Superhero Media: Avengers Icons - The Vision

I cannot honestly say that The Vision is one of my favorite Avengers. Yes, his initial story as a minion of Ultron is classic, he is a valued part of The Avengers and is always a great part of the team. However, the character has a convoluted backstory that would make Donna Troi jealous, his lack of personality renders him unable to lead a story and he gets killed and brought back a heck of a lot. Essentially, The Vision is a great supporting character, but never really a lead. Perhaps it's just a matter of finding the right team to put the comics together, like the Fraction/Aja Hawkeye being by far the best Clint Barton solo series to ever be put into print? Time may tell, but for the moment, this series fails to excite in any real manner. 

The narrative focuses on The Vision's struggle to find and destroy "The Gremlin", a Nazi copy of a proto-human torch design from Dr Phineas Horton programmed to seek out and destroy American aircraft. As far a framing narratives go, it's better than Vision having to face off against Ultron, Wonder Man or Alkemeha again, but is it just me, or have we done Vision searching for his identity enough times already? There are a couple of human characters that aren't that interesting tagging along for the adventure to give Vision someone to talk to, but they're bland and I can't even remember their names or any defining personality traits. Again, it seems like there could have been better choices made; yes, I just complained about Vision stories almost always involving Ultron, but if The Vision is struggling with his identity, doesn't that make more sense than two random humans we'll never see again? The Vision dragging Jostaca, Simon Williams and the Human Torch around to learn more about his bizarre "family" fits a bit better than a pair of randoms.

 

What else can I say about this one? The villain, Gremlin, would be more interesting if it had more time to develop, but it's origin retcons Dr Horton into a gullible idiot and the Human Torch into C-3PO. The art is solid and the covers are imaginative, if that's your kind of thing. If The Vision is, somehow, your favorite Avenger, then this one may be worth tracking down; for the rest of us, not essential Avengers ephemera.