(Seriously, seriously adult content, especially if you follow the links, so be warned.)
This is going to be a review of an explicit M/M Avengers movie-verse fan fiction story. If any part of that bothers you, stop reading this post. I won’t mind.
Background: Some good friends dragged me back into fan fiction in 2013, partly because they saw how Real-Life health and business issues were combining to completely derail my original fiction obligations. These were the same folks who saw me through a creative drought over a decade ago. The critical support and wordsmith experience I found in fan fiction helped jump-start my original fiction a few years later. Our fandoms have since changed, because we are capricious bitches. But our regard for great M/M and M/F storytelling has not faded. Most of my fanwriter friends have stopped dabbling in Eroica and Potter fandom, and now play in the Tolkien or Marvel Comics universes.
The latter is a lively field. As of 12-30-2013, there are over 31,439 Avengers movie-themed fan fiction stories uploaded for free reading on Archive of Our Own, one of the most comprehensive fan sites around.
This review will be about ‘Born from the Earth’, a Work-in-Progress set in an Alternate Universe (AU) of the Avengers movie-verse.
Third up front disclaimer: this large (170K and counting) story is primarily a M/M erotic romance/thriller.
It features a version of Tony Stark who uses his body as a weapon against business and political rivals, and runs a pro-bono black-market mechanic shop because he wouldn’t be allowed to repair lawnmowers in public. A version of Steven Rogers who, bereft of everyone he ever loved, stoically tries to fit into an alien world seventy years removed from his own – and a culture that would rather not face the dark and brutal secrets that forged him into Captain America. There are breathtakingly strong portrayals of canon and original support characters. There’s explicit sex, some of it gorgeously romantic. There is also explicit and off-camera rape, coercion, socially-accepted slavery, and a world that only superficially looks like ours.
The author’s tagline reads: Tony Stark’s born an omega in a world where that means he’s supposed to follow certain social rules. He becomes Iron Man anyway: Fuck biology. If only his biology (and the world) would quit fucking him back.
So why the hell am I reviewing an uncompleted fan fiction piece?
Because this is the first posted story from the writer known as Venusm, and it’s that damn good. It’s so good I would be jealous if I wasn’t having so much fun reading it.
Ten or fifteen years ago, when the erotic romance (esp M/M) categories were only starting to creep out of the peep show and Victorian erotica shadows, a trope began that I normally dislike: the Alpha/Beta/Omega sexual dynamic. Accepted fanlore states that A/B/O stories developed out of X-Files and then Supernatural fandom. Original fiction examples have been around for at least eight years that I know of.
What is A/B/O? Six sexes, basically. Depending on the universe and worldbuilding, it generally involves Betas (most like our normal male and female genders), Alphas (more highly-sexed and often combative, both males and females able to impregnate Betas and Omegas), and Omegas (often seen as nurturing childbearers, and often including dual-gendered apparent males as well as females.)
The Fanlore Wiki has a good general exploration here.
Addressing the squeamish, Pilgrimkitty discusses reasons why fan writers adopt the dynamic, often as a way to explore our own old binary-gender issues outside the normal constructs of societal expectation.
Currently, the trope haunts many shapeshifter, werewolf, vampire, fae, etc. erotic romance and paranormal romance series. It’s not based on anything found in our natural mammalian dynamics – wolf packs don’t actually operate this way, and not even spotted hyenas (the closest example I could find) are quite like the fictional A/B/O systems.
Much of the commercial A/B/O fiction I’ve seen relies on quickly-sketched and often unrealistic setups to the main event, which is usually two or more guys getting it on. Forced-matings, male pregnancies, and insta-soulbonds also seem to show up a lot in this type of story. Some stories are effective at showing realistic characters and emotional arcs. Far more seem to use the male characters as little more than interchangeable props for their readers’ pleasure.
The stuff sells. I can list fifteen successful authors at five different erotic romance publishers who have multiple books and multiple series that use A/B/O setups for M/M and M/F erotic romance. I haven’t loved most of the really popular stories. The bad ones tend to make me angry for the sheer waste of editing time and bandwidth (for this, DARPA nodes drowned in a sea of inanity?)
However, I was wrong to cross A/B/O stories completely off my to-read list. Every so often, a writer and a story completely defies – then redefines – my expectations. As a reader and a writer.
‘Born from the Earth’ is beautiful, wrenching, frustrating, and not for the faint of heart. It’s only a little about sex and romance, and more about willing sacrifices, individuals struggling to reach their potential (and being allowed to do so), societies on the cusp of major change, broken relationships, and chosen families. Support characters, whether canon Marvel characters or originals, are well written and never out of character. The world is similar to ours in many ways, yet frighteningly different as the ramifications of the A/B/O genetics play out. (The worldbuilding here is some of the deepest and most fearlessly consistent I have ever seen in fan fiction.) The plot is complicated and devious, with nerve-wracking cliffhangers, action sequences, and slowly revealed conspiracies. Barring some minor editing issues, the writing is strong enough to be nearly transparent.
The great delight (for me) about this story is its length: less than two-thirds complete, and already skimming 170K. There are indications there will be at least one sequel.
I can say this with confidence: if Venusm isn’t already writing original commercial erotic romance* under another pen-name, she should be. Because she’ll be getting major awards when/if she does. Attention: Siren, Samhain, Loose Id, Kensington, Tor, DAW, Del Rey, Orbit, and any other spec fic house bothering to read this: find Venusm and sign her to a contract yesterday, if not sooner. If she’s already published commercially, I wanna know where…
Excuse me, my fannish glee got the better of me for a moment. I’m okay now.
If any of my undisciplined prattling caught your interest, go read this story.
* Author’s note added 7-25-2014: I’m not alone in my assessment, but I am wrong to leave it at erotic romance. Venusm, your skills can translate to any genre you choose. If you leave fan writing, we might be heartbroken but we’ll understand. Because you really could be writing for some major publishing houses.