The Vision in Animation: A Retrospective

[RoyalRubble]

With the Vision introduced in the newest episode of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, I figured it would be a good time to look back on his previous animated appearances. This retrospective will chronicle all of his appearances in Marvel cartoons from the 90s to today. All images featured in this post appear courtesy of Marvel Animation Age. Hope you all enjoy reading it!

The Vision's first appearance in comics was in Avengers #57 (1968), and was created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema. Ultron, a robot created by Hank Pym (better known as either Ant-Man or Giant-Man), who went rogue and fought the Avengers on several occasions, created an android himself, which he called a synthezoid to fight and destroy Pym and the other super heroes. Intended to be the "perfect vision of the future", the android adopts the name Vision and soon learns that Ultron used the brain patterns of then-deceased Wonder Man as a template to create him. During a fight with the Avengers he is convinced to rebel against his creator, and eventually joins the super hero team and forms a relationship with fellow team-mate the Scarlet Witch.

The second season of the Fantastic Four animated series that aired in the mid-90s on Fox Kids features cameos of the Vision in a couple of episodes. This second season was a vast improvement over the disappointing first season. Vision appears as a member of the Avengers, although he doesn't have any lines, his name is never mentioned and he is usually on-screen for less than a minute. He can be seen in the episode "To Battle the Living Planet", where he helps the other Avengers save some people from a car trapped under a collapsed bridge. He's later seen in the final episode, entitled "Doomsday" once again alongside the other Avengers fighting the super-powered Doctor Doom. Doom managed to obtain the Power Cosmic from the Silver Surfer, something he already did on the show once before, if we count the first season finale, but I liked the way this episode handled the story better anyway. Co-incidentally, his cameos take place in the same two episodes where we get to see Hercules - another Marvel comics character I have started a retrospective about.

Vision was a main character on the Avengers: United they Stand animated series which started airing in the late 90s also on Fox Kids. The show lasted for only 13 episodes; it didn't feature any of the more well-known Avengers as regular characters (although Iron Man and Captain America did guest-star each in one episode), and the heroes had some silly armors they had to wear during their missions - as well as various models, such as jungle armor. The Vision was spared from such an armor, I'm guessing because he was already made out of metal. Overall, the show was pretty bad and none of the characters ever did anything that interesting, making the show very boring and forgettable. I never really liked any of the characters featured on this show, though to be fair I was never a big fan of either Ant-Man, Wasp, Hawkeye or any of the others, at least until Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes premiered. Pretty much every character on this show was presented far better than on United They Stand. Hank Pym (as both Ant-Man and Giant-Man), Wasp and Hawkeye are all awesome on Earth's Mightiest Heroes and make the previous Avengers show even more forgettable. And while Vision and Falcon have appeared very little so far, I think it's safe to say they will also fair better than in their previous animated appearances. But I'll get to Earth's Mightiest Heroes in due time, and I'm pretty sure I'll have nothing but good things to say about it. But until then...

Since Vision was featured in every episode of Avengers: United they Stand, I'll just comment on his most notable appearances on the show. Here he was voiced by Ron Rubin, and as in the comics, he is introduced as the newest creation of the evil robot Ultron. He first appears in the series premiere, the two-part episode titled "Avengers Assemble", where Ultron sends him to attack the Avengers. As a side note, I find it interesting that this same title would later be used for the series finale of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and as the title for a new Avengers animated series, which hasn't even premiered yet; I'm not trying to say these series are in set in the same Universe or that they shouldn't have used this title (it is a pretty common phrase in the Avengers comics), I just found it interesting.

During Vision's attack on the Avengers Mansion, Wonder Man (Simon Williams) is injured badly. Trying to save his life, Ant-Man comes up with the idea to transfer Simon's memories into the android's body, who they managed to de-activate earlier. Despite Scarlet Witch's protests - she apparently was in a relationship with Simon; I guess, since the show didn't really explain it that well - the transfer is done and now the Vision is re-activated. Now having a conscience the android turns against his creator Ultron and is allowed to join the Avengers. Like I said he never got an armor on this show, but he got a belt buckle with the Avengers' logo on it. But Ultron manages to steal Wonder Man's comatose body from the Mansion, which leads to some sort of story-arc for the series; the Avengers have to save him from Ultron.

In the episode "What A Vision Has To Do", the Avengers manage to rescue Simon from Ultron. Here, the Vision volunteers to act as bait for Ultron, part of an elaborate plan. I thought the idea was pretty good, but executed badly. Vision pretends to go rogue, in an attempt to trick Ultron into believing he has returned to his original programming. Ultron then comes to retrieve his android, and the Avengers track Vision back to Ultron's base where they do manage to save Wonder Man and take him back to their Mansion. But the story-arc is still not over (and unfortunately won't end by the time the show finishes its run) since they still don't have a clue how to wake him up from his coma.

Towards the end of the episode "The Sorceress's Apprentice", Wanda the Scarlet Witch manages to bring Simon back to life by using magic. And so Wanda is reunited with her beloved Simon. The episode seems to imply Vision is actually jealous, and there were a couple of hints about a possible romance between him and Wanda but since none of the characters were developed enough to make it clear. Simon's brother, the villainous Grim Reaper also appears in this episode but nothing apart from him being Simon's brother is actually revealed about him. Considering he only appeared in this one episode and near the end of the series, they could have explained a little more.

The series finale, the two part episode "Earth and Fire", features the Avengers fighting the Zodiac, a group of alien super villains who have had cameos in two previous episodes, but their origins or motivations weren't really explained. Apart from their leader Taurus who gets a decent amount of screen-time (but not even that makes him an interesting enough character) most of the other members don't even get to speak. This two-parter has some long, drawn-out and uninteresting fight scenes between the Avengers and the Zodiac, which make it pretty boring. Most if not all of the story lines spread throughout the 13 episodes of this show don't get any proper resolution and end on cliff-hangers, including the Vision - Scarlet Witch - Wonder Man story. Overall, the entire show was pretty much a mess and I personally wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it before.

And now that his less than stellar appearances in animation have been covered, I can move on to the next part: Vision on Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

 

[RoyalRubble]

Part Two

In 2008 Marvel released Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow, a direct-to-DVD animated movie which depicts a reality where most of the Avengers have been killed in battle by Ultron and his army of machines. Iron Man, one of the few heroes that survived, took the children of the Avengers to a refuge hidden somewhere in the Arctic Circle, where he keeps them safe and trains them for twelve years. The group of kids - James Rogers (son of Captain America and Black Widow), Torunn (daughter of Thor and I'm guessing Sif), Azari T'Challa (son of Black Panther and Storm) and Henry Pym Jr. (son of Giant Man and Wasp, obviously) - are told each night by Tony Stark the story of how their parents gathered together and about their adventures up to their defeat. The Vision was seen part of the team in flashback scenes and he was identified as the "Ghost Avenger".

The story really starts when the Vision arrives at their refuge, badly damaged by Ultron's forces. Here Vision was voiced by Shawn MacDonald and is introduced as another one of the heroes that survived (though technically you can't kill a machine) and has been hiding from Ultron inside his headquarters, Ultra City. He has returned to Tony to inform him that Ultron has now conquered most of the world, and that he has learned Hwekeye's son (Francis Barton, and his mother was most likely Mockingbird) has also survived and they have to go find him. In this continuity, Tony was the one who built Ultron, instead of Hank Pym as in most stories. Vision's origin isn't mentioned at all during the movie though I'm guessing his wasn't changed.

Soon Ultron discovers where the kids have been hiding and attacks their headquarters, prompting the elderly Tony Stark to wear the Iron Man armor again and fight. The kids are told to take Vision's head - it is detachable - and board the Quinjet, which is then activated by the android's head and is programmed to take them to the Savage Land. Vision starts explaining to the kids that their destination won't be as bad as it sounds, but then has to go offline to recharge. And he won't do anything else for the remainder of the film. Though Henry Pym Jr. is seen carrying the android's head in a couple of scenes.

The kids decide to finish the battle their parents started, and defeat Ultron themselves but soon learn they'll need all the help they can get. The one who ultimately destroys the robot is the Hulk, the last of the surviving heroes who has been hiding in the desert all these years. The fight between Hulk and Ultron was pretty great, as well as the fight between the kids and the Iron Avengers (robots based on their parents, with all of their abilities). Vision finally comes back online, continuing his speech about the Savage Land from where he left off, only to notice that Ultron has been defeated - Hulk ripped him in half - and that the world has been saved. That was a pretty amusing scene. Overall, this was a fun movie.

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes debuted on Disney XD in fall of 2010. Like I mentioned in the first part of this retrospective, this show managed to give pretty much every Avenger a decent amount of screen time and offer them some character development they lacked in United They Stand. Vision only appears in the latter half of the second season, but his creator Ultron appeared a lot more on the show. Early on the show we see Hank Pym working on the robot (though apparently Tony Stark also had a hand in creating Ultron) and later we learn that he has build an army of Ultrons to act as guards in the Big House - the prison he designed, where villains are shrunk and placed inside a miniature prison.

Later, Hank reprograms his Ultron units to join and aid them in the fight against Kang the Conqueror's futuristic forces when he invades our timeline and attacks Earth. Teaching the once peaceful Ultron the concept of "violence" would lead to the robot's uprising and the birth of one of the Avengers' most terrific villains. The changes are seen (and heard) almost immediately: Ultron's eyes start glowing red, and his voice is no longer provided by Wally Wingert (Hank Pym's voice actor), but by Tom Kane (reprising his role from the above mentioned Next Avengers animated movie).

Ultron reveals himself as a villain in the episode "Ultron-5", where he takes over the systems in the Avengers Mansion - including Iron Man's many armors - and attacks the heroes. Ultron has evolved beyond his original programming and decided to take matters into his own hands, and create a perfect and peaceful world, even if it means destroying the Avengers and the rest of humanity, because their logic is flawed. We learn his programming won't allow him to hurt Wasp (he mentions that he is trying to overwrite that), but he can fight the others, to the point he apparently kills Thor in battle - though obviously Thor didn't die and was only transported away by the Enchantress before he was hit by Ultron's beam. Hulk is the one who again defeats the robot, tearing him apart. Hank feels responsible for all this as Ultron was his creation and decides to quit the Avengers, as soon as he disposes of any other Ultron components left.

Obviosuly this wasn't the end of Ultron; he returns in the next episode, "The Ultron Imperative", where he takes over the SHIELD hellicarrier and obtains the launch codes for every nuclear missile in the world. He plans on launching them all at once, ending all life on Earth, believing this is the only way to finally obtain peace. As for how he survived the events from the previous episode, it is revealed that he built himself a new body and managed to upload his artificial intelligence into it, unbeknownst to the Avengers. Now calling himself Ultron-6, he considers himself perfect, and the only being that should keep on living. Among his upgrades, we see his ability to absorb Gamma radiation from the Hulk (resulting into him turning back into Bruce Banner), and is now able to actually hurt Wasp (as the previous version wasn't allowed). That is when Hank arrives and enters the robot's head, trying to upload a program inside. Ultron mentions that no virus can defeat him; but Hank isn't using a virus, he's using logic. Soon after Ultron shuts down, and Hank explains what happened. Since Ultron was based on the human mind, he himself is flawed and not perfect, and cannot exist in his own imperative.

Much later, the episode "Behold... the Vision!" marks the debut of Ultron's android. Vision is introduced as Ultron's "perfect vision of destruction" and is sent to obtain three items - Adamantium, Vibranium and Captain America's shield - which would help his creator become indestructible. He manages to obtain Adamantium, but he fails the rest of the mission. While Vision poves to be more than a match for the Avengers for most of the episode, he is defeated once Black Panther realizes he is a machine and is the first one who manages to destroy part of him, which coupled with the attacks of the other Avengers was enough to make the Vision abort the mission. But Ultron has managed to bond Adamantium to his body, making him almost indestructible and ready for the next phase of his plan.

In "Ultron Unlimited", a group of synthezoid Avengers built by Ultron and lead by Vision begin attacking the real heroes and start replacing them, one by one. This is just the first step of Ultron's master plan - replacing the entire human race with robots he will build. Besides all that, he has some special plans for the Wasp: he wants to transfer Jan's brain inside his future robot bride, Jocasta. I liked how this episode portrayed the Vision, showing how he evolved from Ultron's robotic servant to ultimately defeating his master, and start questioning his existence, and his belief that he should act more human to become "perfect", as Ultron intended him to be. His sacrifice towards the ending made for a great dramatic moment, and the Avengers' reactions to his speech just made it more touching. I also liked how some of the other robot Avengers were starting to try and understand how humans think in order to fully copy them - it would have been interesting if by the end of the episode, Vision wasn't the only robot with a conscience but the destruction of the robots made for a great action scene.

Tony Stark tries repairing Vision in the episode "Emperor Stark". He mentions that he's also scanning the android, though we never learn whose brain patterns were used by Ultron to create the Vision on this show. In this story, Vision awakens after a month of repairs only to find that Iron Man and the Avengers have taken over the Earth. Soon he learns that the one responsible for all this is actually the Purple Man. Vision is attacked by Captain America, but manages with the help of Jarvis to make Cap snap out from under Purple Man's control, and the two of them lave to save the others. After Hawkeye and Ms. Marvel are also saved, Vision comments that it was easy enough - and soon learns from the others that you should never say how easy a fight is, as a mind-controlled Thor approaches them. This leads to Vision's best scene in this episode: his fight with Thor.

The last episode to have Vision play a large and important role is "Live Kree or Die", where the Avengers find themselves stranded on the Kree home planet. Here he has to fight some alien beasts alongside Hawkeye, Iron Man and Thor inside a Kree training ground. I loved the short scenes with Vision and Hawkeye, including the small reminder that one should never say how easy a fight is (a nice continuity nod to the episode mentioned above). After the Avengers regroup, they find themselves in front of the Kree Supreme Intelligence, which Vision tries to shut down, but fails. Captain Mar-Vell is the one who ultimately de-activates the Supremor.

Vision is seen in pretty much every episode after he joins the team, but mostly as a background character and rarely having any lines. The episodes that feature and focus on him are awesome, though. I'm a relatively recent fan of the character - after reading up on him and seeing him on this show. Before this, I always considered him only a copy of the Martian Manhunter from DC Comics. No idea when or where he'll show up next, but here's hoping his next animated appearance will be good.

 

[RoyalRubble]

With WandaVision (which can be discussed here) premiering today, I thought it would be a good time to update this retrospective to cover Vision's more recent appearances in cartoons. It's been over 8 years since I last posted in this thread, so there is quite a bit to cover, seeing as Vision also joined the cast for the final few seasons of Avengers Assemble and as such he received even more screen-time. It was inevitable he would appear on the show, given his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and seeing how the animated series tried to mirror its live-action counter-part whenever possible.

While these new articles may not be as detailed or well-written as those in the past (due to various reasons, including but not limited to time constraints and kind of lack of interest in really re-visitng the most recent Marvel animated series, to be brutally honest), I think there's still enough material here to cover for a decent sized retrospective. I hope you all enjoy reading through this updated retrospective, and keep in mind these are just my opinions. Feel free to share your own thoughts, comments or even point out any possible errors in my write-up below! For anyone wondering, I am not sure if I will have the final (for now) article ready to post next week, so I might wait until WandaVision ends its run to post that. Hopefully I will be finished with it by then. Also as a note, while I doubt my opinion has changed too much in regards to the shows I covered previously in this thread, I will admit I haven't read through them again, so feel free to comment on those as well, if needed. I still consider Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes superior to the newer animated series, and their take on Vision is probably my favorite animated version of the character. But Vision's most recent appearances in cartoons should still be covered, even if only for posterity.

Following a brief appearance in the Lego Marvel Super Heroes: Avengers Reassembled animated special (where he was voiced by JP Karliak), Vision made his triumphant return to animation in 2016, during the third season of Avengers Assemble, which gained the sub-title "Ultron Revolution". As I presume most people reading this already know, the series premiered in 2012 replacing the previously discussed Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and initially focused on the Avengers fighting Red Skull and his Cabal. The show tried to keep up with the MCU, while also taking place in the somewhat loose continuity of the other, newer Marvel cartoons at the time, Ultimate Spider-Man and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. (though there are bound to be some contradictions along the way), as well as supposedly being a sequel of sorts to Earth's Mightiest Heroes (despite there being five or so contradictions to it only in the first two episodes). Overall, I do think the show had some pretty good stuff in it but I will admit the majority of episodes are kind of forgettable, and I find it kind of hard to sit through some of them again, which might explain why this article might seem a little lackluster. As the show progressed, the episodes did seem to get a bit more exciting and interesting; Vision was fortunate enough to make his debut in one of the better seasons, where Ultron was the main villain which seems appropriate.

Vision was voiced by David Kaye (who voiced J.A.R.V.I.S. here, which also seemed appropriate enough) and first appeared in the episode titled "A Friend In Need". His design is decent - accurate to the comics, but nothing about it really stands out. In his debut, he aids the Avengers in defeating the Cobalt Man and later on Ultron himself who took control of the Asgardian Destroyer armor. In a sub-plot, Thor tries teaching Vision what friendship means - it's a little too silly, but it does kind of make sense a robot would need to learn this. These same themes of friendship and teamwork would also be used in other episodes of the show, where they recruit other heroes such as Black Panther or Captain Marvel. All things considered, it's not a bad introduction to Vision in this new continuity but it doesn't really explain that much about his origins. The episode is kind of fun and while it does have it's fair share of somewhat sillier moments, the action scenes are pretty entertaining. Things would get somewhat better in Vision's next appearances on the show, as he became a recurring cast member.

The season finale was a 4-part epic story titled "Civil War" - the title might sound familiar seeing as it's from the comics and one of the better, in my opinion, MCU movies as well. In a way it's funny how each major adaptation of this event plays out differently, seeing as this time the X-Men (or mutants in general, for that matter) who played a pretty big role in the comic book event, were replaced by the slightly less exciting Inhumans. With more and more such Inhumans showing up, sometimes with disastrous results due to them not being able to control their powers, an Inhumans Registration Act is introduced and the Avengers are supposed to help enforce it. However they don't see eye to eye with Government Official Truman Marsh, who has been kind of a pain their necks (and other parts) in other previous missions as well. When the heroes are fed up with all of this, Marsh sees it as an opportunity to bring in a new team of Avengers (known as the Mighty Avengers, to differentiate between them from the older version?) to do his bidding. This new team includes the likes of Red Hulk, Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, Black Panther, Ant-Man, Songbird and the character this retrospective is supposed to focus on, Vision.

The two teams clash a few times and eventually the Mighty Ones (not to be confused with the recent Dreamworks Animation series) manage to arrest the old Avengers, as well as injure Captain America. But on the bright side, Black Widow manages to escape, and Songbird starts seeing the error of her ways. The fight is pretty entertaining, although it follows the trend of heroes fighting among themselves. Each character uses their powers and abilities well enough, and Vision is no exception - he's actually the one who (accidentally) brings down Cap, using Thor's hammer, no less. But don't worry, Cap gets better.

As the story plays out, it's revealed the Inhumans Registration Act was just a ploy to mind-control the Inhumans into attacking cities all over the world. That coupled with the fact Ms. Marvel was forced to be Register (despite already working for the Government), makes the new Mighty Avengers quit working for Marsh as well, and decide to join forces with the previous Avengers team. This does lead to some pretty cool scenes, seeing all of these heroes fighting on the same side instead of battling each other was a nice change of pace. As before, the action is pretty decent, but there's really not a lot to actually comment on.

Ultron also makes his triumphant return, which was to be expected given his name was included in the season's sub-title. He's revealed to have been the mastermind behind some of the previous events, while also posing as Marsh for a few episodes. I didn't exactly mind Ultron's return here but to be honest I was the arc a lot more before he showed up. What follows is an all-out battle between the many heroes and Inhumans gathered together against Ultron and his armies of robots. There are many nice moments spread throughout, but nothing stands out that much to me so I could really comment on them. Things are pretty entertaining overall but I could see how all of his fighting drags out a little longer than necessary. In the end, with the help of Doctor Strange, Ultron is banished to another dimension, but Iron Man also ends up trapped in there. It's a decent enough dramatic moment, but they kind of rush through it, and as the ending suggests Tony would be back someday. Which shouldn't really surprise anyone at this point in the cartoon. As a whole, the entire arc was pretty cool. As I mentioned before, the season was a step up from the earlier ones, and overall, this was probably the strongest season of the show (although I realize that's not really saying much).

There's really not much to discuss about Vision in particular - I think I covered most if not all that was actually presented about him in this batch of episodes. They never really touched on his origin, or connection to Ultron or anything like that. His portrayal was good and David Kaye did a decent job of voicing him. It's just too bad his dialogue wasn't the greatest to begin with. But all things considered, this version of Vision was a pretty good addition to the show. He would continue appearing in the following season, and received a bit more screen-time, as well as the chance to interact with more characters.

Next: Secret Wars!

 

[Rick Jones]

I forgot how much I liked Vision's head in Next Avengers. I've always been biased in favor of that movie. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but personally, it's a real shame that it won't be on Disney+.

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