Young Avengers Presents #4
Vision
The Vision has come to check on his Young Avenger teammate Stature (Cassie Lang), who had signed up for the Initiative after the superhero civil war.[1] Longing to see her once more, the Vision disguises himself as Tony Stark (aka Iron Man, aka the Director of SHIELD) to arrange a meeting.[2] After fooling the facility guards, Vision makes his true identity known to Cassie and convinces her to go off compound to eat with him at a local diner.
Once they are sitting in a booth, Cassie expresses her disappointment that the Vision continued to fight in the resistance after she switched sides and warns him that, as an unregistered superhuman, she will have to arrest him when they figure out that he isn’t really Tony Stark. However, she thinks that as an artificial being the Vision was merely influenced by those around him and suggests that he turn himself in and register so they can be reunited. She then asks him to change his form because his current appearance makes it look like she is on a date with Tony Stark and that makes her feel vulnerable. The Vision complies, taking on the form of Nathaniel Richards (aka Iron Lad) his creator.[3] Little do they know that they are being monitored by scientists from Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) who have been targeting the Vision.
Cassie is freaked out that the Vision would take on this appearance, however the robot explains that since his brain patterns were based on Nathaniel Richards (aka Iron Lad), this form comes natural to him. He explains that he has spent his time following the war traveling the Earth. He provided aid in Darfur, then climbed the mountains of Transia — birthplace of the Scarlet Witch — to discover he felt nothing toward her,[4] this was followed by time as a grounds keeper at a Shinto Shrine in Kyoto and tending bar in New Zealand. What he learned from it all was that he was an individual, which was a good start on his road of self discovery. He ultimately decided that he chose to fight against registration by his own decision. He says that his predecessor would have sided with Tony Stark.
Taking Cassie’s hand, the Vision tells Cassie that he had an intuition about her that was right. Otherwise why would she look so lonely in the Initiative and why would she agree to meet him rather than turn him in right away. This upsets Cassie, who believes that Vision is using Nathaniel’s face to try and manipulate her emotionally. She is steadfast in her resolve, reminding him how Captain America tried to shut the Young Avengers down when they first formed and that he was right considering the trouble they got into.[5] So she decided to follow the law because being a rebel leads to situations like the Scarlet Witch.[6]
That’s when they are ambushed with AIM who blast the Vision with a ray that makes instinctively him phase his arm through Cassie’s chest while she is trying to change sizes. This causes the two powers to negate each other, leaving the pair stuck together.[7] Despite this, the Vision can still use his solar eye blasts and both are trained fighters. They are able to hold their own against the AIM soldiers and Cassie notices that the Vision is starting to use contractions in his speech, something he never done before. Realizing that their window to capture the Vision and get away is running out, the rogue scientists teleport away, promising to be back. In the aftermath of the battle, the Vision tells Cassie that he has decided on a name to give himself, telling her to call him Jonas from now on.
After this experience, Cassie decides that she isn’t going to turn the Vision in like this after all. When SHIELD arrives with a team of Cape-Killers, the Vision uses his technology to make himself appear invisible. Cassie is then able to tell most of the truth by telling them that the “Tony Stark” she went out with was an anti-registration hero posing as Stark. Once she satisfies their questions, she is allowed to leave. The pair then take a bus to an abandoned farm outside of town. There, the Vision comes up with a means to get free. With Cassie able to use her size changing powers again, she grows to giant-size pushing the Vision’s arm out of her body to the point where he can pull it free with only causing minor injury that can be patched up with a bandage when she resumes normal size.
Once they are free, Jonas talks about how he is becoming his own person and regardless of the complicated facts he does have feelings for Cassie even though she doesn’t really know him. He then kisses her, which she allows, but she is confused about how she really feels about him now and wishes he hadn’t kissed her just now. Jonas apologizes and reverts back to his Vision form and prepares to leave. Cassie stops him and tells him that she now realizes he is not who he thought he was and tells him to give her time to process all of this. He tells her that he will respect her wishes and give her the time she needs.
Recurring Characters
Vision, Stature, AIM, SHIELD
Continuity Notes
This story takes place after the events of Civil War #1-7, where the government passed the Super Human Registration Act (SHRA) that requires superhumans to register with the government. This split the community in half, but the pro-registry side won. Although she was part of the resistance, Cassie switched sides after she was briefly arrested in Civil War #4. After the war she enlisted in the Initiative, a training camp for novice heroes, in Avengers: The Initiative #1.
Tony Stark was the face of pro-registration during the civil war and following its conclusion he was convinced to take over as Director of SHIELD in New Avengers #25.
As seen in Young Avengers #1-6, the Vision came into being when Iron Lad traveled back in time to form a team of Avengers to prevent his becoming Kang the Conqueror. To do so, he downloaded the original Vision’s memories into his neuro-kinetic armor (the Vision had recently been destroyed in Avengers #500). In the end, Nathaniel was forced to return to his own time, but not before the armor became sentient forming a persona based on the memories and personality of both the Vision and Richards. During his time with the Young Avengers, Nathaniel and Cassie formed a mutual attraction to one another. It has been hinted that these feelings were passed onto the Vision in Young Avengers #10
The original Vision fell in love with the Scarlet Witch which began in Avengers #91. The two eventually got married in Giant-Size Avengers #4. They had become estranged after the Vision was subject to a mind wipe that destroyed his capacity for feeling for a time, as seen in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #44. The Vision later went on to consider their marriage over since Avengers (vol. 3) #4.
Both Iron Man and Captain America tried to shut down the Young Avengers, as seen in Young Avengers #1-8, the team refused. Cassie also mentions how the team broke Speed out of juvie as proof they were right. That happened in Young Avengers #10 as the team needed to boost their ranks to rescue Hulkling, who had been kidnapped by the Super-Skrull at the time. See Young Avengers #9-12.
She is referring to when the Scarlet Witch went mad and decimated the original Avengers. See Avengers #500-503/Avengers: Finale #1.
If you want a nerdy explanation that ties Pym Particles (the method in which Cassie changes size) and the Vision’s phasing powers check out FF (vol. 2) #16.
Topical References
Cassie says she feels vulnerable like “Britney”, she is referring to pop musician Britney Spears. This story was published around the time that Spears was both at the height of her popularity and the pressures of fame were playing havoc on her mental health. After a very public melt down she was forced to enter conservatorship in 2008, allowing her father to take complete control of every aspect of her life. This conservatorship was ultimately terminated in 2023. Given the dated nature of this reference it should be considered topical as there are no shortage of celebrities who have hit hard times due to their fame and you could use a more contemporary example.
The Vision states that Darfur needed aid where very little people thought of it. This is alluding to the then on going war in that region of Sudan. It began in 2003 and carried on until 2020. It created a humanitarian crisis that no many world powers seemed to care about at the time (probably because there weren’t resources to exploit). That said, and reference to that specific conflict should be considered topical. Modern readers could interpret this as some other event unique to the fiction.
The Vision states that he tended bar at the Funky Fish near Ninety Mile Beach in New Zealand. There is an actually place called that in New Zealand that I found from my half-assed Google search, but its like 10 hours away from 90 Mile. Sooooo.. Toppppical, I guess? Hope you fuckers appreciate the length I go to research this shit.
Cassie states that she needs a Band-Aid. This is a brand name for adhesive bandages. Usually a real world product referenced in these books would be considered topical. However, the Band-Aid brand has become synonymous with the product they sell. As such, this wouldn’t necessarily be considered topical as the term has become a proprietary eponym.
