Friday 8 July 2022

Friday Fics Fix - This Version of Captain America is Unnerving

 

'...superheroes are great for preventing the destruction of the earth, but they don’t seem to give a damn about high rise apartments or coffee shops or the disastrous economic catastrophes they leave in their wake.'



'Fics Fix!' with purple background and white lightning bolt shape



Honestly, what is this fic?

I have no idea what I just read.

It might be some great literary piece, doomed to languish on the Internet because it was published on a fanfiction website and not in The New Yorker (or wherever high-fallutin' things get published - I dunno,)

 - or it may be trash.

It may be complete and utter pulp trash, comparable with the crackiest of crack fics. (It's even tagged 'Crack Treated Seriously' by the author.)


(Fandom notes:

Crack is fanfiction that is so bizarre that you wonder what substances the author may or may not have been imbibing in (#Don'tDoDrugsKids))



Maybe it's a bit of both - who knows anymore?

(But if it was published in The New Yorker everyone would be swooning over it, let's be honest - that's the way pretentiousness goes, after all. #YesShe'sBeingCynical)




So, this is an MCU (Marvel) fic, about Bucky and Cap. Kind of.

...This version of Bucky is a normal dude, working as a journalist and trying to dodge the myriad alien attacks New York seems to get on a weekly basis.




This version of Captain America is... unnerving af.

He's a walking 1940s comic-book caricature dialled up to 60 million... but also not.

And that's the unnerving part. 




Chris Evans dressed as Captain America, doing a thumbs up with a goofy grin
Via Giphy




Cap here is 'gosh' and 'golly' and 'fear not, citizens!' and ridiculous costumes.

Steve Rogers - the guy underneath - is hard, and broken, and bitter, and maybe even not quite trustworthy.

And that's what makes it so unnerving - not only the extremity of the caricature that makes it feel like the 'reality' of this fic isn't quite 'real' - but also the entirely different personality it's covering up.

And I have no idea whether it's nonsense or a work of genius... but I kind of love it.




This is tagged as Stucky, and I guess can be read that way -

But mostly the Stucky elements are a lovelorn Captain America trying to rescue Bucky when he doesn't need rescuing, and Bucky wishing for the ground to swllow him whole. 😅

Things do pick up in that department towards the end... kind of. The ending is even weirder than the rest of the fic, so you'll have to make your own decisions on that!


(Fandom notes:

Stucky is a romantic and/or sexual relationship between Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers.)




This fic is absolutely full of nerd/pop culture references

...so many that I'm pretty sure that not even I got all of them.

There are Harry Potter references - which I know is a deal-breaker for some people - but, in fairness, this fic was written in 2018, and probably didn't have access to either premonition or time travel so *shrugs*.




A few more Content Warnings:

- general violence
- gore
- blood
- injury
- horror elements
- suicidal ideation
- suicidal thoughts
- adult humour

References to:
- grief
- fire deaths
- bullying
- the foster system
- war


...as always, I may have missed or forgotten something, so be careful!




This week's fic is:

The Sidekick by AgentCoop








Do you like it when fanfiction experiments?
Have you read this? What even is it?!
Talk to me! 😂💬







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2 comments:

  1. So I read the fic, and what I understood (which may or may not have been the author's intention), is that Cap and Bucky are kinda in an opposites attract relationship where Cap is this high-energy stereotypical superhero and Bucky is this hardened, emo kid??? That's what I got, anyways. Maybe the author too was trying to point out how the military originally marketed Captain America with his mannerisms but deep down Steve is tired of being a caricature, kinda like what you mentioned. Either way, it was fun! Left a lot of questions for me haha.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. *stares in 00s emo kid* - not sure Bucky's emo. I think he's just pi**ed off and Gay... oh. Maybe he is emo! Lol ;)

      And yeah - I guess so. It just seemed less relationship, and more pre-relationship, y'know? Maybe I'm being picky!

      Glad you liked it!

      (WTF even *is* this fic though?!)

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Comments? I love comments! Talk to me nerdlets!