dipping_sauce (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dipping_sauce) wrote2017-09-17 07:17 pm
dipping_sauce) wrote2017-09-17 07:17 pm
A Brief Manifesto For My Terrible Ship
Pairing: Bobby Drake | Iceman / Cameron Hodge
Fandom: Marvel 616
Spoilers: None, aside that Bobby being gay is now canon? I am super not caught up on X-Men comics
I've said elsewhere that my favourite kind of ship is Sweet Boy / Shitlord and at the heart of it, that's why I ship these two. (And I am literally the only person who does.)
Think Hufflepuff and Slytherin, or Andy and April from Parks and Rec.
Bobby Drake is the youngest of the Original X-Men and he's been a superhero on and off since he was a teenager. He's tried to live a normal life a few times (go to college, be an accountant) usually at the urgings of his parents, but he's fallen back into superheroing every time. It was also recently revealed that he's been deeply closeted since adolescence and he came out as gay in Uncanny X-Men 600.
Cameron Hodge was originally X-Factor's publicist, but was later revealed to secretly be a supervillain plotting to destruction of all mutantkind. In his appearances in X-Factor he is very strongly hinted to be gay and that he was either previously involved with Angel or had a strong one-sided crush on him. This part of his characterization got quietly dropped by later writers.
(I don't blame them, honestly. "This bad guy is evil because he's gay" is terrible, but unfortunately without his co-dependant relationship with Angel he's just another generic mutant-hating cyborg, and that's boring.)
(Ma favourite iteration of Hodge was when Claremont was writing him during X-Tinction Agenda. He was kinda crazy kinda camp, and one of the better parts of a not-so-great crossover.)
I love the O5 best of all the X-teams, and Bobby and Warren in particular (sorry Scott, Hank, and Jean), and Simonson-era X-Factor was one of the first comics runs I read all the way though so I imprinted on a lot of it even though it's far from perfect. Hodge's queerness was obvious to even teen!me's brain that I immediately latched onto it.
I legit do not remember when I started shipping Bobby with him but they just seemed to fit together in my mind, and stayed that way.
I see Bobby as being attracted to Hodge's power and control, as well as how dangerous he is. Bobby has joked before about being that guy who dates supervillains, and I can imagine this as no different.
Hodge would however be interested in Bobby's moral strength and innate goodness and see it, as with Angel's, as something he can try to drag down to his level and corrupt.
The pairing can go three ways.
Bobby can be slowly changed by Hodge's influence and embrace the worst parts of himself. Hodge is ecstatic.
They live in denial and pretend their outside conflicts don't exist
(This is my favourite option) Hodge tries really hard to be less evil and a better person for Bobby. He is kinda terrible at it, and if nothing else he can do the X-Men's paperwork for them.
Also, Hodge bottoms like 99% of the time.
(I'm under no illusion this will ever be canon. Cameron Hodge is super-dead, and I hope 616-Bobby ends up with a nice boy.)
I wrote a thinly disguised college AU about them for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
bb_shousetsu many years back, and while I keep meaning to write something set in 616 proper, I haven't gotten around to it. (Maybe posting this will be the kick in the pants I need to finish that early X-Factor WIP I have.)
Fandom: Marvel 616
Spoilers: None, aside that Bobby being gay is now canon? I am super not caught up on X-Men comics
I've said elsewhere that my favourite kind of ship is Sweet Boy / Shitlord and at the heart of it, that's why I ship these two. (And I am literally the only person who does.)
Think Hufflepuff and Slytherin, or Andy and April from Parks and Rec.
Bobby Drake is the youngest of the Original X-Men and he's been a superhero on and off since he was a teenager. He's tried to live a normal life a few times (go to college, be an accountant) usually at the urgings of his parents, but he's fallen back into superheroing every time. It was also recently revealed that he's been deeply closeted since adolescence and he came out as gay in Uncanny X-Men 600.
Cameron Hodge was originally X-Factor's publicist, but was later revealed to secretly be a supervillain plotting to destruction of all mutantkind. In his appearances in X-Factor he is very strongly hinted to be gay and that he was either previously involved with Angel or had a strong one-sided crush on him. This part of his characterization got quietly dropped by later writers.
(I don't blame them, honestly. "This bad guy is evil because he's gay" is terrible, but unfortunately without his co-dependant relationship with Angel he's just another generic mutant-hating cyborg, and that's boring.)
(Ma favourite iteration of Hodge was when Claremont was writing him during X-Tinction Agenda. He was kinda crazy kinda camp, and one of the better parts of a not-so-great crossover.)
I love the O5 best of all the X-teams, and Bobby and Warren in particular (sorry Scott, Hank, and Jean), and Simonson-era X-Factor was one of the first comics runs I read all the way though so I imprinted on a lot of it even though it's far from perfect. Hodge's queerness was obvious to even teen!me's brain that I immediately latched onto it.
I legit do not remember when I started shipping Bobby with him but they just seemed to fit together in my mind, and stayed that way.
I see Bobby as being attracted to Hodge's power and control, as well as how dangerous he is. Bobby has joked before about being that guy who dates supervillains, and I can imagine this as no different.
Hodge would however be interested in Bobby's moral strength and innate goodness and see it, as with Angel's, as something he can try to drag down to his level and corrupt.
The pairing can go three ways.
Bobby can be slowly changed by Hodge's influence and embrace the worst parts of himself. Hodge is ecstatic.
They live in denial and pretend their outside conflicts don't exist
(This is my favourite option) Hodge tries really hard to be less evil and a better person for Bobby. He is kinda terrible at it, and if nothing else he can do the X-Men's paperwork for them.
Also, Hodge bottoms like 99% of the time.
(I'm under no illusion this will ever be canon. Cameron Hodge is super-dead, and I hope 616-Bobby ends up with a nice boy.)
I wrote a thinly disguised college AU about them for
bb_shousetsu many years back, and while I keep meaning to write something set in 616 proper, I haven't gotten around to it. (Maybe posting this will be the kick in the pants I need to finish that early X-Factor WIP I have.)