CELESTIAL QUEST: The other Vision romance

[starwolf_oakley]

AVENGERS #0 showed that the Vision has altered his own mind so that when he remembers Wanda, he isn't affected by any emotions that go with it. Kind of what Rogue did to Carol Danvers by accident, the Vision did to himself on purpose, so every time he sees Wanda he won't want to lie down and die.

But...



It should be noted that the "Vision was disassembled and his memory erased before getting restored with no emotions" story was all Mockingbird's fault. This was in AVENGERS WEST COAST #42-45.

Long story short (too late) the Vision gets his original coloring back, as well as his emotions and his emotional connections to his old memories. Artificial Intelligence is weird in the Marvel Universe.

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/5322239.html#cutid1

Anyway, AVENGERS: THE CELESTIAL QUEST was a 2001-2002 miniseries that covered Mantis returning to the Avengers. And her starting a romance with the Vision.
Less than seven pages from three issues.





The Vision can be really mopey sometimes. "I have my mind back... but it's really Simon Williams' mind, kind of sort of."



I never quite got why Mantis used "This one" instead of pronouns. And I'm really confused by the green skin, given she's human.






Vision is being goofy, but Wanda doesn't mind him finding someone else.

The Avengers (or this group of Avengers) go to the planet of the Cotati, the plant people who sent Mantis' Baby Daddy to earth. The baby himself, Sequoia, AKA Quoi, is a grouchy teenager who doesn't seem to care Thanos is after him.

Mantis' Baby Daddy shows up, and The Vision decides to go Alpha Male.





Actually, this makes some sense. Was Simon Williams a reserved introvert before he became Wonder Man? Perhaps the Vision is more like "original Simon" than we realize. Wonder Man Simon is more "I gained superpowers, spent several years in a death-like coma, then woke up and decided to go Hollywood" than original Simon.
Maybe this is why the Grim Reaper keeps saying "The Vision and Wonder Man are imperfect copies of Simon!"



Dun dun DUNN!!!!

Two issues later:





More things happen. The Vision shares some secrets with Mantis.







Between Wanda going "crazy town banana pants" (Thanks, Bendis!) and Tommy and Billy coming back (Thanks, Heinberg, I say less sarcastically!) maybe the Vision *has* to "emotionally disconnect" from his memories to keep from going AI crazy.

Mantis is set to show up in the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Whether she will be from Earth, have green skin and not use personal pronouns is unknown at this point. As a fan, I'm miffed MCU Drax isn't really Arthur Douglas, unaware his daughter is still alive. So far, at least.

I may post the rest of the story if enough are interested.

Comments

[beyondthefringe]

Man, I can detect Englehart's writing from a mile away. There's just something about it that drives me up the wall.

[katefan]

Oh yes, I agree a hundred percent. And Englehart also loves, loves, loves Mantis. I think almost every story he's ever written involves the Celestial Madonna in some way, shape or form. I heard there are even stand ins in some of his DC work.

[obsidianwolf]

I can tolerate Englehart myself at least when he isn't attempting to write any kind of interaction between a man and a woman. Somehow he always manages to make them fifty shades of creepy while also being stiff as a board.

[captainbellman]

The Vision: seriously into weird pointy headgear balanced on top of big hair.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

Back in the 70s, I had one of the early issues that set up this situation and I always wondered how it played out. This wasn't worth the wait.

I have my doubts about anyone actually using the phrase "This is so wack" in real life, and even more doubts about anyone who actually used it still using it in the 21st century, but even if I'm wrong there, I'm pretty certain that it's spelled "wack" and not "whack."

[starwolf_oakley]

Wasn't that a bit on Everybody Loves Raymond?

Robert: This is so whack!
Ray: Okay, see right there. We're Italian; "Whack" means something else to us.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

That sounds right. I probably only saw half a dozen episodes of the show - unlike Friends, Everybody Love Raymond never even made it into my "Nothing else is on, so I might as well watch it in syndication" routine - but those lines could have been in one of them.

[q99]

Hm, I kinda like this Vision.

[remial]

so the toaster thing...
is Vision speaking metaphorically, or was he literally turned into a toaster?

Because I keep thinking of a Vision colored toaster wanting to charge into battle at the cry of "Avengers Assemble!" but all he can do in response is pop up a couple of slices of slightly burned toast.

And sighing.

[starwolf_oakley]

"Toaster" is a metaphor, but one that John Byrne used a few times in interviews. He even wondered if any of the Avengers would ever risk their lives to save the Vision, since he has "backups."

[philippos42]

Not the smartest thing John Byrne ever said....