How I Became An Avengers Fan

I have been an Avengers fan since the early 1970s.  I used to dream of a day when Marvel's most popular heroes would star in their own films.  The biggest wetdream of all was an Avengers movie--a near impossible dream as it seemed back then!  But today the film has finally arrived and from the reviews it looks to be freaking cool.

This was my first Avengers comic, issue #102 from 1972, with the Vision taking front and center.  At this point I had probably been a Marvel fan for a few years, but always had stayed away from this supergroup.  When I was younger I preferred the early Justice League and Legion of Super-Heroes tales, a lot of good fun there, great for a kid.  You have to imagine when I bought this comic, I had no idea who the Vision was, no idea about Wonder Man or the relationship to the Grim Reaper.

So why did I buy this comic?  The X-Men made me do it.

X-Men #68 (from 1971) was a giant-sized reprint of one of their most important stories, the first clash with the mutant-hating Sentinels!  This issue and the next were so packed with plot and dynamic visuals, I must have re-read them 100 times.  The Sentinels, created by Bolivar Trask to protect humanity and detect mutants, gave the X-Men one of their toughest battles.  It ended with Trask dying to stop his creations.  It was tragic and almost Shakespearean.  I was floored.  Then a year later I read that the Sentinels would return in Avengers #102!

It was a great reason to jump onto a super-team book that seemed so foreign compared to the wholesome Justice League!  Just take a look at this great splash page by Rich Buckler and Joe Sinnott.  The Vision looks pretty alien walking down the dirty street at night, as a mugger lurks in the background.  The Vision, like Cyclops in the X-Men, was an introverted, brooding character, pining away for the girl he loved.  Unable to take a risk for love, like so many teenagers!

A little while later we were treated to this awesome double page splash of the Sentinels rocketing out of the Sun's orbit.  Now keep in mind, at this point I had no idea about continuity--that this was a sequel to Roy Thomas and Neal Adams X-Men story where the robots had made their second appearance.  It was a cool visual to have the Sentinels coming out from the far side of the sun.

If that wasn't enough, the Avengers had the romance love triangle as well, between the Vision, Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye.  This was my introduction to Wanda.  I love the silhouette that the artists used here.  To me, the Vision was Mr Avenger and Scarlet Witch was Ms Avenger. Despite all of her romantic problems, she needs to start worrying about the return of the Sentinels.

And then there was Wanda's brother, Quicksilver.  After the Avengers fail to stop the Sentinels and they take off with his sister, Pietro goes ballistic.  He backslaps Captain America and calls all of his teammates a bunch of losers!  I couldn't believe it.  This sort of thing never happened in the Justice League!  A lot of people hate Quicksilver and I can't understand why.  You put Quicksilver, Hawkeye, Vision, Scarlet Witch alongside the Big Three (Cap, Iron Man, Thor) and you have a team ripe with drama.

Behold: Avengers #57 Classic Vision Cover Recreations

Mighty Avengers has been recreating a number of classic covers for this series of stories during the Secret Invasion.  The cover to Mighty Avengers #14 has Marko Djurdjevic recreating one of my favorite Avengers covers of all time...

Avengers #57 cover by John Buscema, inks by George Klein.  What a dramatic way to introduce a new character!  Is he friend or foe?  The answer was not obvious, as the Vision was sent to destroy the Avengers by his creator, Ultron.  He was able to defy Ultron, which led to the Vision becoming a full fledged Avenger.  He was a unique character that was created solely to be in this team book, unlike the other Avengers, who had all been created elsewhere.  His origins and behavior were shrouded in mystery which provided a meaty subplot for the next five years worth of stories.

West Coast Avengers #45 cover by John Byrne.  Notice Byrne's signature on the lower left, giving credit not only to John Buscema, but to George Klein as well.  This is a philosophy that both John Byrne and Walt Simonson shared, giving credit back to the original artist when recreating a famous cover.  I just thought both of them were complete gentlemen for doing this.

Mighty Avengers #14 cover by Marko Djurdjevic.  It's a shame that credit was not given to Buscema on the cover or inside the credits page.  I cannot fault Djurdjevic, it seems to be a corporate policy now at Marvel.  Djurdjevic follows the original composition by Buscema very closely.  Note the position of the four figures (Black Panther, Giant-Man, Hawkeye, Wasp) are exactly the same as the original.

While I've come to really love Bendis' Avengers, I cannot forgive him for destroying the Vision back in Avengers #500.  I know he's still running around in Young Avengers, but without his memories or the Human Torch's body parts, it ain't the same.  I was really hoping the Vision who came out of the Skrull ship in Secret Invasion #1 would be the real deal.  Alas, as this cover indicates, Bendis robbed us again.  Nuff Said!

Originally published on May 22, 2008.

Neal Adams Avengers Kree-Skrull War cover progression: Three Cows Shot the Vision Down!

Neal Adams joined Roy Thomas on the Avengers with issue #93 (1971) to kick off the Kree-Skrull War.  That story was titled This Beachhead Earth by Thomas.

Adams originally wanted the story to be titled Three Cows Shot Me Down!  As you all know, the story opens with the Vision stumbling into Avengers Mansion.  He's severely damaged after a skirmish with three cows...who happen to be Skrulls in disguise!  When the Kree-Skrull saga was collected in trade paperback, Adams was able to use his original title on this dynamic new cover.

Here are the pencils to this cover.  This was published in the Neal Adams 2007 sketchbook.  Adams commented: You have no idea how many years I have waited to put those words on this picture.

And now the inked version, which was featured in the Neal Adams 2008 sketchbook.

For more tidbits on Neal Adams Avengers (and other Marvel) work, you can read the excellent interview with him from TwoMorrows Comic Book Artist #3.  Nuff said.

Silver Surfer Saturday: The Vision, Avenger vs Defender!

One of the opening chapters to the Avengers-Defenders war started with Avengers 116, with this fantastic cover.

Silver Surfer vs the Vision, as Wanda looks on somewhat helplessly in the background--never mind that she could wipe them all out with a hex spell!  This cover is really well executed by Johnny Romita, with the silver guy nearly flying into the viewer.  Nuff said.

Vision and Scarlet Witch by Dave Cockrum

In Foom #12 (1975), Dave Cockrum provided this double-page look at the Vision and Scarlet Witch.

You have to picture the Vision's romance with Scarlet Witch as being the high point of Avengers soap opera.  Cockrum presents their love affair, with Ultron seeking to pull him back to the robotic side on the left, while Quicksilver (Pietro, Wanda's brother) was highly against her sister sleeping with an android.  Nuff said.

John Buscema and P Craig Russell's Vision cover from FOOM 12

This cover to FOOM #12 (1975) featuring the Vision was a unique John Buscema drawing, inked by P. Craig Russell!

I love any cover that makes inventive use of the logo—and having the Vision intangibly glide through FOOM was simply inspired.  Russell keep Buscema’s lines intact, but you can see his style here and there.  Nuff said.

The Vision Needs to be Restored to Full Avenger Glory

I think the Avengers comics are pretty darn great these days.  Bendis has shaken up the team with one big event after another: Disassembled, House of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion, and Dark Reign.  But there's one classic element to the Avengers team that seems lost in all of this.  And that is the Vision.

Fans who loved the 1970s era of the Avengers will know what I am talking about.  The Vision was the standard bearer of the Avengers.  He appeared front and center on many covers as well as the above pic from the 1975 Marvel Calendar.



The Vision was popular for a number of reasons.  The design of the character and his costume was out of this world.  He looked spooky and unreal--like DC Comics' Spectre--and his power to control density and transform into near-ghostly intangibility contributed to this effect.  The Vision was also a robot who struggled with emotions, as you can see on the cover to Avengers 96 by Neal Adams.



The Vision, along with the Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye, were characters who made the Avengers' stories exciting.  That was because Roy Thomas and Steve Englehart could actually change them over time--sometime they couldn't do that easily with Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man.

Sure, I know the Vision's been resurrected in Young Avengers, and he's now in Dan Slott's Mighty Avengers team.  But that version sure as heck isn't the Vision I grew up with.  I want the Vision with Simon Williams' brain patterns, the one who remembers his failed marriage to Wanda, and his entire history with the Avengers' team.  It should be a snap to bring all of this back--just find some memory backups somewhere and rebuild his android body according to original specs.



Here's the biggest flaw to me in the entire Avengers saga since Bendis took over.  The Vision was destroyed, ripped apart by She-Hulk during Disassembled, yet none of the Avengers made an effort to restore him back to life?  It doesn't compute.  The Vision saved his team-mates and the world countless times since he joined the team.  In West Coast Avengers #45--after the Vision was taken apart by the US government--Hank Pym rebuilds the Vision very quickly (ok, minus a few memory tapes).  You could say that Skrull Pym would have no incentive to rebuild the Vision after Disassembled--but why wouldn't the rest of the Avengers?

I think 2010, which brings Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man back in Siege, is the perfect time to restore the Vision back to full glory.  And maybe the Scarlet Witch as well.  Do you agree?  Nuff said.

Update: Comments from my old MT blog...

5 Comments

By Yuri on October 21, 2009 1:02 PM

Hi Richard

Love the blog. I've always been a big Vision fan myself, but I guess the difference is that I love the new Young/Mighty Avengers version. I was reading the Byrne run on WC Avengers when they started to basically ruin the origin of the Vision, and eventually turned him into the white version. If you remember, Byrne decided he wanted to resurrect the original Human Torch (which was the Vision's body along with Simon's brainwaves) so he pulled one of those "everything you knew is wrong" tricks and changed everything around. We were left with an even more confusing origin story, as well as a barefoot white Vision. Ack!

Just to geek out a bit more, I think the best reason for no one attempting to rebuild the Vision after Disassembled is that there was no one left to even try. At the end of that story, the Pyms were taking off on vacation, which leaves Tony Stark. Stark was dead broke at the end of Disassembled, which is why he had no choice but to crate him up and put him in storage. By the time the Civil War ended and Tony had resources again, the new Vision was already in action. I sort of like the fact that the new vision the Iron lad (Kang)armor with the old Vision's brainwave patterns. It gets us closer to the old Human Torch body/Wonder Man Brainwave version that we loved as kids.

Hey, on a closing note - it is great to read someone who actually likes Bendis' run on Avengers. He gets bashed everywhere I read, and I personally think he's done more for the Avengers than anyone since Roy Thomas.

Kepp up the great work!

By Richard Guion on October 22, 2009 9:52 AM

Thanks, Yuri! Nice to know that someone else likes the Vision.

I didn't like how Byrne threw out the Human Torch origin of the character.

Did you read Avengers Forever? In that story, Kurt Busiek tried to factor the Human Torch back in, explaining that Immortus used the power of the Forever Crystal to split the original Human Torch into two entities: one body remained the original Torch while Ultron rebuilt the other as the Vision.

I see your point--trying to explain all of that to new readers is too confusing.

// Richard

By Rob on October 29, 2009 6:43 AM

I've been reading comics for over ten years and never really been exposed to the vision...not much anyway. I've always liked the idea of the character, but hated his appearance. I mean REALLY hated. As much as I hate Martin Manhunter's look. He's in need of a major redesign. Presumably he'll appear in a movie at some stage, and that might prompt marvel to make him look better. Until they sort that out, I'm happy for him not to be in my comics.

By Jay on November 7, 2009 11:30 AM

Redesign The Vision? I think not! He's already been torn apart and rebuilt too many times--and in not so great ways. Rob I respect that you like the idea of his character, but really--it you weren't into him and then you want him to be different...maybe he's not for you?

/LOVE The Vision!
//And his colorful costume!

:)

By Steven R. Stahl on December 26, 2009 9:35 AM

Nice entry on the Vision. I'm as much an enthusiast for the Vision and the Vision & Scarlet Witch love affair as anyone is. Heinberg might have meant well with Vision II, but the similarities are superficial. Vision I was a synthetic human man. Vision II is a computer program emulating a human.

If a writer wanted to have the Vision's body rebuilt, doing that would be trivial, since the brain is undeniably functional. Hooked up to a computer, he could oversee his own reconstruction, as in Busiek's AVENGERS.

There's not much of a point in bringing him back, though, in any sort of body, unless it was part of a plan, and I don't see anyone at Marvel who could write such an introspective character well. He requires an "old school" approach.

SRS

Dave Cockrum Avengers Pin-Ups

In Foom issues 6 and 7 (circa 1974), we were treated to a series of pin-ups from a new artist who had joined the ranks of Marveldom:  Dave Cockrum!  These nifty pin-ups featured the Avengers.  I think they showcase these classic Marvel characters well, and Cockrum's artwork is top-notch.

Thor and Iron Man.  Buddies, way before Clor!

Captain America and the Vision.

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

Clint Barton as Hawkeye, Clint Barton as Giant-Man.  Black Widow.

Mantis and Swordsman.  Cockrum was very familiar with these characters--he had drawn Giant-Size Avengers #2 the issue that featured the death of the Swordsman.  Nuff said.