Recs! Humor and Heartbreak
I spent a good bit of time last Saturday writing this rec list up in Semagic. Sunday morning I did a last sweep and some final edits before calling it complete. Then opened a new file that I made some changes to and hit save-- which promptly saved over top of my completed rec list. Semagic has a weird save quirk that makes this possible when hopping between different files but I never remember that when I need to and I'll let you imgaine the swearing and clawing at face that proceeded, especially after I tried an immediate salvage of the file autosave and failed. So I then spent a good chunk of Sunday rewriting it from the scraps of memory. This time in Notepad ++ as all future posts will be drafted. *glares at Semagic icon*
ANYWAY, before all that excitement, when I first called up my rec tag shortlist, I realized I had over a dozen that were either Avengers/Captain America or Wonder Woman related (or, in one case, both), so I decided to run with those and give them their own list. These are heavy on the Steve, Bucky, and Diana, not surprisingly, along with two from Antiope's POV. They also feature significant appearances by Peggy, Tony, Pepper, Pietro, Wanda, Steve [Trevor], Donna Noble, and Bruce Wayne. Mostly fics as usual but one exceptional vid and a serendipitous art experiment also made their way in. There's 14 recs all together and the rec notes were written in order but you can, of course, pick and choose as you like. <3
ETA: The first couple of recs had a missing div coding error so they looked like one rec with the wrong title/link/author. That's been fixed now. :)
Meet Your Heroes by wordsplat
[Avengers, Steve/Tony, R, 4.132 words]
Summary: Tony gets rescued by a highly concerned, very handsy Captain America. This is confusing for a number of reasons.
Rec Notes: Let's get this rolling with something light hearted. Here the events of IM1 didn't happen so Tony's just developed the Iron Man armor, is in an established relationship with Steve, doesn't know about said Steve's superhero gig, and has now been kidnapped (again).
Better Than To Bend by silentwalrus
[Captain America, Steve/Bucky/Peggy, NC-17, 23.494 words]
Summary: In which Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes is tired, hungry and completely failing at not sticking it in the crazy. Also there’s a war going on or something.
Rec Notes: This one has plenty of serious moments, but it has a lot of humor too, albeit sometimes dark humor (oh, and porn, let's not forget that). It's a really superb wartime Bucky POV and part of this really struck me as being Sergeant Barnes, which I love, but also a Bucky still half-broken by Azzano (and he doesn't realize the half of it at that, although the reader can see the edges). This features the burgeoning and unholy alliance of Bucky and Peggy wherein Steve is a given for the both of them and a great Bucky POV on Steve in particular.
You'll Never Leave Hydra Alive by lilly_the_kid
[Avengers, Gen, PG, 3:34 minutes]
Summary: and you spend your life just thinking of how to get away
Rec Notes: Then comes this vid. This... this took my knees out from under me. Fact is I've watched it quite a few times by now, probably near another half dozen just putting this rec list together, I'm sure I'll watch it quite a few more. Repeated viewings means it's less likely to make me cry now.
The song here is You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive, which is a fatalistic country song about not being able to leave the insular and hard living place you're from. I don't listen to country music by choice anymore for multiple reasons so I was unaware of the multiple covers that have been done of it in the last couple of decades, and I don't watch Justified, which apparently has used it as a bit of theme song. Still, it sounds vaguely familiar, like maybe I heard it sometime when I was back home, when Mom still kept an old dial radio at the back of the kitchen table, tuned to the same country music station morning to night. Maybe it's just that it has an old rhythm to it and an echo, a faint scratch like it's one step left of coming from a record on an actual turntable. This is a song that for all it's half my age, sounds like it's older.
The vid itself has a strong start, both in terms of beat and imagery, but when the vocals first came in and I heard in the deep tar hills of eastern kentucky I thought, "Oh, no, Bucky's a city boy, this won't-" It was only a moment, though, because I understood very quickly where this vid was coming from and the fact is, these days Bucky's as much or more from Hydra than he is from Brooklyn. I saw what it was saying about how you can carry where you come from down in your bones whether you want to or not. How where you're from leaves you with skills you end up using even as you (try to) shed the mindset. The way it's a part of your identity for better or worse.
The song is an unexpectedly perfect choice and it comes with editing that has an excellent marriage of clips and themes to lyrics. I'm resisting the urge to prattle on about each and every one, but will say the red book set to the coal in them mountains was very well chosen. I highly recommend both for its technical quality and the storytelling that's managed to give me a whole new angle on The Winter Soldier.
Currently on Display by Siria
[Captain America, Gen, PG, 2.347 words]
Summary: A selection of items from the 'Steve Rogers: The Man Behind the Mask' exhibition, running at the Brooklyn Museum of History and Culture from May-October 2007.
Rec Notes: If that last rec affected you the way it did me, this one will give you a bit of a breather. Not tonal whiplash though - this one goes deep, just in a different way. This consists of the descriptive plaques for each item in the exhibit and they do excellent work at providing a mental image, as if the exhibits were right in front of you, even as the acquisition notes add intriguing context. Steve's still biding time in the Arctic when this exhibit is set so it covers a timeline from pre-war, to war time, to his ongoing impact on popular culture.
All of Space and Time and Place by Sholio
[Avengers, Doctor Who, Gen, PG, 3.921 words]
Summary: Bucky Barnes and Donna Noble, intergalactic space vagrants.
Rec Notes: Time to lighten up at least a bit after the last two recs, but I'll ramp you up slowly. This is an unexpected crossover that ends up working out very well and that I love for both their sakes. Bucky wakes up not on Earth, trapped in the Collector's zoo, just as chaos is breaking loose. During his escape he runs into someone else from Earth: Donna Noble. This is Donna post-Doctor, having recovered enough patchy memories to finagle her way back to the stars and traveling the galaxy with no apparent destination in mind. They end up traveling around together for a while as Bucky gets his feet a little more solidly under him and Donna helps him deal with having holes in his memories and lost time. This is Bucky's POV and his story, but I love that it re-writes Donna's ending and leaves the door wide open even as she exits stage left.
Brooklyn Boys by sleepswithcoyotes
[Avengers, Gen, PG-13, 8.332 words]
Summary: The stray picks up a stray.
Rec Notes: Okay, so the last one was one way Bucky dealt with the near aftermath of Hydra, so how about another version? This is the one where a Jotunheim monster hound ends up as Bucky's therapy dog. :D You're welcome. It's poignant, funny, sweet, and comes with some sharp insights. I admit I was a bit concerned halfway through it was going to be a bittersweet ending but no worries, this one is all happy and one that is already marked for future comfortfic re-reading.
Five Times Steve and Tony (tried to) Bail Each Other Out of Jail by Teyke
[Avengers, Steve/Tony, PG, 5.990 words]
Summary: Twice before Civil War, twice after, and once during. For very loose definitions of both 'bail' and 'jail'.
Rec Notes: Bucky isn't the only one in the Avengers verse with Issues, of course, so let's shake it up with some Steve and Tony dealing with questionable interpersonal communication skills and the baggage they both have in spades. This one covers a timeline pre- and post-CACW and then segues into comics canon situations (Skrulls). It has angst, poignancy, a little drama, and just enough humor to bind everything together.
The Assassin by Amerna
[Avengers, Gen, PG-13, 4.401 words]
Summary: What Pepper expected for her morning: The arrival of a handyman to finally repair her broken AC. What she didn’t expect: An assassin who’s planning to shoot a presidential candidate from her bedroom window.
Rec Notes: This one has a similar intensity to the last one but works with canon by slipping things into the gaps. Despite the majority of it being set in 1993 with Bucky still very much under Hydra's control, it manages to feel overall hopeful thanks the last scene set in the modern day. Very good and so interesting that this is my new head canon for any verse it doesn't clash with.
The Adventures of Captain America, Not-So-Secret Agent [Series] by Galwednesday
[Avengers, Steve/Bucky, PG-13, 29.676 words in 2 fics]
Summary, fic one: The Winter Soldier finds Pietro and Wanda trapped in a Hydra basement, and it’s not like James Buchanan Barnes can just leave them there.
Summary, fic two: Secret Agent adversaries-to-lovers AU where the Winter Soldier keeps tying Captain America to walls and sticking around to chat. Shut up, Natasha, it’s not flirting, okay? (It’s definitely flirting.)
Rec Notes: I'd say this is a humor break, but the first one is actually on the dramatic side albeit ultimately very satisfying. The second fic flips that and features a lot of good banter with a serious under current. The second fic here was actually posted first and I've apparently been confusing it with another Steve/Bucky quasi secret agent AU for a while, one which I'd already read. I was pretty happy to figure out I was wrong since that meant I had another awesome fic to read. :)
I Can Save Today, You Can Save the World by follow_the_sun
[Captain America, Wonder Woman, Gen, PG, 974 words]
Summary: Diana Prince leaves a legacy.
Rec Notes: Returning to the canon verse and flipping back through time, this is another one for the new head canon category. This is set pre-war and is Steve's POV as Bucky is tasked with bringing him something to read since Steve is home sick (again). The book Bucky ends up returning with is great but the real kicker is Sarah's POV in the follow-up scene.
oiorpata by Siria
[Wonder Woman, Antiope/Menalippe, PG, 1.058 words]
Summary: Their first day on Themyscira, they buried their dead.
Rec Notes: Of course, before there was Diana there was the Amazons arriving at Themyscira, trailing blood and the death of their own behind them. I love this a great deal: the relationship between Antiope and Hippolyta, Antiope's exhaustion and banked anger, Menalippe's perception and the give and take between her and Antiope, and that Antiope wants to remember lest she forget.
she painted her cheeks with blood by lorata
[Wonder Woman, Gen, PG-13, 1.457 words]
Summary: Antiope loves Diana with a fire that only battle has ever matched, but she will not fold herself small, make herself smooth and palatable like cutting off the crusts from a piece of bread or plucking out the bones from a fish so that Diana can swallow her safely. Her niece will take her as she is, and will not choke, whether Hippolyta likes it or not.
Or: For every story Diana has heard, there are a thousand she has not.
Rec Notes: You might need to brace yourself a little more for this one; the Amazons did not learn to wield war in a time of peace or from a place of comfort. Antiope may be steel to Hippolyta's ostensible peacefulness but Antiope's flashes of memories of before and the steel edged ones after all come with teeth and there are things even she can't bear to tell Diana.
Art (Wonder Woman) by goss
[Wonder Woman, Gen, PG, 1 gif + 2 still images]
Artist's Notes: This is a quick one, sketched with pencil. Don't have the time to do a proper watercolour painting job as yet. So in the mean time, I've added some digital tinting in Photoshop, as well as played around with the lighting. I actually like the results. ^___^
Rec Notes: An experiment that turned out really gorgeous and will serve as a triumphant palate cleanser after the rough wine of the last two recs. The bullets of No Man's Land ricochet off Diana's shield in a blaze of light that highlights the metal of her armor and her free arm and casts her shield arm and face in deep shadow as she advances across the battlefield, inexorable and implacable.
(bat)families of choice by Della19
[Justice League, Wonder Woman, Diana/Steve, PG-13, 1.894 words]
Summary: Bruce doesn’t come to Paris for her. And sure, so maybe that fact that he only sent her the photograph a week ago plays a role. Maybe he just…wants to see if she’s alright. Because he might not know the exact story of what happened to the man in that picture, but he’d recognize that pain in her eyes anywhere.
He’s seen it in the mirror enough.
He doesn’t quite know what he expects to find when he knocks.
The dead man who opens the door certainly wasn’t it though. Bruce stares at the dead man, and the dead man stares back.
The dead man also has a gun.
“So, you’re Batman,” Steve Trevor says.
Rec Notes: I've just realized while typing up this list that this fic is actually part of a series so the others are now on my short list. In the meantime, there's this gem. I love the threads of sorrow and humor both that wind their way through Bruce's POV, Steve's sharp eyed observation and silent commiseration with Bruce's utter bafflement over the situation, and Diana's radiant happiness that suffuses the fic with such peace you can practically hear a few of Bruce's cracks healing over. It's a great fic to end on and it will leave you smiling.
Crossposted to Dreamwidth. Comment here or there. ♥ Blue :)
ANYWAY, before all that excitement, when I first called up my rec tag shortlist, I realized I had over a dozen that were either Avengers/Captain America or Wonder Woman related (or, in one case, both), so I decided to run with those and give them their own list. These are heavy on the Steve, Bucky, and Diana, not surprisingly, along with two from Antiope's POV. They also feature significant appearances by Peggy, Tony, Pepper, Pietro, Wanda, Steve [Trevor], Donna Noble, and Bruce Wayne. Mostly fics as usual but one exceptional vid and a serendipitous art experiment also made their way in. There's 14 recs all together and the rec notes were written in order but you can, of course, pick and choose as you like. <3
ETA: The first couple of recs had a missing div coding error so they looked like one rec with the wrong title/link/author. That's been fixed now. :)
Meet Your Heroes by wordsplat
[Avengers, Steve/Tony, R, 4.132 words]
Summary: Tony gets rescued by a highly concerned, very handsy Captain America. This is confusing for a number of reasons.
Rec Notes: Let's get this rolling with something light hearted. Here the events of IM1 didn't happen so Tony's just developed the Iron Man armor, is in an established relationship with Steve, doesn't know about said Steve's superhero gig, and has now been kidnapped (again).
Better Than To Bend by silentwalrus
[Captain America, Steve/Bucky/Peggy, NC-17, 23.494 words]
Summary: In which Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes is tired, hungry and completely failing at not sticking it in the crazy. Also there’s a war going on or something.
Rec Notes: This one has plenty of serious moments, but it has a lot of humor too, albeit sometimes dark humor (oh, and porn, let's not forget that). It's a really superb wartime Bucky POV and part of this really struck me as being Sergeant Barnes, which I love, but also a Bucky still half-broken by Azzano (and he doesn't realize the half of it at that, although the reader can see the edges). This features the burgeoning and unholy alliance of Bucky and Peggy wherein Steve is a given for the both of them and a great Bucky POV on Steve in particular.
You'll Never Leave Hydra Alive by lilly_the_kid
[Avengers, Gen, PG, 3:34 minutes]
Summary: and you spend your life just thinking of how to get away
Rec Notes: Then comes this vid. This... this took my knees out from under me. Fact is I've watched it quite a few times by now, probably near another half dozen just putting this rec list together, I'm sure I'll watch it quite a few more. Repeated viewings means it's less likely to make me cry now.
The song here is You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive, which is a fatalistic country song about not being able to leave the insular and hard living place you're from. I don't listen to country music by choice anymore for multiple reasons so I was unaware of the multiple covers that have been done of it in the last couple of decades, and I don't watch Justified, which apparently has used it as a bit of theme song. Still, it sounds vaguely familiar, like maybe I heard it sometime when I was back home, when Mom still kept an old dial radio at the back of the kitchen table, tuned to the same country music station morning to night. Maybe it's just that it has an old rhythm to it and an echo, a faint scratch like it's one step left of coming from a record on an actual turntable. This is a song that for all it's half my age, sounds like it's older.
The vid itself has a strong start, both in terms of beat and imagery, but when the vocals first came in and I heard in the deep tar hills of eastern kentucky I thought, "Oh, no, Bucky's a city boy, this won't-" It was only a moment, though, because I understood very quickly where this vid was coming from and the fact is, these days Bucky's as much or more from Hydra than he is from Brooklyn. I saw what it was saying about how you can carry where you come from down in your bones whether you want to or not. How where you're from leaves you with skills you end up using even as you (try to) shed the mindset. The way it's a part of your identity for better or worse.
The song is an unexpectedly perfect choice and it comes with editing that has an excellent marriage of clips and themes to lyrics. I'm resisting the urge to prattle on about each and every one, but will say the red book set to the coal in them mountains was very well chosen. I highly recommend both for its technical quality and the storytelling that's managed to give me a whole new angle on The Winter Soldier.
Currently on Display by Siria
[Captain America, Gen, PG, 2.347 words]
Summary: A selection of items from the 'Steve Rogers: The Man Behind the Mask' exhibition, running at the Brooklyn Museum of History and Culture from May-October 2007.
Rec Notes: If that last rec affected you the way it did me, this one will give you a bit of a breather. Not tonal whiplash though - this one goes deep, just in a different way. This consists of the descriptive plaques for each item in the exhibit and they do excellent work at providing a mental image, as if the exhibits were right in front of you, even as the acquisition notes add intriguing context. Steve's still biding time in the Arctic when this exhibit is set so it covers a timeline from pre-war, to war time, to his ongoing impact on popular culture.
All of Space and Time and Place by Sholio
[Avengers, Doctor Who, Gen, PG, 3.921 words]
Summary: Bucky Barnes and Donna Noble, intergalactic space vagrants.
Rec Notes: Time to lighten up at least a bit after the last two recs, but I'll ramp you up slowly. This is an unexpected crossover that ends up working out very well and that I love for both their sakes. Bucky wakes up not on Earth, trapped in the Collector's zoo, just as chaos is breaking loose. During his escape he runs into someone else from Earth: Donna Noble. This is Donna post-Doctor, having recovered enough patchy memories to finagle her way back to the stars and traveling the galaxy with no apparent destination in mind. They end up traveling around together for a while as Bucky gets his feet a little more solidly under him and Donna helps him deal with having holes in his memories and lost time. This is Bucky's POV and his story, but I love that it re-writes Donna's ending and leaves the door wide open even as she exits stage left.
Brooklyn Boys by sleepswithcoyotes
[Avengers, Gen, PG-13, 8.332 words]
Summary: The stray picks up a stray.
Rec Notes: Okay, so the last one was one way Bucky dealt with the near aftermath of Hydra, so how about another version? This is the one where a Jotunheim monster hound ends up as Bucky's therapy dog. :D You're welcome. It's poignant, funny, sweet, and comes with some sharp insights. I admit I was a bit concerned halfway through it was going to be a bittersweet ending but no worries, this one is all happy and one that is already marked for future comfortfic re-reading.
Five Times Steve and Tony (tried to) Bail Each Other Out of Jail by Teyke
[Avengers, Steve/Tony, PG, 5.990 words]
Summary: Twice before Civil War, twice after, and once during. For very loose definitions of both 'bail' and 'jail'.
Rec Notes: Bucky isn't the only one in the Avengers verse with Issues, of course, so let's shake it up with some Steve and Tony dealing with questionable interpersonal communication skills and the baggage they both have in spades. This one covers a timeline pre- and post-CACW and then segues into comics canon situations (Skrulls). It has angst, poignancy, a little drama, and just enough humor to bind everything together.
The Assassin by Amerna
[Avengers, Gen, PG-13, 4.401 words]
Summary: What Pepper expected for her morning: The arrival of a handyman to finally repair her broken AC. What she didn’t expect: An assassin who’s planning to shoot a presidential candidate from her bedroom window.
Rec Notes: This one has a similar intensity to the last one but works with canon by slipping things into the gaps. Despite the majority of it being set in 1993 with Bucky still very much under Hydra's control, it manages to feel overall hopeful thanks the last scene set in the modern day. Very good and so interesting that this is my new head canon for any verse it doesn't clash with.
The Adventures of Captain America, Not-So-Secret Agent [Series] by Galwednesday
[Avengers, Steve/Bucky, PG-13, 29.676 words in 2 fics]
Summary, fic one: The Winter Soldier finds Pietro and Wanda trapped in a Hydra basement, and it’s not like James Buchanan Barnes can just leave them there.
Summary, fic two: Secret Agent adversaries-to-lovers AU where the Winter Soldier keeps tying Captain America to walls and sticking around to chat. Shut up, Natasha, it’s not flirting, okay? (It’s definitely flirting.)
Rec Notes: I'd say this is a humor break, but the first one is actually on the dramatic side albeit ultimately very satisfying. The second fic flips that and features a lot of good banter with a serious under current. The second fic here was actually posted first and I've apparently been confusing it with another Steve/Bucky quasi secret agent AU for a while, one which I'd already read. I was pretty happy to figure out I was wrong since that meant I had another awesome fic to read. :)
I Can Save Today, You Can Save the World by follow_the_sun
[Captain America, Wonder Woman, Gen, PG, 974 words]
Summary: Diana Prince leaves a legacy.
Rec Notes: Returning to the canon verse and flipping back through time, this is another one for the new head canon category. This is set pre-war and is Steve's POV as Bucky is tasked with bringing him something to read since Steve is home sick (again). The book Bucky ends up returning with is great but the real kicker is Sarah's POV in the follow-up scene.
oiorpata by Siria
[Wonder Woman, Antiope/Menalippe, PG, 1.058 words]
Summary: Their first day on Themyscira, they buried their dead.
Rec Notes: Of course, before there was Diana there was the Amazons arriving at Themyscira, trailing blood and the death of their own behind them. I love this a great deal: the relationship between Antiope and Hippolyta, Antiope's exhaustion and banked anger, Menalippe's perception and the give and take between her and Antiope, and that Antiope wants to remember lest she forget.
she painted her cheeks with blood by lorata
[Wonder Woman, Gen, PG-13, 1.457 words]
Summary: Antiope loves Diana with a fire that only battle has ever matched, but she will not fold herself small, make herself smooth and palatable like cutting off the crusts from a piece of bread or plucking out the bones from a fish so that Diana can swallow her safely. Her niece will take her as she is, and will not choke, whether Hippolyta likes it or not.
Or: For every story Diana has heard, there are a thousand she has not.
Rec Notes: You might need to brace yourself a little more for this one; the Amazons did not learn to wield war in a time of peace or from a place of comfort. Antiope may be steel to Hippolyta's ostensible peacefulness but Antiope's flashes of memories of before and the steel edged ones after all come with teeth and there are things even she can't bear to tell Diana.
Art (Wonder Woman) by goss
[Wonder Woman, Gen, PG, 1 gif + 2 still images]
Artist's Notes: This is a quick one, sketched with pencil. Don't have the time to do a proper watercolour painting job as yet. So in the mean time, I've added some digital tinting in Photoshop, as well as played around with the lighting. I actually like the results. ^___^
Rec Notes: An experiment that turned out really gorgeous and will serve as a triumphant palate cleanser after the rough wine of the last two recs. The bullets of No Man's Land ricochet off Diana's shield in a blaze of light that highlights the metal of her armor and her free arm and casts her shield arm and face in deep shadow as she advances across the battlefield, inexorable and implacable.
(bat)families of choice by Della19
[Justice League, Wonder Woman, Diana/Steve, PG-13, 1.894 words]
Summary: Bruce doesn’t come to Paris for her. And sure, so maybe that fact that he only sent her the photograph a week ago plays a role. Maybe he just…wants to see if she’s alright. Because he might not know the exact story of what happened to the man in that picture, but he’d recognize that pain in her eyes anywhere.
He’s seen it in the mirror enough.
He doesn’t quite know what he expects to find when he knocks.
The dead man who opens the door certainly wasn’t it though. Bruce stares at the dead man, and the dead man stares back.
The dead man also has a gun.
“So, you’re Batman,” Steve Trevor says.
Rec Notes: I've just realized while typing up this list that this fic is actually part of a series so the others are now on my short list. In the meantime, there's this gem. I love the threads of sorrow and humor both that wind their way through Bruce's POV, Steve's sharp eyed observation and silent commiseration with Bruce's utter bafflement over the situation, and Diana's radiant happiness that suffuses the fic with such peace you can practically hear a few of Bruce's cracks healing over. It's a great fic to end on and it will leave you smiling.
Crossposted to Dreamwidth. Comment here or there. ♥ Blue :)