Mutatis Mutandis

Summary: Charles and Erik, against the backdrop of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair and it’s three themes.

And the great metal skin was peeled back in his mind’s eye, to reveal a living, breathing organism.

The metal breathed, inhale and exhale, behind concrete ribs. Expand and contract. The vertebrae of reinforced steel, climbing six-hundred feet above the ground. The give and take of electrons, push and pull of cations and anions at the cellular level. A great metal skin stretched over the entire surface; that glowed the same color as Phidias's Bronzes in the proper light.

A look at Charles and Erik as young men, still in love and full of hope but with the shadow of the future already on them. This is lyical and sad, and the setting is perfect for them.

Century 21

Aaaaaaawww! Kurt is even more adorable in chibi form. I like the shading work on the background, too.


Chibi Movie-Nightcrawler by ~MarsW on deviantART

Summary: Cyclops and Wolverine are taken prisoner, and escape is only the beginning of the recovery process.

One of the guards stepped forward and released me. I held still till the man moved away. I didn't want to scare them. I didn't want to scare Summers, either. Despite the dimness of the room and his weakness, I could see him trembling, smell his fear. Strong, acid sweat. His face had a slack quality. He was drugged. I laid a hand on his shoulder. He flinched.

Under the tape, his face was covered with bruises, fresh and greening both, and I could see more on his body. They'd beaten the crap out of him, burned him with cigarettes down one arm. Carefully, I unzipped the front of the coverall and checked his torso, afraid he might have bruised kidneys or some other internal injury that could explain his illness. He tried to shove my hands away, but not with affronted modesty. The fear in him had spiked sharply. "Stop, Scott. It's me." No jokes now. No half-insulting names. "I won't hurt you." He quit fighting but the trembling grew worse.

This was crazy. Even drugged, this was Cyclops. What the hell had they done to him?

A harrowing novel about what happens when Scott and Logan are captured by an organization that has terrible things in mind for both of them. Does an incredible job of exploring both their initial reactions to the experience and the recovery process.

Climb the Wind

Summary: The blade slid into the flesh, its sharpness balking at first and then easing in with a sickly wet sound.

The Mutant Question was the topic of the day now. It seemed to escape people that the mutants weren’t a real force yet. Some day, perhaps. A generation, maybe two – yes.

Now? Just a tool, whether they wished it or not. There simply weren’t enough of them to coalesce in a movement of their own, no matter how often Magneto got his purple-caped ass kicked in a televised manner. Just a tool to be used by older interests, established and strong, by the entrenched ideas and old hates. Or Ideals.

A fascinating look at how global politics might function in a universe that has mutants in it. Set in both Washington D.C. and Chechnya, this story deftly explores the complications superpowers could add to real-world problems. Some things are different, and others depressingly similar. And X-Men fandom could always use more espionage, international incidents and people getting stabbed in dark alleys.

Cloak and Dagger

Summary: "In her more reflective moments, she wondered if she had a self-destructive streak running through her." AU, or not...?

The cigarette was good. She hadn't smoked since right before medical school; somehow it didn't seem appropriate, then.

It was certainly appropriate now. Post-coital cigarette number two. Jean glanced down at her sleeping bedmate, sprawled out on the dingy bed like he owned it, one muscular arm flung over her legs. She sat on the bed, back against the headboard, cigarette in hand. A plume of smoke rose from the tip like a carcinogenic ghost. She sucked down another drag. The burn in her throat spread through her body, infusing every cell with the delicious bite of nicotine. It was like she'd never quit; it felt like her body had gone into a long dormancy, brought back to life only when she inhaled the hot smoke.

After Alkali Lake, Jean Grey falls into more than one bad habit. Beautifully written and intriguingly ambiguous - it's labled AU with a question mark for a reason.

Color of Ashes, Color of Fire

Summary: After all these years, Mystique looks a little different. Natasha looks exactly the same.

She stands in front of a stool, two down from Mystique, orders a vodka martini, then waits for it, wishing with great intensity for the days you could smoke inside in this city. Because if now were then, she could simply have struck up a conversation by asking for a light.

Also because she would really like a cigarette.

I love crossovers in general, and those that bring other Marvel movie characters into the orbit of the X-Men universe are among my favourite kinds. In this story, Mystique makes contact with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanova. The author borrows Black Widow's comicverse background to good effect, and shows how much she and Mystique have in common - although maybe that's not as much as they used to.

Common Cause

Turns out there's a downside to having a catlike mutation *g*. I like the panel layout, too.


creed's weakness by ~rockedgirl on deviantART

Lovely digital painting of broody Scott. The shine off the glasses/visor is particularly well done.


Cyclops by *becc-j on deviantART

Movieverse version of a famous comic book image. A great idea well-executed.


Days of a Future Past by ~ivanraposo on deviantART

Summary: Pyro notices the details.

It was the little details, always, that drew him back.

Strawberry ice cream, Bobby's favorite.

A pair of long white gloves in the window of a fancy women's dress store, pearl buttons at the wrist just like the pair Rogue was wearing that day.

Pyro has left the X-Men, but perhaps they haven't quite left him. An astutely observed piece about the impossibility of neatly abandoning a life.

The Devil's In the Details