10 Must-Read Marvel Comics for VisionQuest Fans

It all starts here, with Ultron’s first appearance in Avengers #55, his initial battle against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and his attempt to mimic his creator by making his own robot, a robot we know as the Vision. To MCU fans, the origin of Ultron and Vision broadly matches the plot beats of Avengers: Age of Ultron. But the specifics are different in the comics, where Ultron is the creation of Hank Pym aka Ant-Man, and the Vision is based on Wonder Man and the original Human Torch (more on that last guy in a minute).

Those differences alone would make “Behold… The Vision!” worthy reading material. But these issues stand on their own merit, classics of the Silver Age with delightfully wordy scripts by Roy Thomas and dramatic pencils by John Buscema. From these early beginnings, its easy to see how Ultron and Vision became Marvel mainstays.

If you’re going to read comics related to a show called VisionQuest, you should probably read the comic book storyline called VisionQuest, right? Yes! And, well… sort of. Written and drawn by the great John Byrne, VisionQuest is probably the height of West Coast Avengers, the series that focused on a California-based team of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, USAgent, and Hawkeye. The story of the Scarlet Witch Wanda Maximoff’s search for her missing husband Vision, one that leads her to an all-white government copy and to the terrible truth about her twin children, Billy and Tommy, VisionQuest is a cracking superhero yarn.

But, as you might guess from the above synopsis, VisionQuest already appeared in the MCU, as one of the chief inspirations for WandaVision. As a result, VisionQuest TV series showrunner Terry Matalas had to take Bettany’s character in a new direction, one that involves Ultron and AIs more than it does Wanda or any of the West Coast Avengers. Still, Matalas draws from the foundation that Byrne laid in the comics, making VisionQuest a great read, no matter what else the MCU may have done.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the adaptation of VisionQuest in WandaVision is that Marvel Comics actually published a series about Vision trying to have a happy sitcom life in the suburbs, and the show basically ignored it. The VisionQuest show doesn’t do much with that series either, but that doesn’t mean MCU fans should ignore it. In fact, the 2015 Vision miniseries remains not just the best Vision story ever written, but also one of the best comic book series of the 2010s.

Written by Tom King, who also wrote the excellent Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and co-created the HBO show Lanterns, and illustrated by Gabriel Hernandez Walta and Michael Walsh, Vision finds the titular synthetic seeking normalcy. He moves to the the suburbs of Washington, DC, and creates his own family, complete with a wife, two kids, and a dog. But suburbia is never normal, with or without superheroes involved, and things get stranger by the second, forcing Vision to face some truths he’s spent his life avoiding.

One of VisionQuest’s central hooks is the chance to see the personalities behind some of the AIs who have been running the machines of the MCU. In addition to the aforementioned F.R.I.D.A.Y. and E.D.I.T.H., the show introduces us to personified versions of D.U.M.-E. and U (Henry Lewis and Jonathan Sayer), the robotic arms Tony Stark used in Iron Man, as well as Stark’s first AI J.A.R.V.I.S. (James D’Arcy, somewhat reprising his role from Agent Carter).

Although many of those specific programs don’t appear in Marvel Comics, that world does have plenty of AIs, many of whom gathered with the Vision for the series Avengers AI. Set after the Age of Ultron event (more on that shortly), Avengers AI sees Vision and Ultron’s creator Hank Pym forming a team of robots to defend cyberspace, a team that eventually involves Jocasta—a robot bride Ultron built for himself, and who is a major part of the VisionQuest show.

In addition to Jocasta, VisionQuest could also bring in the Human Torch, the very first Marvel hero, thanks to his history with Vision. Introduced in 1939’s Marvel Comics #1, the Human Torch was an android invented by scientist Phineas Horton, an android who burst into flames when exposed to oxygen. While that Torch’s greatest legacy may be inspiring Johnny Storm of the Fantastic Four’s codename, his body became the basis for Vision, forever bonding the two heroes.

So great is that bond that the connection was repeated in the recent series The Ultimates. Set in an alternate reality ruled by the Maker, an evil version of Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, the Ultimates are a rag-tag group of Avengers fighting to fix the word. The Ultimates think they lost an ally when Captain America’s World War II colleague goes missing. But they regain him again in a greater form as the Vision, a hero who controls the entire internet.

We’re going to be honest with you: the best Ultron story of all time is Ultron Unlimited, from Kurt Busiek and George Perez’s legendary Avengers run in the late ‘90s. Yet, for some reason, Marvel has decided to keep that series out of print, making it difficult to find outside of the Marvel Unlimited app… which will shut down by the end of the year.

Still, that doesn’t mean there are no good Ultron stories out there for hard copy collectors. Case in point, the first arc from 2007’s The Mighty Avengers, “The Ultron Initiative.” Written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Frank Cho, The Mighty Avengers promised big, classical superhero action in the aftermath of the Marvel Civil War. The Ultron Initiative delivered by putting Iron Man’s new team against a major threat and taking the story to ridiculous levels.

As much as Brian Michael Bendis nailed the character in The Ultron Initiative, his second take on Ultron went wildly, but entertainingly, wrong. Like the Avengers movie that shares its subtitle, Age of Ultron does indeed see Ultron try to reshape the world in an image he sees fit. But the similarities end there, and not just because Spader plays a more comedic and philosophical villain in the movies.

The story begins with Ultron having already conquered the world, covering the planet with his drones. As the Avengers lead a resistance, they discover that he’s already taken control of their teammate, the Vision, who promptly kills some of his friends. From there, Age of Ultron becomes a big mess of time travel and alternate realities, all built around the idea that Ultron is unstoppable. At the time of its release, Bendis intended the series to fix some messes in Marvel continuity, not unlike DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earth. In practice, the series raised more questions than it answered, making it something best enjoyed as a big ol’ sloppy mess.

Believe it or not, the breakout character of VisionQuest is neither the titular Avenger, nor any of the delightful AIs who help him. Rather, it’s the Paladin, a cold-hearted mercenary played by Todd Stashwick. With the help of his handler (Diane Morgan, aka Philomena Cunk), Paladin takes on a mission to capture the Vision, a decision that will forever change his life.

Anyone intrigued by Stashwick’s take would do well to check out Paladin’s comic book appearances, which start with 1977’s Daredevil #150, by Jim Shooter and Carmine Infantino. Like all pre-Frank Miller Daredevil comics, the story is cheesier than a modern reader would expect. But it does lay out a compelling costumed mercenary, one who becomes a fun weirdo over the next few decades of the Marvel Universe.

Wanda and Vision’s twin sons, Tommy and Billy, are not real. They came from Wanda’s magic and, as shown in WandaVision, they disappeared when she released her hex. Moreover, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness showed us that Wanda turned villainous when she tried to find Tommy and Billy somewhere else, in another part of the multiverse. So that when Billy (Joe Locke) turned up alive as a magic-casting teen in Agatha All Along, he carried the shame of being a child of the Scarlet Witch.

VisionQuest brings back Billy’s brother Tommy, who eventually becomes the Quicksilver-esque Speed. We don’t know yet what Billy and Tommy will get up to together, but we can’t help but hope they’ll follow some of the beats from the Avengers and Young Avengers crossover, The Children’s Crusade. Written by Allan Heinberg and illustrated by Jim Cheung, The Children’s Crusade follows Billy and Tommy, aka Wiccan and Speed, as they try to rescue their mother Wanda, who has been taken by Doctor Doom. In doing so, they and their fellow Young Avengers clash against the adult Avengers, all to redeem the Scarlet Witch.

Whatever happens in the MCU, Wanda and Vision have not only been reunited in the comics, but their family has grown. Vision still has Viv Vision, the synthetic daughter he created in the Tom King series Vision, but Billy has married his longtime teammate Teddy aka Hulkling. Further, Teddy has become the head of the combined Kree and Skrull empires, making Billy royalty by law.

All of that is a long way of saying that when Ultron threatens the galaxy, no family is better qualified than Vision and co. to deal with it. That’s just one of the stories in the one-shot Raid of Ultron, which features tales written by Wyatt Kennedy, Tegan Quin, Josh Trujillo, and Zoe Tunnell, and the artwork of Stephen Byrne, Bradley Clayton, Rachael Stott, and Luciano Vecchio. But even when the stories in Raid of Ultron don’t deal directly with Vision, his presence is felt, proving that he’s become much more than a crazed robot’s science experiment.