Avengers 2: The Problem with Vision

I can see clearly now that Marvel’s vision about Vision lacked the necessary frames in its eyeglasses when reading and writing what the Vision became in Avengers 2: Age of Ultron.

Marvel has a wonderful habit of getting origin stories right. Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye’s introductions into the Marvel Universe have been on point and well done. But Marvel has an annoying and vexing habit of altering origin stories on occasion.

We’ve seen it with the Avengers in the worst way where executive producer Kevin Feige forgot that two of the five original members to the Avengers were Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne aka the original Ant-Man and Wasp and excluded them from the team. More details on that here:

The character of Thor’s origin was completely altered as well as the Maximoff Twins whose father Magneto had to be completely forgotten because *gasp* oh that’s right, Sony owns the rights to him and the X-Men…

Ultron’s origin and Antman’s origin were screwed up because the Hank Pym origin story being deleted had domino effect on them. Yeah…Marvel really should’ve just done an Antman movie pre-2012…

But the point of this piece is to address the odd, eyebrow-raising, and almost Frankenstein reminiscent origin of the super hero android/human/he’s very complicated Vision. ‘This is where spoilers come in, so if you don’t want to see them then SCAT!

Ok? Spoiler haters gone? Good. Now, where were we? Oh right! Vision…

Paul Bettany, the voice of JARVIS, got a promotion essentially when he was upgraded to the hero Vision complete with a purple makeover and cape. The movie, which is as much about Ultron’s philosophical views as it is things being blown up, is obsessed with the idea of evolution. That the human race has to go to the next level or else be eradicated the way the dinosaurs and other lifeforms were beforehand.

Ultron’s next move is for himself to evolve and he captures geneticist Helen Cho and her equipment to create his next body. Combining the vibranium he got from Ulysses Klaue, Cho’s synthetic genetic cells, and the gem from Loki’s scepter (that happens to be an Infinity stone) that he can be uploaded into. A fully humanoid body with a mind that can be read by Wanda. Which is what causes the twins to turn on him once Wanda reads how he intends to make humans extinct.

The Avengers hijack the body and send it back to Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, who, after an incredible acting scene that deviates from the original characters, but is still an amazing scene, upload JARVIS into the body. A bunch of action happens, JARVIS is fully uploaded, Thor shows up with his hammer and cue Frankenstein scene when he uses his power to inject lightning into the body.

IT LIVES! IT LIVES! IT LIVES!!! Vision wakes up and is quickly aware of his surroundings, his bearings, and has a sense of fashion (makes his own cool cape).

That’s the movie version which while cool really makes no sense. The Vision, a character who was made from a duplicate body of Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch in the comics, and given the brainwave patterns of Simon Williams (Wonder Man) to become a sentient artificial intelligence. Ultron did make him yes, but he was meant to be a weapon from one of their deceased allies whose purpose was to kill the Avengers. He was a synthetic human with super powers like the ability to alter his density which could make him lighter than a feather and able to fly or thicker than a diamond and impenetrable. Plus he had the superhuman mind, stamina, reflexes, speed, etc. etc.

But here, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner merely upload the remains of JARVIS into the Vision, which really wouldn’t make him an A.I. at all, as JARVIS is merely a dumb computer program with an English accent that only does what Tony Stark tells him to do. The character loses a lot by having his storyline changed so radically to the point where there was really no reason to have him there at all.

Then there’s the total illogic of having the jewel in the Vision’s forehead be the “Mind Gem/Stone” from Loki’s scepter. Many bad decisions have begun with the words, “wouldn’t it be cool if…?” Unfortunately, this also seems like more of Kevin Feige’s meddling in the MCU storyline, and it suffers from a lapse in logic. In the comics, the jewel in Vision’s forehead acted like a solar energy cell that not only gave Vision his power, it also acted as a lens to focus the energy outward in the form of a solar-powered particle beam weapon.

Here’s the problem: the movie now makes that jewel the Mind Gem/Stone, which gives the bearer complete control over all thought and mind. It’s like Professor Charles Xavier times a million to borrow an X-Men analogy. All minds and thoughts can be put under the control of the stone; memories can be altered or erased, people can be made to see things that are not there and do things against their will. The Mind Gem/Stone gives one complete control over the mind, because that’s what its role and purpose is.

So someone please explain how the Vision is firing solar energy blasts from the stone when it’s in his forehead? It’s the Mind Stone, not the Power Stone! Seriously, does no one at Marvel Studios understand basic screenwriting? It has to make sense or it shouldn’t be there.

Vision is a cool character and his entrance in Avengers 2 was amazing, but here with a few alterations, the script could’ve made a more accurate portrayal of his origin and not their own version of Frankenstein except for him going good and not attacking and killing off the family members of the scientist who created him.