Avengers Spotlight #40
Re/Vision
After running a full diagnostic of his systems, the Vision is troubled that his programming has no parameters set for his purpose. He decides to consult his fellow Avengers for guidance on this problem.[1] However, Captain America and Sersi are on their way out to a charity auction, and Quasar has gone fishing for the weekend. The only left in the masion is the Avengers Butler, Edwin Jarvis. However, when the Vision tries to ask him for advice, Jarvis is pressed for time because he is off duty. That’s when a newspaper help column catches the Vision’s eye and he decides to take inspiration from that instead.
Rather than write a letter to the paper, the Vision seeks the assistance of someone who is an expert in the field of artificial intelligence. This is scientist Miles Lipton, whom the Vision visits as Lipton has failed to hack his way into Roxxon’s database. Lipton invites the synthezoid into his home and hears how the Vision is struggling to find a purpose for himself. Lipton finds this all fascinating and suggests that the Vision go out into the world for a few weeks and try to integrate himself into society and do things the average person does to see if this inspires him to find purpose. In order for the Vision to do this without turning heads due to his unnatural appearance, Lipton gives him an holographic image inducer which makes him look like an ordinary human being. He also suggests that Vision come up with a human name for himself as well. Lipton takes note when told to find purpose, the Vision suddenly stuttered his speech.
One week later, Miles has his daughter-in-law Laura take him out to Central Park to meet with the Vision and see how he is doing. As they wait, he tells Laura how he has almost found the “smoking gun” that will prove that Roxxon murdered his son and Laura’s husband, Alex. Laura is worried that Miles is might be putting himself in danger and is afraid of losing him too. When the Vision arrives he is still in his human disguise and introduces himself to Laura as Victor Shade. Once they are alone, Miles learns how the Vision spent his time over the last week. They include attending a church service, opening a bank account, going to a sports bar and learning about baseball, going to the movies and participating in the annual St. Anthony’s Festival. Once again, when posed with making a human decision, the Vision stutters once more.
Lipton takes back the data he gathered and goes over it and learns that the Vision’s problem is his computer programming. In the past, the Vision was able to act human because his programming was supplemented with the brain engrams of another, allowing him the ability to engage in non-linear thought like humans and that the only way to help him find purpose is to reintroduce non-linear thinking would be to program a new engram to replace the one he lost.[2] Lipton suggests that since Wonder Man refused to provide his brain engrams a second time, they use a copy of someone who is no longer among the living. That’s when the Vision suffers a catastrophic system error and collapses to the ground.
As Miles tries to problem solve the situation, he is visited by some heavies hired by Roxxon to capture him for hacking into their database. Learning that he has the Vision in their possession, the Roxxon hitmen offer to spare his Lipton’s life if they re-program the Vision into being loyal to the company. Knowing that they won’t do anything of the sort, Lipton instead works to repair the damage to the Vision’s software by installing the brain engram of his son. This correct’s the Vision’s software problems and allows the android to deal with the hitmen. While doing so, the hitmen confess to murdering Alex Lipton. Since the Vision’s memories are admissible of evidence, Miles now has what he needs to avenge his son’s death.
The following day, at Avengers Headquarters, Jarvis apologizes to the Vision for being so abrupt with him the other day. The Vision tells Edwin that it is fine as he found a solution to his problem. He then goes out to see a baseball game, much to Jarvis’ disbelief.
Recurring Characters
Vision, Roxxon, Miles Lipton, Nancy Lipton, Captain America, Sersi, Edwin Jarvis
Continuity Notes
The Vision’s sense of purpose as well as his emotions were all wiped out when he was briefly disassembled by a government agency called Vigilance. They did so out of fear that the Vision might take over the world’s computers again. Although Vizh was rebuilt, the Avengers were unable to restore his emotional core. See Avengers #251-254 and West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45.
As detailed in Avengers #57-58 and 134-135, the Vision’s original brain patterns were based on those of Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man. When the Vision was recently rebuilt, Wonder Man refused to offer his mind as a template again, see West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #45.
Topical References
A lot of the technical specifications in this story, such as the Vision having 739 gigabytes of memory, should be considered topical since they are based on what was considered high tech at the time this story was published in 1991 and are laughable by today’s standards.
Later in the story, the Vision states that he is going to watch a game between the New York Mets and the Montreal Expos. This should be considered a topical reference as these are both real world baseball teams. Particularly in the case of the Montreal Expos as that team relocated to Washington, DC in 2004 and renamed themselves Nationals.
