Vision
has had limited screentime in the franchise so far, but I’m already a fan. Even though, on a lot of levels –
hyper-intelligent, remote, crazy-uber-powerful AI – he seems like he should be
all one largely-unrelatable thing, he’s really not, and I’m excited to get more
of him in Infinity Wars
(Vision-related spoilers for Age of
Ultron and Civil War.)
Appearing
for the first time just before the
big final blowout in Age of Ultron,
Vision is instantly terrific, at once both a total machine and so human. He has a body that, while made out of metal,
was formed by a machine that produces organic material for skin grafts, organ
replacement, and the like. He was
supposed to be a vessel for Ultron’s artificially-intelligent mind, but Tony is
able to switch Ultron out with J.A.R.V.I.S. at the last minute, and yet Vision
isn’t truly either of them; although he has J.A.R.V.I.S.’s voice, he quickly
demonstrates that he’s his own… whatever he is.
The whole person/machine/being is powered by the strength of the Mind
Stone.
There’s
a lot about Vision that seems elevated, a higher form of existence. His powers are insane, he has
thought-processing capacities beyond any human, and he has this Zen-like calm
about him, this sense of distance that can only come from being above the petty
concerns of lower beings. Tony and Steve
argue that his ability to pick up Mjolnir “doesn’t count” as being worthy
because he’s not actually a living organism, but in that moment, when Vision
lifts the hammer without a second thought, it gives off definite This Guy is
Above Us vibes.
But at
the same time, Vision isn’t just this detached machine that’s all about
logic. He’s gently curious, nudging at
the question of who/what he is and what his existence means. But he doesn’t go about it in the typical “robot”
teach-me-what-it-means-to-feel
way. He goes about it in a way that really
does make him feel like a living
machine, artificial but human as well.
That’s probably why he makes such a connection with Wanda, because she’s
also questioning who she is. With Vision, it’s about his
existence/origins, and with Wanda, it’s about what her powers have made of her,
but it’s still two very similar concerns/explorations. The idea of those two together wouldn’t work
for me nearly as well if Vision didn’t feel so genuine.
Overall,
Civil War does a great job giving
Vision these little human touches. I
love seeing him wear regular clothes around the Avengers compound, and I like
his fumbles with Wanda – forgetting the way humans generally prefer it when you
enter through a door rather than
phase through a wall, and attempting to make paprikash for her on a
purely-academic level since, as a machine, he’s never actually eaten anything
and has no idea whether he’s making it correctly. He’s still a bit of an outsider on the team
at large, but he feels real enough that it doesn’t seem forced when the others
talk to him like a person.
Oh, and
I just adore the moment in his first
scene when, as everyone is freaking out about whether or not he’s safe and Thor
is sticking up for him, he just quietly looks Thor over and then modifies his
own appearance to give himself a cape. I
love it. There’s something so earnest
about it, this newborn AI wanting to emulate someone he looks up to. Based on what little I knew about Vision
going into Age of Ultron, I was
apprehensive about his character, but that moment right there was what let me
know he was going to work for me.
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