Blaugust Day 24 – Behold the Vision

The Vision has always been one of my favorite superheroes. I'm not really sure why, I never read any comics with him in them, but I guess I like his look. The green suit, red skin and yellow cape just drew me to him and I'm glad I get a chance to learn more about him during my Ultron reading.

One thing I am certain I never knew is that Ultron created Vision to defeat the Avengers.

Avengers (1963) Issue 57
Behold the Vision

Creators:
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: John Buscema
Inker: George Klein
Lettered: Sam Rosen
Editor: Stan Lee

Characters:

The Good – Wasp, Goliath, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Black Panther
The Bad – Ultron-5
The Undecided – Vision

This issue takes a bit of a step back from the time traveling Nazi and Avenger fighting to show more of the personal lives of the team. What little free time the heroes have is pressured by their day job and they find it hard to maintain much of a love life. Wasp and Goliath have no time to be alone with each other, while Hawkeye and Black Widow have hardly seen each other recently, it's really hard for these guys to find the down time to socialize.

And of course being attacked by a new super powered being puts even more of a crimp on the team's personal time. First Wasp is assaulted by Vision but he is thwarted by intense pain of unknown origin. With him knocked out, Wasp and Goliath mange to get him back to Avengers HQ where everyone can meet the newcomer. No sooner do they all get to HQ, but Vision wakes up and starts kicking butt. Goliath manages to subdue and calm him down and we learn that it was Ultron-5, who created Vision to destroy the Avengers.

With Vision's guidance, they head to Ultron's subterranean base, where it turns out Ultron programmed Vision to bring all the Avengers to their death. With Goliath knocked out by a giant android and the rest of the team trapped in a room with the walls closing in, Vision escapes to confront Ultron. Who surprises Vision and as he throws him into an energy vat, mistakenly tells Vision his only weakness. Enraged that Vision survived his assault, Ultron leaps at him and passes through his insubstantial body and into the energy vat and blows up.

Only Ultron's head remains…

Along with showing how hard it is for the Avengers to have personal lives, this issue develops Ultron further and introduces Vision. Vision's powers seem to be the ability to alter his density and a powerful heat ray that shoots from his eyes. I know in the movie, Vision had an infinity stone on his forehead, but I don't think the stones existed back during this origin story.

The art in this issue is classic. It is what I envision comics of this era should look like. I already mentioned how I love the color scheme of Vision but the other characters and scenes look great too. Emotions are clear on Goliath's face when his alert goes off that Wasp is in danger, and the hatred that Ultron's programming of Vision produced is clear as he attacks the Avengers. Dialog, thought bubbles, and editorial input are made very clear in this issue as well, and I am finding that I no longer have any problems following things – there are definite cues (a dialog box that crosses panels or an image that crosses the gap between panels) that I missed when I first started reading the first Avenger books.

Im definitely enjoying these books, and even though they differ from Marvel's cinematic universe, they are great at helping me understand where things all came from.

It's still not too late to join Blaugust – just go to the initiative page at Tales of the Aggronaut or take a look at the Blaugust Nook on Anook.

Morning Ramble #48 | Blaugust Day 24

#Avengers #Comics