I'm the X-Men reccer on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
sequentialcrack this month, so I thought I'd post a rec round-up at the end of each of the four weeks. This week, I also made a post to halfamoon to rec one fic for each of the women in X-Men: First Class, so there's a grand total of 13 recs below and there'll be more every week until the end of February.
Women of X-Men:First Class
The moment I walked out of X-Men: First Class, I got tremendously excited about what fandom was going to produce, and all the ways that the flaws of the movie were going to be kicked around the block and back again. And I was right.
Sharon Xavier
The Secret Life of Sharon Francis by
Katbelle
Rated Mature, 7000 words
One of the very few second-person fics I've ever enjoyed, Katbelle uses the form to draw the reader into Sharon's secret and awful world, to make the reader complicit in Sharon's decisions and motives. Katbelle draws on some comics canon but it's clearly explained in the fic for those who aren't familiar with Brian Xavier. This Sharon might not make her son hot cocoa, but she is a fierce protector in ways that he can never see.
Edie Lehnsherr
Festival of Lights byisabeau
Rated General, 350 words
A lovely portrait of a very different experience of mutation than most characters in the film experienced, wrapped up in the brief candle-lighting scene that we saw in the movie.
Angel Salvadore
How the West Was Won bykaydeefalls
Rated Teen, 2800 words
The movie showed us the first step in Angel growing up and taking control of her own life, but it also showed her following two powerful men and then another more powerful, passing her responsibility for her own life over to them, as society had taught her to do. But Angel started off as a woman keeping her own counsel, someone who would take from men while they took from her. Here we see more of Angel's past and future, as someone who protects herself in a deeply hostile world, and the beginnings of her being able to see beyond that to understand her own strength and use it.
Moira MacTaggert
Reinvention by![[personal profile]](https://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
labingi
Rated R, 5700 words
The author's notes say that this fic is intended to find some continuity between comicsverse Moira and movieverse Moira, and it absolutely succeeds. More than that, it shows exactly what might drive her forward, and how a (comics canon) relationship with Charles, post-movie, might unfold. This Moira and Charles are both very damaged people who choose to hope and act and move forward, but sometimes things catch up with them. Here, it's Moira's past and a complicated new friendship forming all at once. A compassionate and adult story.
Raven
tagged "beastly rage beasts!" by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
forgerness
Fabulous Raven art that shows exactly why Raven is boss. The end of the night-before-Cuba scene that we all wanted to see.
Emma Frost
my imagination is rattling in its cage bylapetitesinge
Rated Teen, 3500 words (listed as Chapter 1, but a complete story in itself)
A ferocious and closed-off Emma, and a great look at the costs of the very particular kind of feminine power she chooses to wield. Emma, despite her diamond exterior, has not always been this way, and a great deal of her ability to deal with men like Shaw depends on her ability to convince herself that she is in the right place and doing the right thing. Sometimes that ability wavers, and Emma needs to find other ways to be herself and to work out who, exactly, that self is. A meeting with a stripper named Angel puts her back on track, though it may not be the same track.
Ensemble
And your heart is fierce bycarefulsubtlety
Rated PG-13, 3000 words
Emma, Raven, Angel and Moira and the ways they carve out space for themselves in a world that wants them to be nothing more than decorative and obedient. Magnificent writing about dangerous women who are the heroes (or villains) of their own stories, no matter what is going on around them. The men around them might be cruel, kind or controlling but that doesn't matter: this isn't their story.
***
X-Men comicsverse recs (no spoilers for recent issues!)
Title: Prisoner 731 (series)
Author: Lori McDonald
Fandom: X-Men
Characters/Pairings: X-Men team, later Remy/Rogue
Length: ~60,000 words
Warnings: None given - reccer warns for violence and torture
Spoilers: None
Prisoner 731 (series)
Let's start with a blast from the past: the "Prisoner 731" series by Lori McDonald!
Prisoner 731, rated PG except for one section marked R for disturbing content.
"Prisoner 731" is an epic AU series, about 60,000 words in all, which was begun in 1996. It's about a prisoner, a character familiar to the readers, who has escaped the horrors of Sinister's labs. He hides in the Morlock tunnels that run under the X-Men's home and begins his slow recovery of his self. The X-Men try to help him, but their help is not always wanted or adequate, despite their shared hatred of Sinister. A great deal of later canon actually tied into this quite closely - fans of the current X-23 series in particular might like the Mister Sinister sections – but this series is a marvellous precursor. It's a terrific mix of hurt/comfort and epic adventure with the early 90s X-Men.
"Prisoner 731" was written before warnings were commonly used in fandom, so please read with care as there is a good deal of violence and some medical torture. Eventual Remy/Rogue, but mostly a team epic with appearances from many, many characters.
Title: Tea Time in Genosha
Author:cherryice
Fandom: X-Men comicverse (New X-Men)
Characters/Pairings: Emma Frost, Negasonic Teenage Warhead
Length: 1700
Warnings: Character death
Spoilers:For New X-Men, 2001
Tea Time in Genosha by cherryice
The X-Men have recently been going down the DIY nation path, with varying degrees of success, but this story is about Emma Frost and her life in the mutant nation that preceded Utopia: Genosha. Emma was a teacher there, and the students – with all their abilities – were as bolshy and confused and mean as teenagers anywhere. This story is about a conversation between Emma and her student Negasonic Teenage Warhead who may or may not be precognitive. The student's name is given here as Nora: she was later named Ellie Phiminster in canon, but this wasn't known at the time this story was written. It's also a story about living in a small community and about degrees of power and experience, about death and remembering. Fabulous Emma characterisation, particularly because she doesn't want to listen or change.
This is one of my favourite Emma Frost fics because Emma is cruel and kind all at once, cold and caring, and this huge pivotal moment in her life is also a very small one, beautifully and terrifyingly described here.
Title: Tea Time in Genosha (The Negasonic Teenage Warhead Remix)
Author:anneline
Fandom: X-Men comicsverse (New X-Men)
Characters/Pairings: Emma Frost, Negasonic Teenage Warhead
Length: 1900
Warnings: Character death
Tea Time in Genosha (The Negasonic Teenage Warhead Remix) by anneline
Today's fic rec was the fantastic Tea Time in Genosha bycherryice. Today I'm posting a special bonus rec, a remix of this fic by anneline: Tea Time in Genosha (The Negasonic Teenage Warhead Remix). anneline's writing is always very sexual and often dark, and this is no exception. Here, Ellie knows of her impending death and is mourning the life as an adult woman that she will never have, and Emma symbolises that life to her. Emma, of course, has no intention of being anyone's symbol, but ends up immersed in time and loss despite herself.
One of those remixes that refocuses and deepens the original story, this fic is grim and wonderful.
Title: For the Kingdom of Heaven
Author:c_elisa
Fandom: X-Men comics (New X-Men)
Characters/Pairings:Henry McCoy, Kavita Rao
Length:7600 words
Spoilers: None
For the Kingdom of Heaven by c_elisa
One of the more difficult fics to sum up, this is a story about Dr Henry McCoy working with Dr Kavita Rao, inventor of the Cure, in an attempt to understand her work and protect the mutants who elect to undergo the treatment to remove their powers. It's a complicated, erudite and amazing story, as well-learned and broad in scope as Henry's intellect is supposed to be (but that professional comics writers don't always match) and one of the very best fanfics in any genre that I have ever read. Scientific ethics, monstrous bodies, kindness that harms and cruelty that helps, discrimination, poetry, science, the philosophy of the exceptional…everything that X-Men comics try to address is turned over and over in this fic, all through the prism of a deeply sceptical Beast.
There's also a DVD-style commentary for this fic, and I highly recommend it as a way to enhance the original.
Title: A Certain Kind of Light
Author:likeadeuce
Fandom:Astonishing X-Men
Characters/Pairings: Emma/Scott, Kitty/Piotr, Logan, Hank
Length: 7500
Warnings: None
A Certain Kind of Light
I always loved the baseball issues. The X-Men would chill out and play baseball – sometimes they'd hang out around a bonfire instead, or play Thanksgiving football – and amazing character moments would unwind. Astonishing X-Men had a lot of these little moments, though usually based around training or team meetings, andlikeadeuce takes this one step further: the Astonishing X-Men team goes out for karaoke. Putting Emma and Kitty in the same room would be volatile enough, but here we add Logan and six kinds of Canadian beer, Hank being blue in public, Piotr coming back from the dead not knowing Duran Duran, and Scott's terrible love of the Bee Gees. Emma's sardonic comments keep everything moving – sometimes not in a good direction – and everyone ends up a little wiser and drunker than before. Just like a baseball issue, but with beer.
Title: Identity Broadcast
Author:Alara J Rogers
Fandom: New X-Men
Characters/Pairings: Charles, Hank, Scott, Emma
Length: 6000 words
Warnings: None
Identity Broadcast by Alara J Rogers
As the summary puts it: "How exactly does a biological male have an identical twin sister, anyway?" Charles Xavier is a transman and has been using his telepathy to pass for a very long time.
This fic – set shortly after M-Day where the total number of mutants has been drastically reduced – is a fascinating look at how identity is formed, how we share that identity with others, and what, exactly, might be considered a lie by those who see dissonance between a biological and psionic identity. Charles is adamant that he isn't "lying" or "faking", but at the same time he has interfered with other people's minds (yet again), and no-one but Emma is entirely willing to accept Charles' explanation that it was all completely natural to him. Other fic writers – especially since X-Men First Class came out – have examined the idea of telepaths having very different ethics to non-telepaths, but this fic really crystallises that idea and examines it from every angle. One thing that I find particularly fascinating is that only one person – Charles – tries to discuss his identity in terms of gender and life experience. Emma doesn't care, and everyone else is focused Charles altering their perceptions and breaching their trust. Charles considers himself unique rather than part of a broader community of trans people; Hank's focus is on his genetic research; Scott's on security and past betrayals; and Emma, not surprisingly, is the one to point out how very unlike anyone else's situation Charles's is.
It's a complex story, and no-one is in the right, but it felt very true to the rather insular X-Men at this time in canon: their primary concern really is mutants and taking care of their own, and their world is somewhat smaller because of it.
Reading all these fics is really enjoyable! Next week I'm reccing rarer comicsverse characters over atsequentialcrack - there are also Thor and Spider-Man reccers posting right now, so if you're interested in any of these canons, please drop in.
sequentialcrack this month, so I thought I'd post a rec round-up at the end of each of the four weeks. This week, I also made a post to halfamoon to rec one fic for each of the women in X-Men: First Class, so there's a grand total of 13 recs below and there'll be more every week until the end of February. Women of X-Men:First Class
The moment I walked out of X-Men: First Class, I got tremendously excited about what fandom was going to produce, and all the ways that the flaws of the movie were going to be kicked around the block and back again. And I was right.
Sharon Xavier
The Secret Life of Sharon Francis by
Rated Mature, 7000 words
One of the very few second-person fics I've ever enjoyed, Katbelle uses the form to draw the reader into Sharon's secret and awful world, to make the reader complicit in Sharon's decisions and motives. Katbelle draws on some comics canon but it's clearly explained in the fic for those who aren't familiar with Brian Xavier. This Sharon might not make her son hot cocoa, but she is a fierce protector in ways that he can never see.
Edie Lehnsherr
Festival of Lights by
Rated General, 350 words
A lovely portrait of a very different experience of mutation than most characters in the film experienced, wrapped up in the brief candle-lighting scene that we saw in the movie.
Angel Salvadore
How the West Was Won by
Rated Teen, 2800 words
The movie showed us the first step in Angel growing up and taking control of her own life, but it also showed her following two powerful men and then another more powerful, passing her responsibility for her own life over to them, as society had taught her to do. But Angel started off as a woman keeping her own counsel, someone who would take from men while they took from her. Here we see more of Angel's past and future, as someone who protects herself in a deeply hostile world, and the beginnings of her being able to see beyond that to understand her own strength and use it.
Moira MacTaggert
Reinvention by
labingiRated R, 5700 words
The author's notes say that this fic is intended to find some continuity between comicsverse Moira and movieverse Moira, and it absolutely succeeds. More than that, it shows exactly what might drive her forward, and how a (comics canon) relationship with Charles, post-movie, might unfold. This Moira and Charles are both very damaged people who choose to hope and act and move forward, but sometimes things catch up with them. Here, it's Moira's past and a complicated new friendship forming all at once. A compassionate and adult story.
Raven
tagged "beastly rage beasts!" by
forgernessFabulous Raven art that shows exactly why Raven is boss. The end of the night-before-Cuba scene that we all wanted to see.
Emma Frost
my imagination is rattling in its cage by
Rated Teen, 3500 words (listed as Chapter 1, but a complete story in itself)
A ferocious and closed-off Emma, and a great look at the costs of the very particular kind of feminine power she chooses to wield. Emma, despite her diamond exterior, has not always been this way, and a great deal of her ability to deal with men like Shaw depends on her ability to convince herself that she is in the right place and doing the right thing. Sometimes that ability wavers, and Emma needs to find other ways to be herself and to work out who, exactly, that self is. A meeting with a stripper named Angel puts her back on track, though it may not be the same track.
Ensemble
And your heart is fierce by
carefulsubtletyRated PG-13, 3000 words
Emma, Raven, Angel and Moira and the ways they carve out space for themselves in a world that wants them to be nothing more than decorative and obedient. Magnificent writing about dangerous women who are the heroes (or villains) of their own stories, no matter what is going on around them. The men around them might be cruel, kind or controlling but that doesn't matter: this isn't their story.
***
X-Men comicsverse recs (no spoilers for recent issues!)
Title: Prisoner 731 (series)
Author: Lori McDonald
Fandom: X-Men
Characters/Pairings: X-Men team, later Remy/Rogue
Length: ~60,000 words
Warnings: None given - reccer warns for violence and torture
Spoilers: None
Let's start with a blast from the past: the "Prisoner 731" series by Lori McDonald!
Prisoner 731, rated PG except for one section marked R for disturbing content.
"Prisoner 731" is an epic AU series, about 60,000 words in all, which was begun in 1996. It's about a prisoner, a character familiar to the readers, who has escaped the horrors of Sinister's labs. He hides in the Morlock tunnels that run under the X-Men's home and begins his slow recovery of his self. The X-Men try to help him, but their help is not always wanted or adequate, despite their shared hatred of Sinister. A great deal of later canon actually tied into this quite closely - fans of the current X-23 series in particular might like the Mister Sinister sections – but this series is a marvellous precursor. It's a terrific mix of hurt/comfort and epic adventure with the early 90s X-Men.
"Prisoner 731" was written before warnings were commonly used in fandom, so please read with care as there is a good deal of violence and some medical torture. Eventual Remy/Rogue, but mostly a team epic with appearances from many, many characters.
Title: Tea Time in Genosha
Author:
cherryiceFandom: X-Men comicverse (New X-Men)
Characters/Pairings: Emma Frost, Negasonic Teenage Warhead
Length: 1700
Warnings: Character death
Spoilers:For New X-Men, 2001
The X-Men have recently been going down the DIY nation path, with varying degrees of success, but this story is about Emma Frost and her life in the mutant nation that preceded Utopia: Genosha. Emma was a teacher there, and the students – with all their abilities – were as bolshy and confused and mean as teenagers anywhere. This story is about a conversation between Emma and her student Negasonic Teenage Warhead who may or may not be precognitive. The student's name is given here as Nora: she was later named Ellie Phiminster in canon, but this wasn't known at the time this story was written. It's also a story about living in a small community and about degrees of power and experience, about death and remembering. Fabulous Emma characterisation, particularly because she doesn't want to listen or change.
This is one of my favourite Emma Frost fics because Emma is cruel and kind all at once, cold and caring, and this huge pivotal moment in her life is also a very small one, beautifully and terrifyingly described here.
Title: Tea Time in Genosha (The Negasonic Teenage Warhead Remix)
Author:
annelineFandom: X-Men comicsverse (New X-Men)
Characters/Pairings: Emma Frost, Negasonic Teenage Warhead
Length: 1900
Warnings: Character death
annelineToday's fic rec was the fantastic Tea Time in Genosha by
cherryice. Today I'm posting a special bonus rec, a remix of this fic by anneline: Tea Time in Genosha (The Negasonic Teenage Warhead Remix). anneline's writing is always very sexual and often dark, and this is no exception. Here, Ellie knows of her impending death and is mourning the life as an adult woman that she will never have, and Emma symbolises that life to her. Emma, of course, has no intention of being anyone's symbol, but ends up immersed in time and loss despite herself.One of those remixes that refocuses and deepens the original story, this fic is grim and wonderful.
Title: For the Kingdom of Heaven
Author:
c_elisaFandom: X-Men comics (New X-Men)
Characters/Pairings:Henry McCoy, Kavita Rao
Length:7600 words
Spoilers: None
c_elisaOne of the more difficult fics to sum up, this is a story about Dr Henry McCoy working with Dr Kavita Rao, inventor of the Cure, in an attempt to understand her work and protect the mutants who elect to undergo the treatment to remove their powers. It's a complicated, erudite and amazing story, as well-learned and broad in scope as Henry's intellect is supposed to be (but that professional comics writers don't always match) and one of the very best fanfics in any genre that I have ever read. Scientific ethics, monstrous bodies, kindness that harms and cruelty that helps, discrimination, poetry, science, the philosophy of the exceptional…everything that X-Men comics try to address is turned over and over in this fic, all through the prism of a deeply sceptical Beast.
There's also a DVD-style commentary for this fic, and I highly recommend it as a way to enhance the original.
Title: A Certain Kind of Light
Author:
likeadeuceFandom:Astonishing X-Men
Characters/Pairings: Emma/Scott, Kitty/Piotr, Logan, Hank
Length: 7500
Warnings: None
I always loved the baseball issues. The X-Men would chill out and play baseball – sometimes they'd hang out around a bonfire instead, or play Thanksgiving football – and amazing character moments would unwind. Astonishing X-Men had a lot of these little moments, though usually based around training or team meetings, and
likeadeuce takes this one step further: the Astonishing X-Men team goes out for karaoke. Putting Emma and Kitty in the same room would be volatile enough, but here we add Logan and six kinds of Canadian beer, Hank being blue in public, Piotr coming back from the dead not knowing Duran Duran, and Scott's terrible love of the Bee Gees. Emma's sardonic comments keep everything moving – sometimes not in a good direction – and everyone ends up a little wiser and drunker than before. Just like a baseball issue, but with beer.Title: Identity Broadcast
Author:
Fandom: New X-Men
Characters/Pairings: Charles, Hank, Scott, Emma
Length: 6000 words
Warnings: None
As the summary puts it: "How exactly does a biological male have an identical twin sister, anyway?" Charles Xavier is a transman and has been using his telepathy to pass for a very long time.
This fic – set shortly after M-Day where the total number of mutants has been drastically reduced – is a fascinating look at how identity is formed, how we share that identity with others, and what, exactly, might be considered a lie by those who see dissonance between a biological and psionic identity. Charles is adamant that he isn't "lying" or "faking", but at the same time he has interfered with other people's minds (yet again), and no-one but Emma is entirely willing to accept Charles' explanation that it was all completely natural to him. Other fic writers – especially since X-Men First Class came out – have examined the idea of telepaths having very different ethics to non-telepaths, but this fic really crystallises that idea and examines it from every angle. One thing that I find particularly fascinating is that only one person – Charles – tries to discuss his identity in terms of gender and life experience. Emma doesn't care, and everyone else is focused Charles altering their perceptions and breaching their trust. Charles considers himself unique rather than part of a broader community of trans people; Hank's focus is on his genetic research; Scott's on security and past betrayals; and Emma, not surprisingly, is the one to point out how very unlike anyone else's situation Charles's is.
It's a complex story, and no-one is in the right, but it felt very true to the rather insular X-Men at this time in canon: their primary concern really is mutants and taking care of their own, and their world is somewhat smaller because of it.
Reading all these fics is really enjoyable! Next week I'm reccing rarer comicsverse characters over at
sequentialcrack - there are also Thor and Spider-Man reccers posting right now, so if you're interested in any of these canons, please drop in.