. Roger's arrival in the past causes the early emergence of mutants (witchbreed) and superheroes in the early 17th century, and to restabilise reality he eventually returns to his own universe. In 1602, Rogers escorts the young Virginia Dare, the first child born in the America colonies, to England, where readers are introduced to a vast array of reimagined Marvel characters. Meanwhile, Anthony Stark, taken captive in the English/Spanish war and forced to make weapons, creates a massive suit or armor to survive. The armor is powered by "lightning bottles" and provides him with super strength and invulnerability as well as several electricity-powered weapons.

With such a different political scape and several plot strands to follow, there's plenty of things to expand on in fic! Not only do you have the world of 1602 to play around in, but you can also consider the world Steve is sent away from, and the people mourning him there (and how happy they are when he returns). A chance to write about English aristocracy should you wish to, or rewrite the story of Captain America and Iron Man completely!

Lastly, if you prefer visual universes and want to branch out from the MCU, try some of the short Marvel Animated Feature films. There are 7 in total, but the ones which focus on the team rather than a single character are:

Ultimate Avengers

Ultimate Avengers 2: Rise of the Panther

Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow

Running since 2011, the Cap-Iron Man Big Bang challenges the community's writers to create Steve/Tony-focused fic with a minimum of 25,000 words. Artists are then invited to claim a fic and create accompanying art! To sign up as a writer you need to send us your 20,000 word draft and summary by

September 25th.

For the full 2019 BB Event Guidelines and information for prospective writers and artists, click here!

[yetanotheremptypage]

Happy Fanfiction Writers’ Appreciation Day!

It’s another fic rec list! Here’s last year’s, and here’s the masterpost with links to previous years’ lists. They are all amazing, so you should definitely check them out, but in the mean time, here’s some more. I tried to tag most of the ships and/or fandoms, so if you ship any of those or are in the fandom, check out the recs below the cut. Of course, there are plenty more amazing fanfictions/writers out there, and to them, I give a huge THANK YOU! Finally, for the shameless plug, if you have any interest in any of my stories, links can be found here.

all of my wrongs they lead me right to you series (Lara Jean x Peter, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before) AO3 [In-progress]

Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky reconnect 6 years after breaking up.

Peter's hiding a secret that could change everything.

A great look at relationships and the happy ever after we all want for these two. Plus Peter as a single dad. Perfection in every story, from courtship to parenting.

And All The Devils Are Here (Rosaline x Benvolio, Still Star-Crossed) AO3 [Complete]

It's a simple story, really: Girl meets Boy. Girl hates Boy. Girl and Boy infiltrate the most popular reality dating show on television to expose its unethical treatment of contestants and have to act like they're falling in love... And suddenly, the lines get blurred between the sparks flying on screen - and the real thing that grows when the cameras stop rolling.

Did you know you needed a Rosaline x Benvolio undercover Bachelor AU? No. But you do. Trust me. It’s by the same author as Falser Than Vows Made In Wine, which I rec’ed another year, and it is just as perfect.

Close To The Ground (MCU) AO3 [Complete]

“Not done,” Tony slices a hand through the air, and Peter shuts his mouth immediately. “Because you must have done something. Last I remember, your mother wasn’t an insect.”

Peter winces, but he can’t help mumbling an “Arachnid,” under his voice.

“Excuse me?”

“Spiders are arachnids, not insects.” Mask clutched in his hands, staring at the floor, Peter decides this might just be one of the worst moments of his young, ever persisting life.

(...or the civil war biodad au that no one asked for.)

Need to recover after the Starkson feels of the recent MCU films and/or the Marvel-Sony battle? Try this on for size. It’s so well-written, though, that it could make things worse. But probably not.

Elegance Cannot Kill A Man series (Sansa x Tyrion, Games of Thrones) AO3 [In-progress]

What if a good deed resulted in Sansa and Tyrion being married before Ned Stark's death? How would this change the Game of Thrones?

A series featuring a Sansa who is strong and smart, a Varys with a plan, and a Tyrion who has no idea what he's gotten himself in for.

This series gives me SO MUCH LIFE. In a recent review, I described it as the political fantasy epic the TV series wished it could be. Everything about it is amazing. Everything. I’m on the fourth one right now and literally everything is amazing, even the sad stuff. Just do it.

Happiness Can’t Be Arranged series (Regina x Robin, Once Upon A Time) AO3 || FF [In-progress]

Set during the Regency Period, Henry and Cora arrange a marriage for their daughter in an effort to save their family’s name and estate.

I accidentally stumbled across this series due to a OUAT hyperfixation relapse, and I think the relapse occurred so I would find this fic. The characters are so well written to the point that I hear the actors’ voices in my head, guys. It’s got everything: friends to lovers, arranged marriage, mutual pining. Also, we were robbed of Henry and Roland interaction and I didn’t know it until this fic.

Home (Sybil x Tom, Downton Abbey) FF [In-progress]

The lives of Tom and Sybil Branson, both in Dublin and Yorkshire, as told through an anthology of stories. Proudly AU from 3x05 onward.

I don’t remember how I found this, but in excitement over the Downton Abbey movie, why not read a brilliant AU where Sybil Lives and she and Tom get to be happy? It is a one/two-shot series and is complete perfection.

I Wanna Mash-Up With You (Brittany x Santana, Glee) FF [In-progress]

"People think that she and Britt just fall together when they're drunk at parties, maybe in between boyfriends. And Santana lets them believe it because she isn't ready for them to know its not the falling together that does her in, it's the fact she feels like without her, she would fall apart." Brittana & Quick. Lots of Unholy Trinity & Pucktana friendship too. Canon couples.

Full disclosure: I came for the Quick, stayed for the amazing Holy Trinity relationship, and wait with bated breath for the Brittana I know will soon come alive (For realz, at least). The characterizations are on point, and I love how it explores motivations for these early Season 1 moments.

Identity series (Leia x Han, Star Wars) AO3 || FF [Complete]

A distress signal reaches Coruscant after the Empire's demise, claiming to be the beacon of Bail Organa. what would the reappearance of Leia's adoptive father mean for her life in a post ROTJ context. What would he think of Han Solo, and what could he tell her about the dark shadow of her heritage? H/L; significantly AU, I suppose.

THIS IS AN AMAZING AU AND I AM IN LOVE WITH IT. PLEASE GO READ THE SERIES. THE WORLD BUILDING IS FANTASTIC AND THE CHARACTERIZATION FLAWLESS. I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE FOR THE CAPS LOCK.

Kindle (Harry x Ginny, Harry Potter) AO3 || FF [Complete]

Life throws a lot of unexpected things Harry Potter's way, but his luck has been pretty good so far.

THE Hinny Modern Single Dad-Ish AU you must read. We’ve got Weasley shenanigans, Sirius/Jily alive and well, Teddy as the Ultimate Shipper, and Harry and Ginny being super adorable and amazing all over the place. Plus, Harry as his awkward relatable self. A 10/10 must-read.

made weak by time and fate, but strong in will (Harry Potter) AO3 [In-progress]

In one world, James Potter is wandless when he faces Voldemort.

In another, he’s not, and everything changes.

*incoherent screaming for years about how absolutely perfect this fic is: the A+ characterization, the magnificent world building, and the fantastic pacing*

Poe Organa-Solo series (Star Wars) AO3 || FF [In-progress]

“You’re Han Solo’s kid, aren’t you?” he asks.Poe has no idea how to answer that, on a foreign planet no less. There are two types of people in the galaxy - those who hear yes and want to buy him a drink, and those who hear yes and want to kill him. He doesn’t feel like finding out which type this guy is, but then again does he really have a choice?

Hi, did you know that Poe Dameron was adopted by Han and Leia after Shara and Kes’ tragic demise, Luke is Kylo Ren’s father, and Kylo Ren is directly responsible for the death of Han and Leia’s biological daughter, Breha, and deserves to die for it? No? Then you haven’t read this masterpiece. Please correct yourself.

the santiago-peralta family stories series (Amy x Jake, Brooklyn 9-9) AO3 [In-progress]

This series is goddamn amazing and follows the two most amazing detectives raising some of the most amazing kids. It’s so well written and so FLUFFY and just amazing.

we’ve been together as long as i can remember (but we only make love in the spring) (Sansa x Tyrion, Game of Thrones) AO3 [In-progress]

She is always cold. And thin, so thin. He feels her bones protruding under her pale, marble skin, even with the layer of her clothes in his way: ribs and hipbone and the sharp angles of her shoulders, shoulder-blades, the notches of her spine. He ran a finger over them, once, in one of his braver moods, almost down to the small of her back, and felt her shivering lightly under the touch. Made of steel, he had thought, then. Today, he rests one modest hand on her shoulder. She's not drunk, he knows she's not, but he won't risk her resentment in the morning.

Still, even with the privilege that is to know her bones, he wishes he had a whole harvest for her.

This whole marriage is winterbound. He wouldn't call it love.

"Thank you", she mumbles, eyes closed and face hidden on his chest. "You're a good husband".

He reaches for the tip of the nearest blanket to cover her and bows his head down to puts his lips to her forehead. "You're drunk", he answers, and she chuckles briefly, too tired to argue.

[Where all the wars are over; the Starks are starting again; and everyone waits for news of spring.]

This might be one of the absolute best versions of Sansa and Tyrion coming back to each other, with all their demons, and making something beautiful out of it, that I have ever read.

[sineala]

Bullet Points

Hey, Tumblr! I wanted to tell you about Bullet Points, my new favorite canonical Marvel AU, so that maybe I can convince you to love it too! So I have prepared a summary and picspam! I had not even heard of Bullet Points until I found someone on the internet saying there should be Steve/Tony fanfic set in Bullet Points. And then I read Bullet Points, and oh my God, does there ever need to be Steve/Tony fanfic set in Bullet Points.

(Don't worry, I have written some, because I try to be the change I want to see. But there needs to be more!)

Bullet Points is a five-issue limited series from 2007 by J. Michael Straczynski and Tommy Lee Edwards. It's definitely of interest to Steve/Tony fans, or at least to Steve/Tony fans who are willing to do a bit of work with the timeline to get them together. But I am pretty sure Steve/Tony fandom will like the premise.

You see, Bullet Points is a universe where skinny Steve Rogers is Iron Man in World War II. And he survives World War II. I knew you were interested.

Bullet Points takes place on Earth-70105. On this Earth, Erskine is shot the night before Rebirth is scheduled to happen -- and without Erskine, Rebirth doesn't happen. So skinny Steve Rogers, determined to serve, who has waited in line all night to have the first crack at Rebirth -- well, he impresses the men who are in charge of a different secret project. Project Iron Man.

Before we go on, I feel the need to inform you that Steve in Bullet Points is SUPER PRETTY. VERY VERY PRETTY. Here, I brought some visual aids:

(I happen to like the art style of Bullet Points a lot, but, yeah, it's all like this. Kind of dark and smeary.)

So the Army has this giant metal weaponized suit of armor, and only a skinny 4-F guy like Steve could ever fit inside. What a coincidence! But here's the catch: he's going to need to undergo surgery to have the chestplate physically wired to his heart, via electrodes. And he's going to have to have the chestplate for the rest of his life. The chestplate is part of the control system that connects the armor to his nervous system -- yeah, yeah, Comic Book Science -- and it also acts as a dead man's switch, because the armor will self-destruct if he dies or if the Axis tries to yank him out and put their own man in.

Here's some more pictures of Steve, looking very pretty and very earnest about wanting this opportunity to serve his country:

(I know he looks almost brunet, but he’s supposed to be blond. The actual brunets basically have their hair colored black. It’s very dark art.)

And here is Steve and his Iron Man suit, before they get hitched:

So after the surgery -- I will omit pictures of the surgery, but Steve is conscious the entire time and of course he toughs it out and says he can take it and urges them to keep going -- the Iron Man makes his debut at Guadalcanal. (Which is, like, two years after Erskine's death; I don't know what took so long.) And of course he saves the day.

A fact that is probably of interest to you h/c junkies is that fighting in the Iron Man suit causes Steve immense physical pain and exhaustion, but of course he keeps going, because he's Steve:

He doesn't get frozen. He fights all through the war. Later on we learn that the primary person responsible for keeping Steve in one piece is Reed Richards, who has taken time away from his outer space ambitions (yes, of course he still wants to go to space) to follow Steve around and patch him up:

(You could probably ship Reed/Steve if you wanted. I'm just saying.)

Now I will briefly summarize some of the rest of the plot, which does intersect with the Steve plot, although honestly mostly I was just here for the Steve (and Tony) stuff and I disagree with some of the plot choices in the rest of it.

Anyway. Erskine wasn't the only death, the night before Rebirth. The MP guarding him was also gunned down -- with the same bullet -- and that man's name was Benjamin Parker. Yep. That would be Peter's Uncle Ben. Who he never gets a chance to meet. And without Uncle Ben's stabilizing influence in his life -- because, what, Aunt May doesn't count? -- he grows up into a brash, risk-taking kind of kid. The story skips ahead to when he's a teenager; we don't get precise dates, but based on the fact that the rest of modern Marvel is kicking off in these issues, and based on the design of the cars, I'm gonna date it to the early 60s. Anyway, Peter's on a field trip and his friends dare him to steal a jeep and so they do and eventually Peter ends up wandering into the gamma bomb test site and... yep, he becomes the Hulk. Yeah, okay. Fine. (Later on it turns out that Bruce Banner is in fact Spider-Man. And Strange becomes Wolverine but Wolverine is also still Wolverine. Making sense is not really a thing this AU has going for it.)

Steve, by the way, has just been given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, is a colonel, is no longer on active duty, and Reed is still trying to talk him into actually retiring because he's probably going to kill himself if he fights again. Steve tells Reed he'll be fine and that Reed should go ahead and go on his rocket mission already and stop hanging around patching him up. I mention this scene because even middle-aged Steve is still SUPER PRETTY, oh my God. Look at him:

So of course when the Hulk starts rampaging through New York, the only person who has a shot at stopping him is, of course, Steve Rogers, the Iron Man. (They want to make more Iron Men, but unsurprisingly, very few people want to sign up for a lifetime physical bond to a suit of armor.) And so they pull him out of retirement, and they want him to suit up, and they want him to take down the Hulk.

(I think you can make a case that going in, Steve knows it isn't going to go well. He expresses doubt that the new armaments they're proposing can take down the Hulk, but he doesn't want them to pull Reed off his rocket project and help him, and, okay, now I kind of think Steve knows what he's in for, as I'm rereading this. But he goes anyway. Oh, Steve.)

Steve fights the Hulk.

Steve dies.

Sure, it's tragic. But it's noble, it's pretty much exactly the death Steve would have wanted, and honestly it's the kind of death that's really, really easy to AU. *cough*

And there's still more story left!

The Fantastic Four's launch is sabotaged. Sue, Johnny, and Ben die. Reed loses an eye. At the funeral, a shadowy government figure approaches him and offers him the chance to become part of SHIELD. So Reed actually ends up the director of SHIELD, because I guess the best qualifications for that are (a) going gray at the temples and (b) having an eyepatch. Yes, that means he basically looks exactly like 616 Fury. I hope JMS thought he was hilarious when he wrote this.

And this is where Tony Stark finally enters the picture.

Here he is. He's young and pretty:

He shows up at SHIELD because he wants the contract to make more Iron Men, and, as you can see, he wants to know why there aren't more. Reed's answer is that he doesn't want anyone to suffer like Steve did:

And Tony, because he's Tony, also wants to volunteer himself for the Iron Man testing:

Reed says no, because Tony has a heart condition.

Reed then introduces Tony to the actual candidate for the new Iron Man... Bucky Barnes. I neglected to mention this before, but we see Steve save Bucky's life during the war. (They don't seem to personally know each other; that's as close as they get in this AU.) Bucky feels that he owes Steve his life and wants to repay the debt. Tony thinks Bucky is a lousy candidate because he's old, but Reed is kind of snappish about being in charge here and wanting to pick someone who doesn't have a weak heart (and, understandably, Reed is sad about having lost everyone he's ever cared about and doesn't want anyone else to die). So Bucky is still the SHIELD pick for Iron Man.

Spoiler alert: Bucky does not get to be Iron Man.

Reed shows Tony around the helicarrier, introduces him to Bruce Banner (Spider-Man), and then... Galactus shows up. To destroy the planet. Yeah, it's pretty sudden.

(Also, weirdly, the beginning of the last issue dates it as forty years after Erskine's death (which would then be the 1980s), but I don't think that can be right, so I'm going to ignore that and pretend it's all still in the 60s sometime because it seems weird that Reed spent at least twenty whole years building SHIELD and wants to put 60-year-old Bucky in the suit. I know that Tony complains that Bucky is too old but that's really, really too old, isn't it? So I say we can totally ignore that dating and go with the 1960s.)

Right. Galactus. Oh no! Everyone's gonna die! But, wait, who is this dapper figure, stealing the Iron Man suit?

Did you guess Tony Stark? You did? Did you guess that he's going to be Iron Man even though his heart might give out from the strain? You did? Oh, Tony.

(Yeah, I'm not sure how he can wear the suit without having had the chestplate surgery either. Whatever! Comics!)

Anyway, everyone fights Galactus and the Hulk shows up and fights Galactus and dies and a lot of people die and it is noble and tragic but the Earth is saved and there is a big funeral at the end. I would just like to note that Tony survives; we see him in the background a few times. THE END.

So, obviously, I think this is perfect for Steve/Tony fandom. You can write fic where Steve doesn't die and he meets Tony! You can write fic where he and Tony knew each other at some point before the Hulk fight! Maybe Steve knew Tony when he was growing up! For the h/c fans, Steve and Tony can both have amazing chestplate-related Iron Man armor angst and pain! You can explore an all-new age difference because Steve is actually older than Tony! You can have a new and different take on Tony's hero worship of Steve, because Steve is Iron Man, because they're both Iron Man! So many story ideas!

Sure, you have to AU it! But think about, say, how many Noir Steve/Tony fics there are! And Steve doesn't even canonically exist in Marvel Noir!

The back of the Bullet Points trade paperback proclaims it to be "the Marvels of the new millennium" and while I enjoyed it a lot, as an assessment of its quality I think it's fair to say that it is definitely not the next Marvels, although from a perspective of the feels it gives me it was certainly worth it. It wasn't what you might call especially popular, meaning that I was able to find the TPB for approximately $3 new. It's on comiXology and Marvel Unlimited as well. So it is definitely easy to find and read! You all should read it! And then come write fic with me!