How The Mighty Fall
is a fanfic of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Meep_Morp published on Archive Of Our Own. Set between Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Infinity War, its plot draws heavily from Iron Man 3 and Marvel Comics canon. When Peter Parker encounters a masked teenager, Connor Tanyard, who draws power from Extremis, he also discovers evidence of a brewing gang war in the city and clashes with Tony on how to handle it.
How The Mighty Fall provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass:
- Hammerhead's abilities are vastly altered and amplified compared to his comics counterpart. Instead of having a steel plate implanted into his skull, this version sports super strength and near-total invulnerability. He also gets these powers from mixing iron with Chitauri metal and taking it as a kind of steroid. He's able to survive a gun exploding in his hand, and in his final battle with Peter, he gets drenched in molten metal and dragged across the East River, only to come out with just ruined clothes. That does, however, overtax his powers and allow Peter to destroy them with a jaw-breaking punch immediately after.
- Some of the Inner Demons also qualify.
- In the comics, Silver Sable was a highly-trained but ultimately non-powered human. This version of her had the ability to generate a static charge on her skin which would paralyze people, and could blend in with her surroundings like a chameleon by staying still.
- Calpyso was only ever a mystic enchantress who used voodoo and potions to brainwash people and resurrect them from the dead. Here, she's a highly advanced telepath and telekinetic, with powers not unlike that of Ebony Maw.
- While Bombshell has temporarily sported energy powers in the comics, in this fanfic her abilities allow her to create spheres which can explode on a delayed timer or at her command, and were powerful enough to destroy the Cyclone on Coney Island.
- Adaptational Villainy: Of a sort. In the comics, Negative and Martin Li are separate individuals who have their own separate moralities. Li is a kind, charitable man who runs the F.E.A.S.T. shelters genuinely (though he has shown a willingness to eliminate people who threaten Negative's plans). In this fic, Martin Li is every bit as sadistic as he is when in his Negative form, and there is absolutely no distinction between the two identities.
- A Day in the Limelight: Peter narrates most of the story, however there are two chapters where Tony narrates, one where Connor narrates, and the final battle is the only multi-POV chapter, where all three characters have a turn narrating.
- Air-Vent Passageway: Peter uses them twice. Once when infiltrating Hammerhead's base, and again when sneaking into Rikers. The second time he comments on the filthy state of the vents.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Pepper, Tony, and May all get their turn to embarrass the boys. Mostly Tony.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Hammerhead is executed by Negative offscreen about midway through the story, to prevent any knowledge of Negative's identity from going public.
- Ascended Extra: Remember the blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameos of Jocasta and Tadashi in Avengers: Age of Ultron? Tadashi shows up again with a slightly larger role, and Jocasta features as a prominent side character for several chapters.
- Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: Used in Peter's first battle with Negative. Negative prepares to shoot him, but is then shot in the arm by Officer Watanabe instead. Later used to a much more horrifying degree, when Peter appears to fail to save Aunt May from being shot, and spends several paragraphs thinking she is dead. Then she wakes up and reveals that the bullet only grazed her forehead, knocking her out.
- Beware the Nice Ones: When push comes to shove, Peter really doesn't mess around. When fighting Hammerhead, he stopped holding back some of his strength and learned to really let go—the result was Hammerhead being launched into the second story of a building by a single punch.
- Call-Forward: In chapter 17, Tony mentions that he wants Ben & Jerry's to name an ice cream flavor after him.
- Chekhov's Gun: That sample of the original Extremis Tony mentions having in cold storage? Yeah, that gets mentioned as early as chapter 7, then once again in chapter 15, and becomes massively important to the climax of the fic.
- Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Played with. Some characters, like Rhino and Bombshell, keep their comic book names. Others are watered down. The Living Laser becomes simply Laser, Calypso Elizi becomes Kali Elizi with Calypso becoming her codename. Silver Sablinova/Silver Sable becomes Silvia Sablinova with Sable being her codename. Martin Li's alter ego is only referred to as Negative, never as Mister Negative.
- Darkest Hour: Beginning in chapter 18, Negative has kidnapped everyone Peter loves and has him stranded at the Avengers Compound, two hours away from the city. He then presents Peter with an ultimatum—he can attempt to save them all, but for every hour that goes by one of the hostages will be executed at random. Or, Negative offers to let them all go and give Peter his location so they can fight, but at the cost of Connor and Tony's lives. The desperate situation convinces Peter to Take a Third Option, which actually plummets the story even further into its darkest hour.
- Disk-One Final Boss: Hammerhead, before being upstaged by Negative.
- Dual Boss: Rhino and Calypso and Bombshell and Laser.
- Dying Declaration of Love: Connor during the final battle, as he transfers his powers to Peter and slips away.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: It's hinted at throughout the story, but after being mortally wounded by Negative, Connor unintentionally transfers his abilities to Peter in an attempt to save him, at the cost of his own life. This allows Peter to defeat Negative.
- Evil Power Vacuum: Hinted at. It's implied that this is how Negative was able to gain such a foothold in New York so easily, but by the time the story actually begins he's nearly finished controlling the entire city.
- Evil vs. Evil: The first arc of the story involves a gang war between Hammerhead and Negative.
- Expy: Played with. Mallen appears as Negative's dragon and his powers and personality are more true to the comic version of him. But Mallen already exists in the MCU in the form of Composite Character Aldrich Killian, making this Mallen simultaneously truer to the original, but an expy of an expy.
- Foreshadowing: Happens quite a bit.
- Martin Li cameos briefly in Chapter 2, long before he's established as the fic's main antagonist. Additionally, Connor's backstory of being a homeless kid makes Li's shelters seem a little more suspect.
- Connor's 11th-Hour Superpower doesn't get a whole lot of setup, but upon rereading there are a few moments in the story where it's implied that his power has potential beyond what he thinks he knows.
- Friend on the Force: Yuri Watanabe, portrayed here as a rookie cop, appears to be one. Her partner, veteran officer Jefferson Davis, is virtually the opposite, but he starts to come around by the end.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Par the course for Iron Man and Spider-Man. Connor gets in on it too once he started becoming a more heroic character.
- Homeless Hero: Connor, technically. He's introduced as an Elite Mook working for Negative, but the story makes it clear he is not going to stay that way for long.
- How Dare You Die on Me!: After defeating Negative, Peter cries into Connor chest, "You don't get to do this. You don't get to leave like this!"
- The Internet Is for Porn: When Peter is struggling to come to terms with his bisexuality, he's tempted to open the incognito tab of his laptop's brower and see what happens.
- Legion of Doom: With the exception of Connor, the Inner Demons are all comic villains in their own right. However in this continuity, they happen to be subservient to Negative. The final Boss Rush showdown against the Inner Demons and Negative is an homage to both Spider-Man (PS4) and the Sinister Six of the comics.
- MacGyvering: Peter does this with a bunch of destroyed suits in chapter 18, so he can fly back to the city from the Avengers Compound.
- Mental Affair: At one point, when things are getting steamy between them, Connor links up to Peter with his empathy powers. Peter is very approving of this.
- Mood Whiplash: Chapter 18 has a very strong one when, about midway through the chapter, Tony gives Peter and Connor his approval and then immediately tries to kill them during the heartwarming moment, having been brainwashed by Negative. Everything goes downhill from there.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Peter takes down Hammerhead, thus ending his turf war with Negative, who immediately seizes control of the entire city as both mayor and crime lord.
- Noodle Incident: While the Iron Family is being hosted by the Parkers at Thanksgiving, Happy mentions a time when one of Tony's former flames claimed he had gotten her pregnant, and her brother put out a hit on him. Tony's only comment is that she was not pregnant, but in fact had a rather large kidney stone.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Peter tries to convince Tony that Connor isn't inherently dangerous just because he has Extremis, by pointing out that he himself is super strong and could theoretically hurt someone. Tony's rash response is that that makes Peter dangerous too, which drives a rift between them for a handful of chapters.
- Precision F-Strike: Peter, upon seeing a shirtless Connor: "Oh no. I'm so fucked."
- When Tony sees that Jefferson Davis was targeted by Negative because of the data Tony gave him, Friday warns him about his heart rate and he responds with "Forget about my fucking heart, Friday!"
- And then again when he tells her to upload the data everywhere, even on Porn Hub.
- Connor mouths one off to Negative while he's held hostage in the penultimate chapter.
- Preserve Your Gays: Connor is mortally wounded by Negative at the end of the final battle, and appears to sacrifice his life using the last of his strength to transfer his powers to Peter. After Peter defeats Negative with them, he attempts to use them to bring Connor back to life, but the chapter's ending is very ambiguous and not that optimistic. It isn't until halfway through the next (and final) chapter that it worked and Connor survived.
- The Reveal: Martin Li is Negative. It's not a terribly surprising reveal, though, considering the recent popularity of his character and the fic doesn't bother trying to mislead you.
- Sadistic Choice: Negative's ultimatum to Peter is that he can either try and rescue everyone before an hour passes and he starts killing people, or he can choose their freedom in exchange for Negative's location, but at the cost of Tony and Connor's lives. He's determined to see someone Peter loves die.
- Secret-Keeper: Played with. A running gag is that Peter is absolutely terrible at keeping his identity on the DL.
- Liz rather casually confronts Peter with it when she calls him on the phone in Chapter 14.
- Connor points out that he is the only one who Peter actually willingly told about his identity. Everyone else figured it out on their own.
- Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, MJ, and Ned accidentally become secret keepers regarding Peter's relationship with Connor.
- Secret Relationship: Peter and Connor accidentally develop one, by taking things slow between them and consequently forgetting to tell everyone until Peter shows up to Thanksgiving dinner with a massive hickey on his neck.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: May knew about Connor and Peter's relationship all along.
- Shout-Out:
- In Chapter 4, when Connor is attempting to describe his abilities, Peter compares him to a Dementor.
- In Chapter 11, when Peter is attempting to navigate the rigged mirror maze, he finds a false wall and says "Please be a secret door, please be a secret door."
- Also in Chapter 11, Peter is dangling upside-down from the top bunk of his bed when Connor kisses him, in an homage to classic "Spider-Man Kiss".
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: During the final battle, right before webbing him in the face:Negative: "Allow me to show you how true gods deal with their enemies."
Peter: "You're not...a god... You're just...a dick!" - Spider-Sense: Naturally. It's shown to be imperfect, however—if Peter is distracted or otherwise has his guard down, his spider-sense does not activate. It fails to warn him of the gun Tony has pointed at him, until he hears the click of the weapon. Later, when Peter takes Extremis, he realizes that his spider sense no longer works because Extremis' rapid regenerative abilities mean that very little actually registers as a threat anymore.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: Laser is a bit too dependent on his powers.
- Take a Third Option: When Negative gives him an ultimatum where both options end in someone he loves dying, Peter instead decides to save everyone. Unfortunately, his plan to do that involves dosing himself with Extremis.
- Villain Respect: Averted. Negative repeatedly makes it clear that he detests Peter. When Tony talks Extremis!Peter down from killing him, Negative quickly overpowers Peter and expresses his disgust, stating that for a moment he would have been impressed if he'd had the stomach to do it.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Negative as Martin Li, the philanthropic and beloved mayor-incumbent.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Tony delivers one to Connor in Chapter 7, after his poorly-thought-out plan results in Peter getting brutalized by Mallen. He also gives one to Peter himself in Chapter 21, when Peter is about to kill Negative in cold blood and suffering from Extremis' degradation.
