Fandom Specific Plot/Marvel Cinematic Universe

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has lasted for over a decade and shows no signs of stopping. The fandom has repeated itself a few times.

General Fics

• Loki redemption fics flooded the internet in 2012. By way of punishment, Odin makes Loki human, as he did with Thor in the first film, and sends him to live in Avengers Tower with all the Avengers.
• As mentioned above, it was common, as it was in the comics, to find all of the Avengers living in Avengers Tower. Age of Ultron confirmed that they do indeed all live there... before they all moved out to a less public facility. And then Tony sold the building in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
• After Winter Soldier, it became quite common for Steve to go on a hunt for Bucky and bring him back to Avengers Tower so the group could help him heal from his trauma. Became much Harsher in Hindsight when Civil War revealed that Steve knew that Bucky had killed Tony's parents and was seemingly planning to use Tony's resources to treat Bucky without ever telling Tony.
• Changing the end of:
  • Age of Ultron so that Quicksilver survives.
  • Infinity War so that Thor goes for the head, or at least, the left arm. Loki surviving the attack on the Statesman is also quite common.
  • Endgame so that Tony doesn't die and/or Steve doesn't run away to the past or simply rewriting the whole film to cut out the Time Travel entirely.
• A teenage girl with great power and a Mysterious Past ends up living at Avengers Tower. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like.
• Peter Parker and his classmates going on a field trip to Avengers Tower.
• What exactly happened in Budapest with Clint and Nat?
• Next Gen Fics following Endgame are quite common.

Alternate Universes

• In Peggy Sue fics, it's usually Thor or Tony who get sent back since they're the two who are in positions to affect real change.
• Peter Parker being Tony's biological child.
• Per Word of God, Thanos is 1000 years old and actually younger than Thor (1500 years old). A lot of fics cast him as an ancient being who did battle with Odin in the past and was waiting until Odin died to start the events of Infinity War.

Civil War

Captain America: Civil War is probably the most divisive film in the MCU and it spawned a lot of fics. Even after the Infinity Saga ended. To avoid warring, do remember Sturgeon's Law.

General

• Despite Nick Fury revealing that he was Faking the Dead in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and having an open discussion with the heroes in Avengers: Age of Ultron, everyone suddenly forgot that this was the case. In a lot of post-Civil War fics, everyone is forced into Stunned Silence when he shows up alive.
• This film spawned a new variety of Hate Fic. Rather than a single ongoing plot, it's a series of vignettes based on the films that, ostensibly, apply Reality Ensues to the actions of the team, and the long-term consequences there-in, that the author doesn't like. It usually devolves into a spiteful, hate fuelled mess.
  • The Trope Maker for this is probably The Days of Reckoning Are Upon Us. The first few are rather realistic; for example, Steve is told that he will end up in jail if he keeps lying on his enlistment form and he soon does; but eventually the villains, usually Ultron, would put the fight on hold to tell Team Cap how stupid they're being.

Team Iron Man

• In the days following Siberia, several European countries have come forth demanding the arrest of Team Cap, who are hiding in Wakanda, before Zemo releases the video of Bucky killing Howard and Maria Stark, as well as one of the three way fight between Tony, Steve, and Bucky, online, giving Team Cap a 0% Approval Rating. It's common for Ant-Man to have a Broken Pedestal moment towards Cap and surrender himself to the UN, telling them where the others are hiding.
• Washing his hands clean of the ex-Avengers, Tony dedicates all his time to preparing for Thanos' invasion. After two years of hard work, he's able to prevent the Mad Titan from ever setting foot on Earth.
  • It's common to have Arc Reactors act as Anti-Magic to the Infinity Stones' energy, based off the scene where Loki fails to Mind Rape Tony, even though the scene actually shows, and Joss Wheadon confirmed, that it was the metal that blocked the energy flow, not the Arc Reactor's technology.
  • These fics usually show Thanos arriving via a Cool Gate despite the Chiaturi only doing so in the film because Loki had the Tesseract.
• As Tony heals following Siberia, Team Cap heads out into the world to fight crime but quickly run out of resources without Tony and/or redefine what it means to be a Destructive Saviour. Assuming of course that they attack the right target. Often, without a support team providing them with intel, they'll attack the wrong site.
• A lot of these fics see JARVIS return to life, FRIDAY gain a synthetic human body, or both.

Team Cap

• Yes, a lot of these are shamelessly Steve/Bucky. Articles like this aren't exactly deterrents. In fact, you can find more pro-Team Cap fics by searching for Steve/Bucky than any other search term.
• Despite Tony being the Avengers' benefactor, Team Cap is suddenly very wealthy and able to support themselves quite well thanks to Steve's bank account from the 1940s which was never closed (though why it wasn't frozen when he became a fugitive, or how it stays at such a high level with all their spending, is never quite explained) and has a nice fortune thanks to compound interest. Their stolen Quinjet also has endless fuel.
• The Accords are too mired by political agendas to be effective leaving Team Cap to be the heroes and working with an underground S.H.I.E.L.D. And yes, this S.H.I.E.L.D. does have a clear and defined chain of command along with heavy accountability.
• To hide from everyone, Team Cap and their immediate circle, which usually includes Hawkeye's family, totally cuts themselves off from the outside world, even faking their deaths if need be. The implications of this don't ever seem to sink in to the authors.
  • It's also common that the story simply becomes a Slice of Life fic in Wakanda which means that Team Cap abandoned the cause that they fought so hard for; having the freedom to help people wherever they need to, free of borders or politics. As The World Is Always Doomed in the MCU, it seems that Team Iron Man would logically have no choice but to be Earth's only heroes in these fics.

Crossovers

• Having the Avengers meet the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., or sending them to Hell's Kitchen, is quite common.
• At some point, the Avengers will ask how they didn't notice the other property. The usual explanation, and all but made canon by Team Cap failing to notice the Accords due to be ratified in three days time Civil War, is that the Avengers fail spot checks. For example, in Chapter 5 of Till All Are One, Sam asks how the Avengers didn't notice Cybertron leeching away Earth's energy and Nick Fury's deadpan response is that the battle was on the other side of the world and therefore flew right under the Avengers' radar.
  • It's equally as common for Thor to have known about the other property all along but he never mentioned anything because he assumed that the humans were just as knowledgeable about it as everyone else. In the above example, Thor knows about the Cybertronian race, even if he hasn't met very many of them, but the topic never really came up in conversation.
• As the Marvel Cinematic Universe is, by and large, a Pragmatic Adaptation of the comics, and features the characters at a more realistic level of power, it's common for the other property to be the more powerful of the two, such as the Arrowverse heroes, or at least Supergirl, being capable of dishing out a Curb Stomp Battle to the Avengers.
  • This is also used to explain why Superman Stays Out of Gotham for the Marvel characters. As the MCU is more grounded and realistic than the comics, the other property's baddies are often treated as Outside Context Villains that the Avengers, for all their firepower, don't know how to handle and decide it best to leave it to the local heroes.
• After Infinity War and Endgame, it became quite common for characters from other properties to react to the Snap and the Blip.
• Should the other property involve Kid Heroes, Tony is always the most furious that Adults Are Useless and the most protective of the kids.
• When it comes to the Infinity Stones and sci-fi crossovers, not only does everyone in the other property know everything about them (as in more than Thanos), someone from the background lore of the other property was the one to hide the Power Stone on Morag, if not the one who hide all six of them.