More Marvel

[selenak]

In case anyone is wondering, I‘m still watching Legion, and I do have thoughts, but any review will have to wait until I see the resolution, because my opinion very much depends on what the show does with the various issues it has raised.

Meanwhile, browsing through MCU fanfiction reminded me again of the downside that comes with a juggernaut fandom - to wit, there is so much that it‘s easy to miss the gems among all the dross. Also, inevitably there‘s a lot where independent from quality of writing it‘s just not for me because I disagree with some key characterisations, and/or the tropes it uses might be fun for the writer but not yours truly. The tagging system does work as an early warning and thus comes in useful, as in: I avoid anything with „X needs a hug“, „y is a good bro“, or „Zs A+ parenting“. Words like „smol“ or „precious“ are also good signals to look elsewhere.

Otoh, rewatching some of the movies reminds me why I‘m so fond of the MCU to begin with. Not that any of them are perfect, but for starters, their way of balancing flaws and virtues of characters feels more interesting to me than many a fanfic where everyone is either „the best“ or „the worst“ and one joke or complaint in canon is endlessly repeated. (I first noticed this back in ye olde Highlander days where Methos helping himself to a beer from Duncan‘s fridge once or twice became Methos not drinking anything else, to use one of the more harmless examples.) But of course MCU canon leaves me with itches to be scratched as well, otherwise I wouldn‘t look for fanfiction to begin with. Two results of these expeditions:

Avengers:
Making Lemonade

I was very annoyed indeed with one particular scene in Infinity War, featuring Rhodey and dealing (or not) with the Civil War fallout, so this Rhodey pov story perfectly scratched that particular itch. Because... yes. That.

Refugee Road

An intense Bruce Banner character study, incorporating some comics canon into the MCU, and co-starring Tony Stark.

Comments

[moon_custafer]

Have you ever seen http://ao3tagoftheday.tumblr.com/ ? It collects some of the more unique AO3 tags...

[selenak]

Ha, no, I hadn't, yet. Thanks for the tip!

[oracne]

Thanks for the MCU recs!

[selenak]

You're welcome!

[goodbyebird]

These look interesting, thanks for the recs!
(I’m so bad at wrangling AO3, at this point finding MCU fic I’d like is near impossible for me)

I’m also still following Legion, but interest has waned through season two. Far too ambling for my tastes, and even when they spend entire episodes on one character, I feel nothing really came to light.

A truly excellent villain, a visual spectacle, and Lenny are the things that keep me coming back.

[msilverstar]

I think the Marvel movies are a marvellous combination of writing (both dialog and plot, except Age of Ultron) and really good actors who believe in their characters. I suppose there's direction there as well, we're watching Thor Rangarok and it has a big What We Do In the Shadows affinity. I just have to start another movie, and it's clear how good the Marvels are.

[kore]

For me so many of the MCU characters are hard to separate from their characters -- RDJ and Tony, obviously, but ScarJo and Nat, Evans and Cap, Stan and Bucky, Cheadle and Rhodey, SAM and Mackie (I love MCU Sam so much it's embarrassing), Maria and Sharon and Peggy and so on....it's hard for me to imagine other people embodying them. Even the little touches say so much, like ScarJo coming up with Nat's arrow necklace.


(also A+++ Alan Cumming icon, was just listening to this recently https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck-EeROVaOI)

[msilverstar]

Mackie as Sam may be my fave as well, so sane!

But all of them, as you say, and Mark Ruffalo partly because he has gravitas, and Chris Hemsworth because he doesn't!

I played Alan Cumming in an RPG so got to appreciate his happy hedonism, I eventually saw him in Threepenny Opera, from the cheap seats in NYC. But I think Joel Grey as the MC is written on my consciousness from my teenage years.

[selenak]

ZOMG, that is is incredible. (RE: Alan Cumming & Mein Herr.

Re: actors, right now, I feel similarly, and yet I guess if in ten years or so they recast all those characters and if the material said actors get is good, I‘ll come to feel about the whole thing as I do about the X-Men franchise. I.e. Charles Xavier is both Patrick Stewart and James MacAvoy for me, ditto for Magneto & Ian McKellen & Michael Fassbender, and so forth. (Though I‘ll say we got so little of Hank McCoy in X3 that movie Hank is Nicholas Hoult to me.)

[msilverstar]

Good point about the X-Men. I just worry that they'll try rebooting like they did with Batman and Spiderman, so many times.

[vaysh]

If you have time and leisure for a novel-length summer read, check out this MCU fic: Cascades. It's Stucky but not overly shippy, and I think you may appreciate the premise (Steve returns to the world in 1953, and he has never been in the ice.) It's the fic that single-handedly sold me on Howard Stark AND Heimdall. It has a fast-paced, intriguing plot that is both political and philosophical. It has the Deerslayer as dinner conversation. :)

[kore]

I second that fic, it had good wordlbuilding and plot and was pretty well-written.

[selenak]

Thank you, I‘ll check it out when I find the time. I‘m certainly curious how Steve in the midst of the Cold War and the end phase of McCarthyism will be handled!

[vaysh]

It's not a political fic in this sense ("Not Easily Conquered" does that), more science-fictioney. But one could say that the story tells an alternative history where the Cold War ended much earlier.

[kore]

I early on blocked "X needs a hug," "X is a good bro," "X's A+ parenting," "X has a heart," "X died too quick," and a bunch of other related tags and never ever regretted it.