Plot-bunny: The Avengers
So I've been reading a lot of fix-it fics for the Avengers. If you haven't watched the movie, don't know what so many of us want fixed, and don't want spoilers, then go out and watch the movie right now.
However, there's one fix-it story that I haven't been able to find, that I would really like to read, so if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.
Anyway:
So there's Coulson, stabbed through the back and dying. But all we have is Fury's word that the medics actually called his death and Fury is a spy master so if he doesn't lie as easy as breathing, he wouldn't be very good at his job. Which is really all the rationalization that we need to bring Coulson back to life.
And many people have done so in multiple wonderful ways, as linked above. However, one thing that I have realized over the course of reading so many of these is that when writers bring him back from the dead, they go full out and give him a 100% recovery. Maybe a bit of scarring, and some addition aches and pains, but he remains the same level of BAMF as he's always been. Although actually, that's not entirely true. Most of them just don't deal with the long-term issues at all.
But what about if he doesn't? What if he comes back with serious long-term damage? Did the stab cut his spinal cord leaving him paralyzed? Did it miss the spine but still get his lung and/or heart in such a way that they'll always be weak and prone to failure?
What happens then?
Can SHIELD have a disabled agent? I rather imagine that they have some serious physical qualifications, and for good reasons. But what does Coulson do then?
So I have this idea that SHIELD agents don't retire: they all die in the harness. Not for real, but for paperwork purposes. Nobody wants enemies able to track down retired agents. So they are all listed as KIA, there's a nice little cemetery that contains no bodies, and retired agents are given new identities to live under.
But what then? I kind of want Tony or some other civilian Avenger to be horrified that Fury lied to them about Coulson's death, but all the SHIELD agents know that that's what happens. Nobody gets a retirement party, everyone gets a memorial service.
And Coulson goes on to do... what exactly?
Has he planned for his retirement? Does he have something he wants to do? Maybe take over the world or at least the local school board? Does anyone come to realize that while he is disabled and can't perform most of the moves himself anymore, he's a fantastic fighting coach or something? (He could be Mr. Miyagi in an Avengers AU!)
Or does he not know what to do with himself? Had he intended to actually die in harness and he's not quite sure what to do with himself having survived? Maybe he feels like the time and money spent on his medical treatment was wasted because he can't do anything anymore and Fury has to glare at him and say that it wasn't wasted because it meant that he was still alive. (In my head, Fury and Coulson are long-time buddies and they regularly spar together. And all the agents who know this are terrified to be anywhere near the gym when they do.)
Or does he still work for SHIELD somehow, except that now he is no longer allowed in the field and he must have a bodyguard with him at all times because no one with as much insider SHIELD knowledge as he has is allowed out without a bodyguard unless they are suitably capable of guarding themselves.
I haven't seen the new Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon (and I've heard mixed reviews regarding it), but does Principle Coulson do anything physically demanding in it?
Anyway, what I kind of want is to show this extremely capable and competent man having to deal with being physically incapable while still being mentally amazing (maybe he and Charles Xavier bond) and to show that he remains absolutely BAMF as a person if not as a fighter, as he deals with his new limitations.
However, there's one fix-it story that I haven't been able to find, that I would really like to read, so if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.
Anyway:
So there's Coulson, stabbed through the back and dying. But all we have is Fury's word that the medics actually called his death and Fury is a spy master so if he doesn't lie as easy as breathing, he wouldn't be very good at his job. Which is really all the rationalization that we need to bring Coulson back to life.
And many people have done so in multiple wonderful ways, as linked above. However, one thing that I have realized over the course of reading so many of these is that when writers bring him back from the dead, they go full out and give him a 100% recovery. Maybe a bit of scarring, and some addition aches and pains, but he remains the same level of BAMF as he's always been. Although actually, that's not entirely true. Most of them just don't deal with the long-term issues at all.
But what about if he doesn't? What if he comes back with serious long-term damage? Did the stab cut his spinal cord leaving him paralyzed? Did it miss the spine but still get his lung and/or heart in such a way that they'll always be weak and prone to failure?
What happens then?
Can SHIELD have a disabled agent? I rather imagine that they have some serious physical qualifications, and for good reasons. But what does Coulson do then?
So I have this idea that SHIELD agents don't retire: they all die in the harness. Not for real, but for paperwork purposes. Nobody wants enemies able to track down retired agents. So they are all listed as KIA, there's a nice little cemetery that contains no bodies, and retired agents are given new identities to live under.
But what then? I kind of want Tony or some other civilian Avenger to be horrified that Fury lied to them about Coulson's death, but all the SHIELD agents know that that's what happens. Nobody gets a retirement party, everyone gets a memorial service.
And Coulson goes on to do... what exactly?
Has he planned for his retirement? Does he have something he wants to do? Maybe take over the world or at least the local school board? Does anyone come to realize that while he is disabled and can't perform most of the moves himself anymore, he's a fantastic fighting coach or something? (He could be Mr. Miyagi in an Avengers AU!)
Or does he not know what to do with himself? Had he intended to actually die in harness and he's not quite sure what to do with himself having survived? Maybe he feels like the time and money spent on his medical treatment was wasted because he can't do anything anymore and Fury has to glare at him and say that it wasn't wasted because it meant that he was still alive. (In my head, Fury and Coulson are long-time buddies and they regularly spar together. And all the agents who know this are terrified to be anywhere near the gym when they do.)
Or does he still work for SHIELD somehow, except that now he is no longer allowed in the field and he must have a bodyguard with him at all times because no one with as much insider SHIELD knowledge as he has is allowed out without a bodyguard unless they are suitably capable of guarding themselves.
I haven't seen the new Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon (and I've heard mixed reviews regarding it), but does Principle Coulson do anything physically demanding in it?
Anyway, what I kind of want is to show this extremely capable and competent man having to deal with being physically incapable while still being mentally amazing (maybe he and Charles Xavier bond) and to show that he remains absolutely BAMF as a person if not as a fighter, as he deals with his new limitations.