Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #12
Double Sized Climax!
With just six days before she gives birth, the Scarlet Witch and her husband are visiting their neighbors Glamor and Illusion, two famous magicians.[1] Talking about the coming baby, the Vision doesn’t believe it will make them too busy, pointing out the Fantastic Four can juggle parenthood and super-heroics.[2] The subject then turns to baby names, and Wanda says that if their baby is a boy they are going to name it Thomas, after Phineas Thomas Horton, the man who created the android Human Torch, whose body was rebuilt into the Vision. The Vision quips that his personality also came from Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man, but says that’s a long story.[3] Wanda then surprises them by saying she is certain that her contractions will begin that evening.
While in a cave, the villainess known as Nekra is plotting to get her revenge that evening as well. Having learned voodoo from Black Talon she has performed a ritual to bring her lover the Grim Reaper back to life, after he died during their recent battle with the West Coast Avengers.[4] The incantation restores the Grime Reaper to some semblance of life, however he believes his demise was nothing more than a dream.
Back in Leona, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch have returned home and are visited by Wonder Man who wanted to visit before the baby is born.[5] That’s when Wanda tells her husband to call the doctor because she can feel the baby coming.
Meanwhile, Nekra is helping the Grim Reaper reorientate himself after being resurrected. She keeps his death a secret and then uses the same process to create another zombie out of the body they made to resemble Simon Williams.[6] The corpse in question was previously a mobster they surgically altered. When performing her resurrection ritual, she explains that their zombie will have no memory of their death and will be theirs to command as long as it is not convinced it had died.[7] Bringing the fake Simon Williams to life, Nekra then recruits him into her revenge scheme.
By this time, the Scarlet Witch has been brought to Englewood Hospital to give birth to her child. That’s when she remembers that she forgot to cancel her witchcraft session for the evening. Wonder Man tells Wanda not to worry and heads out to tell Holly LaDonna that the class is off for the night.[8]
While in another dimension, Doctor Strange defeats an evil sorcerer named Colabrun. Imprisoning the tyrant with a spell, Strange returns to his Sanctum Sanctorum in Greenwich Villiage. There, Wong tells him that the Scarlet Witch is about to give birth and heads off to assist.
At that moment, Nekra and the Grim Reaper rob a gun shop so they can arm their fake Simon Williams with enough weapons to take out a small army. When the gun shop owner tries to shoot them, Nekra’s hatred enhanced strength allows her to shrug off the bullets and kill him.
Back in Leora, Norm Webster walks past the Vision and Scarlet Witch’s home, and laments over losing their friendship when it was learned he was having an affair with Wanda’s sister-in-law, Crystal.[9] He is surprised when Crystal arrives to see him. She explains that her husband, Quicksilver, ran out on her and if he doesn’t return the Inhuman royal family will grant her a divorce so she and Norm can be together. Norm is still in love with Crystal and welcomes the news, glad they can finally be out in the open about their relationship.[10]
At the hospital, Doctor Strange arrives as Wanda is brought to a specially prepared room. Going over the reports, Stephen tells the expecting parents that the baby should be coming within the hour.
When Wonder Man arrives back at Wanda and Vision’s home, he tells Holly LaDonna that Wanda is about to give birth and her lesson as been cancelled. As Holly leaves, Magneto arrives. However, Simon doesn’t trust Magneto despite the fact that he has been trying to redeem himself and tries to attack him.[11] Magneto uses his powers to wrap up Wonder Man with a lamppost. The Master of Magnetism explains that he came because he felt a disturbing shift in the magnetic field. Investigating he found the remains of Nekra’s voodoo ceremony in on of the Mole Man’s tunnels and feared that Wanda might be in danger. Not sure if he believes Magneto’s story he decides to give him a chance.
They race to the hospital where they catch Nekra, the Grim Reaper, and the fake Simon Williams outside. Upstairs, Wanda has gone into labor and gives birth to a healthy baby boy. After the delivery, Wanda feels a second baby coming. This comes as a surprise to everyone as they could only detect one baby. Doctor Strange suspects that the second baby is the product of magic.[12] This second child is birthed without complication and it turns out to be another healthy baby boy. Outside, Magneto and Wonder Man manage to convince the Grim Reaper that he is a reanimated zombie. Shocked that Nekra would lie to him, he forces her to stop fighting. Kissing Nekra, he forces her to express her love for him, weakening her enough to break the spell that has kept the Reaper alive.[13]
Three days later, Wanda and her twins are released from the hospital. Back at their home in Leona, she and the Vision invite Magneto, Wonder Man, Martha Williams, as well as Glamor and Illusion to see the babies.[14] As everyone celebrates, Glamor asks what she decided to name her second son. Wanda says his name is William to honor Wonder Man — aka Simon Williams — as it was his brain pattern that helped create the Vision.
Recurring Characters
Vision, Scarlet Witch, Nekra, Grim Reaper, Wonder Man, Crystal, Doctor Strange, Magneto, Wong, Ilya Zakov, Glynis Zakov, Norm Webster, Martha Williams, Billy Maximoff, Tommy Maximoff, Holly LaDonna, Mole Man (flashback)
Continuity Notes
This story is presented the entire run of this series happened over the course of 12 months. This puts it at odds of the Sliding Timescale and Marvel has yet to explain this discrepancy as of this writing. My theory is that Wanda created a pocket of “real time” during her pregnancy.
Reed and Sue Richards had their first child, Franklin, in Fantastic Four Annual #6. Per the Sliding Timescale, they have been raising Franklin on top of their duties in the Fantastic Four for about six years at the time of this story.
The Vision’s connection to the original Human Torch and Wonder Man is indeed complicated:
The android Human Torch was created by Phineas Horton in 1939 in Marvel Comics #1. He fought crime during the 1940s and 50s until his powers burned out his body.
Recovered by the Mad Thinker in the Modern Age, the Torch was used against the Fantastic Four before being rendered in operative again in Fantastic Four Annual #4.
Meanwhile, Simon Williams was transformed into Wonder Man by Baron Zemo. Told the process that gave him his powers would kill him, Williams enlisted help from the Avengers to find a cure. Although they failed, they managed to make a recording of Simon’s brain patterns. See Avengers #9. Williams would later return to life in Avengers #151.
Ultron eventually recovered the Human Torch’s body and rebuilt it into the Vision, using Wonder Man’s brain patterns to overwrite the Torch’s personality and memories with a brand new identity. See Avengers #57-58 and 134-135.
What nobody knows at this point is that, while the Torch was deactivated, the time traveler known as Immortus made a chronal duplicate of the Torch. One was buried in Sub-Mariner #14 and will later be reactivated in Avengers West Coast #50. The other was turned into the Vision. See Avengers Forever #8.
While Nekra blames Wonder Man and Vision for the Grim Reaper’s death, he actually killed himself after realizing that he was an inferior brother to Simon Williams than the Vision was. See Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #2.
A footnote here points out that Wonder Man just recently got a new costume in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #12.
This ghoulish Simon Williams look-alike was created in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #1. At the time, the Grim Reaper wanted to restore his brother to the state he was in before he was transformed into Wonder Man in Avengers #9.
Here Nekra explains that she has combined the knowledge she learned from Black Talon’s voodoo with the magical rites from the Cult of Kali and the tribes of West Africa. Nekra learned from the later two groups in Spider-Woman #16 and Shanna the She-Devil #5 respectively.
Simon recalls how he is going to be in a major Hollywood picture. The footnote states that this movie is called Arkon IV which Wonder Man co-stars in with actor Arnold Schwarzburger. For more on this see West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #6-7 and 11.
Crystal and Norm began their affair in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #7 and got found out in issue #10. This ended up ruining Crystal’s marriage.
Things between Crystal and Norm Webster don’t work out, as we’ll see in Fantastic Four #311.
Here, Wonder Man mentions a few of Magneto’s recent activities:
How Magnus took charge of the X-Men. This happened in Uncanny X-Men #200 when a deathly ill Charles Xavier had to leave Earth for treatment in the Shi’ar galaxy. Although he “joined” the X-Men, he mostly spent his time looking after the New Mutants starting in New Mutants #35.
How Magneto fought beside Wonder Man against the Beyonder. Magneto battled the Beyonder alongside members of the X-Men, New Mutants, as well as Captain America and Iron Man in Secret Wars II #1.
That Magneto helped protect Wanda from the Toad on Thanksgiving. This was in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #6.
Doctor Strange is not far off, as we’ll learn in Avengers West Coast #51-52, Wanda’s children were brought to existence using fragments from Mephisto’s soul.
This is not the end of the Grim Reaper as Nekra will try to bring him back to life multiple time after this. They’re next seen in Web of Spider-Man #46.
Here, the Vision recounts how Martha Williams accepted him as son since his brain patterns were based on those of her biological son, Simon. This happened in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #2.
