#comicsscarletvision

The fact that Vision isn’t a part of Wanda’s family in House of M is entirely representative of how little the story actually gaf about Wanda. It goes out of its way to depict him during the birth of the twins in the first issue, and he was present in in Disassembled, but he’s not in the actual House of M universe because it is not shaped by what Wanda wants at all. 

And the funny thing is, if it had been given a bit of thought, making Vision Wanda’s human husband and father of her children would have been more or less what he’s always wanted, especially at that point in his life. It wouldn’t have been hard to write in either. But no care is really paid to what would a perfect life for Wanda actually look like, so instead we get Vision...

...In the form of mass-produced mindless Sentinel robots under the control of Tony Stark!!!

Yes, truly, this is exactly what Vision always wanted! 

I can’t say I feel anything about J*richo/Wanda. They have… two… moments of romance on panel in two years since being together. Three if you squint. I wasn’t a huge fan of Wanda’s speeches about how she’s her own woman now and no ever really understood her anyway! because it’s the exact same speech that she’s been making since she came back in Children’s Crusade and each writer seems more convinced than the last that he, finally, shall write Wanda Maximoff right.

Yet notice how in Quicksilver: No Surrender, and Vision (2016), both stories heavily revolved and Pietro and Vision’s relationships with Wanda? And how Scarlet Witch (2016) involved them, like... basically not at all except for an apparently mandatory Civil War II issue? Writers keep insisting that Wanda’s always been defined by the male characters in her life, but I’ve started to see that take as one with some essential sexism in it. It’s the assumption that women are de facto defined by men, without analyzing which way that river is running. 

And, in fairness, Wanda and Vision’s relationship definitely starts out with him as the “protagonist” of the Avengers comic--he’s the character with a solid character arc, he’s the one making decisions and changing. Wanda is his love interest that is the barometer for how human he is. She wants to be in a relationship, but what he wants at that moment is where the drama is coming from.

But once they’re actually together--which is the majority of their time together--they are a joint force in the relationship. Similarly, Pietro “MY SISTEEEEERRR”ing all over Avengers comics is pretty much the only context in which he appeared in them after he left the team for the first time in the 60s. There’s a longer conversation to be had about how ensemble characters have to be in part defined by their relationships anyway, but I’ve gone on enough. 

Curiously this is Vision and Wanda’s wedding issue. There are a number of Vision-centric issues you could pick (Avengers #57 being the obvious one), but I’m guessing the reason they chose this one is because it looks like Empyre will also be starring Mantis, Swordsman, and Quoi:

Which is relevant because Giant-Size Avengers #4 is also the wedding of Mantis and, uh, well... sort of Swordsman. Actually a space tree in the shape of Swordsman. It’s a part of the Celestial Madonna storyline, which is where good ole What comes in. He’s the space tree Jesus (Quoi is short for Sequoia) to Mantis’ space tree Madonna, who first appeared in the Celestial Quest storyline. 

Mantis and Vision hook up in that arc, which I doubt will happen again in Empyre, but that would be Vision’s most relevant connection to this particular group of people. It’s especially interesting because Quoi has (to my knowledge) literally not appeared since the Celestial Quest story that he was created for. All the other characters have a fairly clear connection to the Kree or Skrull. Vision is the outlier which makes me curious what his purpose here is.

Also there’s going to be sort of Kree/Skrull retelling issue coming out in March 2020. The Kree/Skrull War is probably the most directly Wanda & Vision comic arc (that wasn’t literally miniseries named after them anyway), so it’s probably going to have some nice art at the least!