Fandom: MARVEL COMICS
Pairing: None. Abigail Brand and Tony Stark gen.
Length: 2,200 words
Author on LJ: selenak
Author Website: Selena on Fanfiction.net
Why this must be read:

Here’s the thing about the Marvel Universe: it is, in theory, completely interconnected. Everything that happens in every Marvel book is theoretically happening in every other book. But in practice, this often isn’t evident. Certain books exist in pockets, failing to interact with each other. And that’s where fic writers come in, to bridge the gaps.

This is a fic about S.W.O.R.D. Director Abigail Brand, first and foremost. It’s a fic that captures her personality perfectly and completely, and manages to show exactly how much her experiences with Hank McCoy and the other X-Men in the Breakworld storyline of Astonishing X-Men have changed her. But it’s also a fic about the Marvel U, about the changing political structure after Civil War, about Tony Stark’s fitness to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. Director, about the storylines from his own comic, and about all sorts of consequences that naturally result from the existence and intersection of the various comics. All of these threads are pulled together into a seemingly simple story of two heads of peacekeeping organizations meeting for the first time, and the result is a fantastic portrait of the Marvel U as it stood in mid-to-late 2007.

Sword and Shield

Vidder: AJ
Musical artist: Clint Mansell
Pairing: None
Vidder on LJ: Unknown
Vidder's website: AJ's Music Videos
Why this vid kicks ass: Oh, Jet Li, how pretty and violent you are. In this gorgeously stylised vid, AJ presents us with a love letter to the grace of Jet Li as he punches, kicks and swordfights his opponents to a standstill. There's no one like Jet Li for this kind of cinematic violence, and this vid makes me want to spend the whole day curled up watching Jet Li's back catalogue.

Jet Li Retrospective