The Vision is one the best Marvel comics being put out right this second. I can hardly contain my admiration and enjoyment of it. Tom King and Gabriel Walta are doing fantastic work and it has exceeded even the expectations that the first issue set. If more Marvel comics were of this caliber, then they wouldn’t be as ill-regarded, in my eyes. Although, let’s get into the specifics of Tom King’s The Vision #2.
King’s decision to focus not on the Vision himself, not exactly, but on his family is inspired. Mrs. Vision, otherwise known as Virginia, is a character with more to say than a blabbermouth. Every panel reveals potential depths and dimensions. Not an altogether cliche character, there’s a continuing sadness both around her and her children. King’s ability to make us empathize and sympathize with them is a great skill of him as a writer.This is only compounded by the moments where we are reminded of how inhuman they are - and how they can never truly be human. This is not without it’s own faults as King sometimes gets a bit too heavy handed in his allegory. One wonders if that is just a strike against him, or an attempt to capture the headlessness of the typical Marvel citizen. Either way, there is a scene in this that is highly reminiscent of an infamous scene from Superman: Grounded, and only slightly better.
Walta’s art is still in peak performing condition. The blank eyes of the Vision family, and the outright inability for them to express their emotions in a lifelike way is done with pinpoint accuracy. It’s like watching the first half of The Bicentennial Man, but without the creepy robot Robin Williams being all in your face about it. This benefits not only our estimation of Virginia, but also of their son Vin - a character played to eerie perfection. Some might find it a bit too blunt a development, I won’t say more than that, but I would rather something along those lines than something entirely out of left field. Bellaire’s colors have been quite wonderful as well. Easy to look at, but with a grounded feel to all of it. It nevertheless creates the necessary atmosphere. It’s hard to say when a book is firing on all cylinders and mean it, but it is a series like The Vision that makes it much too easy to do.
It’s difficult to stop myself from dropping everything and just laying it out panel by panel - but that would rob people of the fun of experiencing it for themselves. This is a series that deserves to succeed and be a vanguard for a better Marvel. One where these breathtakingly written and drawn comics are the norm, and not the small gems we get year by year in a handful. I can’t wait to see how this series continues next month, and for the foreseeable future.
