This weekend’s escapist superhero post looks at milestones in the original saga of the android Avenger called the Vision, since the Marvel tv series VisionQuest is coming out.
AVENGERS Vol 1 #57 (Oct 1968)
Title: Behold … The Vision
Villain: Ultron-5
NOTE: When Ultron made his earliest appearances, he/it numbered his iterations. After Ultron-7 he stopped numbering and just went by Ultron.
Synopsis: The Avengers’ recurring foe Ultron shows up again, intent on wiping out all human life on Earth. This time he has created an incredibly powerful fellow android called the Vision to help kill the Avengers.
The Vision initially helps Ultron, but his logical android mind lets him reject his creator’s commands. He turns against Ultron, saves the Avengers and seemingly destroys Ultron, but obviously he’ll return as Ultron-6.
NOTE: This cover was a partial salute to the very first appearance of the Golden Age Vision created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (Just like Captain America) in 1940 when Marvel was called Timely Comics.
AVENGERS Vol 1 #58 (Nov 1968)
Title: Even an Android Can Cry
Villain: Ultron-5 in a flashback
Synopsis: The Vision desires to join the Avengers. Thor, the Wasp, Iron Man, Goliath, Hawkeye and the Black Panther confer about the possibility. The Vision explains to the team about awakening as Ultron-5’s creation.
Goliath (Henry Pym, PhD) realizes that Ultron stole the recorded brain patterns of their late foe Wonder Man (Simon Williams) to use as the operating system for the Vision’s artificial brain, just as Goliath used his own brain patterns for Ultron’s android brain when he created him.
Our heroes put the Vision through additional scrimmages and in the end accept him as an Avenger. Despite his logical mind, he is so moved that he sheds a tear.
AVENGERS Vol 1 #66 (Jul 1969)
Title: The Great Betrayal
Avengers Roster: Thor, Wasp, Iron Man, Yellowjacket, Goliath, Black Panther and the Vision
Villain: Ultron-6
Synopsis: The Avengers attend a briefing and demonstration aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. Scientist Myron MacLain has used his molecular rearranger to create a new metal which he has named adamantium, after the fictional substance in Greek mythology. His sample of adamantium is so strong that not even a combined attack from Thor, Iron Man and the Vision can even dent it.
NOTE: Though today Wolverine’s claws are the most famous example of Marvel’s metal adamantium, this 1969 Avengers story marked its first ever appearance.
Ultron malware that he planted in the Vision’s android brain during the villain’s previous battle with the Avengers activates, forcing him against his will to use adamantium and the molecular rearranger to create an adamantium body for Ultron, who brings to life this new body and names this new iteration Ultron-6.
This is the first time that Ultron had a body made of adamantium. The new body also possessed the villain’s other powers, making this his most dangerous version yet.
AVENGERS Vol 1 #67 (Aug 1969)
Title: We Stand at Armageddon
Villain: Ultron-6
Synopsis: With the Ultron malware uploaded into the android’s new adamantium body, the Vision is free from its influence. A massive, destructive battle takes place between the Avengers and Ultron-6 as they try to prevent the villain’s escape. In his new form he fights his way past them to menace the world once more.
Eventually, our heroes track him down and try to stop him from using nuclear explosives to wipe out the state of New York as a start to his latest campaign to eliminate all human life on Earth. Ultron-6 wins again and leaves the Avengers in a defeated heap at Ground Zero of his nuclear device as it’s about to go off.
AVENGERS Vol 1 #68 (Sep 1969)
Title: … And We Battle for the Earth
Villain: Ultron-6
Synopsis: It turns out that the Vision disabled Ultron-6’s nuclear device during the fight. The android villain is still at large, plotting to make an entire army of Ultrons ruled by his artificial intelligence, then kill the Avengers and all other superbeings before wiping out humanity.
The Avengers, minus the seriously wounded Iron Man, obtain Myron MacLain’s molecular rearranger – the only device that can affect adamantium – before Ultron-6 can lay his hands on it. The Black Panther provides some vibranium from Wakanda as part of a plan Yellowjacket (Hank Pym) has come up with to defeat Ultron-6.
NOTE: Vibranium is only indestructible in the Marvel movies. In the comic books it was simply able to absorb all manner of energy, making it the ultimate super-conductor as well as a defense against even the most powerful energy blasts.
When Ultron-6 attacks the U.N. while it is in session, the Avengers fight him and spring Yellowjacket’s trap. The molecular rearranger affects the android’s adamantium body, the vibranium absorbs the destructive effects of his internal energy and Hank Pym’s mind – which if you’ll recall set the pattern for Ultron’s artificial intelligence – causes that AI to malfunction.
Ultron-6 seems destroyed for good, but a figurative “after credits scene” on the last page shows his headpiece is still intact and it landed far away.
AVENGERS Vol 1 #76 (May 1970)
Title: The Day the Earth Exploded
Avengers Roster: Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, Goliath, Quicksilver, Black Panther and the Vision
Villain: Arkon
NOTE: This is the concluding chapter to the Avengers’ first clash with their recurring foe Arkon. It’s included here because it marks the first time the Vision meets his future wife the Scarlet Witch.
Synopsis: Iron Man and the Black Panther use their scientific genius to analyze the energy residue of one of Arkon’s Power Bolts. This enables them to create a device which lets the Avengers teleport to the alternate Earth called Polemachus, which is ruled by Arkon.
Bouncing back and forth between Polemachus and our Earth, our heroes stop Arkon from destroying our world in order to power his energy-starved planet via the explosion.
They also rescue his prisoners, multiple Earth scientists and the Scarlet Witch, whose powers have finally been restored by Arkon after the injury inflicted on her by Magneto in Avengers #49 robbed them from her.
Wanda and her brother Pietro (Quicksilver) officially rejoin the Avengers.
AVENGERS Vol 1 #79 (Aug 1970)
Title: Lo, the Lethal Legion
Avengers Roster: Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, the Scarlet Witch, Goliath, Quicksilver, Black Panther and the Vision
Villains: The Lethal Legion (Grim Reaper, the Swordsman, Power Man, the Living Laser and the Man-Ape)
NOTE: This is the concluding part of the Avengers’ battle with their old foes in the Lethal Legion led by the Grim Reaper (Eric Williams), who still blames our heroes for the death of his brother Wonder Man (Simon Williams).
Synopsis: The war between the Lethal Legion and the Avengers continues as the villains divide and conquer our heroes via scattered sabotage to water mains and the energy grid to New York City.
All the Avengers are captured and placed in the Grim Reaper’s death trap at the Lethal Legion’s hideout.
The Vision appeals to the Grim Reaper by pointing out that the late Wonder Man’s mental patterns were used by Ultron as the basis for his own artificial mind. The villain panics, believing the Vision’s mind can help him restore Simon Williams to life.
The Reaper tries to free just the Vision from the death-trap, but all the Avengers break out when he does. The good guys defeat and capture the Lethal Legion.
AVENGERS Vol 1 #91 (Aug 1971)
Title: Take One Giant Step – Backward
Avengers Roster: Wasp, Yellowjacket, the Scarlet Witch, Goliath, Quicksilver, the Vision and Captain Marvel
Villains: Ronan the Accuser, Sentry 459, Krees and Skrulls
NOTE: This is the 3rd part of a 9-part Avengers story with Earth being fought over by the belligerent alien empires of the Kree-Skrull War. Additional chapters featured the Inhumans in Amazing Adventures and the Fantastic Four in their series.
Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue, Ronan the Accuser, who had just taken over the Kree Empire in a coup, was on Earth claiming it for the Kree. At his high-tech citadel in the far north, Ronan is interrogating his prisoner Captain Marvel (Kree Captain Mar-Vell).
Outside, he has his huge robotic Sentry 459 battling the other Avengers, who are trying to stop Ronan’s machines which are de-volving all life forms on Earth, hence the title. At one point, Goliath, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch are also captured by Ronan.
Feeling they may be about to die, the Vision tells Wanda for the first time that he is falling in love with her, and she reciprocates. Ronan cruelly ridicules them, infuriating Captain Marvel.
Quicksilver manages to break into the Kree citadel and frees Goliath, Vision, Scarlet Witch and Captain Marvel. Our heroes fight it out with Ronan and the Sentry. Presently, a Kree officer contacts Ronan from their home planet Hala via Kree Omni-Wave technology which enables instantaneous communication and teleportation anywhere in the universe.
The officer tells Ronan the Accuser that the Skrull Empire, knowing Ronan’s aggressive nature, have launched a massive offensive, attacking Kree outposts and colonies across multiple galaxies. Ronan teleports back to Hala to personally command the Kree armies. The abandoned Sentry 459 is defeated by the Avengers and is seemingly destroyed along with the citadel.
With the destruction of that citadel and the Kree machinery, the effects of the De-Evolution ray are reversed and all territory in the north reverts to normal. The Avengers all ponder what may happen to Earth next as the Kree-Skrull War continues.
*** Obviously, the Avengers, with Thor, Iron Man and Captain America rejoining, went on to save the Earth from both the Skrulls AND the Kree. In the near future, I’ll pick up with more developments between the Vision and the Scarlet Witch all the way up to their wedding.
