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.
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.
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.
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.
