No, we didn’t see this one coming, but we should have — the introduction of the White Vision.
The White Vision is a product of The West Coast Avengers series written by John Byrne from the late 80s. After a brief stint as head of the Avengers in the Avengers by Roger Stern, Vision’s desire to do good drives him a little power mad as he takes over the world’s computer systems in an attempt to rid of the world of wrongdoing. Thankfully, the Avengers step in in the final moments and save Vision from ultimate destruction.
Wanda and Vision head off to their own comic series and lives shortly thereafter and later rejoin the West Coast Avengers team when an elaborate scheme from the governments of the world eliminate Vision (born of their fear of another worldwide computer hacking from him) ending with a scene we now recognize as very familiar.
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Vision disassembled is jarring, but a very monumental moment for the comics. After being reassembled by Hank Pym, the Vision that was known so well by the Avengers, including his wife Wanda, is no more. He’s suddenly white, and the implanted brain waves of Simon Williams (Wonder Man) that had been used in part to create the original Vision were no longer available to give Vision his human “soul” back. (Well, Simon was around, but refused to help because he was in love with Wanda … but I digress.)
The White Vision was cold and emotionless, lacking the piece that gave him his humanity, so he comes off as the being that he is — a robot. It took him from his synthezoid, “synthetic human” state and made him into more of an android. However, he is still an Avenger and fights alongside the team in his new and … unimproved form.
We learned in this episode as well that “normal” Vision is a construct of Wanda and the Hex, with Vision’s body having been in the hands of Hayward all along. So this White Vision isn’t off to a really good start …
Hayward has been fishy since he arrived in New Jersey, so why did we believe him when he said Wanda stole Vision’s corpse? They really had us going … The White Vision fits perfectly into what we all knew Hayward was up to, just with an evil twist.
WandaVision is set to take this White Vision on a different path than his comic counterpart. Hayward wants a cold, emotionless sentient weapon to do his bidding and without J.A.R.V.I.S. to help mold Vision’s brainwaves into the Vision we — and Wanda — have gotten to know and love, he’ll be a blank slate to mold into the perfect deadly force. Does he want him for Ultron? For himself? For someone else? Hopefully we find out in episode 9.
Another key element to the White Vision comic story was the emotional turmoil that it put Wanda through. Suddenly, her husband was a cold shell of his former self, putting himself through the motions of being a husband rather than actually being one, and Hank Pym’s inability to put Vision’s memories back into his body eventually causes Wanda to spiral in despair. Wanda and Vision never reconcile their marriage after his change, despite an attempt to make it work by both parties. (West Coast Avengers is also the same series that features the twins’ final fate at the hands of Mephisto as well, for anyone keeping track.)
Wanda is tricked and trapped by Jeremiah Random a.k.a Charles Edison when he tells her he can fix Vision’s memories, and he uses Wanda for the Assimilator, a device used for mutant superiority. Here, Wanda sees the past of the mutants starting at the dawn of time, and gets a little too close to Magneto’s mindset of mutants over humans for a quick little moment.
The introductions of mutants has been a running theory for WandaVision for awhile, especially with the appearance of Evan Peters’ Pietro from the X-Men universe that still has yet to be explained (no I don’t buy it was all Agatha, he’s still there!). But, hope is waning for the mutants to join the MCU with every passing episode …
We don’t know Vision’s future in the MCU, if he even has one, but expect whatever happens to roll into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness with Wanda’s mental state at least.
The first eight episodes of WandaVision are streaming on Disney+ with the finale set to release Friday, March 5.
