best intro fics for avengers!fandom

[bythedamned.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone - I'm branching into the avengers fandom because I love some of the characters, and my older fav fandoms don't have many new fics anymore. Can anyone recommend their favorite fics to get started in the Avengers!verse? I'm particularly interested in Thor/Loki (and all the Norse characters), Steve/Tony, and any good femmeslash. I also like (possibly prefer) RPF AUs, I'm just looking for some of the fandom's classic stories to fall in love with :)

Thanks for helping a marvel newbie out!

Update: THANK YOU to everyone who's been so kind in sharing their favs and recs! And I've recently discovered that I have a weak spot for Steve/Bucky, so I have a huge list of fics to explore. This is like the gift that keeps on giving. Thanks guys!

Comments

Loki/Thor

[red-day-dawning.livejournal.com]

I seriously don’t know if these are classics, but they are my most absolute favorites!
I don’t read a huge amount of Loki/Thor and these recs are all older stories:

Wild ambition fortune’s ice prefers by amberfox17
https://archiveofourown.org/works/845183
My absolute fav! When Thor went storming into Jotunheim he was looking to start a fight, but accidently winds up a pawn in Odin and Laufey's plans for a permanent peace between the realms; namely, in exchange for the return of the Casket of Ancient Winters, Laufey is offering his firstborn child Loki, the Aesir-sized sorcerer, in marriage to Thor. Such a momentous decision is not to be taken lightly, so Odin sends Thor to live on Jotunheim - without Mjolnir - for a season with Loki, to get to know his prospective consort and to teach the wilful prince some diplomatic sense. Thor is horrified, his parents are insistent and no-one really knows what Loki is thinking, but he hasn't stopped smiling...
Or, a jotun AU arranged marriage worldbuilding fic, featuring a confused Thor, a manipulative bastard Loki, Jotunheim politics, a slow burn developing relationship and a motley arrangement of characters from Marvel and myth.

Perdition by pastmydancingdays
https://archiveofourown.org/works/776319
Draws upon Norse mythology. Warning for torture and rape. In a time after the Avengers had saved the day, Loki is locked away from the world in an Asgardian dungeon. Lonely and mad, damaged and hateful, he waits for freedom. But it doesn't come in a way he intended.

Chaos war by astolet
https://archiveofourown.org/works/243244
It was never easy to find Loki when he wanted to hide, but he wasn't doing a particularly good job of it at the moment. Probably he didn't think anyone from Asgard would be wasting their time hunting for him while the shining ones churned their way steadily through all the realm.

Any stories by Thorduna: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thorduna/pseuds/thorduna
Hope you enjoy!

Steve/Tony

[red-day-dawning.livejournal.com]

I’m only including some older recs for Steve/Tony because CACW changed everything for me. (It ruined me. I’m still bitter and heartbroken. And then IW destroyed me again. But that’s another story.). Post CACW, most of the Steve/Tony stories I can bear to read are so heavily Team Ironman, I don’t feel they are representative of Stony as a whole. (They’re heavily partisan. If you wanted anti-Team Cap stories you would have asked for them.)

So here are some of the older stories I used to love:
In Which Tony Stark Builds Himself Some Friends (But His Family Was Assigned By Nick Fury by scifigirl47
https://archiveofourown.org/series/18228
Adorable series. Highly recommended! I love to re-read just for the happy feels.

Tomorrow Belongs To Me by valtyr
https://archiveofourown.org/works/259417
Love this one, a total favorite. Lots of UST and misunderstandings between Tony and the Cap, very sweet. Loki is very grey-shaded too, which is always nice. Thor is endearingly gorgeous. The Tesseract is around, causing trouble.
Steve wakes up in the 21st Century. He doesn't think much of it, and it's dubious about him. He meets a Norse God, joins a superhero team, and feels terribly awkward about the whole monument at Arlington he's rendered obsolete by not being dead. Meanwhile, Tony is trying to make his mark on history by being the man who finally drove Nick Fury over the edge.

Semaphore by devildoll
https://archiveofourown.org/works/314102
I’m trying to like you, Tony. You’re just making it very hard."

What Rough Beast by immortal_crow
https://archiveofourown.org/works/548140#main
Heartbreaking and beautiful. Warning for character death. Steve Rogers, super soldier. It’s amazing really that it takes them all so long to work out just what the serum can do… but given enough time all things become apparent. This is a story about love, and loss; the things we would do to be true to ourselves and true to our hearts; and the prices you must pay to do that.

Tales Of The Bots
https://archiveofourown.org/series/18990
Another series by scifigirl47. When Tony Stark was seventeen years old, he built his first AI. On that day, he ceased to be his father's creation, and became a creating force in his own right.

Toy Soldiers by copperbadge
https://archiveofourown.org/works/3532880
Pre-serum Steve. When Steve Rogers, five foot four and a hundred and ten pounds, met Tony Stark in a bar, he didn't expect it to lead to a relationship. Or that Tony would find out he's not an art student during a SHIELD rescue mission in Afghanistan.

These are just a tiny sample. I would recommend that you go to Ao3 and search the Steve/Tony for the most bookmarked stories: https://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=✓&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=bookmarks_count&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=1&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&commit=Sort+and+Filter&tag_id=Steve+Rogers*s*Tony+Stark

anything by

[bugeyedmonster.livejournal.com]

I'm just going to recommend everything by Scifigirl47 or Copperbadge.

RE: anything by

[bythedamned.livejournal.com]

heh, I'm getting that impression. Thanks!

RE: Steve/Tony

[bythedamned.livejournal.com]

thank you so much for taking the time to list out both sets of recs - I really appreciate it. And it was a good reminder that there's a whole lot of new acronyms/context for me to learn, but that's why I'm here :) I've just started looking thorugh them, and it's so refreshing to read something entirely new. I can't wait to go through all these. and I never thought of checking # of bookmarks in AO3 - that's a good tip. thank you thank you!

[lalnadawn.livejournal.com]

I would consider this a classic. Bend around the Wind by Scyllaya. 100 chapters of awesome, with epic space adventure, although the pairing is Loki/Tony sorry :/
https://archiveofourown.org/works/550896

There's also pretty much anything by these authors for MARVEL/Avengers is really good. I give authors instead of specific stories mostly because this way you can browse through what sort of things you might be looking to read (also i have way too many amazing stories I want to rec, but dont know what i should)

STARSdidathing ( https://archiveofourown.org/users/STARSdidathing/pseuds/STARSdidathing )

dls ( https://archiveofourown.org/users/dls )

boleyn13 ( https://archiveofourown.org/users/boleyn13 )

Wix ( https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wix )

LokasennaHiddleston ( https://archiveofourown.org/users/LokasennaHiddleston )

PeaceHeather ( https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeaceHeather )

IBegToDreamAndDiffer ( https://archiveofourown.org/users/IBegToDreamAndDiffer/pseuds/IBegToDreamAndDiffer )

Poetically_ordinary ( https://archiveofourown.org/users/poetically_ordinary )

Scavenge4Dreans ( https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scavenge4Dreams )

Silver_drip ( https://archiveofourown.org/users/silver_drip )

some of the stuff by katling ( https://archiveofourown.org/users/katling/pseuds/katling )

Hope you find something you like :)

[bythedamned.livejournal.com]

Yes, an author list is incredibly helpful :) I can't wait to give loki/tony a try, and to browse the rest - thanks a bunch!

[konrai.livejournal.com]

Everything by copperbadge https://archiveofourown.org/users/copperbadge/pseuds/copperbadge

This is a leverage crossover but very well done and LONG!https://archiveofourown.org/series/430801

My fav girl tony/Steve https://archiveofourown.org/series/22060

Bucky/tony https://archiveofourown.org/series/17418

Post CAWS https://archiveofourown.org/works/1552202/chapters/3288977

[bythedamned.livejournal.com]

thanks! I was immediately intrigued by girl!tony/steve and am enjoying that one. is that a popular pairing?? (as opposed to male tony/steve?)

[konrai.livejournal.com]

Not really I haven't found very many that are really good.

[syntia-13.livejournal.com]

I know of only one other: Some Assembly Required by valtyr (https://archiveofourown.org/works/89825) which has Tony temporarily turned into a woman and kind-of accidentaly hooking up with Steve.

There's also Female!Tony x Bucky: create / detonate by pprfaith, reena_jenkins (https://archiveofourown.org/series/307902) - this one is more serious and darker, check the tags before reading. (Actually, this is good practice with all fics. It's not fool-proof, but still good way to avoid reading something you'd rather not).

[avidrosette.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the fandom! Here are a few fics I've loved in the pairings you've mentioned:

astolat/ Athelas
(Loki/Thor)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/240043

teh_helenables/ Tell me the story of how you ended up here & sequel They’re the ones that make it all worthwhile
(Loki/Steve)
http://teh-helenables.livejournal.com/62899.html
http://teh-helenables.livejournal.com/63533.html

Mikkenekko/ Hospitality
(Loki & Thor)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/550765

I also made a couple of Loki-centric rec lists here (https://avidrosette.livejournal.com/29170.html) and here (https://avidrosette.livejournal.com/26970.html).

[bythedamned.livejournal.com]

perfect - I'll check out your rec lists. And I actually know of astolat from other fandoms, so I'm definitely gonna check her loki/thor out. thanks so much!

[(Anonymous)]

As a side note, like red_day_dawning mentioned, Civil War polarized a significant portion of the fandom. A lot of current fics are very "Everyone on Team Cap is evil and should be punished!1!!" and vice versa. Just as an fyi, if you're not into that it's better to stick to pre-Civil War fics.

I don't really read much stony or thorki, but I can recommend the following AO3 authors who have written some.

stony: AvocadoLove, and Margo_Kim ("Underground" in particular)

thorki: proantagonist ("Bargaining" is gen but my favorite fic in this fandom, so if you feel like reading gen give it a shot), griseldajane, Aria ("Find a Home" in particular), Lise, astolat, Mikkeneko, Evandar, and homovikings

I mostly know those authors for writing quality fics for other pairings (or gen), so hopefully the quality carries over for their stony/thorki fics :)

[(Anonymous)]

I just noticed you mentioned "(and all the Norse characters)" there! If you're into other pairings than thor/loki, I will say that Lizardbeth writes some great Loki/Sif and Loki-centric gen fic.

[bythedamned.livejournal.com]

that's... such a sad thing to happen to a fandom. thanks for the warning, and the recs. I can definitely do gen :)

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, it sucks, especially when you're trying to find stuff to read that's not extremely ooc

case in point the entry 5 posts above yours lol

[etrix.livejournal.com]

I agree with the Copperbadge and scifigrl47 recommendations, but here are some other stories that you might enjoy.

My favourite MCU story is probably the Infinite Coffee and Protection Detail (https://archiveofourown.org/series/195689) series by owlet. It is Bucky-POV and starts right at the end of CA:TWS. (Literally. He pulls Steve out of the Potomac.)
The mission resets abruptly, from objective: kill to objective: protect

Some Tony fics...

Tony as an alien tentacle monster: Tentacle Monsters are Usually Bigger (https://archiveofourown.org/works/6910981) by MountainRose. Both light-hearted and somehow not.

Refrain (https://archiveofourown.org/works/885634/chapters/1706969) by Liannabob.
Post Iron Man 3, Tony looks into why the rest of his team didn't help him. Mind-control, kidnappings and corruption, oh my.


For more Loki-centric work...

Cat's in the Cradle (https://archiveofourown.org/works/511329) by Lunik
When Odin took a half-Jotun baby out of a temple in Jotunheim, he wasn't the only one to claim to be the child's father. As his mother, Laufey King cheerfully refused to settle any dispute and soon there was at least one person in every realm who laid their claim as Loki's father. Except for the mortal creatures of Midgard, that is. Tony Stark thinks this needs to be rectified. And Loki Tonyson has a nice ring to it.

The series Loki Annoys the Marvel Universe (https://archiveofourown.org/series/24574) by LokiOfSassgard. The second story is unfinished, unfortunately (as it's why I started reading it), but author does update occasionally.
When Odin finds the abandoned Jötun boy in the temple, he has a choice. AU in which Odin is honest, Thor and Loki both know the secret of Loki's heritage, and everything changes while staying the same.

A more thoughtful Loki in Bargaining (https://archiveofourown.org/works/1108212/chapters/2230369) by proantagonist.
Faced with an eternity without his brother, Loki strikes a bargain to change the past. Post TDW.

If you want a little meta...

Tin Soldiers (https://archiveofourown.org/works/1758087/chapters/3758717) by idrilka
In the aftermath of Steve's return to the world of the living and the battle of New York, the academia and the Internet react.

Steve Rogers at 100: Celebrating Captain America on Film (https://archiveofourown.org/works/1599293) by a group of inspired authors.
Steve and Bucky find out Hollywood has been busy since they went away. A historical survey, including but not limited to: one set of exploded genitals, a brief interlude in France, Mel Gibson and other masterworks of casting, eight Academy awards, several dinosaurs, and something Tony Stark has ominously dubbed “the masterpiece.” Art included.

[bythedamned.livejournal.com]

thank you thank you! these look wonderful :)

[kira2127.livejournal.com]

Classics:

Togetherness Issues (and other superhero problems) Series. Team building, Tony!Centric:
https://archiveofourown.org/series/68439
Also check out other fics from this author, they are great!

Bedrock and Brick. Team building, Tony!Centric with Steve/Tony ship:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/438745

Only Different in the Details. Team building, Tony!Centric, forever incomplete, Tony/Clint:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/567367?view_full_work=true

Living in Avenger's Tower Series: Team building, slow build Steve/Tony
https://archiveofourown.org/series/22767

Hashtag Finally: Team Building, Steve/Tony (friggin adorable):
https://archiveofourown.org/works/2033628

*I wouldn't classify this one as a classic, but I love this series and it is adorable, and I really recommend it to everyone
Clint and His Bird-Family Series. low-key team building, Tony and Clint centric, but not shipped:
https://archiveofourown.org/series/561826

Pure Steve/Tony Stuff

Pink is the Color of...?
https://archiveofourown.org/works/460800

Thumb, Index, and Pinky Extended
https://archiveofourown.org/works/4280589

Tony Stark Takes a Liberty and the Universe Thanks Him
https://archiveofourown.org/works/858464

Two out of Three (Aint Bad)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/304632

Tony Stark Falls in Love with a Cat (to be clear, Steve is NOT the cat. Steve is volunteering at an animal shelter, in which Tony meets a cat. Just trust me)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/501964

Language!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/3915685

Where You End
https://archiveofourown.org/works/358969

[syntia-13.livejournal.com]

You've got a pretty comprehensive list of awesome by now, so I'll just throw in a few titles not mentioned before:

"Winterheart" by goddamnhella (https://archiveofourown.org/works/9851081/chapters/22105451) - brilliant retelling of Beauty and the Beast, with post-Thor1 Jotun!Loki and post!IM1 Tony as the main stars, with Clint and Natasha shining in supporting roles.

"Truth Behind Masks" by scifigrl47 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/1523327/chapters/3221816) - Tony x Steve, secret intendenty, amazing supporting cast of Avengers.

"Secrets of a Successful Marriage" by valtyr (https://archiveofourown.org/works/247356) - nominally-a-villain!Tony x Steve, secret intendenty, and fish.

"Saving the World (Is Totally a Date)" by Wordsplat (https://archiveofourown.org/works/815533/chapters/1542644) - Steve x Tony, secret identities and undercover work at highschool.

"A Higher Form of War" by sabrecmc (https://archiveofourown.org/works/2482181/chapters/5507177) - Medieval AU, with King!Tony x kinda-rebel!Steve and kind-of-secret identity. This one is long and amazing, but gets pretty damn dark and heavy at times, so thread with caution. Also the string of miscommunication and misunderstandings gets a little ridiculous at the end. :D

"The Ghosts of War" by scifigrl47 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/2671961/chapters/5973770) - Medieval/magical AU, with king!Steve x blacksmith! Tony, literal creature!Hydra, and also secret identity.

...I swear, not all my favorites include main characters lying about who they are. It's just most of the other ones had been recommended already.

I'll finish with
"Poetic Justice" by Limmet. It's slave!Loki x Tony, and I have very mixed feeings about it. Some parts I loved, some parts were kind of meh, and some bits I outrigth disliked. But YMMV, and it is a classic, so there you go. :)

Some recs

[meadowlark73.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I don’t know how to embed links. You don’t say if you are looking for Marvel movie related works or for AUs where the people might be normal humans, so I’m including both. All recs are on AO3. Probably not classics, but some of my faves.

Thorki:

One Hundred Steps There by icemaidenstory (sequel One Hundred Steps Back) - AU of Asgard and Vanaheim, some difficult arranged marriage to a monster themes, lots of great OCs

The Warrior and the Scholar (series) by OkieDokieLoki - Jotun Loki story of love and personal growth, also sad and heartbreaking on occasion. Mpreg warning if that’s not your thing.

Facing the Vast by needleyecandy - human AU, 1800s (I think) - ship captain Thor and scientist apprentice Loki and their forbidden love

The Investigation by golikethat and justfollowthebunny - human AU, they are undercover cops playing a gay couple

Authors: needleyecandy, icemaidenstory, hermaline75, robin_mask, rynfinity

Frostiron:

Gotterdammerung 24/7 (series) by semaphore27 - currently being reposted, long Avengers AU with some X-men and Sherlock. Hard to describe but worth the read

The Ballad of Tony and Loki (series) by plastic_cello - human AU, Loki The rockstar and Tony the writer/groupie, brilliantly written but soul crushing at times

Empire State of Mind by LaLopez1981 - post-Avengers Loki goes to Earth and Tony shows him some Earth stuff and they shag (any more = spoilers)

Catch and Release by like_a_hurricane - post-Avengers AU with Thanos battle and aftermath, in my top 5 fave fics of all time

Authors: arkada ( all of them), iswyn, plumadesatada, Horns of Mischief

Some gen:

Housemates (series) by Coneycat - Avengers and Being Human AU

SHIELD Codex (series) by KhamanV - post-Avengers Loki works with SHIELD and has many adventures

Have fun and welcome to the rabbit hole...um...fandom.