The Ankh-Morpork City Watch as the Avengers

Welcome back to Fanundrums! This week, we’re talking about Discworld and the Marvel Universe. Specifically, the City Watch and the Avengers.

Because, let’s be honest, there’s too much in both those worlds to cover in one post.

Which is why we’ve spent probably … I don’t know how many hours geeking out over both of them, separately and together. Here, we present a small, specialized portion of our geeking out for your enjoyment.

Today we have a crossover cast. You see, we’ve discovered that groups of a certain type have similar members. Such as, groups of people who keep the peace and save lives on a regular basis. The Avengers and City Watch have some similar character tropes that makes it easy to cross them over.

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First off, Commander Samuel Vimes.

Easy one. The guy who keeps everyone in line, who cares about justice and the moral element of what it means to watch over the world. The leader who has to get his hands dirty. This is our very own Phil Coulson in the Marvel Universe. Anything to add, Kiersty?

Like Coulson, he hates monologues and people who think they’re better than others. He also doesn’t seek leadership, and really hates being promoted.

I’d pay money to see Vimes talking to Loki. Although, I’m pretty sure it would go down pretty much the way the Coulson/Loki fight went down.

Pretty much. He’d sit there smoking and ignore Loki completely, then shoot him with a dragon.

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Now meet the leader (tyrant) of the city of Ankh-Morpork: Lord whatsisname Vetinari.

Havelock. It’s Havelock Vetinari. Do you want to get tortured by kitten?

Right. Ahem. Sorry, Lord Vetinari. Deepest apologies. Not the kitten torture, PLEASE! (Moist Von Lipwig’s idea, and a brilliantly diabolical one it was…)

So, who is Vetinari, in the Marvel Universe? Kiersty?

This one is a bit tougher… Nick Fury?

I’d agree. The Leader of the leader, the one who gets it done even if “it” isn’t terribly moral.

Plays his cards close to his vest, much to the annoyance of Vimes.

Has very few he can trust and relies heavily on them. His secrets have secrets.

Exactly.

So, moving on? We should address the Avengers now, don’t you think?

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Agreed. Let’s start with Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson, a dwarf. Well, technically he’s a human raised by dwarves. His dwarf name, Kzad-bhat, means Headbanger.

He’s a good, honest, upstanding guy that believes in the goodness of those around him, and they, in turn, rise to meet his expectations. People rally around him.

He’s the ONLY one who’s really read the entire Watch handbook, I’m certain of it.

So, he is obviously...(drumroll please)....

TADA!

CAPTAIN STEVE ROGERS, aka, Captain America.

A good man, a natural leader. He doesn’t want recognition; he just wants to serve. Also, the physique doesn’t hurt.

It does if you happen to be someone who’s running away from the law… but he tends to talk people out that sort of thing with his mere presence.

I think he and Cap would get along. Who’s next?

Angua?

Okay, let’s talk the Watch’s werewolf sergeant.

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Delphine Angua von Uberwald: first a sergeant, later a captain. She’s a lot like Black Widow.

She has a bit of a dark past and some scary moments. Seriously, if you’re a bad guy, you don’t want her chasing you down. As Moist Von Lipwig found out.

He was outraged. And TERRIFIED.  

She’s one of the few female characters in the Watch, at least the first female Watchman.

Yes, and between that and the werewolf thing, she has some identity issues.

Scary female fighter with cool moves, check. We could also go into the self-identifying as a monster, for both of them.

Yup. In that way, she also reminds me of Banner, because she also shapeshifts, but we decided that Hulk would be a better crossover for Detritus.

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Detritus, the muscle of the City Watch. Big guy, troll, scary to be around. You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. Most of the time, Detritus isn’t too intelligent or eloquent, but give him the right circumstances (extreme cold) and he becomes a genius.

He’s also good at reforming young trolls.

Can’t ever forget that. In any case, he’s the perfect parallel to the Hulk: the dumb thug who has moments of brilliance the Watch relies on.

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Finally, we have Leonard of Quirm. He’s not part of the watch, but makes such a perfect parallel to a certain member of the Avengers that we can’t leave him out.

Well, he does work for Vetinari, kind of.

I suppose he counts as a civil servant.

And he does have a problem with building weapons of mass destruction without anticipating the consequences.

*cough*Ultron*cough* So, who could Leonard possibly be but Tony Stark? Leonard’s not a billionaire or a playboy or a philanthropist in the general sense, but he does TRY to make the world a better place. It’s not his fault that people try to use his inventions to kill each other.

Whoops, my bad, the AI I made to protect the world is killing people. Also, I’m pretty sure Tony builds weapons because he gets bored.

Well, that’s our crossover. We have more Discworld/Marvel parallels, but we’re trying to keep this short, unlike some of our text conversations which can run all day, off and on.

Too true. Stay tuned for Part 2, in which we will address Discworld characters and the Agents of SHIELD.

So long for now!