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General Fanon

  • The Avengers has this site, Avengers Headcanons, that's dedicated to this trope.
    • Connected to the above, popular theories arise concerning Hawkeye's backstory, many inspired by the mainstream comics. The most common are Clint was a Circus Brat and/or has a criminal record (which again, is basically his comics backstory), formerly served in the US Army or in some kind of Law Enforcement division, is a single father with a young child, is dating/married or was formerly dating/married to Bobbi Morse, that Bobbi is the mother of the aforementioned child, and many more.
  • The Bourne Legacy is Hawkeye's origin story.
  • Captain America: The First Avenger, having changed Bucky Barnes from Cap's boy sidekick to his childhood friend of the same approximate age left a huge window of opportunity for fans to fill in the gaps of Movie Bucky's pre-war history. Popular backstories include Bucky and Steve growing up in the same orphanage (semi-canonical based on a set of official prequel comics released for the movie) and Bucky working at the docks before he was drafted, with going to dance halls with pretty dames and reading Dime Novels and/or science fiction Pulp Magazines as his hobbies. Bucky is frequently presumed to be Jewish on his mother's side to keep him in line with Arnie Roth. Additionally, all three of Bucky's younger siblings are girls, not just Rebecca (his only sibling with a confirmed name thus far).
  • Following Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it is generally believed that Bucky has suffered brain damage or at least psychological trauma from the chair and/or the cryofreezing, though the extent of it and what forms it takes varies. The movie also disproved earlier fanon based on prequel tie-in comics (usually of questionable canonicity anyway) regarding Steve and/or Bucky living in an orphanage; Steve's mom died when Steve was sometime in his teens or early twenties, and Bucky mentions his own folks. (The promotional SHIELD file for The Avengers said Steve was 18).
  • It's also generally agreed that Bucky, as the Winter Soldier, couldn't be left to his own devices for too long without becoming unstable (read: remembering stuff from before, developing a personality, and/or getting ideas that maybe he could be doing something other than killing for HYDRA) and therefore spent much of his time with HYDRA in cryo, not aging. Given that he was 27 when he fell, he was likely biologically thirty at most by the time of The Winter Soldier, and adding up the two years he spent on the lam between the end of that movie and Civil War, and the two years between coming out of cryo in Black Panther and Infinity War places him in his early/mid-thirties by the end of Phase 3.
  • It's assumed by a lot of people that part of HYDRA's horrific treatment of Bucky included abuse of a sexual nature as well, ranging from rare instances of particularly depraved agents having their way with him to HYDRA systematically treating him as a Sex Slave during his off-time. Typical perpetrators include Alexander Pierce, whose interactions with Bucky are laced with strong I Have You Now, My Pretty undertones, or Brock Rumlow, who stares at him and later speaks about him in a way that some viewers interpret as predatory. This fanon got a huge boost after The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which shows Bucky having major intimacy problems as well as a scene of Zemo offering to pimp him out to a female gangster for intel, due to the vague insinuation that sexual slavery was a known function of the Winter Soldier. Likewise, Bucky learning to overcome the trauma of feeling Defiled Forever by such abuse, or having issues with being touched, is a popular subject for shipping fics involving him.
  • Many, many fanfics that have Steve and Bucky interacting post-CA:TWS under less-fraught circumstances depict Bucky calling Steve "Stevie". It's such a common trope in MCU fanfic that puts any kind of focus on their relationship that fans are sometimes surprised to find out that Bucky never actually does this in canon, and that it instead comes from Arnie Roth in the 616 comics (whom MCU Bucky was partially inspired by).
  • Several "Winter Soldier Recovery" fics have tried to address just why HYDRA let Bucky have Barbarian Longhair that can be easily grabbed or pulled in a fight, or, as his actor said in several press interviews, gets in his face and mouth and obscures his vision. Explanations have ranged from HYDRA genuinely not caring, to the hair hiding his face should he lose that creepy muzzle-mask, or them keeping it lank because it makes him look homeless, and thus beneath notice in most places.
  • Thanos' chair in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) is his Companion Cube.
  • Some people believe that SHIELD was named such by Howard Stark, in honour of Steve Rogers. It's made very clear that Howard considers not finding Steve his greatest failure, and he's also one of the founders of the organisation.
  • Scarlet Witch is interpreted as being Jewish, just like her comic book counterpart.
  • Clint Barton cannot function without caffeine and/or pizza. Many, many fics have also agreed that he enjoys hanging around in air vents, generally starting with them being strategically advantageous, and later turning into places he enjoys even outside of missions, to the point of him setting up nests with bedding and snacks in various air ducts around Avengers Tower, or preferring to get around the Tower through the vents rather than using the stairs and elevators. This is also occasionally combined with Clint being able to sleep anywhere, or preferring to sleep anywhere but a bed (a common characteristic of military personnel and special operatives like him), depicting him preferring to nap and sleep in his vent-nests.
  • Despite having no screen time together, Peter Parker and Shuri are often depicted in fan made content as having a close friendship if they ever were to cross paths — they’re the same age, have a common passion for science and discovery, and have similar, playful personalities.
  • Tony acting as a surrogate father to Peter Parker, Harley Keener, and Nebula, most often referred to as "Iron Dad" by fans.
    • By extension, the idea that Tony raised his actual daughter Morgan to view at least Peter and often Harley as her older brothers.
    • There is even a small group of fans who believe Tony is Peter's actual father despite no evidence to support this.
  • Because the MCU's Bucky Barnes borrows his status as Steve's childhood friend and protector from bullies from Arnie Roth, there are several fics that borrow Roth's religion and make the Barnes family, and by extension Bucky, Jewish, and they became even more common after Sebastian Stan posted a picture to his Instagram of him observing Passover. Roth was also gay, notably one of the first openly LGBT characters in Marvel Comics history and created in the midst of the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, although it's uncommon for this aspect of Roth to be co-opted directy, as opposed to fans simply making him gay for Slash Fic purposes.
  • Steve is often depicted in fanfic with a Hyperactive Metabolism as a result of the Serum to a near-ubiquitous degree. Expect a mention of him eating enough food for two or three people by himself, Bucky and/or all of the Howling Commandos passing him some of their rations during the war, or having a higher base body temperature than normal (which any shipping fic is bound to make use of so his Love Interest can cuddle him). Bucky is sometimes depicted this way as well- if only the food requirement -but as a result of Zola's knockoff version of the serum.
  • In AU fics where Tony meets and/or interacts with the Winter Soldier under circumstances other than trying to kill him in revenge for Howard and Maria Stark's deaths, there's a high chance that Tony will nickname him "Robocop" and/or "Terminator".
  • Characters and events from non-MCU Marvel movies (particularly the X-Men Film Series) being referenced/included. Some fans might prefer those versions of certain characters than the ones that actually showed up in the MCU (i.e. replace Holland Spidey with Tobey Spidey, Garfield Spidey, or even Miles Spidey).
  • It's not unheard of for fanfiction to include a Mythology Gag reference to Tony's line in The Avengers (2012) where he asks Bruce if he uses a "giant bag of weed" to control the Hulk, usually in the form of Bruce putting his scientific background to work growing a better strain of marijuana.
  • Steve was capable of lifting Mjolnir in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but he pretended that he couldn't out of modesty. This is one of the more popular theories about why Steve couldn't lift the hammer, even though he's generally portrayed as a more morally upstanding person than Thor (making many fans skeptical that Thor is really more "worthy" than him). Joss Whedon also implied in an interview that this is the case, but didn't outright confirm it. It ends up looking considerably more plausible after Steve finally does lift Mjolnir at the climax of Avengers: Endgame, but it still leaves open the question of whether he was always worthy of lifting it, or just became worthy after Character Development.

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