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Post by scottharris on Nov 15, 2007 15:53:01 GMT -5
Work is gearing up on Assembled 2, which will be focusing more on the individual characters rather than on the book as a whole. I'm sure Van will have much more about this in the months to come, but I thought I would post a thread here for discussion of Assembled 2. If you have any thoughts, speculation or comments about what the characters or what topics you hope are covered, here is a place to post.
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Post by scottharris on Nov 15, 2007 16:05:36 GMT -5
I'll start things off with a couple exceprts from articles I am writing for Assembled 2. My articles are about the Vision; other authors will also be tackling the Avenging Android, so if you don't agree with my opinions, no doubt someone will be on hand to rebutt me.
Here's a couple teasers from my article about the six different versions of the Vision that have appeared over the years:
The Scarlet Witch's Husband:
"The decade that followed Roy Thomas’s departure from Avengers was filled with classic stories and character development for many members of the team. During this time, the Vision came to be viewed as the center of the team; as one of the true powerhouses in the entire Marvel universe, the Vision was a fan favorite, shown to be not just powerful but intelligent, loyal, caring and resolute. Many consider this period to be the high point of the Vision’s existence. Yet for all the positives, during this time the Vision would suffer the single most devastating and damaging blow in the character’s history: his marriage to the Scarlet Witch."
ISSAAC and the Human Vision:
"The problem with this new, human Vision wasn’t, however, his display of emotions or unfettered personality, but rather the fact that the personality he exhibited was not his own. Rather than feeling his own emotions more strongly, the Vision seemed to be feeling entirely different emotions and expressing them differently. This new, domesticated Vision, with his toothy grins and gushy, lovesick musings, bore no resemblance to the Vision of old, but rather seemed to be an different person entirely, as though the removal of the control crystal had removed with it his unique personality traits and replaced them with that of someone far different."
John Byrne's Vision Disassembled:
"Byrne had three points on his agenda when he began his run on West Coast Avengers with the Vision Quest storyline. Firstly, he thought the magical impregnation of Wanda and subsequent birth of her twins during the Vision and the Scarlet Witch series to be ridiculous; the idea of a robot having children seemed anathema to Byrne’s pro-humanity beliefs. Secondly, he wished to return Vision to a more robotic personality rather than this new Daddy Day Care version. And third, he wanted to start the wheels turning on a retelling of his Dark Phoenix storyline, this time with Wanda in the Jean Grey role as all-powerful, insane hero-turned-villain."
Busiek's Retro-Vision:
"Busiek’s Vision, then, while physically resembling the classic Vision – his original costume was restored and artist George Perez depicted him in a more gaunt and spectral aspect that previous artists – was less of a return to his roots than an exploration of how the constant abuse by prior writers had damaged the character’s psyche. Towards the end of Busiek’s run he had begun to move Vision slowly away from this, with the Vision going on a date with Carol Danvers and starting to show signs of more self-confidence. Yet little came of this, and with Busiek’s departure, this version of the Vision remained. Intelligent, analytical, emotionally reserved, competent and physically powerful, yet never truly confident or assertive. You could say that the volume three Vision lacked the presence that the classic Vision had."
The Future of the Young Avengers Vision:
"What does it mean that the Vision duplicated himself prior to his death? Could he create multiple copies of himself? What if these other versions were merged with different sets of brain patterns – how would this alter their personalities? And more to the point: doesn’t Vision’s self-replication seem eerily similar to that of his “father”, the evil robot mastermind Ultron? Does the Vision even now have backup versions of himself waiting, in case of his death, to be upgraded with lessons learned? And if these lessons learned include his betrayal and destruction over and over at the hands of his own family and friends, how will that affect the development of these future versions of the Vision? If the current Vision can be seen as a true Vision-2, what might the programming of a Vision-4 or Vision-5 look like down the road with the dark events of Disassembled and Civil War factored in?"
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Post by scottharris on Nov 15, 2007 16:12:16 GMT -5
And one more batch of excerpts, from an article whose content will be self-explanatory:
"The Vision and the Scarlet Witch. One of the most storied romances and marriages in comics history. And, I’m sorry to inform you, a sham. Here’s the truth behind their storybook marriage: the entire relationship was created by and maintained by the Scarlet Witch’s reality-bending powers."
"...unbeknownst to either, they had two other characteristics that made them a perfect match: she had reality-shaping mutant powers that she could not harness and he had a control crystal embedded in his body that made him vulnerable to outside manipulation."
"In many ways the Scarlet Witch seems to be the ultimate “scary girlfriend”; far from being a kindred spirit to the Vision, as soon as they began dating she starting exhibiting signs of clinginess, referring to him as “my man” and spouting racist anti-human rhetoric at anyone who would question their newfound “love”. This only worsened with the appearance of potential rival Mantis, with Wanda’s possessiveness morphing into rabid jealousy. Her solution? To begin studying black magic behind closed doors with her newfound witch mentor.
Your average guy, when faced with this sort of unbalanced behavior from someone they just began dating, would be to break things off and get the hell out of there as soon as possible. Yet not only does this Vision not do this, he turns around and immediately marries her instead. Perhaps it’s because the Vision is not your average guy; perhaps it is due in part to his lack of experience with women, or perhaps they even did feel some overwhelming true love that allowed him to overlook all of her obvious mental issues. Or, perhaps, it was because the young Witch, having finally found someone, was inadvertently manipulating the Vision with her uncontrollable mutant and magic powers."
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Post by dlw66 on Nov 15, 2007 19:35:26 GMT -5
You have whet my appetite, sir, for the entire article(s)!!
I really like your synopses of the personalities of the various incarnations of the Vision. Your point about the character basically just being dropped after Busiek had made him again a major player is a point well taken. I think that's been one of my biggest gripes about comics of recent years -- writers new to a book are so eager to put their stamp on things that continuity just goes by the wayside. Of course Byrne (who has had his fair share of able scripting) may be the poster child for this in the cited Vision Quest storyline. But even more modern writers trample on or completely ignore history. Is this a by-product of the "writing for the trade paperback" trend -- that there's no room for flashbacks and/or running subplots? Could be, and I suspect that it is.
Interesting posit on their marriage. Would you say that you would have felt that way while going through the issues firsthand, or do you think your analysis is colored through the lens of history/current events?
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Post by scottharris on Nov 15, 2007 20:50:39 GMT -5
Interesting posit on their marriage. Would you say that you would have felt that way while going through the issues firsthand, or do you think your analysis is colored through the lens of history/current events? It's certainly colored by recent events; I probably wouldn't have started thinking about this if not for the events of Disassembled. Under the current status quo, however, I think it makes more sense if this was the case than if it wasn't, and in my article I have exmaples of specific events from Avengers continuity that I believe support this theory.
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Post by woodside on Dec 9, 2007 16:50:31 GMT -5
Is this a by-product of the "writing for the trade paperback" trend -- that there's no room for flashbacks and/or running subplots? Could be, and I suspect that it is. Y'know, I agree with you here, Doug. If anything, having more issues should allow for more time to go through histoy and reveal parts of the past. But no one seems to take advantage of that . . .
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