Multi-muse Marvel RP Blog

" No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos.We're,we're a time bomb."--Bruce Banner  

[rainbowroute]

Happy Birthday to the sexiest asshole in the entire MCU, Tony Stark!! Some science bros for the occasion. Bruce tries to calm Tony and ease him down from a panic attack and uses some sensory deprivation. (I just love drawing the arc reactor)

[rainbowroute]

Bruce is analyzing some chemicals that he holds some hope in, thinking they have potential to help manage the Hulk. Tony shows up earlier than Bruce expected, and he tries to finish up his work before Tony figures out what he’s doing. But you can’t hide anything from Tony. Bruce realizes too late that he should have just greeted Tony with an apology and an explanation. Instead he gets defensive and angry over the fact that he feels he has to explain at all.

“What are you working on? … I thought we were passed this. Christ.”

“Tony, it’s not- We are passed that!!

[rainbowroute]

Reunited. Reunited. Seeing each other, and they can’t show how they feel until they are somewhere private, somewhere out of the fray. Bruce, Bruce just grabs him. Pulls him close and kisses him. Hard. Bruce has no idea about all that has gone down while he was gone. He has no idea. Because once again, the world kept spinning while Bruce was gone and Bruce’s world is standing still. Two years passed and Bruce barely felt it. The only thing he is feeling now is how much he missed Tony, and that he doesn’t want to waste any more time.

And Tony is torn. He doesn’t want it to end, because as soon as their lips part, that’s when Tony has to start playing catch-up with Bruce. He has to tell him what’s taking place in the world he left behind…

[t00thpasteface]

the gist of this idea me and @khyeili have been screwing around with is that tony is having a bad time. everyone thinks he's transphobic now just because he's deeply annoyed by captain america

[sagebrush-and-sadness]

He's in his element (being a cat everyone loves to pet)

[russo-castle]

[As long as the foundations are still strong, we can rebuild this place]

[thordallsource]

#I WOULD LIKE TO THANK IW FOR MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO LOOK AT THIS GIFSET WITHOUT CRYING#because heimdall has SAVED asgard #SO MANY TIMES#and more often than not had to save asgard from its own royal family#heimdall has nearly died trying to restore thor back to asgard#BROKE OUT OF ICE AND FOUGHT FROST GIANTS#heimdall who called odin to the bifrost tower to tell him TO HIS FACE that he is committing treason#because priorities of a PARANOID AND ARROGANT KING that will cost lives of civilians in the name of PRIDE#is not something he can stand by and idly let happen#HEIMDALL WHOSE MORALS AND PRINCIPALS *NEVER* WAIVER AND ARE ALWAYS BY THE PEOPLE#heimdall is the EMBODIMENT of ‘asgard is not a place it’s a people’#ODIN IS ASGARD’S AT ITS WORST#USHERED INTO ‘A GOLDEN AGE’ BY BLOOD AND STOLEN WEALTH#ARROGANCE AND GREED#TURNED INTO A ‘BENEVOLENT’ EMPIRE THAT STILL PROSPERS WITH GOLD THAT IS NOT ITS OWN#LOKI IS THE ECHO THE PHYSICAL & VOCAL REMINDER OF 'SINS OF THE FATHER’#'i went down to midgard to rule the people of earth as a benevolent god#JUST LIKE YOU#thor is  asgard in penitence aware of itself still nostalgic at times but knowing IT NEEDS TO DO BETTER IT NEEDS TO *BE* BETTER#THOR IS ASGARD THAT TRIES AND ASGARD THAT HOPES#BUT HEIMDALL? #HEIMDALL IS ASGARD AT ITS BEST #TRULY#and you know thor knows it too which is why it’s heimdall he seeks reassurance from#BECAUSE IF HE’S DONE RIGHT BY HEIMDALL #he’s done right by the people#BOY I SURE AM GLAD RAGNAROK IS THE LAST MCU MOVIE EVER#AND NOTHING AT ALL HAPPENED AFTER

[prokopetz]

Random Headcanon: That Federation vessels in Star Trek seem to experience bizarre malfunctions with such overwhelming frequency isn’t just an artefact of the television serial format. Rather, it’s because the Federation as a culture are a bunch of deranged hyper-neophiles, tooling around in ships packed full of beyond-cutting-edge tech they don’t really understand. Endlessly frustrating if you have to fight them, because they can pull an effectively unlimited number of bullshit space-magic countermeasures out of their arses - but they’re as likely as not to give themselves a lethal five-dimensional wedgie in the process. All those rampant holograms and warp core malfunctions and accidentally-traveling-back-in-time incidents? That doesn’t actually happen to anyone else; it’s literally just Federation vessels that go off the rails like that. And they do so on a fairly regular basis.

[writebastard]

So to everyone else in the galaxy, all humans are basically Doc Brown.

[prokopetz]

Aliens who have seen the Back to the Future movies literally don’t realise that Doc Brown is meant to be funny. They’re just like “yes, that is exactly what all human scientists are like in my experience”.

[roachpatrol]

THE ONLY REASON SCOTTY IS CHIEF ENGINEER INSTEAD OF SOMEONE FROM A SPECIES WITH A HIGHER TECHNOLOGICAL APTITUDE IS BECAUSE EVERYONE FROM THOSE SPECIES TOOK ONE LOOK AT THE ENTERPRISE’S ENGINE ROOM AND RAN AWAY SCREAMING

[roachpatrol]

vulcan science academy: why do you need another warp core

humans: we’re going to plug two of them together and see if we go twice as fast

vsa: last time we gave you a warp core you threw it into a sun to see if the sun would go twice as fast

humans: hahaha yeah

humans: it did tho

vsa: IT EXPLODED

humans: it exploded twice as fast

[froborr]

I love this. Especially because of how well it plays with my headcanon that the Federation does so much better against the Borg than anyone else because beating the Borg with military tactics is nigh-impossible, but beating them with wacky superscience shenanigans works as long as they’re unique wacky superscience shenanigans.

[megabeeprime]

Yeah, I love this.

[underscorex]

Reminds me of the thing I wrote a while back about Humans in high fantasy realms - they’re basically Team Fuck It Hold My Beer I Got This.

Impulsive, passionate to a fault, the social structures they build to try and regulate this hotheadedness ironically creates even greater levels of sheer bull-headedness. Even their “cooler” heads take action in months or weeks.

All their great heroes of the past were impossibly rash by galactic standards. Humans Just Go With It, which is their great flaw but also their greatest strength.

[roachpatrol]

klingons: okay we don’t get it

vulcan science academy: get what

klingons: you vulcans are a bunch of stuffy prisses but you’re also tougher, stronger, and smarter than humans in every single way

klingons: why do you let them run your federation

vulcan science academy: look

vulcan science academy: this is a species where if you give them two warp cores they don’t do experiments on one and save the other for if the first one blows up

vulcan science academy: this is a species where if you give them two warp cores, they will ask for a third one, immediately plug all three into each other, punch a hole into an alternate universe where humans subscribe to an even more destructive ideological system, fight everyone in it because they’re offended by that, steal their warp cores, plug those together, punch their way back here, then try to turn a nearby sun into a torus because that was what their initial scientific experiment was for and they didn’t want to waste a trip. 

vulcan science academy: they did that last week. we have the write-up right here. it’s getting published in about six hundred scientific journals across two hundred different disciplines because of how many established theories their ridiculous little expedition has just called into question. also, they did turn that sun into a torus, and no one actually knows how. 

vulcan science academy: this is why we let them do whatever the hell they want. 

klingons: …. can we be a part of your federation

[the-real-seebs]

Come to think of it, I mean. Look at the “first human warp drive” thing in the movie. That was… Not how Vulcans would have done it.

[dragon-in-a-fez]

you know what the best evidence for this is? Deep Space 9 almost never broke down. minor malfunctions that irritated O’Brien to hell and back, sure, but almost none of the truly weird shit that befell Voyager and all the starships Enterprise. what was the weirdest malfunction DS9 ever had? the senior staff getting trapped as holosuite characters in Our Man Bashir, and that was because a human decided to just dump the transporter buffer into the station’s core memory and hope everything would work out somehow, which is a bit like swapping your computer’s hard drive out for a memory card from a PlayStation 2 and expecting to be able to play a game of Spyro the Dragon with your keyboard and mouse.

[dragon-in-a-fez]

you know what, I’m not done with this post. let’s talk about the Pegasus. the USS Fucking Pegasus, testbed for the first Starfleet cloaking device. here we have a handful of humans working in secret to develop a cloaking device in violation of a treaty with the Romulans. they’re playing catchup trying to develop a technology other species have had for a century. and what do they do? do they decide to duplicate a Romulan cloaking device precisely, just see if they can match what other species have? nope. they decide, hey, while we’re at it, while we’re building our very first one of these things, just to find out if this is possible, let’s see if we can make this thing phase us out of normal space so we can fly through planets while we’re invisible.

“but why” said the one Vulcan in the room.

“because that would fucking rule” said the humans, high-fiving each other and slamming cans of 24th-century Red Bull.

there must be like twenty different counselling groups for non-human engineering students at Starfleet Academy, and every week in every single one of them someone walks in and starts up with a story like “our assignment was to repair a phaser emitter and my one human classmate built a chronometric-flux toaster that toasts bread after you’ve eaten it.”

[sameenbyhat]

Humans get mildly offended by the way they are presented in non-human media.

Like: “Guys, we totally wouldn’t do that!” But this always fails to get much traction, because the authors can always say: “You totally did.”

“That was ONE TIME.” 

There’s that movie where humans invented vaccines by just testing them on people. Or the one about those two humans who invented powered flight by crashing a bunch of prototypes. Or the one about electricity. 

And human historians go, “Oh, uh, this is historically accurate, but also kind of boring.” To which the producers respond: “How is doing THIS CRAZY THING boring????????”

There are entire serieses of horror movies where the premise is “We stopped paying attention to the human and ey found the technology.”

[jazzybot4]

reblog for new meta.  RE that last line: McGuyver. 

[deadcatwithaflamethrower]

“MacGuyver” is the equivalent of Vulcan vintage human horror television.

[roachpatrol]

during orientation at a human college, vulcans are presented with a list of swear words. 

“what is the word ‘fuck’ for,” the innocent young vulcans want to know. “surely there are more logical intensity modifiers.”

“yeah, you’d think so,” say the weary, jaded vulcan professors. “you’d really fucking think so.”

there is a phrase in vulcan for ‘the particular moment you understand what the word ‘fuck’ is for’. 

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

This is why the Federation is the only organisation to ever stand a chance against the Borg

The Borg can adapt to the brilliant millitary strategies of the Romulan Star Empire, the Klingons and even the cold logical intellectual prowess of the vulcans

The Borg weren’t prepared for a starship captain to lure them into his 50′s noir detective holo-novel and then machine gun them to death with a weapon made out of hard light

[elfwreck]

ANDORIAN YEOMAN: Captain! The replicators are malfunctioning, and the ambassador’s party will be here in an hour!

KIRK: Don’t worry. We got this. *calls engineering* Hey Scotty, you were in the dorms at Starfleet, right?

SCOTTY: Aye.

KIRK: And you weren’t allowed to have large appliances in your dorm rooms, right?

SCOTTY: Nae, we were not.

KIRK: Ok. So, the ambassador and co are gonna be here in an hour, and we need to set up a feast for them. And we have no replicators.

SCOTTY: *catching on* Right! I’ll take me team to the mess hall and we’ll get right on it!

KIRK: Thanks. Kirk out.

ANDORIAN YEOMAN: …What just happened?

KIRK: Ah, you weren’t in a dorm, I see.

ANDORIAN YEOMAN: No, I was part of the offworlders’ fraternity… we had a kitchen…

KIRK: So, you never fried eggs on tinfoil on a flat iron. Never painted a can of stew black, poked a hole in the top, and set it in a sunny window to slow-cook all day. Never used an instant coffeepot to boil rice to pour the stew over.

ANDORIAN YEOMAN: *horrified* N-No, sir.

KIRK: We’re gonna treat the ambassador’s team to a Genuine Earth-Style Scholar’s Feast!

*comm chirps* *Kirk answers*

SCOTTY: Well, we don’t have an iron or a coffeepot, but the warp core produces heat and we think we can rig a pipe from one of the vents to a storage locker to make an oven; Jones has volunteered some of his beer – good lad! – and we’re gonna get the guys in Science to extract some of the yeast and grab some of those grain samples and see if we can get some bread going. If not, we’ll settle for more beer. Also the Weapons team guys think they can set the phasers to shoot through a metal mesh screen and get us grilled cheese. So we’re off to a good start.

[overclassy]

[la-venere]

nothing sexier than that picture with the italian players on top of eachother after the win and the english ones going through the 5 stages of grief in the back

[la-venere]

THIS ONE

[phthalooo]

i can see it

[starlightshadowsworld]

It’s nice seeing my people so accurately represented and…whatever’s going on with the Italians.

[pluckyredhead]

Bobby and Daken: A Primer

As threatened, this ship has become my entire personality. I've embarked on a truly insane research frenzy in order to write the many thousands of words of porn fic they deserve, but in the meantime, I noticed when I first discovered them that it's really hard to find any information about their actual interactions. Like, harder than Johnny and Daken, even though that's only subtext and Bobby and Daken is actual (hilariously disastrous) text.

Anyway. In hopes of dragging some of you down with me, I present to you: their whole deal.

Kevin Wada knows what's up.

So those two issues above tragically encompass fully 40% of their interactions ever. They're from the unfortunately short-lived 2017 Iceman series by Sina Grace, and I do recommend reading the whole thing whether you ship this or not, because it's just a lovely series and I'm sorry I slept on it when it originally came out.

You probably already know who Bobby is: Bobby Drake, Iceman, one of the original five X-Men, can turn into ice, he's in the movies but maybe ignore all of that. At this point in time he had very recently (2015) come out as gay after DECADES of subtext, in a story that was highly controversial at the time but which I actually love, fight me. This series is very much about him exploring that aspect of his identity for the first time.

Daken, as covered in the Johnny post, is Daken Akihiro, Wolverine's half-Japanese, canonically bisexual son, with basically the same powers as his dad plus pheromone powers. He was introduced as a villain but around this time was at the very beginning of what would end up being an extremely drastic face turn, mostly because of his relationship with his sister, Laura/X-23. So like...still mostly a villain here but has done a couple of heroic things, and much less likely to slaughter dozens for no reason.

Prior to Iceman (2017), these two had appeared in exactly one comic "together," in that Daken was pretending to be Wolverine on an evil X-Men team led by Norman Osborne, and Bobby and a bunch of other good guys stood on a hill some distance away and watched them. It's basically nothing.

But then we get Iceman #4. At this point, Bobby is a teacher at the Xavier School, and this one extremely obnoxious kid named Zach has run away. They figure out that he's at a very upper crust club in Manhattan, so Bobby puts on a tux and goes looking for him...and that's when he discovers who Zach has run away with:

I say "run away with," but to be clear, there's never any indication of a sexual relationship between Zach, who is 15, and Daken, who is in his 70s, though you could certainly read Zach as having a crush. Anyway it's extremely funny to me that Daken won him over by basically being Kronk's shoulder devil from The Emperor's New Groove. "Don't listen to that guy! He's trying to lead you down the path of righteousness. I'm gonna lead you down the path that rocks." - Daken, probably

Anyway, please enjoy Daken flirting, although admittedly he does that with everyone. We will come back to that incomprehensibly comic book-y line about the Apocalypse seed later. I also don't know why Bobby says he hates Daken when unless I missed an issue they have literally never met, but I do love that you could cut the sexual tension on this page with a knife.

Oop. Bobby's pose in the second panel always makes me laugh, it's so goofy.

His line about the charm powers is interesting, because there's two interpretations here: either Daken was using them and they clearly didn't work for some reason, presumably having to do with Bobby's powers...or Daken wasn't using them, but Bobby assumed he was, presumably because for all his sarcasm, he is actually attracted to Daken. Well, or he's just being annoying on purpose (likely, this is an annoying x annoying ship).

Bobby finds Zach and tries to talk him into coming home, but Zach isn't having it - and because his powers allow him to turn other mutants' powers up or down, Bobby can't force him. Daken thaws out and attacks:

Their fights are so fun. They're both functionally immortal so they always just seem like they're really enjoying cutting loose? (I mean, I say "functionally immortal" but Daken's died like three times. Comics!)

A consistent through-line with these two is that Daken is absolutely no match for Bobby (unless he can make Bobby fall in love with him, apparently) (we'll get there). Look how hard he's fighting! And Bobby's not even trying. (To be fair, Bobby is an Omega-level mutant (lol) which is the most powerful classification. Also it's Bobby's book so he gets to look badass, that's just how it works.)

But also can we talk about Bobby's dialogue in the first panel? "I know that what he's offering you sounds exciting, but Daken will hurt you." Are you talking to Zach or yourself, Bobby? Please recall that at this point in time Bobby has never even kissed a boy.

Zach gets in the helicopter and leaves. Daken tries flirting again, but Bobby isn't having it:

Ouch. Don't feel bad for Daken, though, he's mad but basically unbothered:

"You ruined my suit" lol. Bobby leaning on the snowflake also never fails to make me laugh. Also, Daken's line about charming Bobby seems to imply that he did attempt to use his pheromones earlier and it didn't work, even on Bobby's depowered form, which is interesting.

More flirting! More being extremely mean to each other! More Daken calling Bobby "snowflake!" (He does so four times in this issue alone.) I am eating this issue with a spoon.

Anyway. Daken and Zach go to Madripoor and do crimes, whatever. Meanwhile, over the next few issues, Bobby goes to LA and meets a cute guy named Judah, who is canonically the first man he kisses/sleeps with (if we don't count his time-displaced teen self's boyfriend, which we won't right now because that's confusing). They agree not to try a long distance relationship, but Bobby comes home and immediately starts talking about moving to LA...and Judah impulsively shows up on his lawn:

I SEE YOU, SINA GRACE. I SEE YOU EXPLICITLY PARALLELING BOBBY'S CANON LOVE INTEREST WITH THE SEXY BAD BOY WITH HIS SHIRT UNBUTTONED. I like Judah a lot - he's the best of the NPC queer love interests of which we have so many these days - but come on.

And then we get Iceman #9.

So. Bobby has indeed decided to move to LA for a guy he has known for 48 hours, and the X-Men throw him a going away party even though Kitty loudly tells him he's being a dumbass. (Love u, Kitty.) But! Zach sneaks back into the mansion and lures the students into a death trap in the Danger Room, and the adult X-Men are lured outside to fight fake Purifiers.

Bobby is not supposed to be part of the fight, he's supposed to be going to a nearby bar with the NPC love interests, but he decides to put Judah in his room where he'll be safe. Which of course is when Daken pops up:

"Oh no, I always unbutton my shirt halfway to my navel and put on a shoulder holster that doesn't have anything in it but makes my pecs and biceps look amazing when embarking on a completely idiotic plan to obtain ultimate power." - Daken, again

Of course, Daken's big evil plan involves...messing with Bobby's new boyfriend:

And then he makes a supervillain speech:

So. Okay. Remember in #4, when Daken said something about Bobby having an Apocalypse seed in him? So the very short version is that Apocalypse is an X-Men villain who likes to pick four mutants to be his Horsemen (Death, War, Famine, and Pestilence) and he amps up their powers but also enthralls them to a degree. A couple years before Bobby came out, an evil version of Beast stuck a Death seed in Bobby for safekeeping and he went evil and nearly destroyed the world, in a story that's, uh...not not a metaphor for being miserably closeted, I'll just say that. (In case you're curious, they did eventually get the seed out and um. Mystique ate it. And grew tentacles.)

Anyway, I don't know why Daken says he saw it because a) he and Bobby had never met at that point and b) Daken was dead at the time. (Wolverine drowned him in a puddle. Amazingly, Logan and Daken's relationship is better than Bobby and his dad's.) Maybe he watched it on YouTube or something. The point is, Daken was resurrected with a different Death seed, and it's still inside him.

It is at this point that we learn what all of this nonsense was about: Daken semi-kidnapped Zach because he wants Zach to use his power-enhancing/suppressing abilities to trigger the Death seed, while also suppressing it enough that Daken stays in control. Bobby, who turned into an ice kaiju and nearly destroyed the world when he was all Death-seeded up, is like "That is a terrible plan, do not do that," although I guess in Daken's defense, he's not nearly as dangerous as Bobby even with Death powers. But it's still a dumb plan.

Anyway Daken gets so powerful that his shirt explodes:

Daken's fun because I understand all the signifiers in his design telling me that he's supposed to be really hot but 90% of the time he looks like a dingdong.

Daken stabs Judah, and then tells Zach to give Bobby his powers back, mostly because he thinks it'll be fun to fight Bobby:

"There's my snowflake!" Daken this crush is embarrassing.

The fight continues into the next issue. Zach loses control and thus Daken also loses control, exactly as Bobby warned him he would. They fight some more, with Daken looking even stupider, and hilariously going for the "no one understands you the way I do" angle (they have been in three entire comics together):

Daken asks if Bobby's friends saved him from the Death seed with "fwiendship and miwacles" (no, they did it by Kitty calling him a punk bitch). But that's not gonna work on Daken, no sir!

They sure do like penetrating each other.

And then this happens:

I did not know that kiss was coming and the way I SCREAMED when I turned the page??? Also that little kick is hilarious.

Anyway Daken just...vanishes from the story at this point, all of his everything completely unresolved. Zach is captured. Judah is alive, but he breaks up with Bobby because getting "stabbed by some sexy Asian biker guy" just for hanging around Bobby actually wasn't fun.

I want to point out a couple of things. First, Daken's plan was objectively terrible, because it apparently relied on a 15-year-old never losing his concentration. When was Zach supposed to sleep?

Second, and more importantly, none of this required Bobby's presence. Zach could have triggered the seed in Madripoor. There was absolutely no reason to show up at the mansion and potentially have to fight all the X-Men.

So to recap, Daken:

returned to New York for no reason, coincidentally just in time to stop Bobby from moving across the country with his new boyfriend,

unbuttoned his shirt several extra buttons,

waited until Bobby was isolated and then manhandled him,

kissed and then stabbed his boyfriend,

exploded his own shirt off,

called Bobby his favorite pet name again,

told him no one understands him like Daken does,

let's fight all night together, Bobby,

love won't save me, Bobby,

whatever you do, don't try to save me with the power of love, Bobby!

omg he kissed me 😳

Like, look. I know Daken's "plan" didn't succeed. But Judah broke up with Bobby, so didn't it? DIDN'T IT??

(I also think it's worth asking...did you really have to kiss him to freeze the seed, Bobby? Hm?)

Unfortunately, the Iceman series was cancelled after only one more issue. Bobby and Daken did interact four months later, in X-Men: Blue #30...but it was time-displaced Teen Bobby, not regular Bobby:

This is Daken's version of cute aggression. Anyway, being like 15 does not stop Bobby from being able to effortlessly kick Daken's ass and someone else's at the same time, which is hilarious:

There is only one more actual interaction between these two, in Uncanny X-Men: Winter's End, and once again it's not the present day versions. Bobby's future self, who is a...space ice wizard...of some sort...comes back to the present to warn Bobby that he's going to fuck Daken and it's going to end very poorly:

Future Bobby describes this relationship as "a love that feels so real that it redefines every sense or feeling you had before." Intense. This, by the way, is literally centuries in the future because again, both functionally immortal.

Alas, Future Daken betrays Bobby and the X-Men in yet another bid for ultimate power, and Future Bobby comes back in time to kill his past self to prevent it from happening. Regular Bobby is like "Okay first of all you need to own your own mistakes, and second of all if I want to fuck Daken that's my choice to make." (Okay he doesn't say that but he does say "If I do somehow make your mistakes, just let me live my damn life!") So...never say never, I guess!

There is one other moment to note and that's this very cruel-to-me-personally bait-and-switch in Marauders Annual #1. Daken, who is pretty firmly a good guy at this point (it's 2022, well into the Krakoa era), disappears while on a mission. He's in a very cute relationship with Aurora at this time, so Bishop and Tempo ask her if she's seen him:

And on the next page:

I'm not going to try to explain everything that's happening on this page but the point is it's set up to make you think Aurora is talking about Bobby, when actually she's talking about Somnus, the guy in the last couple of panels, who was Daken's lover a million years ago. Sigh.

And that is the extent of Bobby and Daken's appearances together, not counting several crowd scenes and pinups in Pride specials where they always seem to be as far apart from each other as possible. 😭

But none of that changes what's important here, which is that Bobby kicked Daken's ass one time and it got Daken so embarrassingly down bad that he tried to take over the world about it. Sexy scary immortal knifehands bisexual assassin absolutely losing his cool over some dorky little accountant from Long Island, I can't.

ANYWAY EVERYONE COME SHIP THIS WITH ME PLEASE AND THANK YOU 🧊❤️🔪

[quintessentialgaymutant]

Akihiro's Character Shift- From Counterculturally Queer to Marketable and Normative

Akihiro is one of the few bisexual, men of color characters in cape comics. He has a relatively lengthy history as an antagonistic character who has shown various dimensions of complexity and inner conflict over the years. Fans have historically been drawn to the nuances of the character and his queer identity has always been an important rarity the character brought to comics.

Part of recognizing those nuances is also acknowledging that historically, Akihiro’s bisexuality and attraction to men has not always been portrayed perfectly. The other part is also recognizing the cultural context during his inception and what that has meant for queer fans.

Yes, Akihiro was an antagonist, yes, he fit some unfortunate tropes. That said, there were aspects of his original characterization that resonated with queer fans and still matter today, aspects that have unfortunately been lost as his character has transitioned more into a “good” guy. 

Over the past 5 years; Akihiro has been characterized more as a hero. Alongside this moral shift in the character…his queerness has also conveniently been sanded off. This post  is meant to analyze Akihiro’s history and significance as a queer male character and how that has been lost since his “redemption” that started off in X-Factor (2021) and defines much of how he’s portrayed to this day.

 With his redemption, Akihiro has become a consistent player in the x-books, constantly having a book appearance since X-Factor, unlike any other queer character at Marvel. Seriously, he hasn’t had a break. After X-Factor, he appeared in Marauders, Alpha Flight, Hellverine (a mini and then an ongoing), Spirits of Vengeance and as of writing, Inglorious X-Force. That’s a lot of push the character is getting, more than he ever has gotten before, across several different titles and creators. 

He has consistently appeared monthly more often than any other queer character at Marvel right now, since his character shift.  And yet…it’s with this same push that his queer identity has been stripped and he’s been modified into something more digestible and marketable to cishet male readers. This is a far cry from the essence of the character that defined his impact. 

To demonstrate this, let's start by looking at who Akihiro was before his “redemption” era and how queerness was an active ingredient in framing him.

Akihiro was introduced as the “Anti-Logan” in many ways. A queer, antagonistic man with dark nail polish, tattoos and a penchant for power and hedonism, the perfect villain and foil for the broody, masculine and heteronormative protagonist that is Wolverine. It’s important to remember the cultural context here, much of his core characterization discussed here had occurred during 2007-2009. 

During much of this characterization; explicit queer representation barely existed in comics. Upon Akihiro’s creation, there hadn’t even been a gay kiss in comics. Let that sink in. 

Rictor and Shatterstar didn’t get to have their kiss until 2009 in X-Factor #45, this marked the first gay kiss in a mainstream superhero comic. Wiccan and Hulkling, arguably the most popular and impactful gay couple in comics, didn’t get to have their first kiss until Children’s Crusade #9 in 2010. 

This timeframe is incredibly important when looking at Akihiro’s flawed but impactful writing as a queer man. We didn’t have much of anything, and yet here is this queer,  mysterious, attractive and fae man, who is related to Logan. His writing at the time cultivated some negative stereotypes, but it was juxtaposed with subversive characterization that stuck with the character and his queer fans.

Not only was he one of the only openly queer characters in comics at this time, his overt, in-your-face and tantalizing approach to same sex desire, alongside his brazen and elegant aesthetic was refreshing, and all of this was deeply intentional. 

Matt Fraction described him as  “erudite, cultured and flamboyant” and as "the metrosexual Wolverine.” Marjorie Liu, a fan favorite writer of the character, described him as “elegant”, preferring to use his brain over his brawns, and that his sexuality is ultimately about control. 

These traits are immediately divergent from the gritty, heteronormative and masculine ideals of Logan’s archetype. Logan would hardly be described as “metrosexual” and “elegant”, and his sexuality was always relatable and palpable to straight men. The loving man to the foreign and beautiful Mariko, or the brooding, misunderstood  man to the gorgeous and ambiguously available Jean Grey, etc. 

This divergent characterization “othered” Akihiro, and put him in a distinct category. This is essentially what made him resonate with queer fans. This symbolized a countercultural approach to male sexuality, especially pertaining to same sex desire.  His willingness to unapologetically flaunt, seduce, and tease men in a narrative context where we were barely allowed to be shown two men kissing was refreshing.  

He was even drawn in ways that emphasized his attractive, and lean body.  All with a dash of feminine elegance; his eyes were often drawn pretty, his nails were painted dark and his Mohawk flew around like a regal but daunting mane. 

Again, it cannot be emphasized enough that queer characters weren’t even allowed to kiss during this period, let alone showcase much overt same sex desire. This context reinforced a culture of shame.

Akihiro stood out because he was anything but ashamed when it came to his desires and sexuality. This unabashedly queer point of view allowed for extremely memorable character interactions that challenged expectations around what interactions between men could be like. 

Specifically, Akihiro’s overt and unashamed queer sexuality gave him the vantage point to deconstruct expectations amongst canonically cishet men like Johnny Storm and Bullseye. The former had been read as queer for years, and his interactions with Akihiro was the closest the character has gotten to explicitly express same sex desire. 

Bullseye presented a unique interaction; Akihiro using his sexuality to get under the skin of a male character, causing sexual frustration and tension, leading to fun character interactions and conflicts. 

These types of dynamics are usually reserved for femme fatale women like Catwoman, Black Cat or Emma Frost, but Akihiro being a man allows for a queer subversion of these expectations. The impact was massive, and both Johnny/Akihiro and Bullseye/Akihiro are popular dynamics that still receive fan content to this very day. 

Akihiro was able to make straight men uncomfortable even, treating them the way they often treat women. While some may view this as offensive, it gives Akihiro a sense of power in relation to his sexuality and how he expresses it with different men, in different contexts. 

In some ways, these interactions represented a bit of a power fantasy that many queer men never get to live due to the aforementioned culture of shame. A badass, sexy man, who was able to get under the skin of straight men, frustrate them, tease them, but still be the power player in control. He didn’t have to conform, or hide, or blend in. He tantalized the other men in the room, using his charm, confidence and presentation as “other.” 

This added depth to the queer literature base in comics; Akihiro represented a countercultural intrigue that was distinct from his contemporaries, adding to the diverse pool of queer perspectives that existed in Marvel Comics. Other queer characters were less sexually charged, imposing or as open about their desires for the same sex. Those characters still matter just as much, but a diverse literature base is when different vantage points can co-exist. Akihiro truly was the “Anti-Logan”, and there was still so much potential with his character, especially with his meaningful connection with his sisters. 

Fans got excited again when he appeared in Iceman’s solo ongoing in 2017, written by Sina Grace. The previews oozed sexual tension, and conflict. Male/Male dynamics that feature an anti hero/antagonist and a superhero like Bobby still do not really exist in comics. 

Most of the standard gay couples in comics are idealized and lacked palpable tension, conflict or sexual energy. Akihiro and Bobby could represent something different and again; countercultural. Fanart and fanfiction began pouring in, similar to what had happened with Bullseye and Johnny Storm. Sadly, the two men didn’t end up together as the Iceman run ended too soon, but fans still create fan content of them to this day, imagining a chaotic, tense but fun and exhilarating dynamic between two openly queer men. 

And then came the Krakoa era. Leah Williams is a writer with a…messy history of handling queer themes and non white characters. She received some backlash on her X-Tremists run for focusing on Betsy and Blob as a romantic pairing, despite advertising her book as queer. The book itself did explore some queer aspects near the end but “Blobsy” remained the main, multi issue romantic push. Due to this, and her questionable handling of an Asian character in the same book, some Akihiro fans were a bit worried when she mentioned she would be including the character in her X-Factor run. 

For many of us, those worries quickly came to fruition. Like X-Tremists, Williams markets this book as queer but the romantic content predominantly focuses on a budding relationship between Akihiro and Aurora, completely changing Akihiro’s character in the process;  from a complicated, countercultural  antagonist/anti-hero, into a very buff, masculine, “himbo” who has random and shoehorned feelings for Aurora, a character he has never interacted with before and knows nothing about. 

This is the beginning of the rebranding of Akihiro as a likeable hero, as his countercultural, queer qualities begin to strip away as he becomes more of a traditional, male hero, not too different from his father. Some art even has him looking exactly like him, a far cry from the “anti Wolverine” he originally started off as.

To Williams’ credit, she still references Akihiro’s bisexuality, but she has changed every other aspect of who he is in order to fit a rather gendered relationship with a straight, white woman. His appearance, framing and mannerisms are completely different from before. His lean, feminine features are gone away with and he is suddenly quite broad and muscular. 

His antagonistic qualities such as his selfishness, need for power and control, and his hedonism are gone away with, and his new, quirky and likable qualities are only shown in the context of Aurora, as if he just needed to find the right girl this whole time.

After Williams’ book is unceremoniously cancelled, Steve Orlando’s era with the character begins and is overall much, much better. He sadly retains Williams’ Aurora relationship but he introduces a male lover  into Akihiro’s past, though the whole thing is still ultimately a flashback relationship that won’t really be referenced again. Additionally, Orlando actually references and builds a bit on Akihiro’s antagonistic past. His stint with the character was short lived however. Unfortunately, he still continued with the baggage of Williams’ run as opposed to doing away with it, which leads into the next storyline.

After some hijinx involving death and rebirth, Akihiro becomes the Hellverine and Benjamin Percy first writes a mini series and then a 10 issue ongoing featuring the character. This was Akihiro’s first solo feature since Marjorie Liu’s run with the character in 2009. None of this resonated with readers in comparison, as it was cancelled very quickly. Thankfully, the Aurora relationship seems to have ended but the damage has been done. 

Continuing  from Williams’ sanitization of the character, Akihiro becomes even more of a Logan lite. All of the things that made him countercultural are completely filtered out. 

He is inelegant, broody, and masculine, through and through. His interest in men is not referenced even once throughout the run. His nail polish is now completely gone, and as are the flashy and eye catching looks.  In essence, he has regressed full circle from the “anti-Logan” to “Logan-lite”, with no more distinct voice or characterization. He’s the broody, cool man with claws.  

This was convenient for Marvel, as “Hellverine” is a brand that can market to the same cishet male audience that enjoys Logan, a demographic that is not particularly accepting of countercultural, queer narratives. Look at this:

This is who Akihiro appeals to now, and this transition began in 2021 with Williams’ X-Factor.

Continuing the trend, Tim Seeley included the character in his current run of Inglorious X-Force, and right away, from the first issue, he is clearly setting up a relationship of some kind for Akihiro with the one, available woman in the team: Boom Boom, a character who he has never had any interest or interaction with before. 

But hey, she’s hot and available and that’s all it takes to show a man/woman relationship right? As of writing, his attraction to men has not been referenced in roughly 2-3 years. It also should be noted that Tim Seeley is known for creating erotic works such as Moneyshots, and the choice for him to write books that target cishet men at the expense of everyone else, such as Rogue: Savage Land and Psylocke: Ninja is no mere coincidence.

It’s overtly marketing to the same audience that Akihiro once was countercultural against, in a very queer way. Him getting with Boom Boom was about as predictable as paint drying on the wall. 

It’s obvious to say that none of this is coincidental. Akihiro’s same sex desire, his flamboyance, his theatrics, his self confidence in his sexuality and autonomy over his countercultural desires are all fundamentally linked. If one of those qualities get stripped away, they all do, and we are left with a character with no distinct voice or perspective, but is easily marketable to Logan’s straight male fans.

And that’s where we are at. As previously mentioned, it’s his countercultural traits that make Akihiro a distinct and important piece of the queer literature base of comics. Without that, his writing would have much less impact. Look at the fan content that existed and still gets produced that features his pre 2021 characterization. We all know whatever modern relationship or character tick he received won’t have the same impact as the countercultural icon from the past. That’s my Akihiro. And I grieve what he once was and could have been. 

I hope we get to see that Akihiro again, and even if we won’t, well it’s clear which one is living on amongst the fandom and which one isn’t. 

[mioxenoblade]

When I say “free water, free food, free shelter, free healthcare, free education for everyone” in that “everyone” I even include the people I hate. Too many people get surprised at the idea that I do wish for the people I hate to have better lives.

[mioxenoblade]

When I say EVERYONE, I mean EVERYONE. These are things ALL people should have. If you reblog this saying “except THIS group” then you’ve missed the point entirely.

[generaljinjur]

[salmonandsoup]

i want to remove the boots from necks altogether, not just be the one to put on the boot.

[nentuaby]

Don’t know about OP, but when I say it, this is not selflessness! It’s not selflessness at all. There are still people I would prefer get fucked over! There are really awful shitty people in the world!

But I understand that the tables always turn. ALWAYS. There is no final glorious revolution where The Right People will be in charge forever. The only way to ensure the boot will never be on your neck again is to throw away the fucking boot. Set the table so you eat well no matter which way it turns!

[thatonebirdwrites]

ALL OF THIS. Leave no one behind. We all deserve food, clean water, clean air, healthcare, housing, electricity, internet, and so forth. No matter who you are, you deserve to be able to access and have what you need to survive.

So yes, yes, yes to “throw away the fucking boot.”

[severalowls]

fuck people who reblog posts which contradict each other. no! be explicitly clear

[satyriconmp3]

admire folks who reblog posts which contradict eachother. exactly! keep em guessing

[daresplaining]

I was reading your "Daredevil Comics Introduction for MCU Fans" post and really enjoyed your breakdown of the continuity/character differences. At the end of this intro you said "I could keep going, since there are plenty of other differences," could you share more?

Absolutely! Please note, however, that I haven't watched this show since the third season aired eight years ago, so my memory of it is (pardon the pun) foggy.

My understanding is that they've recently added a whole bunch of characters (Kirsten McDuffie? Heather Glenn? Muse? Hector Ayala? Bullet?) and I'm sure they've made changes to them, because they always do, but obviously, I can't comment on something I haven't seen. In those cases, I'll just offer some basic overviews of their 616 counterparts.

Just to keep everything in one place, here's a summary of my list from the original post:

Matt has red hair and is taller than Foggy.

Foggy was one of the last people to find out was Matt Daredevil.

Foggy didn’t grow up in Hell’s Kitchen (or even in New York state), and his family is completely different.

Karen Page was murdered by Bullseye in 1998.

Karen was never a journalist.

Karen and Matt dated on-and-off for a very long time, but Matt has also dated many other people.

Ben Urich is alive, is one of Matt's closest friends, and was one of the first people to figure out his secret identity.

Elektra Natchios has a different backstory.

Elektra was killed by Bullseye back in the '80s, but she got better. They have been basically nemeses ever since.

Matt is a swashbuckling adrenaline junkie, which is a key reason why he’s called "Daredevil."

Matt chose/reclaimed the name Daredevil as an act of empowerment. “The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen” was not a thing in the comics before the show (a few writers have tried to cram it in since).

Matt became a superhero initially to find justice for his father’s murder, which occurred when Matt was in either college or law school, depending on which writer you ask.

Matt and Foggy attended Jack Murdock’s final boxing match together.

Matt is far more religious in the show than he has ever been in the comics (note: I wrote this list prior to Chip Zdarsky's Daredevil run, so I would now grudgingly tack "...until Zdarsky's run" to the end of this.)

And here are some additions. This is also not going to be comprehensive, just because there are so many little differences that I think hitting all of them would take forever, but this is just what comes to mind. Warning: some spoilers for various comic runs.

"Should Matt kill people?!" is not a theme in the comics outside of a couple of stories. He has only been tempted to commit murder in really specific, rare cases. It isn't something he contemplates in his daily life. Not that I'm bitter, but there was no reason for the Netflix show to spend two entire seasons on that.

Josie's Bar was--until literally last month--a notorious hang-out for low-level mobsters, rather than the beloved neighborhood dive it is in the show.

Comic Foggy's personality is notably different; he's much quieter, more serious, and less outgoing in the comics than his sweet, fun-loving, "eel-drinking" MCU counterpart. This informs his dynamic with Matt, who--in contrast--has a natural charisma and tends to automatically attract the spotlight.

Marci Stahl was a Netflix show invention, though Foggy has dated a number of people in the comics. His longest-lasting relationship so far was with his childhood sweetheart, Debbie Harris, to whom he was married for fifty issues until things turned sour and they got divorced.

616 Bullseye's name is Lester! Though he mostly just goes by "Bullseye." (I cannot tell you how often I see 616 Bullseye posts mis-tagged.) The show lifted "Poindexter" from an alternate universe version of the character who no longer exists (the original Ultimates Bullseye), and the nickname "Dex" is a Netflix show invention.

Bullseye's character concept is simple: He kills people for fun. He probably killed his parents. He'd probably kill your parents. He doesn't go to therapy (not that there's anything wrong with that). He's just out to have a good time and make a few bucks doing something he's great at.

Karen Page came from a well-to-do family in Vermont; her father, Paxton Page, was a famous-yet-troubled scientist who died tragically in an early Daredevil story.

Karen's whole story in the comics was very different. She joined Nelson and Murdock as a secretary/office manager while trying to make it as an actress in New York. She ended up later moving to LA and briefly finding success as a romantic lead in film and TV. After her life there fell apart, she found her way back in New York, where she worked to recover from a heroin addiction, opened a shelter and addiction support center in Hell's Kitchen, and became an activist against abuse in the pornography industry. Returning to her acting roots, she was briefly the host of a popular late-night talk radio show using the stage name "Paige Angel." In the late '90s, she died saving Matt from Bullseye.

Karen and Frank Castle never met in the comics.

Stick was Matt's mentor, but not really a father figure. Jack was still alive while they were training together. Stick died saving Matt and Natasha Romanov from the Hand, but he's back now.

Melvin Potter is a costume shop owner who became a supervillain called the Gladiator who shot spinning blades at people. (The show teased this but, as of when I stopped watching, hadn't followed through.)

Kirsten McDuffie was originally an Assistant District Attorney whose path intersected with Matt's due to the disruptions he was causing in court thanks to his flimsy secret identity. The two soon started flirting and eventually became a couple. Kirsten officially joined the law firm officially after Foggy was hospitalized for cancer treatment, and for a while she and Matt operated out of San Francisco as McDuffie & Murdock, attorneys-at-law (the First Rule of Daredevil: Matt's name is always last). Matt broke up with Kirsten for "her protection" a few years ago, after her memory of his secret identity was wiped, and she has had a tragically spotty presence in DD comics ever since.

Heather Glenn was a bubbly, eccentric business heiress who stumbled into the DD world by literally walking into the wrong apartment. She and Matt dated on-and-off for a long time, and she also briefly worked as an office manager at Matt and Foggy's storefront law office in the '70s. Heather suffered a number of personal tragedies, including the sudden death of her father, and she fell victim to Matt's poor handling of his own grief following Elektra's death. After enduring a period of psychological abuse at Matt's hands, she took her own life. (Here is a loooong post about Heather that goes into much more detail about her ordeal.)

Muse was an Inhuman with sensory dampening powers and a few other assorted abilities, and also a passionate visual artist whose chosen medium was people. Rather than being designated a Daredevil villain, he instead debuted as a foundational nemesis for budding superhero Blindspot/Sam Chung, with whom he developed a particular, terrifying fascination. Muse died in a fight with Sam, but he's back now.

White Tiger/Hector Ayala was Marvel's first Latino superhero. He found a magic amulet that granted him bouts of superhuman physical enhancements. Initially, these power activations happened unintentionally, and he had no memory of them afterward. Overall, poor Hector had a bad time as a superhero, and he died tragically on the courthouse steps, shot after being convicted for a crime he did not commit. He has been succeeded in the White Tiger legacy by two of his family members: his niece Angela Del Toro, and then later, his younger sister Ava Ayala.

Bullet/Buck Cashman (really) is a big, beefy killer-for-hire with a great mustache, who is known for his tremendous physical strength. He has a young son named Lance, with whom he has a loving-yet-distant relationship. (Here's a more detailed post about Bullet and Lance.)

Matt now has a (tragically deceased) certified real twin brother, named Mike! I'm fine with the show not stepping within a hundred miles of Mike, because I don't trust them to treat him right (Easter eggs are fine, though; they can keep doing those). But I do also need everyone on the planet to know about him.

[captain-sebstan]

Steve Rogers’ ailments

Before Steve got injected the serum, he suffered from a lot of diseases as you all probably know. But maybe you don’t know all of them or what they really mean for little Stevie.

At first I wanna say Steven Grant Rogers weighed 95 lbs or 43,1 kg. He was 5′4″ or 162 cm tall.

Now to his diseases. Many people seem to forget that he had more than only asthma and if you’re a writer like me (mostly fanfiction *cough* Stucky *cough*), you probably feel the urge to portray the characters as accurate as possible. So here’s a list of Steve’s diseases (of the MCU) so you can do that:

- He had scoliosis. This means his spine bends in a way that isn’t part of the typical S-shaped curve, so his spine would’ve bent to the side. It’s not a life threatening condition but it can be quite noticeable (like one shoulder is higher than the other, or one hip appears higher than the other one etc.). Pain isn’t a typical symptom.

- He was partially deaf. He could hear but his hearing was restricted so he might doesn’t hear you if you speak quietly…

- Steve had arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeart and he had also heart palpitations and the more generic heart trouble. All these have symptoms like shortness of breath, fainting, chest discomfort, dizziness or feeling light-headed, weakness and fatigue. 

- He had high blood pressure. Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps blood. High blood pressure, sometimes called hypertension, happens when this force is too high. It increases the risk of a heart attack or stroke and can also cause heart and kidney failure. When blood vessels in the eyes burst or bleed, the vision changes or it leads to blindness.

- This may is the reason of his astigatism. It means he had a poor eye sight.

- He had also rheumatic fever at some point. It is most common in 5 to 15 year old children. It can cause permanent damage to the heart (what Steve already had or the reason for his heart problems is the rheumatic fever) and can affect the brain. It is treated with aspirin (or was treated with aspirin at least in the 1930s) and unfortunately…

- Steve had also stomach ulcers. They are extremely painful and can be caused or made worse by drugs like aspirin. They occur when the thick layer of mucus that protects your stomach from digestive juices is reduced, thus enabling the digestive acids to eat away at the lining tissues of the stomach. The most common symptom is a burning sensation or pain in the area between your chest and belly button. Normally, the pain will be more intense when your stomach is empty and it can last for a few minutes or several hours. Other symptoms can be dull pain in the stomach, weight loss, not wanting to eat because of pain, nausea or vomiting, bloating, burping or acid reflux, heartburn (burning sensation in the chest) and the pain can improve when you eat, drink, or take antacids.

- He had another stomach complication as well: Pernicious arnemia, which until the 20s was basically a death sentence. It’s a condition where an protein called Intrinsic Factor, necessary to absorb vitamin B12 (which is important for cell devision, formation of blood, synthesis of hormones - it’s essential), is not produced and the patient becomes progressively more anaemic until they suffer complications such as neurological damage or simply die. Until 1928 the only treatment was to drink copious quantities of the juice from raw liver (more than a pint a day) or eat half a pound of raw liver a day. Poor Stevie!

- Steve had fallen arches. Also called flat feet. Less serious but I’m gonna list everything. Many people have flat feet and notice no problems and require no treatment. But others may experience the following symptoms:Feet tire easily, painful or achy feet, especially in the areas of the arches and heels, the inside bottom of your feet become swollen, foot movement, such as standing on your toes, is difficult or back and leg pain.

- He had scarlet fever as a child, which causes a sore throat, bright red rash and can kill - especially because it can cause heart complications. (Maybe another reason why Steve has them…)

- He had a higher risk for diabetes because his admission form states he has a parent or sibling with diabetes. As far as we know Steve had no siblings in the MCU, therefore it has to be his mother because his father has been a soldier (He couldn’t have enlisted with diabetes… well, except he has lied on his enlistment form…)

- Generally his respiratory system was struggling. He got sinusitis and frequent colds to go along with his…

- Asthma. Which is pretty dangerous for someone with heart condition since symptoms of a severe attack can include arrhythmia. In the 1930s, inhalers were difficult to use for one person (especially if that person was having an asthma attack), but asthma cigarettes were easily available and consideriably cheaper. But they were hallucinogenic. Beyond this, in the 30s, 40s and 50s asthma was considered a psychosomatic condition, so talking therapy was used as a treatment as well. Steve would have been considered both physically frail and mentally ill because of his asthma. 

- He had also “nervous trouble of any sort” and easy fatigability. That isn’t a surprise because it has to be tiring to be Steve. So many illnesses to fight with… It’s also no wonder that he’s so small, considering that his body was under so much sress while he was growing.

Steve always had been a hero. It hadn’t been the serum that had made him strong…

If you want to, I can also write about what it meant to live with so many diseases in the world of the 30s. Because you can probably guess that it wasn’t easy and definetely worse than it would be today…

[headspace-hotel]

i was trying to find this thank

[iftadwascool]

(c)

[certifiedchickenposts]

certified chicken post