Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #2
Brothers
This story continues from West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #2…
The West Coast Avengers, as well as Vision and the Scarlet Witch are mounting a rescue mission after Wonder Man and Hank Pym were kidnapped by the Grim Reaper’s Lethal Legion. En route, the team’s Quinjet is attacked by Ultron and his attack drones.[1] While Hawkeye, Iron Man, Vision and Scarlet Witch deal with Ultron inside, Iron Man and Tigra exit the ship to deal with the drones attacking them outside.[2]
They force Ultron out of the ship when the Vision rips off the robot’s arm and Hawkeye fires an jolt arrow into the wound. Ultron then flees, leaving the Avengers to take evasive action to prevent the Quinjet from crashing. While the emergency landing succeeds, everyone is knocked out on impact.
When they wake up, the heroes find themselves being held prisoner along with Wonder Man and Hank Pym in energy prisons. With both Wonder Man and the Vision now his prisoner, the Grim Reaper — aka Eric Williams — explains his master plan. He reveals a corpse that he has altered to look like Simon Williams before he was transformed into Wonder Man and his brain patterns were used to create the Vision.[3] He intends to siphon both Wonder Man and Vision’s minds and merge them together, deleting the memories that don’t match in an effort to recreate his brother as the Reaper remembers him.[4]
Trapped in their cages, Wonder Man and the Vision try to convince the Grim Reaper that they are both his brothers. Vision speaks first, telling the Eric that he met their mother — Martha Williams — who, after hearing about the Vision’s origins, has accepted him as a son.[5] Wonder Man is surprised to learn that the Vision met his mother and this makes him realize that the Vision is almost like a twin brother to him now since they both share the same brain pattern. Meanwhile, the Grim Reaper refuses to accept this recent development. Seeing that psychology is the way to defeat their foe, Hank Pym encourages Wonder Man to continue to convince his brother of the truth. As Simon struggles to speak from the heart the other Avengers tensely wait.[6]
By this time, Ultron has grown tired of waiting and demands that they siphon Wonder Man’s mind first. The Grim Reaper agrees and opens Simon’s cage. Taking this opportunity to act, Williams begins attacking his brother. That’s when Mockingbird arrives after tracking the Quinjet’s distress signal to the Lethal Legion’s hideout. She is able to free the other Avengers who then join the battle. Seeing the situation getting out of control, both Man-Ape and Black Talon decide to flee having been put off by the Reaper’s earlier racist comments toward them. However, Ultron, Nekra and Goliath are still loyal but they are quickly outnumbered by the Avengers superior numbers. With the tide of battle turning both the Reaper and Nekra decide to flee. Although the Avengers all want to go after them, the Vision and Wonder Man insist on going after the Grim Reaper alone.
Wall following the Reaper’s trail through the cave tunnels, the pair discover that some of their senses are enhanced above the usual human range and work together to find their brother. When they find the Grim Reaper he and Nekra have split up in the hopes of getting away separately. When they ambush the Reaper they quickly overpower to him and Simon tries to get Eric to finally see the truth that his is the true Simon Williams. To prove this, he calls out Eric for claiming to be the one who embezzled money from his company, the inciting incident that led to Simon losing his company and being enlisted by Baron Zemo to create Wonder Man.[8] Simon tells Eric to stop claiming he embezzled the money, it was him and up until now he hasn’t owned up to the truth, something that was easier since everyone has accepted him as a hero since his return from the grave.
Hearing Wonder Man telling the truth — something that only the real Simon Williams would know — the Grim Reaper realizes that he has been wrong all along. Seeing that the Vision is a better brother than he is, Eric decides that he is the one who is different and needs to go. Before they can stop him, the Grim Reaper leaps down a chasm to his apparent death. The Vision flies down after him but is unable to find his body in the darkness.[9] By the time they get back to the others the battle is long over. While Ultron and Nekra managed to escape they have succeeded in capturing Goliath.
Despite the escapes, the Vision is invigorated by the days events as he finally has a family to call his own. Wanda understands how her husband feels as she felt the same way after learning her real father was Magneto. This whole experience has convinced the Vision that he wants to start a family of his own and asks Wanda if she wants to have a baby.
Recurring Characters
Vision, Scarlet Witch, West Coast Avengers (Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Iron Man, Wonder Man, Tigra, Hank Pym), Lethal Legion (Grim Reaper, Nekra, Ultron, Goliath, Black Talon, Man-Ape)
Continuity Notes
Here, the Vision states that Ultron created him. This is true. See Avengers #57-58 and 134-135.
A footnote here reminds readers that Iron Man previously fought Ultron’s drones in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #1.
Simon Williams was transformed in to Wonder Man way back in Avengers #9. At the time, he was told the process would kill him eventually and he enlisted the Avengers to help save his life. Although they failed to do so, they made a copy of his brain patterns which were later used to create the Vision’s personality. Although dead for a period of time, Simon came back from the dead in Avengers #151.
The Grim Reaper has been constantly trying to recreate the memory of his brother before the creation of Wonder Man and the Vision. See Avengers #102, 106-108, 160 and Vision and the Scarlet Witch #3.
The Vision met Martha Williams in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #2.
While waiting for Wonder Man to act, the Scarlet Witch recounts how the Vision is fully in touch with his emotions after removing a specialized crystal from his mind that left him open to influence and stunted his emotional growth. See Avengers #254.
The Grim Reaper referred to Man-Ape as a “black savage” in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #2, as you’d expect the comment wasn’t received very well. #CancelGrimReaper
Again, this all happened in Avengers #9.
The Grim Reaper indeed fall to his death as we will see his corpse in Web of Spider-Man #46. He will get resurrected as a zombie in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #12.
Wanda recently learned that she was the daughter of Magneto in Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4. However, this will turn out to have been a deception. As an infant, Wanda was experimented upon by the High Evolutionary who covered up his work by making future genetic tests register her as a mutant. Wanda’s real parents were Natalya Maximoff and an unidentified Scarlet Warlock. See Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5, and Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #4 and 11.