On the Avengers Fandom
If it isn't glaringly obvious, I love the Avengers fandom. It is so much fun to swim around in. Also, not only is there the Big Budget Movie Awesomeness of not one but SIX different films to choose from, there's also 20+ years of Marvel Comic History to toss into the mix as well. With all sorts of awesome villains and characters and scenarios to draw into play from both sides of the fandom, it makes for basically this huge melting-pot of ideas and plot devices and character development - which in short, pretty much means that it is the Fandom That Never Ends. It is Epic in the truest sense of the word because the possibilities are, quite literally, endless. And I love it. To the point where I am fairly certain that in one brief year, the number of stories I have linked for it has even out-stripped my rather massive archive of Stargate SG-1/Atlantis fan fictions at this point, and that is no small feat.
Also, it's the kind of fandom where talented authors can have the Movie-verse and Comic-verse blend beautifully into one story without feeling forced, and I love that, too. I am still very much a Movie-verse fan - I've done a teeny bit of research into the comics (WarMachine - which I hope remains comic-based, because poor Rhodes! - Extremis, Winter Solider, and a few of the villains and supporting characters that pop up most commonly in fic), but nothing major and I still know there is a lot I'm missing. In fact, most everything I've picked up about the comics has been THROUGH the beautifully blended movie-and-comic stories I've read (the origins of Black Widow, Hawkeye's childhood in the circus, a lot more on Winter Solider, and tons of other stuff). If anything, with all the fic I've read over the last year and a half, Avengers comic-cannon has become my latest Fandom by Association, and I now know waaaaay more about it than I should for someone who has never even picked up a comic book.
Even with all that love and fangirling, though, there is one thing about the Avengers fandom - on both sides, not just movie or comic - that never, ever fails to irk me. And that is how a frustratingly large number of authors are so quick to treat Pepper as something less than the BAMF she really, truly is, simply because - at least in the movie-verse - she "gets in the way" of the majority Tony/Steve pairing that everyone seems to be panting after. Now, no lie, I adore Tony/Steve and I have no issues with that pairing what so ever, but I hate it when they get there by way of breaking Peppers heart, or writing her off as a poor girl who can't get over the fact that Tony dances with death on a regular basis, and that watching him do so "hurts too much," so she leaves.
Bull. Fucking. Shit.
As I have admitted, my familiarity of the Iron Man fandom is almost all movie-verse and that Tony/Pepper and Tony/Steve relationships are significantly different in the comics. I also know, however, that Pepper is CRAZY IMPORTANT to Tony in both universes, even if they aren't romantically involved in comic-cannon, and that is something that many of the hard-core Steve/Tony shippers tend to forget. In both cases, she is one of only two people who have had his back for more than a decade, and for the majority of that decade he was not an easy person to stand behind. As one author pointed out when I gushed to her about how awesome her Peper was and how often she gets the short end of the stick in fandom, she heartily agreed with "Bullet holes aren't really more deadly than cocaine binges, alcoholism, and STDs, they're just quicker."
Every time I read a story where the author has Pepper playing the coward, using the excuse "It's too hard to watch you do this" and giving up her hard-won victory just because Tony tends to be a bit self destructive and throw himself into danger all the freaking time... it irks me. In the time that she's known him, when has he ever not thrown himself into danger with little regard to his own life?
I love Tony/Steve just as much as anyone, but please, don't make it happen by shoving aside Pepper's 10+ years of loyalty and love (and love DOESN'T always have to be romantic; just ask me how crushed I would be if I lost any of my closest friends) just so you can get her out of the way for the boy luuuurve.
There was one story I read a few months back with a line from Jarvis that pretty much hit the nail right on the head as far as my feelings on the whole Steve/Tony/Pepper dynamic - he pointed out how he isn't programed to only love one person. No one is, not really, and if you think otherwise, ask yourself this: which of my children/friends/family members to I love the most?
Just a pet peeve of mine. It is a mindset that has ruined many an otherwise fantastic Avengers story for me.
And then there's Happy. Happy, who is a bit of a bad-ass himself in the comics from what I understand (being pre-Iron Man Tony Stark's bodyguard probably is no easy task), but whom the movie-verse writers have turned into a bit of a buffoon and comedic relief, (with the exception of the first Iron Man film, where he was mostly in the background but still had that body-guard edge) but that's a whole 'nother rant I'll save for another time. I will say this, though - not cool, movie-verse writers. Not cool at all.
Also, it's the kind of fandom where talented authors can have the Movie-verse and Comic-verse blend beautifully into one story without feeling forced, and I love that, too. I am still very much a Movie-verse fan - I've done a teeny bit of research into the comics (WarMachine - which I hope remains comic-based, because poor Rhodes! - Extremis, Winter Solider, and a few of the villains and supporting characters that pop up most commonly in fic), but nothing major and I still know there is a lot I'm missing. In fact, most everything I've picked up about the comics has been THROUGH the beautifully blended movie-and-comic stories I've read (the origins of Black Widow, Hawkeye's childhood in the circus, a lot more on Winter Solider, and tons of other stuff). If anything, with all the fic I've read over the last year and a half, Avengers comic-cannon has become my latest Fandom by Association, and I now know waaaaay more about it than I should for someone who has never even picked up a comic book.
Even with all that love and fangirling, though, there is one thing about the Avengers fandom - on both sides, not just movie or comic - that never, ever fails to irk me. And that is how a frustratingly large number of authors are so quick to treat Pepper as something less than the BAMF she really, truly is, simply because - at least in the movie-verse - she "gets in the way" of the majority Tony/Steve pairing that everyone seems to be panting after. Now, no lie, I adore Tony/Steve and I have no issues with that pairing what so ever, but I hate it when they get there by way of breaking Peppers heart, or writing her off as a poor girl who can't get over the fact that Tony dances with death on a regular basis, and that watching him do so "hurts too much," so she leaves.
Bull. Fucking. Shit.
As I have admitted, my familiarity of the Iron Man fandom is almost all movie-verse and that Tony/Pepper and Tony/Steve relationships are significantly different in the comics. I also know, however, that Pepper is CRAZY IMPORTANT to Tony in both universes, even if they aren't romantically involved in comic-cannon, and that is something that many of the hard-core Steve/Tony shippers tend to forget. In both cases, she is one of only two people who have had his back for more than a decade, and for the majority of that decade he was not an easy person to stand behind. As one author pointed out when I gushed to her about how awesome her Peper was and how often she gets the short end of the stick in fandom, she heartily agreed with "Bullet holes aren't really more deadly than cocaine binges, alcoholism, and STDs, they're just quicker."
Every time I read a story where the author has Pepper playing the coward, using the excuse "It's too hard to watch you do this" and giving up her hard-won victory just because Tony tends to be a bit self destructive and throw himself into danger all the freaking time... it irks me. In the time that she's known him, when has he ever not thrown himself into danger with little regard to his own life?
I love Tony/Steve just as much as anyone, but please, don't make it happen by shoving aside Pepper's 10+ years of loyalty and love (and love DOESN'T always have to be romantic; just ask me how crushed I would be if I lost any of my closest friends) just so you can get her out of the way for the boy luuuurve.
There was one story I read a few months back with a line from Jarvis that pretty much hit the nail right on the head as far as my feelings on the whole Steve/Tony/Pepper dynamic - he pointed out how he isn't programed to only love one person. No one is, not really, and if you think otherwise, ask yourself this: which of my children/friends/family members to I love the most?
Just a pet peeve of mine. It is a mindset that has ruined many an otherwise fantastic Avengers story for me.
And then there's Happy. Happy, who is a bit of a bad-ass himself in the comics from what I understand (being pre-Iron Man Tony Stark's bodyguard probably is no easy task), but whom the movie-verse writers have turned into a bit of a buffoon and comedic relief, (with the exception of the first Iron Man film, where he was mostly in the background but still had that body-guard edge) but that's a whole 'nother rant I'll save for another time. I will say this, though - not cool, movie-verse writers. Not cool at all.