Vision comics: Encyclopedia - Vision comics

Vision (comics)

The Vision is the name of several fictional characters, all superheroes, in the Marvel Comics universe. For the Golden Age Vision, see Vision (Golden Age)

Vision comics - Vision Avengers 1968-2004

The Vision. Art by Brian Haberlin.

The "synthezoid" Vision, a far more well-known character than the Golden Age Vision, is an android who originated in the Silver Age of Comic Books. Writer Roy Thomas based him on the Golden Age character, introducing him in his run as writer on The Avengers. Both his facial appearance and his penchant for logic over emotion recall Star Trek's Mr. Spock, another late 1960s creation.

Vision comics - Character History

The modern Vision was created by the evil android Ultron, intending to use the Vision against Ultron's creator, Yellowjacket, and his wife, the Wasp. The Vision's body was created from that of the original Human Torch, while the patterns of his synthetic brain were based on those of the then-deceased Wonder Man. The Vision rebelled against his "father" and soon joined the Avengers. The Vision became romantically involved with his teammate, the mutant Scarlet Witch, and the two eventually married. The pair were apparently able to have twin children via the Witch's mutant powers; however, this turned out not to be the case (see two paragraphs below).

Rogue agents of the United States government, manipulated by the time traveler Immortus, abducted the Vision and dismantled him. Once his remains were recovered by the Avengers, Hank Pym rebuilt him as best he could. However, Simon Williams would not allow his brain patterns to be used to provide a matrix for Vision's emotions again, as he had fallen in love with Wanda and saw this as his chance to win her heart. This, along with damage to the Vision's synthetic skin when dismantled, resulted in his resurrection into a colorless, emotionless form.

Meanwhile, the original Human Torch returned from apparent death, casting doubt on the Vision's identity (it was later revealed that the Vision was created from a copy of the original Torch's body that had been created by Immortus). The Vision and Scarlet Witch's children were then revealed to not be actual children at all: they were fragments of the soul of the demon Mephisto, who had been broken apart by Franklin Richards shortly before the birth of the "twins". The twins were absorbed back into Mephisto, temporarily driving the Witch insane. Although she recovered, she and the Vision were divorced.

The Vision gradually regained more of his emotions, sped by adopting new brain patterns from the deceased scientist Alex Lipton, and gained a new body that resembled his original one rather than the colourless form he had been rebuilt with. In addition, the Simon Williams brain patterns gradually reemerged and melded with the Lipton patterns, restoring him to full emotion once more (first Vision miniseries). He remained a member of the Avengers, becoming briefly romantically involved with teammate Carol Danvers (Warbird).

Recently, grief over the loss of the twins again drove the Scarlet Witch insane. She tried to rewrite reality to recreate them, causing a series of threats and incidents to inexplicably occur one after the other. "No longer in control of the organisms that [made] up [his] body structure," the Vision crashed an Avengers Quinjet into the Avengers Mansion. Walking out from the rubble, he apologized to the other Avengers, telling them how he was no longer in control of his body, before melting and expelling several spheres from his mouth. The spheres grew into five Ultrons, which fought and were destroyed by the assembled Avengers.

The Avengers later believed that Ultron could have put a command in the Vision that would have been activated by the Avengers White Code alert. Whether Wanda's magicks had been responsible for what happened, or it was truly Ultron's command that had been activated after one of the previous incidents caused the White Code alert, is unknown.

When the Avengers later confronted Wanda, she had created an illusion where she was having dinner with the Vision and their children. Later, when Professor X was able to partially restore her sanity, she collapsed on the floor sobbing that she had killed her husband; clearly showing that the attack was not intentional.

Vision comics - Powers and abilities

The "synthezoid" Vision possessed the ability to manipulate his density; he could become completely intangible or as hard as diamond. While his density was lowered, he could fly, and while it was increased, he possessed vast superhuman strength and durability, with a lift capacity of 50 tons and a maximum density of 90 tons. He could fire solar-powered energy beams from the gem on his forehead or his eyes. His body was capable of self-repair, although repairing massive injuries would leave him temporarily infirm. He was capable of rapid analysis of data, and he could access and communicate with other computer systems.

Vision comics - Other Media Appearances

The Vision was a playable character in THE AVENGERS arcade game.

The Vision made several cameos in the mid-90s Fantastic Four syndicated animated series, alongside several other Avengers.

The Vision was also one of several secondary Avengers to start in Fox Kids short-lived Avengers animated series. His origin was modified slightly for television: Still a creation of Ultron sent to destroy the Avengers, this Vision was responible for "killing" Wonder Man, and thus his emgrams were transferred to the Vision following this attack.

The series ran for thirteen episodes during the 1999-2000 season. The Vision was portrayed by Ron Ruben.

Vision comics - Bibliography

• "The Avengers" (Volume 1) #57
• The Vision and the Scarlet Witch (volume 1) #1-4
• The Vision and the Scarlet Witch (volume 2) #1-12
• The Vision (volume 1) #1-4
• The Vision (volume 2; also called Avengers Icons: The Vision) #1-4

Vision comics - Vision II Young Avengers 2005-

The young Vision. Art by Jim Cheung.

After the Vision's destruction in Avengers Disassembled, a new Vision based upon him was introduced in Young Avengers by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung. This Vision is based on his predecessor's "operating system", but has none of the life experience of the former Vision. Consequently, the Vision has all of the physical and emotional potential of his "father," but where his mind was based on Wonder Man's brain patterns, the new one is based on Iron Lad's.

Vision comics - Character biography

Iron Lad, a teenage version of Kang the Conqueror landed in the "present" several months after the Vision's destruction. After being ignored by Captain America and Iron Man, he found the Vision's mangled remains and downloaded his operating system into his armour. He was able to use plans the Vision had created in case the Avengers fell to assemble a new team of "Young Avengers." Once Iron Lad was forced to remove his armour to stop Kang the Conqueror from tracking him, the Vision's operating system caused the armour to become a sentient being for the first time - just in time to save the Young Avengers and buy them some time. Kang was able to use his intimate knowledge of the armour to shut it, along with the Vision, down relatively quickly, before donning the armour.

When Iron Lad was forced to leave the time period, he left the armour behind with the Vision's operating system activated. Upon Iron Man's examination, it was determined that the new Vision was not the Vision they had known but merely based upon his operating system, and had been sentient for only a very short time.

Vision comics - Powers and abilities

It appears that the new Vision, by default uses the armour to recreate the former Vision's powers, although the armour itself has additional capabilities, including time-travel, available. It is unknown exactly how the new Vision's body works or what the Vision can do with it.

Vision comics - Ultimate Vision

There have been two Vision robots that exist in the Ultimate Marvel Universe.

In Ultimate Nightmare, members of the Ultimates and the Ultimate X-Men discovered a damaged, sentient robot, who stated that the closest English translation to its name was "Vision". The robot said it had come to Earth 100 years ago to warn them of a threat, but its ship malfunctioned, causing it to crash-land on Earth, in Russia. Under the auspices of the former Soviet Union, the Vision was partially disassembled by government scientists; that, plus damage done in the crash, had kept the robot immobile. It warns that Gah Lak Tus, Eater of Worlds (clearly an analog of the original Marvel character Galactus) is headed for Earth.

In a six-page-per-installment back-up story running in several Ultimate series, the first Ultimate Vision reappears, in United States government custody and under repair. Those repairs enable the Vision activate its own self-repair systems and restore itself fully, revealing a true form that is, from a human perspective, decidedly female. It then proceeds to use its restored abilities to show holographic records of its travels as it warned planets of Gah Lak Tus' approach, only to see each planet in turn fail in its own defense and fall to the Eater of Worlds. The story ends with ninety-six hours remaining until Gah Lak Tus arrives, leading directly into the Ultimate Extinction series. Vision has downloaded a complete record of Earth and is repairing its ship so it may move on to the next system in the path of Gah Lak Tus.

Later, former Ultimates member Hank Pym created another robot, called the Vision II. It is shown as being identical to a robot named Ultron that Hank Pym had been working on, and is presumably just a copy bearing a different name for ease of identification.

Categories: Avengers members | Defenders members | Marvel Comics robots | Marvel Comics titles | West Coast Avengers members | Young Avengers members

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Vision comics", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki