Robot or Real?

Vision

Written by Tom King

Art by Gabriel Walta and Michael Walsh

Color by Jordie Bellaire

This week I discuss one of the major titles that put Tom King on the map! This masterpiece follows Vision and his newly made family trying to fit in to a normal life among humans. This run on the synthetic Avenger dissects the English language and the struggles of human life. From segregation to finances to grieving over the loss of others Tom King strikes an amazing revelation in the humanity within an otherwise robotic being.

The story focuses on Vision, Vision’s wife (Virginia), Vision’s daughter (Viv), Vision’s son (Vin), and later on their dog Sparky as they settle in to a normal suburban life. The reader follows Vin and Viv’s struggle to fit in to a school scared of them, Vision’s undertaking to support his family emotionally and financially (since Avengers don’t make an income now), and Viv’s hardship of accepting who she is since she has been made into Vision’s life after Wanda and dealing with her husband being an Avenger.

Throughout the story the Vision‘s strive for normalcy by participating in day to day activities such as socializing with neighbors, going to school, and doing chores around the house. All the while they try to learn how to fit in and what makes them so different from everyone else. However things don’t stay normal as the Grim Reaper pays a visit and things lead astray rather quickly. Can Vision keep a normal suburban family life?

The true gold to this story is the humanizing of the Vision’s and what it means to live and die. You see the rapid decent of mentality in the Vision’s as they continually deal with deaths of others as well as the pressure of family/every day life. Viv breaking down over the death of her lab partner, Virginia collapsing over her “body in the basement” and Vision’s reaction to a prophecy bestowed upon him are all beautiful examples of the realism Tom King puts into this story.

There are also other very critical themes at play throughout such as segregation and the ,all too important, aspect that no matter how many times you do good things the world will always remember you for the bad things you do. The Vision’s are very much treated like the X-Men and ,even more importantly, people of color in the sense that they are immediately outcasted, feared and ultimately treated poorly. In addition, society doesn’t seem too thankful of the 37 times Vision has saved the world/universe. Instead, he and his family are scrutinized with each misstep they take as the try to become normal people.

It would also be asinine for me not to mention the genius art of Walta and Bellaire on this collection. Quickly put, the art is simple, realistic yet haunting and almost gives a 1950’s sitcom look. The colors scream 1950’s esque and having characters stare at you with bulging pupil-less eyes can be quite creepy. The orderly, rigid panels allude to great fluidity between the robotic and the humanistic aspects of the characters. In other words, the artists do a remarkable job mixing the uniform programming/physique of what the synthezoids are supposed to be with the fluidity of what emotion can be for a person. They breathe life into something otherwise deemed lifeless.

I could go on about the ever struggling dynamic of family life and how realistic this story tells but that would simply take to long. So I will just say that everyone should read this. Not as a typical action packed smash and grab comic but as a story driven dive into what it means to be human and what it means to be alive.

Lastly, I do have to say that this is very much a mature story and has a few panels that may seem uncomfortable/inappropriate for younger readers. Overall though 4.75/5⭐️—Eric

Lastly, I do have to say that this is very much a mature story and has a few panels that may seem uncomfortable/inappropriate for younger readers. Overall though 4.75/5⭐️—