Avengers Rec: Known Associates by thingswithwings

Title: Known Associates

Author: thingswithwings

Ship: Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers/Agent Peggy Carter, Steve Rogers/Col. Rhodes, Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers/various OCs, Maria Hill/Natasha Romanov, Tony Stark/Pepper Potts/ Col Rhodes

Wordcount: 29,4881

URL: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6292210/chapters/14418613

Summary: Steve Rogers isn’t a self-made man.

Or, how a tough little Brooklyn fairy got turned into Captain America, and then turned back.

Why this fic is awesome:

It is BEAUTIFUL AND WONDERFUL AND EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT screams the queer cultural nerd deep within my soul. Normally, with a fic like this that has grabbed me by the balls so quickly, I would wait a few days before re-reading and reccing to make sure I’m not in too deep to see clearly. BUT I CAN’T WAIT because it is just so bloody brilliant.

This fic contains two excellent plots- one Steve’s exploration of his self which includes understanding how a self-identified fairy back before the war deals with firstly, becoming a much butch-er figure appearance wise and then waking up in a future in which gay culture has very different ideas about the terms he has previously known himself as to be. The author manages to incorporate Steve’s confusion, the very typical sense that our generation ‘knows best’ warring with the cultural shifts within gayy history, deals with the repurcussions with AIDs on queer identity politics, examine the relationship between terms like genderqueer and different forms of gender dysphoria and identity WITHOUT PREACHING. For those of us who like fics like this, it is a rare thing indeed and yet thingswithwings not only manages to deal with these in a sexy, interesting and well-considered manner but manages to do so whilst incorporating a sub-plot about superhero identities and superpowered children, and art, into it.

Honestly? It’s really, really fucking amazing.

Oh! And you don’t have to be a total cultural geek like me to follow it, the author explains everyhing incredibly well and despite my previous gushing I am woefully uneducated in the US scene of that era, having mostly spent my energies studying what was going on in the UK at that time- there is some crossover, but there are also some fascinating differences too.

 

And then the author capped it off with a bibliography that has increased my readinglist threefold. Honestly, my cup runneth over.