Vision and the Scarlet Witch 1 was written by Steve Engleheart with art by Richard Howell and Andy Mushynsky and opens with US Government a$$hole Henry Peter Gyrich and his associate Raymond Sikorsky investigating the Vision after his recent attempt to take over the world (seen here https://marvelmunky76.wordpress.com/2017/04/11/january-1985-avengers-254-or-vision-we-are-all-here-because-we-love-you-but-you-have-a-problem/ ) and Wanda ‘Scarlet Witch’ Maximoff is getting just a little bit sick of being kept in the dark. She starts making her way to her husband, in a different part of the top secret Project Pegasus installation, whilst a calm and collected Vision is interrogated as to why he no longer speaks in his original staccato delivery and now sounds more like a regular person. After going over his origin as the 1st Human Torch, his ‘death’ and resurrection as the Vision by Ultron, to his joining the Avengers, he explains his recent revelation. He is a human mind, operating a prosthetic body, his body is synthetic, but he himself is not. Gyrich points out that this makes little difference to him and he will keep him as long as he deems necessary, till Wanda destroys the last door between her and her husband and declares that they are in fact leaving. Gyrich points out that they are security risks as Avengers and the two quit on the spot, Wanda delivering a little fist-gesture to Gyrich on the way out.
They leave and go back to their former home of Leonia in New Jersey and speak to Norm Webster, a pleasant estate agent (getting into fantasy elements her aren’t we?) who after warning them of the climate of distrust in the town, proceeds to sell them a huge house in town. No one asks how they are going to pay for it, with Wanda and Vision both being unemployed, but that’s by the by. Meanwhile the West Coast Avengers discuss their recent battle with Ultron and the kidnapping of Simon ‘Wonder Man’ Williams and Dr Hank Pym (who for once has no real costumed identity) and they continue to try and call Vision, since Ultron and Wonder Man are related to him. In the garden of their new house, the pair are attacked by Zombies, under the command of Black Talon and Nekra. (I had to look both of them up myself.)
The two are working with Eric ‘Grim Reaper’ Williams and are there to capture Vision, but they are undead after all and bring the wrong person back, while Vision battles a remaining Zombie. Wanda has her own origin flashback and the Grim Reaper arrives to give Nekra a good frenching, whilst complaining about Black Talon’s failure to fulfill his task. Vision soon arrives, following one of the zombies and tries to free his wife, coming across the body of Simon Williams as he was before he became Wonder Man. Grim Reaper blasts Wanda, Vision then has a choice, capture Grim Reaper, Black Talon and Nekra, or save his wife from the zombies.
Vision chooses his wife and the bad guys leave with ‘Simon’ and Vision calls for help from Wonder Man’s team mates, the West Coast Avengers.
Notes: It was hard in some respects to take this issue seriously, primarily because of just how much happens. We get both of the couple’s origins, interrogation, moving, zombies, dead heroes, guest stars and the lead in to a cross over. That’s a lot even for the 40 pages that we are getting here. The art is unspectacular to say the least, with Richard Howell doing a competent job. The heavy lifting here is done by Steve Englehart. The writing in this comic is hampered only by the clunky 80’s dialogue, but the story itself is highly enjoyable. The Vision being interrogated and remaining cool is ice and only getting angry about how is wife is treated is a great character beat. With his formerly monotone voice and his calm demeanour, it is easy to assume that Vision is unemotional, but this is far from true. He is loving and passionate and when his wife is threatened, quick to anger. Their decision to quit the Avengers makes a degree of sense, given how they both have been treated and their desire to live as regular people is touching and relatable, they want, what we all want.
The zombie story seems tacked on, mainly to lead into a West Coast Avengers story, but in that it’s still fun to see. The use of Grim Reaper adds to that family feeling to this, Vision and Eric could be considered brothers after a fashion and in the black sheep of the family way, makes this more relatable. With Marvel doing everything they can to destroy happy couples in the last ten years or so, it’s nice to go back and see the happy ever after of Vision and the Scarlet Witch.
Next Time: Iron Man returns
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