Thanks to the Disney Plus feature Expanding the Universe, we already know that House of M, Tom King’s Vision, James Robinson’s Scarlet Witch and the 1985 limited series The Vision and The Scarlet Witch are among the comics from which the upcoming Marvel Studios Disney Plus streaming series WandaVision will draw inspiration. Now it looks like we can add another run to the source material as a series subplot will be very loosely based on John Byrne’s run on West Coast Avengers (currently in a collected edition titled Vision Quest) as I have learned that WandaVision will indeed see Wanda go on her own Vision quest.
When Byrne took over writing duties on the title with issue 42 in March of 1989, he kicked it off with Vision going missing from the compound and Wanda went looking for him. Over the next 8 issues, Wanda comes to learn he’d been taken by a multinational group called Vigilance, finds him totally deconstructed on a table, and learns that all his memories (data) have been wiped and he has no recollection of their life together. There’s more to it of course but it certainly isn’t all relevant to the upcoming streaming series.
This information comes from a pair of valuable sources we have worked with in the past but, as is often the case, it’s missing a bit of context that would be incredibly helpful in understanding the big picture. With that being said, here’s what we know:
We’ve long been aware that WandaVision will be taking place both in what seems to be an altered reality (inside the TV) and in the real world where organizations like S.W.O.R.D. have a presence. It looks like one of the subplots in the real world centers on Wanda going Humpty Dumpty and trying to reassemble Vision after his parts have been scattered around the world. This is the part where a little context would go a long way but, unfortunately, none exists. The last time we saw Vision, he was “dead” but fully intact after Thanos plucked the Mind Stone out of his noggin.
Missing the hows and whys of Vision being in pieces is a bit frustrating, but knowing he’s in pieces and that Wanda is on the hunt for those pieces still provides a key piece of the story. I think it also might go a long way towards explaining some old set photos that saw Wanda outside a S.W.O.R.D. building. To me there are two choices here: they are either helping Wanda put Viz back together again or they’re responsible for taking him apart. Either way, to nobody’s surprise, Wanda is going to find the pieces and reassemble Vision but, as it happens in West Coast Avengers, he won’t be the same Vision he was before and will be missing some key bits of data including any knowledge of the events of Avengers: Infinity War.
It’s also worth mentioning that Byrne’s Vision Quest run introduced the white Vision and produced one of the most iconic Marvel Comics covers with issue 45. If you’ll recall, Marvel employee Shawn Sendio, who often uses his Instagram to tease various elements of upcoming productions, posted a picture of that cover last year.
This was, at the time, interpreted as a hint that we would see the white Vision in WandaVision and we just might, though I have no information on that. However, the symbolism behind the white Vision is probably just as important as the look and that’s something that might be missed if you haven’t read Byrne’s run. As the West Coast Avengers start work on getting their Vision back, Hank Pym explains that while he can recreate Vision’s mind, the data is gone, leaving Vision a blank slate, a plain white canvas waiting to be filled in.
And so the pieces of the puzzle are on the table and we can all start moving them into place. You can imagine Wanda’s passion as she searches for the parts to her synthezoid lover and you can imagine her disappointment when the recreated Vision is, symbolically and literally, a blank slate. How would you react? Hopefully we’ll find out later this year when it streams on Disney Plus (fingers crossed!).
You can pick up a copy of Vision Quest by clicking the Amazon link below!
