ATTF: Crossovers and Fusions

[scribble_myname]

So with MCU set in the real world, just expanded a little bit, and our favorite actor and actress doing plenty of other movies that inspire folks to want to imagine them as covers for Clint and Natasha, this is a pairing that frequently makes me poke around the crossover/fusion side of fics

Comments

[alphaflyer]

How gauche is a self rec?

I don't often go in for fusions because, frankly, most of the time I haven't read the other source material. But there was one I couldn't resist, and it comes out of the fact that most of my Clint-Natasha fics are kind of anchored in their SHIELD identity, rather than the wider Avengers-verse. And because I know *cough* a bit about how government agencies work, the idea of SHIELD being inserted into some of the real-life intelligence agencies out there was just too much fun to leave unexplored.

The result was the two SHIELD/MI-6/Avengers/Bond mash-ups I committed with the kind help of my partner-in-crime, inkvoices, for the Marvel Big Bangs of 2013 and 2014, respectively: "Second Mouse" and Locust Wind. (FYI, we'll be doing a third one this summer to make a trilogy -- the little intermezzo piece, "Loose Ends" doesn't count towards that. Title and plot bunny are expected to gel after Age of Ultron.)

[scribble_myname]

Not gauche at all. If I want to point out amazing crossover, I point to these.

[alphaflyer]

So based on what you're saying and what geckoholic said below, they're crossovers then, not fusion? Eh. Hmm. Goes to show what I know. I just write 'em...

[scribble_myname]

I think it kind of depends. I've seen multiple definitions, and one of the fusion definitions is that "if the characters are there as if they've always been there..."

That definition doesn't work for me.

I consider it crossover if both worlds are canonically correct and the characters retain their relationship to their own world.

I consider it fusion if one world is changed by the addition of the other, thus "fused" with the other one. If characters take on new backstories and current work/identities, etc. or merge with another character (actor fusion), then that's a fusion.

As yours retain both source canon and simply let them meet/interact, that would make them crossover from what I understand. The definition of fusion I reject would call it a fusion, which is why I reject it. It's too vague.

[inkvoices]

This is the closest to how i see it too - if characters from world A and characters from world B meet then it's a crossover, but if characters from world A LIVE in world B, or worlds A and B collide in some manner then it's a fusion for me.

But then fusion can be similiar to an AU for me in that if characters from world A are in the shoes of characters in world B then it's a fusion but it's also a 'world B AU' as opposed to just a 'pirate AU' or 'space AU'.

I can label Second Mouse as a crossover because characters from Marvel meet characters from Bond, but then the way that they interact impacts both worlds so that MI6 has to deal with HYDRA and Natasha's background is altered to fit the fic's 'verse, so I can label that fusion territory.

[alphaflyer]

Okay ... you guys convinced me. I'll change the label ... ;-)

[inkvoices]

Well i can also label it an AU because it's an alternate universe in which Natasha has a different backstory and a set of characters meet who otherwise wouldn't ;)

[4thdixiechick]

These are wonderful! Thanks for writing and sharing them.

[topaz119]

Yes, I would definitely call your Bond|Strike Team Delta fics crossovers. You made both canons fit and work together, where a fusion would be more like making the canon of the MCU work within, say, a Regency romance setting/style. (In fact, one of my favorites of all time did that with The Phantom Menace. Fandom, such fun. :D)