[Avengers Love]
Aug. 19th, 2012 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aa_peter posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
avengers_assembledOkay, I /need/ to post this somewhere because I loved it so much after reading it two days ago. This interaction happens just after Peter goes on national TV to tell people that he made a mistake, and tells them all about the prison that's been built in the Negative Zone. This is him switching sides.
And I happen to love, love, LOVE this whole scene.
Source: Amazing Spider-Man #357
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Spider-Man lands on the edge of the rooftop where Captain America is waiting for him, arms folded over his chest, a stoic look on his face.
Spider-Man: So. Come here often?
Captain America: That was a very brave thing you did.
SM: Thanks.
CA: Foolish, but brave.
SM: So it was the wrong thing to do?
CA: I didn't say that. But it does put you at even greater risk.
SM: I had a message to get out, to the people, so they would understand what's going on.
CA: Except, of course, that the media ignored everything about the prison, and spent all their time talking about how you were challenging the government.
SM: They're got you pegged as a benedict arnold and a traitor to the american cause.
CA: They've been saying worse about you lately.
SM: I know. So how do you deal with it?
SM: I've seen that look before... you've got a story, don't you?
CA: Peter--
SM: C'mon, grampa Steve... tell us a story. When the whole country is against you... when it's all bearing down on you like some ten-ton weight, and you don't know your own heart anymore sometimes--
Peter pulls his mask off of his head so he can look at Steve, face to face.
SM: --how does someone like you deal with it? I mean, you practically are the country.
SM: How does the man who IS the country react when the country goes a different way?
CA: You really want to know?
SM: I don't want to know, Cap-- I need to know.
CA: I remember the first time I really understood what it was to be an American... what it was to be a patriot. I was just a kid ...a million years ago, it seems sometimes. Maybe twelve. I was reading Mark Twain. And he wrote something that struck me right down to my core... something so powerful, so true, that it changed my life. I memorized it so I could repeat it to myself, over and over across the years. He wrote--
CA: "In a Republic, who is 'The Country?' Is it the government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the government is merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them."
CA: "Who, then, is 'The Country?' Is it the newspaper? Is it the pulpit? Why, these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it; they have not command, they have only their little share in command."
CA: "In a Monarchy, the King and his family are the country; in a Republic, it is the common voice of the people. Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. It is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of the pulpit, press, government, or the empty catchphrases of politicians."
CA: "Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may."
CA: "If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country. Hold up your head. You have nothing to be ashamed of."
CA: Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world-- "No, YOU move."
SM: ...
SM: Can I, like, carry your books to school? For the rest of my life?
CA: Come on... time to get you back to the rest of the group.
SM: I mean it. I can give you my lunch. My aunt made tuna sandwiches. Again.
SM: (internal monologue) And as I run toward the edge of the roof, off the edge of what I've known and into the darkness of whatever's coming, beside the one hero who will never betray his convictions, never betray those who followed him, I think-- it feels good to be on the right side again.
And I happen to love, love, LOVE this whole scene.
Source: Amazing Spider-Man #357
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Spider-Man lands on the edge of the rooftop where Captain America is waiting for him, arms folded over his chest, a stoic look on his face.
Spider-Man: So. Come here often?
Captain America: That was a very brave thing you did.
SM: Thanks.
CA: Foolish, but brave.
SM: So it was the wrong thing to do?
CA: I didn't say that. But it does put you at even greater risk.
SM: I had a message to get out, to the people, so they would understand what's going on.
CA: Except, of course, that the media ignored everything about the prison, and spent all their time talking about how you were challenging the government.
SM: They're got you pegged as a benedict arnold and a traitor to the american cause.
CA: They've been saying worse about you lately.
SM: I know. So how do you deal with it?
SM: I've seen that look before... you've got a story, don't you?
CA: Peter--
SM: C'mon, grampa Steve... tell us a story. When the whole country is against you... when it's all bearing down on you like some ten-ton weight, and you don't know your own heart anymore sometimes--
Peter pulls his mask off of his head so he can look at Steve, face to face.
SM: --how does someone like you deal with it? I mean, you practically are the country.
SM: How does the man who IS the country react when the country goes a different way?
CA: You really want to know?
SM: I don't want to know, Cap-- I need to know.
CA: I remember the first time I really understood what it was to be an American... what it was to be a patriot. I was just a kid ...a million years ago, it seems sometimes. Maybe twelve. I was reading Mark Twain. And he wrote something that struck me right down to my core... something so powerful, so true, that it changed my life. I memorized it so I could repeat it to myself, over and over across the years. He wrote--
CA: "In a Republic, who is 'The Country?' Is it the government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the government is merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them."
CA: "Who, then, is 'The Country?' Is it the newspaper? Is it the pulpit? Why, these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it; they have not command, they have only their little share in command."
CA: "In a Monarchy, the King and his family are the country; in a Republic, it is the common voice of the people. Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. It is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of the pulpit, press, government, or the empty catchphrases of politicians."
CA: "Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may."
CA: "If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country. Hold up your head. You have nothing to be ashamed of."
CA: Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world-- "No, YOU move."
SM: ...
SM: Can I, like, carry your books to school? For the rest of my life?
CA: Come on... time to get you back to the rest of the group.
SM: I mean it. I can give you my lunch. My aunt made tuna sandwiches. Again.
SM: (internal monologue) And as I run toward the edge of the roof, off the edge of what I've known and into the darkness of whatever's coming, beside the one hero who will never betray his convictions, never betray those who followed him, I think-- it feels good to be on the right side again.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-19 10:47 pm (UTC)