One fine day, Pepper Potts meets with billionaire Christian Grey to discuss business arrangements between him and Stark Industries. When she trips coming into his office, he becomes smitten and absolutely certain she's the perfect submissive for him. Unfortunately, Pepper has no interest at all in any sort of a relationship with him. He continues to pursue her in various disturbing ways. She calls in Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton for assistance.
Christian Grey vs. Pepper Potts
is a crossover fanfiction by Imarra Pendaran. Initially written to show what would happen if Christian Grey pursued an actual independent woman, it goes on to span much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well as several other Marvel comic book titles as the Avengers is formed properly, several couples get married, and Christian Grey continues to cause far more trouble than anyone suspected.
Christian Grey vs. Pepper Potts provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Natasha Romanov, She-Hulk, and Rogue, naturally. Weirdly it seems this is mildly to Natasha's disadvantage later. Not because her skills aren't specifically useful to her but... Natasha is SO badass that Grey's trigger completely fails against her when she tries to use it to draw his attention. She's so tough that he simply can't conceive her as being weak no matter what.
- Amazon Chaser: Irony of ironies, Christian Grey ultimately develops what is probably the closest thing to genuine romantic attraction towards Natasha BECAUSE she's such an Action Girl.
- Antidisestablishmentarianism: This is the safe word Christian is given while being worked over by the CFAASPBDDSSMnote .
- Artistic License – Law: One of the charges Grey tries to sue Natasha and Clint for is failing to read him his Miranda Rights when they caught and zip-tied him. Since they did not attempt to interrogate him, they would not have to read him the Rightsnote .
- But I Can't Be Pregnant!: Natasha and Clint have this reaction towards Natasha's pregnancy, the former because she was on S.H.I.E.L.D.-issued birth control (which she found out was being recalled) and the latter because of a sperm count so low he thought he'd never have children).
- Butt-Monkey: As you can tell from the title, Christian Grey. His misery is often self-inflicted.
- The Cameo:
- Besides the main heroes, there are cameos from the X-men, Scarlet Witch, and Squirrel Girl.
- On the Fifty Shades side of things, one story has Grey's family make a brief appearance as Jane Foster is forced to accompany him on a date to one of their charity events. Another has Ana show up as an accomplice to breaking Grey out of prison. It's made painfully obvious that not only is she hidden away by her former lover, but she's too devoted to him to realize how blatantly obvious it is that she's being used.
- Celebrity Paradox: The Twilight Saga is referenced, despite Fifty Shades of Grey being based on a fanfic of the series.
- Damsel in Distress: Christian's trigger causes him to see any attractive female who trips in front of him as this. Natasha tries to invoke this when she trips in front of him while pregnant to draw his attention. It fails.
- Demographic-Dissonant Crossover: The whole story is a reimagining of the NSFW Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy with characters from the mostly family-friendly Marvel Universe such as Black Widow and Rogue.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Averted. When Rogue controlled by Christian's personality tries to molest Clint Barton, it's written as just as traumatizing as any of the times Christian tried to do the same to various female characters. Also, while everyone considers Christian's actions reprehensible, Rogue is horrified at his relationship with Mrs. Robinson and understands at least how it led to his intense desire for control.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Grey becomes one later in the story thanks to the Enchantress, to everyone else's annoyance and horror.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Natasha is on the fence as to whether or not to go through with her pregnancy, mainly because she's still haunted by her first child, who was stillborn. After she finds out just how miraculous it was that she or Hawkeye managed to conceive a child and after coming to terms with what happened in her past, she decides to go through with it.
- Groin Attack: Happens to Christian so often it ends up being a Running Gag... And he takes to wearing a cup.
- Happily Married: Pepper and Tony eventually, as well as Rogue and Gambit.
- I Should Write a Book About This: The end of the fanfiction reveals that Pyro not only writes hilariously silly harlequin bodice-rippers under the pseudonym "Leslie James", but he plans to use the events of the fic as a basis for a new novel. The pen name he plans to write it under? E.L. James.
- It Has Been an Honor: Clint and Remy give this to each other, when they believe they're going to die in a lab explosion.
- Love Martyr: Ana, for Christian. To the point where she believes him forcing her to hide out of sight and not come near him is, as he said, being done entirely or her own safety and refuses to hear a word said against him.
- The Mentally Disturbed: Mostly played for laughs but Christian in all his disturbing glory.
- Mythology Gag: Like in the comics, Jennifer Walters works for the firm of Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg, and Holliway, which is named for Martin Goodmannote , Stan Lee note , and Jack Kirby note .
- Noodle Incident:
- Tony has apparently used Pepper's stiletto's to skewer somebody's scrotum on at least one previous occasion.
- Tony also mentions an "omelet incident".
- Pregnant Badass: Natasha.
- Punch-Clock Villain: St. John Allerdyce. Pepper realizes this gives the heroes a relatively painless way to take him out of the fight.
- Running Gag: As mentioned above, Christian's groin has a remarkable tendency to attract knees, but there's also the way that the list of food-based description for Christian's voice grows every time his voice is described.
- Natasha using weird Russian insults and someone replying by denying the accusation.
- Stalking is Love: According to Christian, but to everyone else? Nope.
- Slut-Shaming: Ana engages in this, accusing Pepper of being the one at fault for Christian pursuing her, when he stalked her and insisted they were destined just because she tripped from a broken heel."Are you serious?" Rogue asked, voice laced with disbelief. "You're blaming an attempted-rape victim for her attacker's actions? Bless your heart, but you're dumber than a two-headed horse with both heads stuck in a barbed wire fence."
- Take That!: To Fifty Shades of Grey as a whole. A good many situations are replicated (tripping in front of Christian, attending a charity event with his family, being taken to a hotel room by him while incredibly drunk, etc.), and have the female characters in those positions point out exactly how creepy and/or illegal those actions are.
- There's one part where a few characters discuss bodice rippers. One dismisses the genre as endorsing “Not If They Enjoyed It” Rationalisation. Another argues that some can be
So Bad, It's Good, but ones by harlequin writer "Leslie James" are all considered terrible. The fic reveals at the end that the same person who writes behind the "Leslie James" pen name intends to write a book based off of the fic's events, under the pen name "E.L. James".
- There's one part where a few characters discuss bodice rippers. One dismisses the genre as endorsing “Not If They Enjoyed It” Rationalisation. Another argues that some can be
- Too Dumb to Fool: To an extent, Christian. The Avengers are stunned that such a spoiled idiot manages to continue to elude them, until they realize that he's essentially able to do so because he's a spoiled idiot, and their tactics are meant for tracking down criminal masterminds and evil geniuses.
- Too Dumb to Live: Yes, Christian. Just kidnap and threaten She-Hulk's assistant. That's certainly not going to end badly for you!
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: While technically not his girlfriendnote , Romanov goes ballistic when she realizes Barton is in danger.
- Yandere: Grey to his targets.
