Avengers (vol. 3) #23
Title
The Avengers — Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Black Panther, Firestar, and Justice — are in a training session. This is to give Cap time to get used to using his old shield again.[1] The team pulls off the session without a hitch, with Justice able to reach the shut down switch despite the fact that he is still dealing with a broken leg.[2] With the training session over, Iron Man and Black Panther head off to try and figure out a solution for the recent Vibranium Plague affecting the world.[3]
With the train session over, the Scarlet Witch decides that she needs to finally have a talk with the Vision about her romance with Wonder Man. Simon offers to be there, but she asks him to let her speak to Vision first.[4]
Meanwhile, a group of protestors have appeared outside Avengers Mansion demanding more African-American representation within the Avengers. On top of this, the media has been critical of the group over Hank Pym’s hand in creating Ultron who was responsible for wiping out the nation of Slorania. It seems that the Avengers have been having a lot of bad luck since their flap with the Triune Understanding.[5] When Cap asks if Black Panther can remain on the team to try and appease the protestors T’Challa has to decline, telling them that he has other duties as king of Wakanda.
Upstairs, Wanda confronts Vision about his pushing her away. She can tell that he still cares for her and that he is trying to hide how much it hurts to see her in a relationship with Wonder Man. The Vision insists that Wanda doesn’t understand what the problem is, but tells her that it is not her concern. That’s when Simon enters the room and tries to get Vision to open up about what’s wrong as well. The synthezoid gets annoyed and points out that Simon likes jazz music, that he is a skillful chess player, and is a fan of wit of Walt Kelly. The Vision points out that he has all the same interests. When Simon is delighted to hear that, the Vision realizes they still don’t understand. Losing his temper he strikes Wonder Man as hard as he can and flies away.
Wonder Man flies after his “brother” and tries to get the Vision to explain what’s wrong. Wanting to be left alone, the Vision threatens to phase his hand inside Simon and cause him pain. Simon lets Vision do so, refusing to leave until the android doesn’t talk.
The Vision points out that the problem is that all of his personality traits and interests are all copies of Wonder Man’s since his mind was based on Simon’s brain engrams. This wasn’t such a problem when Simon was believed dead and when the Vision and Wanda got married he was truly happy and felt like he was his own person. However, after his disassembly and the loss of his and Wanda’s children,[6] the Vision realized that he could offer nothing but pain for Wanda and hence why he broke off their marriage. Since Wonder Man’s return he saw that Wanda truly loved him and pushed her away so she and Simon could form a relationship. The Vision soon discovered that all the things he loved and enjoyed weren’t his own interests at all and he feels like nothing more than as inferior copy.
That’s when Simon shocks him by revealing that he envies the Vision. This surprises the synthezoid, who learns how Simon Williams’ life was one filled with regret. It all started with the pressure he got from his father to always overachieve. As an adult he ended up embezzling money from the family company landing him into legal trouble. Rather than face the music, he allowed Baron Zemo to transform him into Wonder Man to take out his anger on the Avengers. When Simon seemingly died, his “death” led to his brother becoming the Grim Reaper, one of the Avengers deadliest foes who would attack them to avenge his brother. When Simon came back from the dead he was invited into the Avengers and all was forgiven. Still, he regretted his past mistakes and admitted his wrong doing on national television, only to have the public forgive him. Despite this, Simon still continued making mistakes, such as allowing fame make him arrogant and combative towards Iron Man, refusing to offer his brain engrams when the Vision was rebuilt, and his mental instability that led to become more violent and kill. Simon then died and was resurrected again and was given another chance despite the fact he didn’t believe he deserved it.[7]
He concludes by saying that he is happy Vision is there because he is an innocent version of himself without any of his past problems. This gives the Vision a lot to think about and he asks to be left alone for a while. Wonder Man decides to give Vision his space and return to the mansion to tell the rest of the team that the android will be gone for a while.
Meanwhile, in the Himalayan Mountains, the entity known as Carnivor digs himself from the rubble, following his battle with the Juggernaut.[8] He is soon joined by the other Exemplars who are regrouping to continue their plan to dominate the world. Decay, Conquest, and Stonecutter give Carnivore and ultimatum: Join up or die.[9]
Recurring Characters
Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, Vision, Wonder Man, Justice, Firestar) Exemplars (Carnivore, Decay, Conquest, Stonecutter), Edwin Jarvis
Continuity Notes
Captain America had lost his trademark circular shield in Captain America (vol. 3) #2. He recently regained the shield in issue #22.
Vance broke his leg during a battle with the Doomsday Man, see Avengers (vol. 3) #16-18.
The Vibranium Plague was caused by Captain America’s shield being damaged in the original Secret Wars. Although he repaired it shortly there after there was a microscopic imperfection that caused a chain reaction that caused the loss of all the world’s Vibranium. See Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #11-12 and Captain America (vol. 3) #20-22. The “plague” was resolved when Cap’s shield was restored to its proper condition.
The love triangle between the Scarlet Witch, Vision, and Wonder Man is very complicated. The details:
Early on in his career, Wonder Man’s powers seemed to kill him so the Avengers took a copy of his brain patterns. As seen in Avengers #9.
Sometime after this, the robot Ultron created the Vision and used Simon’s brain engrams to program the synthezoid’s personality as explained in Avengers #57-58 and 134-135.
The Vision and Scarlet Witch eventually fell in love with one another and eventually got married in Giant-Size Avengers #4. Not long after this, Wonder Man was resurrected in Avengers #151.
Simon secretly pined for Wanda for years but kept his feelings to himself. They weren’t mentioned until the Vision was disassembled by an a government organization and his personality wiped out. Wanda tried to convince Simon to volunteer his engrams again but he refused because he saw this as an opportunity to pursue her. See West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45.
The Vision eventually became estranged from his wife and she and Simon briefly dated from Avengers West Coast #65 to 69. Not longer after that, the Vision restored his capacity for emotion in Avengers Spotlight #40. Wonder Man later died in battle in Force Works #1.
The Vision kept his wife at arms length and by Avengers (vol. 3) #4 was actively pushing her away. Also during this time, Wanda was able to pull Simon back in the world of the living with her powers, starting in Avengers (vol. 3) #2. She fully resurrected him by admitting her love for him in issue #11 and they have been dating ever since, much to the Vision’s sadness but he has been encouraging the romance because he believes that Wanda deserves to be happy.
Lots of shit going on with the Avengers right now. Here are the details:
The lack of African-American representation on the team: At this point in their history, the Avengers have only had four black members. The Black Panther who joined up in Avengers #52, the Falcon in issue #184, Captain Marvel/Photon who joined in Avengers #227. Lastly, War Machine was a member of the west coast team starting in Avengers West Coast #94. This pressure for more representation on the team will lead to them being forced to admit Triathlon onto the team in Avengers (vol. 3) #27.
Hank Pym originally created Ultron back in Avengers #58. The team recently battled Ultron who had wiped out the nation of Slornia. See Avengers (vol. 3) #19-22.
The Avengers experienced some bad publicity after getting into a clash with Pagan at the Triune Understanding headquarters in Avengers (vol. 3) #15. Little does the team know that the Triune Understanding’s leader, Jonathan Tremont is trying to discredit the Avengers as part of a master plan to protect the world from an invasion by Kang the Conqueror. See Avengers (vol. 3) #41-54 and Annual 2001.
Billy and Tommy Maximoff were created by magic in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #3 and Wanda gave birth to them in issue #12 of that series. Later, it was revealed that the children were a figment of Wanda’s imagination that were brought to life using fragments of Mephisto’s soul. They were erased from existence during a battle against Master Pandemonium in Avengers West Coast #51-52.
Lots of Wonder Man related drama dumped all at once. The details:
Simon’s embezzlement scandal, transformation into Wonder Man, and first death took place in Avengers #9.
During the time that Simon was believed to be dead, his brother became the Grim Reaper to get revenge against the Avengers, as seen in Avengers #52. This would lead to Eric becoming an undead horror for a time starting in Vision and the Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #12, although he was been restored to full life in Avengers (vol. 3) #10-11.
Wonder Man was revived from the dead in Avengers #151 and became a mainstay on the team until issue #211. He maintained a reserve member after that.
After joining the West Coast Avengers in West Coast Avengers #1, Simon began to feel guilty about his past crimes leading to him making a full confession in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #4. This confession was helped jumpstart his movie career.
Simon started becoming arrogant in issue #12 and feuded with Iron Man shortly thereafter, the pair making peace over the course of West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #17-24.
Simon refused to offer his brain engrams when the Avengers were trying to restore the Vision circa West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45.
Wonder Man became more violent after he was caught in a Nega-Bomb explosion in Wonder Man (vol. 2) #9 leading to becoming increasingly violent. See Wonder Man (vol. 2) #12, 16, 18 and 22-25 for the nitty gritty.
Carnivore was buried alive during the events of the Eighth Day event. See Iron Man (vol. 3) #21, Thor (vol. 2) #17, Iron Man (vol. 3) #22, Peter Parker: Spider-Man #11, and Juggernaut (vol. 2) #1.
The Examplar’s scheme will be chronicled in Avengers (vol. 3) #24-25.
Topical References
Justice is depicted as having a plaster cast to treat his broken leg. This should be considered a topical reference as there are now better alternatives such as orthopedic boots now exist.
This story references cartoonist Walt Kelly and his Pogo comic strip which was loved by Wonder Man. This strip has been out of publication since 1993. Here, Simon says that his mother had all the books. While something like this is usually a topical reference, since it is integral to the conflict between the Vision and Wonder Man, one could assume that Pogo books were passed down from generation to generation within the Williams family.
When recounting how he confessed his pass crimes on national television, Wonder Man is depicted doing so on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. This should be considered topical because Carson ended his run on the Tonight Show in 1992 and subsequently died in 2005.
