Part of heroism is being able to see the future and still remain standing. If you don't believe in God or Fate you must still believe in narrative.
HEATHER HAVRILESKY

Juliet Young is not a hero, but it's understandable if you were to mistake her for one. With her inconvenient habit of standing up for those who can't stand up for themselves, her superhuman mastery of various forms of combat, her lack of a consistent love interest and—don't forget!—her gritty, depressing personal backstory, she checks all the boxes. She even has the powers: a skilled telepath, she possesses the ability to warp anyone's perception of reality—to get inside their mind, to twist it, to break it.

But she's not a hero. Not anymore.

Once, she was Phantasma, part of the up-and-coming superhero team the Saviours. Now, Juliet is known as the Illusionist, a mutant-for-hire who will do anything you want for the right price—whether it's to fulfil your deepest, darkest fantasies within the safety of your own subconscious, or wage psychological trauma so violently visceral it can reduce you to a hollowed-out husk of a human being. Either way, you'll be paying handsomely; a high-end mercenary with contractual loyalty to whoever has enough to afford the exorbitant price for her services, the Illusionist is the one you call when you want to send a message. And it's a message the recently-incarcerated Wilson Fisk wants to send to his beloved New York City, to remind them that he's not gone, not permanently. That he'll be back, once his legal team get him out of the web of a court case Spider-Man has trapped him in, and that his city should be waiting patiently for his return.

Juliet signs her name on that dotted line assuming that her job is to hold the line while Fisk is gone. Then, she learns of her real role: to take care of a new threat surfacing in New York City, one that the Kingpin can't crush from his prison cell. A market for mutants has set up shop in the criminal underworld, where anyone who's willing can put themselves through an experimental drug trial and go from zero-to-hero (or as the advertisements, suspicious in nature and vague in origin, say.) Itching to stake a claim on the city while Fisk is otherwise engaged, his rivals have capitalised on the trials, sending their men into the narcotic unknown in the hopes that what returns will be weapons strong enough to destroy his criminal empire.

But Kingpin has a weapon of his own—the Illusionist, who sets her sights on Spider-Man after he, surprise surprise!, takes issue with the mental trauma she's inflicting on her boss' enemies. Peter Parker blames himself, in all honesty; after Fisk's arrest, New York City has been holding its breath, and to be frank, so has he. Sure, he took down the big bad, but his (well, Spider-Man's) actions have left a gaping void in the hierarchy of New York's underbelly and too many people who want to fill it.

So, yeah, he sees the power vacuum coming.

But not the insanely-OP mutant enforcer who hates superheroes and all they stand for. Deeply unimpressed with the self-inflated sense of importance she believes Spider-Man possesses, the Illusionist wants nothing to do with the guy (and technically, as per her contract, he's a threat to Kingpin's empire and thus must be dealt with.)

Peter isn't the Illusionist's biggest fan either, not by far: her methods break too many laws and too many bones for his liking. But despite their differences, he can recognise some shred of goodness in her—some scrap of the hero she was before the Saviours chewed her up and spat her out. (And Juliet can acknowledge, albeit reluctantly, that her goals of cleaning up the city in her own way align more with Spider-Man than they do with Kingpin.) So, mercenary and hero form an alliance to get to the bottom of the mutant mess.

But New York has other plans—there's more to the growing mutant population than meets the eye, and there's more to Juliet's past with the Saviours than she's willing to admit.

Juliet Young is not a hero. As far as she's concerned, she never was. And she's never been seen, either, not for anything more than her powers, not as anything but a pawn or a pedestal warmer for her former teammates. But then comes Spider-Man, then comes Peter Parker; the boy who looks right past her illusions, who sees her the second she enters a room, who knows her presence the moment he's in it.

Juliet Young is not a hero—but Peter Parker might just make one of her yet.

✶

OR: Juliet Young has never been seen, until she meets Peter Parker. And maybe he wants her to see him, too.

Juliet Young
THE ILLUSIONIST  /  WEB WEAVER
formerly, PHANTASMA

                          you listen and you know
          you could live a better life than you do,
           be softer, kinder.

and maybe this year
you will be able to do it.

Peter Parker
SPIDER-MAN

🪞

Arden Young

PHANTASMA II

Ezra Savage

WHITEHAT

Dominik Soros

DOMINATOR

Johnny Storm

THE HUMAN TORCH

✶

also featuring . . .
Halston Adams /  ASPHYXIA
Iskandar Khayat  /  MACROCOSM
Peyton Pike  /  PYRE
Sasha Fray  /  SUCKER PUNCH
Ryan Meier  /  RETALIA
Harry Osborn  /  ???
Otto Octavius  /  ???
Matthew Murdock / DAREDEVIL
Wilson Fisk  /  KINGPIN
Tony Masters  /  TASKMASTER
Reed Richards  /  MR. FANTASTIC
Sue Storm  /  INVISIBLE WOMAN
Ben Grimm  /  THE THING
Scott Summers  /  CYCLOPS

PLAYLIST
A NEW YORK STATE OF MIND

scan to listen

✶ welcome to NOW YOU SEE ME, the second lovechild of my spider-man obsession. though i do love american animals, that fic does exist in an alternate universe and in that alternate universe, peter parker is a loser. and, due to plot reasons, doesn't have any narrative space to be in a relationship with anyone other than gwen! so, because i've always wanted to write a peter parker fic, here we have NOW YOU SEE ME!

✶  the version of peter in this story is literally one i've pulled from my ass. it's a mix of all my favourite portrayals of peter (andrew garfield's version, ultimate spider-man, advanced/ps4!spider-man, etc), with certain elements of his lore inserted or removed when it suits me/the story. peter is around 20 years old at the beginning of NOW YOU SEE ME; at this point, he's been spider-man for about five years. he hasn't yet faced any iteration of the green goblin; the sinister six haven't yet assembled either, but peter has faced some of its future members individually.

✶  in this universe, spider-man is the city's main superhero, and although other heroes/teams such as the avengers and x-men exist, they are conveniently elsewhere for the entirety of NOW YOU SEE ME. the fantastic four are here though. and they're better than the avengers anyway 🫶🫶

✶  the existence of the x-men is integral to this plot! juliet is a person of colour and also a mutant, and for a really long time mutants have been interpreted to be minorities within the marvel universe. NOW YOU SEE ME will navigate mutant prejudice as an allegory to the real-world socio-political climate.

✶  as an asian woman myself, it's been appalling watching how the world has treated aapi people as well as other poc, in general but especially in response to the covid-19 pandemic. for the most part superheroes are meant to represent the best of us; with the world changing, our heroes have to change too. this is my attempt at seeing how that could unfold, with the mutant status being minority-adjacent and with peter's background as working-class being put into more focus.

✶  the story will also explore the idea of performative activism in a superhero context. i know every piece of superhero media these days is like... "what if x hero was evil?" but that's pretty much what i'm trying to achieve here. what if you looked up to a superhero team only to find out that they have a diversity quota? that the identities and orientations you identify with are being exploited for tokenism? juliet's past with her superhero team will also explore the difficulty of being a poc in a white society and how to navigate that—is it selfish to strive to be in a position of power? should you be looking to dismantle the oppressive power structures, or simply rise within them?

✶  yeah, so even though this story begins as a very typical enemies-to-lovers slowburn, it will definitely take a political turn towards the end of part one. i ask that if you have any criticism, to communicate it respectfully.

✶  zoia's political agenda aside, i'm really excited to explore juliet's character!!! i think her character at the outset of the story is really interesting, and i can't wait to show you how her former-hero past impacts her present relationship with peter, as well as the toxic relationship she had with one of her team members. peter is also one of the only people juliet's ever come up against that can resist her powers, which has so many connotations both literal and metaphorical and... UGHH. i love them so much 🥴🥴 i can and will write an essay.

✶  in terms of themes and concepts, NOW YOU SEE ME is heavily inspired by x-men, invincible, watchmen, and the boys. it is also of course inspired by advanced spider-man/marvel's spider-man.

✶  this story is dedicated to my gotham knights—sweetjawregui  /  elysianfieId  /  metalbenders—as well as elfaouly, soulofstaars, comicwhore, medusatruther and artemistics. this format/layout belongs to candela. please do not use without asking her first.

✶  trigger warnings/content warnings include: bigotry, racism, prejudice, classism, discrimination, drug use, graphic violence, death, non-consensual situations (implied s.a.), abusive relationships, ptsd, discussions of trauma, body dysmorphia. continue at your own discretion.

I LOOK FOR YOU IN EVERYONE.

FORMAT BY ARTEMISTICS
© 2021 - 2025 BAYPORTS