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The War Is Far from over Now
Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Relationships: Jarvis (Iron Man movies) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, past Tony Stark & the Avengers, Maria Hill & Tony Stark, Nick Fury & Tony Stark
--------------------------------------------------
The world keeps pushing him, demanding, because what he did wasn't enough. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, but that wasn't enough, wasn't ever enough.
Tony Stark was tired . But he had a planet to protect, even if everyone laughed at him whenever the prospect of alien invasions was brought up. He could count on one hand how many people he could trust, which was disheartening but then, what else was new?
Or,
In which Tony does not, in fact, intend to take over the world.
...unfortunately, everyone else missed that particular memo.
[gradual divergence from canon, starting at the end of Iron Man 3. In which it's Tony's self-awareness, rather than his support system, that becomes a cryptid sometime during Phase II.]
Relationships: Jarvis (Iron Man movies) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, past Tony Stark & the Avengers, Maria Hill & Tony Stark, Nick Fury & Tony Stark
--------------------------------------------------
The world keeps pushing him, demanding, because what he did wasn't enough. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, but that wasn't enough, wasn't ever enough.
Tony Stark was tired . But he had a planet to protect, even if everyone laughed at him whenever the prospect of alien invasions was brought up. He could count on one hand how many people he could trust, which was disheartening but then, what else was new?
Or,
In which Tony does not, in fact, intend to take over the world.
...unfortunately, everyone else missed that particular memo.
[gradual divergence from canon, starting at the end of Iron Man 3. In which it's Tony's self-awareness, rather than his support system, that becomes a cryptid sometime during Phase II.]
- GenresFan Fiction
609 pages, ebook
First published August 23, 2020
2 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 25, 2022
This is absolutely amazing! One of the best stories I have read. And I love how well all the characters are developed, so glad I found this fanfic. I must have read it about 12 times now and I keep going back!
July 15, 2022
Jakbym mogła, dałabym 10 gwiazdek.
Tak jak kocham to fanfiction, czytam je co kilka miesięcy, za każdym razem tak samo zachwycona.
Do każdego, kto chce spróbować fanfiction, a nie jest przekonany, to jest pozycja, którą nie można się nie zachwycić. Żałuję, że nie ma więcej podobnych.
Tak jak kocham to fanfiction, czytam je co kilka miesięcy, za każdym razem tak samo zachwycona.
Do każdego, kto chce spróbować fanfiction, a nie jest przekonany, to jest pozycja, którą nie można się nie zachwycić. Żałuję, że nie ma więcej podobnych.
May 11, 2025
A new-to-me favorite!
A driven and overburdened (and modified-Extremis-enhanced) Tony is backed, not always in ways he'd foreseen (or even realizes), by an evolving-in-a-Skynet-direction JARVIS (Don't worry, he's still a sympathetic character, at least to me, despite his Tony-centric morality) and by the rest of Team Tony, both human and otherwise: Rhodey, "Actual Goddess" Pepper, sassy FRIDAY, a less-naïve, telempathic Vision, Happy (who has only a minor role), "duckling" intern Peter (with a very plausible headcanon re. Tony's own youth = assumptions of capability and appropriate participation), and a whole dangerously loyal, formidable bunch of people in SI (PR, Legal, HR, and the Maria-Hill-led, grudge-holding, [refugee] burned ex-spies now filling a newsupport group Security division [along with their non-crisis-moments day jobs], plus), ... and don't forget their robot army!
Laughs, feels, [parenthetical remarks] [sometimes in strikeout], emails, cluelessness and ubercompetence (sometimes in the same person, especially Tony), ruthless protectiveness, schemes, sometimes fixit, sometimes dealing with [Avengers] fallout, all add up to one fun, snowballing ride. Yes, it's salty, but despite its spitefic origin, it's also fond and warm.
I found it less ridiculous in terms of international law and internal consistency — and obviously consequences! — than canon. It deliberately takes a very AU direction re. Ultron the character, it was firmly outlined before Spiderman: Homecoming, and the author still hadn't even seen Captain Marvel, Thor: Ragnarok, or Infinity War, so... Thanos (as well as Peter) owes more to the comics than to the MCU.
Big changes build slowly, maybe too slowly in some parts for some readers, but I love them all — except, of course, for How'd-he-get-to-be-Secretary-of-State Ross (with an actual answer for that, btw) and the hypocritical, delusional Team Cap — and never found it boring.
Oh, re. Bruce, it doesn't bash him, but disappointed Tony learned well that he wasn't to be counted on 😴, and doesn't reach out from behind his defensive emotional walls again. Johannesburg happens, though *spoiler* not as bad, and he's in the wind soon after. 👋
T'Challa is also a more moderate, and non-central, portrayal.
When Thor realizes his throat-grab-&-lift could've actually killed Tony, he's genuinely remorseful, not least since he finds Tony's large responsibilities relatable and Tony's brilliance and ostracism comparable to his lamented brother's, but he's not present for much of this LONG fic, until he (and Loki) appear again near the end.
As the tags state up front, the AU (so AU!) ending is surprisingly lighthearted, but it WORKS! The Sour Grape™ (credit: me, AFAICR) and his Tacky Glove of Doom™ (credit: Tony Stark/ Dont_call_me_Carrie, AFAIK) fail to destroy Earth, as shocking global reveals and (finally!) long-delayed realizations 🙄 are made, to the in-'verse amusement of many. Don't expect another big action scene up close and personal, though, as the boss battle is mainly told through groundbound SI chatter. Humans as Space Orcs FTW, and I welcome our new AI protectors! 🎉🍾 for this Phase 3!
Re. content warnings, I'd say not much. Violence is less than in canon, though some sections have quite a bit of language that'd get bleeped.
I was tempted to actually give this my rare 5th star, but it could use one more proofreading pass, for a few too many little things — though not really a lot, considering the huge work this is, and all that was going on in the author's RL.
Full AO3 tags, since only some are in the description:
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Relationships: Jarvis (Iron Man movies) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, past Tony Stark & the Avengers, Maria Hill & Tony Stark, Nick Fury & Tony Stark
Characters: Tony Stark, Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Bruce Banner, Pepper Potts, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Steve Rogers, Thor (Marvel), Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Clint Barton, Scott Lang, Wanda Maximoff, Stark Industries' Legal Department, SHIELD Agents & Staff, Maria Hill, Nick Fury, Stark Industries - Character, Peter Parker
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Protective Jarvis (Iron Man movies), BAMF JARVIS, Unreliable Narrator, Codependency, Mental Health Issues, Tony Stark Has Issues, Dubious Morality, Unhealthy Relationships, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Loss of Trust, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) Lives, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) is a Good Bro, Rhodey Is a Good Bro, Awesome Pepper Potts, BAMF everyone, BAMF SI Legal Team, Not Team Captain America Friendly, Not Avengers friendly, Civil War Team Iron Man, World Domination, with a side of crack at the end, Accidental World Domination, Fix-It of Sorts, Fix-It via Accidental World Domination, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Accidental Overlord Tony Stark, Miscommunication, BAMF Stark Industries, Tags May Change, Crack Treated Seriously, Don't copy to another site
Stats:
Published: 2017-05-03 Completed: 2020-08-23
Words: 152,044 Chapters: 45/45
As of 2/8/2023, Comments= 6,967 Kudos= 22,187 Bookmarks= 8,190, and Hits= 860,766 — i.e., it's pretty demned popular, rightly so!
It's even got a TV Tropes page, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph... , though don't visit until after reading the fic, because you do not want it to be spoilered! In fact, I inadvertently read one trope entry that referenced something from one of the extras in the Time to Carry the Colors Again 'verse, which I haven't read yet, though fortunately it wasn't spoiler-y.
Which reminds me, I should mention:
#2, From the Other Side [A Terror To Behold], archiveofourown.org/works/12212190 , is a bit under 10K words, "[In which the fallout of major events are explored in more depth, from theminions employees' perspective, aka scenes that got skimmed over in the main fic due to pacing.] (Update: four sections (marked "Chapters: 4/?"), and I'd have liked more. A mix of intense and silly, sensitive support and banter, backstories (well, pre-SI-employment) and side stories, all excellent.)
#3, Of Battles Unfought, archiveofourown.org/works/20537693 , 15K, is "A collection of could-have-beens and nearly-weres and deleted scenes from The War is Far From Over Now." (Update: One nearly-used scene of JARVIS is definitely darker, and I'm glad the final version is more ambiguous, but a number of others are quite intriguing.)
... And the series isn't marked Complete, so more might be added someday.
I actually began this review while still in the process of reading TWIFFON (and loving it!), in order to save the URLs for fanart takes on the described SWORD insignia (Tony face-palms when he first sees it — did you catch the third incorporated visual allusion, the reason why? I did not, until I read it in the text), ones apparently available only via Tumblr. N.b., this is NOT SWORD as shown in the later/extended MCU canon, just the author using a fun group acronym they found in the comics.
1) by everfascinated, an attractive direct cleanup of the "glowing" arc-reactor-blue sketch embedded in chapter 34:
dontcallmecarrie.tumblr.com/image/186...
2) by notanarwhalseriously, a crisp, professional-looking version, with better-aligned lines, especially at the apex, but a higher crossguard (which makes the circle less well-balanced to my eyes; ymmv):
dontcallmecarrie.tumblr.com/image/174...
There are also a couple more linked at the end of the fic as "Works inspired by this one":
3) by spennig, available in "metal" or "fabric" textures, with a lot of gray (I might buy it if an Etsy creator offered an enameled or inlay pin)
archiveofourown.org/works/23634658
and 4) my favorite, by Era_Penn, a clean, balanced design with that perfect reactor brightness
archiveofourown.org/works/17319632
Anybody librarian-empowered want to put one as the cover art? Hmm, maybe I'll see if I can (and may) make an actual cover! (UPDATE 1/2024: Done! See below.)
...
Hmm, what was I doing wrong in my (removed) Tumblr IMG SRC coding to get broken image icons or worse, just "[image error]"? As links, they work fine, with or w/o the https. 🤷
Also, you can always view your own search results: https://dontcallmecarrie.tumblr.com/s...
P.S., I'm about to read the TtCtCA bonus scenes, which I expect to quite enjoy. (UPDATE: Yep; see above.) However, I am NOT going to read the unrelated ficlet labeled as #2 of the spitefic ~collection~ (i.e., not actually a series) Iron Man Lives Again [Or, Why Team Captain America Didn't Think This Through], because even at just 1627 words (and despite my burning curiosity), I plan to heed the tags, which include Rocks Fall Everyone Dies, Evil Tony Stark, Amoral JARVIS, Unhappy Ending, Tragedy, Hamlet-levels of Character Death, and Dead Dove: Do Not Eat.
**********
1/2024: I made a cover!
archiveofourown.org/works/52908028
Unfortunately, my *cough* brilliant concept inspiration did make Era_Penn's logo version lose its arc-reactor "glow", but I think it came out pretty attractive anyway.
5/2024: I was double-checking to see if Dont_call_me_Carrie had yet approved the linking of my Related Work (A: No, not yet), and failed to resist rereading, though I did it "in the background" of other activities, a bit now and a bit then, plus the ending twice — at first I thought just revisiting the last couple chapters would satisfy my craving, but Nope! 😆
5/2025: Reread begun when I was checking (and petting) the little collection of kudos and bookmarks (including a couple Rec ♥︎s!) my handful of posted fic-covers had gotten, and once again couldn't resist. I also was pleasantly startled when my own image came up right there high in my Dont_call_me_Carrie general-web search results. 😊 I can't remember what led me out to that level, btw, because I got sidetracked collecting ANOTHER artist's nice version of the insignia, a strong-triangle *cough* version + tagline, by ReelKid500 on DeviantArt: www.deviantart.com/reelkid500/art/SWO...
A driven and overburdened (and modified-Extremis-enhanced) Tony is backed, not always in ways he'd foreseen (or even realizes), by an evolving-in-a-Skynet-direction JARVIS (Don't worry, he's still a sympathetic character, at least to me, despite his Tony-centric morality) and by the rest of Team Tony, both human and otherwise: Rhodey, "Actual Goddess" Pepper, sassy FRIDAY, a less-naïve, telempathic Vision, Happy (who has only a minor role), "duckling" intern Peter (with a very plausible headcanon re. Tony's own youth = assumptions of capability and appropriate participation), and a whole dangerously loyal, formidable bunch of people in SI (PR, Legal, HR, and the Maria-Hill-led, grudge-holding, [refugee] burned ex-spies now filling a new
Laughs, feels, [parenthetical remarks] [
I found it less ridiculous in terms of international law and internal consistency — and obviously consequences! — than canon. It deliberately takes a very AU direction re. Ultron the character, it was firmly outlined before Spiderman: Homecoming, and the author still hadn't even seen Captain Marvel, Thor: Ragnarok, or Infinity War, so... Thanos (as well as Peter) owes more to the comics than to the MCU.
Big changes build slowly, maybe too slowly in some parts for some readers, but I love them all — except, of course, for How'd-he-get-to-be-Secretary-of-State Ross (with an actual answer for that, btw) and the hypocritical, delusional Team Cap — and never found it boring.
Oh, re. Bruce, it doesn't bash him, but disappointed Tony learned well that he wasn't to be counted on 😴, and doesn't reach out from behind his defensive emotional walls again. Johannesburg happens, though *spoiler* not as bad, and he's in the wind soon after. 👋
T'Challa is also a more moderate, and non-central, portrayal.
When Thor realizes his throat-grab-&-lift could've actually killed Tony, he's genuinely remorseful, not least since he finds Tony's large responsibilities relatable and Tony's brilliance and ostracism comparable to his lamented brother's, but he's not present for much of this LONG fic, until he (and Loki) appear again near the end.
As the tags state up front, the AU (so AU!) ending is surprisingly lighthearted, but it WORKS! The Sour Grape™ (credit: me, AFAICR) and his Tacky Glove of Doom™ (credit: Tony Stark/ Dont_call_me_Carrie, AFAIK) fail to destroy Earth, as shocking global reveals and (finally!) long-delayed realizations 🙄 are made, to the in-'verse amusement of many. Don't expect another big action scene up close and personal, though, as the boss battle is mainly told through groundbound SI chatter. Humans as Space Orcs FTW, and I welcome our new AI protectors! 🎉🍾 for this Phase 3!
Re. content warnings, I'd say not much. Violence is less than in canon, though some sections have quite a bit of language that'd get bleeped.
I was tempted to actually give this my rare 5th star, but it could use one more proofreading pass, for a few too many little things — though not really a lot, considering the huge work this is, and all that was going on in the author's RL.
Full AO3 tags, since only some are in the description:
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Relationships: Jarvis (Iron Man movies) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, past Tony Stark & the Avengers, Maria Hill & Tony Stark, Nick Fury & Tony Stark
Characters: Tony Stark, Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Bruce Banner, Pepper Potts, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Steve Rogers, Thor (Marvel), Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Clint Barton, Scott Lang, Wanda Maximoff, Stark Industries' Legal Department, SHIELD Agents & Staff, Maria Hill, Nick Fury, Stark Industries - Character, Peter Parker
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Protective Jarvis (Iron Man movies), BAMF JARVIS, Unreliable Narrator, Codependency, Mental Health Issues, Tony Stark Has Issues, Dubious Morality, Unhealthy Relationships, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Loss of Trust, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) Lives, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) is a Good Bro, Rhodey Is a Good Bro, Awesome Pepper Potts, BAMF everyone, BAMF SI Legal Team, Not Team Captain America Friendly, Not Avengers friendly, Civil War Team Iron Man, World Domination, with a side of crack at the end, Accidental World Domination, Fix-It of Sorts, Fix-It via Accidental World Domination, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Accidental Overlord Tony Stark, Miscommunication, BAMF Stark Industries, Tags May Change, Crack Treated Seriously, Don't copy to another site
Stats:
Published: 2017-05-03 Completed: 2020-08-23
Words: 152,044 Chapters: 45/45
As of 2/8/2023, Comments= 6,967 Kudos= 22,187 Bookmarks= 8,190, and Hits= 860,766 — i.e., it's pretty demned popular, rightly so!
It's even got a TV Tropes page, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph... , though don't visit until after reading the fic, because you do not want it to be spoilered! In fact, I inadvertently read one trope entry that referenced something from one of the extras in the Time to Carry the Colors Again 'verse, which I haven't read yet, though fortunately it wasn't spoiler-y.
Which reminds me, I should mention:
#2, From the Other Side [A Terror To Behold], archiveofourown.org/works/12212190 , is a bit under 10K words, "[In which the fallout of major events are explored in more depth, from the
#3, Of Battles Unfought, archiveofourown.org/works/20537693 , 15K, is "A collection of could-have-beens and nearly-weres and deleted scenes from The War is Far From Over Now." (Update: One nearly-used scene of JARVIS is definitely darker, and I'm glad the final version is more ambiguous, but a number of others are quite intriguing.)
... And the series isn't marked Complete, so more might be added someday.
I actually began this review while still in the process of reading TWIFFON (and loving it!), in order to save the URLs for fanart takes on the described SWORD insignia (Tony face-palms when he first sees it — did you catch the third incorporated visual allusion, the reason why? I did not, until I read it in the text), ones apparently available only via Tumblr. N.b., this is NOT SWORD as shown in the later/extended MCU canon, just the author using a fun group acronym they found in the comics.
1) by everfascinated, an attractive direct cleanup of the "glowing" arc-reactor-blue sketch embedded in chapter 34:
dontcallmecarrie.tumblr.com/image/186...
2) by notanarwhalseriously, a crisp, professional-looking version, with better-aligned lines, especially at the apex, but a higher crossguard (which makes the circle less well-balanced to my eyes; ymmv):
dontcallmecarrie.tumblr.com/image/174...
There are also a couple more linked at the end of the fic as "Works inspired by this one":
3) by spennig, available in "metal" or "fabric" textures, with a lot of gray (I might buy it if an Etsy creator offered an enameled or inlay pin)
archiveofourown.org/works/23634658
and 4) my favorite, by Era_Penn, a clean, balanced design with that perfect reactor brightness
archiveofourown.org/works/17319632
Anybody librarian-empowered want to put one as the cover art? Hmm, maybe I'll see if I can (and may) make an actual cover! (UPDATE 1/2024: Done! See below.)
...
Hmm, what was I doing wrong in my (removed) Tumblr IMG SRC coding to get broken image icons or worse, just "[image error]"? As links, they work fine, with or w/o the https. 🤷
Also, you can always view your own search results: https://dontcallmecarrie.tumblr.com/s...
P.S., I'm about to read the TtCtCA bonus scenes, which I expect to quite enjoy. (UPDATE: Yep; see above.) However, I am NOT going to read the unrelated ficlet labeled as #2 of the spitefic ~collection~ (i.e., not actually a series) Iron Man Lives Again [Or, Why Team Captain America Didn't Think This Through], because even at just 1627 words (and despite my burning curiosity), I plan to heed the tags, which include Rocks Fall Everyone Dies, Evil Tony Stark, Amoral JARVIS, Unhappy Ending, Tragedy, Hamlet-levels of Character Death, and Dead Dove: Do Not Eat.
"... Nobody in canon seems to appreciate just how much of a bullet they dodged, though [Yikes, no thanks!not so much a bullet as a Jericho missile]- that Tony, being Tony, focused on a better, brighter future, and not, you know, world domination. [It would have been so easy, at any point.]
...
Tony Stark entered Sokovia wanting to make the world a better place. The Merchant of Death left wanting to see it all burn.
And so he did, with his suits and connections and devastating intellect."
**********
1/2024: I made a cover!
archiveofourown.org/works/52908028
Unfortunately, my *cough* brilliant concept inspiration did make Era_Penn's logo version lose its arc-reactor "glow", but I think it came out pretty attractive anyway.
5/2024: I was double-checking to see if Dont_call_me_Carrie had yet approved the linking of my Related Work (A: No, not yet), and failed to resist rereading, though I did it "in the background" of other activities, a bit now and a bit then, plus the ending twice — at first I thought just revisiting the last couple chapters would satisfy my craving, but Nope! 😆
5/2025: Reread begun when I was checking (and petting) the little collection of kudos and bookmarks (including a couple Rec ♥︎s!) my handful of posted fic-covers had gotten, and once again couldn't resist. I also was pleasantly startled when my own image came up right there high in my Dont_call_me_Carrie general-web search results. 😊 I can't remember what led me out to that level, btw, because I got sidetracked collecting ANOTHER artist's nice version of the insignia, a strong-triangle *cough* version + tagline, by ReelKid500 on DeviantArt: www.deviantart.com/reelkid500/art/SWO...
February 6, 2019
141 - 2019
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