An Origin ReVisioned

Welcome back, Visionaries!

Or maybe welcome me back?  I don't know. 

Either way, welcome to Phase (pun intended) Two of Unearthly Visions!

While I've been around the blogosphere on and off for the past year and some change, Unearthly Visions (for those of you new to the site) itself has been on an extended hiatus. I wrote a Swamp Thing blog for several months (which I'll probably come back to at some point) and a blog about Wolverine as written by Chris Claremont (which I probably won't). Swamp Thing is a character I genuinely like, and Claremont's X-Men are a formative part of my childhood geek culture (with Wolverine being the most widely accessible character to act as a specific lens of study). The Vision, however, has always been MY superhero. There were characters like Swamp Thing that I got into because a friend introduced me to them. There were characters like Wolverine that I'd discovered on my own, but every other comic geek thought was the greatest thing ever. The Vision, as far as I was concerned was MINE. I'd discovered him all on my lonesome, and I had an appreciation for him that was unique among my circle of nerdom. While I may, from time to time, venture off to talk about other heroes, I'll always eventually return to the Vision. So here we are.

In Phase One of Unearthly Visions I focused on the Vision's relationships to the various members of his extended family, everyone from his creator Ultron to his maniacal half-brother the Grim Reaper. In Phase Two I'll be tracking his chronological history, from his beginning, up through Secret Empire and beyond. The Vision has been in LOT of comics over the last fifty years (and not all of them were exactly great), so I'm just going to be focusing on those issues, arcs, and miniseries where he was a central character, not just a supporting cast member or just another body on the team.

Of course, one of the most important stories surrounding any character is their origin, and the Vision's is no exception. I've talked about the Vision's origin previously on the blog: Ultron creates Vision, Vision attacks Avengers, Vision switches sides and helps take down Ultron. Yada yada yada. Nothing else to say, right?

Not necessarily.

In 2011, Marvel released a series of single-issue stories under the banner of Avengers Origins. These didn't retell the canon origins with a modern creative team, but they didn't retcon those origins either. Rather, they reimagined those origins with different details, but kept enough of the source material that the reader could accept them as canon if they so chose (similar in vein to the Strange miniseries, which reimagined the origin story of the Sorcerer Supreme). Among this series, as you may suspect, was Avengers Origins: Vision. Written by Kyle Higgins and Eric Siegel, with gorgeous painted art by Stephane Perger, this revised telling of the Vision's origin fits perfectly into the time slot of the source material, and is the ideal book to begin our Phase Two.

The book opens with a stunning close up of a familiar red visage, floating in a tank, connected to various wires and cables. His inner monologue states "From nothing..I am. A collage of light... disorienting... confusing...". Ultron, then, as seen through the Vision's newly opened eyes, tells him "Welcome to the world".

Once his creation emerges fully formed from it's creation chamber, Ultron begins training him in the use of his abilities, as well as attempting to instill in him a loathing for humanity in general, and a hated of the Avengers specifically. Simultaneously, he attempts to berate into his creation a sense of subservient self-loathing. When the newly born being asks "What will I be known as?", Ultron replies "Nothing. You are the creation. Others will not even know you exist".

The creation still shows a spark of empathy. When Ultron shows him images of humans for the first time, the creation says of them with longing, "I...am like them". Ultron, however, replies, "You resemble them. But humans are flawed...they cling to their existence, terrified of the inevitable...that we will replace them". Regarding the Avengers, he adds "You will kill them all".

When the creation is at last ready for his mission, we find an irate Janet van Dyne confronting a distracted Hank Pym over his obsessive devotion to his scientific research. This, however, is not the meek and flighty Jan of the 1960s. She tells him exactly what she thinks of his myopic neglect, before slamming the door in his face and shedding a tear what what she no doubt knows to be a doomed relationship.

 

The creation attacks moments later amid a crash of thunder.

Pym as Goliath enters the fray, followed quickly by Black Panther, all of whom are fought to a standstill by the creation (the Wasp, it should be noted, gets in the most effective attack, shrinking and flying up his nose and blasting his cerebral cortex).

The Avengers are only able to get a momentary upper hand when the creation chooses to cease his attack, noting to himself, "Any one of them would sacrifice themselves for the others. They come together when I attack. Perhaps the creator is mistaken. Perhaps they do not wish to destroy us. Perhaps they wish only to survive".

As the creation contemplates the nature of these beings he was sent to destroy, however, Ultron attacks. The maniacal Android makes short work of the Avengers, as the creation watches contemplatively. It is when Ultron is about to deliver the killing blow to Pym, and the Wasp pleads, "Please...I love him", that the creation takes action, distracting Ultron with a solar beam and placing his virtually indestructible body between his creator and the Avengers.

The two artificial humanoids battle, and while it is intense it is short lived, with the creation almost singlehandedly destroying this iteration of his creator.

The next morning, the creation ponders his existence and where he will go now that Ultron is "dead". When Wasp offers for him to stay with the Avengers, he reminds her of what an illogical idea that is, given that he was designed to be a killing machine and they the targets. Janet tells him, "You make your own choices. Create your own path. You come up with a vision of what you aspire to...and then you work to make it happen".

Thinking about her words, and especially of her use of the word vision, he tells her "I would have a name". As Jan flies of, with the creation staring with hope toward the rising sun, she tells him "Then you'd better start thinking. That's yours to decide".

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I absolutely love this retelling of the Vision's origin. It not only tells the story in a much less convoluted manner, it not only shows exactly how powerful the Vision is compared to both Ultron and the rest of the Avengers featured, but it removes one of my biggest pet peeves about Silver and early Bronze Age Avengers tales, that of the Wasp as a helpless ditzy damsel. As I discussed in detail in Phase One of Unearthly Visions, Janet van Dyne is my second favorite Avenger next to the Vision (and the best chairperson they've had as well). I like that, rather than pining and pleading for Hank's affections, she let's him know straight away the thin ice on which their relationship stands immediately (ice that I was had cracked and shattered in canon continuity before she had married the ever toxic Pym). She strikes one of the few significant blows against the Vision during his initial strike, and establishes a raport with him that has always been missing in the various on going Avengers series.

From this point we'll be going forward and exploring those issues of the Avengers that either focus on the Vision or in which he makes a significant contribution. Check back soon for the continuation of Phase Two of Unearthly Visions!  Until then, be heavy Visionaries!