#spotlight post

Yooo, this is a blog takeover, Mizzy here, ready to champion one of my favourite fictional causes: canonical soulbonds in the Marvel universe.

We all love a good soulbond fic. Words on your body, names on your wrist, red string of fate...so many glorious versions, and all of them *completely awesome*. The problem sometimes with starting a soulbond fic, though, can be all the worldbuilding required to make it work. But what if I was to tell you that no worldbuilding was necessary? That you could technically write a soulbond fic without having to set it in an Alternate Universe? What if you could set your soulbond fic *directly in main canon?*

Marvel 616 delivers you a canonical soulbond mechanic… not once… but at least *twice*. There could be more. There’s a lot of comics to go through and I’m only smol. But here’s the two I know about and I’m here to introduce you to today. :)

To kick off our Spotlight post series we have @sadisticsparkle here to tell you all about Avengers Assemble!

Oh, Tower fic. Don’t we all love it? Steve and Tony are happy and domestic and only fight sometimes, everybody plays videogames, villains try to conquer Earth every Tuesday but it’s nothing too dramatic, Hawkeye is snarky, Thor has a booming voice, Hulk collects glass figurines… If you have ever wished that was canon, then Avengers Assemble might be just what you were looking for.

This cartoon started airing in May 26 2013 and so far five seasons have aired, but the fifth one doesn’t focus on the Avengers as much. It’s a fluffy, happy universe with a strong MCU influence. The main Avengers here are Iron Man the leader, Captain America said leader’s endlessly supportive cheerleader, the Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye and Black Widow. But everybody else also shows up, from Scott Lang to Carol Danvers to the Dread Skull (that’s Red Skull’s pirate version).

Tony and Steve have a flirty, relaxed relationship based on mutual trust and affection. So if you want to bask in their marriedness, you could watch that episode where Steve dares Tony to survive one day without tech… IN THE SAVAGE LAND! (S1, E17) or that other episode where they go undercover, as villains, and banter how much Tony loves the roleplaying thing (S1, E13). Steve is always supportive of Tony, like it’s shown in that episode where Tony turns back into a kid and Steve tells him that Tony Stark was a hero long before Iron Man (S2, E7). And because the writers of AA were going for a trope bingo, we also have a villain AU (S2, E9)! Or you could watch an episode about New Year’s Eve, where Tony doesn’t have a date and then Peggy and Howard crash the party (S4, E14).

But because Tony’s life always kinda sucks, he does get lost in a random dimension once, for months. The good news are that it all ends in Captain America literally twirling him around (S4, E17). And really, what else could we ask for?

Now that the bingo card has been released, we'll be taking a closer look at some of the canon references we included as prompts! It’s @thingexplainer, here to talk about the Avalon Protocol!

The Avalon Protocol is the idea that Tony Stark programmed the Iron Man armor to continue fighting should he die during battle. It’s commonly considered fanon, but did you know that it's has a canonical story attached to it? While the name is fanonical, the idea that the armor can upload a copy of Tony's brain to itself and continue as him was introduced in the miniseries Iron Man: Hypervelocity. 

Only six issues long, Hypervelocity is a quick and fun read, featuring things like comatose Tony, armor AI questioning the concept of self, an underwater robot bar, and lots of high-tech battles, both physical and virtual. The first two issues introduce the last-resort brain backup that we all love to call the Avalon Protocol (itself a reference to Tony’s love of Arthurian knights), and has some real holy shit, what’s happened to Tony moments. The rest of the issues involve AI Tony avoiding the government trying to take him down, while dealing with his own technological enemies. 

Next up in our Spotlight series, we have @vicspeaks​ here to talk about Avengers Academy!

Are you obsessed with high school and university AUs? Do you ever look at Marvel and think “huh, this is nice, but could be gayer?” Do you just really like witty banter? Then Avengers Academy might be the ‘verse for you!

Avengers Academy was a mobile game that ran from February 4, 2016 to February 4, 2019. The game was lauded for its great character work, solid LGBTQ+ representation, and for just being a really, really fun time. This universe arose after Thanos killed nearly everyone, but it's somehow one of the fluffiest verses ever. You've got everyone from America Chavez to Vision, all trying to live out their best university lives and save the world from their rivals at HYDRA and AIM academy. Cap likes to do the Charleston for eight hours at a time. Tony has a cheese fridge. They argue but then make up and absolutely cherish each other as friends and partners. They also get fun costumes (you can finally have a version of 1872 that's not sad!)

This is only the tip of the shenanigans iceberg. JARVIS has a body. Peggy’s here and ready to PUNCH. Loki is constantly Up To Something. There’s TWO Buckies, and one of them is in an emo rock band. You could probably make up anything and it will have happened on this campus at some point. What’s not to love?

Next up, we have @cathalinaheart​ here to talk Armored Adventures!

Iron Man: Armored Adventures is the powered High School AU you have been waiting for!

After 16 year old Tony got injured in a plane crash that also killed his father, he is now living with Rhodey. Together they are attending the Tomorrow Academy where they make friends with Pepper and Gene Khan (who’s really more of a frenemy).

Tony takes up the mantle of Iron Man to help people and to stop Obadiah, who took over Stark International, from selling weapons.

Meanwhile, the Mandarin is after the Makluan rings, a subject Howard was very interested in as well. Tony has to deal with secret identities, villains, an injured heart, his father’s legacy and high school. Poor guy has to go through a lot.

But this is still one of the more happy versions of him. He even had a great relationship with Howard and his friends are very supportive (Pepper and Rhodey both get their own armors eventually).

And our beloved Captain America? Well, we learn in season 2 that he is frozen in a tank at SHIELD. They never manage to defrost him on the show, leaving you plenty of room for imagination!

Hold on to your seats, everyone! Today, we’re traveling with @sadisticsparkle to the universe of Marvel Noir!

Have you ever wondered how Tony would have been if he had lived in the 1940s? Marvel has and their answer was ‘he’d be Indiana Jones’. A bit random, yes, but that’s the old-fashioned charm of Marvel Noir: Iron Man.

Marvel Noir: Iron Man is a 2010 4-issue miniseries and part of the Noir universe. This ‘verse is a playground for all our favorite pulpy 1940s tropes — femme fatales, fantastic adventures, steampunk airships, and HYDRA chasing our heroes. Tony Stark is such a famous adventures he has an entire magazine, Marvels, devoted to him. Jarvis is his gruff mechanic, Rhodey’s a loyal friend and naturalist and Pepper joins the team early on, as Tony’s latest chronicler. Together, they chase after a cure for Tony’s heart — because Tony Stark still has a tragic backstory, as all Tonys should. Noir Tony, however, has one distinct privilege: his father is surprisingly not terrible… but in exchange, this Howard gets kidnapped  by HYDRA. If you want to find out the thrilling yet depressing conclusion to this story, Noir is there, waiting for you!

Wait, you say, why haven’t you mentioned Steve? You see, because we already know how Steve was like in the 1940s, Marvel Noir doesn’t feature a Captain America. But do you think this has stopped fandom? Hell no! Noir gives you the chance to build your own Steve from the ground up. Your Steve could be Captain America or he could never get the serum. He could be Tony’s fan, eagerly reading about his travels across the world, or the new artist hired by Marvels, mistrustful of his new rich, handsome boss. Do you want a more earnest Cap or a very angry Smol Steve? Imagine all the identity porn possibilities! What about Bucky — childhood friend or a guy he meets during the war? Does Captain America get lost in the ice or does he stay in the 40s? He can even be from the future, in a twist of their usual story!

With Noir, the world’s your oyster!

Yesterday we had Avengers Assemble, and today we have @sirsapling​ to talk about the Marvel Ultimates comics! 

Have you ever dreamed of a universe that supports the dark and nasty along with the heartwarming and caring? Well, we have the canon for you! Heartbreak, betrayal, evil twins, teammates becoming friends, and hallucinated tumor children being parented, Ults has it all!

The Ultimates (also known as universe 1610) is a comic canon, with releases spanning from 2002 to 2015 when their universe exploded... only to be sneakily revived soon after. What are they up to now? Nobody knows, but one can be sure there's a bounty of surly swearing and grim darkness.

The Ultimates has a well earned reputation for being the dark and gruesome universe that went on to inspire parts of the MCU. It’s rife with content warnings and things so ridiculous they can't be explained, but within that are broken heroes with hearts of gold. Replacing the Avengers are ‘The Ultimates’ made up of Iron Man and a newly defrosted Captain America, as well as a changing selection of teammates including the Wasp, Hawkeye, Black Widow (twice), and mutant twins Wanda and Pietro Maximoff.

Despite the gruesome universe that is their world, Tony and Steve have a tight supportive relationship, with the occasional pause for insults when both are heartbroken. They have secret meetings to discuss the team, bicker like an old married couple about adopting spider teens to train, and pine for each other dramatically when Steve goes on a desert exodus to eat rattlesnakes and angst alone. Steve does a lot of angsting and crying in Ults, while Tony day drinks and is his most extravagant self.

Steve becomes president, Tony is often half naked and covered in Goo, and Thor hates Capitalism, what more could you want?

This week, we’re telling you all about universes that didn’t start out as comics nor movies. Some are games, some are animation and some are… toy lines. Oh, yes, today @sadisticsparkle is here to talk about Marvel Tsum Tsum!

Marvel Tsum Tsum is part of Disney Tsum Tsum, a Japanese stuffed toys line launched in 2013 and still on-going. Their cute simple designs have made them very popular, especially in fandom. You can stack them, you can hug them, you can make them kiss! How could we resist their fluffy, fluffy charms?

Because of this, in 2016, Marvel published a 4-issue miniseries called Marvel Tsum Tsum: Takeover. It’s a fun short comic that shows us what it’s like to grow up in a superhero universe and follows the adventures of three Brooklyn kids who one night find a very mysterious box on their rooftop. You see, somewhere very faraway, there’s a race of alien creatures who can mimic whatever they see and can create organic mass without limits, breaking all the laws of physics. The Collector really wants them for his collection, but there’s a mishap with his delivery and that’s how they end up on Earth. They become superhero fans, turn into the Tsum Avengers and then… well, then you get to see Tsum Tsum Loki beat up Scott Lang!

But this is not the only approach you can take when you’re creating Marvel Tsum Tsum content. Maybe you can picture a Tsum Tsum Universe that doesn’t crossover with the human world. What would that be like? But we must be sure about one thing —  if the Tsum Tsums mimic everything about their human models, of course Steve and Tony are going to be in tsum love, aren’t they?