Vision and the Scarlet Witch #2: Review

Nov 1985

Steve Englehart, Richard Howell

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Story Name:

Brothers

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Rating:

Vision and the Scarlet Witch #2 Review by Rob Johnson (September 13, 2016)

Wonder Man says that the Avengers knew Eric stole his company's moey rather than him. But we know that they only found that out when Mrs Williams told them in WCA#2. I'd blame this on different editors for the 2 series, except that Steve Englehart wrote both sides.

Vison and Scarlet Witch will continue in this limited series which will end in #12 with the birth of their twins. Grim Reaper dies from his fall here and is restored as a zombie by Nekra in #12 - they attack alongside the zombie who looks like Simon Williams here. His 'dead' existence will continue for some more appearances before he inevitably gets restored to proper life.

The West Coast Avengers return to their own series, and Ultron will follow them there for #4-7. Henry Pym decides to stay with them as scientific support staff but *not* as a superhero. They take Goliath back with them and he's still there in Iron Man #206. But somehow he is freed to take part in the large Masters of Evil attack in Avengers #273-277.

Black Talon and Man-Ape sink into the background making only 1 app each (Sensational She-Hulk #34-35 and Fantastic Four #336) before meeting up again for Captain America #411-414.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Vision and the Scarlet Witch #2 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Continued from WEST COAST AVENGERS #2.

Hawkeye, Iron Man and Tigra of the West Coast Avengers are flying in their quinjet with Scarlet Witch and Vision to Las Vegas hoping to find Grim Reaper and his allies there with the kidnapped Henry Pym and Wonder Man. But they are attacked by Ultron-12, 1 of those allies, with his robot helpers.

While a backup windshield replaces the broken 1 and Wanda blocks another hole with a seat, Iron Man tackles Ultron who's got inside the plane. But Hawkeye tells IM to go out and stop the other robots from tearing the wings off, leaving Vision to fight Ultron. Tigra's claws won't dent the adamantium robot, so she puts on a breathing mask and exits to help Tony Stark - and fares better than she expects.

Ultron is quite happy to fight Vision as he's the 1 Grim Reaper sent him to collect. Ultron has 'evolved' to be proof against his 'son' trying to push his immaterial hand inside the robot's chest. But Wanda's hex negates that invulnerability and Vizh's patented trick works. And the shock allows him to rip 1 of Ultron's arms off, which also allows Hawkeye to fire an arrow into the exposed innards of his shoulder.

Ultron tries to escape, knocks the blocking seat out of the way and is sucked out of the hole. But so nearly is SW except that her husband saves her.

Shellhead grabs Ulty and slams him against the side of the plane. Unfortunately this knocks off a wing that the robots had been messing with. This doesn't bode well for Hawkeye's attempts to steer the craft to a landing. The cabin is also very low on oxygen. This doesn't bother the synthezoid Vision but he gives Hawk and Wanda breathing masks.

The robots have been shaken off and Ultron has escaped, but the plane is rocketing towards the Rockies with Tigra on the surviving wing. She allows herself to slide to the hole in the back of the ship and regains the inside. Iron Man jets up to take the place of the missing wing, and SW hexes a mountain peak out of their way ....

.... and they come to some sort of landing, all alive but unconscious.

When they awake they find that Ultron had watched their landing and called in the troops to bring them to Grim Reaper's cave lair. They are imprisoned in a forcefield with Pym and Simon Williams. And surrounded by GR and Ultron with their minions Black Talon, Goliath, Man-Ape and Nekra, assorted zombies and the walking body that looks like Simon.

We then get a restatement of Reaper's masterplan from WCA#2. He procured a zombie body that with minor plastic surgery was made in the image of his dead brother Simon Williams. He believes neither Wonder Man nor Vision are truly Simon. Vizh is an android who has a copy of Simon's mind. WM is a being of ionic energy who replaced Simon. Ultron's computers will compare their brains and copy whatever is common, because that will be the pure Simon. Then Black Talon will place that mind in the zombie. And Eric Williams will have his brother back.

But Vision reveals that he has met Simon's mother Martha (in WCA#2). He's not Simon but she accepts him as another son. Eric can't accept this, but Wondie finally does. All this time he looked on Vision as an inferior replica with no soul, but now he sees him as a man and a brother. And Henry Pym whispers his instruction from WCA#2 to man-up.

The process of extracting the minds will kill the donors. Reaper and Ultron decide to take WM 1st. As Wondie walks to his fate he suddenly attacks Grim Reaper. And Mockingbird bursts in and throws the master switch which frees everyone else. (She was on the comms with Hawkeye when Ultron attacked in WCA#2. So she saw the result of the battle and got SHIELD to locate the downed quinjet.)

Reaper calls on his allies to fight the heroes. But Black Talon and Man-Ape didn't like the racial hatred he showed towards them in WCA#2 so they leave, taking the zombies with them. Hawk and MB tackle GR, IM and WM smash Ultron, Scarlet Witch and Vision take on Goliath, and Tigra and Hank Pym face Nekra.

A blast from GR's scythe disrupts that last battle, and Nekra is free. Reaper joins her and they beat a retreat. Vision and Wonder Man go after them, with permission, leaving the others to deal with Ultron and Goliath.

As they use their various enhanced senses to make their way through the cave system in pursuit they detect that the other pair have split up, and they choose to follow Reaper. When they catch up with him waiting on a narrow ledge-path, he hears Wonder Man's heavy tread approaching but not Vision ghosting in through the rock in the other direction. They have him trapped between them.

Vision logically points out to Eric that he is responsible for Simon being turned into Wonder Man because he stole the company money that got Simon arrested which led to him falling into the hands of Zemo. Reaper readily admits to the embezzlement but denies responsibility for the result. But surprisingly Simon says that he actually did steal it himself.

Eric won't listen to this because in his mind he's built up his young brother as a saint who was martyred. But Simon says they both know that's not true. He was too weak to keep his company going, his weakness made him embezzle the funds, and made him agree to work for Zemo. The only good thing he ever did was die for the Avengers in the end (Av#9).

When he returned to life the Avengers called him a good man and a hero. But he knew different. And inside he was consumed with guilt, which manifested in his insecurity and fear of dying again.

But Eric Williams takes a different message from this. Only he and Simon knew who really stole the money. Which means that Wonder Man really is his brother Simon. Now consumed with his own guilt he throws himself off the ledge.

When the heroes return they find that Ultron has escaped and Goliath is captured again - back where he started at the beginning of this story arc. And when they're alone Vision suggests to his wife Wanda that maybe they should think about having a baby.

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