Mari "Illustrious" Makinami used to think she knew her family history, only to learn that neither her history or she herself were so ordinary, after all...
Another entry in the Superwomen of Eva series by OrionPax09, Superwomen of Eva: American Dream stars Mari "Illustrious" Makinami, newly-introduced in the Rebuild of Evangelion film series, as the successor to Captain America.
After learning she's a descendant of a famous American hero, Mari undergoes a specialized series of treatments to become a super-soldier, allying with S.H.I.E.L.D. to take the fight to the Angels and see what NERV is truly up to.
Tropes:
- Amazonian Beauty: A big part of this Mari's Ms. Fanservice package.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The prologue and first chapter proper focus on a younger Mari, with her being told she's Captain America's great-granddaughter and then being put through a new version of Project: Rebirth. By the time the story catches up with the Neon Genesis Evangelion canon's "present", Mari has trained for some time for her role as the Captain.
- Clothes Make the Superman: Mari has a battlesuit outfitted with various weapons, gear, and stealth systems that can make her invisible.
- Cool Plane: Mari's personal aircraft, the American Dream, certainly qualifies. It has adamantium armor, is fully amphibious, and is equipped with a wide variety of weapons, including two BFGs capable of delivering a lot of damage to Angels.
- Eat Me: Mari plans to defeat Gaghiel the Sixth Angel this way.
- Epic Fail: Mari's first attempt at the shield toss...does not go well.
- Genki Girl: Mari, with a nice dose of Boisterous Bruiser. When she stops acting genki...look out.
- Instant Expert: Played straight with Mari's ability to learn fighting skills, subverted with her complete failure at throwing her shield.
- Legacy Character: Mari is chosen by S.H.I.E.L.D. to take on her great-grandfather's role as Captain America.
- Obfuscating Insanity: The reason for some of her canonical eccentricity, fic-wise.
- Papa Wolf: Mari's father...well, at least he tries, but the poor guy knows he's completely in over his head from the moment S.H.I.E.L.D. knocks on his door.
- Patchwork Fic: Aside from Mari Makinami being part of a timeline closer to the TV series canon (at least for now), the Captain America mythos presented so far comes from all over the place, mostly from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (due to the appearances of characters like Phil Coulson (and later the rest of his team), and Betty Ross being part of the new Project: Rebirth). A major exception is Nick Fury, with him being more in-line with his original Earth-616 comic book version; this one is lampshaded in an Omake, and it turns out to be one of Fury's berserk buttons.
- Permission to Speak Freely: After her first mission goes badly, Mari asks this of Dugan. When Dugan grants her permission, Mari decks him.Dugan: "You know, lass...generally speaking...people usually speak freely...with their mouths..."Mari: "Yeah, but haven't you heard, Major Dum Dum? Actions speak louder than words!"
- Power Copying: The Rebirth process lets Mari master any physical skill her body is capable of doing, simply by watching it once.
- Ramming Always Works: Mari does this to the Sixth Angel by ramming its core with the American Dream.
- Really 700 Years Old: Dum Dum? The same one that fought alongside Steve Rogers back in World War II. He (and apparently Fury) were given a Super Serum variant to slow down significantly (if not stop) their aging.
- Right Hand Versus Left Hand: One of Mari's problems lies in the fact she's working with S.H.I.E.L.D., who are not above making some moral sacrifices to save the world, and is run by Nick Fury, who doesn't likes Mari being Captain America and sees her as a risky, battle-happy loose cannon unworthy of the name, and he makes it well-known to her. Mari is a battle-happy loose cannon, but she is nevertheless trying to save people, so she has decided to show Fury where to stick it through any action she can take.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Not explicitly mentioned, but implied to be Mari's case (Peggy Carter married James Falsworth in this timeline). An Omake has Mari pointing it out and having fun with it, being asked to be called "Dame" to everybody's annoyance.
- Shout-Out:
- The newest chapter's Omake has the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. barging in on the Light of the Divine's attempt to sacrifice Mari by copying the trope-naming "Big Damn Heroes" scene of Firefly. Just a little something non-official to welcome the AOS cast to the show.
- Someone to Remember Him By: How exactly Mari came to be.
- Spared by the Adaptation: As of the time of the newest chapter, various members of Team Coulson (Triplett most visibly).
- Super-Powered Alter Ego / Growing Muscles Sequence: Mari's version of the Captain America Super-Soldier Serum provides her with a "stealth mode" where she can change her appearance to be less of an Amazonian Beauty. Word of God is that this is an explicit Shout-Out to how the Black Cat/Felicia Hardy was depicted in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
- Super-Soldier: Mari. Obviously.
- Super Serum: Duh. An Omake has an upstart of a scientist giving her the wrong serum and turning her into the version of the Abomination from The Incredible Hulk instead. To the lamentation of Betty Ross.
- The Mentor: S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Dum Dum Dugan is put in charge of training Mari. Phil Coulson provides some help as well.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After her first mission goes bad, Mari calls Nick Fury out for disabling the American Dream's weapons when he knows an Angel will attack the Pacific Fleet. Fury's response is to give her a scathing one of these.Fury: "You want to know why I didn't warn you about the Angel, why I ordered your weapons disabled? That's simple. Because I know just the kind of person you are; a hyperactive adrenaline junkie who can't be bothered to think before jumping into a situation and making it worse!"Mari: (shocked silent).Fury: "When I found out about the Angel, I had your weapons pulled because I thought that even an idiot like you would be smart enough to back down from a situation like that. But it's obvious that I overestimated your intelligence. You know, when I was ordered to recruit you to spy on NERV, I didn't like it. And when I started getting Dugan's reports on his attempts to get you trained, I liked it a whole lot less. You've been treating this whole thing like a game right from day one. You have no discipline, no respect for authority, and if it weren't for the fact that you were our only chance of getting inside of NERV Central, I'd have thrown you out of here personally."Fury pauses to study Mari's battle suit.Fury: "And hell would have frozen over long before I'd have ever given you that!"Mari: "Wha...?"Fury: "I knew your great-grandfather, girl. I fought alongside of him. And I owe him my life more times than I can even begin to tell you."Mari: "Really. You must be a lot older than you look."Fury: "Which is why I fought like hell when the Council decided that they wanted a new Captain America. That title belongs to just one man, and his name was Steven Rogers. Not any of the wannabes they brought in to try and take his place. And certainly not some arrogant little tramp that we have to put up with just because she happens to be his great-granddaughter."
- Tough Act to Follow: In-Universe, the previous Captain America. Nick Fury uses it as a cornerstone of his "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards Mari.
- Way Past the Expiration Date: The M.R.E.s that are on the American Dream, in an Omake. Pure S.H.I.E.L.D. sore loser Jerkass-ery at its finest.
- You Don't Look Like You: While the story borrows extensively from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the version of Nick Fury running S.H.I.E.L.D. is the one from the comic books (and that is the OG Fury, not Nick Jr.) In one Omake, Mari accidentally pushes one of Fury's Berserk Buttons when she asks why he does not looks like Samuel L. Jackson.