black cat was my gay awakening

i'm gonna reblog this to my sideblog @dancinglilies

i have a small rec list! there aren't a lot of fics in that fandom, unfortunately :( i got excited some years ago when it looked like there were new fics, but it's all,,,, irondad?? HUH?

but without further ado:

- From the Gut

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. - Khalil Gibran (basically a really cute friendship drabble)

Peterfel Week 2021 Themes are now live!

Day 1: Steal Your Heart — Something a little more than 20-carat diamonds and rare paintings are going missing for this slot! What's more priceless than a stolen heart?

Day 2: Disguises — Lies, deceit, trickery all made more interesting when both sides have their own secrets and secret identities! Play around with emotional and physical disguises however you want. Also a place for all your identity confusion/miscommunication and identity porn needs!

Day 3: Passion — Passionate declarations, promises, and embraces. Of course, the sexiest couple in NYC need their own day! Be careful when visiting rooftops you might see something you shouldn't ;)

Day 4: Mementos — Whether it's old spider-tracers, photos, a trinket Peter definitely knows was stolen, or anything else. Remember the age-old adage of "something to remember me by" and maybe something (or someone) to bring them back together!

Day 5: Past/Future — Comic timelines are long, Peter/Felicia met all the way back in Amazing Spider-Man #194! So here's a chance to look back or forward across decades of history – The early days? Next stages of a relationship? Reunions? Or maybe go outside the box with time travel, historical AUs, or sci-fi. Run wild with this one!

Day 6: Against All Odds — Exactly what it says! When the stakes are high whether emotionally or against a super villain's master plan Peterfel will always come out on top and come through for each other!

Day 7: Free Day! — Participant's choice! Go wild, get creative because anything goes for this slot! If you missed a previous day’s deadline, you can use this one.

We also have some optional general themes! These can be combined with other themes or used on their own. They can be used any day.

Alternate Universe — Fairy tales, space operas, villains, coffee shops, high school, pirates, westerns, fantasy, or anything else! If you’re still unsure why not let Marvel help and check out Peter/Felicia in all their 1930′s glory in the Spider-Man: Noir universe. (see: Spider-Man Noir #1-4 and Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without A Face #1-4)

Regrets — A sense of loss, disappointments, or remorse. The Peter/Felicia relationship has always been fraught. Make that work to your advantage with this slot!

Outside Perspective — Close friends, relatives, exes, heroes, civilians, Twitter feeds, the media? Take a step back and think about how Peter/Felicia’s relationship is viewed by those not in it!

Peterfel Week takes place September 13-19, 2021 on Tumblr and Twitter! No sign-ups necessary and we welcome all fan-generated content ie: fic, art, edits, aesthetics, fan mixes, podcasts, cosplay, playlists, meta, etc. – as long as they focus on Peter Parker/Felicia Hardy. Just remember to tag your post #peterfelweek in the first five tags!

Still confused? Read the full Peterfel Week announcement post here!

More posting guidelines will be made closer to the time of the event.

“You’re a good man, Spidey. I didn’t want to end up going to prison without making things right between us.”  

Like, in any other movie, you’d have a similar character whose live has become a mess, and they’re sad and kinda pathetic to look at, and when the time comes for them to step up, they just sorta…flop. They’re held back by everything, and they just become incompetent.

But Peter B is different. Yeah, he’s a sad, lonely, middle-aged man who cries in the shower while wearing a spandex suit…

But despite all that…he’s still shown to be extremely good at being Spider-Man.

He escapes from being tied up while still holding a casual conversation

He takes down Miles in less than 10 seconds.

He strolls along the side of a building like it’s nothing.

And when you think about it, over the course of the movie, he kicks a LOT of ass. He’s a badass super hero, despite his flaws.

You ever notice how, when he puts on the mask, his gut sorta disappears? That’s too big of a detail to be an oversight. That’s intentional. I mean, in-universe, it doesn’t make too much sense, but to us, it’s meant to show that it’s not holding him back from being a hero.

He’s not held down by everything. Yeah, he’s a jaded, depressed, mid-life crisis Spider-Man. But he’s still Spider-Man.

The thing about the Amazing Spider-Man films is that they’re a two-part adaptation of The Night Gwen Stacy Died (Amazing Spider-Man #121-122). It’s just what they are, no point in arguing that – Webb’s stated in interviews that it was the story he set out to tell from the beginning. All the beats are there leading up to Gwen’s death: the death of George Stacy, his message to Peter changing with the times: in the comics, George Stacy tells Peter to take care of Gwen, whereas the movies exist in a world where Gwen Stacy has been famously dead in popular culture for decades, hence, George tells Peter to stay away from her instead. Gwen’s “I’m moving to England” is a reference to the period of comics before her death where she went to England to stay with her uncle, George Stacy, appropriately updated for modern times.

(Amazing Spider-Man #93)

Certain Peter and Gwen panels from the comics are even duplicated near identically for the screen:

(Amazing Spider-Man #63)

(The Amazing Spider-Man (2012))

But I think the most important comics reference in the films is, ultimately, the presence of the bridge. It’s a well-known fact that in Amazing Spider-Man #121, Gwen Stacy dies when she plummets from either the George Washington or the Brooklyn bridge, depending on which comic you’re referencing; when Peter attempts to catch her with his webbing, the whiplash snaps her neck, a devastating moment recreating in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) when the back of Gwen’s head meets the ground with a sickening crack, caught seconds too late by Peter’s webbing. 

(The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014))

(Amazing Spider-Man #122)

The big departure in Gwen’s death scene, of course, is that in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Gwen doesn’t die on the bridge but rather in a clock tower, which is, in and of itself, a reference back to the period of comics shortly before her death, as Big Ben notably appears in an action scene in Amazing Spider-Man #95. And I love Webb’s commentary on Gwen’s death scene in the movie and the decision to use the clock tower here:

“His inability, despite his enormous efforts, to stop time.” (x)

But as much as I like the symbolism of the clock tower and as much as it is a departure from the comics in terms of scenery, there’s one thing that strikes me as someone who has watched these movies sixty million times: the omnipresence of the bridge itself, the original symbol of Gwen’s death, within the films. In comics, the bridge haunts Peter. He leaves roses there for Gwen on Valentine’s Day in Spider-Man: Blue. In Spider-Man & Black Cat: Evil That Men Do, the sight of a supposed bad guy standing with his ex-girlfriend Felicia Hardy on a bridge is enough to send him into a rage-filled frenzy, flashing back to what happened to Gwen:

The bridge is one of the most powerful objects in Spider-Man mythology. Even though in the The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Gwen doesn’t die on the bridge in what would become, however unintentionally, the end of the franchise, the bridge looms like a warning in The Amazing Spider-Man films from the very beginning. When Richard and Mary Parker flee their home at the very beginning of the first film, on their way to leave a young Peter with Uncle Ben and Aunt May in Queens, a bridge is visible in the shot:

Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, Uncle Ben himself is employed working on bridges. The film’s prequel comic is what directly establishes this:

“He built bridges for a living.” 

But even discounting the prequel comic and relying on the movie on its own, this information delivered directly to the audience through its incredibly detailed sets. It’s clear with a little poking around and some guess work what it is that Uncle Ben, a thoroughly blue collar character in the films, does. There’s an international association of iron workers magnet on the fridge in the Parker home:

May, who we know in the film works as a waitress and then later a nurse, wears a shirt that says United Bridgeworkers:

And then, perhaps most importantly, in the scene where Ben confronts Peter and delivers his speech about Richard Parker’s moral code, the film’s rewording of “with great power comes great responsibility” that frames that responsibility as “a moral obligation”, there are bridge models on the mantel behind Aunt May:

This has always struck me as notable because, while they’re clearly bridge models when you look closely, the sculptures could very easily also be modern Menorahs. Andrew Garfield, who openly identifies as Jewish, has gone on the record stating that he recognized that same Judaism within Peter Parker and within Spider-Man mythos. The bridge looms large, and it serves multiple purposes. 

The Parker household isn’t the end of the bridge’s presence within the film, either. The scene wherein Peter recognizes Spider-Man’s greater importance – his own greater responsibility – and where he consciously chooses to put aside his personal vendetta for Uncle Ben’s killer and instead dedicate Spider-Man to a greater responsibility and to helping others who need him and his greater power, takes place on a bridge:

This is a hugely impactful moment in the film – in fact, it’s the first scene where Peter names himself as Spider-Man. His very identity and self-actualization is linked to this moment – a moment that happens on a bridge. 

Then there’s the night of Gwen’s death in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. While Gwen doesn’t die on a bridge, very shortly before her death, during her big romantic reunion with Peter where he declares that’s she’s his path and says he’ll follow her to England, they stand on a bridge. Leading up to this, Peter webs “I Love You” over a bridge. The bridge is always there, waiting, a silent participant in the events leading up to Gwen’s death.

The bridge looms, ever present, in and of itself a greater symbol of the connection between life and death, warning the viewer of Gwen’s death. It’s even present in Peter’s room in the second movie, replacing the Rear Window poster of the first film with a print: