Earlier this year, I released an IronStrange fan comic titled 『I Have a Crush on a Wizard? Seriously?!』, and this is a preview from back then.（The total length is 36 pages）
I hope to translate the whole thing into English someday and share it,but I’ll need to wait until I have time...
(my English isn’t great, so it’s going to be a big challenge 🥹.)
"Stephen gets hit on by a villain during a fight and Tony gets way too mad about it."
Stephen couldn’t stop himself from sneaking glances at Tony from the corner of his eye as the after-battle review went on. Tony had been strangely quiet and stiff since the fight. Stephen had been fairly certain that Tony hadn’t been injured, but the strangeness of Tony’s behavior meant had Stephen suspicious.
The meeting ended and Stephen had to nearly run to catch up with Tony, who’d gotten out of his seat and out of the room with startling speed. “Tony,” Stephen called, surprised when Tony didn’t stop. Even when Tony was hiding injuries, he didn’t tend to ignore Stephen. Stephen caught up, touching Tony’s elbow to indicate a desire to talk.
Tony stiffened at his touch. Was the injury to his arm?
“Tony,” Stephen repeated, grateful when Tony did actually stop walking, turning toward Stephen, even if his gaze seemed focused closer to Stephen’s ear than Stephen’s face. “Did you get checked by the compound doctors?”
Genuine confusion crossed Tony’s face and his gaze flickered—briefly—to meet Stephen’s eyes before focusing back on Stephen’s ear. What was possibly going on with Tony? Tony met everything head on. It was thrilling, honestly. Stephen quite enjoyed the sensation of meeting Tony head on. He never was able to look away from Tony when it happened.
“I didn’t get hurt?” Tony sounded genuinely confused about why Stephen was asking.
“You’ve been off since the battle,” Stephen said.
Another flicker of his eyes where Tony met Stephen’s gaze, guilt and frustration in his eyes, before Tony’s gaze averted again. “I’m fine, Stephen. Just… tired.”
Stephen almost rolled his eyes. “Tony, you keep yourself on the perennial edge of exhaustion. I know what tired looks like on you.”
Tony’s nose wrinkled. “Look. It’s nothing. Mr. Acid-Rain-on-the-Parade was just particularly annoying.”
Tony wasn’t wrong about that. Though Tony had been mostly in charge of dealing with the airborne drones, rather than the villain himself. Lucky for him, honestly. Stephen had spent far too long listening to the man talk, with all his poorly executed innuendo. Still, that explained nothing about Tony’s behavior. “You’ve dealt with annoying,” Stephen said, starting to get frustrated. “Tony, I’m not trying to be obtuse. Did something happen during the fight?”
Tony deflated. “Nothing,” he said tiredly. “I’m just… frustrated. And I shouldn’t be. You know me, blowing things out of proportion and being dramatic.”
Except Tony wasn’t being dramatic, he was being quiet.
“Tony,” Stephen practically pleaded. He hated when he didn’t know what was wrong—especially when it was Tony.
A sigh escaped Tony. “It’s just annoying, you know? When someone else gets to do something you’re not allowed to?”
Stephen blinked. “You want to terrorize people with acid rain?” he asked a little sarcastically.
Tony rolled his eyes. “Obviously not.”
“Then?” Stephen prompted.
Tony’s gaze flickered to Stephen’s eyes again and this time… it was almost longing. What had the villain even done worth longing for? “They can say whatever they want,” Tony said. “To whoever they want. There are no boundaries. There are no restrictions. No rules. No protocol.”
Stephen stared, trying to connect the dots, coming up with a picture he wanted almost too much to be true. “While the current Avengers’ protocol complicates… things,” Stephen said slowly. “It doesn’t prohibit... things.”
This time when Tony’s gaze met his, it didn’t flicker away. “Only if both sides want it,” he said.
“Well, that’s true for everything,” Stephen pointed out, but he understood the point. Between teammates an unwanted overture—even appropriately extended—could complicate dynamics. “But if both sides want it, then I think that those involved can say whatever they want.”
“How do you know if both sides want it?” Tony asked.
“Well,” Stephen said. “If one of them chases the other down the hall in concern and refuses to leave things be until they get answers out of deep concern… the chances are high they want something.”
The stiffness and frustration Tony had been carrying seemed to seep away, and his body posture shifted into something very inviting. “Well then,” he said. “That’s very good to know.”
“—worried us,” the man was saying. Stephen stared at him, feeling lost. “You’ve been out for three days.”
He recognized the man—or thought he did—from a few fragmented memories. But even then, the man was a fuzzy element compared to the memory’s clear focus: Tony Stark.
Stephen scoured the memory. “Wong,” he said finally, carefully, interrupting the spiel about Stephen’s condition. “That’s your name, right?”
The man—Wong—stopped mid-sentence. “Yes,” he said, sharp concern in his eyes. “Do you not remember me?”
Stephen wasn’t sure how to answer that. “I don’t think I remember most things,” he said finally. His memories were splinters, and he tried to catalogue them. The more he looked through his memories, the more uneasy he felt. Nothing of his childhood. In his twenties, he had strange flash memories of tabloids, news articles, media events, gossip—all of Tony Stark—with a blurry memory of what was happening when seeing or hearing them. But there was no context. He remembered people gossiping about Tony Stark’s sex life while he seemed to be performing surgery, annoyed at the gossip. He remembered driving while the radio blared about Tony Stark being found in Afghanistan, brief surprise that the man was still alive. Dozens of memories just like those were in the mix.
But then… he could remember he and Wong presenting Tony Stark with a literal magic show—and what? how had he gone from presumed surgeon to magician?—about an upcoming alien invasion, deep concern in his chest at the incoming threat. At which point he remembered fighting aliens, but only the parts where Tony Stark was around.
“You don’t remember most things,” Wong said slowly. “What do you remember?”
Stephen pursed his lips. “Tony Stark.” The answer made Wong frown. It was a shame he and Tony had only talked rarely about Wong. Stephen felt impressions of his own fondness—he was quite certain he considered Wong a friend—and Tony seemed to think well of Wong, from the few things he’d said. “Everything around him is blurry. I know you and I were together when I met Tony; we told him about Thanos.” That name, at least, he remembered clearly. But mostly because he and Tony had talked about Thanos a number of times, during and after.
He hadn’t seen Tony extensively since the whole thing with aliens. Maybe a dozen times since, with a few texts interspersed, and nothing important had happened in any of those meetings. Stephen’s own feelings during the conversations were very distinct. Extreme fondness. In fact, Stephen suspected fondness maybe wasn’t the extent of it.
Except Stephen didn’t want to put any names to this feeling when he had no other context and couldn’t figure out if these feelings he felt in those memories with Tony were Tony specific or not.
“Tony Stark,” Wong repeated. “Well. This is a problem.”
Given Stephen had a total of less than 100 memories… yeah, Stephen agreed. This was a problem.
Imagine finding out you have 90 minutes to tie up a love story that's developed over thousands of years. You create something beautifully in character and completely on point for the plot. You pay homage to the original writer's legacy in a fitting and poetic way and create an ending that not only shows the depth of two people's love for each other but the wider love they have for the thing that brought them together in the first place.
And then you go online to find the loudest outcry is that everyone hates it and "THEY DIDN'T EVEN KISS!"
I feel sorry for people who didn't get anything out of that stunning finale.
I mean, I'm a little disappointed too that they didn't have a proper kiss, but like maybe love is more than just physical intimacy. Maybe love is more than sexual attraction.
Yeah they both died with the rest of the universe but they chose that because they already had everything they wanted. Dinners, car rides, friends, books, plants, adventures, a life, together.
They’d already been life partners, they just didn’t know it yet, and a kiss, or lack thereof, doesn’t change that. Crowley and Aziraphale don’t need to prove their love with a kiss, especially not to each other.
And on the topic of their deaths, I’ve seen people calling it bury your gays???? If you need proof that media literacy is dead, there it is cuz ya’ll don’t know what bury your gays means. Asa and Anthony aren’t just some lookalikes, they’re reincarnations of Azira and Crowley. That’s why they’re instantly attracted to each other.
If you didn’t like the finale, then fine, you’re valid in that opinion. But my opinion is also valid, and I thought it was great.
My issue is not the intimacy. Personally, I think a hug or forehead kiss would be more significant to the state of their relationship. Either would better represent their final moment.
My personal issue is EVERYTHING else.
They were not reincarnated, because God stated simply that they would not exist. These are two different people with the same name and face. Even if they were reincarnated, it diminishes their entire development through out the series.
This story was rushed. I understand that they initially had more story, but it was their choice to keep and edit it together. I would’ve preferred no finale at all.
Now let’s talk plot hole — because the only thing salvaged from the book of life was Aziraphale’s bookshop. Crowley and Aziraphale should’ve died then and there. Jesus was completely unnecessary to the story. Satan and Hell were also irrelevant. Crowley did not need to lose the Bentley to push this plot along — they already had multiple plot arches to drag them together.
This episode was fan service and poor cinematography hidden under the spectacle of CGI. Everything lead no where because the writers wanted a demon Aziraphale, cottage core ending, God appearance, and apology dance all in one. It has no depth.
They gutted the motivation of Aziraphale and Crowley like fish and replaced subtext with double screening.
OH BOY GUYS, I SURE DO LOVE S1 OF GOOD OMENS…A SHAME IT’S BEEN OVER SINCE 2019.
gummygunk
origamiaround
amandla
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