The Vision Gambit

Daredevil is coerced into serving the Mad Thinker, who has demanded that he capture the Vision in order to spare the life of the Thing. The Thinker intends on creating an army of androids based on the Vision in order to take revenge on those who have beat him in the past. Worse, he captures young Eugene Everette and uses him as a hostage. Hypnotizing Ben into being loyal to the Thinker and strapping a video device on him to monitor their progress, he sends the two heroes off to Avengers Mansion to collect the Vision.

There, when the Vision answers the door, Ban and Daredevil attack at once, knocking out the only other Avenger present: Yellowjacket. When Daredevil incapacitates the Vision with a special rifle created by the Mad Thinker, he leaves the room briefly to get something to carry the Vision in.

When they return back to the Mad Thinker's base, the Thinker is quickly defeated; thanks to a plan orchestrated by Yellowjacket. Back at Avengers Mansion, Daredevil revived Yellowjacket, who then took Daredevil's costume. While Daredevil hid in a casket, thousands of ants filled Yellowjacket's costume, giving the illusion that he was still lying there unconscious.

The ruse pays off but not before the Thinker was able to create an army of Vision clones. However, with the revived Vision, the heroes manage to defeat the Thinker and his androids and free Ben from his control.

Recurring Characters

Thing, Vision, Eugene Everett, Daredevil, Yellowjacket, Mad Thinker

Continuity Notes

• The Mad Thinker is wearing the same hypnotic goggle he used on the Thing back in Fantastic Four #68.

• The Mad Thinker mentions how the Vision previously slipped out of his grasp in the past. This is quite a complex reference:

  • He is referring to the fact that the Vision is a recreation of the original Human Torch, which he revived to use against the Fantastic Four back in Fantastic Four Annual #4. During that story, the Torch was seemingly deactivated by the Mad Thinker's creation Quasimodo.

  • The Mad Thinker is referring to the fact that the Torch's android body was taken by Ultron, as seen in Avengers #134-135, and rebuilt him into the Vision.

  • However, in this instance, the Mad Thinker forgets how he also used the Human Torch's body to lure his former partner Toro into a trap and use him as a slave, as seen in Sub-Mariner #14.

  • The reason why is likely because, as revealed in Avengers: Forever #8, wherein the time traveler Immortus created a chronal duplicate of the Torch's body. One version of the body was taken by Ultron and turned into the Vision, while the other the Mad Thinker used to capture Toro. Likely Immortus fogged the Thinker's memories of the latter plot as part of his larger scheme to manipulate the Avengers.

• The Thinker exploits the same weakness in the Vision as Ultron did back in Avengers #67.