my guy DOES NOT WANT the world

"We missed you."

I should be so very clear that for as much as I can (and will!!!!) talk shit about irondad fandom, I still very much enjoy the Tony and Peter dynamic— both canonically in the MCU and in my head (it could’ve been so good, if it was good). They have a complex relationship in the comics that is neither as familial and friendly as the irondads who use comic panels to argue their point say, just as they’re not nearly as antagonistic as comic dweebs who do the same. They’re complex, interesting characters with fundamental differences and striking similarities which leads to DELICIOUS clashing.

That being said, here are a few recs of fics that I think really capture that blend of irondad that I particularly enjoy— leaning more into the complexity:

Blue Divergence by @mysterycyclone (very little irondad and technically a crossover but a wonderful character study into Tony as a person)

Peter Parker vs. Billionaires, Boundaries, & Bad Recruitment Strategies by hopeless_hope

A Flash in the Night by @ambivalentmarvel (cheating because this is superior iron man who is my fav little evil blorbo and it’s way more Tony & MJ but whatever it’s my rec list!)

A Problem Solved by @inferno-ontherocks

Supercut by @promiseofthepremise is a PERFECT example of my favorite Peter and Tony dynamic

Big Secrets and Other Things to Talk to Your Therapist About by aimael

The meaning of the word by yidenia is probably the best and closest thing to what you’re looking for (and also the comments are a FASCINATING look into how aggressive irondad fans were about “protecting” their version of these characters. Some comments have even been deleted but iykyk— there was a whole hate campaign launched against this fic and writer lmfao.)

And because it’s my blog and I choose the movie, a few self-recs as well:

the universe is not against you with @promiseofthepremise

through a glass darkly with blondsak

if this be my destiny

in cold light

styrofoam plates with @weezly14

you can’t be everything you wanna be

No Need to Say Goodbye

My Tears are Becoming a Sea

hi!! this was,,, completely and utterly buried in my ask box, and im so sorry i didn't see it until now 😭

thank you so much for your kind words!! 💛 (i have no evidence for this lol, but i do recall losing my goddamn mind [affectionate] in a comment on the self is not weightless by the incredible @ambivalentmarvel, an mlb fic that lives rent free in my mind to this day, and even if this isn't the fic you're referencing lol, everyone should still read ambi's story!! it's incredible!! her mind!!!)

it's hard to precisely describe my thought process when reading fiction lol, but i do know that i attempt to approach all stories (whether fanfic, shakespeare, or assigned texts for class that im never going to pick up again once i finish the course) with a similar level of investment: looking for what the work is doing and how it does it. at its core, im really just doing close reading (but i definitely allow myself to be geekier with it when it comes to fanfic, lol), i.e. i'm weaving my own words with and through the words of another to perform the craft of literary analysis. i've been (formally) studying literature and literary analysis for six years now (four more years 'til i have my phd!!), and plain and simple, it's just something i love to do. to write about literature is a form of creative writing in itself, and i think that mentality probably manifests in some of my fic comments!

jonathan kramnick puts it better than i could throughout criticism and truth:

“Close reading is a craft because it is a skilled practice of making sentences from sentences that are already in the world, the immersive environment of the literary. One learns how to do this. Close reading is also a craft because it is a method of understanding that environment” (7)

“One of the most immersive and engaged practices of writing is quotation. There is no more direct way to reach out to and make something from a linguistic artifact than to wrap your words around it, to accommodate your syntax to syntax already arranged by mood, number, and tense” (11)

“What do literary critics actually do when they write about texts? Close reading isn’t reading. It’s writing” (22)

“In the event, much of literary criticism turns on the art of quoting well: pointing to lines or words of interest to your argument; placing new words up against or around them; describing how quoted words sit among words unquoted or in the tradition of scholarly discussion. In this way, quotation is the art of moving across two orders of writing, one’s own and someone else’s. One composes sentences about and with sentences already made” (33)

“Unlike grammar or chemistry, hermeneutic reconstruction does not follow an exact formula, and like poetry or fiction, it relies on the flair and dexterity of a maker, someone who by application immerses herself in thought and language” (69)

“Only in the study of literature, however, does the raw material of the work enter into and define the scope of the sentence itself. To know something in the field is to meld, mesh, and turn something while maintaining its medium” (73)