Previous Post It seems as though by all rights I should have hated these comics... Most notably, the version of the Vision that appears in them seems to most closely resemble the "Byrned", emotionless Vision. He's not truly emotionless, but a blurb on the opening credits page of the issue informs me that the Vision has recently "purged the emotions associated with his memories from his hard drive in order to keep his processing system running smoothly." The number of objections I have to that sentence alone are fairly substantial, with terms like "hard drive" and "Processing system" clashing quite heavily with my favorite version of the character, who argued that he was no different from a man with an artificial leg or heart... he just had artificial everything. Here, the emphasis in completely on him being a machine. So imagine my surprise when I found I really enjoyed these two issues. Chalk it up to a combination of disassociation (I really don't even emotionally connect this to the Vision I grew up with) and some clever, intriguing writing. Despite being a Marvel comic, and apparently set within the current continuity, this seems very much like an attempt at a "Vertigo" kind of book. It's decidedly not a super-hero tale in the classic sense, being more like the kind of mature soap-opera that you would find playing out in an edgy cable television show. The premise of the series is basically that The Vision is apparently now the Avengers' Liaison to the President of the U.S.A., and has created a family of synthezoids that he lives with in a D.C. suburb. This is not the first time that Marvel has published a comic about the Vision trying to fit in to suburban living, but this approach is decidedly different than the one in his mini-series with the Scarlet Witch, which was ultimately about family, love and tolerance overcoming hardships. There's a significantly darker feeling to all of this, and a pervading sense of dread hanging over the whole thing. We are repeatedly led to believe that this is not going to end up being a happy story by details in the omniscient narration... and considering how quickly the whole thing descends into murder and blackmail within just 2 issues, it's not hard to believe that. I can go into details and spoilers if anyone is really interested, but in general I'd say that it's definitely worth a look, especially if you share any of the interests that I have and have touched on in various stories about Hallie or Artificial Intelligence in general. It's not really a big-picture Science Fiction kind of thing, though. It's very intimate, and slightly... "off". In short, it's very different than anything I was really expecting, and that makes it somewhat fascinating.

Some basic impressions before getting into anything overly spoilerish:

Cons:
-The Vision really isn't the focus of the story so far. This may not be a con for everyone, and it might not even be a con for me, but it's not what I would have requested in giving the Vision his own series, certainly. Instead the focus has been on his new family, Virginia the wife, and Vin and Viv, twin teenage brother and sister, and their interactions with their community.

-The Vision once again is a very detached, logical character behaving fairly robotically. There are hints of more going on under the surface though, which is how it should be.

-The Vision has the ugliest costume he has had yet. I'm guessing that they wanted to echo the busy version that was in the movies in a completely new design. I can't say that it works at all. Thankfully, he doesn't wear it much while "off-duty", which he is for the majority of the story so far.

-The implications for continuity would be troubling to me if I cared about Marvel's continuity any longer. To me, the whole thing reads much like Peter David's "Last Avengers Story" in that it has the feel of a darker, more involved "What if?" scenario than something I can link back to the adventures of the 70's, 80's and 90's that I read.

Pros

-I like the writing style of it. It pushes the "alien" feel of this decidedly unusual family living in suburbia in a number of interesting ways. My favorite is the omniscient narration, which seems like a perfect challenge to those who live by the "show, don't tell" rule of writing. It builds unease by dispassionately stating facts such as the bad ends that await various characters over otherwise mundane scenes.

-It embraces the central sci-fi tropes of exploring humanity through robot characters, tipping its hat at you as it loads up the metaphorical characters, situations and observations, much like an old "Star Trek" episode or "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" with whatever themes they were exploring.

-Despite me not fully connecting it to the character I grew up reading, that history is important here, and knowing it suggests greater depth to many scenes. Once again, this reminds me of "Last Avengers Story" in a way... I'm not convinced that this is where the character I knew would end up going as it doesn't seem a sustainable direction for the future, but as a side-story I quite like it.


Spoiler information from here on out... Although if you're interested already, I would suggest just getting the books and reading those. There are some intriguing twists and surprises that I'll mention that are worth discovering in the story itself instead.

The premise is set up by a visit from the neighbors to the Vision's new house as they relate enough of the backstory to get the reader up to speed. (I have no idea how much, if any of this appeared in any other comics. I imagine that this is actually the first we see of the family or hear anything about them.) They are George and Nora. George is dismissive of the "robots" and their unnatural presence in the neighborhood, while Nora has read all about them ("They're not robots. I went online. They're something else. Like a synthe-somthing.") Nora has brought cookies which are gratefully accepted (they will be thrown away after the couple leaves... the Visions do not eat. Everyone in the exchange seems to be aware of this.) They meet the family, and the Vision shows them around his house filled with gifts from his fellow Avengers and others: A stringless Steinway piano from Wakanda, a famed flying water vase of Zenn-la, from the Surfer, a lighter used to light a map the night before D-Day from the Captain, and a clipped Everbloom plucked from the side of Mt. Wundagore from the Witch. "As the Vision explained the local myth of the Everbloom--that its petals could unlock the doors of time--his wife grew unusually quiet. But neither Nora nor George noticed this." As George and Nora finish their seemingly pleasant visit and leave, the narration informs us how they will die later near the end of this story when one of the Visions sets fire to their house with them inside and what their final thoughts will be.

That's the set-up from the first few pages, and it does manage to set a tone that will be hanging over events throughout. There are many mysteries in the series, not the least of which is the question of why this family exists at all. Again, I have no idea if it was set up or explored elsewhere, but so far we are given very little explanation as to why the Vision has this family. His "wife" Virginia (they sleep in seperate twin beds, 50's TV style) is apparently based on human engrams as he is, although we are given no direct hints as to whose engrams were used. "Virginia had yet to decide what she would do for a career. When not with her family, she spent most days sitting on the living room couch exploring the corners of her pre-loaded memory. She was fascinated by how often she found something that made her cry." Their kids are based on a combination of the parent's engrams, which are apparently not yet fully developed hence their teenage status and build. The twins spent nearly all of their time together and soak up information from outside sources. They all share the Vision's power set. The Avengers apparently no longer offer a stipend, and so the Vision himself has concerns about how long his savings will last as he shepherds his family through their new-found existence.

Much of the story follows their attempts to live "normal" lives as well as their confusion as to the reasons for doing various "normal" things, and the reactions of the community to all of it. Towards the end of the first issue, however, things take a sudden turn towards the traditional Marvel universe as the Grim Reaper attacks the family while the Vision is away attending to Avengers business. Ranting his offence about these artificial beings thinking they could be a part of his family, he skeweres teenage Viv leaving her remains on the kitchen floor brokenly calling for her mother. As he turns on Vin, Virginia bashes him in the back of the head and continues savagely beating him ultimately to death.

Once again, this should probably upset me, seeing this classic villain who challenged entire Avengers teams being unceremoniously killed by a synthetic housewife, but I really wasn't bothered. I liked seeing his classic motivation play out once again, and as I don't read Marvel comics in general any longer I'm not overly upset at the prospect of not seeing him again in the future. Besides, his shocking appearance here will clearly leave a shadow over things going forward as Virginia, brought out of her rage by a shocked shocked and scared Vin, begs him not to tell his father and sets to covering up her violent actions. The Vision is told an alternate version of the events, where Virginia faced off against the Reaper, careful not to harm him with her heat beams or strength, until he retreated leaving her to tend to the children.

Fallout continues in the second issue where we learn that Viv is hanging by a thread as the Vision runs diagnostics to determine whether she can be repaired. Vin seems emotionally troubled, leading to a violent incident in school and a parent-teacher conference that does not go well at all. Virginia is elated to hear that the Vision believes that Viv can yet be saved, an emotional upswing which is cut short when she receives a cell phone loaded with a video of her burying the body of the Reaper in the back yard.

So far the characters are all interesting but still largely unknown to the reader. The narration occasionally gives insight, but they all play their emotions extremely close to the vest. There is sympathy there for their innocence, curiosity about them, definitely, and more than a bit of fear of what they might really be like or what they might unfortunately do... Traits that the reader shares with the public in the book itself.

So again... it's an entertaining, interesting read that works best as a kind of odd off-shoot of the Avengers universe I actually know. I'm looking forward to learning more about the characters and following their story to the apparent tragic conclusions that are hinted at throughout these two issues. Oddly enough, I have not heard of this being a limited series in any way, although one wonders how long it can be ongoing with such a drastically unstable set-up.

I'm looking forward to reading more of this, and I'm hoping the continuity of the rest of the current Marvel Universe is kept at an arm's length... I'm not really looking to get involved in any of that, especially not the near constant 'special events' that seem to make up all of the company's publishing strategy these days. Still, I'm definitely looking forward to the inevitable visit from the Scarlet Witch and whatever that might bring (I have no idea how the two currently stand in regards to each other) and the occasional bit of Marvel mad history that will crop up to flavor the series.

It has definitely grabbed my interest, and I hope it manages to find success despite the wild and different premise.