Where Does FanFic Come From?
By Van Plexico

Where does fanfic come from? The answer, obviously, can vary tremendously, depending on whom you're asking. Here's one person's view, for what it's worth.

For me, the urge to write fanfic has never come from a general desire to tell the continuing stories of characters I like. "What?!" you may ask. "We thought you loved the Avengers and Iron Man and Captain Marvel, etc., and wrote fanfic (and formed MV1 for that matter) just so you could write those characters yourself.

Wrong!

The impulse to write fanfic, on my part, has always, without exception, come from my desire to answer unanswered questions or finish unfinished stories about those very characters. Those who know me well know that in my heart and in my mind, the story always comes first-- above continuity, above even 100% accurate characterization, above everything. I've been criticized (to varying degrees of severity) over the years for this trait-- and hailed for it, too.

At its heart, this fact explains my relatively brief tenure on the various titles for which I've written. Once the question is answered, or the story finished, I move on. Allow me to explain further:

I did *NOT* write AVENGERS #403-414 to grab a perpetual stranglehold on the writing of that group, much as I love them. If I had, why would I have then turned the title over to Scott Harris-- regardless of Scott's own talent and skill with the series? I wrote those issues because I wanted to answer the questions in my mind: "What would it be like when the Avengers returned from the Franklinverse? How soon till they had another big showdown with Ultron? What would provoke Kang into showing up again? Who would be on the roster?" Once I answered those questions, and had some fun with old favorites Graviton and the Zodiac, too, I was ready to move on.

Same thing with MS. MARVEL and CAPTAIN MARVEL. In the case of the former, I wanted to restore Carol Danvers to the glorious character I remembered from my childhood-- and get rid of the "Binary" crap that Chris Claremont pasted onto her in order to make her more like the X-Men. In the case of the latter, I wanted to evolve Genis from the ridiculous punk of his own series into a mature and worthy heir to the mantle of his late father, a character I loved second only to Iron Man himself.

Probably the most clear-cut example would be my Count Nefaria WHAT IF? story. I was reading IRON MAN and AVENGERS back in 1977 and '78 when Nefaria first gained awesome superpowers and then met defeat at the hands of the Avengers. His supposed "death" in a later issue of IRON MAN never quite rang true for me-- it contradicted what had been said at the end of the AVENGERS story. The entire impetus for me to write that story-- which I think is one of my cooler ones, though I'm beginning to think no one else has ever read it! Ha!-- was to make my own case for what had happened. I never expected Galactus to show up, but it all came together at the end and rarely have I felt as satisfied with the resolution of a long-term mystery, or with the ending of one of my stories.

Allow me, as an aside, to toot my own horn here for just a moment. How accurate have my earlier fanfic "answers" turned out to be? Let's take a look: The Avengers did indeed "Return" with a huge gathering in the Mansion, back in their "classic" forms, and there was even a "mob scene" as *too many* Avengers pursued the first bad guys to appear. Graviton and Count Nefaria came back, in their classic late-'70s forms, Kang turned up again--on the "good side" this time, and Ms. Marvel ditched the Binary effects and took on the Ms. Marvel appearance (if not the name) again. To cap it all off, we have a Genis/Captain Marvel in AVENGERS FOREVER who is *exactly* the character I was trying to make him in my own stories.

Holy cow-- I'd think Kurt was an MV1 reader, if I didn't know for a fact that a) he strenuously avoids all fanfic, and b) he's like many of us, a fan of classic Marvel, and felt the same impulse to "fix" stuff that I did. Fortunately, I wrote all of the above in MV1 and did my "fixing" months before he did the same thing in the real comics. (But I'm going to go way, way out on a limb here and say that I personally think my own restorations of Carol and Genis were more entertaining and exciting than the real deals. Of couse, why wouldn't I think that? Heh.)

In sum, we each have our own reasons for writing fanfic. Is one any more valid than the others? Probably not. Whatever gets you to sit down at the keyboard and let the imagination run wild-- if it works for you, go with it. The true discipline to write when you are *not* inspired is necessary only when you're writing professionally and have to put food on the table, I think. For fanfic, a supposedly *fun* activity, inspiration and enjoyment should be the prime factors.

As for me: Will I write fanfic again? Probably. Will I ever write an ongoing series with any regularity again? Probably not! But as long as there are lingering questions in the Marvel Universe to answer, I'll have something from which to draw inspiration!