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Seven Days of Self Promotion: Something for a minor fandom/pairing/character
Five Times Hank McCoy Tried To Propose To Abigail Brand (2916 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Astonishing X-Men, X-Men (Comicverse), Marvel
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Abigail Brand/Hank McCoy
Characters: Hank McCoy, Abigail Brand, Norman Osborn, Scott Summers, Emma Frost
Some years ago, I was getting heavily into X-Men comics for a while, and one of the reasons was Joss Whedon's run of Astonishing X-Men. (I still think it's the best thing he did post Buffy, at least until the Avengers). I also enjoyed Warren Ellis' ensuing run of AXM, tried to keep up with other X-comics (written at that point by Matt Fraction, I think), and with the Marvelverse at large (this was the aftermath of Civil War and the Skrull Invasion) and was thrilled my favourite Joss-invented character from AXM got her own brief spin-off series by Kieran Gillen. So naturally, I also wrote some fanfiction.
I can't swear to being the first, but I must have been one of the earliest online people to comment on the fact Hank "Beast" McCoy and Agent Abigail Brand (the above mentioned Joss contribution to the Marvelverse) increasingly seemed to have that kind of verbal sparring interaction that translates into shipping more often than not. And lo, I shipped them. They were an idealistic hero (Hank)/ ruthless morally ambiguous spy (Abigail Brand) type of pairing, which if done right (i.e. what the morally ambiguous person has done isn't overlooked, the idealist doesn't suddenly lose all his/her ethics) is extremely appealing to me. Mind you, Brand had been introduced as an antagonist who ends up an ally-by-necessity, and Hank was one of the original X-Men, i.e. a Marvelverse stalwart whom Joss presumably only had limited liberty with, so I wasn't sure this would actually go anywhere more than bickering on the page. But in the final issue of Joss' run, it did. And then Ellis and the other X-writers did not end the relation but continued it. Gillen even made it central to the shortlived S.W.O.R.D. spin-off. I was very happy indeed. Now it's been years since I've followed the X-comics, so I have no idea whether Beast/Brand are still an item, but back then they were, and it was one of the few times where I had all the shippery feelings about a couple - I was thrilled by every mention of them, grabbed every hint about Abigail B.'s mysterious backstory (she's an alien/human hybrid) and looked for fanfiction. I found one good author, and.... not much else, either good or bad. So this was definitely a minor pairing. And it grabbed me like nothing in the X-verse, comics or movies, had done since my original encounter with Xavier/Magneto in their Stewart/McKellen incarnations.
1. Something Old
2. Something New
3. Something you made for someone else
4. Something you made just for yourself
5. Something for a major fandom/pairing/character
7. Something you're just really proud of
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Astonishing X-Men, X-Men (Comicverse), Marvel
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Abigail Brand/Hank McCoy
Characters: Hank McCoy, Abigail Brand, Norman Osborn, Scott Summers, Emma Frost
Some years ago, I was getting heavily into X-Men comics for a while, and one of the reasons was Joss Whedon's run of Astonishing X-Men. (I still think it's the best thing he did post Buffy, at least until the Avengers). I also enjoyed Warren Ellis' ensuing run of AXM, tried to keep up with other X-comics (written at that point by Matt Fraction, I think), and with the Marvelverse at large (this was the aftermath of Civil War and the Skrull Invasion) and was thrilled my favourite Joss-invented character from AXM got her own brief spin-off series by Kieran Gillen. So naturally, I also wrote some fanfiction.
I can't swear to being the first, but I must have been one of the earliest online people to comment on the fact Hank "Beast" McCoy and Agent Abigail Brand (the above mentioned Joss contribution to the Marvelverse) increasingly seemed to have that kind of verbal sparring interaction that translates into shipping more often than not. And lo, I shipped them. They were an idealistic hero (Hank)/ ruthless morally ambiguous spy (Abigail Brand) type of pairing, which if done right (i.e. what the morally ambiguous person has done isn't overlooked, the idealist doesn't suddenly lose all his/her ethics) is extremely appealing to me. Mind you, Brand had been introduced as an antagonist who ends up an ally-by-necessity, and Hank was one of the original X-Men, i.e. a Marvelverse stalwart whom Joss presumably only had limited liberty with, so I wasn't sure this would actually go anywhere more than bickering on the page. But in the final issue of Joss' run, it did. And then Ellis and the other X-writers did not end the relation but continued it. Gillen even made it central to the shortlived S.W.O.R.D. spin-off. I was very happy indeed. Now it's been years since I've followed the X-comics, so I have no idea whether Beast/Brand are still an item, but back then they were, and it was one of the few times where I had all the shippery feelings about a couple - I was thrilled by every mention of them, grabbed every hint about Abigail B.'s mysterious backstory (she's an alien/human hybrid) and looked for fanfiction. I found one good author, and.... not much else, either good or bad. So this was definitely a minor pairing. And it grabbed me like nothing in the X-verse, comics or movies, had done since my original encounter with Xavier/Magneto in their Stewart/McKellen incarnations.
1. Something Old
2. Something New
3. Something you made for someone else
4. Something you made just for yourself
5. Something for a major fandom/pairing/character
7. Something you're just really proud of