A Vision Revealed!

In the monitor room at Avengers Headquarters, Captain America and Black Widow are investigating a strange signal coming from their equipment that has been cloaked. Cap wonders if this is the work of the Gatherers and suspects their guest the Swordsman might be responsible. As they discuss this they are interrupted by the Vision who has come for his shift. Little do they know that this isn’t their Vision, but a doppelganger from another reality planted by the Gatherers to infiltrate their team.[1]

Meanwhile, in the training room, the Black Knight, Crystal, and Hercules are in the middle of a session. They are fighting a robot and during the fight, Dane is incredibly protective of Crystal, even though she can hold her own. When the session is over, the robot comes back to life and tries to attack, narrowly cutting Whitman with its laser. After he takes it down, Crystal rushes to his side to make sure he is ok. This tender moment is interrupted by Sersi who has come down to talk to Dane.[2]

Back in the monitor room, the Vision is going over the phantom signal and is amused at how sloppy Proctor has been and quickly fixes the cloak to make the signal undetectable. With that job done, the evil android begins to muse about what he plans to do with Crystal when he has a moment. This fantasizing is interrupted by the Swordsman who — also unaware that this isn’t the same Vision who has been helping him remember his past — asks if he can look at the Avengers records on their version of the Swordsman to see if it can jar any of his memories.[3] Seeing this as a perfect opportunity to strike, the Vision tells him that he’d be delighted.

Upstairs, Marilla — the nanny to Crystal’s daughter Luna — finds herself checking in on her young charge as she sleeps. She has no idea why she keeps looking in on the baby, but can’t shake the idea that Luna might be in some kind of danger. Dismissing this as paranoia, she goes back downstairs to get herself a drink of Inhuman brandy.[4]

Meanwhile, the Swordsman and Vision are heading down to the records room. Along the way, the Swordsman remarks about how funny it is that they were once enemies and he now considers the Vision a friend. However, when this Vision calls Swordsman “Phil”, something the real Vision wouldn’t do, it makes the Swordsman realize that he is dealing with an impostor. Before Phil can defend himself, the Vision uses his phasing powers against him. Assuming that Swordsman is dead, the Vision considers the job done and decides to go off and do something for himself.

Nearby, the Black Knight has returned to the monitoring room where he is found by Marilla. He tells her how the phantom signal that the Widow and Cap found earlier is conveniently gone now and this worries him.

Upstairs, Crystal is sleeping in bed when the Vision enters the room and prepares to have his way with her. At that same moment, Marilla comes upon the Swordsman’s body and screams. This draws Dane who comes to see what the commotion is all about. That’s when the mansion suddenly begins to shake. This was caused by Crystal’s elemental powers as the Vision’s attempt to rape her woke her up and she is now defending herself from her attacker. As the two fight, it becomes abundantly clear that this isn’t the Vision she once knew. The sound of battle wakes up Hercules who comes storming into the room and seeing the situation, comes to Crystal’s aid. The fight also draws in the Black Widow, Captain America, and the Black Knight. However, by this point the evil Vision has grabbed Crystal and he threatens to kill her by solidifying two of his fingers in her neck.

The Black Knight isn’t phased by this and lunges at the Vision. Instinctively, the android becomes intangible, allowing Dane to push Crystal through him to safety. Finally, Sersi arrives and uses her transmutation powers to turn the Vision into inert matter. With the battle over, the Black Knight looks forward to using their new prisoner to learn how to strike back at the Gatherers once and for all.

Recurring Characters

Avengers (Captain America, Hercules, Black Knight, Black Widow, Sersi, Crystal), Anti-Vision, Swordsman, Luna Maximoff, Marilla

Continuity Notes

1. The evil Vision was sent to infiltrate the Avengers back in issue #360. Per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2, he comes from Reality-932.

2. The love triangle between the Black Knight, Crystal, and Sersi is a complex one.

   • Dane has been attracted to Crystal pretty much from the moment she joined the Avengers in issue #336.

   • Meanwhile, Sersi has been attracted to Dane, throwing herself at him since Avengers #350.

   • The situation with Crystal is complicated as she is currently married to Quicksilver, dating back to Fantastic Four #150. We’ll get into that in more detail down below…

   • Sersi’s increasingly erratic behavior has been making her more aggressive about romancing Dane. It’s later revealed that she has been pushed over the edge by Proctor, the evil Dane Whitman of another reality who has gone all Incel after his Sersi dumped his possessive ass. See Avengers #374 for all the problematic facts about that.

   • Compounding matters is the fact that Dane was made Sersi’s Gann Josin (life mate) against his will in Avengers #361.

3. This Swordsman is from another reality and was originally brought to help destroy the team back in Avengers #343. He was later captured in Avengers #356 and has been trying to help them defeat the Gatherers. He has been examining the past history of the Swordsman of this reality, one of the first Avengers to fall in the line of duty in Giant-Size Avengers #2. The Swordsman in this story hales from Reality-921 as per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2.

4. The reason why Marilla is so paranoid about Luna’s safety is because she caught the Acolyte known as Scanner in Luna’s room a few nights earlier in Avengers #357. However, Scanner erased her memory of the encounter.