Comics Fandoms and Oh My Brain

[tiggymalvern]

I have learned from past experience that it's impossible to read fanfic in a comics-to-movie fandom without taking a crash course in decades of comic lore. I managed to read for about a day in X-Men fandom before I got dumped headlong into Genosha in about ten different incarnations, and the whole Wanda-created House of M-verse. So it didn't really come as too much of a surprise in a first day of serious Avengers reading to find myself browsing Wikipedia for the background on Dead-Then-Not-Dead Steve Rogers and I-Wiped-My-Own-Memory Tony Stark.

Fandom has a lot of fun with Guilty!Amnesiac!Tony, but Marvel didn't come up with these plotlines to provide entertaining angst for the fangirls, so I have to wonder - wtf, Marvel? Do their writers have an internal competition to see who can come up with the craziest crack and still get it in print?

(And yes, I know that Marvel aren't alone in this - I offer up Jason!Robin and Kon-El as DC examples of boggle. This does not exactly dilute my point.)

Comments

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking of mindwiped Tony... I'm backing up my laptop right now!

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

I haven't backed up anything since I lived in London. Clearly I need a JARVIS.

[bymyverytoes.livejournal.com]

Don't see why fangirls should have a monopoly on crackfic :)

I haven't read much Avengers but a friend keeps pimping me stuff. I see much potential for...everything, really :)

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

It's definitely a mix-and-match fandom, no precious OTPs in this one!

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

This is why I find the Marvel Movieverse soooo much easier to write for, lol. (Young Avengers is okay, because the fandom's small enough no one seems to mind if you haven't bothered with all the crossovers.)

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

The problem with every comics fandom I ever looked into in depth is the self-contradictions. There hasn't been enough time for most of the Movieverses to be rebooted quite that often (though Spiderman seems to be trying.)

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Spiderman continuity is a hot mess everywhere but Ultimates, I think. Perhaps even there.