Avengers #367
Voyeuristic Visions
The Vision has found himself dealing with conflicting thoughts about emotion after Crystal had recently told him that she loved the Black Knight, despite the fact that she is married to Quicksilver.[1] The Vision is struggling with the idea of emotions, something he once felt. He remembers how he was once married to the Scarlet Witch and they even had twin children.[2] Now that is all gone and his ability to understand these feelings continues to elude him.
Phasing into Avengers Headquarters, the Vision passes through a training session being run by Captain America and the Black Widow. Quickly shutting things down, the pair tell the Vision to be more careful in the future. When they ask him what’s wrong, he assures them that there is nothing the matter, even though this is a lie.
Wandering the mansion, the Vision comes across Hercules meeting with his current love interest, Taylor Madison, in the garden. Although he knows it is rude to eavesdrop into a conversation he can’t help but listen. Taylor has something weighing heavily on his mind but won’t tell him what’s the matter. She tells him that she can no longer see him and runs off crying.[3] Seeing this private moment fills the Vision with shame and he goes back inside.
In the med-lab he finds Magdalene waiting by the life support pod containing her lover the Swordsman.[4] He doesn’t understand why she stays by his side since there is no logical benefit in doing so. She points out that she is staying out of love and asks if the Vision can understand this emotion, but he doesn’t give an answer. That’s when he notices that the Swordsman’s vital signs have improved and when he finally wakes up from his coma, the android leaves to tell Hank Pym of this new development. Giant-Man is working in his lab and the Vision uses the opportunity to not just inform him of the Swordsman’s current condition but to ask his advice on his problems. The reason why the Vision has come to Pym is because he has come to consider Hank as family, since he was responsible for creating Ultron the robot who in turn created him.[5]
He hopes that Hank can help him understand his past marriage to the Scarlet Witch, particularly since Hank had his own failed marriage to Janet Van Dyne, aka the Wasp.[6] Hank admits that he misses Jan every day they are apart and asks if the Vision feels the same way about Wanda. Thinking it over, the Vision finds that he does not. Hank cuts their talk short, saying that they can talk more later as he really needs to examine the Swordsman.
Feeling alone again, the Vision decides to talk to Crystal about what he has been experiencing. He admits that when she confided in him her true feelings with the Black Knight, he selfishly used that admission to try and reawaken his own emotions and believes that his distraction almost led to the Kree Nega-Bomb from exploding and destroying the Earth. Crystal tells him that being selfish is part of being human and people often wish they can feel things, and other times they wish they can feel nothing at all. She says that when she is confused about her emotions — particularly when her marriage is involved — she looks to her daughter Luna and considers what is best for her. This reminds the Vision of his own children and how he can remember their first words down to the inflection.[7] However, despite all this, he cannot recall how he felt at the time and this frustrates him. Crystal assures the Vision that he is a good man and not to force himself to experience emotion, telling the android that they will come when he is ready to feel.
Going for a walk on the grounds, the Vision finds Deathcry outside stargazing. The Shi’ar warrior begins flirting with Vision and tries to seduce him as she is attracted to androids.[8] When he doesn’t kiss back, Deathcry becomes insulted. However, when he tries to tell her that he doesn’t have emotions she accuses him of being a coward and walks away. The Vision suddenly finds himself consumed by rage and he punches a nearby wall. Composing himself, he tries to dismiss that he just experienced an emotion as nothing more than a malfunction and decides to run a full system diagnostic.
Meanwhile, up in Luna’s bedroom, the baby is woken by a man calling out her name. That’s when two men teleport into her room. One of the intruders tells the little girl how her family is important to their goals and abduct her from her bedroom.[9]
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Giant-Man, Hercules, Vision, Black Knight, Crystal), Magdalene, Swordsman, Deathcry, Fabian Cortez (unidentified), Taylor Madison, Luna Maximoff, Lockjaw
Continuity Notes
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.
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.
The situation with Crystal is complicated as she is currently married to Quicksilver, dating back to Fantastic Four #150.
However, after being neglected by her husband, Crystal engaged in an illicit affair in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #6-12.
Despite this infidelity, the pair have been trying to patch up their marriage since Fantastic Four Annual #21.
This was made much more difficult since Pietro joined X-Factor in X-Factor #71 and Crystal joined the Avengers in Avengers #336.
Pietro and Crystal recently tried to reconcile by going on a romantic retreat together in X-Factor #89. Unfortunately, a paparazzo put the doubts into Quicksilver’s mind that Crystal might be seeing another man, putting their reconciliation on ice.
However, never say never, since Crystal and Quicksilver will make another attempt to patch up their failing marriage following the conclusion of the Bloodties event that takes place in Avengers #368-369, X-Men (vol. 2) #26, Avengers West Coast #101, and Uncanny X-Men #307.
Crystal admitted this to the Vision in Avengers #365.
The Vision’s personal life is also quite complicated. The details:
The Vision had been married to the Scarlet Witch back in Giant-Size Avengers #4.
During this time, he had attempted to force world peace by trying to take over all the computers on the planet in Avengers #251-254. He failed, but managed to finally unlock his emotions.
He and the Scarlet Witch then used magic to make Wanda pregnant in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #3. Wanda later gave birth to twin boys in issue #12 of that series.
When Vision rejoined the Avengers in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #37, the government agency known as Vigilance feared that the Vision might take over the world’s computers again. They disassembled him and wiped his memory. Although the Avengers put him back together, he was bereft of his emotional capacity. See West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45.
Shortly thereafter, Vision’s twin children were revealed to be nothing more than constructs created by the Scarlet Witch’s powers and they were wiped form existence in Avengers West Coast #51-52.
More recently, the Vision had the memory engrams of Alex Lipton in Avengers Spotlight #40. He later had his mind transferred into the body of an alternate reality counterpart in Avengers #360. These will be the catalysts that will lead to the Vision restoring his emotions during the events of Vision #1-4.
Hercules met and fell in love with Taylor after their first meeting in Avengers #349. What he doesn’t know is that Hera compelled them to fall in love in order to break his heart. What she doesn’t know is that Taylor Madison is a mystical construct created by Zeus to catch Hera in the act. Here, Taylor hints at being terminally ill. She’s isn’t, at least not really. It’s just that she is a mystical construct whose burning out her power. This will all be explained in Avengers #384.
The Swordsman was seriously injured by the Vision’s evil counterpart from another reality in Avengers #362. Here, Magdalene states that she has been by the Swordsman’s side since they defeated the Kree. This is in reference to Avengers #364-366.
Ultron’s creation was detailed in Avengers #58, the issue after the Vision’s first appearance. Ultron’s creation of the Vision was detailed in issues #134-135.
Hank Pym married the Wasp in Avengers #60. However, their marriage eventually started to crumble culminating in Hank striking Jan in a fit of rage in Avengers #213. She divorced him immediately after.
Here, the Vision refers to the Scarlet Witch as a mutant. In reality, she actually isn’t. As revealed in Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5, Wanda was experimented upon by the High Evolutionary when she was a baby. In order to cover up his work he made it so future genetic tests have her register as a mutant.
Deathcry mentions all of the women that the Vision has had relationships with in the past. Other than the Scarlet Witch this includes:
Mantis: Mantis joined the Avengers in Avengers #114. During her time on the team she found herself attracted to the Vision and attempted to seduce him even though he was in a relationship with the Scarlet Witch. Her pursuit ended when she discovered that she was the Celestial Madonna, as seen in Avengers #129-135 and Giant-Size Avengers #2-4.
Jocasta: Was a robot created by Ultron based on the personality of the Wasp, as seen in Avengers #162. She worked with the team in issues #177-211. Although she had an interest in the Vision, he did not reciprocate. So Deathcry’s assertion that they had a romance is greatly misunderstood.
Deathcry’s romantic interest in the Vision is dropped after this, at least in the mainline Avengers title. However, it is brought up again in Vision #1-4.
This is Fabian Cortez, leader of the Acolytes a team of mutants who are loyal to Magneto and treat him as a religious figure. At the time of this story, everyone believes that Magneto is the father to Quicksilver, Luna’s father, per Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4. This is later revealed to have been a lie perpetuated by the High Evolutionary, as per the aforementioned Uncanny Avengers #4-5.