Fan Retrospectives: Vision: Part 10: All Will Return to Normal

Writer Tom King and artist Gabriel Hernandez Walta created a strange premise for the old-school Avenger Vision. They gave him a family. On paper, Vision with family hijinks sounds ridiculous and cheesy, but instead, it turned out to be a haunting, character-defining master class on comic storytelling. Let's break down 2015's Vision series.

"All Will Return to Normal"

Writer: Tom King

Artist: Gabriel Hernandez Walta

Color Artist: Jordie Bellaire

Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles

Review by Eric Lee

Vin is dead and Vision's brother Victor Mancha is responsible. Due to the events at the end of the last issue, the Avengers put the surviving Vision family members under house arrest until they can get things sorted out.

While the Vision's communication with the Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers is amiable, it doesn't change the fact that his home is essentially a prison cell.

This is visually shown by the number of panels in each page. Writer Tom King and artist Gabriel Hernandez Waltz really highlighted how claustrophobic it is for Vision and his family being stuck in the house. As King put it in his script: "I put lots of panels on these pages to give the readers a sense of being overcrowded, stuck, crammed."

VIsion's Slide to the Dark Side

Since he is stuck inside his home, Vision ominously sits in the dark playing with the cigarette lighter. He flicks it on and off. Light to dark to light again. 

The Vision playing with the lighter represents his internal conflict with his friends the Avengers. The lighter is a gift of goodwill from Captain America. But given recent events, there is a sting of betrayal from all of the Avengers for spying on him.  Visually, it also shows how the Vision is quietly contemplating going to the dark side to the light side then to the dark side. He can't make up his mind. The only thing he knows is that he wants vengeance, which is shown when the scene ends with him in the dark again.

Vision reveals to Virginia about his internal struggles for revenge and what he feels is justice. Ironically, this struggle is a very human thing to do. Robots would not hold onto grudges. But Vision is burdened with with emotions, like anger and rage. That's Vision's dilemma here. He and his family want to be human. However, they ironically become more human the more they feel these negative emotions and experiences.

Notice how Vision and Virginia also are now sleeping in two separate beds. When they consummated back in issue three, they had a shared bed. However, so much has happened to them that seems to be driving a wedge between the couple.

Vision also begins to stutter and repeat his words. While his family stutters and glitch throughout the series, that it is typical for them because they're still awkwardly trying to assimilate into human life. However, it is unusual for Vision to stutter, since he's been socialized with humans for years.

This instance of him stuttering, "That I, I. I cannot, cannot..." feels like he is almost glitching because he is faced with a paradox. As if his brain knows what to do, but his heart is telling him something different. He is at war with himself.

Of all the remaining family members, Virginia has the most difficult time assimilating. She is constantly stuttering and never seems to understand the reason for human routines. Just like when she is repeating the word "Good" in their dinner conversation with Viv.

"Row, Row, Row Your Boat..."

Later, Sparky the dog accidentally wanders out of the house and gets shocked back by a force field. On the phone, Vision explains to Iron Man that was an accident. While in the same room as Vision, Virginia continues to play the piano while singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat". In actuality, she's not playing the piano. The key cover is down, but she is miming the key strokes. Like she said in a previous time, she can do the action of playing to perfection, but they're empty routines. There is no soul there, which makes her feel isolated from humanity.

Meanwhile, Vision seems fairly oblivious to his wife's existential crisis even though he is literally next to her. This is a personification of how detached he is to his own family's problems throughout the series.

Vision checks in on Viv and catches her about to start a prayer. Vision joins her in prayer even though both noted that they're not even sure if God exists. This is a deliberate callback from Vin's monologue about how faith is really the highest form of cognition. With this act of faith, Vision and Viv seem to be have transcended their android limits and achieved a very human action.

During Vision and Viv's prayer, we see a montage of visual foreshadowing. The lighter, the floating vase of Zenn-La, the Vibranium piano, and the Everbloom plant. All are gifts from Vision's superhero colleagues and all will be important plot points. 

Look how Sparky idly eats the Everbloom plant. It was established that eating it would cause visions of the future, but only after the original eater is killed and mutilated. This foreshadows some bad things ahead for Sparky.

Virginia then finds an oil can that used to belong to Vin. He used it to give more fuel to the lighter that Captain America gave to Vision. However, Vision believes that since the lighter is made from a Vibranium/ steel alloy, that the metal gives the lighter it's functionality- not the fuel. To Vision, Vin was wasting his time trying to give new life to a lighter- similarly how Vin was trying to inject human understanding of life and death and the preciousness of it when he was obsessed with the "Merchant of Venice". According to Vision, there is nothing more to existence other than being souless androids.

 

You can read the Vision's assertion that he feels defeated by the world with Vin's death and he will never be seen as anything other than a robot.

"...A Little Better Than a Beast"

When he was alone, Vision walks into Vin's room and grossly takes out his robot eye in order to view a recording of Vin reciting a passage from "Merchant of Venice". Vision regrets not paying close attention to his son's efforts to bond. Vin's hologram also recites a line that speaks to Vision.

"Very vilely in the morning when he is sober. And most vilely in the afternoon when he is drunk. When he is best, he is a little worse than a man. And when he is worst he is little better than a beast. And the worst fall that ever fell. I hope I shall make shift to go without him."

The Vision can relate to the passage. Just like with the oil can, Vision feels that even at his beast, he is still not quite measured up to a real human. So regardless, he feels like he should drop the pretenses of being a human and transition into his "fall".

This possess Vision to go outside and break the force field using the lighter. Ironic because earlier, Vision says that the lighter's unique metal properties is what gives its function. So here, he is using the Vibrainium- as well as his own density powers to breach the barrier.

After Vision escapes, we see a double-splash page panel of him flying above the neighborhood. This visually represents how free Vision feels now that he is unencumbered by what humans think of him. He is literally above them.

The parallel narration dialogue also resonates with Vision's situation. It calls back to Viv's question of whether there is a god or not.

"As unlikely as it seems, there is indeed a God above us. Someone to greet our souls when we leave this life. Someone to tell us that we have done enough, that we have done what we could.That now, finally, we may rest. However,  and unfortunately, robots do not have souls.They do not rest. They simply end. And so you see. Some prayers are answered. And some are not."

This end monologue casts Vision in two different roles, depending on the interpretation. He can be seen as a poor robot who will never be able to be human enough to meet God, since he has no soul- which seems to be the ultimate indicator whether a robot can be a human. 

An alternative interpretation of the ending monologue is that Vision is so far above humans, that he can act as God Himself. He will be the ultimate end of humans where he will exact extreme prejudice to get his vengeance.

Either way, this spells trouble for Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

For the previous chapter's analysis, click here.